AI and the Illusion of Productivity
Cheating is when you skip the hard work of developing a strategy and ask the ever friendly Claude to write one for you instead.
Latest
Trying Google's NotebookLM, Part 2
The personalized AI research assistant finds its voice, but maybe not yours
Subject: Getting Back In Touch
Little postcards to you all before we get down to business.
The MoP-Up #4: Why Release Half-Baked AI Products?
"I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that postmortem."
Product Managing the AI Media Free-For-All
Weak Baselines and Bad Management
The pressure is high in the AI world right now and baselines are wobbling.
Forcing You to Listen: The Supreme Court vs. Content Moderation
It’s about forcing speech on you, and forcing platforms to host speech they otherwise wouldn’t want to.
Computer Art Got Worse in the Age of Machine Learning: Notes from an AI Art Fair
The best thing at the inaugural Paris deeep AI Art Fair was generative art from 55 years ago.
The Fate of Social Networks in the AI Era
MoP #7: Social Contracts, and a Common Misunderstanding About LLMs
One of the clauses of the modern social contract is that adults should follow the news. This may sound onerous, but the bar is quite low. We’re talking about being aware of the big stories, maybe engaging with a bit of analysis from different perspectives, perhaps even spending a
Surviving the Spiral: The Internet's Collective Future
From AI appropriation to browsers that evade monetization, the foundations of the Internet teeter
Introducing MoPE: An Evaluation Dataset for Professional Editing
Evaluating whether out-of-the-box LLM technology can assist with copy editing at a professional level.
The Mop-Up #3: MoP Fixes the News Business
"I don’t know, but I am not ready to leave our democracy in the hands of citizen journalists on TikTok."
MoP #6: The Murky and Evolving Ethics of AI
On Substack and Abandoning Our Collective Morality
"It’s about believing your own hype, which, untreated, can lead to acute ego-monster syndrome."
What happens if The New York Times wins their case against OpenAI?
Low-risk models and the challenges of "extreme domain generalization".
art
Is AI Art Actually Art?
"His supporters criticized Anadol’s work, calling it a 'glorified lava lamp' and a 'half-million-dollar screensaver'"
newsletter
MoP #5: The Future of AI News Can Be Found In the Past
machines
There's Too Much Happening (Part 2)
To kick things off, Google DeepMind has some ideas about "self-training"
machines
There’s Too Much Happening (Part 1)
The announcements are streaming by and the FOMO is real.
paper
Paper Notes: Trying Google's NotebookLM
Ironically, I’m writing this particular post in the default 'notes' app on Mac.
newsletter
MoP #4: Believing in Spite of Everything, With Mike Fisher
machines
Where Are the Women in AI?
The drama at OpenAI has made it clear that we’re in the first season of a long-running reality show about the future of AI. If we’re signed up for episodes of mudslinging and backroom dealing, we may as well familiarize ourselves with the cast of characters. Luckily, The
paper
The Fake AI Content Era Has Arrived... at Sports Illustrated
Something of a crisis for a company that needs you to, uh, read things.
The Mop Up
The Mop-Up #1 - Fear and Loathing in Silicon Valley
paper
MoP #3 - The Future of Search (and OpenAI 🎪)
paper
The Downfall of the Open Web, And What Comes Next
"I was documenting the decline and the eventual death of the open web. Our app was a eulogy."
machines
The IHOP-ification of AI generated unleavened bread
Does OpenAI have a secret agenda to flatten the world’s rich collection of unleavened breads into the bland, American pancake?
paper
A Primer on Paper: The New Media Machines
"Oh god, I’m so tired, what’s going on? Did I miss anything? Am I already screwed?"
newsletter
MoP #2 - Some Regulation, as a Treat
paper
This Post is Not About AI Porn
"The point I will attempt to demonstrate here: The rubric for building engaged audiences around emerging media tech is nearly universal."
paper
The Automation of Sports Writing
"Connecting those specific error patterns to long-term reader behaviors is… harder."