iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

In lockdown, my kid was 10 and we got them a mobile phone early to encourage keeping in touch with friends while isolated. The kids would call up and play Minecraft together, using it for game chat that they didn't have via another route. It was ambient and companionable and just nice togetherness.

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Who’s your Uber driver on the phone to? Welcome to the long, long diaspora phone call

I think this is lovely. My heart is happy when tech is used in this way. A big reason I wanted to research user interactions and emotion was to see how technology could connect people and sustain relationships. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/se...

theguardian.com

For those employed in arduous solitary work such as cab driving, a marathon phone call is the perfect place to navigate the dislocations of immigrant life

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Having kept an eye on his projections on AI, how do we get in on this grift? I would be very happy to have a general soundbitey reckon about something popular in exchange for a huge advance.

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Trains. My kid's 4th birthday involved a tunnel-boring machine Crossrail cake.

I wish they'd take the safety leaf out of the aviation playbook too.

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You take that back! It's a banger!

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This was a staple of life in our sixth form common room (a hut out the back of the school). I can remember the theme tune with uncanny musical accuracy. My favourite moment was when Henry Kelly asked a European for the capital of France. "Pareeee" said the man. "No, Paris," barked Henry, moving on.

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Disappointed the porn industry is not all over this tbh

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I think mode collapse means we're halfway there by default. We know the models tend to converge on more homogenised views, and we know people are happy to cut and paste those without question.

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This does indeed smell desperate, but that's not why I'm sharing it. No, the bit that leapt out to me was the @financialtimes.com use of the phrase "Seattle-based cloud giant" to describe Amazon, which sounds beautifully fairytale and captures the nature of this whole industry: magic beans.

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Right, I think I've now completed AI for the day. AI+X Summit Zürich continues tomorrow, I believe, but I'll be off back to the UK to do... more AI-related stuff. It never bloody ends. I guess that's what happens when it's your job and also it's an unrelenting chaos industry. 😭

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In my hotel room with BBC News on, and there's an AI segment and it's two women I know and like (Stephanie Hare, @ruchowdh.bsky.social ) and whose opinions I respect. SUCH a good thing to see women giving the expert comment (+ also no surprise that it's often women taking the solid critical stance).

A picture of the BBC News channel. On it is the newsreader, Stephanie Hare, and Rumman Chowdhury.

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It really was! And there's a bunch of people with burning ears because we've been talking about them (often citations, mostly appreciatively).

The 4.5hr flight delay aside, what an absolute treat to get to do an AI panel in Zurich with @eryk.bsky.social and @bvlsingler.bsky.social, both of whom are consistently excellent in their AI takes. Also I saw a goat robot.

Three people — Eryk, Beth, and me — smiling for the camera in a selfie pic taken at a table in a hotel bar.

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OMG IMAGINE LIVING IN OCTOBER 2022 🙄

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Can confirm it's not a banger like Street Sweeper was.

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Neil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra @fubsyshabaroon.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The perfect light reading as I await my flight (that is already 4hrs delayed). 😬

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Reposted by Kate Devlin

“Tap, tap, tap at the window. Bloody AI Greta Garbo, trying to sell me ball bearings.”

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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Happy "Big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh" day to all who celebrate on this, the last day of September.

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That is true. And I am also really bad at lying.

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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

They were so close to describing me; just that missing L.

A corner of a billboard. The text on it reads "Devin fuses intelligence with efficiency."

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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Ahhh, so many top editors at prestigious publishing houses who aren't allowed to use their work email address to beg me to write another masterpiece.

Dan of the Year @downwithdan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Reposted by Kate Devlin

Ah yes the circle of life

• Dispatched
Sep 25 23:03 pm
In Transit
Sep 26 09:52 am
Delayed
Sep 26 10:57 am
Held By Carrier
Sep 26 15:07 pm
Destroyed
Sep 26 15:08 pm

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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It really delivers a sense of wonder

Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026

Agreed — I think what @jgcarpenter.com describes as a "new social category" is the most apt for what we have now.

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Reposted by Kate Devlin

I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility

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If someone rocked up at an interview with an espresso martini and they'd also brought me one, I'm hiring them on the spot.

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To clarify: the ELIZA effect (1960s), the Computers Are Social Actors (1990s) thing... most people interact as if the machine is like us, and *that's okay* — convenient, and what we social creatures do — as they also simultaneously know it's a machine. Hyping the idea that it's more is unhelpful. ⬇️

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And in literally a decade of me researching people's emotional reactions to AI/robots, the vast majority of people say "I know it's a machine but..." and they are perfectly fine in that dual level of interaction. Then ~3yrs ago, a tiny handful of those people started to add "...but mine is real."

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I'm at the stage of ignoring mine because they keep sending opaque instructions.

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