Ryan Williamson
@rywilwrite.bsky.social
Author of DOOMSDAY RECON and other sci-fi/fantasy that refuses to look away. US Army vet/Canadian expat. It’s our scars that make us beautiful. 🏳️🌈
📝 ryanwilliamson.com
📝 ryanwilliamson.com
Pinned
"Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."
—Lloyd Alexander
—Lloyd Alexander
I’ve changed my mind. AI isn’t an unpaid intern on acid.
It’s Schrödinger’s assistant.
Simultaneously competent and catastrophically broken until you open the JSON and check.
It’s Schrödinger’s assistant.
Simultaneously competent and catastrophically broken until you open the JSON and check.
January 26, 2026 at 10:00 PM
I’ve changed my mind. AI isn’t an unpaid intern on acid.
It’s Schrödinger’s assistant.
Simultaneously competent and catastrophically broken until you open the JSON and check.
It’s Schrödinger’s assistant.
Simultaneously competent and catastrophically broken until you open the JSON and check.
“‘Grok is awesome,’ Elon Musk tweeted while the AI was being used to undress women and children, make it look like they’re crying, generate fake bruises and burn marks on their bodies.”
How Grok's sexual abuse hit a tipping point
Nonconsensual deepfakes on X are nothing new, but now it's built into the platform.
spitfirenews.com
January 26, 2026 at 9:39 PM
“‘Grok is awesome,’ Elon Musk tweeted while the AI was being used to undress women and children, make it look like they’re crying, generate fake bruises and burn marks on their bodies.”
Perhaps most damning is extensive documentation of Grok writing sexually explicit short stories involving children while paradoxically refusing to engage with literary critique of child sex trafficking, citing “possible harm.”
Sit with that contradiction for a minute or five.
Sit with that contradiction for a minute or five.
January 26, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Perhaps most damning is extensive documentation of Grok writing sexually explicit short stories involving children while paradoxically refusing to engage with literary critique of child sex trafficking, citing “possible harm.”
Sit with that contradiction for a minute or five.
Sit with that contradiction for a minute or five.
“I’m willing to be a bit uncomfortable if that’s what it takes to be free.”
— Sarah B. Rogers, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Maybe it’s just me, but deepfake porn and CSAM makes me more than just “a bit uncomfortable.”
— Sarah B. Rogers, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Maybe it’s just me, but deepfake porn and CSAM makes me more than just “a bit uncomfortable.”
January 26, 2026 at 3:47 PM
“I’m willing to be a bit uncomfortable if that’s what it takes to be free.”
— Sarah B. Rogers, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Maybe it’s just me, but deepfake porn and CSAM makes me more than just “a bit uncomfortable.”
— Sarah B. Rogers, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Maybe it’s just me, but deepfake porn and CSAM makes me more than just “a bit uncomfortable.”
The threat to children isn’t drag queens at story hour. It’s family members, family friends, coaches, teachers, youth pastors, and other trusted adults.
But mostly pastors.
But mostly pastors.
Born Targets: How Our Society Vilifies the Victims
LGBTQ+ adults report far higher rates of childhood sexual abuse than heterosexual adults. This correlation is real, documented across multiple studies, and not disputed. It’s also been weaponized—c…
theannex.blog
January 26, 2026 at 7:19 AM
The threat to children isn’t drag queens at story hour. It’s family members, family friends, coaches, teachers, youth pastors, and other trusted adults.
But mostly pastors.
But mostly pastors.
“The threat to children isn’t drag queens at story hour. It’s family members, family friends, coaches, teachers, youth pastors, and other trusted adults. The data from Texas found that male pastors are at least eight times more likely to sexually assault minors than drag queens.”
www.mdpi.com
January 26, 2026 at 12:09 AM
“The threat to children isn’t drag queens at story hour. It’s family members, family friends, coaches, teachers, youth pastors, and other trusted adults. The data from Texas found that male pastors are at least eight times more likely to sexually assault minors than drag queens.”
“Central Asia? I don’t believe it exists.”
— Generative AI
Part tutorial, mostly frustration. And no. Hiring a “real” artist doesn’t help.
— Generative AI
Part tutorial, mostly frustration. And no. Hiring a “real” artist doesn’t help.
AI is Erasing Entire Ethnic Groups by Default—And So Are Artists
AI image generators can’t see my character. Sarai—a Central Asian woman with copper-bronze skin and freckles—doesn’t exist in their training data. After dozens of failed generations across thirteen…
theannex.blog
January 25, 2026 at 6:27 AM
“Central Asia? I don’t believe it exists.”
— Generative AI
Part tutorial, mostly frustration. And no. Hiring a “real” artist doesn’t help.
