Michael Ekstrand
@md.ekstrandom.net
Info sci prof @ Drexel, trying to keep the machines (esp. RecSys & IR) from learning bigotry and discrimination. ADHDS9. Usually self-propelled. Opinions those of the Vulcan Science Academy. 🐰x2.
🏡 https://md.ekstrandom.net
🧪 https://inertial.science
🏡 https://md.ekstrandom.net
🧪 https://inertial.science
The next administration should really pursue the destruction of any AI models trained on illegally-exfiltrated government data.
I remain convinced DOGE was a massive, planetary scale data exfiltration scheme and that Palantir has it all now
Musk's people infiltrated the GSA technology arm early on and demanded root-level access to computer systems, trying to circumvent normal security procedures. Here's one example where they pushed so hard they forced someone to resign rather than give in.
Why did they do this?
Why did they do this?
November 26, 2025 at 5:00 AM
The next administration should really pursue the destruction of any AI models trained on illegally-exfiltrated government data.
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
I wish the AI companies would focus on perfecting the ML in the stuff we use every day. Relevance rank in web search, non-spammy shopping search, email spam filtering, useful recommendations of what to watch next, you know, the basics. What if the internet didn't suck more and more every day?
November 25, 2025 at 7:15 PM
I wish the AI companies would focus on perfecting the ML in the stuff we use every day. Relevance rank in web search, non-spammy shopping search, email spam filtering, useful recommendations of what to watch next, you know, the basics. What if the internet didn't suck more and more every day?
no *you* reached into Python to get a Cython-proxied pointer to a FORTRAN function to call it from Rust. github.com/lenskit/lkpy...
Use ndarray-linalg to simplify Rust dependency stack by mdekstrand · Pull Request #960 · lenskit/lkpy
This adds ndarray-linalg for ALS instead of using nalgebra, hopefully simplifying the Rust dependency stack at the expense of using Lapack, but that seems to work.
Will need to do some more multi-p...
github.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:22 PM
no *you* reached into Python to get a Cython-proxied pointer to a FORTRAN function to call it from Rust. github.com/lenskit/lkpy...
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
I literally just looked up my local school district calender to see which days they had off this week and Copilot confidently presented me with last year's calender at the top.
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I literally just looked up my local school district calender to see which days they had off this week and Copilot confidently presented me with last year's calender at the top.
I’m here to crash cop cars and pay taxes, and I’m all out of cop cars. #BluesAMovieQuote
November 24, 2025 at 11:05 PM
I’m here to crash cop cars and pay taxes, and I’m all out of cop cars. #BluesAMovieQuote
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
I think Democrats should double down on trans rights now. It's obvious that most voters don't care about it so you might as well stick with your principles and goad Republicans into focusing on it at the expense of everything else so they're the ones who look like freaks.
November 24, 2025 at 8:43 PM
I think Democrats should double down on trans rights now. It's obvious that most voters don't care about it so you might as well stick with your principles and goad Republicans into focusing on it at the expense of everything else so they're the ones who look like freaks.
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
posting that duku thing reminded me of this snoke tweet that still makes me laugh three years later;kasnd
October 12, 2023 at 9:19 PM
posting that duku thing reminded me of this snoke tweet that still makes me laugh three years later;kasnd
This is just… great. helixguard.ai/blog/malicio...
HelixGuard
Supply chain security, vulnerability intelligence, and malware detection.
helixguard.ai
November 24, 2025 at 2:02 PM
This is just… great. helixguard.ai/blog/malicio...
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses, Charlie Brown.
He puts one of yours in the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way, Charlie Brown.
If you can't take a little bloody nose maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed, Charlie Brown
November 24, 2025 at 4:14 AM
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses, Charlie Brown.
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
This. To say nothing of the destroyed careers and livelihoods, the abandoned research, and the probably irreparable trust defect for anyone who *might* have been contemplating a career in public service. Please, stop with the DOGE failure narratives.
