Besides the many benefits for visually impaired users, alt-text is visible to Bluesky's block tools. If I wanted to see narcissistic rants from other platforms, I'd go there. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

I hadn't seen this one in a while. Sound on.

Probably @edzitron.com has seen this already. OpenAI is claiming that it will use more than double the world's HBM production all by itself. Color me skeptical. www.technology.org/2025/12/03/m...

Hmmph. Thought I had that word muted. (Fumbles through settings.) Mute expired? Why did I think that was a good idea? "Forever" mute FTW. (Exhales, relaxes.)

Today's Love Letter is a stunning meditation on birdwatching and the loss of a friendship, from the one and only @amalelmohtar.com stone-soup.ghost.io/love-letter-...

Walter de Staplecat, Simpkin IV, Teabag, Balthasar and Benny D Cat take the stage as we meet the college cats of Oxford. And, of course, Magdalen’s Ozymandias. Read on for our photo special. (Includes a cat map.) oxfordclarion.uk/college-cats...

A thing that I wrote, about the useful kind of AI. semiengineering.com/machine-lear...

Maybe #booksky can help? Some years ago, in I think @strangehorizons.bsky.social, I read a short story about a Sikh custodian at a university library and the mess when the frat boys accidentally summon something. And now that I want to share it, I can't find it again. Any ideas?

I'm a bad Brand Manager (tm). I haven't been consistent about linking to my own stuff. Here's my latest, on managing the power demands of local AI models. semiengineering.com/why-in-memor...

The video is adorable, but be careful if your own cats will be upset by distressed kitten meowing.

This tracks. I'm writing an article about AI now, and the first sentence is "this article is not about LLMs." (Link to come once it's published.)

There's a whole world of literature out there, only a small fraction of it in English. This project aims to increase that fraction a little, with translations from non-colonial African languages.

The cat. He is old, and sick. Cream? He liked it last week, today he sniffs disdainfully. Tuna? Salmon? He moves further away, out of reach under the bed. Feed the cat? How about I have another look at that dragon instead?

"Fire & Flight" by @cornellwriter.bsky.social now free to read online! "I know the song is at the part where speaks of lighting the fire—le feu. I know that part. If there’s one thing a dragon knows it’s fire." plotthoundmag.com/fire-flight-...

STUNNING "Traditionally, wearing blankets was functional, but I thought, If fashion evolves, why can’t Native wearable art evolve too? So I used metallic thread to make the blanket shimmer, adapting an old form to a contemporary aesthetic." hyperallergic.com/1014669/mari...

Relevant to your interests, @wnwagner.bsky.social?

"Rather than seizing thieves and punishing their crimes, it would be better to make the world a place where people do not go hungry or cold. ... There will be no end to crime while the world is not governed well." Essays in Idleness #142 Yoshida Kenko tr. Meredith McKinney, 1330 CE #QOTD

You need this today. Trust me.

Libraries are usually free. Museums usually aren't, but I'm increasingly convinced that a museum membership is one of the best cultural investments you can make. They're usually pretty inexpensive, and being able to go whenever. you. want. changes how you see and think about art. Recommended.

Read something amazing today. Amazing both because of what we're learning about Jupiter and its moons, and because of the human ingenuity deployed to learn it. www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

The Ballard Collective, which houses a number of galleries and studios here in Seattle, was seriously damaged in a fire last week. They're fundraising to replace lost supplies and help artists find work spaces while they figure out rebuilding plans. www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-b...

Happy book day to me. 💖 (Although I’ve got some work to do before I can read them.)

#amediting. Significant continuity error fixed. Up to Chapter 40 of 48. Gathering steam.

Currently reading about Christian "sorcerers" in Japan. "Great Lord of Heaven, give me monies and also good health." bookshop.org/a/109809/978...

New day job thing, on tasks that "AI" can actually help with. semiengineering.com/machine-lear... (Small win: I called LLMs an environment-destroying plagiarism machine, and my editor left it in.)

I examined the sashimi dangling from my chopsticks. Firm white flesh, a line of purple suckers. Octopus? I dunked it into the dish of wasabi and soy sauce, whereupon it curled into a ball and turned a revolting shade of green. Nope, definitely not octopus. "Waiter? Is it supposed to do that?"

Because who couldn't use an emotional support griffin?

You know, "support marginalized creators" is terrible branding. It sounds about as exciting as eating your vegetables. Meh. But what it actually means? Find people who are making cool stuff. Enjoy it! It's cool! And if you give them money, they can make more of it! Yay!

Asking the audacious question, "what if AI actually tried to make people happier?" clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_05_23/

I wish, instead of looking for a message when we read a story, we could think, “Here’s a door opening on a new world: what will I find there?” -- Ursula K. Le Guin www.ursulakleguin.com/message-abou...

Latest day job thingy. semiengineering.com/are-larger-r...

September 1, 1939, W.H. Auden poets.org/poem/septemb...

Taking a break from *gestures* to listen to the birds in a neighborhood green space. 10/10 Highly recommend.

[version with typo corrected]

There's a lot of big news today/this week, but Apple just dropped a nuke of a paper about LLMs & LRMs, specially around "high-complexity tasks where both models experience complete collapse." This is the biggest sign yet that if AI ever lives up the hype, it won't be via those approaches:

Apparently OpenAI is burning through money even faster than it's using electricity. I've seen tech bubbles burst before. This one's going to be ugly. www.wheresyoured.at/openai-is-a-...

I kicked some money to these folks back in April, after they withdrew a federal grant application. Apparently a lot of other people did, too. Yay! That helped stabilize them; now they're hoping to reach more students. 826boston.org

One of the best discussions I've seen of what LLMs are actually doing and how to think about their output. TL;DR It's bullshit. To the extent they have intentions at all, they intend to create text that scans as human-generated. That's it. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New day job thingy. semiengineering.com/advanced-pac...

Am editing. Previous draft doesn't suck. Yay! Bad guy very much does suck. Also yay!

Very readable analysis of the energy and climate impacts of AI. TL;DR It's huge, and the big AI companies are asking for subsidies from residential electricity users while providing almost no information for planners.

The sigil was drawn in salt and ash, the candles lit at the pentagram points, the incantation declaimed. There was a shimmer - a demon appeared. "Curious. What ritual is this?" "I got it from ChatGPT. I included all protections in my prompt!" "I see," the demon said and stepped out of the sigil.

You could almost substitute "writers" for "photographers" throughout this essay and it would still apply. The best writing (or photography) methods are the ones that work for you. davidduchemin.com/2025/05/real...

Ursula K. Le Guin: “The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary.”

"Art is maintained by a community of people who allow it to happen, who enable its existence over time." -- Sarah Sze In context, she was talking about art conservation, but artists themselves need that kind of community as well. #qotd sarahsze.com

During the 20th century, infectious disease became a much less common cause of American deaths. The peak COVID death rate of about 100 deaths per 100,000 would have been a minor blip in 1900. So maybe, just maybe, cutting infectious disease research is bad? 1/2 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

"Before coming to this country, freedom was just a concept. But the actual experience of freedom of movement to travel among 50 states, freedom to breathe the breeze of the ocean, and to feel your toes in the sand. 1/2

There's a spot no one knows but me. Ancient trees, even more ancient stones, a trickling stream. Songbirds, a rustling breeze, dappled sunlight. A place to sit and listen to, finally, silence.

Another entry to file under "LLMs are bad at their jobs."

When someone tells you what they want to do, believe them. When the promoters of GenAI tools say they want to make human creativity obsolete, we should listen. www.patreon.com/posts/127367...