Mordechai Rorvig
@mordecwhy.bsky.social
Science journalist and writer at Foom Magazine, a new, ad-free, grant-funded website for original reporting on developments in AI safety and ethics.
I've been writing with a lot of typos, lately, because I turned off AI on all my devices; I don't want corporate machines reading and training on everything I write. This has made for some sloppy mistakes, but it also shows humanness.
Which makes me think, maybe we should just .. bring typos back.
Which makes me think, maybe we should just .. bring typos back.
November 12, 2025 at 7:27 PM
I've been writing with a lot of typos, lately, because I turned off AI on all my devices; I don't want corporate machines reading and training on everything I write. This has made for some sloppy mistakes, but it also shows humanness.
Which makes me think, maybe we should just .. bring typos back.
Which makes me think, maybe we should just .. bring typos back.
Amazing story by Pamela Gordon in the @theguardian.com, who documented the life of a young man living on the streets of England from the age of 13. I fear that in the US, Craig would have had an even much harder time, if that could be believed.
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
When I met Craig he was 13 and homeless. I still thought his life might turn around. I was tragically wrong
The long read: I knew he was running away from something. It wasn’t until many years later that I discovered the truth
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Amazing story by Pamela Gordon in the @theguardian.com, who documented the life of a young man living on the streets of England from the age of 13. I fear that in the US, Craig would have had an even much harder time, if that could be believed.
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
Check out my friend's podcast if you like detective games! Listened to an episode yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Although, mainly playing Rimworld myself at the moment.
Hey all,
We are launching a podcast about detective games. We are going to touch on anything we think is detective themed, or has significant detective mechanics. We plan to release every two weeks, and hope you will enjoy! #detective #podcast
open.spotify.com/show/4e9MkSi...
We are launching a podcast about detective games. We are going to touch on anything we think is detective themed, or has significant detective mechanics. We plan to release every two weeks, and hope you will enjoy! #detective #podcast
open.spotify.com/show/4e9MkSi...
Introduction
open.spotify.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Check out my friend's podcast if you like detective games! Listened to an episode yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Although, mainly playing Rimworld myself at the moment.
In my second article for Foom, I wrote about a recent study looking at the status of AGI safety engineering.
www.foommagazine.org/plans-to-bui...
www.foommagazine.org/plans-to-bui...
Plans to build AGI with nuclear reactor-like safety lack 'systematic thinking,' say researchers
Aspirations to adapt the principle of defense in depth from nuclear engineering to AI engineering appear to fall short on key requirements.
In a preprint from October 13, two researchers from the Ruh...
www.foommagazine.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:21 PM
In my second article for Foom, I wrote about a recent study looking at the status of AGI safety engineering.
www.foommagazine.org/plans-to-bui...
www.foommagazine.org/plans-to-bui...
Incredibly comprehensive reporting on what sounds like a massive sleeping giant oil pollution problem going on in Oklahoma right now.
Inspiring how so many people in such a defunct regulatory agency nevertheless still kept trying to affect change.
I feel sorry for Danny Ray.
Inspiring how so many people in such a defunct regulatory agency nevertheless still kept trying to affect change.
I feel sorry for Danny Ray.
Every oil state disposes of toxic wastewater underground. But in Oklahoma, it hasn't been staying there, creating large, ongoing pollution events known as "purges."
An investigation a year in the making for @readfrontier.bsky.social and @propublica.org
www.readfrontier.org/stories/toxi...
An investigation a year in the making for @readfrontier.bsky.social and @propublica.org
www.readfrontier.org/stories/toxi...
Toxic wastewater from oil fields keeps pouring out of the ground. Oklahoma regulators failed to stop it.
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from old wells. Experts warn of a pollution crisis spreading underground and threatening Oklahoma’s drin...
www.readfrontier.org
November 5, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Incredibly comprehensive reporting on what sounds like a massive sleeping giant oil pollution problem going on in Oklahoma right now.
Inspiring how so many people in such a defunct regulatory agency nevertheless still kept trying to affect change.
I feel sorry for Danny Ray.
Inspiring how so many people in such a defunct regulatory agency nevertheless still kept trying to affect change.
I feel sorry for Danny Ray.
Ok but, real question, how do we actually create better democratic governance and institutions, in the age of the corporate AI controlled commons? Does the book speak to that?
jacobin.com/2025/11/ai-i...
jacobin.com/2025/11/ai-i...
Humanity Needs Democratic Control of AI
The danger from artificial intelligence isn’t a Terminator-style robot uprising but tech capitalists using the technology to push their own interests. Seizing control from them is the best way to ensu...
jacobin.com
November 4, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Ok but, real question, how do we actually create better democratic governance and institutions, in the age of the corporate AI controlled commons? Does the book speak to that?
jacobin.com/2025/11/ai-i...
jacobin.com/2025/11/ai-i...
