Henrik Warpefelt
@warpefelt.com
Science mercenary and magical thinking rock enthusiast. I mostly talk about data, AI, and games.
Consulting inquiries: https://www.warpefelt.com/
Consulting inquiries: https://www.warpefelt.com/
This is a really interesting report with a somewhat misleading title. Come along as I ramble about AI adoption and this report🧵
Also, in case anyone was wondering you can't just "slap some AI on it" and expect revolutionary change. It just doesn't work like that.
Also, in case anyone was wondering you can't just "slap some AI on it" and expect revolutionary change. It just doesn't work like that.
AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity
Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appea...
hbr.org
September 29, 2025 at 8:45 PM
This is a really interesting report with a somewhat misleading title. Come along as I ramble about AI adoption and this report🧵
Also, in case anyone was wondering you can't just "slap some AI on it" and expect revolutionary change. It just doesn't work like that.
Also, in case anyone was wondering you can't just "slap some AI on it" and expect revolutionary change. It just doesn't work like that.
@vherve.bsky.social, @christophsalge.bsky.social, and I have a new paper preprint out!
Landmarks, Monuments, and Beacons: Understanding Generative Calls to Action
Algorithmic evaluation of procedurally generated content struggles to find metrics that align with human experience, particularly for composite artefacts. Automatic decomposition as a possible solutio...
arxiv.org
September 24, 2025 at 2:07 PM
@vherve.bsky.social, @christophsalge.bsky.social, and I have a new paper preprint out!
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
The singularity is awesome
June 28, 2025 at 5:19 PM
The singularity is awesome
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
Tech Guy: I have attained immortality!
Me: Wow, you figured out how to stop aging?
Tech Guy: No, I trained an AI on my emails to create a perfect copy of my personality. Then I uploaded it into a robot dog with M3GAN’s face. It will live forever
Robot: As a businessman I often schedule meetings
Me: Wow, you figured out how to stop aging?
Tech Guy: No, I trained an AI on my emails to create a perfect copy of my personality. Then I uploaded it into a robot dog with M3GAN’s face. It will live forever
Robot: As a businessman I often schedule meetings
June 28, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Tech Guy: I have attained immortality!
Me: Wow, you figured out how to stop aging?
Tech Guy: No, I trained an AI on my emails to create a perfect copy of my personality. Then I uploaded it into a robot dog with M3GAN’s face. It will live forever
Robot: As a businessman I often schedule meetings
Me: Wow, you figured out how to stop aging?
Tech Guy: No, I trained an AI on my emails to create a perfect copy of my personality. Then I uploaded it into a robot dog with M3GAN’s face. It will live forever
Robot: As a businessman I often schedule meetings
For the last year I've had the privilege of working with the Kennesaw State University (@kennesawstate.bsky.social) Game Studio, and now our first student-developed game is finally ready for release on Steam. Presenting Chiba, probably the cutest Sokoban-style game on the market!
Chiba on Steam
A colorful pixel art box pushing puzzle game where you control a culinary canine. With a variety of ingredients at disposal, utilize scorching grills, slippery butter, and sticky syrup as you solve al...
store.steampowered.com
May 30, 2025 at 8:39 PM
For the last year I've had the privilege of working with the Kennesaw State University (@kennesawstate.bsky.social) Game Studio, and now our first student-developed game is finally ready for release on Steam. Presenting Chiba, probably the cutest Sokoban-style game on the market!
Dr Fiesler is an actual ethicist and has a more informed take than mine.
Another week, another research ethics controversy.
TL;DR Researchers released a public dataset of 2B+ messages from 4M+ users on 3k+ "public" Discord servers. Usernames/IDs are anonymized.
But let's unpack this one... 🧵
www.404media.co/researchers-...
TL;DR Researchers released a public dataset of 2B+ messages from 4M+ users on 3k+ "public" Discord servers. Usernames/IDs are anonymized.
But let's unpack this one... 🧵
www.404media.co/researchers-...
