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Reposted by michael lascarides

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 8h

One curious thing on this site about speaking out against the encroachment of LLMs is that inevitably you get accused of being anti-tech. I don’t hate technology. I’ve used machine learning in my own code before. But I also recognize that oligarchs are so hellbent on pushing this tech for a reason.

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michael lascarides @mlascarides.bsky.social · 7h

"It's trivially easy to poison LLMs into spitting out gibberish, says Anthropic—Just 250 malicious training documents can poison a 13B parameter model - that's 0.00016% of a whole dataset."

www.theregister.com/2025/10/09/i...

Data quantity doesn't matter when poisoning an LLM

: Just 250 malicious training documents can poison a 13B parameter model - that's 0.00016% of a whole dataset

www.theregister.com

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perfect knight @shiningknightx.bsky.social · 15h

"we cant uninvent ai" no we cant but we couldnt uninvent nfts either and nobody gives a fuck about them anymore

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michael lascarides @mlascarides.bsky.social · 13h

Cashing out your Kiwisaver early.

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Jer Thorp @jerthorp.bsky.social · 14h

My friend and hero Brian House has spent the last few years building macrophones designed for recording ultra low frequency sound.

His new album gets as close as it is possible to get to the voice of the 🌍🌎🌏

Record release in NYC!!

new-ear.org/2025/10/04/r...

Record release: Brian House’s Everyday Infrasound in an Uncertain World

Thursday, October 30

new-ear.org

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Michael Barnes @barnesm31.bsky.social · 15h

"To understand how a fascist works, imagine the loudest, most obnoxious dude you can think of, standing in the Met and screaming at a Jackson Pollack painting, “I don’t like it! I don’t get it! Anyone could do that!” - Asa West reactormag.com/rebellion-ac...

Rebellion, Activism, Imagination: Why We Need Witches More Than Ever - Reactor

Witches teach us how to push back — and raise hell — in the face of authoritarianism.

reactormag.com

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Reposted by michael lascarides

Paul Brislen @brislen.nz · 19h

PEOPLE. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. MY GOD THERE ARE LUNATICS STANDING FOR SEATS

RNZ News Feeds @rnzrss.bsky.social · 19h

Only one in five Aucklanders have voted in local elections

With two days remaining until polls close, only 21.9 percent of eligible voters had returned their papers.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Reposted by michael lascarides

Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 1d

As an instructor, I'd rather see your fever dream, No Doze-fueled 4AM essays written at an IHOP rather than anything generated by an LLM.

Hope this helps

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 1d

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

wrote 20 pages on Faulkner's The Bear four hours before final papers were due on trucker pills and coffee and cigarettes and got an A, fuck you.
You people couldn't hang with real slackers.
finn
wokeupchic • 4d
It's fuck Al till your homework due in 25 minutes

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michael lascarides @mlascarides.bsky.social · 1d

There's your protest sign sorted.

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michael lascarides @mlascarides.bsky.social · 1d

"Tactical frog costume is a mech" in the same way "burrito is a sandwich". I will not be elaborating further.

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ouinne @ouinne.bsky.social · 1d

The only correct take on a fundamentally anti-human technology.

Screenshot of David Simon interview
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Reposted by michael lascarides

Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 1d

If teachers are told using AI technologies creates time to spend developing relationships with students, and the report’s findings suggest AI technologies undermine these vital relationships, then it seems to me resistance and refusal of AI technologies is the most caring response.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

“One of the negative consequences AI is having on students is that it is hurting their ability to develop meaningful relationships with teachers, the report finds. Half of the students agree that using AI in class makes them feel less connected to their teachers.”

Rising Use of AI in Schools Comes With Big Downsides for Students

A report by the Center for Democracy and Technology looks at teachers' and students' experiences with the technology.

www.edweek.org

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Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 2d

The one that always gets me is that the last American born into slavery died the year John Lennon released “Imagine.”

rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 2d

you ever think about those real weird overlaps. like tennessee williams might have listened to the ramones

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michael lascarides @mlascarides.bsky.social · 2d

I've been using this slide in library presentations for a decade and a half now. Still more relevant than ever.

Chart showing the switch from information scarcity to information abundance (around 2000), and that both situations make libraries necessary.

michael lascarides @mlascarides.bsky.social · 2d

LLM bots crawling our sites in accordance with our rules; in contravention of our rules; as agents answering a thousand real-time chat questions; trying to appear human to evade firewalls; submitting slop that taints our collections; harvesting repeat content due to poor configuration… it's a drag.

Daryl Green @ilikeoldbooks.bsky.social · 8d

by the way, all those benign AI bots crawling the internet for for-profit LLMs, yeah it turns out when 9,000 hit your archive catalogue or image database all at once they break the system. This is an emerging sector issue.

The last weeks have literally seen humans labouring to feed the machines...

Reposted by michael lascarides

Terry Baucher @trabaq.bsky.social · 2d

Quite probably. And just a reminder that 30% of all single parent families have an effective marginal tax rate of 50% or more. So let's just add to that problem eh?

www.treasury.govt.nz/publications...

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michael lascarides @mlascarides.bsky.social · 2d

I hope you make this series into a book someday. They are lovely.

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 3d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 3d

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 3d

wait it's possible to move from pilot studies to permanent implementation of basic income? please tell everyone except Andrew Yang about this

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 3d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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☠️deadward niedermurder☠️ @niedermeyer.online · 3d

what if I told you that taking accountability for your actions was traditionally considered a load-bearing feature of masculinity?

Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 3d

“I voted for none of this."

Prominent influencers, including Theo Von, Joe Rogan, and Andrew Schulz, are starting to distance themselves from the president they helped propel to the White House.

Story: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

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Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi @christchurchlib.bsky.social · 3d

We have two awesome jobs open now!
Community Library Team Leader – Ōmōkihi South Library & Spreydon Library
and Head of Libraries & Information
Find out more: my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/jobs/
#libraryjobs

Jobs at Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi

If you are passionate about making a difference in your community, then working with us could be perfect for you. All vacancies at…

my.christchurchcitylibraries.com

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michael lascarides @mlascarides.bsky.social · 3d

A lovely thing about the state of Wellington birding is that there's a large predator-free reserve (visitzealandia.com) established a couple of decades ago right in the centre of town. So a bunch of species have recently reappeared on the parliament grounds, especially the kākā (big parrots).

Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne | Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington

Discover how conservation and tourism work hand in hand at Zealandia. Wander forest trails, spot rare wildlife, and support conservation.

visitzealandia.com

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Reposted by michael lascarides

Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 3d

Really want to encourage libraries - especially school libraries - to put no-AI content into your collection development policy. At the very least, if you have a clause in there about requiring accurate information, you can use that to weed out or prevent genAI purchases.

Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 3d

“When you get a suspicious book, “you look it up to see what else the [author] has written. And you see there's 30 things, and none of them have any reviews, and they were all written in the last two years,” DeMeester-Lane says.”

How Local Librarians Keep AI Slop Off the Shelves

AI is being used to create nonsensical, sometimes dangerously inaccurate books. Local librarians are tasked with keeping these volumes out of their collections.

www.governing.com

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 4d

Big tech is laying off user researchers in droves, because it believes that coercing its customers is more profitable than silly things like "making good products people want to buy."

But now the FAFO pendulum is coming around, with Amazon's $2.5B dark pattern settlement and #a11y lawsuits galore.

UX so bad that it's illegal

Big tech is divesting from user-centered design, and getting into hot water with the law.

productpicnic.beehiiv.com

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michael lascarides @mlascarides.bsky.social · 4d

Nerd-in-laws are the best. 🥰

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