M. D. Silverman
@mdsilverman.bsky.social
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
The AI built into new iPhone models tries to shape your text messages to an "almost absurd level," @joshtpm.bsky.social writes. It's yet more evidence that the AI boom "is overwhelmingly a supply- rather than a demand-driven revolution."
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ready...
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ready...
Ready or Not, Here They Come — Notes From the AI Force-Feed ….
I just got a new iPhone. I didn’t need a newer version....
talkingpointsmemo.com
December 22, 2025 at 7:43 PM
The AI built into new iPhone models tries to shape your text messages to an "almost absurd level," @joshtpm.bsky.social writes. It's yet more evidence that the AI boom "is overwhelmingly a supply- rather than a demand-driven revolution."
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ready...
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ready...
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
If you are providing me with an education that is low utility in the world then it’s a disservice. My composition class spent four weeks on poetry. I’m sorry, but that only would’ve been useful if I wanted to be a poet. I don’t need to know iambic pentameter in order to be a victim advocate.
December 9, 2025 at 7:17 PM
This is actually a good example of why the customer model is wrong.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
I wouldn't have chosen poetry writing, but UNC made me take a class. And it absolutely made me become a much better writer, with an eye to concision and an ear now trained to the rhythm of words. I'm a better historian as a result.
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
Over time, this isn't the future, it's the death knell. Even relatively formulaic genres require fresh injections of human creativity to stay vital. This is a doom loop, trapping country music in the amber of the moment.
Suno is taking over Nashville's writing rooms. “You tell it the genre and it totally does the whole thing, it’s insane.” The tech is ubiquitous, “from entry-level songwriters to the top dogs” use it.
Check out the story for audio samples. From @charlieharding.bsky.social:
Check out the story for audio samples. From @charlieharding.bsky.social:
The future of country music is here, and it’s AI
For AI and country.
www.theverge.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Over time, this isn't the future, it's the death knell. Even relatively formulaic genres require fresh injections of human creativity to stay vital. This is a doom loop, trapping country music in the amber of the moment.
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
there’s this weird idea a lot of people seem to have about how all of us writers and artists must secretly want to use AI and are merely resisting temptation for ethical reasons, and like, no, it’s not hard for me to resist drinking the bowl of Piss With Glass In It actually
October 9, 2025 at 9:24 PM
there’s this weird idea a lot of people seem to have about how all of us writers and artists must secretly want to use AI and are merely resisting temptation for ethical reasons, and like, no, it’s not hard for me to resist drinking the bowl of Piss With Glass In It actually
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
News: Bari Weiss just sent a memo to staffers at CBS News asking them to produce a memo explaining "how you spend your working hours—and ideally, what you've made (or are making) that you're most proud of."
One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."
One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."
October 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
News: Bari Weiss just sent a memo to staffers at CBS News asking them to produce a memo explaining "how you spend your working hours—and ideally, what you've made (or are making) that you're most proud of."
One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."
One CBS News staffer puts it like this to me: "We just got Elon Musked."
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
I am begging everyone with my heart and soul to read a fucking book. If you haven’t done it in a long time, you can still do it. A lot of people are investing in illiteracy futures right now, and they’re playing in your face trying to get you to pay for your own ignorance.
The imagined consumer on the landing page for Google's NotebookLM is a student in an upper-division literature course who has been assigned James Joyce's "Ulysses," and asks the software to summarize the novel and identify its themes.
Who is this advertising for?
Who is this advertising for?
September 12, 2025 at 6:12 PM
I am begging everyone with my heart and soul to read a fucking book. If you haven’t done it in a long time, you can still do it. A lot of people are investing in illiteracy futures right now, and they’re playing in your face trying to get you to pay for your own ignorance.
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
as always: they're not stupid, they're bought and paid for
(from Here Comes The Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by bill mckibben)
(from Here Comes The Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by bill mckibben)
September 7, 2025 at 3:26 PM
as always: they're not stupid, they're bought and paid for
(from Here Comes The Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by bill mckibben)
(from Here Comes The Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by bill mckibben)
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
Yes. Collapsing all fed law enforcement into one undifferentiated, untrained, masked force.
"Agents said they worried the changes would transform the FBI from an investigative agency focused on national security into something more akin to a federal police force..."
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...
"Agents said they worried the changes would transform the FBI from an investigative agency focused on national security into something more akin to a federal police force..."
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...
F.B.I. Plans to Lower Recruiting Standards, Alarming Agents
www.nytimes.com
August 22, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Yes. Collapsing all fed law enforcement into one undifferentiated, untrained, masked force.
"Agents said they worried the changes would transform the FBI from an investigative agency focused on national security into something more akin to a federal police force..."
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...
"Agents said they worried the changes would transform the FBI from an investigative agency focused on national security into something more akin to a federal police force..."
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
Tel Aviv, Israel, tonight. Demonstration of thousands calling for an end to the war and a hostage deal.
📸 Aviv Atlas
📸 Aviv Atlas
August 9, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Tel Aviv, Israel, tonight. Demonstration of thousands calling for an end to the war and a hostage deal.
📸 Aviv Atlas
📸 Aviv Atlas
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
no more educational material for your children. just poisonous right wing slop.