Researchers Scrape 2 Billion Discord Messages and Publish Them Online
A Brazilian team used Discord’s API to scrape 10% of its open servers.
www.404media.co
May 21, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Dr Fiesler is an actual ethicist and has a more informed take than mine.
This is the THIRD paper I've seen in the last year that uses people's data in a way that is deeply ethically problematic. If games scholars keep doing this it is going to seriously harm everyone's ability to do research with online gaming communities as they start closing off to scientists.
Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)
Discord has evolved from a gaming-focused communication tool into a versatile platform supporting diverse online communities. Despite its large user base and active public servers, academic research o...
arxiv.org
May 21, 2025 at 5:09 PM
This is the THIRD paper I've seen in the last year that uses people's data in a way that is deeply ethically problematic. If games scholars keep doing this it is going to seriously harm everyone's ability to do research with online gaming communities as they start closing off to scientists.
This experiment is a textbook example of "Just because we can doesn't mean we should" research. Doing this without community consent and buy-in is wildly inappropriate. Not only does it risk harming respondents, it also poisons the well for other, more serious, researchers. Absolutely unacceptable.
The mods of r/ChangeMyView shared the sub was the subject of a study to test the persuasiveness of LLMs & that they didn't consent. There’s a lot that went wrong, so here’s a 🧵 unpacking it, along with some ideas for how to do research with online communities ethically. tinyurl.com/59tpt988
From the changemyview community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the changemyview community
tinyurl.com
April 28, 2025 at 6:44 PM
This experiment is a textbook example of "Just because we can doesn't mean we should" research. Doing this without community consent and buy-in is wildly inappropriate. Not only does it risk harming respondents, it also poisons the well for other, more serious, researchers. Absolutely unacceptable.
Turns out some of my former students decided to form a games studio around a project they started in one of my classes. Really happy to see that they kept working on it. It's a good game and y'all should check it out!
Kennesaw State computer game design student launches studio, first video game
Growing up, Luke Gamage was often captivated by video games and found himself pondering his own future as a game designer. Now a student in Kennesaw State University’s College of Computing and Softwa...
www.kennesaw.edu
April 2, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Turns out some of my former students decided to form a games studio around a project they started in one of my classes. Really happy to see that they kept working on it. It's a good game and y'all should check it out!
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
i would simply put the ai farms in antarctica and pipe the melted fresh water to the parched equatorial climes
January 29, 2025 at 8:23 PM
i would simply put the ai farms in antarctica and pipe the melted fresh water to the parched equatorial climes
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
we’re hiring a historian! this is a really interesting opportunity for anyone considering alt-ac possibilities
December 18, 2024 at 5:46 PM
we’re hiring a historian! this is a really interesting opportunity for anyone considering alt-ac possibilities
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
Google Stadia
December 15, 2024 at 7:30 AM
Google Stadia
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
Helpful to remember that computers got superhuman in chess 40 years ago and it's still as popular as ever. Apply to math, writing, games, etc. Computers can't take away joy and sometimes they enhance it
December 16, 2024 at 11:25 AM
Helpful to remember that computers got superhuman in chess 40 years ago and it's still as popular as ever. Apply to math, writing, games, etc. Computers can't take away joy and sometimes they enhance it
This is pure genius.
NANOWAR OF STEEL - HelloWorld.java (Source Code Video) | Napalm Records
YouTube video by Napalm Records
youtu.be
December 13, 2024 at 7:42 PM
This is pure genius.
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
I remember when you could just buy a computer program like Microsoft Word or Photoshop and just have it on your computer forever without having to pay monthly or yearly. What a time that was
December 8, 2024 at 3:21 PM
I remember when you could just buy a computer program like Microsoft Word or Photoshop and just have it on your computer forever without having to pay monthly or yearly. What a time that was
I think we're starting to butt up against what @codingcrafter.bsky.social & Jim Whitehead call the expressive range. Basically, we're starting to see sameness appear in the output. It took longer because these LLMs are so powerful, but that expressive limit is still there. We've just hidden it.
One interesting thing with these advanced LLMs: seems pretty clear that for most definitions of consciousness, they're not it. They're more toward it, so to speak, than a chatbot ten years ago, but something's missing.
