One of the worst things that we've done as a society is push the idea that all viewpoints are valid and up for debate. This is legit why so many people think those bullshit jubilee debates are a form of education and not just a way to socially manipulate people into being open to fascism.

AI cannot carry the weight of social repair. AI can simulate care, but simulation is not shared experience. The danger is not that people talk to machines, the danger is the belief that machines fill the gaps created by weakened social infrastructures. No paywall: jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl... 9/*

The idea that AI can “detoxify” people reframes emotional overwhelm as a software problem, and it treats loneliness and strain as things to route into a machine rather than conditions that require support, care, and structural repair. 1/*

I'm going to tell my favorite story again about reflecting the certainty of beliefs back at people who don't expect it. A friend was one of the few Jews on faculty at a North Dakota University. Every year, his colleague in religious studies would invite him to come to his religious studies class...

“Because riders and passersby can be unreliable, Waymo pays workers in Los Angeles $20 or more for rescuing a robotaxi by closing a door, summoning help through an app called Honk that is like an Uber for towing companies.”

I wrote a thing. New essay (no paywall or ads): "The Comfort of Scale." I look at why AI is now being framed as a way to clear emotional burden, and what institutions gain when systems are imagined to absorb feeling. jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

The idea that AI can “detoxify” people reframes emotional overwhelm as a software problem, and it treats loneliness and strain as things to route into a machine rather than conditions that require support, care, and structural repair. 1/*

The work that scholars and researchers actually do is the work that people *think* AI is doing. You read all sorts of things. You make connections. You notice where the holes are — what *hasn’t* been observed, questioned, investigated. You synthesize it into something that has never existed before.

Candace Owens held up an English translation of August Rohling’s „der Talmudjude“ and repeated its antisemitic lies to her millions of listeners in her attack on Ben Shapiro. Rohling was a notorious Catholic antisemite who spewed vile lies and about Jews and the Talmud. This is incredibly dangerous.

Agree. And my take on the “AI will find cancer” here (no paywall): www.jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

The idea that humanoid robots can enter danger “so humans don’t have to” is circulating again. This narrative has a long history, and a complicated one. My work with EOD teams showed how robots, even nonhuman, reshape risk, not eliminate it. Writing about it now. www.forbes.com/sites/johnko...

Three years and one month from today, I’m going to grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building, but I’m going to need help holding the ladder. Are you in? Applying for my carpenter’s card today, so it’ll be a union job!!!

I just wish someone would be honest and say “we are ending civilian science in favor of science that is focused on serving national security and war”

THERE ARE NO JOBS IN ACADEMIA! NO JOBS! DOZENS OF HYPER QUALIFIED APPLICANTS PER JOB!

AI wearables are framed as “personal assistants.” But these systems are worn by police and CBP during raids. The real impact is relational: who gets seen, who gets tracked, & who bears the cost of being readable. “Glasshole” was an early warning. jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

Work and school systems are quietly reorganizing around AI-mediated output, leaving non-AI-mediated work harder to evaluate even when it’s careful and sound. "When the Opt-Out Disappears: AI, institutions, and the loss of neutral refusal." No paywall: jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

Work and school systems are quietly reorganizing around AI-mediated output, leaving non-AI-mediated work harder to evaluate even when it’s careful and sound. "When the Opt-Out Disappears: AI, institutions, and the loss of neutral refusal." No paywall: jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

Annual reminder that if you see a menorah in someone’s window, that’s an act of defiance against bigotry and hate. It’s also pride and bravery. It’s says “a Jew lives here” and that’s both painting a target but also reminding everyone that we still exist and we always will.

AI wearables are framed as “personal assistants.” But these systems are worn by police and CBP during raids. The real impact is relational: who gets seen, who gets tracked, & who bears the cost of being readable. “Glasshole” was an early warning. jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

I’ve posted a new essay today: "The Misdirection." No paywall! If you’d like to support my research and writing during a slow hiring season, Ko-fi makes a real difference! Sharing the post is also deeply helpful. ko-fi.com/post/The-Mis...

Another first with the Meta sponsor just added to the Turning Point USA mega conference

AIs that mimic the dead blur grief, memory, and consent. 2wai’s demo is only the start. I’ve been writing about what happens when mourning becomes interactive in "Your Settings Are Saved" (no paywall): jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

AIs that mimic the dead blur grief, memory, and consent. 2wai’s demo is only the start. I’ve been writing about what happens when mourning becomes interactive in "Your Settings Are Saved" (no paywall): jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

I’ve posted a new essay today: "The Misdirection." No paywall! If you’d like to support my research and writing during a slow hiring season, Ko-fi makes a real difference! Sharing the post is also deeply helpful. ko-fi.com/post/The-Mis...

