This provides some helpful context, including confirming my suspicion that Twitter!Grok works differently than Base!Grok when it comes to these weird episodes.

Sometimes, AI news gets so depressing that it loops back around to hilarious.

One of the great “be careful what you wish for” stories is The Monkey’s Paw in which a family receives a magic item that grants wishes but discovers to their horror that all the wishes are granted in terrible, horrible ways. I can’t remember when I last read the story (though I’m confident I have—maybe in high school?), but monkey paw has stuck in my brain as the metaphor for this idea that wishes can go terribly, terribly wrong, so you really ought to think them through.

Ever since blogging twice about the Liahona and Jacques Ellul’s technique six months ago(!), I’ve been thinking a lot about this story in the Book of Mormon as a possible starting point for a Book of Mormon-based theology of technology. As I first wrote then, I think this story is particularly interesting for the implicit tension in the story: Why would an all-powerful God need a mechanical(?) device in order to communicate their divine will to their followers?

There are many terrifying things happening right now, but let’s not forget about this spectacularly dumb thing that is also, somehow, continuing.

I’ve been meaning to reread this for a while, and I’m glad I finally got to it. It’s fifteen years old now and feels it sometimes (not necessarily in a bad way), but it’s a fun read.

I appreciate Doctorow’s use of MMOs as a metaphor for economics, and even if I’m not economically savvy enough to follow all the details or evaluate their accuracy, it’s a lot of fun to read about “Great Recession, but a heist carried out by unionized workers.”

What a terrible time we’re living in. Good for these clergy, and let us all remember that they aren’t even seeing the worst of the inhumanity currently so popular.

Just heard a podcast ad where Amazon tries to claim that shopping from them is supporting small businesses, and it made me want to barf.

There’s a lot I like in this book: the call for urgency; its focus on bottom-up movements; echoes of Ellul, Graeber, and other authors I’ve appreciated. It feels like an example of the prophetic voice, and I hope to keep it in mind in the years to come.

I’m not an economist or an environmental expert, so I feel inadequate in my ability to thoroughly review it. I wish it were easier to translate those lofty ideals into daily action, though maybe part of the point is that there are no easy answers to this.

What. The. Hell.

Nick Fuentes is bad news, and I’m glad some in the GOP are recognizing that.

Good interview, and yet another thing reminding me that I need to read my copy of the book!

No surprises here but still worth bookmarking.

Honest question: Is Grokipedia a wiki? Or just Grok output?

Easy to dunk on Grokipedia, but this article gets at some ideas that I think are particularly important. If I had more time for blogging this semester, I’d write something up on Ellul’s image vs. word dichotomy and how it aligns with Koebler’s thoughts here.

Some good observations worth bookmarking.

Technology, efficiency, and growing public and private power—this has Ellul written all over it. Gift link.

Who could possibly have anticipated this?

Finally got this book, so I guess I need to read it now.

Not sure if I agree with everything here, but it’s important reflection.

Booooooo. That Wikipedia is being mined by AI scrapers and negatively affected by AI search is such a perfect encapsulation of my concerns about generative AI.

I probably ought to rate this book higher. Even if I’m not terribly interested in psalmic structure and how it applies to the Book of Alma, there are some fascinating readings of familiar characters and stories in this book. In particular, Turley’s reading of Ammonihah and “fire and brimstone” has really impacted me, and I want to spend more time with it.

In fact, that’s ultimately what keeps me from rating the book higher. I’m powering through this series and more often skimming than reading. I don’t regret that if it’s the price I pay for finally making my way through all twelve volumes, but it does mean it’s hard to truly evaluate some of these books.

The Onion is truly one of the media outlets we need most during these times.

Some good (scary) observations in here—not least speculation on what xAI’s version of Sora would look like.

Look, maybe this is a genuine misstep on OpenAI’s part, but it still feels to me like the company started with the guardrails off so that it could use this kind of user backlash to push the Overton Window in conversations with rightsholders.

Also, remember that we small potatoes rightsholders will never be able to have our voices heard like Disney or Nintendo.

Something feels off here. An AI CEO who claims they genuinely didn’t anticipate copyright and deepfake concerns is either dumb or playing dumb. I can’t help but suspect the latter, which is arguably worse, since it suggests an effort to shift the discourse before complaints come in.