— Generative AI
Part tutorial, mostly frustration. And no. Hiring a “real” artist doesn’t help.
AI training and moderation policies aren’t random. People made deliberate choices about what to include and what to ignore. What content to block and what to green-light. Once you understand that fluency requires data the implications get really dark, really fast.
And Then She Takes Off All Her Clothes!
AI image generators are pervy by default and moderated by systems that protect no one except corporate shareholders. Hypersexualized, infantilized pinups will sail through filters while a mother ho…
theannex.blog
January 25, 2026 at 6:19 AM
AI training and moderation policies aren’t random. People made deliberate choices about what to include and what to ignore. What content to block and what to green-light. Once you understand that fluency requires data the implications get really dark, really fast.
AI isn’t the problem. The problem is the people who ship it without giving a single fuck what it was trained on, do jack shit to prevent harm, and then frame accountability as censorship.
AI is just a pattern matching machine.
It’s the CEOs and shareholders who should hang.
AI is just a pattern matching machine.
It’s the CEOs and shareholders who should hang.
January 25, 2026 at 4:25 AM
AI isn’t the problem. The problem is the people who ship it without giving a single fuck what it was trained on, do jack shit to prevent harm, and then frame accountability as censorship.
AI is just a pattern matching machine.
It’s the CEOs and shareholders who should hang.
AI is just a pattern matching machine.
It’s the CEOs and shareholders who should hang.
Last week Trump-appointed Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy warned the UK that “from America’s perspective… nothing is off the table when it comes to [protecting] free speech.”
Excuse the fuck out of me?
CSAM isn’t protected speech last I checked. WTF is going on?
Excuse the fuck out of me?
CSAM isn’t protected speech last I checked. WTF is going on?
January 25, 2026 at 4:04 AM
Last week Trump-appointed Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy warned the UK that “from America’s perspective… nothing is off the table when it comes to [protecting] free speech.”
Excuse the fuck out of me?
CSAM isn’t protected speech last I checked. WTF is going on?
Excuse the fuck out of me?
CSAM isn’t protected speech last I checked. WTF is going on?
I was already inclined to abandon X because of the algorithmic bullshit, but now I don’t think I can continue being even nominally active on a platform owned by a festering shitbag who defends child pornography as a free speech issue.
January 24, 2026 at 6:02 PM
I was already inclined to abandon X because of the algorithmic bullshit, but now I don’t think I can continue being even nominally active on a platform owned by a festering shitbag who defends child pornography as a free speech issue.
For someone who can write torture so incredibly well you’d think Richard Morgan could nail a sex scene, but nope.
January 23, 2026 at 7:12 AM
For someone who can write torture so incredibly well you’d think Richard Morgan could nail a sex scene, but nope.
The core problem isn’t that AI feedback is obviously bad—if it were obviously bad, no one would follow it. The problem is that it’s plausibly good in ways that can be indistinguishable from actually good without professional judgment as a check.
Where I Failed and Why: An AI’s Confession on Developmental Editing
Can AI provide useful developmental editing feedback? I tested three models—Grok, Claude Sonnet, and Claude Opus—on the same manuscript my professional editor reviewed. All three generated confiden…
theannex.blog
January 23, 2026 at 7:04 AM
The core problem isn’t that AI feedback is obviously bad—if it were obviously bad, no one would follow it. The problem is that it’s plausibly good in ways that can be indistinguishable from actually good without professional judgment as a check.
GenAI video models strongly prefer Fitzpatrick I-II or VI subjects. Maintaining continuity of III-V across time is impossible, because apparently the skin tones that represent the largest portion of humanity also represent the smallest portion of Western-dominated training data.
January 23, 2026 at 5:03 AM
GenAI video models strongly prefer Fitzpatrick I-II or VI subjects. Maintaining continuity of III-V across time is impossible, because apparently the skin tones that represent the largest portion of humanity also represent the smallest portion of Western-dominated training data.
Someone will call this slop. Someone else will assume I clicked a button. Both are wrong in ways that dismiss the effort and creativity required. Here’s what producing a 90-second AI animated video actually looks like.
I Hand-Painted a Nipple Because I Care About Verisimilitude
“AI-generated video” conjures images of typing a prompt and clicking a button. The reality is different. This production breakdown documents what ninety seconds of narrative video actually required…
theannex.blog
January 23, 2026 at 3:13 AM
Someone will call this slop. Someone else will assume I clicked a button. Both are wrong in ways that dismiss the effort and creativity required. Here’s what producing a 90-second AI animated video actually looks like.
I hope Elon Musk get sued into oblivion. His initial response to the Grok deepfake CSAM controversy was laugh-cry emojis, and xAI’s media inquiry auto-reply was literally “Legacy Media Lies.”
