Benj
@splatterthought.bsky.social
We are contumacious diodes with mercurial biases, and we are transfixed by our borealis.
PNW, Go Hawks
PNW, Go Hawks
Reposted by Benj
News is not a “daily conversation.”
News is news.
If you want a daily conversation, go to your local coffee shop.
News is news.
If you want a daily conversation, go to your local coffee shop.
January 2, 2026 at 9:14 PM
News is not a “daily conversation.”
News is news.
If you want a daily conversation, go to your local coffee shop.
News is news.
If you want a daily conversation, go to your local coffee shop.
Reposted by Benj
"We will continue to emphasize how the rule of law makes America the last best hope on Earth - compared to countries where editorial teams are not installed by billionaires in order to grease the wheels of corporate deals with political leaders the editorial teams are then asked to report on."
News is not a “daily conversation.”
News is news.
If you want a daily conversation, go to your local coffee shop.
News is news.
If you want a daily conversation, go to your local coffee shop.
January 2, 2026 at 9:19 PM
"We will continue to emphasize how the rule of law makes America the last best hope on Earth - compared to countries where editorial teams are not installed by billionaires in order to grease the wheels of corporate deals with political leaders the editorial teams are then asked to report on."
Reposted by Benj
NYT returns to character assassination. Note the framing, which implies Mandani targeted Israel exec orders when in fact, it was all orders after Adam’s was hopelessly compromised by indictment and bending a knee to the Trump admin.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/n...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/n...
Mamdani Revokes Executive Orders That Adams Signed to Support Israel
www.nytimes.com
January 2, 2026 at 7:07 PM
NYT returns to character assassination. Note the framing, which implies Mandani targeted Israel exec orders when in fact, it was all orders after Adam’s was hopelessly compromised by indictment and bending a knee to the Trump admin.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/n...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/n...
Reposted by Benj
Parker's piece nails why this matters. "Tech companies... would rather not answer for their products’ failures. Every headline that says “Grok apologizes” or “Grok admits” or “Grok says” creates a world where the chatbot takes the fall while Musk and his executives face no scrutiny whatsoever."
I wrote about Grok's CSAM problem and how journalists keep fumbling the story
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
Grok Can't Apologize. Grok Isn't Sentient. So Why Do Headlines Keep Saying It Did?
Elon Musk’s chatbot has been “undressing” women and children in public. Journalists are letting xAI off the hook by pretending the bot is responsible.
www.readtpa.com
January 2, 2026 at 7:32 PM
Parker's piece nails why this matters. "Tech companies... would rather not answer for their products’ failures. Every headline that says “Grok apologizes” or “Grok admits” or “Grok says” creates a world where the chatbot takes the fall while Musk and his executives face no scrutiny whatsoever."
Reposted by Benj
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)
#1: Reuters
#1: Reuters
January 2, 2026 at 8:02 PM
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)
#1: Reuters
#1: Reuters
"The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told the outlet that xAI filed zero CSAM reports in 2024, despite the organization receiving 67,000 reports involving generative AI that year. Zero. From one of the largest AI companies in the world."
I wrote about Grok's CSAM problem and how journalists keep fumbling the story
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
Grok Can't Apologize. Grok Isn't Sentient. So Why Do Headlines Keep Saying It Did?
Elon Musk’s chatbot has been “undressing” women and children in public. Journalists are letting xAI off the hook by pretending the bot is responsible.
www.readtpa.com
January 2, 2026 at 9:00 PM
"The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told the outlet that xAI filed zero CSAM reports in 2024, despite the organization receiving 67,000 reports involving generative AI that year. Zero. From one of the largest AI companies in the world."
Reposted by Benj
reminder that the "Baltimore Sun" sounds like a venerable institution, a paper of record, but was hollowed out by a succession of corporate raiders and then sold to a right wing crank from the Sinclair media empire:
There are only like 350 words in this “article” and this is the relevant bit which doesn’t reflect the title
January 2, 2026 at 7:49 PM
reminder that the "Baltimore Sun" sounds like a venerable institution, a paper of record, but was hollowed out by a succession of corporate raiders and then sold to a right wing crank from the Sinclair media empire:
Reposted by Benj
Also, the thing described in the article is perfectly fine. "Give me a list of options for a thing" is something that LLMs are actually good at and useful for. They did not "let chatgpt name their son"
January 2, 2026 at 7:49 PM
Also, the thing described in the article is perfectly fine. "Give me a list of options for a thing" is something that LLMs are actually good at and useful for. They did not "let chatgpt name their son"
Reposted by Benj
Trump posts that we’re “locked and loaded” to go into Iran, then goes marble shopping in Florida before golf.
January 2, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Trump posts that we’re “locked and loaded” to go into Iran, then goes marble shopping in Florida before golf.
Reposted by Benj
as if the onus for improving quality and usefulness is somehow on the critics or the consumer
Microsoft's Satya Nadella wants you to stop saying AI "slop" in 2026
In closing comments of 2025, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared an update on the company's mindset for 2026 — shocker, it's all about AI.
www.windowscentral.com
January 2, 2026 at 6:25 PM
as if the onus for improving quality and usefulness is somehow on the critics or the consumer
Reposted by Benj
There are multiple national political commentators who earnestly predicted that Eric Adams would be a legitimate presidential candidate and a national figurehead of the Democratic party by now and those commentators still have careers somehow.
January 2, 2026 at 4:44 AM
There are multiple national political commentators who earnestly predicted that Eric Adams would be a legitimate presidential candidate and a national figurehead of the Democratic party by now and those commentators still have careers somehow.
Reposted by Benj
Like, not even GRE scores. SAT scores.
January 2, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Like, not even GRE scores. SAT scores.
