Michael Black
@mblack.us
Reposted by Michael Black
The prospect of replacing people's already dwindling intelligence with an artificial one that they can control
has billionaires salivating
has billionaires salivating
September 30, 2025 at 1:45 PM
The prospect of replacing people's already dwindling intelligence with an artificial one that they can control
has billionaires salivating
has billionaires salivating
Reposted by Michael Black
this was making me nuts recently so I recorded all the times I had to bat away all the useless AI shit in acrobat. four times right after opening the doc, and some things I couldn't even clear
November 11, 2025 at 2:13 PM
this was making me nuts recently so I recorded all the times I had to bat away all the useless AI shit in acrobat. four times right after opening the doc, and some things I couldn't even clear
🤮
why is there AI in my terminal app? seriously, who asked for this?
November 11, 2025 at 1:59 PM
🤮
Reposted by Michael Black
When you are using the "AI" framing, does the way you talk about "AI" carry water for the Sam Altmans of the world? That is, are you helping to paint a picture of their tech as inevitable, all powerful, and/or anything other than commercial products?
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November 10, 2025 at 8:35 PM
When you are using the "AI" framing, does the way you talk about "AI" carry water for the Sam Altmans of the world? That is, are you helping to paint a picture of their tech as inevitable, all powerful, and/or anything other than commercial products?
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Good example of how the problems AI claims to solve w/student writing are not new & not without existing solutions that work (usually, talking w/students about their projects).
Ofc, these solutions can't work if we keep increasing class sizes and can't give all faculty full-time, stable positions.
Ofc, these solutions can't work if we keep increasing class sizes and can't give all faculty full-time, stable positions.
I've been reading more about Ohio State's initiatives and saw this on their teaching and learning website. There are a lot of ways to help students at these early stages of the writing process but I'm not sure what problem is solved by producing "reams of raw content."
November 10, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Good example of how the problems AI claims to solve w/student writing are not new & not without existing solutions that work (usually, talking w/students about their projects).
Ofc, these solutions can't work if we keep increasing class sizes and can't give all faculty full-time, stable positions.
Ofc, these solutions can't work if we keep increasing class sizes and can't give all faculty full-time, stable positions.
Reposted by Michael Black
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Reposted by Michael Black
ohhh, I see. They're going to try and remake higher ed the way they did with tech, by flooding the zone with frauds who crowd out any reasonable discussion
November 9, 2025 at 7:21 PM
ohhh, I see. They're going to try and remake higher ed the way they did with tech, by flooding the zone with frauds who crowd out any reasonable discussion
Reposted by Michael Black
Yeah I looked upon Cthulhu's dread visage and I was fine. Big octopus on a man's body. Not exactly "difficult to comprehend." Maybe you guys should go outside more idk
November 7, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Yeah I looked upon Cthulhu's dread visage and I was fine. Big octopus on a man's body. Not exactly "difficult to comprehend." Maybe you guys should go outside more idk
Reposted by Michael Black
People who are opposed to any kind of regime running on Gen AI have to exercise our capacity to address it beyond its flaws. Flaws are opportunities to anyone looking for more money bc it gives them something to “fix.” Don’t get stuck in the “flaws.” Think about foundations.
November 8, 2025 at 1:56 AM
People who are opposed to any kind of regime running on Gen AI have to exercise our capacity to address it beyond its flaws. Flaws are opportunities to anyone looking for more money bc it gives them something to “fix.” Don’t get stuck in the “flaws.” Think about foundations.
Reposted by Michael Black
You cannot run the basic infrastructures of a functioning society- healthcare to education-on systems that cut out human empathy & negotiation. So we have to reassert over and over again that the problems aren’t glitches or errors—even big ones. The problems are fundamental, systematic, endemic.
November 8, 2025 at 1:54 AM
You cannot run the basic infrastructures of a functioning society- healthcare to education-on systems that cut out human empathy & negotiation. So we have to reassert over and over again that the problems aren’t glitches or errors—even big ones. The problems are fundamental, systematic, endemic.
Reposted by Michael Black
The absolute collapse of their stupid AI ruse — hopefully followed by a massive wave of tech regulation and imprisoning the politicians who enabled this — cannot come soon enough.
November 7, 2025 at 12:06 PM
The absolute collapse of their stupid AI ruse — hopefully followed by a massive wave of tech regulation and imprisoning the politicians who enabled this — cannot come soon enough.
Reposted by Michael Black
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points
November 7, 2025 at 1:24 PM
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points
Reposted by Michael Black
OpenAI is well aware of how its products stoke manic, suicidal, psychotic, and other forms of unhealthy behavior, but company leadership insists publicly that the problem with the tech is that it isn’t reaching *enough* people. Bulldozing the vulnerable is corporate strategy
November 7, 2025 at 2:02 PM
OpenAI is well aware of how its products stoke manic, suicidal, psychotic, and other forms of unhealthy behavior, but company leadership insists publicly that the problem with the tech is that it isn’t reaching *enough* people. Bulldozing the vulnerable is corporate strategy
Meanwhile research in the humanities is often dismissed as naval gazing 🙄
Glad folks are pushing back on this.
Glad folks are pushing back on this.
