When I'm writing long pieces I use AI as an editor, to offer suggestions for content and structure but NOT to make them; I don't enjoy writing but I enjoy having written, and without the sense of achievement that it's my work I don't know that I'd bother.

Vibe-coded a little Web app for my newsletter that summarises articles from a provided list of links into an approximation of my style, which I can then correct and edit. Took about half an hour to build, saves me about half an hour each week. It's probably useful for no one else but me.

A year ago? They kept that quiet! Very little to show for it so far…

#Midjourney 8 (alpha) is here. It’s very fast, prompt following seems better, and text generation is improved — but it’s currently in a VERY alpha state, with a lot of dodgy generations. Try it at alpha.midjourney.com #AI

It’s so important to have free and open models that aren’t controlled purely by commercial interests, and I wish more #AI critics would focus on this instead of abstaining from the conversation. nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-...

SCENES!!! #ARSEVE #Arsenal

If you ever suspect you’re talking to an #AI deepfake avatar bot, ask them to count from one to five on their fingers. (Veo 3.1, Sora 2, Kling 3.0)

It’s a source of constant amusement to me that there are two open, federated microblog protocols that are completely incompatible with each other.

I'm in a supermarket in Czechia buying some beers, and I'm chatting with Gemini Live + camera input to identify the different types and tell me all about them, and the objectors who refuse these tools are missing out on tiny miracles like this.

Google’s Nano Banana Pro was a breakthrough in image models because of its world knowledge. What will be the next breakthrough? I think it has to do with the “falling wine glass” problem…

Google just launched #NanoBanana 2, a faster version of its image generation / editing model. N🍌2 replaces N🍌 Pro in the Gemini app, although paid users will be able to regenerate images using Pro. #AI blog.google/innovation-a...

In the absence of strong evidence, teen social media bans seem to be an example of the politician’s syllogism: something must be done; this is something; therefore we must do this.

Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) — a lucky pic at just the right moment. #birds

this essay has been going around and lemme just say it's an amazing piece of hard science fiction -- like, it almost redefines the genre into something that includes financial projection -- but that's all it is we are in an era when AI panic porn is widespread and less than helpful

“A photographer, like all artists, is at liberty to employ what means he thinks necessary to carry out his ideas… but let it be clearly understood, these are only means to the end, and that the picture when finished must stand or fall entirely by the effects produced, and not by the means employed.”

SeeDance and the new media landscape A few months ago we were pondering a few things about the future of media here at Llama Towers. I speculated about a world where you could generate your own Star Wars trilogy based on the Timothy Zahn's novels, fix the ending of Game of Thrones, or finish…

I could listen to a track or two out of morbid curiosity but a whole album would be too much.

A new version of the play ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’, but the character of Cyrano is replaced by #ChatGPT.

Every few months, I write an updated, idiosyncratic guide on which AIs to use right now. My new version has the most changes ever, since AI is no longer just about chatbots. To use AI you need to understand how to think about models, apps, and harnesses. open.substack.com/pub/oneusefu...

The new ByteDance SeeDance 2.0 video model is VERY good. Each video is the very first output of the prompt. There are four, worth seeing them all to get a sense of the range (and potential issues) "A nature documentary about an otter flying an airplane"

#Kling3 has excellent prompt adherence, visual detail, and consistency across shots, but its motion and physics are off. There’s something wrong in every generation I’ve made so far, and it’s too slow and expensive to just run multiples until I get a good one. #AI

v1.116 is rolling out now! For all the overthinkers and perfectionists out there, we're launching Drafts.

A new study finds that #AI can outperform average human creativity in test conditions — but not above-average human creativity. scitechdaily.com/ai-is-now-mo...

ChatGPT is still the most-used #AI platform, but it's plateauing / in decline. Gemini is growing. (Data is based on desktop Web use; apps may tell a different story).

Name the film.

think this might be one of the first good instances of AI visual art I've seen. the making of is great too cannoneyed.com/projects/iso...