A bright spot: my designed relationality article was accepted (with revisions) at AI & Society!🥳 I’m also open for senior UX research roles and consulting in HRI/AI human-centered work. Connections welcome in DMs or via jgcarpenter.com.

was at an event on AI for science yesterday, a panel discussion here at NeurIPS. The panelists discussed how they plan to replace humans at all levels in the scientific process. So I stood up and protested that what they are doing is evil. Full post: togelius.blogspot.com/2025/12/plea...

"Synthetic intimacy is neither wholly dystopian nor uncomplicatedly hopeful. It is an evolving relationship between desire, constraint, and technological convenience, surfacing in a moment when many people seek connection in whatever form remains accessible." jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

"Synthetic intimacy is neither wholly dystopian nor uncomplicatedly hopeful. It is an evolving relationship between desire, constraint, and technological convenience, surfacing in a moment when many people seek connection in whatever form remains accessible." jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

I’m opening a limited set of 1:1 sessions for writers, developers, and design teams who need fast clarity on AI ethics, user research, or human–AI interaction. Quick turnarounds, project guidance, and actionable notes. Message me here or email below if you want a slot! jgcarpenter.com

New post, no paywall! "Early Calibration." A look at the NYC AI-companion café and what it shows about the early normalization of synthetic intimacy in public space. jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

wtf is a FIFA peace prize? that's like being an NFL laureate in physics

AI-enabled creeps is exactly what you'd expect from something like Grok.

In these cases, AI is being used to solder together the libertarian goal of dismantling administrative capacity with the fascist goal of ever present control and enforcement. This mediating function between contrasting desires is at least as important whether it actually works.

New post, no paywall! "Early Calibration." A look at the NYC AI-companion café and what it shows about the early normalization of synthetic intimacy in public space. jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

I launched "Field Notes" on Ko-fi yesterday. It’s a monthly member tier with practical, thoughtful writing on how AI reshapes work, judgment, trust, and daily life. If you’d like to support the work and get deeper pieces each month, I’d be grateful to have you there! ko-fi.com/drjuliecarpe...

I had an invitation to appear on a Fox News show to discuss the Tesla robot today (no). Read what I really think about the humanoid robot from Tesla here (no paywall) in "Meet Your Wannabe Robot Overlords: The Privacy Nightmare of Networked Home Robots": jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

All super rich guys sound the same now. It’s all “I sleep four hours a night and spend the other twenty hours a day developing a product that’s going to bring us the best widespread poverty anyone’s ever seen.”

I’m opening a limited set of 1:1 sessions for writers, developers, and design teams who need fast clarity on AI ethics, user research, or human–AI interaction. Quick turnarounds, project guidance, and actionable notes. Message me here or email below if you want a slot! jgcarpenter.com

Health’s been a maze this year: a genetic blood disorder diagnosed, in and out of hospital, searching for work, more tests ahead, and expenses piling up. Trying to bridge a $1500 gap this month. If you can help or share, Ko-fi is open. Thank you! Articles, no paywall: ko-fi.com/post/Compani...

I wrote about how AI systems function less like sentient companions and more like infrastructural cohabitants: persistent, influential, and embedded in the small decisions that structure contemporary life. "Companion species, revisited" (no paywall!): ko-fi.com/post/Compani...

I wrote about how AI systems function less like sentient companions and more like infrastructural cohabitants: persistent, influential, and embedded in the small decisions that structure contemporary life. "Companion species, revisited" (no paywall!): ko-fi.com/post/Compani...

New essay looks at AI not as a chatbot, but as an everyday infrastructure that reorganizes routines, memory, and legibility. It draws on Haraway and Suchman to think about AI as a new kind of companion species: ambient, extractive, and increasingly unavoidable. No paywall! ko-fi.com/post/Compani...

A version of the PKD Voight-Kampff Test, designed to detect an internal state, something fluid, relational, and culturally conditioned. Reducing moral standing to quantifiable signals. The absurd satire of outsourcing “authenticity” vetting to tools.

If you’d like to support my writing and help me stay afloat while I’m job searching and managing medical care costs, it means a lot! Sharing this link helps, too. You can check out my blog posts at ko-fi.com/drjuliecarpe...

"Western civilization," the font, the 11 stars - 11 states in the confederacy, for the record. Why is this never news? Why are we letting our government agencies do this sort of thing while the news agencies report on hallucinated trade deals and act like everything is normal

New essay up (no paywall or ads): "The Afterlife of a Prompt." On how fleeting moments of expression outlast their circumstances inside the AI systems that learn from them. jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...

New article inspired by the recent hoopla surrounding Karen Hao's book (re: water use). I argue that "no one should look to the EA community as exemplifying good habits of epistemic and moral conduct." Here's why: www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/how-effect...

Welcome to new folks finding this account. My research and writing follows the threads of how people live with AI and robots in different forms: the frictions, connections, emotional spillover, and cultural shifts. Essays (no paywall), info about books, and ongoing projects: jgcarpenter.com.

New essay up (no paywall or ads): "The Afterlife of a Prompt." On how fleeting moments of expression outlast their circumstances inside the AI systems that learn from them. jgcarpenter.com/blog.html?bl...