LLMs are now widely used in social science as stand-ins for humans—assuming they can produce realistic, human-like text
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
Computational Turing Test Reveals Systematic Differences Between Human and AI Language
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. Yet this assumption rem...
arxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Meanwhile research in the humanities is often dismissed as naval gazing 🙄
Glad folks are pushing back on this.
Glad folks are pushing back on this.
Yes, this. Regardless of whether AI is "good enough" perform human tasks, this is becoming my main concern. It is already quite good at centralizing access to information and determining the correct/approved way to express ideas.
Once you start thinking of AI as a war on humanity, on human thought, on human inquiry, on human labor, on nuance and critical thinking, it slots in pretty seamlessly with the right wing ideological project, oligarchical political projects, big tech's political projects, etc
November 7, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Yes, this. Regardless of whether AI is "good enough" perform human tasks, this is becoming my main concern. It is already quite good at centralizing access to information and determining the correct/approved way to express ideas.
Reposted by Michael Black
got a quick snap poll up on this, here's the results
November 6, 2025 at 1:03 AM
got a quick snap poll up on this, here's the results
Reposted by Michael Black
“higher ed must steer AI adoption” as a position is incompatible with academic freedom.
November 5, 2025 at 6:25 PM
“higher ed must steer AI adoption” as a position is incompatible with academic freedom.
Reposted by Michael Black
every single conversation I've ever had with a US military public affairs officer has been more interesting, forthcoming, and generous than the convos I have with tech company PR.
What’s the Difference Between AI Glasses and an iPhone? A Helpful Guide for Meta PR
Meta thinks its camera glasses, which are often used for harassment, are no different than any other camera.
www.404media.co
November 5, 2025 at 3:40 PM
every single conversation I've ever had with a US military public affairs officer has been more interesting, forthcoming, and generous than the convos I have with tech company PR.
Reposted by Michael Black
if anyone at meta pr would like to rip bongs and talk about whether we all see colors the same or if a taco is a sandwich etc please hmu
November 5, 2025 at 3:37 PM
if anyone at meta pr would like to rip bongs and talk about whether we all see colors the same or if a taco is a sandwich etc please hmu
Reposted by Michael Black
Mamdani says in his victory speech, “we will hire thousands of teachers.”
This, and not the proprietary chatbot classroom, is the future of education.
This, and not the proprietary chatbot classroom, is the future of education.
November 5, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Mamdani says in his victory speech, “we will hire thousands of teachers.”
This, and not the proprietary chatbot classroom, is the future of education.
This, and not the proprietary chatbot classroom, is the future of education.
Reposted by Michael Black
Huge thanks to Sherita Roundtree, @planbreakeramy.bsky.social & all presenters for a lovely CCCC Virtual Institute yesterday. Really enjoyed the sessions I was able to attend as they encouraged me to do more intentional public engagement and inquiry in my future courses.
November 4, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Huge thanks to Sherita Roundtree, @planbreakeramy.bsky.social & all presenters for a lovely CCCC Virtual Institute yesterday. Really enjoyed the sessions I was able to attend as they encouraged me to do more intentional public engagement and inquiry in my future courses.
Reposted by Michael Black
"look at my situation with complete objectivity and strategic depth"
oh brother
oh brother
Somebody posted this prompt, which attempts to make ChatGPT responses less friendly and more critical.
Feels like a rich document for a science-and-technology-studies analysis.
Feels like a rich document for a science-and-technology-studies analysis.
November 4, 2025 at 2:18 AM
"look at my situation with complete objectivity and strategic depth"
oh brother
oh brother
Reposted by Michael Black
Good (if characteristically blogstyle) Max Read on “platform temperance” and big tech as big tobacco.
Dickish of me to say, but may I once again note that I made exactly the cigarette comparison, down to the details, in 2012, a time before The Atlantic’s CMS natively supported deks or top images.
Dickish of me to say, but may I once again note that I made exactly the cigarette comparison, down to the details, in 2012, a time before The Atlantic’s CMS natively supported deks or top images.
November 1, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Good (if characteristically blogstyle) Max Read on “platform temperance” and big tech as big tobacco.
Dickish of me to say, but may I once again note that I made exactly the cigarette comparison, down to the details, in 2012, a time before The Atlantic’s CMS natively supported deks or top images.
Dickish of me to say, but may I once again note that I made exactly the cigarette comparison, down to the details, in 2012, a time before The Atlantic’s CMS natively supported deks or top images.
Reposted by Michael Black
microsoft wants to use your linkedin data to train LLMs
turn it off here: www.linkedin.com/mypreference...
turn it off here: www.linkedin.com/mypreference...
October 31, 2025 at 4:11 PM
microsoft wants to use your linkedin data to train LLMs
turn it off here: www.linkedin.com/mypreference...
turn it off here: www.linkedin.com/mypreference...
Reposted by Michael Black
Hello hello! still searching for marginalized sims creators who are down to talk about what's going on in the sims community! please boost and share amongst your discords/reddits/whatnot!
Hello! Are you a marginalized Sims content creator? Do you have feelings about what's going on in your community right now? Please get in touch!
October 31, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Hello hello! still searching for marginalized sims creators who are down to talk about what's going on in the sims community! please boost and share amongst your discords/reddits/whatnot!