Christopher English
@ampersandc.bsky.social
Reposted by Christopher English
Using asbestos as a metaphor for the current industry-driven AI push is genius.
Love to see community action against this AI nonsense! neighborhoodview.org/2025/11/13/d...
November 14, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Using asbestos as a metaphor for the current industry-driven AI push is genius.
Reposted by Christopher English
This is an absolutely amazing piece of work - the ABC spent five years (!) working on this interactive feature that brings together First Nations oral histories spanning 65,000 years
www.abc.net.au/news/deeptim...
www.abc.net.au/news/deeptim...
Australia is seen as a young country — but do you really know its ancient story?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' story goes way, way back… take an awe-inspiring journey into Deep Time.
www.abc.net.au
October 19, 2025 at 11:34 PM
This is an absolutely amazing piece of work - the ABC spent five years (!) working on this interactive feature that brings together First Nations oral histories spanning 65,000 years
www.abc.net.au/news/deeptim...
www.abc.net.au/news/deeptim...
AI sucks
People who coax chatbots into sensible answers are basically opening and closing the fridge until it contains something you wanna eat, yes, eventually you get hungrier & eat the stuff in there. But what changed was your cognition. The fridge stayed the same. You changed your mind about the contents.
October 2, 2025 at 9:36 AM
AI sucks
AI sucks
ChatGPT Goes Completely Haywire If You Ask It to Show You a Seahorse Emoji
Wait, there's no seahorse emoji, right? Right?
futurism.com/chatgpt-hayw...
Wait, there's no seahorse emoji, right? Right?
futurism.com/chatgpt-hayw...
September 18, 2025 at 9:59 AM
AI sucks
Reposted by Christopher English
Reposted by Christopher English
I respect Anil so I want to talk seriously about harm reduction and public health messaging.
First let me acknowledge that yes, many regular, not-super-online people are trying out AI tools. Of course they are! It's been aggressively pushed into everything and given heavy institutional support.
First let me acknowledge that yes, many regular, not-super-online people are trying out AI tools. Of course they are! It's been aggressively pushed into everything and given heavy institutional support.
this is the really ineffective head-in-the-sand reaction a lot of folks on Bluesky tend to have if you talk about any harm reduction-based approach to the reality that millions of people are using AI tools today. The current approach to critiquing AI is obviously not working, but they don't care.
September 8, 2025 at 3:48 AM
I respect Anil so I want to talk seriously about harm reduction and public health messaging.
First let me acknowledge that yes, many regular, not-super-online people are trying out AI tools. Of course they are! It's been aggressively pushed into everything and given heavy institutional support.
First let me acknowledge that yes, many regular, not-super-online people are trying out AI tools. Of course they are! It's been aggressively pushed into everything and given heavy institutional support.
Reposted by Christopher English
The Death of Meanjin. a couple of thoughts. open.substack.com/pub/greenwor...
The Death of Meanjin
Price of everything, value of nothing dept.
open.substack.com
September 5, 2025 at 10:17 AM
The Death of Meanjin. a couple of thoughts. open.substack.com/pub/greenwor...
AI sucks
As an anthropologist, I'm inclined to try to understand stuff that looks like magical thinking rather than mock it, but proposing to build a God and then expecting him to tell you how to get rich is really testing all of my professional training...
From the replies (bsky.app/profile/dasb...) here's Sam Altman doing what the quoted post described. He seems serious about it.
August 19, 2025 at 9:35 AM
AI sucks
AI sucks
Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it
AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event
Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.
www.theatlantic.com
August 19, 2025 at 3:52 AM
AI sucks
Reposted by Christopher English
I know it was a trainwreck interview, but I couldn't get past the point that we need to be like the US when it's not a settled issue in the US at all...
August 14, 2025 at 3:15 AM
I know it was a trainwreck interview, but I couldn't get past the point that we need to be like the US when it's not a settled issue in the US at all...
Reposted by Christopher English
From a story about a new species of pseudoscorpion, this sort of highlighted the management of Australia in a nutshell
au.news.yahoo.com/incredible-p...
au.news.yahoo.com/incredible-p...
August 12, 2025 at 3:45 AM
From a story about a new species of pseudoscorpion, this sort of highlighted the management of Australia in a nutshell
au.news.yahoo.com/incredible-p...
au.news.yahoo.com/incredible-p...
Reposted by Christopher English
Idk why the productivity commission believes productivity can be derived by giving away other people's labour for free to companies with way too much money. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Should big tech be allowed to mine Australians’ text and data to train AI? The Productivity Commission is considering it
Interim report on digital economy also mulls changes to privacy rules and copyright collections to help harness AI’s benefits
www.theguardian.com
August 5, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Idk why the productivity commission believes productivity can be derived by giving away other people's labour for free to companies with way too much money. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
AI sucks
We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers.
The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.
The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.
July 11, 2025 at 7:04 AM
AI sucks
Reposted by Christopher English
"The announcement was 782 words, followed by a nervous clarification of 731 words. The page featured 48,320 words of comments in just 24 hours"
Here's a new one for @crikey.com.au trying to figure out why the presence of backlash to "AI" is so weirdly uneven ->
www.crikey.com.au/2025/06/23/i...
Here's a new one for @crikey.com.au trying to figure out why the presence of backlash to "AI" is so weirdly uneven ->
www.crikey.com.au/2025/06/23/i...
June 23, 2025 at 10:31 AM
"The announcement was 782 words, followed by a nervous clarification of 731 words. The page featured 48,320 words of comments in just 24 hours"
Here's a new one for @crikey.com.au trying to figure out why the presence of backlash to "AI" is so weirdly uneven ->
www.crikey.com.au/2025/06/23/i...
