iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Brian Honan @brianhonan.bsky.social · 3h

Presenters - please look at the font size and style for your text in presentations. A white font with a size of 10pt on a black background may look cool on your laptop screen but is illegible on a screen in a large room. Large fonts and less text per slide is better

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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 20h

This document is going to be an assigned reading in college classes that cover this moment in time, there's a lot happening in a few paragraphs... www.ahmath.org/statements

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 14h

I checked. It isn’t me. That’s a relief. After the day I’ve had I wasn’t sure.

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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Crucially, that means not only are we losing work, but it also means clients have less contact with the expertise we bring to the job. Less expertise means less good judgement, which in turn means that genAI slop becomes increasingly seen as acceptable quality – and that’s the spiral we’re in now.

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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

What’s happening now is an awful lot of the smaller jobs that artists build careers on – or use to fill gaps – have disappeared, filled by the technology developed using our work. It’s like dissolving the cement between the bricks in a wall. And in some cases, the bricks are dissolving too.

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Brian Honan @brianhonan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Common theme through many of the talks at the CERT EU conference is that of digital sovereignty. A topic that a few years ago would have been more of a conceptual discussion rather than today being viewed as a real concern Time for us to put digital sovereignty on our risk plans #certeuconf26

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Pat Walshe - Privacy Matters 🇮🇪🇬🇧🇪🇺 @privacymatters.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

NGOs & activists. Here’s @coe.int Civil Society Consultation Survey on the future role of the Council of Europe forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/Respon... Given that the @coe.int develops international instruments that non-member countries may ratify, it would also be a positive move to reflect that

forms.cloud.microsoft

Microsoft Forms

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Alex Harvey @alexharvv.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Oh this can just fuck off An AI-'written' complete copy of my own book is now on Amazon; same title, more-or-less the same blurb, and exactly the same impetus. Reviewers of Amazon, I urge you to absolutely dive-bomb this plagiaristic piece of shit: www.amazon.co.uk/FORGOTTEN-VI...

A hollow copy of my book with a shit AI-generated cover

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I see people are quoting the Irish Minister for transport on things here. Hopefully people will check before tagging me in on posts this time. And his name is spelled with 2 Rs. Like the storm we had when he was Environment Minister en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_D...

en.wikipedia.org

Storm Darragh - Wikipedia

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🌎🐎John Hyphen🎮🤠 @johnhyphen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

there are about 4,000 schools in the state, primary and secondary with €102 million, you'd have €25,000 each – i'm pretty sure you could put solar panels on every single school in the country for that much instead of funding gambling on sports rife with animal cruelty

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🎃🎃🎃Michael Scare-anicolas🎃🎃🎃 @karanicolas.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

So this is now confirmed. Canada, as well as the EU and Lithuania, withdrew due to American pressure. Just complete cowardice, and an unwillingness to accept the threat staring us in the face.

theguardian.com

EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request

Lithuania and Canada were also pressured to withdraw, and days before #Disinfo2026, logos were wiped off website

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

So, over time you wind up with higher volumes of review tasks being performed by people who lack the expertise and cognitive chops to do the review. This is Bainbridge’s Ironies of Automation all over again. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironies...

en.wikipedia.org

Ironies of Automation - Wikipedia

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Just like drafting a document or preparing a report or collating research. The magic eightball just moves the effort to a different point in the process but, in doing so, removes the cognitive friction needed to learn or maintain skills. Buckets of research on this now.

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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The bulk (80%) of the money the Irish government give to the racing industry is in the form of prize money (ie race winners get the cash), which is an *objectively* an inefficient and unfair way to distribute government subsidies…

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Tea Junkie @teajunkie.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I hope this gets the attention that it merits - "people who had spent the full first 1,000 days of life under sugar rationing had a 33% lower risk of being diagnosed with anxiety than those born after rationing ended." www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

theguardian.com

The generation raised on sugar rations – and what their health reveals 70 years later

From blood pressure to ageing, research suggests the first 1,000 days of sugar exposure could leave a decades-long mark on health

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Victoria McIntosh @vmcntosh.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Everyone on this site knows their vampire lore, right?

