Students, if you’re thinking about dropping a note to that teacher or professor about what their class/project/mentorship has meant to you, but you worry it will be cringe or cheesy, let me just tell you they will coast on the fuzzy feelings prompted by that note for months, if not years

Not only does telling a chatbot ‘do not hallucinate’ misunderstand how LLMs works, the idea that they are capable of following instructions is an illusion. At best, this just adds text to the context that may cause them to go down one path rather than another. But they don’t literally obey commands.

Who cares? I dislike commuting to work and paying taxes and needing to get my hair cut but nobody is sympathetic if I decide not to do them. I dislike wearing a mask but I still do it because I'm not a monster. It's not hard.

Journalists, let’s be careful about the language we use when writing or talking about AI. Here’s a thread — @emilymbender.bsky.social, I know you pay attention to this, too, so feel free to chime in. (1/x)

That the thing about powering a data centre with renewables - it eats up capacity that would be used for other things. They can claim this uses electricity from hydro, but it will create conditions where we will need to import power from non-renewable sources.

My daughter's pithy summation: "Covid reminded people they lived in a society; and they hated it."

Also +1; but I’m all for the Luddite analogies dismissed at the beginning of this piece, and started my recent AI class with that history!

Related to my previous note about AI literacy... I think that very often the more you *actually* learn about AI (how it works, how it's built, what's behind it, what its impacts are, who controls it -- not "how to use it") the more critical you are likely to become. bsky.app/profile/cfie...

I got the long-form census. 72 questions, baby!

Critically: You must INTENTIONALLY REQUEST expedited processing by including a letter with your citizenship request explaining your situation, along with supporting documentation.

Why yes i will wear this incredible shirt @kim-hu.com made for @aftermath.site whenever i’m the “fuck AI“ panelist on an AI panel. (i will gladly be that guy for your panel too)

Jesus Christ he's an embarrassment.

It worked too well, in that the converts rose up as one and demanded context, all the context you could ever want, an alternate reality out of this divine glimpse, and Lucas (increasingly ambivalently, and eventually passive-aggressively) spent the rest of his career giving it to them

Missed Ghost in the Machine at SIFF? You can catch it via Kinema! And, through tomorrow, participate in a fundraiser for @dairinstitute.bsky.social while you're at it! notaidoc.com/dairxghost

You can’t see it but I’m making a very rude gesture at Robbins, all the way from over here in Toronto

"It's time to build."

When Carney announced his cabinet and I made a post saying it was a major red flag that the man had a Minister for AI, but does not have a Minister for labour, partisan hacks came for my throat. But this is what that gets you!

Britain's colour on this map should be a source of shame.

I wrote about being inundated with AI writing at every turn, unwittingly turning my brain into the AI police, and how shitty AI writing is randomly showing up in my real life outside of the internet www.404media.co/your-ai-use-...

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.

Really appreciated @benpatrickwill.bsky.social and others who first called attention to this retracted study about ChatGPT's impacts on student learning. I ended up writing about it for @arstechnica.com

“If you don’t embrace it, you’re going to be left behind by AI.” Don’t threaten me with a good time. Pictured below, me and my friends after being left behind by AI:

COMING THIS WEEK: Cortex Prime launches on DriveThruRPG! Rusty Sellsword Design is launching the Cortex Prime Game Handbook PDF and the first four Prime Spotlights (that comprise Volume 1) this week!

Hacks 🎤🫳 I beg of you all to stop parroting Silicon Valley propaganda

hating ai is a pro-social activity

As @jmritchey.bsky.social wrote: If I had explain American history in one sentence, I could do worse than "John Brown was hung for treason, but Robert E. Lee was not."

Meet the academics refusing to use generative AI www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I will continue to find joy in simple things, for joy is a radical act, now more than ever x

LIFE RULES: Insulate your house with books to ward off evil Oppose the zombie AI apocalypse Never click on a link to the Daily Mail Use double the recommended amount of garlic Always stop to say hi to sheep And to horses too (but in a fake posh voice) I think that's more or less everything covered?

Idea: Luddite University.

i‘m of the opinion that if my yard is a mandated monoculture it should at least be something i can put in a smoothie

There is an endless list of reasons to be furious with provincial government, and #DougFordIsCorrupt (truly, madly, deeply) but there doesn't seem to be any political will in this province to protest, never mind organize a #GeneralStrike. I'm just really ready to shut this whole province down.

Meanwhile, across town, as Samantha wasn’t the only one getting screwed, as I realized how many of my colleagues now use LLMs. And I couldn’t help but wonder, is AI just yet another tool that will help mediocre white people succeed while many others continue to question their every move?

“We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically.” www.ru.nl/en/research/...

Me too

Judge Colleen McMahon (74 years old) has an objectively better understanding of LLMs than every single person affiliated with DOGE, including (ahem, especially) Elon Musk.

Apologies for the Substack link, but scientists and science writers: I am calling on you to leave comments in opposition to the NYC science writers group inviting known racist and eugenicist Steven Pinker to speak at their next event (which is happening on Wednesday May 20). 🧪

You can signal "good stuff over here" with rules, but you can't solve for players being assholes via clever rules mechanics. Do not try. If someone says you should or can, they're full of crap. If they say a game is flawed because it didn't solve for players being assholes, they're full of crap.

Congrats to John McWhorter for his entry to the dumbest comment of the year

Welp, it took me a day or two longer than I thought it would, but I finished the post. Fair warning, it is a long one: aggregatecognizance.com/p/dead-lette...

Have LMSs improved student learning and well being? No. Have they made things faster and more convenient for instructors? Also no. But are they a secure repository of personal data? LOL no

Myself and @roopikarisam.bsky.social edited a special issue on Minimal Computing and EdTech. Here’s our intro. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

And @charleswlogan.bsky.social has accumulated some of the Critical LMS scholarship through this thread. bsky.app/profile/char...

Doubly appreciative of this archive and course model from @shannonmattern.bsky.social today!

You are not “in solidarity with the oppressed” if you refuse to mask in public and organizing spaces.

my blog is turning into a weird art project where i just post the same thing over and over in different languages. it's uh a meta-commentary. on the social construction of meaning through repetition

If you are a fucking adult And you watch the new Harry Potter show Or encourage your children to do so Congratulations, you're a fucking Death Eater Feeding off of the lives of trans people

I don't only think that college should be FREE but I think young people should also receive living stipends while in school. Finally, I do not care what they major in because education needs to actually BE DECOUPLED from a future job. You are welcome. You should have 4 years to study anything.

Now feels like an opportune time to recirculate this piece from last December.