John Warner
@biblioracle.bsky.social
Writer, speaker, consultant. Chicago Tribune columnist, blogging at Inside Higher Ed. Coming soon, More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI. Previously: Why They Can't Write and The Writer's Practice. biblioracle.substack.com
Vauhini does the unglamorous work of reading OpenAI's documentation and finds something very very interesting.
I thought at first that OpenAI was breaking its promise of objectivity. Then I realized it’s just redefining how objectivity functions — something that’s happened over and over. (Gift link!)
ChatGPT’s Self-Serving Optimism
OpenAI’s new guidelines ask its chatbot to celebrate ‘innovation,’ contradicting its stated goal of objectivity—and raising questions about what objectivity even means.
www.theatlantic.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Vauhini does the unglamorous work of reading OpenAI's documentation and finds something very very interesting.
Forgot to post the article itself. ai-frontiers.org/articles/the...
December 8, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Forgot to post the article itself. ai-frontiers.org/articles/the...
I dunno. I find it completely tenable to continue to dismiss any claims of consciousness for large language models.
December 8, 2025 at 8:28 PM
I dunno. I find it completely tenable to continue to dismiss any claims of consciousness for large language models.
Reposted by John Warner
There are multiple ways to learn how to read, and I'm of the opinion that we need many different approaches, including but not limited to phonics and phonemic awareness.
www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/who-...
www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/who-...
Unsettling The Science of Reading: Who is Being Sold A Story? | Human Restoration Project | Nick Covington
Literacy doesn’t come in a box, we’ll never find our kids at the bottom of a curriculum package, and there can be no broad support for systemic change that excludes input from and support for teachers...
www.humanrestorationproject.org
December 8, 2025 at 7:13 PM
There are multiple ways to learn how to read, and I'm of the opinion that we need many different approaches, including but not limited to phonics and phonemic awareness.
www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/who-...
www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/who-...
Amen. Reading is so many different things going on at the same time. Reducing reading to pronouncing phonemes and then drilling that as some kind of magic formula misses so much.
December 8, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Amen. Reading is so many different things going on at the same time. Reducing reading to pronouncing phonemes and then drilling that as some kind of magic formula misses so much.
I'm open to the idea of LLMs having positive utility in education, but the more I explore the topic and the more experiments I see from others the less open I am to the idea that it has a role in helping students learn to write. It's very "helpful" in producing text for school. Not the same thing.
December 8, 2025 at 6:22 PM
I'm open to the idea of LLMs having positive utility in education, but the more I explore the topic and the more experiments I see from others the less open I am to the idea that it has a role in helping students learn to write. It's very "helpful" in producing text for school. Not the same thing.
It's interesting to note the author's "surprise." Anyone who spends any time on campuses know that the intolerance/group-think charges are a lie. This isn't just MAGA's messaging either. Both the "nonpartisan" organizations FIRE and Heterodox Academy have pushed similar narratives.
Column worth reading, by former two-term GOP governor who discovers that Harvard is not the hellscape of intolerance and group-think that the MAGA and its media are constantly telling him about.
(Think of parallels in so many other realms.)
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
(Think of parallels in so many other realms.)
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | I was a red state governor. What I saw at Harvard surprised me.
The spirit of association remains alive in unexpected places.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:00 PM
It's interesting to note the author's "surprise." Anyone who spends any time on campuses know that the intolerance/group-think charges are a lie. This isn't just MAGA's messaging either. Both the "nonpartisan" organizations FIRE and Heterodox Academy have pushed similar narratives.
One guess which book this is for.
December 7, 2025 at 7:38 PM
One guess which book this is for.
Reposted by John Warner
Most read/shared piece on The Important Work is by a high school student who shares this view: theimportantwork.substack.com/p/at-my-high...
December 7, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Most read/shared piece on The Important Work is by a high school student who shares this view: theimportantwork.substack.com/p/at-my-high...
Worth reading for lots of reasons, but particularly because it closes with something I see in my work and travels speaking on writing and AI. Many, maybe most students do not want AI-mediated schooling or lives. We can offer them something better. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 7, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Worth reading for lots of reasons, but particularly because it closes with something I see in my work and travels speaking on writing and AI. Many, maybe most students do not want AI-mediated schooling or lives. We can offer them something better. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
Reposted by John Warner
“While he watched over FaceTime, I slowly poured liquid Tylenol all over my naked body. I loved him enough to make myself autistic. He wept.”
