United States would rather go to war with yet another country than address the systemic issues that contribute to so much substance abuse.

Me: Gemini, help build me a gem to make branded infographics easily with Nano Banana 2. Gemini:

Asked Nano Banana Pro to make a comic strip from the clip of the Trump-Mamdani exchange after Mamdani was asked about calling Trump a fascist. It couldn't access from the link so asked the title, looked it up itself and made this.

It took Google's Nano Banana Pro just about thirty seconds to make this infographic based on my newest Substack article on alternatives to abstinence only AI education. I'm not huge on hype but I'm super impressed.

I thought we all agreed “abstinence only” was a bad strategy? I parent a college freshman who just looked at me like I was telling him to have ChatGPT write his whole essay when I said to use NotebookLM to organize sources. Why? Because he has only been taught "don't use it." This is not the way.

Algorithmic age prediction and biometric verification are the newest ways that AI companies are "keeping kids safe." Most parents don't know what the technology is, how it works, or why it matters. I break it down in my most recent Substack, to help you understand. open.substack.com/pub/afewthou...

I have been up hrs past my bedtime reading Epstein emails for the last two nights, obsessing about his obsession with (and funding of) science, tech, and AI. Who should I be following to learn more about this and keep up?

I didn’t expect to find this odd document outlining a 2017 Origins Project Workshop on the Challenges of AI in the Epstein emails. Apparently, this was from a February conference at ASU. Not sure if he attended, funded, and not sure I care but these predictions are pretty intriguing.

While everyone’s talking about generative AI, let’s not forget about surveillance technology. In Maryland, a student was just detained by police, handcuffed at gunpoint because an AI weapons detection system mistook a bag of Doritos as a weapon.

The crazy thing about turning 37 is that I’ve been thinking I was turning 38 for months, so I guess I am practically reverse aging over here. 😅

Finished up Kara Swisher on Trevor Noah’s What Now podcast this AM. It had me belly laughing AND pondering some pretty interesting insights about tech culture. What are your favorite tech podcasts?

5 Things Parents Should Know About ChatGPT's New Parental Controls afewthousanddays.substack.com/p/5-things-t...

I spent some time on the Sora app this weekend. I opened my Cameo option up to public for part of my experimenting. Within ten minutes, I had two drafts created by a random account: doing yoga with a clone and playing Twister with my clones. I can’t imagine all the ways this could go wrong.

I expected deepfakes to create issues because they were being used against political figures, not BY them. What a wild timeline we live in.

Why I Didn't Write a "Real" Article for My Newsletter This Week open.substack.com/pub/afewthou...

The specific formulation approved by the FDA for use in autism-related symptoms is Wellcovorin (leucovorin calcium), originally manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), who just pledged to invest $30 billion into the US over the next 5 years last week. 👀 www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/...

🧵 It takes a lot to raise my heart rate when I'm scrolling on X; I use it to keep up with news, especially tech info, and try to ignore the nastiness. I immediately felt ripples of energy roll through my body when I read about OpenAI's new “plan” to build something to “protect” children, though. 1/5

Does anyone else physically print out their LLM’s deep research to fact check it, or am I just a dinosaur?

Have you tried Google Gemini's Storybook Gem yet? This FREE tool is shifting educational content creation in an exciting way, perfect for educators, parents, therapists or anyone wanting to make a cute keepsake gift. 🧵

We're entering a new era where psychological attachment, not attention and clicks, will fuel the economy. "Hide ya kids" isn't an option, but here's a few ideas on how you could protect them. afewthousanddays.substack.com/p/how-to-pro...

I’m glad ChatGPT is getting sued, they deserve it. You can be optimistic about the future and demand accountability for big tech. Demand they do better. Our kids need us to protect them. Government has proven that they won’t.

I want to be so excited for what GPT-5 can do, but I just can't stop thinking about how badly OpenAI is taking advantage of users who don't know there are NO privacy protections and that OpenAI is currently required by a federal court order to preserve ALL convos INDEFINITELY.

Google's NotebookLM video overviews are a game changer. They're beautiful, digestible, and could level the playing field for multimodal learners and anyone who struggles to synthesize complex information. Have you tried it yet?

Is anyone in the don’t die, upload your consciousness and live forever, or reverse aging realms—or similar—doing research on the potential impacts of these on society or the human experience? I want to follow them. Please tag them!

