Kind of hate that we have to ask the question in this headline!

I’ve been (link)blogging recently about needing to talk about epistemology when we talk about generative AI. I know that in at least one case, I’ve evoked the generation of scientific knowledge as a counterexample to the “just the facts, ma’am” naïve epistemology promoted by AI and its supporters. To use generative AI to review papers—and to try to get around peer review—feels particularly dangerous to me.

There’s a genre of news story that I actively avoid following the discourse on but end up reading about once Mike Masnick writes on it, and then I get angry with everyone else. This fits nicely in that genre.

Finally read the full quote from Noem and it’s so bad. Scary times.

After seeing a few headlines, this is the first thing I’ve read on this fiasco. What a mess.

Interesting point from Masnick.

I finally read about the whole tattoo thing. It’s so dumb that it makes me angry. I don’t want to think about it, but I’m bookmarking it because if I don’t, my brain will refuse to remember that Donald Trump made such a dumb assertion. It will get drowned out by so many other dumb things.

Solid post with damning critiques.

I appreciate Masnick’s roundup of all the stupid things going on re: tariffs.

Masnick’s writing has never struck me as inflammatory or rushed. If he’s using this language, we should all be worried.

I soured on Section 230 for a bit, but I came back and largely because of arguments like this one.

As usual, lots to like in this post from Mike Masnick.

More good writing from Masnick on scary stuff coming out of DC.

Masnick pulls no punches.

Saw someone link to this and remembered I should probably read the whole thing instead of just the first few paragraphs. I fall somewhere between Doctorow and Masnick on Bluesky optimism, but I really appreciate their dialogue on it.

This was one of the dumbest parts of all Meta’s announcements and now it’s… basically nothing, too?

Some more good writing on a bad situation.

Yet more to demonstrate that “free speech” often means “right-wing speech.”

Bookmarking as yet another example of Elon Musk’s free speech reputation being undeserved.

I don’t like Big Tech, but I’ve become more wary of regulation in recent years because folks like Masnick have compellingly made this argument over and over: It’s the smaller, better companies and sites that suffer the most from it.

Post election is a great time to realize the dangers that KOSA poses.

I wasn’t sure about a retheming of Mille Bornes for this game, but this post on design decisions was actually really reassuring.

Masnick is excellent at balancing “Musk has a right to do this” with “the hypocrisy is shameful.”

Worth reading (and bookmarking). I’ve been hesitant to make the “no, actually, Big Tech is biased against liberals” argument, but this seems a compelling datum for that conclusion…

Deeply appreciate Masnick’s writeup. I don’t know the ins and outs of the law, and that’s given me some pause in being upset about the ruling. To see a lawyer find fault with so much gives me greater confidence in my own frustration.

The most dangerous part, though, doesn’t require a law degree to understand. The logic of the findings poses a threat to all libraries, not just this one.

Interesting read wirh important implications for how we think about research quality.