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

That’s a lad who would steal your homework off you in school and hand it in as his own. The tech just makes it easier. I’m doing a LOT of talks at the moment (and since early last year) on impact on skills development and knowledge retention. Doing one soon. Details: irms.org.uk/events/#!eve...

irms.org.uk

Events - IRMS

Select an event to register. Members are free and non-members will need to pay a fee to join in and attend

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Software engineering could and should be done with the same care as any other type of engineering. This is a post in honor of Margaret Hamilton (and also a subtweet of all vibe-coders everywhere).

Screencap

"“I fought to bring the software legitimacy so that it — and those building it — would be given its due respect, and thus I began to use the term ‘software engineering’ to distinguish it from hardware and other kinds of engineering, yet treat each type of engineering as part of the overall systems engineering process,” Hamilton told El Pais in 2018. “When I first started using this phrase, it was considered to be quite amusing. It was an ongoing joke for a long time. They liked to kid me about my radical ideas. Software eventually and necessarily gained the same respect as any other discipline.”"

Source: https://news.mit.edu/2026/margaret-hamilton-computing-pioneer-dies-1007

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bryan newbold @bnewbold.net · 07/10/2026

ah damn, RIP Margaret Hamilton. she took safety-critical software engineering seriously, and got people to the moon and back. news.mit.edu/2026/margare...

old photos of a woman (Margaret Hamilton) standing next to a tall stack of books (printouts of Apollo space mission software source code)

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Aislínn Kelly @aislinnkellyy.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

What problem, exactly, does the Government think raising public transport fares is solving? aislinna.substack.com/p/farewell-t...

aislinna.substack.com

Farewell to Progress

Why is the Irish Government cutting the cost of fossil fuels while raising public transport fares?

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Maybe they should have stayed on defence.

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Scott Wortley @scottwortley.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Classic Archer. Signing his books after he's died.

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Chris Marsden @chrismarsden.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"A landmark ruling in the High Court has found planning authorities are required to consider the emissions caused by burning fossil fuels overseas when approving projects. 3 out of 5 judges found in favour of a Hunter Valley residents' group" coal mining on Mt Pleasant www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10...

abc.net.au

NSW coalmine climate ruling a massive shake-up to Australia's oil and gas

Australia's High Court rules in favour of a Hunter Valley community group in a landmark climate ruling that could redraw how fossil fuel projects are approved in Australia.

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 07/10/2026

Canada is refusing to issue ISBNs to books primarily generated with AI. This illustrates both the urgency of the problem of the growing flood of slop books, and also the toothlessness of addressing it on the honor system without there also being consequences for lying

Use of artificial intelligence
By registering with ISBN Canada, you declare that your book was created by a human author. You may use AI tools only for limited support tasks, such as brainstorming ideas, checking grammar, or formatting your book. You must not use AI to generate the text, create the artwork, or translate the book. ISBN Canada does not issue ISBNs for works whose content is primarily generated by AI. LAC is currently reviewing its policy regarding the use of AI content creation and our guidance is subject to change.

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Keifer @dannyvegito.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

David Ellison just dragged the animaniacs out of the water tower and shot them dead right there in the middle of the street

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 07/10/2026

you don’t hold "AI" accountable; you hold AI developers, vendors, and corporations that profit off it accountable holding "AI accountable" is like holding a toaster accountable. it's an inanimate object. it doesn't have wishes, feelings, or desires

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Sharrow 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇮🇪🦄💙📚🎃 @sharrow.eurosky.social · 06/10/2026

Then why are we not future proofing with solar farms and 100% grants for solar at home and heat pumps?

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Oonagh Duggan @naturenymph.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Funding for national parks and wildlife service has a paltry increase of €6 million and horse and greyhound fund is up by €3 m. says all you want to know

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I’d be happier not having been excluded from the class because my publisher didn’t register copyright in US.