DOGE did everything they were supposed to do and have already killed almost 700,000 people including 430,000 children, as intended. DOGE is one of the most successful anti-democracy, mass-murder campaigns we've ever seen, and we will be dealing with the consequences of their success for generations.
Difficult to overstate how profound a failure DOGE was. Spending in FY2025 was not only than in FY2024 – but higher than it was projected to be when Trump first took office.*
The little bit of spending DOGE cut has already killed hundreds of thousands and will eventually lead to millions of deaths.
The little bit of spending DOGE cut has already killed hundreds of thousands and will eventually lead to millions of deaths.
November 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM
This. To say nothing of the destroyed careers and livelihoods, the abandoned research, and the probably irreparable trust defect for anyone who *might* have been contemplating a career in public service. Please, stop with the DOGE failure narratives.
and this is why critical race theory is relevant to data science pedagogy, but certain university systems are requiring specific presidential approval to teach students how to really understand their subject.
finding data truly unaffected by racism would require a world without racism to gather it from
and we don't have that
and we don't have that
November 23, 2025 at 1:22 PM
and this is why critical race theory is relevant to data science pedagogy, but certain university systems are requiring specific presidential approval to teach students how to really understand their subject.
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
finding data truly unaffected by racism would require a world without racism to gather it from
and we don't have that
and we don't have that
November 23, 2025 at 10:31 AM
finding data truly unaffected by racism would require a world without racism to gather it from
and we don't have that
and we don't have that
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
Researchers: “my analysis has policy implications because the p value is 0.049, your analysis doesn’t because the p value is 0.051.”
Andre 3000: are you all even listening to yourselves
Andre 3000: are you all even listening to yourselves
Read this and all I could think about was Andre 3000 in green light saying something like, "Sometimes you gotta step from behind that regression"
Someone is going to have the write the thing about how “vibe” has become a substitute for meaningful theory in a world where the theory is so clear — grift and power — but we collectively refuse if because it isn’t sophisticated enough to generate make work for empiricists.
November 22, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Researchers: “my analysis has policy implications because the p value is 0.049, your analysis doesn’t because the p value is 0.051.”
Andre 3000: are you all even listening to yourselves
Andre 3000: are you all even listening to yourselves
The year is 2157. In a disorganized archive room deep in the bowels of the Pseudovatican, a harried researcher exclaims “Eureka!”
“At long last, I have found the knowledge so cursed even knowing it exists invites madness of which Lovecraft could only dream!”
“At long last, I have found the knowledge so cursed even knowing it exists invites madness of which Lovecraft could only dream!”
November 22, 2025 at 3:51 PM
The year is 2157. In a disorganized archive room deep in the bowels of the Pseudovatican, a harried researcher exclaims “Eureka!”
“At long last, I have found the knowledge so cursed even knowing it exists invites madness of which Lovecraft could only dream!”
“At long last, I have found the knowledge so cursed even knowing it exists invites madness of which Lovecraft could only dream!”
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
Another example of the burdens created when tech companies behave as untrustworthy social actors - people then go to great lengths to protect themselves even when it’s not necessary, at personal cost and compromising their ability to use the technology that does work
The malwarebytes Google opting-your-emails-into-ai-training thing is not true. The post is based on one bad tweet.
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
Google denies ‘misleading’ reports of Gmail using your emails to train AI
Google says “we do not use your Gmail content for training our Gemini AI model.”
www.theverge.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Another example of the burdens created when tech companies behave as untrustworthy social actors - people then go to great lengths to protect themselves even when it’s not necessary, at personal cost and compromising their ability to use the technology that does work
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
Need to repaint after adding insulation but can’t quite match the existing color so you have to paint everything?
Problematic beige gap.
Problematic beige gap.
Alien genetic dissolution virus broke containment and is infecting your crew?
Problematic phage gap.
Problematic phage gap.
The tiger escaped and ate your face?
Problematic cage gap.
Problematic cage gap.
November 21, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Need to repaint after adding insulation but can’t quite match the existing color so you have to paint everything?