Contrary to social-media lore, it is one of the safest cities in the world

In the unlikely event anyone wants to read some words on a topic adjacent to the below, here are some (by me, sorry) www.thenewworld.co.uk/matt-muir-do...

Runway released the results of a test that found that *90% of people cannot reliably distinguish synthetic video from real footage*. Shown side-by-side #AI and real videos and asked to choose which was AI, people chose correctly an average of 57.1% — little better than chance.

This commentary certainly doesn't sound like Chelsea just got beaten at home. #CarabaoCup #Arsenal #CHEARS

@support.bsky.team Can you do something about custom feeds for live sport? I'm trying to accompany a game and the feed I follow hasn't updated for over an hour. I *know* this isn't because nobody's posting.

I actually ❤️ this thought by @genmon.fyi; let's radically reform #copyright. Shorter terms, stronger enforcement. Encourage new things in the world and get us out of this cycle of cultural nostalgia. Is it workable? IDK! But I'd love to see it considered seriously. interconnected.org/home/2025/12...

This is a really good podcast episode. @emollick.bsky.social, who I think is brilliantly rational on the subject of #AI, and #LLMs particularly, debates a podcast host who is skeptical (actually I’d say cynical) about the value of AI. pca.st/g89xextx

A little annoying to concede so late from Villa’s second(?) shot on target, but that's not to take away from what ended up being a very comfortable win. #Arsenal #ARSAVL

#Arsenal #EVEARS

Adam Davies, founder of Not Quite Past, a design start-up that explored using AI to design modern Delft tiles, told Malika Brown that “used wisely, AI can bring about a renewed production of objects in the artistic traditions of the past.” https://bit.ly/4p7jQZs

No Gabriel. No Gyokeres. No Havertz. No Jesus. No Ødegaard. No problem. #Arsenal #ARSTOT

We scored three goals since my feed last refreshed. @support.bsky.team

Once again, @bsky.app completely useless for accompanying live sports. ~20 minute wait for feed to refresh.

People (rightly) bring up Her when talking about our current relationship with AI assistants, but Ex Machina deserves more attention. It raises the idea that *even if we’ve been explicitly shown that something is a machine*, we might still believe it’s conscious. Clear parallels to “AI psychosis”.

First VR of #Fortnite S6E4. Hardly a classic, but they all count.

The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures is one of the best books I’ve read lately. The story of the invention of cinema and the processes of #innovation. You can listen to the audiobook, read by the ace Paterson Joseph, on BBC Sounds (free in the UK) for the next 24 days. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

A substantial portion of the press has lost its mind over AI. I know you can't fully expect impartial reporting from an industry which sees the technology as an existential threat, but the result is that reasonable and important critique is drowned out by hysteria.

It’s summer in the UK, which means it’s fruit season. If you’re able, get yourself along to your local farm shop or market and buy anything you can get your hands on. Today I bought cherries, strawberries, and greengages, delicious and fresh off the plant. To hell with your Dubai chocolate.

OpenAI says ChatGPT has ~500 million weekly active users. Google says Gemini has ~450 million monthly active users. And still people will tell you that LLMs are useless because they tried them once and were disappointed.

There’s a trend of using a machine-readable (JSON) format for writing Veo prompts, as it supposedly provides greater control. But does it? Or is natural language better? I put it to the test.

I’ve spent the last three months investigating how genomics can prevent and overturn miscarriages of justice - particularly in the case of mothers accused of murder. The Lab Detective, new four part podcast series from @theobserveruk.bsky.social released today. Do listen lnk.to/thelabdetect...

Content, community, and coincidence These two stories, saved next to each other in my feed reader, are directly related: From Content and Community, by Ben Thompson: So, are existing publishers doomed? Well by-and-large yes, but that's because they have been doomed for a long time. People using Al…

Every six months or so there’s a freakout over poorly worded terms of service updates and you’d think that a) companies would be aware of this and be clearer in their language, and b) consumers would not immediately catastrophise, but sadly these things never happen and likely never will. #DropBox

Veo 3 is just effortlessly brilliant at this type of content. #AIVideo #Veo3