More Excerpts from Olivia Nuzzi’s American Canto
“Forget the sex; the real scandal here is the crime against language.” — Brian Phillips, The Ringer, on Olivia Nuzzi’s new memoir, American Canto, ...
buff.ly
December 6, 2025 at 3:30 PM
“While he watched over FaceTime, I slowly poured liquid Tylenol all over my naked body. I loved him enough to make myself autistic. He wept.”
Reposted by John Warner
There is no reason to be polite or decorous about this any more.
The current Supreme Court is corrupt.
US democracy cannot survive unless it is reformed.
The current Supreme Court is corrupt.
US democracy cannot survive unless it is reformed.
Democrats need to lay the groundwork for reform by attacking the villains on the Supreme Court - loudly, angrily, personally, relentlessly. And they should start now.
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/democrats-...
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/democrats-...
Democrats Need to Treat the Supreme Court Like the Villain It Is
The Court is out of control, and we'll never see reform unless we build the case for it. Starting now.
paulwaldman.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 7:28 PM
There is no reason to be polite or decorous about this any more.
The current Supreme Court is corrupt.
US democracy cannot survive unless it is reformed.
The current Supreme Court is corrupt.
US democracy cannot survive unless it is reformed.
Part of the Every President Gets a Trophy generation.
There he is folks. Proud recipient of the new FIFA Peace Prize. He couldn’t put that gold medal around his neck fast enough.
December 5, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Part of the Every President Gets a Trophy generation.
Reposted by John Warner
AI is not destroying education. LinkedIn pundits and influencers claiming AI is transforming education are destroying education.
December 4, 2025 at 11:56 PM
AI is not destroying education. LinkedIn pundits and influencers claiming AI is transforming education are destroying education.
Amazon is trying to do in the USPS, but the USPS is what made and makes the United States a country. All this is explored and explained in a new book on the history of the USPS. I wrote about it at my newsletter. biblioracle.substack.com/p/giving-tha...
December 4, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Amazon is trying to do in the USPS, but the USPS is what made and makes the United States a country. All this is explored and explained in a new book on the history of the USPS. I wrote about it at my newsletter. biblioracle.substack.com/p/giving-tha...
Reposted by John Warner
I wrote a bit for McSweeney's about Isaac Chotiner interviewing Santa Claus. Just a little something for the holiday season. Enjoy!
The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner Interviews Santa Claus
For several centuries, Santa Claus has been one of the most prolific mythical gift-givers in the world. Formerly known as Saint Nicholas of Myra, a...
www.mcsweeneys.net
December 4, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I wrote a bit for McSweeney's about Isaac Chotiner interviewing Santa Claus. Just a little something for the holiday season. Enjoy!
This is great. One of the things we should be teaching is "taste" and "discernment." This used to not be unusual. I have an experience in The Writer's Practice that's a "passion argument" where students have to convince the audience to do something (like read a particular book). I used it often.
Had a lot of fun writing this review of @tomcomitta.bsky.social’s strange, moving, and hilarious book. Gets us to think, as I argue here, about the value of an aesthetic education—something we all should aim for as we teach our kids.
mid-theory.com/2025/12/04/u...
mid-theory.com/2025/12/04/u...
Unwanted Reading: A Review of Tom Comitta’s ‘People’s Choice Literature’
The Sunday before I taught Beloved last spring, I sat on my couch wondering how I was going to convince a room full of second semester seniors that, before they left high school that June, they sho…
mid-theory.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:52 PM
This is great. One of the things we should be teaching is "taste" and "discernment." This used to not be unusual. I have an experience in The Writer's Practice that's a "passion argument" where students have to convince the audience to do something (like read a particular book). I used it often.
I've noticed that the AI overview struggles mightily with public people who are prominent but not outright famous, where there isn't a huge repository of information repeated over and over about them. It's mind-boggling that anyone would trust these outputs.
Someone sent this to me as proof that *i* am wrong about my own self.
Anyway, all of this fabricated. Just untrue and not even close to the direction of truth.