Problematic beige gap.
Problematic beige gap.
Alien genetic dissolution virus broke containment and is infecting your crew?
Problematic phage gap.
Problematic phage gap.
The tiger escaped and ate your face?
Problematic cage gap.
Problematic cage gap.
Your barbarian failed to attack or take damage and returned to being a sketchy fighter?
Problematic rage gap.
Problematic rage gap.
November 21, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Alien genetic dissolution virus broke containment and is infecting your crew?
Problematic phage gap.
Problematic phage gap.
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
Spread the word! 📢 The FATE (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics) group at @msftresearch.bsky.social in NYC is hiring interns and postdocs to start in summer 2026! 🎉
Apply by *December 15* for full consideration.
Apply by *December 15* for full consideration.
November 20, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Spread the word! 📢 The FATE (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics) group at @msftresearch.bsky.social in NYC is hiring interns and postdocs to start in summer 2026! 🎉
Apply by *December 15* for full consideration.
Apply by *December 15* for full consideration.
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
I feel like the last couple decades of "is representation good or not?" discourse missed more important questions of "how fragile is representation?", "what do we do when multiple industries eliminate it as an intentional move against us?" and "how can we sustain queer artists when shit goes south?"
"According to the report, [...]during the 2024-25 television season, queer characters increased across platforms by 4%, bringing the total to 489. However, the Thursday report found that 41% of those characters will not return." www.thewrap.com/glaad-where-...
Nearly Half of All LGBTQ+ Characters Will Disappear From TV Next Season, GLAAD Study Finds
The 2024-25 TV season recorded 489 queer characters across broadcast, cable and screenings, but cancellations and plot find a deep decline to come
www.thewrap.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:13 AM
I feel like the last couple decades of "is representation good or not?" discourse missed more important questions of "how fragile is representation?", "what do we do when multiple industries eliminate it as an intentional move against us?" and "how can we sustain queer artists when shit goes south?"
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
Woke up this morning with a strong sense of ownership over America.
This isn’t “Donald Trump’s America” it’s OUR AMERICA. Coming to this realization brings a sense of ownership and empowerment that comes with the responsibility to hold the people who work For The People accountable.
This isn’t “Donald Trump’s America” it’s OUR AMERICA. Coming to this realization brings a sense of ownership and empowerment that comes with the responsibility to hold the people who work For The People accountable.
November 21, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Woke up this morning with a strong sense of ownership over America.
This isn’t “Donald Trump’s America” it’s OUR AMERICA. Coming to this realization brings a sense of ownership and empowerment that comes with the responsibility to hold the people who work For The People accountable.
This isn’t “Donald Trump’s America” it’s OUR AMERICA. Coming to this realization brings a sense of ownership and empowerment that comes with the responsibility to hold the people who work For The People accountable.
Reposted by Michael Ekstrand
Why cloudflare is down.
November 18, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Why cloudflare is down.
is there a Latin phrase for “out of his/her/the ass”? Ex nihilo is “out of nothing”, out of one’s ass would be ex what?
November 20, 2025 at 12:32 PM
is there a Latin phrase for “out of his/her/the ass”? Ex nihilo is “out of nothing”, out of one’s ass would be ex what?
Wow. I had missed this. So duplicitous — policing speech protects speech — and it doesn’t even pretend to identify any specific statute or regulation requiring the actions it demands.
Seems like it.
November 20, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Wow. I had missed this. So duplicitous — policing speech protects speech — and it doesn’t even pretend to identify any specific statute or regulation requiring the actions it demands.
Your barbarian failed to attack or take damage and returned to being a sketchy fighter?
Problematic rage gap.
Problematic rage gap.
Locomotive not sitting on the rails properly?
Problematic gauge gap.
Problematic gauge gap.
Your thanksgiving stuffing doesn’t taste right?
Problematic sage gap.
Problematic sage gap.
November 19, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Your barbarian failed to attack or take damage and returned to being a sketchy fighter?
Problematic rage gap.
Problematic rage gap.