Here's a new one for @crikey.com.au trying to figure out why the presence of backlash to "AI" is so weirdly uneven ->
www.crikey.com.au/2025/06/23/i...
Reposted by Christopher English
A startling number of ChatGPT uses are developing intense, reality-bending AI delusions. The impacts on their real lives are often disastrous
People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions
A startling number of ChatGPT uses are developing intense, reality-bending AI delusions. The impacts on their real lives are often disastrous.
futurism.com
June 10, 2025 at 8:43 PM
A startling number of ChatGPT uses are developing intense, reality-bending AI delusions. The impacts on their real lives are often disastrous
Reposted by Christopher English
I’ve added two more, inspired by some responses.
June 5, 2025 at 4:08 PM
I’ve added two more, inspired by some responses.
Reposted by Christopher English
US climate scientists need all the help they can get. Including from foul-mouthed comedians! 🤡😱😱
Watch Emmy Award-Winning David Cross team up with Prof Michael Oppenheimer in the US launch of the hit series "Climate Science Translated".
#climate #arresteddevelopment #climatescience
Watch Emmy Award-Winning David Cross team up with Prof Michael Oppenheimer in the US launch of the hit series "Climate Science Translated".
#climate #arresteddevelopment #climatescience
June 2, 2025 at 11:55 AM
US climate scientists need all the help they can get. Including from foul-mouthed comedians! 🤡😱😱
Watch Emmy Award-Winning David Cross team up with Prof Michael Oppenheimer in the US launch of the hit series "Climate Science Translated".
#climate #arresteddevelopment #climatescience
Watch Emmy Award-Winning David Cross team up with Prof Michael Oppenheimer in the US launch of the hit series "Climate Science Translated".
#climate #arresteddevelopment #climatescience
Reposted by Christopher English
This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI | MIT Technology Review
This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI
The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models.
www.technologyreview.com
May 24, 2025 at 8:48 PM
This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI | MIT Technology Review
Reposted by Christopher English
I've just come back from the Cambridge Disinformation Summit where I gave the opening keynote, titled "Demanufacturing Consent - How Disordered Discourse is Destroying Democracy", featuring everything from Fake Hooves to Jackson Hinkle being the worst.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FV...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FV...
Belllingcat CEO Eliot Higgins, on how disordered discourse is destroying democracy
YouTube video by Cambridge Disinformation Summit
www.youtube.com
April 25, 2025 at 7:17 PM
I've just come back from the Cambridge Disinformation Summit where I gave the opening keynote, titled "Demanufacturing Consent - How Disordered Discourse is Destroying Democracy", featuring everything from Fake Hooves to Jackson Hinkle being the worst.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FV...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FV...
Reposted by Christopher English
🧵 There’s a thread going around misrepresenting my work and Bellingcat’s education strategy. I want to use this as an opportunity to explain what we’re actually doing—and why it matters.
This is about truth, democracy, and how we build a more resilient society.
x.com/buynevich/st...
This is about truth, democracy, and how we build a more resilient society.
x.com/buynevich/st...
May 15, 2025 at 8:47 AM
🧵 There’s a thread going around misrepresenting my work and Bellingcat’s education strategy. I want to use this as an opportunity to explain what we’re actually doing—and why it matters.
This is about truth, democracy, and how we build a more resilient society.
x.com/buynevich/st...
This is about truth, democracy, and how we build a more resilient society.
x.com/buynevich/st...
Reposted by Christopher English
"We are surrounded by cheerful, grinning volunteers, all willingly punting own-goals against the fossil-fuelled bullshit factories. It seems like nothing is going to stop them, so it’s time regulation did the job instead"
Me, in @crikey.com.au, feeling like a total loser:
Me, in @crikey.com.au, feeling like a total loser:
My protests against AI make me feel like a total loser, but not in the way you think
Big tech companies are seeing their power consumption skyrocket far faster than any greenwashing actions they can take to pretend that power is ‘clean’.
www.crikey.com.au
May 13, 2025 at 6:45 AM
"We are surrounded by cheerful, grinning volunteers, all willingly punting own-goals against the fossil-fuelled bullshit factories. It seems like nothing is going to stop them, so it’s time regulation did the job instead"
Me, in @crikey.com.au, feeling like a total loser:
Me, in @crikey.com.au, feeling like a total loser:
Reposted by Christopher English
“These are words with nothing behind them. They have no purchase on reality, no logical coherence, no meaningful information to convey. They are greasy bubbles that pop the moment they touch anything.” James Ley on UNSW’s announcement of a deal with OpenAI
Page against the machine
With the inexorable rise of AI – in everyday tech, in public and private communications, in our universities – the value and distinctness of the written word is under siege
buff.ly
May 9, 2025 at 11:12 PM
“These are words with nothing behind them. They have no purchase on reality, no logical coherence, no meaningful information to convey. They are greasy bubbles that pop the moment they touch anything.” James Ley on UNSW’s announcement of a deal with OpenAI
Reposted by Christopher English
We’re facing a crisis in public trust – in institutions and the information they feed us.
Truth and lies, trust and doubt: how should we be navigating the misinformation crisis?
theconversation.com
May 4, 2025 at 8:14 PM
We’re facing a crisis in public trust – in institutions and the information they feed us.
Reposted by Christopher English
It's enough to give you the sh*ts. @rodcampbell.bsky.social reveals that Tasmanian salmon farms produce 6 times more pollution than all of Tasmania's sewage #OffTheCharts
australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-big...
australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-big...
March 20, 2025 at 1:43 AM
It's enough to give you the sh*ts. @rodcampbell.bsky.social reveals that Tasmanian salmon farms produce 6 times more pollution than all of Tasmania's sewage #OffTheCharts
australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-big...
australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-big...