The White House has a preferred alternative to PBS: PragerU, a nonprofit organization that specializes in creating right-leaning educational short videos for adults and children. . It may already be in countless classrooms. www.vox.com/today-explai...
The White House has a preferred alternative to PBS. It may already be in countless classrooms.
How the right-wing network PragerU could fill the void left by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s defunding.
www.vox.com
August 8, 2025 at 1:57 PM
no more educational material for your children. just poisonous right wing slop.
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
I was just in the protest against the genocide in Tel Aviv ✊✊
It was so emotional I cried and many others did as well 🥹
Signs about the Holocaust, starving babies, but also thousands of people and a strong speech of hope
I’m so proud of this growing Jewish faction 💗
It was so emotional I cried and many others did as well 🥹
Signs about the Holocaust, starving babies, but also thousands of people and a strong speech of hope
I’m so proud of this growing Jewish faction 💗
July 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
I was just in the protest against the genocide in Tel Aviv ✊✊
It was so emotional I cried and many others did as well 🥹
Signs about the Holocaust, starving babies, but also thousands of people and a strong speech of hope
I’m so proud of this growing Jewish faction 💗
It was so emotional I cried and many others did as well 🥹
Signs about the Holocaust, starving babies, but also thousands of people and a strong speech of hope
I’m so proud of this growing Jewish faction 💗
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
woooooooow
I was just in the protest against the genocide in Tel Aviv ✊✊
It was so emotional I cried and many others did as well 🥹
Signs about the Holocaust, starving babies, but also thousands of people and a strong speech of hope
I’m so proud of this growing Jewish faction 💗
It was so emotional I cried and many others did as well 🥹
Signs about the Holocaust, starving babies, but also thousands of people and a strong speech of hope
I’m so proud of this growing Jewish faction 💗
July 31, 2025 at 6:15 PM
woooooooow
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
This is so depressing. Childhood should be about drawing and imagining and playing, not plugging shit into AI to make it "real"
July 25, 2025 at 3:10 PM
This is so depressing. Childhood should be about drawing and imagining and playing, not plugging shit into AI to make it "real"
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
And I want to be really, really, really clear:
I AM AMERICAN-ISRAELI. I AM **BEGGING** THE WORLD TO MAKE ISRAEL STOP.
I AM AMERICAN-ISRAELI. I AM **BEGGING** THE WORLD TO MAKE ISRAEL STOP.
July 25, 2025 at 12:42 AM
And I want to be really, really, really clear:
I AM AMERICAN-ISRAELI. I AM **BEGGING** THE WORLD TO MAKE ISRAEL STOP.
I AM AMERICAN-ISRAELI. I AM **BEGGING** THE WORLD TO MAKE ISRAEL STOP.
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
🧵I wrote this for the Daily Beast in 2012, noting that "Israel calculated just how many calories Gazans need in order not to starve" aka: how much food to let in.
Everything abt this war is turbo-charged old news, including controlling Gazans' caloric intake.
Click my old blog or read in thread ⬇️
Everything abt this war is turbo-charged old news, including controlling Gazans' caloric intake.
Click my old blog or read in thread ⬇️
July 25, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
I have been so grateful to @chrislhayes.bsky.social for continuing to foreground the horrors in Gaza and I don't begin to know what to do with the fact that watching those horrors unfold has not been enough to move the world to stop Israel from carrying them out.
“This is madness. We are running out of words to describe it. And the people of Gaza are running out of time,” says Chris Hayes on the dire aid situation amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
‘Madness’: Hayes says ‘the people of Gaza are running out of time’
YouTube video by MSNBC
www.youtube.com
July 25, 2025 at 12:33 AM
I have been so grateful to @chrislhayes.bsky.social for continuing to foreground the horrors in Gaza and I don't begin to know what to do with the fact that watching those horrors unfold has not been enough to move the world to stop Israel from carrying them out.
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
In a stunning moment of self-delusion, the Wall Street Journal headline writers admitted that they don't know how LLM chatbots work.
July 21, 2025 at 1:48 AM
In a stunning moment of self-delusion, the Wall Street Journal headline writers admitted that they don't know how LLM chatbots work.
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
Fascinating. Microsoft emailed me to say it was raising the price of Microsoft 365, but when i went to cancel it offered me me the old price — without all the AI bullshit.
It’s forcing AI on everyone and making them pay more for it, then only telling them they don’t have to if they try to cancel.
It’s forcing AI on everyone and making them pay more for it, then only telling them they don’t have to if they try to cancel.
July 19, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Fascinating. Microsoft emailed me to say it was raising the price of Microsoft 365, but when i went to cancel it offered me me the old price — without all the AI bullshit.
It’s forcing AI on everyone and making them pay more for it, then only telling them they don’t have to if they try to cancel.
It’s forcing AI on everyone and making them pay more for it, then only telling them they don’t have to if they try to cancel.
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
Rümeysa Öztürk describes the library in the prison where she was held for 45 days for co-authoring an op-ed
July 17, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Rümeysa Öztürk describes the library in the prison where she was held for 45 days for co-authoring an op-ed
Reposted by M. D. Silverman
ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.
The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE
ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.
www.propublica.org
July 15, 2025 at 9:32 PM
ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.