Michael Black
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mblack.us
Michael Black
@mblack.us
130 followers 68 following 190 posts
I teach writing and study the history of computing.

https://mblack.us
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mblack.us
WTF? I haven't logged into that site in over a decade, and now I'm getting emails about AI turning my work into podcasts?
Email from Academia.edu stating that "An AI created a podcast of your paper"
June 25, 2025 at 2:06 PM
mblack.us
The future of literacy.
Harper Reed, another longtime programmer and blogger who was the chief technology officer of former President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, agreed that career advancement for engineers could be an issue in an A.I. world. But he cautioned against being overly precious about the value of deeply understanding one’s code, which is no longer necessary to ensure that it works. “It would be crazy if in an auto factory people were measuring to make sure every angle is correct,” he said, since machines now do the work. “It’s not as important as when it was group of ten people pounding out the metal.”
May 25, 2025 at 10:35 PM
mblack.us
I've seen this post come up several times in my feed and each time, grown frustrated by all of the "Um, actually..." replies. Whether or not these models perform a web search before generating text does not change the fundamental problem Leckie is getting at here.
Post by sci-fi author Ann Leckie: "Say it after me: Chat GPT is not a search engine. it does not scan the web for information, it just generates statistically likely sentences. You cannot use it as a search engine, or as a substitute for searching. Now. Please never use an LLM for information searches ever again."
May 1, 2025 at 1:28 PM
mblack.us
Digging through certain NYT and indie journalists' writing for examples of AI boosterism rhetoric for an article I'm getting ready to pitch.
A meme photo of Ben Affleck smoking and looking exasperated.
March 19, 2025 at 12:43 PM
mblack.us
This shit is hilarious because Meta has been doing it for years, at home and abroad
A screenshot from news coverage of the TikTok Supreme Court case summarizing justices’ responses during oral arguments.
January 10, 2025 at 8:55 PM