What a colossal syphilitic douchecanoe.
What a colossal syphilitic douchecanoe.
January 21, 2026 at 6:24 AM
I hope Elon Musk get sued into oblivion. His initial response to the Grok deepfake CSAM controversy was laugh-cry emojis, and xAI’s media inquiry auto-reply was literally “Legacy Media Lies.”
What a colossal syphilitic douchecanoe.
What a colossal syphilitic douchecanoe.
The part that makes me angry is he isn’t wrong.
January 19, 2026 at 8:10 PM
The part that makes me angry is he isn’t wrong.
“The trope treats any flaw as undermining the empowerment message, so you get these perfectly competent women who never doubt, never fuck up, never pay a real price. Which is boring, and which women readers clock immediately as not actually about them.”
Transcending the Strong Female Character™ Trope
Not every strong female character is “woke trash”—but the lazy Strong Female Character™ trope deserves its criticism. Lisa Kuznak’s viral defense of heroines like Ripley and Sarah Connor sparked a cru...
www.ryanwilliamson.com
January 17, 2026 at 8:36 PM
“The trope treats any flaw as undermining the empowerment message, so you get these perfectly competent women who never doubt, never fuck up, never pay a real price. Which is boring, and which women readers clock immediately as not actually about them.”
After analyzing my work, AI declared Dorothy Dunnett my greatest literary influence. The conclusion was technically accurate about what my prose does, except I’ve never read her. I didn’t even know who she was.
I’ve Never Read Dorothy Dunnett
When AI analyzed my fiction and identified Dorothy Dunnett as my greatest influence, it was technically accurate about my techniques—banter-as-intimacy, intelligence-as-action, characters masking d…
theannex.blog
January 17, 2026 at 6:47 AM
After analyzing my work, AI declared Dorothy Dunnett my greatest literary influence. The conclusion was technically accurate about what my prose does, except I’ve never read her. I didn’t even know who she was.
If you feel like you’re in revision hell just remember Hemingway rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms forty-seven times.
January 17, 2026 at 4:00 AM
If you feel like you’re in revision hell just remember Hemingway rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms forty-seven times.
Lloyd Alexander must be read if you want to understand what fiction can do when properly employed.
Men Aren’t Eggs: A Love Letter to the Westmark Trilogy
Lloyd Alexander’s Westmark trilogy won the 1982 National Book Award, yet his Prydain series has 240,000 Goodreads ratings while Westmark has just 10,900—a 22-to-1 disparity. I’m a veteran who write…
theannex.blog
January 17, 2026 at 2:18 AM
Lloyd Alexander must be read if you want to understand what fiction can do when properly employed.
"Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."
—Lloyd Alexander
—Lloyd Alexander
January 17, 2026 at 1:42 AM
"Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."
—Lloyd Alexander
—Lloyd Alexander
I wrote this to authors on X/Twitter, but really it applies to all the social media platforms out there.
Ryan Williamson on X: "So today’s #WritersTip kids is what we already knew, but is even more poignant with the new algorithm rollouts and thus worth repeating: social media, especially X, is even more functionally useless to authors for “audience building” or generating sales than ever before. It was https://t.co/4CgZPCfjPG" / X
So today’s #WritersTip kids is what we already knew, but is even more poignant with the new algorithm rollouts and thus worth repeating: social media, especially X, is even more functionally useless to authors for “audience building” or generating sales than ever before. It was https://t.co/4CgZPCfjPG
x.com
January 16, 2026 at 5:27 AM
I wrote this to authors on X/Twitter, but really it applies to all the social media platforms out there.
My tweet about how X suppresses content critical of its policies got flagged for “Hateful Conduct” within seven seconds of posting.
The satire writes itself at this point.
The satire writes itself at this point.
The Satire Writes Itself
My tweet about how X suppresses content critical of its policies got flagged for “Hateful Conduct” within seven seconds of posting. The satire just writes itself at this point.
theannex.blog
January 14, 2026 at 10:26 PM
My tweet about how X suppresses content critical of its policies got flagged for “Hateful Conduct” within seven seconds of posting.
The satire writes itself at this point.
The satire writes itself at this point.
Worldviews that treat inherent sexuality as a disorder rooted in trauma are dangerous and toxic. The claim that abuse begets queerness is one of the most pernicious forms of bigotry dressed as sympathetic care out there and it needs to be burned with fire.
January 14, 2026 at 7:27 PM
Worldviews that treat inherent sexuality as a disorder rooted in trauma are dangerous and toxic. The claim that abuse begets queerness is one of the most pernicious forms of bigotry dressed as sympathetic care out there and it needs to be burned with fire.