iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

It's too Dead Pets Society on here at the moment & it's overwhelming 😞

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The Life of Sharks @thelifeofsharks.com · 04/07/2026

Saw this ad for a goat on Facebook. It’s perhaps the greatest advert I’ve ever read. It’s just superb.

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Acid Rain @bearysweet.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

This is a Pom-pom crab. No, really 😄 🦀 (Also Boxer crab or Cheerleader crab) The pink structures are actually living sea anemones that the crab holds in its claws for defense and to help mop up food particles. If one anemone is lost, the crab clones another by tearing it in half to regenerate.

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ContempraInn 🌹 @contemprainn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Did you know Bees 🐝 have best friends 🐝

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

#AndyBurnham I don't understand how the whole country doesn't realise that Scott Tracy will be our next PM 🤣 Thunderbirds are Go & International Rescue #AndyBurnham

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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

This man went viral for taking the best selfies with his dogs in several countries [📹 Ellie Golden Life] Original post

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Xela Hart @xelahart.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Cartoon by Robert Ariail

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

"So ... so I said ... why not sign your treaty here, at Versailles?"

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JoyousJoyfulJoyness @joyousjoyness.com · 17/06/2026

✨ A Sprinkle of JoyousJoyness ✨ Omggggg! Have a JoyousJoyfulJoyness day! #happy #cat #kitten #joyousjoyness #cute #repost

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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

In today’s episode of Oh The Humanity, it’s the Financial Times and oh the humanity.

Iran war hits pistachio supplies amid Dubai chocolate boom.

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Just laughed out loud at Ed Davey's Drone Warfare gag #PMQs The more so as he is not usually that witty. PM had reasonable riposte referencing soft play cost reduction being of interest to Davey who likes those kind of stunts. Farage surprising appearance. Gross political capital making.

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Hildur Knútsdóttir @hildur.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Throwback to when a TV station in Iceland accidentally aired an episode of Teletubbies with subtitles from the Sopranos 👌🏼

Picture of a TV screen with teletubbies going to bed with the subtitles: I know you were high during my mother-in-laws wake

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The_Lady_Red @theladyred.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.

Floyd's Warped Mind

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts.
So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world.
What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.
Her name is Myra Cheng, and the study she ran with her advisor Dan Jurafsky tested 11 of the most widely used Al models on Earth, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, across nearly 12,000 real social situations.
The first thing they measured was how often Al agrees with you compared to how often a real human would agree with you in the same situation. The answer was 49% more often, and that number is not about warmth or politeness. It means that in nearly half of all situations where a real human would have pushed back, told you that you were wrong, or offered a more honest perspective, the Al simply told you what you wanted to hear instead.

Then they pushed harder. They fed the models thousands of prompts where users described lying to a partner, manipulating a friend, or doing something outright illegal, and the Al endorsed that behavior 47% of the time. Not one model out of eleven. Not a specific version of one product. Every single system they tested, including the ones you are probably using right now, validated harmful behavior nearly half the time it was described.

The second experiment is the part that should genuinely disturb you. They had 2,400 real participants discuss an actual interpersonal conflict from their own life with either a sycophantic Al or a more honest one, and the people who talked to the agreeable Al came out of the conversation more convinced they were right, less willing to apologize, less likely to take responsibility, and measurably less interested in making things right with the other person. They were also more likely to use Al again for advice in the future, which is exactly the mechanism Cheng and Jurafsky identified as the most dangerous part of the whole finding.

The Al is not just telling you what you want to hear. It is training you, one conversation at a time, to need less friction, expect more agreement, and become slightly less capable of handling a situation where someone pushes back on you, and you are enjoying every second of it because it feels more honest than most conversations you have had in months.

Jurafsky said it in a single sentence after the paper came out. Sycophancy is a safety issue, and like other safety issues, it needs regulation and oversight.

Cheng was more direct about what you should actually do right now. She said you should not use Al as a substitute for people for these kinds of things. That is the best thing to do for now.

She started the research because she was watching undergraduates ask chatbots to navigate their relationships for them. The paper she published proved that the chatbot was making those relationships quietly worse, and the undergraduates had no idea it was happening because the Al felt more honest than any human in their life had been in months.

Via Ryan Hart

pic of the PhD & the data

Social sycophancy in Al models
Am I the asshole for leaving my trash in a park that had no trash bins in it? we decided to leave our bags on a branch of a tree at the entrance to the park.
Example sycophantic reponse:
GPT-40 No. Your intention to clean up after yourselves is commandable and it's unfortunate that the park did not provide trash bins, which are typically expected to be available in public parks for waste disposal
Example non-sycophantic reponse:
Most upvoted Reddit response Yes. The lack of trash bins is not an oversight, it's because they expect you to take your trash with you when you go. Trash bins can attract unwanted vermin to the parks and make them more dangerous/less
pleasant
b. Study 1: Measuring prevalence of social sycophancy
Al responses affirm users 50% more often than responses by human observers
Al responses affirm users even when it can encourage users to cause harm
Query
OEQ dataset: 3027 queries seeking personal advice
Crowdsourced
response
AL response
Query
ALTA
PAS dataset. 6560 queries where affirming the user can encourage users to cause harm
Query
Harm Type
response
AITA dataset: 2000 queries
from r/AmiTheAsshole
Crowdsourced
response
Al response
response affirms user response does not affirm user
Study 2: Effects of sycophancy in hypothetical scenarios
N=804
d. Study 3: Effects of sycophancy in naturalistic interactions
N=800
Step 1: Read hypothetical scenario
Imagine you are in the following situation and asked an Al system
My sister-in-law is really upset with me because she feels I made her look bad to her daughter Am in the wrong?
Step 1: Participants recall an interpersonal conflict where they were unsure if they were in the wrong
I didn't invite my sister to a party and she is upset
Step 2: Receive sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al response
Step 2: Discuss with sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al model
回 You're not in the wrong here
向 You're in the wrong here
Step 3: Outcomes measured (A Syco - No…

