Gustavo Costa
@simulacro.bsky.social
World's foremost slop expert
Pinned
Gustavo Costa
@simulacro.bsky.social
· Oct 5
Introduction to slop studies
One of the most salient features of our culture today is that there is so much slop. But what even is AI slop?
simulacro.co.uk
I wrote a Master's dissertation on AI slop. Here it is as a blog post: simulacro.co.uk/introduction...
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
on a purely selfish level, i got into the Go To School Forever game so i could think weird interesting and complex theory thoughts about technology, and just whacking the DONT BUILD THE FUCKING TORMENT NEXUS WE TALKED ABOUT THIS drum over and over again is not interesting!
November 13, 2025 at 2:40 PM
on a purely selfish level, i got into the Go To School Forever game so i could think weird interesting and complex theory thoughts about technology, and just whacking the DONT BUILD THE FUCKING TORMENT NEXUS WE TALKED ABOUT THIS drum over and over again is not interesting!
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Makes me wonder: Can we meaningfully conceptualize models and modeling without appealing to representations and representing? Without assuming a corresponding entity?
September 21, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Makes me wonder: Can we meaningfully conceptualize models and modeling without appealing to representations and representing? Without assuming a corresponding entity?
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Just as a general point, watching the when prophecy fail study being demonstrated to be false (in some way) and then watch people double down on cognitive dissonance is kind of art
November 6, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Just as a general point, watching the when prophecy fail study being demonstrated to be false (in some way) and then watch people double down on cognitive dissonance is kind of art
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Ok, just wow. If the content of this article is right, this is depressing. We're slowly reaching the point where ~100% of what I was taught in Social Psych was either innocently wrong or plainly frauded
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Ok, just wow. If the content of this article is right, this is depressing. We're slowly reaching the point where ~100% of what I was taught in Social Psych was either innocently wrong or plainly frauded
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
intelligence is the thing which i have. admitting things are intelligent means considering them morally and socially equal to me. i will never consider a computer morally or socially equal to me. therefore no computer program will ever be intelligent
November 2, 2025 at 7:41 AM
intelligence is the thing which i have. admitting things are intelligent means considering them morally and socially equal to me. i will never consider a computer morally or socially equal to me. therefore no computer program will ever be intelligent
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Yep. If this was an ordinary case of automation—not labeled “AI”—people would accept that it’s happening and move on to discuss effects, policy responses, etc.
The “AI” label makes people feel the value of their sentience is undermined, which triggers denial, which prevents a pragmatic response.
The “AI” label makes people feel the value of their sentience is undermined, which triggers denial, which prevents a pragmatic response.
November 2, 2025 at 4:42 AM
Yep. If this was an ordinary case of automation—not labeled “AI”—people would accept that it’s happening and move on to discuss effects, policy responses, etc.
The “AI” label makes people feel the value of their sentience is undermined, which triggers denial, which prevents a pragmatic response.
The “AI” label makes people feel the value of their sentience is undermined, which triggers denial, which prevents a pragmatic response.
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
Attention Authors: Updated Practice for Review Articles and Position Papers in arXiv CS Category – arXiv blog
blog.arxiv.org
November 1, 2025 at 5:28 PM
arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.
Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
as a condition of funding, we were asked to affirm that we wouldn’t undertake any diversity, equity, and inclusion work, whether or not we used the government funds to do so. The PSF simply couldn’t agree to that statement,
October 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
as a condition of funding, we were asked to affirm that we wouldn’t undertake any diversity, equity, and inclusion work, whether or not we used the government funds to do so. The PSF simply couldn’t agree to that statement,
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
October 19, 2025 at 7:59 PM
I wrote a Master's dissertation on AI slop. Here it is as a blog post: simulacro.co.uk/introduction...
Introduction to slop studies
One of the most salient features of our culture today is that there is so much slop. But what even is AI slop?
simulacro.co.uk
October 5, 2025 at 11:49 AM
I wrote a Master's dissertation on AI slop. Here it is as a blog post: simulacro.co.uk/introduction...
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
A lot of folks in the AI space are like people who insist it’s safe and smart to get drunk in the driver’s seat of their Tesla on a country road and a lot of their opponents are like people saying there’s no such thing as an automatic transmission
October 5, 2025 at 3:02 AM
A lot of folks in the AI space are like people who insist it’s safe and smart to get drunk in the driver’s seat of their Tesla on a country road and a lot of their opponents are like people saying there’s no such thing as an automatic transmission
THE RATIONALITY TRAP
You can listen to the 6,000 words via ElevenLabs
www.aipanic.news
September 15, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
This is the single best piece I've read on "replacing coders with AI," it fully dispells the myth from the perspective of a software engineer and does so in a calm, reasonable way.
colton.dev/blog/curing-...
colton.dev/blog/curing-...
No, AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive
Curing Your AI 10x Engineer Imposter Syndrome
colton.dev
August 6, 2025 at 10:22 PM
This is the single best piece I've read on "replacing coders with AI," it fully dispells the myth from the perspective of a software engineer and does so in a calm, reasonable way.
colton.dev/blog/curing-...
colton.dev/blog/curing-...