Anyway, all of this fabricated. Just untrue and not even close to the direction of truth.
December 4, 2025 at 6:45 PM
I've noticed that the AI overview struggles mightily with public people who are prominent but not outright famous, where there isn't a huge repository of information repeated over and over about them. It's mind-boggling that anyone would trust these outputs.
Sociopathic blood lust. The same guy who was eager to sic the military on peaceful protestors.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), to reporters, after viewing video footage of the U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean on Sept. 2:
"Righteous strikes." "Entirely lawful."
"Righteous strikes." "Entirely lawful."
December 4, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Sociopathic blood lust. The same guy who was eager to sic the military on peaceful protestors.
Reposted by John Warner
It boggles the mind that it should even be a question as to whether the government in a free society can pick a person up and send them to another country without trial.
They are kidnapping our students and sending them to foreign countries.
“An unconstitutional horror show..."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
“An unconstitutional horror show..."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Student describes ‘horror show’ ICE deportation to Honduras at Thanksgiving
Any Lucia López Belloza, 19, was detained at Boston airport while on the way to see family in Austin for a surprise trip
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:48 PM
It boggles the mind that it should even be a question as to whether the government in a free society can pick a person up and send them to another country without trial.
Reposted by John Warner
we could teach this in schools
i strongly, strongly believe that good writing is downstream of clear thinking and a strong understanding of the subject matter at hand. without fail, tortured writing comes from writers who don’t know and can’t think clearly about anything.
Oh man! This paragraph is brutal. The best thing about this review is it's not trying to be mean. It's just listing how bad the writing is.
December 4, 2025 at 12:19 AM
we could teach this in schools
Over time, this isn't the future, it's the death knell. Even relatively formulaic genres require fresh injections of human creativity to stay vital. This is a doom loop, trapping country music in the amber of the moment.
Suno is taking over Nashville's writing rooms. “You tell it the genre and it totally does the whole thing, it’s insane.” The tech is ubiquitous, “from entry-level songwriters to the top dogs” use it.
Check out the story for audio samples. From @charlieharding.bsky.social:
Check out the story for audio samples. From @charlieharding.bsky.social:
The future of country music is here, and it’s AI
For AI and country.
www.theverge.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Over time, this isn't the future, it's the death knell. Even relatively formulaic genres require fresh injections of human creativity to stay vital. This is a doom loop, trapping country music in the amber of the moment.
At this time I would council students to avoid institutions making these kinds of investments. It's a signal that they are eager to move away from human contact and interpersonal exchanges and outsource it to generative AI. They are declaring their values. today.ucsd.edu/story/triton...
TritonGPT is Here and Ready to Help
The latest innovation developed at UC San Diego, TritonGPT is redefining how students, staff, faculty and researchers work together. Its suite of artificial intelligence assistants act as helpers, tut...
today.ucsd.edu
December 3, 2025 at 9:36 PM
At this time I would council students to avoid institutions making these kinds of investments. It's a signal that they are eager to move away from human contact and interpersonal exchanges and outsource it to generative AI. They are declaring their values. today.ucsd.edu/story/triton...
Reposted by John Warner
Hey all,
The Onion is accepting applicants for our writing, video and graphics fellowships.
Fellowships last six months, pay well, and provide full benefits.
You can apply at theonion.com/fellowship.
The Onion is accepting applicants for our writing, video and graphics fellowships.
Fellowships last six months, pay well, and provide full benefits.
You can apply at theonion.com/fellowship.
Fellowship
theonion.com
December 3, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Hey all,
The Onion is accepting applicants for our writing, video and graphics fellowships.
Fellowships last six months, pay well, and provide full benefits.
You can apply at theonion.com/fellowship.
The Onion is accepting applicants for our writing, video and graphics fellowships.
Fellowships last six months, pay well, and provide full benefits.
You can apply at theonion.com/fellowship.
And I'll add that one of the reasons why students may not value the experience of writing is because much of the writing they're asked to do in school does not require thinking. In fact, they're given lots of methods (templates, et al) that actively discourage thinking.
December 3, 2025 at 7:47 PM
And I'll add that one of the reasons why students may not value the experience of writing is because much of the writing they're asked to do in school does not require thinking. In fact, they're given lots of methods (templates, et al) that actively discourage thinking.