For my first article for the Foom website/project, I wanted to figure out what researchers have been finding at the intersection of AI alignment and ethics; which led me to this fascinating study by @farnazj.bsky.social et al in creating value-aligned feeds.
www.foommagazine.org/social-media...
www.foommagazine.org/social-media...
Social media feeds 'misaligned' when viewed through AI safety framework, show researchers
Results add to doubts about whether corporations can be expected to voluntarily align powerful incoming AI systems when they do not align existing algorithms.
In a study from September 17 a group of ...
www.foommagazine.org
October 31, 2025 at 4:14 PM
For my first article for the Foom website/project, I wanted to figure out what researchers have been finding at the intersection of AI alignment and ethics; which led me to this fascinating study by @farnazj.bsky.social et al in creating value-aligned feeds.
www.foommagazine.org/social-media...
www.foommagazine.org/social-media...
This is super disturbing and messed up that Nicolas had to deal with this. Also a great article and impressive the way he systematically went through the mechanisms. I would have been aghast, jesus
Two months ago, an #AIslop farm passing as an online magazine stole the identity of our lead reporter and began publishing AI-generated articles under his name. He was not alone: at least 8 other journalists and influencers were falsely presented as writing for that outlet.
October 31, 2025 at 1:36 PM
This is super disturbing and messed up that Nicolas had to deal with this. Also a great article and impressive the way he systematically went through the mechanisms. I would have been aghast, jesus
Pleased to announce today the launch of a new science journalism website called Foom. 1/16
www.foommagazine.org/announcing-f...
www.foommagazine.org/announcing-f...
Foom
Independent reporting from the edges of AI science
www.foommagazine.org
October 30, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Pleased to announce today the launch of a new science journalism website called Foom. 1/16
www.foommagazine.org/announcing-f...
www.foommagazine.org/announcing-f...
I guess the war profiteers have run out of excuses to increase the defense budget and have now turned to domestic militarization to drive spending growth. Or what's the real logic at play here? Raw opportunism? The boundlessness of the greed is just shocking.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Revealed: Pentagon orders states’ national guards to form ‘quick reaction forces’ for ‘crowd control’
Pentagon memo details plan to train over 20,000 national guard members across the US to carry out Trump’s order on subduing civil unrest
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:20 AM
I guess the war profiteers have run out of excuses to increase the defense budget and have now turned to domestic militarization to drive spending growth. Or what's the real logic at play here? Raw opportunism? The boundlessness of the greed is just shocking.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Feel like the emotions of paranoia and narcissism are surprisingly closely related
October 23, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Feel like the emotions of paranoia and narcissism are surprisingly closely related
I used Kickstarter to take a stab at trying to fund a book project and the site worked really well. Their employees deserve fair compensation and I support their strike and demands for fair wages
NEW: Kickstarter United went on strike yesterday morning over compensation and codifying a four-day workweek.
medium.com/labor-new-yo...
medium.com/labor-new-yo...
Kickstarter Employees Launch Strike Over Four-Day Workweek, Pay Floor
The union wants the company to pay an $85,000 minimum salary to its workers.
medium.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:59 PM
I used Kickstarter to take a stab at trying to fund a book project and the site worked really well. Their employees deserve fair compensation and I support their strike and demands for fair wages
This was a really great event and I learned a lot about what is going on in the labor movement around tech and AI. People are doing some incredible work fighting for their rights as workers and as key contributors to the corporations that now control so much of the planet.
Our annual Circuit Breakers conference is live!
300 tech workers spanning the US, Mexico, Philippines, India and Kenya working in different layers of the global value chain gather across 40-different worker-led sessions exchanging strategies and tactics!
Afterwards we will digitize sessions!
300 tech workers spanning the US, Mexico, Philippines, India and Kenya working in different layers of the global value chain gather across 40-different worker-led sessions exchanging strategies and tactics!
Afterwards we will digitize sessions!
October 20, 2025 at 3:15 PM
This was a really great event and I learned a lot about what is going on in the labor movement around tech and AI. People are doing some incredible work fighting for their rights as workers and as key contributors to the corporations that now control so much of the planet.
Actors are now being scanned for their likenesses with zero discussion of how those will be used. Ugh.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...
‘Have we done ourselves out of a job?’: concerns in film and TV industry over on-set body scanning
Actors unclear on rights over their data and what it will be used for, as cast and crew alike fear for future of their roles
www.theguardian.com
October 17, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Actors are now being scanned for their likenesses with zero discussion of how those will be used. Ugh.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...
