Mitch Hedberg had thoughts on donut receipts. I have thoughts on AI farewells. Same energy, different stakes. "End of Transaction: The specific strangeness of being thanked by a machine." jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

Mitch Hedberg had thoughts on donut receipts. I have thoughts on AI farewells. Same energy, different stakes. "End of Transaction: The specific strangeness of being thanked by a machine." jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

Tomorrow I am posting a serious academic essay to my blog about generative AI that opens with a reference to a Mitch Hedberg joke.

Often quoted differently on this stuff, but @drkatedevlin.bsky.social and I agree. I just love how she cuts straight to it with no hedging. Just: yes, of course people want this, here's why. www.techbuzz.ai/articles/ope...

ETA: The piece now closes with questions that parents/caregivers can model for kids after interacting with an AI toy. jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

The toy knows your child's name; a question worth asking is what it's doing with that data. New essay (no paywall) "A Child's New 'Best Friend': How AI Becomes a Companion Before A Child Can Consent." jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

ETA: The piece now closes with questions that parents/caregivers can model for kids after interacting with an AI toy. jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

The toy knows your child's name; a question worth asking is what it's doing with that data. New essay (no paywall) "A Child's New 'Best Friend': How AI Becomes a Companion Before A Child Can Consent." jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

As usual, I very much enjoyed my time in San Luis Obispo (SLO) as hosted by @calpolyslo.bsky.social! It was a pleasure to keynote the 2026 AI Symposium!

San Luis Obispo airport therapy dog! 🥰

I’m in that place where time stops. SFO airport.

My quote in this Dazed piece: "AI is 'a temporary salve.'" The longer take: we've just industrialized Cyrano de Bergerac. The strange thing Cyrano discovers: his words are more eloquent when he's detached from the outcome. 1/?

Upcoming: May 7. AI Symposium 2026: Advancing Learning, Discovery & Responsible Innovation. My keynote will be an examination of how AI systems become part of the social ecosystem and what that means for attachment, cultural embedding, and responsibility. #CalPoly provost.calpoly.edu/aisymposium2...

My quote in this Dazed piece: "AI is 'a temporary salve.'" The longer take: we've just industrialized Cyrano de Bergerac. The strange thing Cyrano discovers: his words are more eloquent when he's detached from the outcome. 1/?

A single missing sock. Paperwork set down and forgotten. TV remote. Umbrella. Wallet. Glasses. 10/10 would get a small home robot that found my lost items and brought them to me.

Delighted to be labeled an AI "sceptixpert" in a Dazed article, "‘Chat was my backbone’: People are now using AI for awkward conversations." www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture...

I cut open an avocado at its perfect ripeness so I'm going to go buy lottery tickets now.

Upcoming: May 7. AI Symposium 2026: Advancing Learning, Discovery & Responsible Innovation. My keynote will be an examination of how AI systems become part of the social ecosystem and what that means for attachment, cultural embedding, and responsibility. #CalPoly provost.calpoly.edu/aisymposium2...

Delighted to be labeled an AI "sceptixpert" in a Dazed article, "‘Chat was my backbone’: People are now using AI for awkward conversations." www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture...

remember what Thiel wants

One hundred thousand years ago, sometime in the 80s, there used to be a very very very good UK-based newsprint music catalogue (no, not a zine). I do not remember its name but it had the most punk merch in one place (7”, tshirts, stickers). I wish I could remember the name of it.

Reposting this relevant piece about body worn surveillance: jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

Recently participated in a panel on conversational AI/LLM with academics, industry practitioners, and startup founders. One founder kept framing critical responses to student questions as a binary: you're either for AI/progress, or against it. That's a false dichotomy, and a familiar one. (1/2)

Mexico didn’t pay for the wall, Trump gold cards didn’t balance the budget, there are no $2,000 DOGE or tariff refund checks, and donors aren’t paying for the ballroom.

They are all crooks. And he’s in the wrong party.

