Stuart Semmel
@semmiotic.bsky.social
British history, political thought, history of consciousness, movies, snacks
Pinned
I learned today that when you get Safari to read a page to you, it consistently reads the word “chatbot” as “chatbit.”
February 9, 2026 at 2:49 AM
I learned today that when you get Safari to read a page to you, it consistently reads the word “chatbot” as “chatbit.”
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
Mark Zuckerberg is all-in on improv comedy groups as the new social media
Mark Zuckerberg is all-in on AI as the new social media
Mark Zuckerberg is all-in on AI as the new social media
In: AI. Out: the metaverse.
buff.ly
January 31, 2026 at 12:41 PM
Mark Zuckerberg is all-in on improv comedy groups as the new social media
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
Improv Comedy Group Fear Grips Wall Street as a New Stock Market Reality Sets In
For months, investors have been growing increasingly anxious about how improv comedy groups will potentially transform the economy. Last week, those concerns suddenly spilled over into the stock market.
For months, investors have been growing increasingly anxious about how improv comedy groups will potentially transform the economy. Last week, those concerns suddenly spilled over into the stock market.
February 8, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Improv Comedy Group Fear Grips Wall Street as a New Stock Market Reality Sets In
For months, investors have been growing increasingly anxious about how improv comedy groups will potentially transform the economy. Last week, those concerns suddenly spilled over into the stock market.
For months, investors have been growing increasingly anxious about how improv comedy groups will potentially transform the economy. Last week, those concerns suddenly spilled over into the stock market.
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
remarkably this is still a "what if ai takes everyone's job" story rather than a "what if this thing we've been pouring all our money into is bullshit" story
Improv Comedy Group Fear Grips Wall Street as a New Stock Market Reality Sets In
For months, investors have been growing increasingly anxious about how improv comedy groups will potentially transform the economy. Last week, those concerns suddenly spilled over into the stock market.
For months, investors have been growing increasingly anxious about how improv comedy groups will potentially transform the economy. Last week, those concerns suddenly spilled over into the stock market.
February 8, 2026 at 5:03 PM
remarkably this is still a "what if ai takes everyone's job" story rather than a "what if this thing we've been pouring all our money into is bullshit" story
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
Another interesting thing in the Epstein correspondence is when he uses money to fake connections - e.g somebody asks him for tickets to a Itzhak Perlman concert “because the two of you are close” and he just gets his assistant to buy them from a scalping site
February 8, 2026 at 1:03 AM
Another interesting thing in the Epstein correspondence is when he uses money to fake connections - e.g somebody asks him for tickets to a Itzhak Perlman concert “because the two of you are close” and he just gets his assistant to buy them from a scalping site
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
A big first in my phone life today: I listened carefully to the options, and the menu had indeed recently changed!
January 28, 2026 at 5:22 PM
A big first in my phone life today: I listened carefully to the options, and the menu had indeed recently changed!
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
You don’t see a frozen NYC subway pole covered in icicles every day
February 7, 2026 at 10:07 PM
You don’t see a frozen NYC subway pole covered in icicles every day
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
This deserves to be spread as far and wide as what happened to Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
apnews.com/article/immi...
apnews.com/article/immi...
February 7, 2026 at 6:07 PM
This deserves to be spread as far and wide as what happened to Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
apnews.com/article/immi...
apnews.com/article/immi...
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
The only thing I use your newspaper for is to line the birdcage. Also, you got Hillary Clinton’s middle initial wrong on page B11
bsky.app/profile/bgru...
bsky.app/profile/bgru...
People who say they never read your news site any more are usually your most loyal readers
👏👏 to @ddiamond.bsky.social
👏👏 to @ddiamond.bsky.social
February 4, 2026 at 3:01 AM
The only thing I use your newspaper for is to line the birdcage. Also, you got Hillary Clinton’s middle initial wrong on page B11
bsky.app/profile/bgru...
bsky.app/profile/bgru...
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
chatgpt is much like an improv comedy group
1) you are the audience, giving it prompts
2) it produces things roughly shaped like your prompt
3) it is trained to respond with Yes, And
4) it has the factual accuracy of improv
5) it does not understand comedy
1) you are the audience, giving it prompts
2) it produces things roughly shaped like your prompt
3) it is trained to respond with Yes, And
4) it has the factual accuracy of improv
5) it does not understand comedy
This is fascinating: www.reddit.com/r/OpenAI/s/I...
Someone “worked on a book with ChatGPT” for weeks and then sought help on Reddit when they couldn’t download the file. Redditors helped them realized ChatGPT had just been roleplaying/lying and there was no file/book…
Someone “worked on a book with ChatGPT” for weeks and then sought help on Reddit when they couldn’t download the file. Redditors helped them realized ChatGPT had just been roleplaying/lying and there was no file/book…
From the OpenAI community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the OpenAI community
www.reddit.com
July 16, 2025 at 9:21 PM
chatgpt is much like an improv comedy group
1) you are the audience, giving it prompts
2) it produces things roughly shaped like your prompt
3) it is trained to respond with Yes, And
4) it has the factual accuracy of improv
5) it does not understand comedy
1) you are the audience, giving it prompts
2) it produces things roughly shaped like your prompt
3) it is trained to respond with Yes, And
4) it has the factual accuracy of improv
5) it does not understand comedy
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
I hate to tap the sign but again: this is all made to make in-person education and access to knowledge transfer a preserve of the elite. Human education for the few, bots for the many.
We want to make sure tutoring isn't the preserve of a lucky few, but accessible to every child who needs it.
AI can help us do that.
Safe, personalised, one-to-one learning support to help every child achieve and thrive.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01...
