Matt Carrington
@mattcarrington.bsky.social
Book editor, poetry and cultural policy researcher. I edit Holocaust survivor memoirs.
Feeling sad about the significant meaning shift of “The truth about stories is that that's all we are...”
November 27, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Feeling sad about the significant meaning shift of “The truth about stories is that that's all we are...”
Reposted by Matt Carrington
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Reposted by Matt Carrington
The way this guy always has a twinkling smile as he's talking on some news show or other about the most dystopian hellscape imaginable. Oh haha, those silly "new kids out of college" thinking they might someday get to have a job and eat food.
Kevin Hassett: "I think there could be a little bit of an almost quiet time in the labor market, because firms are finding that AI is making their workers so productive that they don't necessarily have to hire the new kids out of college and so on."
November 17, 2025 at 3:03 PM
The way this guy always has a twinkling smile as he's talking on some news show or other about the most dystopian hellscape imaginable. Oh haha, those silly "new kids out of college" thinking they might someday get to have a job and eat food.
Does anyone still get a paper newspaper just to not be on your phone(especially around your kids) all the time? I want to read the news!
November 16, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Does anyone still get a paper newspaper just to not be on your phone(especially around your kids) all the time? I want to read the news!
Pedestrians and cyclists are told to be careful, to wear high-visibility clothing. When an on-duty crossing guard, whose job it is to keep children safe through intersections while carrying a stop sign and wearing a high-vis vest, is killed by a truck it shines a light on the lie in that advice.
A crossing guard was killed by the driver of a dump truck yesterday. absolutely heartbreaking.
Look at our intersections, look how hostile these are for people/children - this is what we continue to build and defend at all costs. These aren't accidents, these are results. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Look at our intersections, look how hostile these are for people/children - this is what we continue to build and defend at all costs. These aren't accidents, these are results. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
November 14, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Pedestrians and cyclists are told to be careful, to wear high-visibility clothing. When an on-duty crossing guard, whose job it is to keep children safe through intersections while carrying a stop sign and wearing a high-vis vest, is killed by a truck it shines a light on the lie in that advice.
AI companies really trying to get them young
November 14, 2025 at 1:20 AM
AI companies really trying to get them young
Remember when the conservative talking point was free speech? Free speech on campus? What is happening here? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...
Texas A&M Tightens Rules on Talking About Race and Gender in Classes
www.nytimes.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Remember when the conservative talking point was free speech? Free speech on campus? What is happening here? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...
Diane Seuss’s sonnet “[The problem with sweetness is death]” includes the line “And here/ I am, broke, barely able to count to fourteen.” And it’s great but oh man my childish brain really wanted the poem to then have thirteen or even fifteen lines
November 8, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Diane Seuss’s sonnet “[The problem with sweetness is death]” includes the line “And here/ I am, broke, barely able to count to fourteen.” And it’s great but oh man my childish brain really wanted the poem to then have thirteen or even fifteen lines
Reposted by Matt Carrington
Six people died from tampered Tylenol and the company pulled 30 million bottles off the market. ChatGPT is accused of urging seven people towards suicide, and OpenAI just assures us they’re still working out the kinks. Billions in investment, zero accountability.
OpenAI faces 7 lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide, delusions
OpenAI is facing seven lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental health issues.
apnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Six people died from tampered Tylenol and the company pulled 30 million bottles off the market. ChatGPT is accused of urging seven people towards suicide, and OpenAI just assures us they’re still working out the kinks. Billions in investment, zero accountability.
"We are in some danger of believing that the speed and wizardry of our gadgets have freed us from the sometimes arduous work of turning pages in silence." (Birkerts 1994). I often think about this line from over thirty years ago
November 6, 2025 at 8:35 PM
"We are in some danger of believing that the speed and wizardry of our gadgets have freed us from the sometimes arduous work of turning pages in silence." (Birkerts 1994). I often think about this line from over thirty years ago
Is… is the NY Times okay?
November 6, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Is… is the NY Times okay?
Don’t forget your bike lights today! Happy November
November 3, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Don’t forget your bike lights today! Happy November
Now that there's an influential wellness grift telling people they don't have to eat their vegetables, I want a new movement about how really very healthy candy is. It makes me feel good so it must be healthy! Someone with the clout needs to get on that.
October 31, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Now that there's an influential wellness grift telling people they don't have to eat their vegetables, I want a new movement about how really very healthy candy is. It makes me feel good so it must be healthy! Someone with the clout needs to get on that.
“Developing our linguistic capacities — to master diverse concepts, to follow an intricate argument, to form judgments, to communicate those to others — is the development of our capacity to think.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...
Opinion | A.I. Threatens Our Ability to Understand the World
www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 6:22 PM
“Developing our linguistic capacities — to master diverse concepts, to follow an intricate argument, to form judgments, to communicate those to others — is the development of our capacity to think.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...
