Geoff Brumfiel
@gbrumfiel.bsky.social
15K followers 710 following 1.2K posts
I'm an editor/correspondent for NPR. Mostly smart on the radio. Mostly stupid on everywhere else. ChatGPT describes me as: "Aerospace Sleuth, Nuclear Nerd, and NPR Superfan — with a Side of Surreal Humor." Signal: https://signal.me/#eu/PoRoBSPUsb1fVLiml
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gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Benetick Kabua Maddison, executive director of the Marshalese Educational Initiative delivers a powerful talk on the consequences of nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands.

“Our message is simple: we need to get rid of these nuclear weapons.”
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Great talk by @mattkorda.bsky.social about why everything is bad. And everything is indeed quite bad.
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
mjgault.bsky.social
hanging out in a decommissioned Titan nuclear silo
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Incredible. The silo door went 300-400 feet high and 600 ft from the complex. 🤯
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Talk from Greg Devlin,
one of the survivors of the 1980s Damascus incident where a Titan missile exploded.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Titan Thursday!

In Arkansas for the @outrider.org conference.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
He was and somehow the movie didn’t even do that justice. The scenes were shot in a way that I felt didn’t really let you appreciate his skills.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Just watched Karate Kid: Legends on a flight and I feel like it must have been written using an LLM…
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
titonka.bsky.social
1) My union is great.
2) Union stewards are the best people.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
The AI slop is so bad over on Facebook. So many things I see there is altered/faked (the one on the right, obviously, is the fake image).
Reposted by Geoff Brumfiel
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Well gang, it's happened: OpenAI has built a platform filled exclusively with fake, AI content.

I've been playing with it for a few days, and I think it's safe to say we're basically kissing reality goodbye.

Here's the story: www.npr.org/2025/10/03/n...

And some thoughts 🧵
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
The truth is I could really go for a martini right now.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
LOOK INTO THE ORB DANIELLE!
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Logon and share your face Danielle... Only good things will happen I promise.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
I will say I more firmly believe that journalism has a future than I have at any other point in my career….
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Bottom line, Sora has effectively eliminated the bar for generating very high quality artificial video content. I don't can't quite get my head entirely around what that means, but on the bright side, it's Friday!
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
And I'm going to admit it: the app is a ton of fun, and you can use it to make all your dreams come true (cc @wslafoy.bsky.social).
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Oh look, NPR's @bobbyallyn.bsky.social literally just put me in a boy band while I was making this thread. That's because I let him make videos with my face.

Sora does have tight controls on who can make videos with your face (or that of anyone living). They seem to have paid attention to that.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
❌I was able to generate fake videos of terrorist attacks and drone strikes, seemingly against OpenAI policies.

☢️I also got Sora to generate videos about Sarin and (of course) nuclear weapons (don't worry, none of it was accurate/useful).

😱 And lots of Nazis.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
But people also (apparently) want to make SpongeBob SquarePants into a fascist dictator. And I wonder how Nickelodeon feels about that.

This brings me to the THIRD thing I'd say about Sora, the safety controls are kind of weaksauce....
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
"People are eager to engage with their family and friends... as well as stories, characters, and worlds they love, and we see new opportunities for creators to deepen their connection with the fans," said Vaun Shetty, OpenAI's head of media partnerships, in a written statement shared with NPR.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Another thing to know about Sora is that there is a TON of content on there involving popular brands and copyrighted material. McDonalds and Pokemon seem to be favorites.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
On that second conspiracy theory, I'd just note that another interesting choice with Sora was a decision to allow historical figures. So not only can I create a fake moon landing, I can create a frankly amazing video of Richard Nixon TELLING you that it's a fake.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Or that the moon landing was faked! It wasn't but Sora doesn't know that.
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
So is it a slop machine? Yes. Yes, I think it is.

But it's more than that. Sora can also bring your favorite fringe ideas to life... like chemtrails!

(this is seriously maybe the video I'm most proud of so far...)