Richard
@rwpickard.bsky.social
Reader, tree-hugger, teacher, preserver of foodstuffs. Canadian.
Deleter of rwpickard from Twitter/X.
http://boughtbooks.blogspot.com
Deleter of rwpickard from Twitter/X.
http://boughtbooks.blogspot.com
Pinned
Richard
@rwpickard.bsky.social
· Aug 30
Neighbourhood radical: A story about "AI"
Last night, at a kind neighbour's gentle garden party, I found myself calling for revolution and telling someone to choose which side they'd...
boughtbooks.blogspot.com
Re-upping this post, just to make my feelings about AI unmistakeable. #noAI #againstAI
boughtbooks.blogspot.com/2025/05/neig...
boughtbooks.blogspot.com/2025/05/neig...
Reposted by Richard
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
Reposted by Richard
Ottawa, Alberta can get fucked. No pipelines. NO PIPELINES. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
Ottawa, Alberta agree to broad outlines of energy deal, including path to pipeline | CBC News
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have agreed to the broad outlines of a memorandum of understanding that would give Alberta special exemptions from federal environmental l...
www.cbc.ca
November 25, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Ottawa, Alberta can get fucked. No pipelines. NO PIPELINES. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
Reposted by Richard
theresakishkan.com/2025/11/24/c...
Alt text: blue and white pottery bowls, mugs, vases on a blue and white cloth
Alt text: blue and white pottery bowls, mugs, vases on a blue and white cloth
“Clay ties itself/in knots for you.” (Jen Hadfield)
I was just reaching into a high cupboard for a platter — the one with the fish towards the top of this photograph — reaching for a platter to unmold a dessert I baked late morning for a…
theresakishkan.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:10 PM
theresakishkan.com/2025/11/24/c...
Alt text: blue and white pottery bowls, mugs, vases on a blue and white cloth
Alt text: blue and white pottery bowls, mugs, vases on a blue and white cloth
Reposted by Richard
This is a little self-promotion.
I turn to relax, to quiet the sometimes overwhelming noise in my mind. Through this, yes I have imporved my mental health, but I have also accumulated a lot of bowls and other objects. I'd like to show you a selection of them and if […]
[Original post on mstdn.ca]
I turn to relax, to quiet the sometimes overwhelming noise in my mind. Through this, yes I have imporved my mental health, but I have also accumulated a lot of bowls and other objects. I'd like to show you a selection of them and if […]
[Original post on mstdn.ca]
November 24, 2025 at 5:16 PM
This is a little self-promotion.
I turn to relax, to quiet the sometimes overwhelming noise in my mind. Through this, yes I have imporved my mental health, but I have also accumulated a lot of bowls and other objects. I'd like to show you a selection of them and if […]
[Original post on mstdn.ca]
I turn to relax, to quiet the sometimes overwhelming noise in my mind. Through this, yes I have imporved my mental health, but I have also accumulated a lot of bowls and other objects. I'd like to show you a selection of them and if […]
[Original post on mstdn.ca]
Completely agree with this assessment, except that not even professors can truly audit an LLM essay for all its errors.
(Also, NO ONE should HAVE to do that. We should all just understand that their "errors" are unavoidably baked in. It's a PR failure that it's not universally understood.)
(Also, NO ONE should HAVE to do that. We should all just understand that their "errors" are unavoidably baked in. It's a PR failure that it's not universally understood.)
I will add the following: our students lack the research skills required to audit an LLM essay for errors. They don’t arrive on campus with these skills; we teach it to them over four long years. So throwing freshmen in the deep end and saying “swim your way to a shore of rectitude” is folly.
November 24, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Completely agree with this assessment, except that not even professors can truly audit an LLM essay for all its errors.
(Also, NO ONE should HAVE to do that. We should all just understand that their "errors" are unavoidably baked in. It's a PR failure that it's not universally understood.)
(Also, NO ONE should HAVE to do that. We should all just understand that their "errors" are unavoidably baked in. It's a PR failure that it's not universally understood.)
Reposted by Richard
Eryk's observation that ChatGPT "came into a world where proximity to others was correlated with the risk of death," is chilling. Seeing it through that lens makes the whole trajectory feel far more unsettling.
November 23, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Eryk's observation that ChatGPT "came into a world where proximity to others was correlated with the risk of death," is chilling. Seeing it through that lens makes the whole trajectory feel far more unsettling.
SING. IT. LOUD: "As of right now, there is no compelling evidence, to us, that genAI is useful to promote the development of learning as framed by a model of expertise (i.e., the MDL) or any other scientifically backed model of learning" #resistAI www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 23, 2025 at 6:51 PM
SING. IT. LOUD: "As of right now, there is no compelling evidence, to us, that genAI is useful to promote the development of learning as framed by a model of expertise (i.e., the MDL) or any other scientifically backed model of learning" #resistAI www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Richard
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
Reposted by Richard
"a technology that emerged against an ongoing denial of collective trauma, adapted to a historic moment in ways that persist beyond it"
What was ChatGPT? Now nearly three years old, we can look at OpenAI's LLM as a product of its time, optimized ever since to its earliest uses. While this period of deep disorientation and social isolation has been obscured from public memory, it remains embedded within the interface.
