dylan baker
@dylnbkr.bsky.social
Lead research engineer @dairinstitute.bsky.social, social dancer, aspirational post-apocalyptic gardener 🏳️🌈😷
I run workshops @dairfutures.bsky.social. Always imagining otherwise.
dylanbaker.com
they/he
I run workshops @dairfutures.bsky.social. Always imagining otherwise.
dylanbaker.com
they/he
Reposted by dylan baker
“LLMs aren’t going away” statements are wishes, not predictions, that they’re trying to make happen. Treat them as advocacy for a specific future, not observations of inevitability
November 20, 2025 at 4:21 PM
“LLMs aren’t going away” statements are wishes, not predictions, that they’re trying to make happen. Treat them as advocacy for a specific future, not observations of inevitability
The Possible Futures workshops are so centering for me. They always bring me back to what any of this is for.
People approach this from so many angles, and still the same themes emerge: we want connection, belonging, healing, purpose, safety. 🧵
People approach this from so many angles, and still the same themes emerge: we want connection, belonging, healing, purpose, safety. 🧵
November 18, 2025 at 9:55 PM
The Possible Futures workshops are so centering for me. They always bring me back to what any of this is for.
People approach this from so many angles, and still the same themes emerge: we want connection, belonging, healing, purpose, safety. 🧵
People approach this from so many angles, and still the same themes emerge: we want connection, belonging, healing, purpose, safety. 🧵
makes me sad to think about young readers' access to poetry, as a former super-into-poetry tween :( It seems like playing with form & subverting the expectations of the reader— as poems are wont to do!— would be almost definitionally incomprehensible with three-cueing.
how did i go so long not knowing we were literally teaching people to read wrong. i knew something wasn't right but jesus christ www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...
How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers
For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't kno...
www.apmreports.org
November 11, 2025 at 11:42 PM
makes me sad to think about young readers' access to poetry, as a former super-into-poetry tween :( It seems like playing with form & subverting the expectations of the reader— as poems are wont to do!— would be almost definitionally incomprehensible with three-cueing.
Reminder that I'm running a workshop this Sunday in Seattle from 2-5pm! Come make art and imagine otherwise with me :)
www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese...
www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese...
DAIR Presents: Possible Futures Zine Making, Seattle
Imagine alternative technofutures with us in this free, in-person zine-making workshop. Come write, draw, collage, and chat with us!
www.eventbrite.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reminder that I'm running a workshop this Sunday in Seattle from 2-5pm! Come make art and imagine otherwise with me :)
www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese...
www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese...
(and as an aside, I could go rant about the observation many have made, that imo the obsession with making uncanny valley chatbots/robots that "feel real", "feel human", "feel authentic" is, at its core, about manifesting desires to dominate and control other humans, but I digress!!)
Building on that, from what I can tell, it's *not* conversational. It translates and repeats back words.
I love this. Not making it conversational, not trying to make interactions "feel real"— it's not only simpler, but it contributes to their stated goal: don't try and replace human interaction.
I love this. Not making it conversational, not trying to make interactions "feel real"— it's not only simpler, but it contributes to their stated goal: don't try and replace human interaction.
November 11, 2025 at 10:54 PM
(and as an aside, I could go rant about the observation many have made, that imo the obsession with making uncanny valley chatbots/robots that "feel real", "feel human", "feel authentic" is, at its core, about manifesting desires to dominate and control other humans, but I digress!!)
Normally "here's an AI robot that talks to kids to teach them a language" would be a hard no from me. But I found one that I think is great, and I want to talk about why.
The SkoBot is a language revitalization robot, led by Ashinaabe engineer @danielleboyer.bsky.social
Here's what I like: 🧵
The SkoBot is a language revitalization robot, led by Ashinaabe engineer @danielleboyer.bsky.social
Here's what I like: 🧵
November 11, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Normally "here's an AI robot that talks to kids to teach them a language" would be a hard no from me. But I found one that I think is great, and I want to talk about why.
The SkoBot is a language revitalization robot, led by Ashinaabe engineer @danielleboyer.bsky.social
Here's what I like: 🧵
The SkoBot is a language revitalization robot, led by Ashinaabe engineer @danielleboyer.bsky.social
Here's what I like: 🧵
This stuff gets me. My (STEM) school advertised itself as a brave holdout on grade inflation, boasting that they had incoming classes of all valedictorians w/ perfect SAT scores & had an average GPA of 3.0. The mentality around "weeding people out" and putting them in their place was SO bad!