Reposted by Benj
Hold the phone, are you telling me that the guy on the right created a chatbot that is producing child pornography? And are you also telling me that the President whose campaign he funded and who was Jeffrey Epstein's "best friend" for a while wants to prevent any form of AI regulation? Weird.
January 2, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Hold the phone, are you telling me that the guy on the right created a chatbot that is producing child pornography? And are you also telling me that the President whose campaign he funded and who was Jeffrey Epstein's "best friend" for a while wants to prevent any form of AI regulation? Weird.
Reposted by Benj
this is a fascinating statistic. i would assume this is to a great degree simply the obvious fact that green energy is by definition a growth sector. fossil fuels is not, notwithstanding the big run up in production in FF in the last 20 years.
Wall Street’s biggest banks made more money financing green projects than they did from working with fossil fuel companies for a fourth straight year, even as they faced ongoing pressure to pull back from the business
Banks Notch Higher Fees From Green Bonds Than Fossil Fuel Debt
Wall Street’s biggest banks made more money financing green projects than they did from working with fossil fuel companies for a fourth straight year, even as they faced ongoing pressure to pull back from the business.
bloom.bg
January 2, 2026 at 4:05 PM
this is a fascinating statistic. i would assume this is to a great degree simply the obvious fact that green energy is by definition a growth sector. fossil fuels is not, notwithstanding the big run up in production in FF in the last 20 years.
Reposted by Benj
great journalism means ascribing reliable narrator headline status to an algorithmic parrot built by pedophile white supremacists
Grok says safeguard lapses led to images of 'minors in minimal clothing' on X reut.rs/498SoUk
Grok says safeguard lapses led to images of 'minors in minimal clothing' on X
Elon Musk's xAI artificial intelligence chatbot Grok said on Friday lapses in safeguards had resulted in "images depicting minors in minimal clothing" on social media platform X and that improvements were being made to prevent this.
reut.rs
January 2, 2026 at 4:15 PM
great journalism means ascribing reliable narrator headline status to an algorithmic parrot built by pedophile white supremacists
Reposted by Benj
Because Bari Weiss is not an advocate. Because the billionaire corporate owners who installed her to curry favor with Trump are not elites. Its the people who actually spend their lives learning about a topic that you should distrust.
Bari Weiss’s CBS News directly attacking academics, subject matter experts, in the promo for her new CBS Evening News.
January 2, 2026 at 2:45 PM
Because Bari Weiss is not an advocate. Because the billionaire corporate owners who installed her to curry favor with Trump are not elites. Its the people who actually spend their lives learning about a topic that you should distrust.
Reposted by Benj
Reposted by Benj
Best Twitter riposte of the day. And Washington met his payroll for the Continental Army with money furnished by the Spanish Crown, too.
January 2, 2026 at 5:19 AM
Best Twitter riposte of the day. And Washington met his payroll for the Continental Army with money furnished by the Spanish Crown, too.
Reposted by Benj
huh someone should run on this or something
January 2, 2026 at 6:06 AM
huh someone should run on this or something
Reposted by Benj
one of my recent preoccupations is the visceral hostility the MAGA right has for the histories and traditions of the United States. these are people who spit on the Declaration and salute third-rate European despots!
It's striking that progressives like Tim Walz and Zohran Mamdani evoke the middle American attitude that, "Yes, we can fix these social problems because we're Americans and it's the right thing to do!" While the "America first" right only emulates failed and failing nation-states elsewhere.
January 2, 2026 at 12:45 AM
one of my recent preoccupations is the visceral hostility the MAGA right has for the histories and traditions of the United States. these are people who spit on the Declaration and salute third-rate European despots!
Reposted by Benj
Republicans would never condemn something like this and Democratic politicians, for some reason, still love using Elon Musk's fascist fun house
so x dot com’s ai generated CSAM and they admitted it may violate US law and … i haven’t seen in anyone in power say much at all or call to stop using the platform
January 2, 2026 at 12:59 AM
Republicans would never condemn something like this and Democratic politicians, for some reason, still love using Elon Musk's fascist fun house
Reposted by Benj
“we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.” 🙄
The right-wing dummification of CBS News under Bari Weiss continues. Who cares about science based expert analysis, facts.
Forget information- they are gonna serve up right wing affirmation.
The right-wing dummification of CBS News under Bari Weiss continues. Who cares about science based expert analysis, facts.
Forget information- they are gonna serve up right wing affirmation.
January 2, 2026 at 1:07 AM
“we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.” 🙄
The right-wing dummification of CBS News under Bari Weiss continues. Who cares about science based expert analysis, facts.
Forget information- they are gonna serve up right wing affirmation.
The right-wing dummification of CBS News under Bari Weiss continues. Who cares about science based expert analysis, facts.
Forget information- they are gonna serve up right wing affirmation.
Reposted by Benj
AI companies are playing a game wherein these computer programs are presented to the public as autonomous individuals capable of issuing a meaningful apology. The machine is just a machine. Human beings owe the apology for building the machine irresponsibly and unleashing it on the world.
so x dot com’s ai generated CSAM and they admitted it may violate US law and … i haven’t seen in anyone in power say much at all or call to stop using the platform
January 2, 2026 at 1:23 AM
AI companies are playing a game wherein these computer programs are presented to the public as autonomous individuals capable of issuing a meaningful apology. The machine is just a machine. Human beings owe the apology for building the machine irresponsibly and unleashing it on the world.
Reposted by Benj
It’s not true that Trump only pardons rich white guys. He also pardons rich foreigners who put hundreds of millions in his pocket through his crypto company.
January 2, 2026 at 12:11 AM
It’s not true that Trump only pardons rich white guys. He also pardons rich foreigners who put hundreds of millions in his pocket through his crypto company.