What Was ChatGPT?
A Chatbot Optimized for Social Distance
Three years after the launch of ChatGPT, we can finally speak in hindsight about what it was and how it came to be. Its meteoric rise shocked the world, gather...
mail.cyberneticforests.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:18 PM
"a technology that emerged against an ongoing denial of collective trauma, adapted to a historic moment in ways that persist beyond it"
Reposted by Richard
This is why we need to keep calling it what it is: FRACKED METHANE GAS
When it comes to climate change, methane is a notorious super-polluter.
And LNG, which stands for liquefied "natural gas", is primarily made up of...you guessed it...methane. 😷
And LNG, which stands for liquefied "natural gas", is primarily made up of...you guessed it...methane. 😷
Can methane cuts pull us back from the brink of climate breakdown?
With temperatures breaching the Paris limit, experts say tackling the powerful gas could buy crucial time as the clean-energy shift stalls
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:05 AM
This is why we need to keep calling it what it is: FRACKED METHANE GAS
There are ways to make your day better, just fyi, especially with crabapple jelly.
(My family gave me a vintage aebleskiver pan for my birthday this year. I'd never heard of them before: they look like Timbits, but it's close to a pancake recipe.) #eatyourfeelings www.food.com/recipe/aeble...
(My family gave me a vintage aebleskiver pan for my birthday this year. I'd never heard of them before: they look like Timbits, but it's close to a pancake recipe.) #eatyourfeelings www.food.com/recipe/aeble...
Aebleskiver Recipe - Food.com
I remember these from a cooking class in Junior High School. This recipe was found on the net and is posted by request-but I can tell you these are go
www.food.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:16 PM
There are ways to make your day better, just fyi, especially with crabapple jelly.
(My family gave me a vintage aebleskiver pan for my birthday this year. I'd never heard of them before: they look like Timbits, but it's close to a pancake recipe.) #eatyourfeelings www.food.com/recipe/aeble...
(My family gave me a vintage aebleskiver pan for my birthday this year. I'd never heard of them before: they look like Timbits, but it's close to a pancake recipe.) #eatyourfeelings www.food.com/recipe/aeble...
Reposted by Richard
you say "i asked chatgpt"
i hear "i asked [an improv comedy group]"
an improv group wrote this report
instead of a therapist i use an improv comedy group
i hear "i asked [an improv comedy group]"
an improv group wrote this report
instead of a therapist i use an improv comedy group
chatgpt is much like an improv comedy group
1) you are the audience, giving it prompts
2) it produces things roughly shaped like your prompt
3) it is trained to respond with Yes, And
4) it has the factual accuracy of improv
5) it does not understand comedy
1) you are the audience, giving it prompts
2) it produces things roughly shaped like your prompt
3) it is trained to respond with Yes, And
4) it has the factual accuracy of improv
5) it does not understand comedy
This is fascinating: www.reddit.com/r/OpenAI/s/I...
Someone “worked on a book with ChatGPT” for weeks and then sought help on Reddit when they couldn’t download the file. Redditors helped them realized ChatGPT had just been roleplaying/lying and there was no file/book…
Someone “worked on a book with ChatGPT” for weeks and then sought help on Reddit when they couldn’t download the file. Redditors helped them realized ChatGPT had just been roleplaying/lying and there was no file/book…
July 16, 2025 at 9:23 PM
you say "i asked chatgpt"
i hear "i asked [an improv comedy group]"
an improv group wrote this report
instead of a therapist i use an improv comedy group
i hear "i asked [an improv comedy group]"
an improv group wrote this report
instead of a therapist i use an improv comedy group
Reposted by Richard
Hey folks. I have spent *days* reading and meticulously drafting comments on a very lengthy manuscript. Which I have just found includes an AI-faked quote. Attributed to ME.
Here is a thread of my feelings
Here is a thread of my feelings
a man in a blue shirt says " i am untethered and my rage knows no bounds ! "
ALT: a man in a blue shirt says " i am untethered and my rage knows no bounds ! "
media.tenor.com
November 16, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Hey folks. I have spent *days* reading and meticulously drafting comments on a very lengthy manuscript. Which I have just found includes an AI-faked quote. Attributed to ME.
Here is a thread of my feelings
Here is a thread of my feelings
Reposted by Richard
As Nicholas Hune-Brown points out in the @thelocal.to, emerging writers are getting lost in the AI pitch slop: thelocal.to/investigatin...
