Perhaps we could also measure the size of human craniums. Perhaps we could craft an entire "science" around this endeavor.

I have tremendous respect for Yoshua Bengio, but this simply isn't true. One conceptual reason we might doubt that AI will become capable of doing what humans can do is that there's no path to these tools inventing new metaphors, as we humans do. (See link below for more on this)

"On a day-to-day basis I have conversations with theologians who think, 'OK, that's wildly ambitious for humans to try to create a new form of digital sentience of unknown power. And then you talk to the AI People and they are like, 'You say I have a God complex? I am God."

In my career in education I've long found students to be far more realistic about the impact of technology on their education than older adults. To students, the latest tech fad does not present as some radical transformation, it's just some thing they gotta deal with.

How is this an overstatement? The CFO of OpenAI apparently said on the record that the US government may need to "backstop" the financing it seeks. That the company later walked this back is hardly exonerating -- if anything it should raise even more alarms.

"Many doomsday anxieties around AI likely reflect the broader epistemological shift away from language as a source of truth. The anxieties we place on them now reflect a deep unease and unfamiliarity with how we navigate a world where words persuade without regard to reality." - @eryk.bsky.social

This paragraph from Ben Thompson's Stratechery column today is simply *chef's kiss*. Sure, AI is being pursued by cult members in economically irrational ways that stifle the public interest, but gotta admire their chutzpah!

"Some folks boosting (or contributing to) the coming AI teaching assistant boom talk as if teachers will offload some cognitive labor to the machine, and that will be the end of it. It won’t be the end of it. The substitution of AI for human will affect and alter the results."

15 years ago, "personalized learning" enthusiasts cited a small 1984 study of *human* tutoring as evidence that technology could improve student learning. Amazingly, OpenAI's idiot VP of Education cites the same study to support AI tutoring today. This is all so dumb. Via @mattbarnum.bsky.social:

Whooooooo-boy there is a LOT going on in this paragraph.

An excellent diagnosis of America's current crisis. Zimmer notes that the Administration aims to escalate the violence through paramilitary activity; what we are learning is that ridicule and humor are effective means of defusing that approach. Gotta embrace the frog costumes.

Periodically I feel the need to remind you how Big Tech companies are claiming their AI tools will be used versus the obvious reality.

“Please think about students using chatbots to ‘augment’ their learning and thereby becoming conditioned to expect that their interactions with their educators, whether human or digital, should start from a foundation of obsequiousness.” - @benjaminjriley.bsky.social

Earlier this year, @himself.bsky.social wrote an essay describing how technology warps our understanding of what "the public" believes, and thereby degrades *collective* human intelligence. I think this applies to AI in public education as well, in worrying ways. open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...

"Democracy is teetering—how could we possibly want to amplify the influence of technology in society by pushing AI into schooling? The algorithms that Big Tech employs are grotesquely warping the very ways in which we understand ourselves." buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/sexbots-st...

Enjoying every minute of BaseballSky tonight

I'm reading The Dawn of Everything and again I'm struck by how so much nonsense stemming from the techno-abundites could be mitigated if they had even a cursory understanding of the history of human cultures.

An illuminating thread on one of the fundamental problems of using LLM-based chatbots as tutors. Once things go a little bit sideways they are incredibly brittle, but students are in no position to know when, why, or how.

This is such a well-reported story. We've seen this movie so many times before. It will always end the same way. This is not how education works. This is not what being a human means. This is not what childhood should entail. Every adult involved with Alpha School should feel ashamed.

New blood enemy just dropped.

Alan Turing once described the process of thinking as "a sort of buzzing" inside his head. How should we model what happens within our minds? And should that guide our approach to developing AI? Some thoughts: buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/multiple-m...

Be careful regarding the publicity you seek. You just might get it.

In the mid 2000s I attended a lecture by Murch in San Francisco, on the nature of constraint driving creativity. It has stayed with me since. This is a wonderful tribute to his genius.

