Kylie McClanahan
@klmcclan.bsky.social
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
Frustrated farmer, placing his basket of fruit repeatedly in the same circular depression: "It keeps thinking these are dates!"
Mysterious holes in Andean mountain may be an Inca spreadsheet www.newscientist.com/article/2503...
Mysterious holes in Andean mountain may be an Inca spreadsheet
Thousands of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru could have been a monumental accounting device for trade and tax
www.newscientist.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Frustrated farmer, placing his basket of fruit repeatedly in the same circular depression: "It keeps thinking these are dates!"
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
New favourite example of structural ambiguity
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 AM
New favourite example of structural ambiguity
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?'... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
Charles Babbage, inventor of the mechanical computer, 1864
Charles Babbage, inventor of the mechanical computer, 1864
November 3, 2025 at 3:03 AM
"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?'... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
Charles Babbage, inventor of the mechanical computer, 1864
Charles Babbage, inventor of the mechanical computer, 1864
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
Woman in bar: I just don't get it. I've got a successful book club, with a cult following of 3000 who will read any book I recommend. I'm desperate to help my favourite authors build an audience, but everyone I contact tells me to fuck off!
Exiled Nigerian prince: [heavy sigh] Tell me about it.
Exiled Nigerian prince: [heavy sigh] Tell me about it.
November 1, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Woman in bar: I just don't get it. I've got a successful book club, with a cult following of 3000 who will read any book I recommend. I'm desperate to help my favourite authors build an audience, but everyone I contact tells me to fuck off!
Exiled Nigerian prince: [heavy sigh] Tell me about it.
Exiled Nigerian prince: [heavy sigh] Tell me about it.
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
Happy logical operator Halloween! 🎃
October 31, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Happy logical operator Halloween! 🎃
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
one problem w/so many analogies is that we intuitively gravitate to useful stuff; there's no easy shorthand for something as obviously counterproductive and disastrous that still tracks. it feels more like saying "DraftKings is collaborating with Cal to register undergrads to bet on course outcomes"
“It’s not a partnership…If you switch out the product, we would never say, ‘Xerox is collaborating with San Francisco State to offer photocopiers to all the members of its community.’”
Big Tech Makes Cal State Its A.I. Training Ground
www.nytimes.com
October 26, 2025 at 5:31 PM
one problem w/so many analogies is that we intuitively gravitate to useful stuff; there's no easy shorthand for something as obviously counterproductive and disastrous that still tracks. it feels more like saying "DraftKings is collaborating with Cal to register undergrads to bet on course outcomes"
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
Always take sentences using “the Cloud” or “the Internet” and try replacing those phrases with “A shed in Virginia” to see how they hold up. “Our service is fully based in a shed in Virginia”; “All my files are in a shed in Virginia”; “A shed in Virginia was designed to survive a nuclear war”, etc.
October 20, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Always take sentences using “the Cloud” or “the Internet” and try replacing those phrases with “A shed in Virginia” to see how they hold up. “Our service is fully based in a shed in Virginia”; “All my files are in a shed in Virginia”; “A shed in Virginia was designed to survive a nuclear war”, etc.
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
I saw a tragically AI-generated version of this poster, so I have recreated a 100% human-made version for all your protest sign needs.
October 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
I saw a tragically AI-generated version of this poster, so I have recreated a 100% human-made version for all your protest sign needs.
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
I was trying to find an old tweet about Hamlet and Ophelia. Google AI thought I was accusing it of killing my dad, and also screwed up the most famous line in The Princess Bride.
October 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I was trying to find an old tweet about Hamlet and Ophelia. Google AI thought I was accusing it of killing my dad, and also screwed up the most famous line in The Princess Bride.
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.
America’s children deserve better than this.
America’s children deserve better than this.
October 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.
America’s children deserve better than this.
America’s children deserve better than this.
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this
September 30, 2025 at 11:24 PM
OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
my favorite subgenre of Halloween decoration is “skeleton of things that absolutely do not have skeletons”
September 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
my favorite subgenre of Halloween decoration is “skeleton of things that absolutely do not have skeletons”
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
Ted Chiang:
"The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write [...]. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."
"The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write [...]. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."
December 17, 2024 at 11:50 AM
Ted Chiang:
"The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write [...]. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."
"The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write [...]. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
this exists it is called thinking
September 20, 2025 at 12:15 PM
this exists it is called thinking
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
Have you seen it? It’s on AI Ultra. It’s literally on Flow. You can get it with Whisk. It’s on Mariner. It’s in Gemini or was it Bard? Dude, it’s on Claude. You can probably find it on Copilot. You can run it on Perplexity. You can prompt it on Poob. Log in to Poob right now. Poob has it for you.
Get in losers, this isn't your grandmother's lame AI. This is "next-gen AI" with "AI Ultra."
Do you want Flow, Whisk, and Mariner? This is how you get them (never mind asking what those are, it's not important).
Do you want Flow, Whisk, and Mariner? This is how you get them (never mind asking what those are, it's not important).
September 18, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Have you seen it? It’s on AI Ultra. It’s literally on Flow. You can get it with Whisk. It’s on Mariner. It’s in Gemini or was it Bard? Dude, it’s on Claude. You can probably find it on Copilot. You can run it on Perplexity. You can prompt it on Poob. Log in to Poob right now. Poob has it for you.
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
you don’t understand bro, if we didn’t lie, no one would buy our product 😩
September 16, 2025 at 3:31 PM
you don’t understand bro, if we didn’t lie, no one would buy our product 😩
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
I just need every liberal, progressive, feminist man to understand deep in their bones that every woman—including the most accomplished woman they know—is belittled at their job REGULARLY. Even now.
September 5, 2025 at 8:26 PM
I just need every liberal, progressive, feminist man to understand deep in their bones that every woman—including the most accomplished woman they know—is belittled at their job REGULARLY. Even now.
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
May 16, 2023 at 10:51 PM
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
all the best windows software in history is called something like "joe's thing doer". it does the thing and nothing else and is available on a html website in plain text and takes up under a megabyte of space and uses default windows ui elements and will work until the heat death of the universe
August 31, 2025 at 9:53 PM
all the best windows software in history is called something like "joe's thing doer". it does the thing and nothing else and is available on a html website in plain text and takes up under a megabyte of space and uses default windows ui elements and will work until the heat death of the universe
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like
August 22, 2025 at 2:20 PM
this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
Showing children of the future the unacceptable hair rendering on the left to explain why we had to get rid of the rainforest.
August 21, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Showing children of the future the unacceptable hair rendering on the left to explain why we had to get rid of the rainforest.
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.
August 17, 2025 at 1:51 PM
I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.
Reposted by Kylie McClanahan
A key difference here is that while either can be incorrect, the structure of Wikipedia *creates context* and the structure of LLMs *destroys context*
Wikipedia has linked sources and an edit history showing where information came from and who added it when
An LLM just generates text
Wikipedia has linked sources and an edit history showing where information came from and who added it when
An LLM just generates text
Some of the anti-AI stuff feels a bit like when people would say "don't use Wikipedia as a source." It's just like anything else, a piece of information that you weigh against multiple sources and your own understanding of its likely failure modes
April 26, 2025 at 6:39 PM
A key difference here is that while either can be incorrect, the structure of Wikipedia *creates context* and the structure of LLMs *destroys context*
Wikipedia has linked sources and an edit history showing where information came from and who added it when
An LLM just generates text
Wikipedia has linked sources and an edit history showing where information came from and who added it when
An LLM just generates text
