"It's like, I know I'm just sitting at my desk job right now, but I have an imagination. I have an inner life. I can use that to envision better work for myself, a better society for others, to communicate, to rest, to plan next steps. That can alleviate a lot..." -me @TeenVogue. https://www-teenvogue-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.teenvogue.com/story/bored-at-work-what-to-do/amp

I tend to still view myself as relatively young but today I met with an accomplished 25 year-old student interested in my work, whose entire life thus far roughly coincides with my career working in humanism, religion, and related matters (including, now, the intersection of tech and religion/ethics). Damn. Life comes at you fast ... very slowly.

@highjynx @TCatInReality @leftyknowitall I have a whole book explaining my nuanced position on this out in a year so I won't get into it now. I'll just say for now that there is zero reason, beyond religious faith (zealotry, really) to believe that language models will ever be able to provide good therapy. They are in many ways the antithesis of good therapy and I find it sad, and deserving of some mockery, that important tech leaders would assume otherwise.

@highjynx @TCatInReality @leftyknowitall I have a whole book explaining my nuanced position on this out in a year so I won't get into it now. I'll just say for now that there is zero reason, beyond religious faith (zealotry, really) to believe that language models will ever be able to provide good therapy. They are in many ways the antithesis of good therapy and I find it sad, and deserving of some mockery, that important tech leaders would assume otherwise.

@seachanger @highjynx Yes I have a whole book coming out next year, expanding on this sort of line of thinking!

“One man’s election misinformation is another man’s free speech” - Elon Musk

The other man happens to be Vladimir Putin.

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/musks-x-cuts-half-of-election-integrity-team-after-promising-to-expand-it

For those interested in AI, this is a fantastic primer by the AINow Institute on the infrastructure needed to make AI work. Think: chips and compute plus the geopolitics, institutions, markets, and politics that make it all happen. https://ainowinstitute.org/publication/policy/compute-and-ai

@gepstein Wow…guess I should get ready to retire. I’m looking forward to seeing how AI handles a hormone-addled teenage who answers every question with “nothing, I’m fine”. I’m guessing they will congratulation said teen on their fineness and send them on their merry way?

@DataDrivenMD I have a kind of section for just that in the book I just finished writing and turned in, but damn if this doesn't command a bit of a rewrite

@gepstein We need to start a Hall of Shame for bad takes, and that post you shared should be the first inductee 😬

Jesus, and I cannot stress this enough, Fucking Christmas. You could not get any better definition of the religious hubris of tech if you looked it up in a Biblical encyclopedia. (Sutskever's post is so epically bad, it inspired my first cross-post!)

"In a world where tech has become a transcendent force, people are always looking for guidance."

by @gepstein

"Techno-solutionism and related ideas can function as a kind of theology, justifying harm in the here and now with the promise of a sweet technological hereafter."

#ATIH #teamhuman

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/08/15/1077369/tech-ethics-congregation/

Turned in my 100,000+ word TECH AGNOSTIC draft yesterday. 5 years of work. @mitpress@birdsite.miisu.net is already sending it out for peer review (and advice on what to cut, as it is *long*, including ~5,000 words just for my several hundred references). Need to send pre-publicity info for the distribution plan via @penguinrandom@birdsite.miisu.net, next week. I can't believe it's really real. https://twitter.com/gregmepstein/status/1450928472625487877

Personally, I wish that the "code red" response that ChatGPT inspired at Google wasn't to launch a dozen AI products that their red teams and AI ethicists have warned them not to release, but to combat the tsunami of AI-generated SEO spam bullshit that's in the process of destroying their core product. Instead, they're blissfully launching new free tools to generate even more of it.

@jackmjenkins Yes, this is how it's starting to seem. Still nominally here and Twitter but it finally feels like these are just tools I occasionally choose to use...it used to feel like they were using me and I was helpless to resist. I've seen many students who saw the role it played in the lives of people right before them, and how it had taken over their parents' lives in many cases, as well. And it grossed them out. Sort of how I felt about my own parents and smoking.

Thanks so much,
@gepstein and Boston Public Library for that wonderful and meaningful discussion this eve about hope from the grassroots amid #ClimateEmergency. And I second Greg's enthusiasm for
Porter Square Books. Indie bookstores are also vital community institutions! Details here on how to get a signed copy of AT HOME ON AN UNRULY PLANET from them. https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/637bef1eaef677429afdc620

What kinds of events/convenings/conversations does the fediverse need to get to the next level?

Well, I did it. I tested out ChatGPT-3. The prompt I gave was for the thing I've been avoiding writing: an invitation to a 1-year-late baby naming ceremony, drawing on lyrics to Ani DiFranco songs and the existentialist philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir.

Sure, that's a very...specific prompt, but still: if the extremely basic, wooden, uncreative draft it spat back is any indication of this "disruptive" technology's quality, get ready for an absolute avalanche of blah spam in the coming months.

RT @profitratedown@twitter.com

👀
"[tenure-track] faculty are up to 25 times more likely to have a parent with a Ph.D. Moreover, this rate nearly doubles at prestigious universities and is stable across the past 50 years."

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/profitratedown/status/1610696914525356032