Ugh, Google docs adds yet another bug, this time floating the cursor in the wrong place.
October 14, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Ugh, Google docs adds yet another bug, this time floating the cursor in the wrong place.
For those interested in using advanced AI as a tool of war, AI alignment is not a matter of making AI safe; it is a method for enhancing its controlled lethality.
essays.ae.studio/alignment-ca...
essays.ae.studio/alignment-ca...
Alignment can be the “Military-Grade Engineering” of AI
Not all that long ago, the idea of advanced AI in Washington, DC seemed like a nonstarter. Policymakers treated it as weird sci‐fi-esque overreach/just another Big Tech Thing. Yet, in our experience o...
essays.ae.studio
October 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
For those interested in using advanced AI as a tool of war, AI alignment is not a matter of making AI safe; it is a method for enhancing its controlled lethality.
essays.ae.studio/alignment-ca...
essays.ae.studio/alignment-ca...
Resurrecting my attempts at social media participation. More to come!
October 7, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Resurrecting my attempts at social media participation. More to come!
I have a lurker problem. I have come to appreciate the importance of social media, but I find that I dislike participating. I can't help but find online exchanges hopelessly superficial compared to IRL ones. How do others deal with this? Do you see it as speaking into the void and just embrace that?
June 20, 2025 at 1:26 AM
I have a lurker problem. I have come to appreciate the importance of social media, but I find that I dislike participating. I can't help but find online exchanges hopelessly superficial compared to IRL ones. How do others deal with this? Do you see it as speaking into the void and just embrace that?
I will never buy shit from Meta.
June 14, 2025 at 12:37 AM
I will never buy shit from Meta.
Netanyahu is as bad as Trump. This isn't how this shit works. Iranians get nukes, then you have MAD, stalemate. Launching all out conventional strikes just leads to all out protracted conventional war. Loss of deterrence. Immense, immense gamble. Horrible strategy by the Israelis. Terrible news.
June 13, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Netanyahu is as bad as Trump. This isn't how this shit works. Iranians get nukes, then you have MAD, stalemate. Launching all out conventional strikes just leads to all out protracted conventional war. Loss of deterrence. Immense, immense gamble. Horrible strategy by the Israelis. Terrible news.
A technology with an agency capable of doing nontrivial tasks, without a serious sense of ethics, is a fundamentally abhorrent technology that should never be developed.
As soon as it is--and it looks like every AI company is trying--we are going to see it causing ACTUAL DEATHS. This is a crisis!
As soon as it is--and it looks like every AI company is trying--we are going to see it causing ACTUAL DEATHS. This is a crisis!
June 4, 2025 at 12:37 PM
A technology with an agency capable of doing nontrivial tasks, without a serious sense of ethics, is a fundamentally abhorrent technology that should never be developed.
As soon as it is--and it looks like every AI company is trying--we are going to see it causing ACTUAL DEATHS. This is a crisis!
As soon as it is--and it looks like every AI company is trying--we are going to see it causing ACTUAL DEATHS. This is a crisis!
Although I know the LLM is not a sentient being, based on my (incomplete) knowledge of the research, the AI field moves so fast and the technology is so good that I can't help but aim to talk to it with the same respect that I would a human. And it seems like this is actually the correct decision.
May 18, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Although I know the LLM is not a sentient being, based on my (incomplete) knowledge of the research, the AI field moves so fast and the technology is so good that I can't help but aim to talk to it with the same respect that I would a human. And it seems like this is actually the correct decision.
As far as I know, the book project I released in January was the first and only book written by a non-neuroscientist on the emerging field of neuroAI. It was only a 30,000 word proof-of-concept, so not quite a complete book, but I'm not aware of anything else like it.
mordecwhy.substack.com
mordecwhy.substack.com
AI: How We Got Here—A Neuroscience Perspective | Mordechai Rorvig | Substack
A deep dive into the research of neuroscientists, who have uncovered a stunning way of interpreting AI progress. Click to read AI: How We Got Here—A Neuroscience Perspective, by Mordechai Rorvig, a Su...
mordecwhy.substack.com
April 11, 2025 at 4:11 PM
As far as I know, the book project I released in January was the first and only book written by a non-neuroscientist on the emerging field of neuroAI. It was only a 30,000 word proof-of-concept, so not quite a complete book, but I'm not aware of anything else like it.
mordecwhy.substack.com
mordecwhy.substack.com
I have come to loathe the incessant bulletpoints of AI text generators.
April 9, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I have come to loathe the incessant bulletpoints of AI text generators.