James Downes
James Downes
@james-downes.bsky.social
Founder at House of Insurtech
All views plagiarised from people smarter than me #ActuallyAutistic #pragmatist #sceptic #tech #innovation #insurtech
OK folks, this is the clearest view on AI I've read in a while
I thoroughly recommend reading all of Cory Doctorow's recent speech on AI skepticism, it's crammed with new arguments and interesting new ways of thinking about these problems pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
Pluralistic: The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI (05 Dec 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
December 8, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Reposted by James Downes
The dirty secret much of the software industry doesn't want you to know is that if you build a healthy team with a healthy culture, they learn, grow, train new members, and you don't need to buy ten new tools to "supercharge development".

But they can't sell you that, so…
December 6, 2025 at 10:07 PM
I'm watching Sandy Tokvig in the Riviera, which I knew well, but so pissed off with her mispronunciations
December 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Great picture
The poster artist took a few liberties with a 1927 photo of Louise by Eugene Robert Richee.
December 6, 2025 at 8:07 PM
When you have to put your own medal on...
how it feels to try something on in a store you have no right to try on
December 5, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I think that FIFA should do the right thing and retire the Peace Prize, because they will never top giving it to Trump
December 5, 2025 at 6:21 PM
FIFA really should have just awarded him a Piece of a Prize
December 5, 2025 at 5:57 PM
So, all WB movies to launch on Netflix first from now on?
December 5, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by James Downes
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD USE HYPHENS
December 5, 2025 at 3:40 PM
And again...
December 5, 2025 at 8:58 AM
How on earth have we got to the situation where the story I'm trying to read occupies so little of the screen. Enshittification at its worst
December 4, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by James Downes
really? no replacements found? you sure? none at all come to mind?
December 2, 2025 at 6:51 PM
There's me thinking that I was the only person who knew PragVEC (via my friend Nick Cash)
#WeekendSingles by Fashion, PragVEC, Mike Scott, The Waterboys, The Action, Gifted Children, Sparks, Bert Jansch, Stevie Wonder, Coati Mundi, Big Youth, Doll by Doll, Yeah Yeah Noh, Tony Scott, Grace Jones, Def Jef, Jerry Harrison, Motor Boys Motor, Tom Verlaine, Dillinger, The Pogues
December 2, 2025 at 7:01 PM
I really think we should talk less about women's safety, and more about men's violence towards them
December 2, 2025 at 6:39 PM
This brilliant piece gets to the heart of what happens when you are asked the "difficult question" that you know is coming, but are never sure how to answer.

Thank you @elsawilliams.bsky.social
December 2, 2025 at 6:26 PM
and the cross pollination of different fields of science
I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.
December 2, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by James Downes
yes
next question
November 30, 2025 at 10:20 PM
I'm not sure that this helps anyone.

He wasn't personally responsible, and it was an idiotic leak, not something that he could have reasonably predicted. It looks like a mistake at a pretty low level.
December 1, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Who saw this coming?

South Korea's Experiment in AI Textbooks Ends in Disaster share.google/9tVOc7dOwlKZ...
South Korea's Experiment in AI Textbooks Ends in Disaster
The South Korean government's billion-dollar AI textbook initiative has been a complete failure from start to finish.
share.google
December 1, 2025 at 1:49 PM
This, especially the coup de grace at the end
December 1, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by James Downes
This is a legitimate scientific revolution in meteorology.

Also, to be clear, these models are not the AI LLMs that most people are familiar with. They are machine learning algorithms trained on observations (actually reanalysis).
npr.org NPR @npr.org · 8d
Meteorologists are surprised that the weather model that did the best job forecasting hurricanes this year was a new one, introduced by Google. AI may be the beginning of a new era of forecasting. n.pr/49MFa1M
As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ends, the future of forecasting is AI
Meteorologists are surprised that the weather model that did the best job forecasting hurricanes this year was a new one, introduced by Google. AI may be the beginning of a new era of forecasting.
n.pr
November 30, 2025 at 5:55 AM
£4,000 was an awful lot of money in 1970
The Times - taking advantage of a very old lady for clicks. If I were her son I'd be absolutely furious with them.
Her *6* bedroomed house in North Kensington. 6!
November 28, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by James Downes
If a British person responds to your opinion with a jaunty 'Fair enough!' then the conversation is over and they think you're a prick.
November 28, 2025 at 9:55 AM
This is quite a scary moment.

As this continues we will move from facts being "evidential" to "most likely", this means that truth will become less and less visible as the web is polluted with things that sound right even if they are demonstrably wrong
Your universe is a photocopy of a photocopy of a…
on.ft.com/4ahkNKa
November 28, 2025 at 9:23 AM