December 7, 2024 at 5:10 PM
I think we're starting to butt up against what @codingcrafter.bsky.social & Jim Whitehead call the expressive range. Basically, we're starting to see sameness appear in the output. It took longer because these LLMs are so powerful, but that expressive limit is still there. We've just hidden it.
Well deserved!
December 5, 2024 at 8:59 PM
Well deserved!
Caves of Qud is up there with Dwarf Fortress as the most innovative games for PCG and generative AI. Happy to see it hit 1.0!
After 17 years of development, Caves of 1.0 is Out NOW!
Live and Drink.
Live and Drink.
December 5, 2024 at 8:56 PM
Caves of Qud is up there with Dwarf Fortress as the most innovative games for PCG and generative AI. Happy to see it hit 1.0!
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
Treating game development as an engineering challenge, rather than a player experience challenge. Putting people infront of things, and iterating, is essential to intentional design.
Google has developed an AI tool that generates fully playable 3D worlds
www.eurogamer.net/google-has-d...
www.eurogamer.net/google-has-d...
December 5, 2024 at 8:16 PM
Treating game development as an engineering challenge, rather than a player experience challenge. Putting people infront of things, and iterating, is essential to intentional design.
🎶 To the pirates of Uzbekistan, from Aral Sea to Samarkand, raise a tankard to the sky and say, Uzbekistan is a pirate land. 🎵
December 5, 2024 at 2:50 AM
🎶 To the pirates of Uzbekistan, from Aral Sea to Samarkand, raise a tankard to the sky and say, Uzbekistan is a pirate land. 🎵
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
Are you looking for an internship (undergrad or grad!), can legally work in London, and want to make experimental work with LEGO bricks, digital *stuff*, and creativity?
Consider applying to my team!
www.lego.com/en-gb/career...
Consider applying to my team!
www.lego.com/en-gb/career...
LEGO DESiGN iNTERNSHIP - Careers - LEGO.com
LEGO DESiGN iNTERNSHIP: Job Description Join the LEGO Design Internship Talent Pool Are you a student who loves being creative and has a curiosity about design?...
www.lego.com
December 3, 2024 at 8:30 AM
Are you looking for an internship (undergrad or grad!), can legally work in London, and want to make experimental work with LEGO bricks, digital *stuff*, and creativity?
Consider applying to my team!
www.lego.com/en-gb/career...
Consider applying to my team!
www.lego.com/en-gb/career...
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
Scientists, academics, researchers: We’re excited to share that @altmetric.com is now tracking mentions of your research on Bluesky! 🧪
There are already many articles for which there is more attention on Bluesky than on other comparable micro-blogging sites, meaning the academic community and the general public have clearly adopted Bluesky as one of its core places to disseminate and discuss new research.
A Place of Joy.
A Place of Joy.
December 3, 2024 at 2:10 PM
Scientists, academics, researchers: We’re excited to share that @altmetric.com is now tracking mentions of your research on Bluesky! 🧪
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
Overleaf is down so I am forced to comprehend the horrors
December 3, 2024 at 2:37 PM
Overleaf is down so I am forced to comprehend the horrors
Fundamentally this boils down to the importance of game design. Just shoving tech into a game isn't going to meaningfully improve the player experience. AI really is no exception.
The thing about AI games- AI Minecraft, whatever the hell EA is doing with 'make it more epic', is they promise it's future of games- but there no goddamn game.
Look at the actual history of games - Pong didn't sell on promises! It stood on its own as a great game - so has every great game since.
Look at the actual history of games - Pong didn't sell on promises! It stood on its own as a great game - so has every great game since.
November 30, 2024 at 9:54 PM
Fundamentally this boils down to the importance of game design. Just shoving tech into a game isn't going to meaningfully improve the player experience. AI really is no exception.
Reposted by Henrik Warpefelt
Did you know? Black Friday is named in honor of Rebecca Black, who invented Friday in 2011.
November 29, 2024 at 2:31 PM
Did you know? Black Friday is named in honor of Rebecca Black, who invented Friday in 2011.