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Treating Algorithms as Products Won’t End the Internet or Section 230
A circuit judge has just ruled that TikTok is liable for the harm material that its algorithm caused. Predictably, we are hearing about the End of the Internet As We Know It. First, don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep. Second, the ruling allows companies to continue to moderate as they see fit and…
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“I’m sorry”: Two Words that Show Imitative AI has no I
Ted Chiang, because he is the best writer of short works in the English language today, has a fantastic essay in the New Yorker about why imitative AI cannot create art. It is a similar argument to one that I have made previously: writing is thinking. Mr. Chiang argues that art is about making choices,…
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Imitative AI and Mediocre Education
A short one in honor of Labor Day — I will not be doing much labor in honor of the day. An interesting post from Blue Sky: Kid has an English assignment, where school has kids first submit essay to an “AI checker.” Kid did not use AI. AI checker says the use of the…
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Failed Writer’s Journey: Politics is Part of Writing And Other Various Quick Hits
Insomnia is killing me, so this will be short this week. I half wanted to just start serializing my last completed work so I wouldn’t have to think. Of course, many people, all the finest people, big men with tears in their eyes, come up to me and say “Sir,” they always call me sir,…
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Education and the Uselessness of Imitative AI
Benjamin Riley of Cognitive Dissonance has found a guide for using imitative AI in education. It is, unsurprisingly, horrible. Mr. Riley (for now, I have decided that this newsletter will be the New York Times. Minus the neo-baby ownership, both-siderism, actual reporting, and word games. But you will get Mr. and Ms. before each last…
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Imitative AI and the Dangerously Mediocre Future
I just read an excellent, if older, N+ article by Laura Preston. I am mostly writing this newsletter so that you go read the article. It details her time at conference dedicated to voice AI — basically chat bots of one flavor or another. It is an excellent piece of writing, and it reinforces the…
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NWSL Nixes Draft. Will Others Follow? Or Socialism in Business.
No. The answer to the headline’s question is no: no other North American professional sports league is going to eliminate their draft. Drafts are too central to the ability of teams to control players, of trying to balance the talent across the league, and suppressing salaries. Might as well as for the leagues to handover…
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Are Google Phones Fascist?
Yeah, yeah. Clickbait headline. Except I am not sure that it’s not actually accurate. This is going to get a bit ramble-y so you might want to grab some snacks and a drink before you dive in. Sarah Jeong at the Verge has an excellent article on the Pixel 9 line of phones and the…
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Update on Cancer Surgery and What It Means for AI
This is roughly the one-month anniversary of the surgery that removed a significant portion of my guts, taking the cancer with it. I thought I would talk about a couple of points around that almost-anniversary Still not dead. Whether that is good or bad is left as an exercise for the reader. Access to health…
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Nothing So Like a God on Earth: Our Corrupt Judicial System
Hey, this time there is a tech hook to a rant! The judge overseeing the X vs Media Matters case, Musk’s attempt to use legal fees to shut down his critics (wow, so much free speech absolutism from Musk! No wonder he has to allow neo-Nazis and racism on his platform — otherwise, our great…