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Matt Binder @mattbinder.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

the tech industry is about to invent books

Andrew Yeung
@andruyeung
X.com
We created gyms because modern day work no
longer required physical activity. Without exercise,
our muscles atrophy.
I predict we'll need gyms for our brains too, once Al
starts doing our knowledge work.
10:53 PM • 10/4/26 • 1.3M Views

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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

It’d be more satisfying to read this if we could just get what we’re supposed to be paid from the feckin’ Anthropic Settlement, instead of being sent more forms to fill out to prove we wrote our own fucking books.

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Pat Walshe - Privacy Matters 🇮🇪🇬🇧🇪🇺 @privacymatters.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Context is mandatory age verification imposed on UK customers by a US based tech company that serves UK customers (& EU customers) from it’s Irish establishment, & that claims UK law requires users to verify they are 18+. The law does not. That IMO is DECEPTIVE practice impacting 30million+ users

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Margaret Mitchell @mmitchell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This is getting a lot of quotes, so I feel I should correct this a bit (sorry @anildash.com!) “AI” was 100% born toxic! The first AI workshop was born from the field of “automata studies”, and…1/ (Pictured: the folks who convened for the first workshop. Notice anything notable here?)

A group of white men, sitting on the grass and smiling at the photographer. Black and white photo (1956).

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 05/10/2026

I can’t emphasize this enough — “AI” wasn’t born corrupt and toxic. For ~75 years, it was mathematicians and scientists doing interesting, thoughtful work and trying to solve problems, making only the usual human mistakes. What “AI” did to machine learning is as tragic as what it did to artists.

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

There is a legend… www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-... And frankly, reimagining the Apostles as ninja makes me chuckle.

smithsonianmag.com

The Little-Known Legend of Jesus in Japan

A mountain hamlet in northern Japan claims Jesus Christ was buried there

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Well, at least the @dpcireland.bsky.social is still getting more than the greyhounds. Unlike a few years ago.

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Hmm. Pity @dpcireland.bsky.social didn’t consider the work @castlebridge.bsky.social did with @smartdublin.bsky.social a few years ago on a taxonomy approach to DPIA for drone-mounted sensors. We did a paper on it for Tilburg law review storage.googleapis.com/jnl-up-j-tlr...

storage.googleapis.com

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Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Microsoft Word suggests replacing all references to "tarnishment cases" with "garnishment cases" and now I'm imagining what havoc AI could wreak with trademark law

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Irish customers among those to get this push notification today, entitled “ASOS HACKED”... “Dear ASOS DPO and IT, we have full compromised the Snowflake instance. Engage with us, or we will leak it.”

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Liz Truss’s spell as Prime Minister barely long enough to spell prime minister.

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Mark Sugrue 🇪🇺 @marksugrue.com · 06/10/2026

This is good for my income - but I'd much prefer they spent the money on improving public transport and housing. That would be worth more to me than €500.

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Alberto Alemanno @alemanno.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Today I challenge the Draghi Consensus in the @financialtimes.com “Faster uptake of AI is not an economic strategy if the benefits concentrate while its costs fall on workers and communities” www.ft.com/content/40cc...

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Daragh Ó Briain @daraghobrien.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It really is a “cake or death” choice.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Interesting to see how China is regulating AI companions including saying that chatbots cannot create ‘emotional reliance or addiction’. Fines are relatively small but seems like some companies are taking it seriously www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Chatbots can't create "emotional reliance or addiction" or induce people to make
"unreasonable decisions". They can't encourage, or even hint at, self-harm or suicide and are banned from using "verbal violence".
Companies can face fines of 200,000 yuan
(E22,000) or the risk that the government
"circulates criticism", in effect publicly shaming them.
A week before the law came into effect, two of China's biggest tech companies, Alibaba and ByteDance, shut down the companion features on their Al assistants.

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Meta is the Torment Nexus @priva.cat · 05/10/2026

I'm reading Louis Brandeis' 'Other people's money and how bankers use it.' It offers a fascinating historical parallel to the concentrations of power and finance we see today. You could easily sub out investment bankers and railroads for tech CEOs and AI.

A page from the book. The highlighted text reads

Vast fortunes like those of the Astors are no doubt regrettable. They are inconsistent with democracy. They are unsocial. And they seem peculiarly unjust when they represent largely unearned increment.

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