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 21, 2025 at 6:14 PM
As Nicholas Hune-Brown points out in the @thelocal.to, emerging writers are getting lost in the AI pitch slop: thelocal.to/investigatin...
The link didn't work for me, so just in case: theconversation.com/learning-wit...
November 21, 2025 at 5:47 PM
The link didn't work for me, so just in case: theconversation.com/learning-wit...
One of my current nemeses is academic industry of writing about why to love AI. This article claims, e.g., that it's all about "employees' fears, inefficacies, and antipathies toward AI." OR MAYBE AI SOMETIMES SUCKS, DID YA THINK OF THAT? #resistAI www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Confronting and alleviating AI resistance in the workplace: An integrative review and a process framework
This study involves an integrative literature review and a process framework explaining the mechanisms to confront and alleviate employee Artificial i…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:38 PM
One of my current nemeses is academic industry of writing about why to love AI. This article claims, e.g., that it's all about "employees' fears, inefficacies, and antipathies toward AI." OR MAYBE AI SOMETIMES SUCKS, DID YA THINK OF THAT? #resistAI www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
So I wrote to my MP, @wgreaves.bsky.social, to express my concerns about the federal government's AI survey ("national sprint," ew), and to remind my fellow professor of all the reasons that he should be concerned about literally all of this. His office's reply is in the next skeet. 1/3
November 20, 2025 at 11:19 PM
So I wrote to my MP, @wgreaves.bsky.social, to express my concerns about the federal government's AI survey ("national sprint," ew), and to remind my fellow professor of all the reasons that he should be concerned about literally all of this. His office's reply is in the next skeet. 1/3
Reposted by Richard
Time to choose sides, y'all.
The first paragraph of OpenAI's new Teen AI Literacy Blueprint is *a lot* cdn.openai.com/pdf/openai-t...
November 20, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Time to choose sides, y'all.
Time to choose sides, y'all.
The first paragraph of OpenAI's new Teen AI Literacy Blueprint is *a lot* cdn.openai.com/pdf/openai-t...
November 20, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Time to choose sides, y'all.
I wonder what my MP, @wgreaves.bsky.social, might think about this poll, given that the federal government is using online surveys in what it says is an attempt to learn Canadians' thoughts about AI. #cdnpoli 1/2
AI presents a fundamental threat to our ability to use polls to assess public opinion. Bad actors who are able to infiltrate panels can flip close election polls for less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee. Models will also infer and confirm hypotheses in experiments. Current quality checks fail
November 19, 2025 at 8:00 AM
I wonder what my MP, @wgreaves.bsky.social, might think about this poll, given that the federal government is using online surveys in what it says is an attempt to learn Canadians' thoughts about AI. #cdnpoli 1/2
Reposted by Richard
We should all be calling for Dallas Brodie’s resignation from the Legislature
November 19, 2025 at 4:18 AM
We should all be calling for Dallas Brodie’s resignation from the Legislature
Reposted by Richard
also when you see how all the rich guys write you immediately understand why they saw chatgpt write a plausibly human sounding email and immediately invested $10832457B
epstein would've loved chatgpt so much. he wouldve gotten ai psychosis immediately and sent a million emails to sam altman. tragic he missed all this
November 19, 2025 at 12:49 AM
also when you see how all the rich guys write you immediately understand why they saw chatgpt write a plausibly human sounding email and immediately invested $10832457B
Reposted by Richard
I am frustrated and enraged at the UCP and Danielle Smith, for using the most powerful constitutional hammer we have to vaporize human rights for children and their parents.
I am disgusted by these Conservative MLAs. Every single one of them has taken leave of their senses and their humanity.
I am disgusted by these Conservative MLAs. Every single one of them has taken leave of their senses and their humanity.
Today, Alberta introduced Bill 9 and invoked the notwithstanding clause to shield three anti-trans laws from constitutional challenge. These laws deny gender-affirming care to youth, erase 2SLGBTQI identities from schools, and ban trans girls and women from sports.
November 18, 2025 at 10:18 PM
I am frustrated and enraged at the UCP and Danielle Smith, for using the most powerful constitutional hammer we have to vaporize human rights for children and their parents.
I am disgusted by these Conservative MLAs. Every single one of them has taken leave of their senses and their humanity.
I am disgusted by these Conservative MLAs. Every single one of them has taken leave of their senses and their humanity.
@edwiebe.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy Good to see you this evening, Ed! Sorry not to recognize you, though: long story, but the short version is that it's me, not you
November 18, 2025 at 5:47 AM
@edwiebe.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy Good to see you this evening, Ed! Sorry not to recognize you, though: long story, but the short version is that it's me, not you
Reposted by Richard
This is extremely interesting, though it’s possible shiitake are already living their best lives and don’t want to get jobs and work in data processing centres.
November 17, 2025 at 1:46 AM
This is extremely interesting, though it’s possible shiitake are already living their best lives and don’t want to get jobs and work in data processing centres.