AI can help us do that.
Safe, personalised, one-to-one learning support to help every child achieve and thrive.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01...
Poorest pupils to be given AI tutors
Bridget Phillipson says tuition would no longer be the preserve of ‘the lucky few’
www.telegraph.co.uk
January 29, 2026 at 10:34 AM
I hate to tap the sign but again: this is all made to make in-person education and access to knowledge transfer a preserve of the elite. Human education for the few, bots for the many.
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
Belle and Sebastian
It's rude when people ask you for a favorite Wes Anderson movie because you have a ranking that you update every time you're waiting for the bus. You've thought about playing hooky, and instead just slip into a bookshop on your lunch break.
It's rude when people ask you for a favorite Wes Anderson movie because you have a ranking that you update every time you're waiting for the bus. You've thought about playing hooky, and instead just slip into a bookshop on your lunch break.
July 9, 2024 at 5:44 PM
Belle and Sebastian
It's rude when people ask you for a favorite Wes Anderson movie because you have a ranking that you update every time you're waiting for the bus. You've thought about playing hooky, and instead just slip into a bookshop on your lunch break.
It's rude when people ask you for a favorite Wes Anderson movie because you have a ranking that you update every time you're waiting for the bus. You've thought about playing hooky, and instead just slip into a bookshop on your lunch break.
In Canada, fortune cookies are bilingual.
January 29, 2026 at 5:20 AM
In Canada, fortune cookies are bilingual.
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
I mean, if AI is actually genuinely useful to various industries, stop trying to get me to use it in order to write an e-mail- just use it in those industries.
AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns
AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns
Big tech boss tells delegates at Davos that broader global use is essential if technology is to deliver lasting growth
www.irishtimes.com
January 21, 2026 at 3:38 AM
I mean, if AI is actually genuinely useful to various industries, stop trying to get me to use it in order to write an e-mail- just use it in those industries.
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
When two police officers were shot in NE Portland last week, Oregon's right wing influencer sphere was convinced that this must be some radical leftist who did it. Instead, it was someone many of those folks had previously attended MAGA flag waves with. leftcoastrightwatch.org/articles/por...
PORTLAND NEO-NAZI ARRESTED, SUSPECT IN WOUNDING 2 OFFICERS IN SHOOTING
| Left Coast Right Watch
Eric Oelkers, a long-time neo-Nazi that ran with COPS NW and Patriot Prayer, was arrested Monday as the suspect for shooting two PDX police officers
leftcoastrightwatch.org
January 27, 2026 at 9:43 PM
When two police officers were shot in NE Portland last week, Oregon's right wing influencer sphere was convinced that this must be some radical leftist who did it. Instead, it was someone many of those folks had previously attended MAGA flag waves with. leftcoastrightwatch.org/articles/por...
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
The largest Trump superPAC donor so far this cycle is the president of OpenAI
January 26, 2026 at 12:55 AM
The largest Trump superPAC donor so far this cycle is the president of OpenAI
Encouraged by … whom?
January 23, 2026 at 2:40 AM
Encouraged by … whom?
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
“Look: Rome wasn’t burned in a day.”
Vance on the economy:
"You don't turn the Titanic around overnight"
"You don't turn the Titanic around overnight"
January 22, 2026 at 7:04 PM
“Look: Rome wasn’t burned in a day.”
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
And, I'll just step out of my historical lane for a second and say that the 19C railroad industry--a bubble these guys love to invoke as precedent--wasn't trying to pump railroad into everything. There was no Railroad School. No Railroad Healthcare System. No Railroad Personal Assistant.
November 26, 2025 at 12:51 AM
And, I'll just step out of my historical lane for a second and say that the 19C railroad industry--a bubble these guys love to invoke as precedent--wasn't trying to pump railroad into everything. There was no Railroad School. No Railroad Healthcare System. No Railroad Personal Assistant.
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
Don't call it a "bubble."
OpenAI, Microsoft, & Alphabet are just fine with that term because they get to tell you that all the dot-com bubble or the railroad bubble or the whatever bubble was, was a shaking out the greats after an intense period of mania. This isn't a bubble. This is a time bomb.
OpenAI, Microsoft, & Alphabet are just fine with that term because they get to tell you that all the dot-com bubble or the railroad bubble or the whatever bubble was, was a shaking out the greats after an intense period of mania. This isn't a bubble. This is a time bomb.
Opinion from Alphaville: OpenAI is a money pit with a website on top. That much we know already, but since OpenAI is a private company, there’s a lot of guesswork required when estimating the depth of the pit. on.ft.com/44xy39L
November 26, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Don't call it a "bubble."
OpenAI, Microsoft, & Alphabet are just fine with that term because they get to tell you that all the dot-com bubble or the railroad bubble or the whatever bubble was, was a shaking out the greats after an intense period of mania. This isn't a bubble. This is a time bomb.
OpenAI, Microsoft, & Alphabet are just fine with that term because they get to tell you that all the dot-com bubble or the railroad bubble or the whatever bubble was, was a shaking out the greats after an intense period of mania. This isn't a bubble. This is a time bomb.
Reposted by Stuart Semmel
Mafia goon: Nice house you got here...it'd be a shame if something happened to it
Media outlets: Mafia goon rules out use of force. Expresses regret at the mere thought of it
Media outlets: Mafia goon rules out use of force. Expresses regret at the mere thought of it
January 21, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Mafia goon: Nice house you got here...it'd be a shame if something happened to it
Media outlets: Mafia goon rules out use of force. Expresses regret at the mere thought of it
Media outlets: Mafia goon rules out use of force. Expresses regret at the mere thought of it