People spend way time worrying about whether students are getting too many A's and not enough time considering the possibility that people who busted ass so hard that they got into a place like that might be the kind to be high achieving
Too many FACULTY think grading is about breaking people, too
Too many FACULTY think grading is about breaking people, too
October 30, 2025 at 11:34 PM
This stuff gets me. My (STEM) school advertised itself as a brave holdout on grade inflation, boasting that they had incoming classes of all valedictorians w/ perfect SAT scores & had an average GPA of 3.0. The mentality around "weeding people out" and putting them in their place was SO bad!
This is what it can look like when research is rooted in lived experience.
A key piece of context on this report is that DAIR researcher Adrienne Williams is a former Amazon delivery driver and organizer herself, and the report builds on many in-depth interviews. ⬇️
A key piece of context on this report is that DAIR researcher Adrienne Williams is a former Amazon delivery driver and organizer herself, and the report builds on many in-depth interviews. ⬇️
🚨NEW🚨 from DAIR:
Today we are releasing "Driven Down", a new report on how workplace technology enables Amazon to steal wages, hide labor,
intensify poor working conditions, and evade responsibility.
Read the full report here: drive.google.com/file/d/1yBxy...
Today we are releasing "Driven Down", a new report on how workplace technology enables Amazon to steal wages, hide labor,
intensify poor working conditions, and evade responsibility.
Read the full report here: drive.google.com/file/d/1yBxy...
October 30, 2025 at 10:56 PM
This is what it can look like when research is rooted in lived experience.
A key piece of context on this report is that DAIR researcher Adrienne Williams is a former Amazon delivery driver and organizer herself, and the report builds on many in-depth interviews. ⬇️
A key piece of context on this report is that DAIR researcher Adrienne Williams is a former Amazon delivery driver and organizer herself, and the report builds on many in-depth interviews. ⬇️
Reposted by dylan baker
POSSIBLE FUTURES WORKSHOP
🗣️ Looking for a fun, hopeful activity to stretch your imaginative muscle?
🌻 If you’re in the Seattle area, @dylnbkr.bsky.social will be hosting a free in person Possible Futures workshop on November 16 @ 2pm PST.
🪴 RSVP at www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese... to attend.
🗣️ Looking for a fun, hopeful activity to stretch your imaginative muscle?
🌻 If you’re in the Seattle area, @dylnbkr.bsky.social will be hosting a free in person Possible Futures workshop on November 16 @ 2pm PST.
🪴 RSVP at www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese... to attend.
October 28, 2025 at 11:42 PM
POSSIBLE FUTURES WORKSHOP
🗣️ Looking for a fun, hopeful activity to stretch your imaginative muscle?
🌻 If you’re in the Seattle area, @dylnbkr.bsky.social will be hosting a free in person Possible Futures workshop on November 16 @ 2pm PST.
🪴 RSVP at www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese... to attend.
🗣️ Looking for a fun, hopeful activity to stretch your imaginative muscle?
🌻 If you’re in the Seattle area, @dylnbkr.bsky.social will be hosting a free in person Possible Futures workshop on November 16 @ 2pm PST.
🪴 RSVP at www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese... to attend.
Like, support vector machines and random forests are "AI" when it's convenient for these companies to try and skirt accountability, but when it comes time to do marketing, suddenly "AI" emerged in like 2022 and needs the power resources of a small country to do anything at all.
They are also intentionally conflating machine-learning and generative AI slop to confuse and try to make GenAI seem necessary. Google Maps traffic stuff is machine learning, not GenAI, for example. Auto-correct is too. Don't let them make you lose the thread. GenAI slop is slop.
the nyt posts this stuff like avoiding AI for 48 hours is hard and meanwhile i have literally never once intentionally used an AI program for anything ever
October 28, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Like, support vector machines and random forests are "AI" when it's convenient for these companies to try and skirt accountability, but when it comes time to do marketing, suddenly "AI" emerged in like 2022 and needs the power resources of a small country to do anything at all.
Thrilled to see this from the folks around a programming language so dear to my heart 🐍
Nice to see some good news of resistance out there.
Nice to see some good news of resistance out there.
October 28, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Thrilled to see this from the folks around a programming language so dear to my heart 🐍
Nice to see some good news of resistance out there.
Nice to see some good news of resistance out there.
Reposted by dylan baker
Wrote this yesterday chanda.bearblog.dev/knowledge-is...
Knowledge is Worth Your Time
Folks who hang out on Bluesky/Twitter may have caught bits and pieces of the discussions amongst academics about what to do about today's university students...
chanda.bearblog.dev
October 23, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Wrote this yesterday chanda.bearblog.dev/knowledge-is...
Reposted by dylan baker
I like to say, "turning researchers into fighters and fighters into researchers," following General Baker from the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.