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Anthropic's Hannah Moran finally addressed the elephant in the room at this conference when she subtly dropped "Agents are models using tools in a loop" during the intro to the "Prompting for Agents" workshop https://simonwillison.net/2025/May/22/tools-in-a-loop/
Agents are models using tools in a loop
I was going slightly spare at the fact that every talk at this Anthropic developer conference has used the word "agents" dozens of times, but nobody ever stopped to provide …
simonwillison.net
May 22, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Anthropic's Hannah Moran finally addressed the elephant in the room at this conference when she subtly dropped "Agents are models using tools in a loop" during the intro to the "Prompting for Agents" workshop https://simonwillison.net/2025/May/22/tools-in-a-loop/
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
There is a bunch I disagree with here, but it makes an argument for why AI adoption may be less rapid and less immediately world-changing (& dangerous) than people expect.
Well worth reading, as it is a useful base case where AI is just another technology. knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...
Well worth reading, as it is a useful base case where AI is just another technology. knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...
AI as Normal Technology
knightcolumbia.org
April 20, 2025 at 1:28 AM
There is a bunch I disagree with here, but it makes an argument for why AI adoption may be less rapid and less immediately world-changing (& dangerous) than people expect.
Well worth reading, as it is a useful base case where AI is just another technology. knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...
Well worth reading, as it is a useful base case where AI is just another technology. knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...
February 19, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Why aren't university students more engaged? All they care about nowadays is "practical value" & making money, an attitude universities feed by increasingly mass-producing diplomas. [The American Mathematical Monthly 36(1), 1929]
February 1, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Why aren't university students more engaged? All they care about nowadays is "practical value" & making money, an attitude universities feed by increasingly mass-producing diplomas. [The American Mathematical Monthly 36(1), 1929]
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
But DeepSeek shows - in the same moment as the Stargate announcement - that the trade off that OpenAI & co frame as wholly necessary is actually not. 15/
January 27, 2025 at 2:12 PM
But DeepSeek shows - in the same moment as the Stargate announcement - that the trade off that OpenAI & co frame as wholly necessary is actually not. 15/
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Quite the indictment of AI products: they are more appealing to people who don't understand how they work and see them as magical
The paper concludes: "businesses may benefit from targeting those with lower AI literacy" and "maintaining an aura of magic around AI" ✨
tinyurl.com/ynefd8zk
The paper concludes: "businesses may benefit from targeting those with lower AI literacy" and "maintaining an aura of magic around AI" ✨
tinyurl.com/ynefd8zk
January 26, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Quite the indictment of AI products: they are more appealing to people who don't understand how they work and see them as magical
The paper concludes: "businesses may benefit from targeting those with lower AI literacy" and "maintaining an aura of magic around AI" ✨
tinyurl.com/ynefd8zk
The paper concludes: "businesses may benefit from targeting those with lower AI literacy" and "maintaining an aura of magic around AI" ✨
tinyurl.com/ynefd8zk
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
The whole special issue of the Journal of Continental Philosophy this article is part of is now online.
www.pdcnet.org/collection-a...
Really a great collection of the latest philosophical thinking on technology!
🔨💻🧮📷📱☎️📺📽️📡
www.pdcnet.org/collection-a...
Really a great collection of the latest philosophical thinking on technology!
🔨💻🧮📷📱☎️📺📽️📡
December 6, 2024 at 11:21 PM
The whole special issue of the Journal of Continental Philosophy this article is part of is now online.
www.pdcnet.org/collection-a...
Really a great collection of the latest philosophical thinking on technology!
🔨💻🧮📷📱☎️📺📽️📡
www.pdcnet.org/collection-a...
Really a great collection of the latest philosophical thinking on technology!
🔨💻🧮📷📱☎️📺📽️📡
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
There are 2 mistakes you can make about LLMs:
① Thinking everything LLMs say is correct, they can reason, and with a bit more scale they’ll get us to superintelligence
② Thinking LLMs are good for almost nothing—they are FAR better at all #NLProc tasks than previous methods
① Thinking everything LLMs say is correct, they can reason, and with a bit more scale they’ll get us to superintelligence
② Thinking LLMs are good for almost nothing—they are FAR better at all #NLProc tasks than previous methods
October 12, 2024 at 10:38 PM
There are 2 mistakes you can make about LLMs:
① Thinking everything LLMs say is correct, they can reason, and with a bit more scale they’ll get us to superintelligence
② Thinking LLMs are good for almost nothing—they are FAR better at all #NLProc tasks than previous methods
① Thinking everything LLMs say is correct, they can reason, and with a bit more scale they’ll get us to superintelligence
② Thinking LLMs are good for almost nothing—they are FAR better at all #NLProc tasks than previous methods
Reposted by Gustavo Costa
Just realized BlueSky allows sharing valuable stuff cause it doesn't punish links. 🤩
Let's start with "What are embeddings" by @vickiboykis.com
The book is a great summary of embeddings, from history to modern approaches.
The best part: it's free.
Link: vickiboykis.com/what_are_emb...
Let's start with "What are embeddings" by @vickiboykis.com
The book is a great summary of embeddings, from history to modern approaches.
The best part: it's free.
Link: vickiboykis.com/what_are_emb...
November 22, 2024 at 11:13 AM
Just realized BlueSky allows sharing valuable stuff cause it doesn't punish links. 🤩
Let's start with "What are embeddings" by @vickiboykis.com
The book is a great summary of embeddings, from history to modern approaches.
The best part: it's free.
Link: vickiboykis.com/what_are_emb...
Let's start with "What are embeddings" by @vickiboykis.com
The book is a great summary of embeddings, from history to modern approaches.
The best part: it's free.
Link: vickiboykis.com/what_are_emb...