Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 42m

Well, while Altman handwaves to GPTrotica and Musk creates creepy avatar lovers, less obvious AI like CoPilot and Gemini continue to creep into everyday work life to train on your entire inbox, all the documents and folders on your machines, etc.

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 49m

The important entry level work billionaires are spending their money on.

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 2h

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 1h

yes...a lot of people I grew up with back in the holler died of drugs or cancer during my/our forties...but this dying in your early 50s feels more widespread.

Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 1h

not sure that had a point, but feelings

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 1h

I'm 51. D'Angelo was 51. Alanis is 51. Tyra, the Rock, Posh Spice. Randall Park. All 51. Amy Adams. Olivia freakin' Colman!

Alex Jones and MTG are also 51.

...sigh.

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 1h

An amazing org that will take good care of your work!

Saints and Sinners LGBTQ+ Literary Festival @sasfest.bsky.social · 1h

Time is closing in! ⌛

Our Poetry and Fiction contests close TOMORROW.

Finish your final edits and hit SUBMIT before 11:59pm CT October 15th for the chance to win cash prizes and publication!

tennesseewilliamsfestival.submittable.com/submit

#writingcontest #lgbtqwriting #submittable

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 1h

Because it makes them moneeyyyyyyyyyy

Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 2h

I'm generalizing, but why do conservatives remember political irritations for so much longer than liberals?

It's been 17 years since Obama said some voters "cling to their guns, to their religion" and I heard a senator denounce that last month.

Obvious theory: Media ecosystem puts it on repeat

Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 3h

Imagine caring about Kaepernick in the year of our lord 2025

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 1h

"Devil's Pie" appeared on a random shuffle the other day and I wondered "where's D'Angelo been." Had no idea. Man o man. 51! Too young.

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 3h

I'm struck by the No Kings = hate rally line of thinking.
All these conservatives suddenly wanting a king
radiates self-contradictory vibes and weak sauce.

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 4h

These House Rs are so far up T666p's behind.
The kompromat on them must be insane! Or
they really are that simp/cucked (and not in
the frothy consensual way if you're into it.)

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 4h

In honor of the anniversary of her pie-facery, here's the opening of a poem - "In My Little Corner" - I wrote after her death was revealed a month after she died.

Immediately, I saw her on Tartarus, a dilettante femme moral.

Title: In My Little Corner
Text: In the marrow dirt, Anita Bryant wept. Curls of smoke fled the ember ends of her steely coif. Ash peppered her gown, a bedazzled midi from Ed Sullivan in 1964, its cape ripped, charred and—Fly me to the moon indeed. She twists, sees the boulder wobbling, then Sisyphus leaning against it, his lithe body a statue she remembered from a museum or textbook. Maybe a fantasy. She had forgotten all her fantasies in search of grace. It can’t—Anita screams into her hands bloody with bone mud, smearing her face, trying not to look at his blurry groin. Sisyphus sighs. Oh now look here. He puts hand to hip, snaps his fingers, the boulder shifting in the divet they’ve worn into this midway crest of Tartarus, fresh blood forming an 8 and a 4 on its low curve. See? Dead at 84. Two headless bodies tumble by, chased by a horde of hundred handers and

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 18h

Doing a thing/thingee/shanté later this week!

Dustin Brookshire (he/him) @dustinbrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

Can’t wait to read at @lityoungstown.bsky.social
with my friends Nin Andrews, @benkline.bsky.social, & @ljsysko.bsky.social! Join us for a pop culture infused reading on Friday (10/17) at 3pm!!

#poetrynews #poetrysky #poetry #poets #writers #popculture

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 18h

This opinion piece does not align with what I have experienced lately or in my 26+ years of working with undergrads. I call "Oscar Meyer left open on the counter" for this one.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 19h

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

Many Gen-Zers “bring a new attitude to the combination of faith and politics, and many see politics as a matter of spiritual warfare,” writes Daniel K. Williams, a historian of American religion and politics.

Opinion | Why So Many Gen Z-ers Are Drawn to Conservative Christianity

And what that might mean for the future of American politics.

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Ben Kline

Ohio Capital Journal @ohiocapitaljournal.com · 19h

Help us grow! The Capital Journal is committed to Reporting for the People: Holding those in power accountable and lifting up the voices of everyday Ohioans. Make a donation to support our work. ohiocapitaljournal.com/donate/

Donate • Ohio Capital Journal

ohiocapitaljournal.com

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 2d

Vancypants hasn't been telling the truth for 20+ years. People who fell for his hillbilly bs need to wake up. The ease with which this supposedly good Catholic lies. I bet he's in confessions daily. Actually, I bet he isn't. If he goes in, it's to hump the kneeler.

Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 3d

Why is she acting like a Gen X Techbro dipshit?

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 3d

“It is a little bit like singing for your supper," one CBS News staffer told @status.news about Bari Weiss' demand the entire workforce produce her a memo explaining what they do at the company.

More from @passantino.bsky.social here: www.status.news/p/bari-weiss...

'We Just Got Elon Musk-ed'

Bari Weiss’s first major move as CBS News chief has staffers on edge—ordering every journalist to submit a written memo justifying their work, in an apparent Elon Musk-style loyalty test.

www.status.news

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 4d

Not even trying to hide the corruption anymore.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Hegseth: "I'm also proud that today we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho."

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 4d

The cosmetic procedures and supplement regimen have cooked his brain.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 4d

Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel warned that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and critics of AI are “legionnaires of the Antichrist” in private lectures that connected government oversight of Silicon Valley to an apocalyptic future.

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction

In leaked recordings of private lectures by tech billionaire Peter Thiel he argued that “the Antichrist” is likely to take the form of a critic of technology.

wapo.st

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 5d

I said it in a reply, but yes, this cabinet meeting is now, in my brain, the Inept Clown Posse.

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 5d

I keep asking myself, Are these huge corporations that afraid of this inept clown posse?

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 5d

When someone (here, the interviewer) doesn't understand that "content" is not Art.

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 5d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 5d

Right? I still wouldn't trust her with a penny, but it's for sure a plot device of some sort.

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 5d

Bondi: "President Trump -- my lawyers are in court right now as we speak for you, arguing in Chicago and Portland to keep them safe to bring in the Guard. The government doesn't want it there, but we do."

"the government" - LOL, great Freudian slip there, Pammy!

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 5d

I just can't watch the clips of him rambling - he's clearly bonkers and those toadies just sit there shitgrinning because they know it's facilitating them all getting filthy rich while the 2-4 ideologues destroy the country!

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Ben Kline @benkline.bsky.social · 5d

"even as that spotlight" - see, baked without smoke! LOL

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