iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/09/2026

Dunno about you but I'm looking forward to watching the UW Huskies play the Atlanta Hawks in a couple of weeks.

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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

👀 Florida attorney general to OpenAI: (www.myfloridalegal.com/sites/defaul...)

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/09/2026

While I'm throwing out Americana recommendations, check out the latest from Mary Gauthier. The opening track Alcohol and Adderall is as good place to start as any. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOrf...

youtube.com

Mary Gauthier - Alcohol and Adderall

YouTube video by Stevie's Concertos 2

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/09/2026

After a long wait, brilliant Americana performer Ian Noe is back with a double album, The Canyon Falls Trailer Band. Listen to the whole thing—but here's one of several uptempo numbers that are a fun switch-up after the first two records.

youtube.com

The Heidelberg Fisherman's Ball

YouTube video by Ian Noe - Topic

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/09/2026

"I believe that science derives its authority from something more than mastering the pipeline from data generation to publication. Rather, it comes from interactions within a community of people trained to interrogate evidence and answer for the conclusions they draw from it."

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 28/09/2026

Seriously, guys, just leave Gary home.

Recently, Gary’s buddies requested he not mention Palantir on their nights out together so as to not tank the whole group’s chances of getting laid. “I get nervous now. I don’t bring it up,” he says. (Gary, along with the other daters in this piece, have been given pseudonyms to protect against professional, if not romantic, repercussions.)

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Craig Kaplan @triggerloop.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The RT was annotated in the sequence previously for sure, but what was discovered was the associated clustered repeats that are expressed and appear to associate with the RT, i.e a potential anti-viral system of unknown function but potentially programmable in some way

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 27/09/2026

Ignore for a moment the question about whether Anthropic trains on user sessions. I am I right in reading this as saying that Anthropic's "never-before-discovered" reverse transcriptase was *patented* three years ago?

Dr. Mestre first encountered the enzymes in jumbo phages in 2022 while searching for new reverse transcriptases. He worked briefly as a consultant for ReNegade Therapeutics, which filed a patent in 2023 on a number of reverse transcriptases, including the ones Dr. Mestre found. He is listed as a co-inventor on the patent filing.

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Alex Kale @kalealex.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I would be embarrassed to push a piece of software that lied to and defamed its users like this.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 27/09/2026

IANAL but this is an easy win as a false light tort. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_l...

en.wikipedia.org

False light - Wikipedia

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 27/09/2026

Google Gemini says that @jevinwest.bsky.social and I aren't to be trusted because in our first lecture, we had a playful example where Jevin presented data the same way that Tim Cook did, and I called bullshit on it. It hallucinates criticism and the only citations are to the lecture itself.

1. The "Explosive Growth" Slide ControversyIronically, the most direct and explicit example of this occurred during their very first "Calling Bullshit" lecture at the University of Washington.The Setup: Jevin West presented a slide to the class showing a graph that purported to show the "explosive, hockey-stick growth" of web traffic to their new Calling Bullshit website. The graph utilized standard marketing axes and compressed timeframes to make the project look like an unmitigated, runaway viral sensation.The "Bullshit": Carl Bergstrom actually had to step in and call "bullshit" on his own co-instructor's slide. When the data was displayed honestly without selective axis truncation or creative smoothing, it showed that while traffic was high initially, it heavily ebbed, flowed, and plateaued over time.The Criticism: While some praised this as a playful, planned pedagogical moment to show that "anyone can fall prey to bad data framing," critics viewed it as a perfect illustration of the double standard: when it serves a personal or professional promotional narrative (like proving your own course is a massive success), the temptation to use flawed, hype-driven metrics is incredibly high.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026

We desperately need much stronger disclosure, norms in academic publishing and we need publishers to step up their game in enforcing them.

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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 26/09/2026

My top 4 Crow Full Moon shots tonight. P L E N T Y of video to edit someday! 🪶 🐦‍⬛

a crow flies in front of the moon, greyish sky, the crow is flapping their wings down

two crows fly in front and near the moon, in the middle and the bottom left, a snowy egret is out of focus below the moon, greyish sky

a crow flies in front of the moon, dark sky, the crow is flapping their wings up but not fully extended

a crow flies in front of the moon, dark purple sky, the crow is in full cruise mode

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026

Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026

Tech journalists do even the bare minimum of work in assessing the credibility of your sources challenge.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 25/09/2026

Hanlon's razor is a Möbius strip with these people. Malice? Yes. Stupidity? Yes. They're one and the same.

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

and yes, before anyone asks, I am absolutely familiar with Pascal Jousselin's Mr. Invincible (as it's called in English)! As good as I thought it was when I just seen a few pages online, when it finally came out in english, I was shocked how relentlessly creative he was page after page - so good!

Cover to Mr. Invincible, and interior page - in which using his powers to see the layout of the page, mr. invincible rescues a cat in a tree not by climbing the tree, but by reaching down to the panel below him and grabbing it that way. It's pretty fun - and only in comics!

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/09/2026

Honey that's what we had in school in the '80s.

What’s one word that comes to mind when you hear the name James Talarico?
Jeffrey, 34, independent, Latino, school counselor

Progressive.
Dennis, 62, Republican, white, retired

Neutral.
Jennifer, 50, Republican, white, stay-at-home parent

Same-sex bathrooms in high schools and grade school.