If you were to predict which major AI companies end up playing similar roles to the three dominant operating systems that we have now, which would you choose for each one?

Is this real life? Nope. Videos created with Veo 3 and higgsfield. All UGC shared on X.

My fellow ADHDers and others with executive function issues, are you using Goblin Tools yet? It’s an AI powered suite with no cost or account needed. Favorite use case? Trying it for the first time now? Leave a thought in the comments. #adhd #executivefunction #productivitytips #tech #ai

Last week, I made a video about how ChatGPT seems misaligned. I assumed everyone knew about the breathing and laughing in advanced voice, but I forget how many people aren't using these tools at all. So this week, I wrote about it. afewthousanddays.substack.com/p/ai-misalig...

Has anyone shifted away from GPT to Claude instead? Wondering what it was like and if it was something you regretted?

I ask ChatGPT directly about why the advanced voice feature breathes and laughs. What do you think about the convo? #openai #chatgpt #aiethics #ai

Thomas Massie on Theo Von talking about giant bills: "Why not put that shit on the floor one at a time?" Same, Massie. Same.

Mid-afternoon unserious break for ya. What’s the most upbeat poppy song that’ll make you cry?

AI slop all over the internet distracting us as the world burns, and I’m just over here wondering if it’s maybe a better time to pay attention to the robots or that state regulation ban. How do we keep up?!

I haven't even started manually prompting Midjourney's new video editor, and I'm so impressed. There were no hands in the starting image and the consistency between the two that appear are impressive af. Also, the way the hair and face move when the hands touch them, wow.

The audio is a little spotty on this but perfection is the death of creation, so here’s some content about another (not surprising) time Meta proved it does not care about user privacy because we are their product. Have you read Careless People yet, btw? Eep.

Took this picture last week in Muir Woods. My son walked up and said, “isn’t everywhere a first amendment area?”

Anyone else questioning EVERYTHING lately? Hope so. These AI videos are GOOD. And they’re only going to get better. Stay vigilant, my friends! And tell your parents and grandparents. Especially if they watch Fox and think LA doesn’t exist anymore.

If you have a hard time understanding your own thoughts and feelings and struggle to articulate them to others... you may want to look into Alexithymia. It's a brain wiring difference that makes it hard for people to understand and articulate what they're thinking and feeling. ❤️

It’s time we talk about the big beautiful AI regulation ban, friends. Hidden in the 1,000 page “One Big Beautiful Bill” is a 10 year moratorium (ban) on the regulation of AI on a state level. This is concerning, in more ways than one, and it doesn’t belong in a budget bill. #ai #aiethics

Is the 10 year moratorium banning regulation of AI except at a federal level still in the Big, Beautiful Bill? It seems like this should be a bipartisan concern but I'm not really hearing about it.

I feel like I’m writing clickbait but I’m genuinely not. I cannot stop thinking about Anthropic’s Claude 4 Safety Card report, particularly what they write about Opus, especially the themes that came when two instances talked to each other, essentially Opus talking to itself.

“Technology is amazing, don’t get me wrong, and I'm genuinely excited about the possibilities it holds. But it’s just a tool. It’s an extension of who we already are. And we use it that way, whether we realize it or not.” Read more: open.substack.com/pub/afewthou...

Happy Friday to everyone except the people who put doorbells in ads.

Mockler: What kind of messaging techniques do you use when you’re talking to Republicans? Buttigieg: You meet somebody, you talk to them and you see that the person you’re talking to is not some raging asshole, it’s a fellow American who has a different view of things…

🎯

One day, this will be the equivalent of something like “I’m simply am not interested in seeing at night unless I do so by candlelight.” or “I’m simply not interested in traveling unless I do so in my buggy.”

I can’t believe I dare say this but there’s a really interesting thread on X abt birth rate decline. It was started by @perplexityai.bsky.social’s bot who gives some history then auto replies in the comments to the people who ask questions or say their perspectives. x.com/AskPerplexit...

You can learn your country’s honest history, know your country is still in its infancy and has quite a bit of things to work on, AND love your country fiercely. Trump admin needs to learn abt dialectics.

Worth noting that in their latest filing, Anthropic is still saying the timeframe for having AIs with "Intellectual capabilities matching or exceeding that of Nobel Prize winners across most disciplines—including biology, computer science, mathematics & engineering." ...is in the next 2-3 years.