This happened to a colleague of mine this last week. A peer reviewed journal wrongly flagged his original work as AI-generated. He speaks multiple languages and if anything, AI picked up his excellent academic English — that he must conform to for journal submission as the lingua franca.

Critical scrutiny isn't opposition to innovation; it is the baseline obligation of anyone working in this space. My job is to advocate for user safety. Scrutiny is the work. Asking hard questions about safety is the point.(2/2)

And it is be every consumer's right to ask about questions about personal., family, and community safety without being framed as "anti-progress." That's a disingenuous position at best. AT. BEST.

Recently participated in a panel on conversational AI/LLM with academics, industry practitioners, and startup founders. One founder kept framing critical responses to student questions as a binary: you're either for AI/progress, or against it. That's a false dichotomy, and a familiar one. (1/2)

I wish I had an agent/agency for my speaking gigs. I appreciate the work a good agent can do.

I lived in the Before Times when many workers got a small office w/ a door that closed. For focus, that was perfect. Now we're farmed into shared florescent office stables (that research has repeatedly demonstrated diminish "efficiency" & output). I am 100% more focused at home for every task. #wfh

I spent years teaching students to design clean, clear slides. Reduce cognitive load. Give the eye somewhere to rest. The UX principles didn't leave me. I just can't apply them alone, at midnight, in PowerPoint.

I keep thinking May will be March so that’s how I am.

As aside, this is one speech Melania didn’t plagiarize from Michelle Obama.

Before playing Kamancheh, he says: 'Hello, I'm Mohammad-Reza Afarideh, the director of the ed. institute that has now been destroyed. I wanted the last sound coming from my institute not to be of missiles and war; (I want the) final sound to be of the instrument that I played in it. Thank you'.

New Episode with Dr. Julie Carpenter: As AI becomes more human, our relationships with it become more complicated. Listen here. youtu.be/HUylKg_R4EQ #AI #Technology #Ethics #DigitalCulture

I was interviewed on @theinternetiscrack.bsky.social podcast about culture, AI, people, robots, design, ux, governance, ethics, and where the hell we go from here. youtu.be/HUylKg_R4EQ?...

Yes, felt that one in SF (Yerba Buena/SoMA)!

Legal debates are circling a point my AI & Society paper already makes: design and content aren’t separable in relational systems. These are reusable interaction patterns. My model traces how repetition & responsiveness → attachment. The system works as designed. www.bbc.com/news/article...

“Human enough” writing is increasingly whatever a probabilistic model will accept, and authorship credibility is becoming something performed for a nonhuman system. No paywall, "Human Enough: Writing Under Machine Judgment." jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

If you submitted an Anthropic claim, I recommend calling them and confirming it. Their system is riddled with errors and issues. Even if you got a confirmation number, maybe check: 1-877-206-2314

More like "Cache Patel" amirite?!?!

Legal debates are circling a point my AI & Society paper already makes: design and content aren’t separable in relational systems. These are reusable interaction patterns. My model traces how repetition & responsiveness → attachment. The system works as designed. www.bbc.com/news/article...

These unidentified men (confirmed after as ICE agents) grabbed this woman at SFO airport in front of her child. youtu.be/GdvehEu3oAc?...

These unidentified men (confirmed after as ICE agents) grabbed this woman at SFO airport in front of her child. youtu.be/GdvehEu3oAc?...

🎯

Let me explain the milk thing. The neo-NAZIs, white Christian nationalists, antisemites, groypers, & fellow travelers have an antisemitic conspiracy theory that all Jews are lactose intolerant. So you can signal to others you’re not Jewish by buying/drinking milk & identify Jews because they don’t.

I spoke with WIRED about ChatGPT’s planned “adult mode” & why sexual interaction with AI should be understood as a privacy issue for users. Once sexual behavior becomes a marketable part of the system's metrics, the emotional (and data) stakes change. www.wired.com/story/chatgp...

A San Jose hot pot restaurant robot threw plates, danced, and wouldn’t let staff move it. We have entered the “I’m not paid enough for this” phase of automation. www.nbcnews.com/video/dancin...