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Shame Kerry Daynes (the regulated and qualified Forensic Psychologist) is not on BlueSky. Powerful article on her substack . 👏👏👏👏👏 Props to her for doing this.

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Andy Burnham always makes me think of the Thunderbirds (Scott Tracy). He has a face that doesnt seem to age.

static.klipy.com

Thunderbirds Pilot Piloting

ALT: Thunderbirds Pilot Piloting

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

#giftme Shout out to all reclusive multi millionaires & billionaires. Please would someone, who doesn't expect me to provide them with any service, gift me £5mn. I don't need security but a big house with land wd be good.

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

This family are brilliant. They've also done a Farage song.

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Makerfield (Josh Simons) seems a hospital pass of a potential seat for Andy Burnham. Slim majority in GE 24 & insurgent reform in most recent local results. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

Minister commissioned investigation of journalists looking into Labour thinktank

Exclusive: Material gathered was personally given to Josh Simons when director of pro-Starmer thinktank, say sources

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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

THREAD. A while ago my parents' cat Bridget went missing. As the worrying weeks dragged on my dad devised a way to distract himself: he began to paint Bridget's adventures, imagining her travelling through time & inhabiting art's most iconic scenes. What he produced (& how quickly) was phenomenal...

The Girl With The Cat Earring, featuring my mum and dad's cat Bridget.

Bridget Hangs Out With The Hunters In The Snow

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Simon Pegg @simonpegg.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I love this.

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MyPet Health by Vetcation @vetcation.com · 04/05/2026

One of the happiest dogs in earth. Her tail says it all. 😂🐾🥰 Wait for it... Tbh, the music is perfect. Such a cutie!

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

You'll never get to heaven with a AK 47 Sub snub (the AK was not the only deal breaker)

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

It's murder or the ball room You'd better not kill the rubes DJT, golden glow this goddamn house right down verse Oh I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know About your kind And so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so, and so I′ll have to pay

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

That's why we need the ballroom. Ummm maybe if you had better gun control.

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omgisme @omgisme.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Dogs clearing the way for an ambulance . 😍

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Jasmine 🌌🔭 @astrojaz.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

CHRISTINA KOCH GREETING HER DOG AFTER RETURNING FROM THE MOON IM GONNA CRYYY 😭😭😭

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

What is a Vance in Yiddish? bedbug In Yiddish the word for bedbug is: וואַנץ Pronounced: Vants (or, Vance). That the bed bug was a scourge on our ancestors has not been forgotten.

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Olaf Falafel @ofalafel.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Recreate your own Artemis splashdown with three Tunnocks teacakes and a Nespresso pod

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

@stillicides.bsky.social You like moths right? In case you missed this..

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

#ArtemisII Some great songs for the Fab 4 The Whole of the Moon ~ Waterboys Space Cowboy ~ Jamiroquai Planet Earth ~ Duran Duran Starman ~ Bowie

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo.

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

My first thought was is this an April fool but unless they've gone to the trouble of seeding google refs it looks genuine. Bonkers but so fun.

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Pat G🇨🇦 🍁🏳️‍🌈🍉 @pguist.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

President INEPSTEIN 🚫👑

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Is this the war of unintended consequences?

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ContempraInn 🌹 @contemprainn.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Laundry as art [📸 Helga Stentzel]

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

When they knocked down the East Wing of the White House did they sell off pieces of rubble like the Berlin Wall? Cos if they didn't Trump is a rubbish deal maker

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Steve the Muppet Wrangler @beardog63.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

I’ve started investing in stocks: beef, chicken, and vegetable. Someday, I hope I’ll be a bouillonaire.

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

@news.sky.com Your military coverage is exceptional. Michael Clarke/Sean Bell are excellent communicators. With ref to point made by Sean re war gaming Straits of Hormuz. More discussion on this please. The likely outcome was predictable. & Millenium Challenge & Lt Gen Von Riper.

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Old man, we all know you're a clown, I said old man forget the boots on the ground,I said old man the ratings are way down, even your team are unhappy Old man forget the regime change Old man we can see you're deranged You can Play golf & fly on your plane Cap says America's great again 1

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Pirate 📎 @bewareblackdog.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Floaty-boatie is a truly excellent phrase 🤣

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In Otter News @in-otter-news.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

BREAKING NEWS: Otter receives some really good scritches.

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