Johannes Klingebiel
@klingebeil.bsky.social
Designer and researcher. STS & media stuff. Researching Hype. Doing mischief @media-lab.de. Maker of zines. Optimist aus Notwehr. ✨
🌐 johannesklingebiel.de
🌐 johannesklingebiel.de
People like to talk about technological “transformation” when “distortion” is often the more fitting term.
AI-written cover letters mean employers find it harder to spot good candidates, so offer lower pay across the board www.economist.com/finance-and-...
How AI is breaking cover letters
And leading to lower pay
www.economist.com
November 14, 2025 at 10:57 AM
People like to talk about technological “transformation” when “distortion” is often the more fitting term.
I see the more obnoxious design discourse is alive and well www.wsj.com/lifestyle/se...
The Skinny Font Taking Over Tech Companies and the White House
After decades of obscurity, a bookish style of lettering is everywhere. Some typeface connoisseurs say it’s gone too far.
www.wsj.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:10 AM
I see the more obnoxious design discourse is alive and well www.wsj.com/lifestyle/se...
The shitty typography, the cheap spray painted golden ornaments… all that bluster about “traditional architecture” and “beauty” but a total ignorance of craft and detail. Which tracks for a fascist government.
November 13, 2025 at 1:21 PM
The shitty typography, the cheap spray painted golden ornaments… all that bluster about “traditional architecture” and “beauty” but a total ignorance of craft and detail. Which tracks for a fascist government.
Pretty frustrating how this boils down to "have solid business management practices", which then tells you a lot about what is going wrong in some local newsrooms. www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/want...
Want to build a sustainable local newsroom? These 21 steps will help you get there, a new report finds
“Having dedicated staff to generate revenue was transformational to an organization’s chances of sustainability.”
www.niemanlab.org
November 13, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Pretty frustrating how this boils down to "have solid business management practices", which then tells you a lot about what is going wrong in some local newsrooms. www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/want...
“Two of the most notorious clips show several bears destroying panels at a solar plant, and another making off with a pet dog in its jaws. In other fake clips, […] an older woman is shown feeding fruit to a bear in a field.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n....
Amid Japan’s surge in bear attacks, a torrent of AI-generated videos is adding to anxiety
Videos show schoolgirls fighting off animals, while others show people feeding bears, with some so realistic that users struggled to distinguish between fact and fiction
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:03 AM
“Two of the most notorious clips show several bears destroying panels at a solar plant, and another making off with a pet dog in its jaws. In other fake clips, […] an older woman is shown feeding fruit to a bear in a field.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n....
Well… that definitely looks bad
How high are OpenAI’s compute costs? Possibly a lot higher than we thought on.ft.com/43qoQ2L
How high are OpenAI’s compute costs? Possibly a lot higher than we thought
Inference inferred, revenue reconstructed, cash burn quantified
on.ft.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Well… that definitely looks bad
Reposted by Johannes Klingebiel
The Age of Audio, a Documentary on the History of Podcasting. “Every time there’s a new technology, it always has to be named the dumbest thing.” [kottke.org]
The Age of Audio, a Documentary on the History of Podcasting
Here’s the trailer for The Age of Audio, a feature-length documentary about the invention and popularization of podcasting, from Adam Curry to Ronald Young Jr.
I ran across this movie via a clip on Instagram that expl
kottke.org
November 11, 2025 at 4:52 PM
The Age of Audio, a Documentary on the History of Podcasting. “Every time there’s a new technology, it always has to be named the dumbest thing.” [kottke.org]
I still have nightmares of the manager of a big german news org that told a room of his peers: “your job is to provide high-quality content to users.”
In a way that was the horse that "AI" rode into town on: When even people who put their skills and souls and will into making something refer to it as abstract, alienated "content", why even bother?
"Content" is "proto-Slop".
"Content" is "proto-Slop".
November 10, 2025 at 10:28 AM
I still have nightmares of the manager of a big german news org that told a room of his peers: “your job is to provide high-quality content to users.”