Jennifer, you said “same-sex bathrooms.” Tell me more about why that comes to you.
Jennifer, 50, Republican, white, stay-at-home parent

That’s what he wants to do in schools. I’m totally against that.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/09/2026

Y'all are really phoning it in with this one. Take this graph. It's useless because you didn't bother to describe the denominator. (These are protein amounts per 100g.)

Graph of total protein and essential amino acids for various foods.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/09/2026

I'm one of the those old-fashioned sorts who takes delight in meeting my colleagues around the world, breaking bread with them, and enjoying friendships worldwide for decades thereafter.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 23/09/2026

Friends in Adelaide and South Australia more generally: I'm looking at a birding trip (Gluepots/Flinders) in early August 2027. I'd love to swing by the university or anywhere else to give a talk. If you're interesting, drop me a note. cbergst@uw.edu Or just tell me where to go while visiting.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 23/09/2026

Thinking back to the good old days when publishing a paper every three days required some human to be insecure enough to write up two ideas that didn't deserve to see the light of day every single week.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 23/09/2026

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 23/09/2026

It's increasingly hard to explain what exists without relying on metaphysics. Nice.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 22/09/2026

If you’re like me, immunologically, you have probably suffered a fever for one (Moderna) up to the (Pfizer) days after getting a Covid vaccine. Yesterday I tried Novavax instead, and had absolutely zero side effects (at the same time as my flu shot no less). It’s well worth a try if you haven’t.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 22/09/2026

This skit is not even funny, it's just stupid. SNL needs new writers.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/09/2026

As Alex notes in this thread, AI doesn't "democratize" science. Rather, it compels scientists to rely on anti-egalitarian means of directing their attention.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/09/2026

Someone is still trying to justify the whole Sydney business to the wifey.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 20/09/2026

And Now for Something Completely Different: A perspective on AI swarms from someone who actually knows something about collective behavior.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 20/09/2026

Anyone remember when we had three branches of government?

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Nathalie Maréchal, PhD @nathaliemarechal.net · 20/09/2026

I will not link to it, but @theatlantic.com has published a transparent piece of AI cult propaganda, authored by a self-described “AI safety and policy” researcher who is funded by Coefficient Giving. Shameful.

Screen shot of the title and byline of the Atlantic article “the data-center debate is divorced from the facts” by Andy Masley

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andy Masley
Andy Masley is a writer and researcher focused on AI safety and policy, working on a grant from Coefficient Giving. His writing can be found on his Substack and website.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19/09/2026

Google is like guys, guys....wait up guys! Our AI is dangerous too!

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19/09/2026

Between the human verification, and the three factor authentication and so forth, I can transfer my life savings to a random bitcoin account easier than I can read a Nature paper my library subscribes to.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19/09/2026

We’re Google. Don’t crawl us, we’ll crawl you.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19/09/2026

When we talk about the costs that LLMs impose on society we should not forget the fact that nothing works anymore because everyone is so scared of getting their shit scraped. I can't even use google scholar from my university or starlink because they send too much traffic.

Google
Sorry...
We're sorry...

... but your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.
See Google Help for more information.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 18/09/2026

This is horrifying. Please join me in calling for an immediate return to getting our false intelligence about WMDs from the CIA and other organic sources.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

AI is screwing up journal papers: Journal editor asks authors of 10 submitted papers to meet and discuss their paper. Of the 7 that showed up, 3 were unable to answer basic questions about the paper and 3 had difficulty when asked further questions on technical details… medium.com/@TmlrOrg/ask...

medium.com

Asking Authors About Their Own Papers

By Nihar B. Shah

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 18/09/2026

It is unsurprising that my federal funding agencies are uninterested in covering foreign travel. What is more disappointing is that my own university has been imposing more and more burdensome limits—some in direct contradiction to their own policies—on international travel and collaboration.

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Shana @shanamd.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I am SORRY for sharing something that was posted on the other place, but this is too good.

The future pope at a party with a caption “they don’t know I’m the future pope”

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/09/2026

Short thread: 18 months ago, as part of their assault on higher ed, Trump/DOGE/Vought terminated my friend Kelton Minor's NIH Director's award that would have allowed him to take a faculty position there. Without the funds, Columbia ultimately rescinded the position. Kelton moved to Denmark.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/09/2026

Today, with backing from the ACLU, Kelton and twelve other named researchers filed a class action suit against the NIH under director Jay Bhattacharya for censoring their research and violating their First Amendment rights.

aclu.org

Researchers Challenge NIH Screening of Grants for Disfavored Viewpoints | American Civil Liberties Union

Class action lawsuit seeks to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/09/2026

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/09/2026

Sure Bannon and Bernie agreeing about something might indicate alignment across the entire political spectrum but let's not get out ahead of ourselves. Bannon is perpetually trying to get back into the media cycle and Bernie has pretty clearly been under the sway of the EA types on his staff.

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Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I was pretty chuffed about science when the doctors at NYU figured out why my face had gone numb and I had lost the ability to speak and swallow. They turned to the scientific literature, which guided them through keeping me from dying from a rare disorder and regaining the ability to speak and eat.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 14/09/2026

When we talk about how science is broken, maybe at least consider how a huge collaboration measured the ripples in spacetime resulting the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away, as counterweight the guy who had to fake his data to show that people who procrastinate fall behind.

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