Everything in this story is infuriating apart from (a) the quotes from students who analogize AI efforts to sitting through a timeshare presentation, or Black Mirror episode, and (b) recognizing resistance efforts by @olivia.science & @irisvanrooij.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/t...

I'm an American and I get it. Instead of dwelling in doom, I draw strength from the massive demonstrations of opposition; I annoyingly pester my friends and family to get involved; I laugh at the absurdity of the idiots in charge. We can defeat American Fascism. We can and we will.

Wonderful news. Few people have been more helpful to my understanding of artificial intelligence than @melaniemitchell.bsky.social, precisely because she engages in public communication.

I suggest everyone read the on-the-record comments of one of the world's wealthiest humans and, maybe just maybe, exercise a modicum of critical thinking such that you at least question whether it's all bullshit, just complete bullshit.

"We can't stop AI in education, the toothpaste is already out of the tube."

A beautiful testament to the essential humanity of teaching. "I will never compete with AI in word count or response time. But I will keep saying, 'Tell me more about that…' I will keep noticing how the girl in the back always looks up when I mention whales or rivers or grief."

This is my favorite band, Nation of Language, playing a small 30-person show recorded at the world's best radio station, KUTX, and yes I am having one hell of a good day.

"To live through this moment is to feel that some essential component of our shared humanity is being slowly leached out of the world. Spend enough time online, and you will see that not only is this cheaply rendered synthetic content everywhere; it is quietly shaping culture."

AI "agents" amplify the ability for students to cognitively automate their education. Perplexity is actively encouraging students to cheat. Should we boycott this tool? Ban it? Beg the company to reconsider? I explore in this week's essay: buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/ai-agents-...

I wonder if there's a history of people predicting AGI or its equivalent was just 5-10 years away. I wonder if that history stretches back 75 years. I wonder if that history might be informative to the present moment.

This. Fundamentally, the American Right has a mass media network that amplifies and channels its political activities -- there's simply no equivalent for the Left. (Though let us all bless BlueSky.)

An underappreciated fact in The Discourse is that the ultimate cinematic American bully -- Biff from Back to the Future -- was modeled on Donald Trump (look it up). The entire MAGA movement is centered on bullying. Fight back peacefully and with ridicule and it will wobble and fall over.

At four No Kings rallies I've attended in Austin and suburb Pflugerville, the police and state troopers have been chill, friendly, and proportionate to the crowd size. One of the most enjoyable moments I had yesterday was offering one a flower. It was a first for us both.

I spend too much time on here but for me there's such a virtuous interplay between participating in the No Kings protest and then spending an hour here just liking every damn pic that's been posted. I feel joy, optimism, hope (and hop), I'm so grateful to all of you who turned out.

WE ARE THE TRUE PATRIOTS!

This is incredible.

It's hard to protest and upload pics to BlueSky for some of us. In a related story, I'll be 49 next month.

There is such POWER in coming together in human solidarity and displaying our resistance to fascism. I made friends today, handed flowers to state troopers, laughed at the crazy signs. We can defeat American Fascism. I've never been more sure of it. It's also hot doing this in Texas y'all.

Best sign thus far! 😂 #NoKings

C l s z z z z z i z x Sec x dc s I e dcs k z imo lolo x x l dc k x z do Huh x o ls k l x l z o z l o. Ol z o

Bad news y'all. Antifa has in fact infiltrated the No Kings protest in Pflugerville, Texas. Shocking evidence below.

Today's the day! Already seeing inspiring images from allies abroad. For those in the US, we must stand up and speak out against the fundamentally un-American right-wing revolution. We are the patriots. We love this country and we are gonna fight to keep it. Peacefully.

"As the youth will tell us, we have lived through the centuries of 'fucking around,' and we are now entering the era of 'finding out.'" - @shannonvallor.bsky.social

I take this as growing awareness that a tool of cognitive automation continues to be used as a tool of cognitive automation.

This is Silicon Valley's preferred method of product development nowadays -- ship first and find out later. Minimally Viable Humanity.

Mass opposition can grow quickly, social protest is contagious. Turn out tomorrow!