Reposted by Matt Carrington
In 1850 the weight of all the world's wild mammals equalled the weight of humans and our livestock
Today they are outweighed 1 to 20
Reconfiguring life on this planet to produce cheap meat and dairy
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Today they are outweighed 1 to 20
Reconfiguring life on this planet to produce cheap meat and dairy
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 28, 2025 at 11:53 AM
In 1850 the weight of all the world's wild mammals equalled the weight of humans and our livestock
Today they are outweighed 1 to 20
Reconfiguring life on this planet to produce cheap meat and dairy
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Today they are outweighed 1 to 20
Reconfiguring life on this planet to produce cheap meat and dairy
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Matt Carrington
“Generative AI is nothing more than a form of social suicide that must be reined in before it’s too late. It cannot be allowed to reach the level of proliferation that social media has achieved”
The AI industry wants us to believe AI superintelligence is the real threat from generative AI.
But that narrative was crafted to distract from the many ways genAI is being used to tear our societies apart, as we saw this week when a deepfake video rocked the Irish election. It must be reined in.
But that narrative was crafted to distract from the many ways genAI is being used to tear our societies apart, as we saw this week when a deepfake video rocked the Irish election. It must be reined in.
Generative AI is a societal disaster
Governments are deluding themselves into believing investment justifies allowing AI to upend society
disconnect.blog
October 27, 2025 at 5:50 AM
“Generative AI is nothing more than a form of social suicide that must be reined in before it’s too late. It cannot be allowed to reach the level of proliferation that social media has achieved”
Reposted by Matt Carrington
Another excellent essay by @unpopularscience.bsky.social - on sentience and much else.
"Other life forms cannot describe their pain to us, yet we can still listen.... Our world is so much more complex and wondrous than the myth of human supremacy would have us believe."
shorturl.at/F38aV
"Other life forms cannot describe their pain to us, yet we can still listen.... Our world is so much more complex and wondrous than the myth of human supremacy would have us believe."
shorturl.at/F38aV
Why All Animals Are Sentient, and Machines Will Never Be
Even the smallest sea slug feels pain. That means we have a responsibility not to inflict it.
www.currentaffairs.org
October 18, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Another excellent essay by @unpopularscience.bsky.social - on sentience and much else.
"Other life forms cannot describe their pain to us, yet we can still listen.... Our world is so much more complex and wondrous than the myth of human supremacy would have us believe."
shorturl.at/F38aV
"Other life forms cannot describe their pain to us, yet we can still listen.... Our world is so much more complex and wondrous than the myth of human supremacy would have us believe."
shorturl.at/F38aV
Reposted by Matt Carrington
Bacon kills more people from cancer than tobacco and asbestos ever did.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Scientists demand cancer warnings on bacon and ham sold in UK
Successive governments criticised for doing ‘virtually nothing’ to reduce risk in the decade since cancer link found
www.theguardian.com
October 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Bacon kills more people from cancer than tobacco and asbestos ever did.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by Matt Carrington
Some bad bike news stuff in that too (on page 18)
October 23, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Some bad bike news stuff in that too (on page 18)
Reposted by Matt Carrington
“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I'm 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. ... The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I'd rather die.’” 🫡
Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says 'I'd rather die' than use generative AI
Del Toro's new Frankenstein adaption reimagines Mary Shelley's 1818 Gothic novel. Frankenstein was like a tech bro: "creating something without considering the consequences," he explains.
www.npr.org
October 23, 2025 at 10:08 PM
“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I'm 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. ... The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I'd rather die.’” 🫡
This is so good. But whoever wrote the italicized preamble was dreaming when they put the commas around Oswald’s name. If only!
October 22, 2025 at 6:55 PM
This is so good. But whoever wrote the italicized preamble was dreaming when they put the commas around Oswald’s name. If only!
I have a friend working on a fascinating historical family memoir (not Holocaust related this time). He's in Toronto and looking for a good writing group. Does anyone know any relevant writing groups or how to find one?
October 14, 2025 at 2:55 PM
I have a friend working on a fascinating historical family memoir (not Holocaust related this time). He's in Toronto and looking for a good writing group. Does anyone know any relevant writing groups or how to find one?
Reposted by Matt Carrington
One intersection on Bloor saw average daily bike ridership consistently hover around 6000 for the past 4 months. This is a 20% increase over last year. Yet, Premier Ford wants to target this lane for removal. I wanted to highlight this, one year after the passage of Bill 212.
October 11, 2025 at 4:48 AM
One intersection on Bloor saw average daily bike ridership consistently hover around 6000 for the past 4 months. This is a 20% increase over last year. Yet, Premier Ford wants to target this lane for removal. I wanted to highlight this, one year after the passage of Bill 212.
Reposted by Matt Carrington
A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.
October 9, 2025 at 11:49 AM
A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.
Reposted by Matt Carrington
I like to think Beckett himself would have delighted in this review
(via @luxalptraum.com ht @ykomska.bsky.social)
(via @luxalptraum.com ht @ykomska.bsky.social)
October 9, 2025 at 1:30 AM
I like to think Beckett himself would have delighted in this review
(via @luxalptraum.com ht @ykomska.bsky.social)
(via @luxalptraum.com ht @ykomska.bsky.social)