This project is an example of @alexhanna.bsky.social's vision for DAIR, she said she wanted to make researchers organizers and organizers researchers (something to that effect and I believe there's a related quote from someone else).🧵
🚨NEW🚨 from DAIR:
Today we are releasing "Driven Down", a new report on how workplace technology enables Amazon to steal wages, hide labor,
intensify poor working conditions, and evade responsibility.
Read the full report here: drive.google.com/file/d/1yBxy...
Today we are releasing "Driven Down", a new report on how workplace technology enables Amazon to steal wages, hide labor,
intensify poor working conditions, and evade responsibility.
Read the full report here: drive.google.com/file/d/1yBxy...
October 22, 2025 at 10:19 PM
I like to say, "turning researchers into fighters and fighters into researchers," following General Baker from the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.
Reposted by dylan baker
🚨NEW🚨 from DAIR:
Today we are releasing "Driven Down", a new report on how workplace technology enables Amazon to steal wages, hide labor,
intensify poor working conditions, and evade responsibility.
Read the full report here: drive.google.com/file/d/1yBxy...
Today we are releasing "Driven Down", a new report on how workplace technology enables Amazon to steal wages, hide labor,
intensify poor working conditions, and evade responsibility.
Read the full report here: drive.google.com/file/d/1yBxy...
October 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
🚨NEW🚨 from DAIR:
Today we are releasing "Driven Down", a new report on how workplace technology enables Amazon to steal wages, hide labor,
intensify poor working conditions, and evade responsibility.
Read the full report here: drive.google.com/file/d/1yBxy...
Today we are releasing "Driven Down", a new report on how workplace technology enables Amazon to steal wages, hide labor,
intensify poor working conditions, and evade responsibility.
Read the full report here: drive.google.com/file/d/1yBxy...
Reposted by dylan baker
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”
Happy Birthday Ursula K Le Guin
Happy Birthday Ursula K Le Guin
It’s Ursula Le Guin’s birthday.
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
October 22, 2023 at 1:37 AM
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”
Happy Birthday Ursula K Le Guin
Happy Birthday Ursula K Le Guin
We're seeing lots of headlines about the catastrophic impact of massive data center expansion. But what else could data centers look like?
In my perpetual quest to seek out alternative technofutures, I want to highlight the really cool work of Keolu Fox.
🧵
In my perpetual quest to seek out alternative technofutures, I want to highlight the really cool work of Keolu Fox.
🧵
October 22, 2025 at 2:18 AM
We're seeing lots of headlines about the catastrophic impact of massive data center expansion. But what else could data centers look like?
In my perpetual quest to seek out alternative technofutures, I want to highlight the really cool work of Keolu Fox.
🧵
In my perpetual quest to seek out alternative technofutures, I want to highlight the really cool work of Keolu Fox.
🧵
Another in-person workshop is coming up, and we have a bigger venue this time! If you're in Seattle, come make art with me! 😁
(as a total aside, I'm extremely excited to work with this venue, it's a really cool all-ages art space that also sells incredible mead.)
(as a total aside, I'm extremely excited to work with this venue, it's a really cool all-ages art space that also sells incredible mead.)
We've got a new in-person workshop coming up in a few weeks! It's in Seattle on Sunday, November 16th, 2-5pm. Come make art with us!
For more info and to reserve your (free) tickets:
www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese...
For more info and to reserve your (free) tickets:
www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese...
October 21, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Another in-person workshop is coming up, and we have a bigger venue this time! If you're in Seattle, come make art with me! 😁
(as a total aside, I'm extremely excited to work with this venue, it's a really cool all-ages art space that also sells incredible mead.)
(as a total aside, I'm extremely excited to work with this venue, it's a really cool all-ages art space that also sells incredible mead.)
I was raised by self-employed musicians, 100% wfh. Huge quality of life boost with kids: both worked, but they could still bring a forgotten lunch to school, bring me to doctor's appts, stay home with me when I was sick, etc. I now realize how impactful it was that someone was just *around* for me.
remote work is like birth control or UBI atp where there’s overwhelming research consensus they improve quality of life for people they apply to, yet access is impeded or blocked by the ruling class because the thought of marginalized ppl having rich full lives makes steam come out their ears
2. Rolling Stone is owned by a large media conglomerate, which is ending remote work across its brands.
My home is Portland, Oregon, ~1,000 miles from the nearest office, so this marks the end of the line for me at RS.
My home is Portland, Oregon, ~1,000 miles from the nearest office, so this marks the end of the line for me at RS.