Reposted by Johannes Klingebiel
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
Fascination of investors such as Elon Musk with uploading their brains to computers is hindering progress in curing disease, say scientists
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
“Tabloid is a turing-complete programming language for writing programs in the style of clickbait news headlines.” ❤️
tabloid.vercel.app
tabloid.vercel.app
Tabloid: the clickbait headline programming language
Tabloid is a real, turing complete programming language written in JavaScript, inspired by cilckbait headlines.
tabloid.vercel.app
November 9, 2025 at 7:32 PM
“Tabloid is a turing-complete programming language for writing programs in the style of clickbait news headlines.” ❤️
tabloid.vercel.app
tabloid.vercel.app
Reposted by Johannes Klingebiel
I am truly shocked to not find more thinkpieces on the incredible graphic design and typography of Zohran Mamdani’s campaign but maybe that’s because searching on the internet is garbage now.
TL;DR lead designer was Aneesh Bhoopathy of Forge Co-Op
Roundup of articles in thread 🧵
TL;DR lead designer was Aneesh Bhoopathy of Forge Co-Op
Roundup of articles in thread 🧵
November 8, 2025 at 4:45 PM
I am truly shocked to not find more thinkpieces on the incredible graphic design and typography of Zohran Mamdani’s campaign but maybe that’s because searching on the internet is garbage now.
TL;DR lead designer was Aneesh Bhoopathy of Forge Co-Op
Roundup of articles in thread 🧵
TL;DR lead designer was Aneesh Bhoopathy of Forge Co-Op
Roundup of articles in thread 🧵
“Tesla sales will continue to decline, and the Optimus robots will be a Cybertruck-scale nonstarter, while, simultaneously, the company becomes a world-leading innovator in shady market manipulation and semi-fraudulent accounting techniques.” davekarpf.substack.com/p/bullet-poi...
Bullet Points: November 7, 2025 edition
Money is fake, it's only accounting fraud if we have a functional administrative state, and taking stock of the past year.
davekarpf.substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:01 AM
“Tesla sales will continue to decline, and the Optimus robots will be a Cybertruck-scale nonstarter, while, simultaneously, the company becomes a world-leading innovator in shady market manipulation and semi-fraudulent accounting techniques.” davekarpf.substack.com/p/bullet-poi...
Very minor thing, but it’s still interesting that Anthropic, OpenAI and Perplexity have all now opened offices in Munich—not in Berlin. www.anthropic.com/news/new-off...
New offices in Paris and Munich expand Anthropic’s European presence
Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
www.anthropic.com
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Very minor thing, but it’s still interesting that Anthropic, OpenAI and Perplexity have all now opened offices in Munich—not in Berlin. www.anthropic.com/news/new-off...
Reposted by Johannes Klingebiel
These dorks AI-generated a car with no engine and didn’t realize it
guy with no tools who doesn’t know how many cylinders his car has after ten minutes of ChatGPT: I can fix this
guy’s girlfriend after consulting her ChatGPT with memory mode enabled: This is exactly like when we went camping and there’s actually a term for this behavior
guy’s girlfriend after consulting her ChatGPT with memory mode enabled: This is exactly like when we went camping and there’s actually a term for this behavior
November 8, 2025 at 12:07 AM
These dorks AI-generated a car with no engine and didn’t realize it
My migraine is back a16z.substack.com/p/introducin...
Introducing the a16z New Media Fellowship
A new 8-week program for operators, creators, & storytellers shaping the future of media
a16z.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:45 AM
My migraine is back a16z.substack.com/p/introducin...
I may write something in the near future about both, but these two papers are pretty much the best I‘ve read about automation/AI in journalism. Both sketch a very solid, historically grounded basis to explain current anxieties and reactions.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
November 6, 2025 at 11:38 AM
I may write something in the near future about both, but these two papers are pretty much the best I‘ve read about automation/AI in journalism. Both sketch a very solid, historically grounded basis to explain current anxieties and reactions.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
“As one senior executive […] said to us recently, AGI always needs to be six months to a year away, because if it’s any further than that, you won’t be able to recruit people from Jane Street, and if it’s closer to already here, then what’s the point?” www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1...
