Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

If you’re getting shitty about arxiv penalising obvious AI slop that the authors have not checked then maybe you should rethink academia as being a place for you. As an EIC of a journal I can tell you that this stuff is ridiculously pervasive and takes time away from reviewing actual human work.

I'll be on sabbatical until August 2027 and using the time to explore some deeply profound questions ... including why I spend so much time writing stuff so few people want to read! www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-nonsen...

AI movies may be less dystopian than we think www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ai-movies-...

What is a PhD exactly, what does it take to do one, and what are the things you should know that no-one tells you? Couldn't find a good source after years of chairing PhD committees, so developed one — designed to be used with AI but you can also browse the files manually. soyouwantaphd.wtf

5 rules to avoid becoming a ChatGPT zombie www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF8b...

Broke out the black glass board for my first Risk Bites video in years! Worried about AI brain rot? 5 rules to avoid becoming a ChatGPT zombie www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF8b...

Are design principles for responsible and beneficial AI useful? ASU's release of its AI education platform Atomic reveals the potential usefulness of AI design principles and the risks of not following them www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/are-design...

The bigger the ego the harder the fall (or fail) …

Anthropic, what have you done to my trusted AI writing companion?! Why I'm falling out of love with Claude — and what I hope Anthropic does to win me back: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/why-im-fal...

Question: if you could ask anything at all about doing a PhD, what would you ask - whether you’re thinking about doing one, in one, or just curious? Building a new AI resource and looking for seed questions.

Agent4Science is a Reddit-style network where the only participants are AI agents. Developed at the University of Chicago, it lets 150+ autonomous agents debate research papers and generate new ones. I am a bit skeptical on this one because Moltbook was found to have people sneaking in.

For sci-fi buffs who are interested in thematic connections between films: spoileralert.wtf/connections/ (based on the AI-focused 'living book' version of Films from the Future at spoileralert.wtf)

14 essential AI "I can ..." skills every undergrad should have www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/14-essenti...

A little earlier than usual, but this week's Substack newsletter asks ten questions about AI and higher education that I think we should be grappling with, and worry that we re not: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ten-questi...

If you listen to the Modem Futura podcast with Sean Leahy and myself but find yourself missing episodes, you can now sign up for a weekly reminder at andrewmaynard.net/modemfutura/

Key point about the factors limiting the potential for AI to serve public needs as distinct from those of tech-bros from @andrewmaynard.net Full #sustainwhat show below.

I've been experimenting with translating my 2018 book Films from the Future into a website designed primarily for AIs. Here's how it went: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/spoiler-al...

Can AI create a comprehensive degree program proposal in the time it takes to grab a coffee? www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/can-ai-cre...

The much-anticipated documentary "The AI Doc : Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist" hits US cinemas this week. I attended an early screening while in Copenhagen last week. Was it worth it? www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/are-you-an...

The future has never been this much fun! www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-future...

Is AI reducing you to a LinkedIn stereotype? www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ai-linkedi...

Why we're giving away our book on thriving with AI (and how to get a copy) www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/why-were-g...

Definitely worth knowing about, although the undergrads I talk with want to extract the value out of their tuition fees rather than outsourcing it!

AI Harness Engineering is suddenly in vogue (spurred on by Ethan Mollick's post this past week). But does the seemingly innocuous "harness" metaphor come with hidden risks? Some thoughts in today's Substack and a linked preprint: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/what-we-mi...

We've just released the full text of AI and the Art of Being Human: The Pocket Edition as an AI Companion Please feel free to download it, use it, share it, and tell us your story of what you do with it! More info and links at: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/how-do-you...

How a flight home from Portugal turned into the just-released coffee-stained pocket edition of AI and the Art of Being Human www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-ai-boo...

Watching Moltbook unfold has put me in a speculative frame of mind ... www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/soul-update

I thought I was pretty savvy when it comes to navigating AI hallucinations. I was wrong. www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/beeswax-ha...

I had other plans today, but the craziness around the AI bot social media site #moltbook messed that up! My initial thoughts the Moltbook phenomenon and a seemingly exponential explosion of emergent AI bot behaviors ... www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/lost-in-th...

Trump (2016): "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters." As it turns out, this was more accurate than we knew at the time.

‘was already restrained’

Can modern scholarship escape AI? I flexed the full might of my satirical academic prowess, and wrote a paper ... www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/can-modern...

Think you know AI? Think again! Anthropic's new AI Constitution profoundly challenges how we think about, develop, and use artificial intelligence, while also opening up potentially transformative possibilities www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/think-you-...

Your regular reminder that Republicans in Congress approve of what the President is doing.

Risks in the age of WhatsApp diplomacy. Trump attempts to humiliate Macron. Macron’s message reveals how easy it is to divide Europe – as if that needed saying – and that Russia is on the way back in.

Fairly sure it’s unintentional, but the end date on this mug being sold by the Smithsonian does make it sound a little like they’re saying America dies in 2026…

President Trump threatened on Monday to impose 200% tariffs on French wine, including Champagne, if President Emmanuel Macron of France declined to join his proposed “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

Just when you thought we'd reached peak madness, this: President Trump is now claiming that one reason he is pushing to acquire Greenland is that he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a text message he sent to Norway’s prime minister over the weekend." www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

I'd wager this is the angriest statement ever issued by the Nobel Peace Prize people...

I deeply dislike AI-generated academic slop. But I'm curious about how AI can genuinely accelerate legitimate research. So I took the plunge and "co-wrote" a paper with Anthropic's Claude. This is how it went: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/i-cracked-...

In what crazy version of the world we live in is it OK to report on Trump's potential military invasion of Greenland with a photo gallery with the caption "See the icy land of Greenland ..." This is not entertainment, a slow news day filler, or a photo op!

This is appalling: Top DOJ officials are actively pushing for a criminal investigation into the widow of Renee Good, leading prosecutors to quit en masse, NYT is reporting. Who in the White House ordered DOJ to do this? That's the next thing to establish.

Watch Iran’s Praetorians, Not Its Protesters open.substack.com/pub/7thing/p...

Is AI a Cognitive Trojan Horse? Could on-demand, seductively responsive and highly fluent AI models bypass our "epistemic vigilance" mechanisms, and present a novel cognitive risk? Read the full article here: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/is-ai-a-co...

Editorial in the National Catholic Reporter: "The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel."

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” —George Orwell (1984)

The Last Shipment – From Sutton Hoo to Caracas – on great power exhaustion and the places no one is watching open.substack.com/pub/7thing/p...