October 16, 2025 at 7:39 PM
I was raised by self-employed musicians, 100% wfh. Huge quality of life boost with kids: both worked, but they could still bring a forgotten lunch to school, bring me to doctor's appts, stay home with me when I was sick, etc. I now realize how impactful it was that someone was just *around* for me.
@danmcquillan.bsky.social puts it so well:
"Wherever AI is proposed as 'the answer', is already a seam that needs unstitching, a structural problem where those who are directly involved should be at the forefront of determining what needs to be changed instead."
danmcquillan.org/decomputing_...
"Wherever AI is proposed as 'the answer', is already a seam that needs unstitching, a structural problem where those who are directly involved should be at the forefront of determining what needs to be changed instead."
danmcquillan.org/decomputing_...
Decomputing as Resistance
danmcquillan.org
October 16, 2025 at 6:27 PM
@danmcquillan.bsky.social puts it so well:
"Wherever AI is proposed as 'the answer', is already a seam that needs unstitching, a structural problem where those who are directly involved should be at the forefront of determining what needs to be changed instead."
danmcquillan.org/decomputing_...
"Wherever AI is proposed as 'the answer', is already a seam that needs unstitching, a structural problem where those who are directly involved should be at the forefront of determining what needs to be changed instead."
danmcquillan.org/decomputing_...
Reposted by dylan baker
These past few weeks, I’ve done a lot of public engagement, and it’s reminded me how hard science communication can be!
October 9, 2025 at 9:52 PM
These past few weeks, I’ve done a lot of public engagement, and it’s reminded me how hard science communication can be!
Saw this article linked by @wonkish.bsky.social in the replies here and wanted to expand on it a little, because this really does feel like a place where a tech solution *is* warranted to help address a major problem. 🧵
www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24...
www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24...
October 7, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Saw this article linked by @wonkish.bsky.social in the replies here and wanted to expand on it a little, because this really does feel like a place where a tech solution *is* warranted to help address a major problem. 🧵
www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24...
www.theverge.com/2024/8/21/24...
YES.
Similarly, I was recently in a conversation where somebody suggested that perhaps this administration was trying to bar all AI regulation because they don't want to hinder scientific progress. Yeah great point, they sure do love pure science!
Similarly, I was recently in a conversation where somebody suggested that perhaps this administration was trying to bar all AI regulation because they don't want to hinder scientific progress. Yeah great point, they sure do love pure science!
Probably worth paying more attention to *why* tech oligarchs and this administration, in particular, are so eager to build data centers. What do we think they’re going to be used for? Endless AI for good projects or…?
October 7, 2025 at 1:58 AM
YES.
Similarly, I was recently in a conversation where somebody suggested that perhaps this administration was trying to bar all AI regulation because they don't want to hinder scientific progress. Yeah great point, they sure do love pure science!
Similarly, I was recently in a conversation where somebody suggested that perhaps this administration was trying to bar all AI regulation because they don't want to hinder scientific progress. Yeah great point, they sure do love pure science!
Reposted by dylan baker
I looked into my scrying pool and asked when it would be good to apply to YC for my SaaS agentic AI startup
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I looked into my scrying pool and asked when it would be good to apply to YC for my SaaS agentic AI startup
A small detail they did here that I'm thinking a lot about in my own work: talking about "AI use disclaimers" in their work.
I've been toying with adding a little handwritten "a human wrote this" image at the bottom of my email signature with a link to more information. Are other folks doing this?
I've been toying with adding a little handwritten "a human wrote this" image at the bottom of my email signature with a link to more information. Are other folks doing this?
October 1, 2025 at 10:16 PM
A small detail they did here that I'm thinking a lot about in my own work: talking about "AI use disclaimers" in their work.
I've been toying with adding a little handwritten "a human wrote this" image at the bottom of my email signature with a link to more information. Are other folks doing this?
I've been toying with adding a little handwritten "a human wrote this" image at the bottom of my email signature with a link to more information. Are other folks doing this?
Just added our first guest zine to the DAIR Zine Library: it's Identity 2.0's AI-Z: conversations about resistance and generative AI. Check it out!!
>>> zines.dair-institute.org/ai-z <<<
from: www.identity20.org
>>> zines.dair-institute.org/ai-z <<<
from: www.identity20.org
The DAIR Zine Library
A collection of zines from the DAIR Institute
zines.dair-institute.org
October 1, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Just added our first guest zine to the DAIR Zine Library: it's Identity 2.0's AI-Z: conversations about resistance and generative AI. Check it out!!
>>> zines.dair-institute.org/ai-z <<<
from: www.identity20.org
>>> zines.dair-institute.org/ai-z <<<
from: www.identity20.org