How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time
The idea that machines will be as smart as—or smarter than—humans has hijacked an entire industry. But look closely and you’ll see it’s a myth that persists for many of the same reasons conspiracies d...
www.technologyreview.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:08 AM
“As one senior executive […] said to us recently, AGI always needs to be six months to a year away, because if it’s any further than that, you won’t be able to recruit people from Jane Street, and if it’s closer to already here, then what’s the point?” www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1...
“The anchors, […], sat in front of a background decorated with a traffic cone, an old-school monochrome TV topped with a Curtis Sliwa-style red beret, and a framed photo of Andrew Cuomo that gradually kept getting swapped out to zoom in on his rumored nipple ring.” www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/hell...
Hell Gate took on the New York City mayoral election with a livestream and watch parties
At 28 bars across the city, the worker-owned news site became the broadcaster of choice.
www.niemanlab.org
November 6, 2025 at 8:32 AM
“The anchors, […], sat in front of a background decorated with a traffic cone, an old-school monochrome TV topped with a Curtis Sliwa-style red beret, and a framed photo of Andrew Cuomo that gradually kept getting swapped out to zoom in on his rumored nipple ring.” www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/hell...
Shovel salesman encourages customers to dig deeper, faster.
FT Exclusive: Jensen Huang has warned that China will beat the US in the artificial intelligence race, thanks to lower energy costs and looser regulations.
Read more from his interview with the Financial Times: on.ft.com/4oQbYuP
Read more from his interview with the Financial Times: on.ft.com/4oQbYuP
November 6, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Shovel salesman encourages customers to dig deeper, faster.
Reposted by Johannes Klingebiel
This talk from @monteiro.bsky.social is fantastic.
"We are born with hearts that want to make a mark on the world. This ability is not lost, it is taken from us."
A few more quotes in the thread ⬇️. There is much more in the full talk.
h/t @tante.cc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2d...
"We are born with hearts that want to make a mark on the world. This ability is not lost, it is taken from us."
A few more quotes in the thread ⬇️. There is much more in the full talk.
h/t @tante.cc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2d...
Y Oslo - How to draw an orange, Mike Monteiro
YouTube video by Y Oslo
www.youtube.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM
This talk from @monteiro.bsky.social is fantastic.
"We are born with hearts that want to make a mark on the world. This ability is not lost, it is taken from us."
A few more quotes in the thread ⬇️. There is much more in the full talk.
h/t @tante.cc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2d...
"We are born with hearts that want to make a mark on the world. This ability is not lost, it is taken from us."
A few more quotes in the thread ⬇️. There is much more in the full talk.
h/t @tante.cc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2d...
“Friend’s “tone” skates between bored and sarcastic, making its company not altogether enjoyable; after awhile, you’re just carrying around an irritated hostage.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/m...
Everyone Hates ‘Friend,’ the A.I. Necklace. But the A.I. Isn’t the Problem.
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 3:58 PM
“Friend’s “tone” skates between bored and sarcastic, making its company not altogether enjoyable; after awhile, you’re just carrying around an irritated hostage.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/m...
“Perhaps turning to magic or the occult is also one of the last few options to reclaim a sense of agency as so little else seems available to counter the current direction of travel.” asapjournal.com/node/sigil-s...
Sigil Séance Against Space-Billionaires - ASAP/Review
Our project started in 2021 with the first passenger flight of Jeff Bezos’s space-tourism rocket, New Shepard. This moment acted like a science-fictional vignette, highlighting the figure of the space...
asapjournal.com
November 5, 2025 at 3:50 PM
“Perhaps turning to magic or the occult is also one of the last few options to reclaim a sense of agency as so little else seems available to counter the current direction of travel.” asapjournal.com/node/sigil-s...
Really curious about how some tech commentator/influencers try to force current “AI” system into a kind of historical determinism www.wreflection.com/p/ai-dial-up...
AI's Dial-Up Era
It is 1995.
www.wreflection.com
November 4, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Really curious about how some tech commentator/influencers try to force current “AI” system into a kind of historical determinism www.wreflection.com/p/ai-dial-up...