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Steve Farrugia

@fasterandworse.com
1.7K followers 178 following 5.6K posts

Experienced user Australian in Amsterdam I talk about product design Words: fasterandworse.com Videos: youtube.com/@fasterandworse Audios: pnc.st/s/faster-and-worse

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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 10h
These are not products of an effective design process. Instead of starting with a purpose and finding the best way to satisfy it they are starting with a behemoth existing material and desperately trying to find ways to make it useful. This is anti-design.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 11h
“What if we released malware represented in the form of a cute avatar” is an actual business plan now.
engadget.com
Dots are OpenAI's new personal agents and soon you'll be able to control several of them - Engadget
Sure, seems safe.
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 27/09/2026
> But if the camera is contained in a charm you wear around your neck, it shifts the agency. Suddenly, you’re not recording people. It’s just a cute little animated avatar looking out on the world.” UX IS THE PRODUCT www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
theguardian.com
‘Charming and disarming’ … how Meta’s technology-packed Muse harnesses the power of cuteness
The tech giant has launched a cute ‘little guy’ that can answer emails, book travel or do your weekly food shop
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 26/09/2026
A lot of people seem to think this is new, but it's not a contemporary AI thing at all: certain people have been saying humans are like machines and vice versa for 3 centuries.
en.wikipedia.org
Man a Machine - Wikipedia
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Current mood:
Bride of Re-Animator (1990) 📽️
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Andrew Hickey @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 24/09/2026
DVDs aren't low-tech. They're just things you can actually own, that won't disappear overnight, that don't require a monthly subscription, that won't suddenly get reedited, that won't start putting adverts in the middle and that won't sell your data to the worst people in the world.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026
Indeed, the evidentiary skew Gillwald highlights there is very much the same RE what we found on 'AI is good for climate change' in our various analyses Yet still the need for "who could really know either way" type takes ketanjoshi.co/2026/02/17/b... ketanjoshi.co/2026/09/16/n...
ketanjoshi.co
NEW REPORT – The AI climate hoax
A new report on AI greenwashing, analysing the rhetoric and evidence behind the idea big tech will solve climate change
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026
This piece touches on an extremely important and terrible trend: AI-false-balance among polite centre-left politicians. Every critique HAS to begin with something like "AI is here to stay. With the right rules, it can be a force for good. But........." www.techpolicy.press/the-life-and...
Information integrity is one of seven critical issues in the Preliminary Report of the UN’s Independent Scientific Panel on AI released in July at the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence. It warns that AI can erode shared reality and civic participation through “epistemic erosion,” the gradual wearing away of society’s ability to distinguish truth from falsehood. Opening the Dialogue, the UN’s secretary-general, António Guterres, tied that erosion directly to the viral and exponential nature of advanced data driven technologies: “A machine-enabled lie can now persuade as effectively as the truth, and authentic evidence can be dismissed as fake.”“A society that cannot agree on what is real cannot defend itself,” Guterres said.

And yet he did not reference the threat of AI to amplify inequality, unless governed effectively. Instead, Guterres casts AI as “the great equaliser of the 21st century ” achievable by developing countries on the technology fast-track through safe systems that honor human rights, with real transparency about labor and planetary impacts. Getting this right, he said, is “at the heart of our common future.”

Yet the Panel’s Report, subtitled as an “evidence-based assessment of the opportunities, risks and impacts of AI” provides no evidence that AI will be a ‘great equaliser’. On the contrary, despite its curious ‘balancing’ of every claim with a counter claim, the heavily referenced report actually demonstrates far more evidence of the negative consequences of AI, while doing very little to support claims that AI will help in the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Regardless, this did not stop the ‘great equaliser’ mantra from being repeated by numerous member states and heads of multilateral bodies who subsequently addressed the forum.

In fact the report highlights the lack of — and unevenness of — evidence, including on some of the big ticket items: productivity gains, labor market effects, value-chain impacts, and …
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
“This is the logical extension of what they say is algorithms that know you better than you know yourself, but they call it A.I.”
nytimes.com
Complaints About Meta’s ‘Pervert Glasses’ Won’t Slow Tech’s Wearable Gadgets Drive
Meta’s smart glasses are the latest in a line of products to raise eyebrows over privacy. That’s not stopping other companies from creating similar devices.
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
​Waymo is all over NYC Climate Week, sponsoring a slew of events. I just watched Adam Lenz, Waymo's sustainability head, field softball questions from Heatmap's CEO (nothing re: added VMT). Waymo clearly hopes to piggyback on YIMBYism. Lenz described Waymo as the "missing middle" of city mobility.
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David Gerard @davidgerard.circumstances.run.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026
phpBB is being hardened specifically against AI crawlers www.linkedin.com/posts/pietervanhou…
linkedin.com
#degenerativeai #phpbb #trainingisnotfairuse #copyright #genai #bigtech #opensource | Pieter Van Houte
phpBB (for those who don't know it: https://lnkd.in/eS6WkJEu) powers thousands upon thousands of forums large and small (including mine), which are some of the most loved data sources for AI scrapers, because they are curated, highly organized and structured sources of excellent information and committed user interaction. Essentially, they are very, very valuable indeed. Version 3.3.18 was released yesterday, deployed on my own board today, and look what I found in the release info: 𝘍𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘦.𝘨. 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘴. 𝘈𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘈𝘐 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘐 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘴. 𝘉𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘈𝘐 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘱𝘉𝘉 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘮 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮. So rather than having to rely on third party integrations and custom tools or services like CloudFlare, core forum software (and soon hundreds of thousands of forums all over the world) is - being - hardened against AI scraping. This is terrific news. More will follow. Which means a number of things, but one in particular is that services like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini,... will likely see ever diminishing returns in terms of relevance and quality over time. Good. People don't like their stuff being stolen eh? Odd that. #degenerativeai #phpbb #trainingisnotfairuse #copyright #genai #bigtech #opensource
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[object Object] @zzt.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
don’t let this fool you into thinking the commercial ones are good though comma doesn’t have the budget to cover this shit up. the commercial ones all do
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[object Object] @zzt.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/afterm… ahahahaha after that ass-clenching video where that one guy installed comma in his rivian and thought it was amazing because it hesitated less than the rivian self-driving and it was open […]
mas.to
Original post on mas.to
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 22/09/2026
The best that a general purpose product can be is handy and handy is relative to the cost of accessing it
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 22/09/2026
The whole point of general purpose products is that they are not good at any particular sub-category of thing. They *can be by accident*, but as soon as the maker asserts that property, the product has to satisfy that purpose. Modern tech products avoid this at all costs.
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 22/09/2026
every SaaS product, no matter how specific its founding purpose might be, gravitates towards general purpose. It can't do this without diluting any feature too specific down to a shadow of what it originally was.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 22/09/2026
Send this season back for rewrites. It’s become far too obvious and literal when “Mr. Beast” is asking people to wear his tracking device.
businessinsider.com
MrBeast just filed trademark papers for wearables like fitness trackers and smartwatch bands
MrBeast filed a trademark application for "Beast Band," paving the way to branch out into wearables, like fitness trackers.
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Josh Fruhlinger @jfruh.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
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David Gerard @davidgerard.circumstances.run.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026
US nearly attacks Chinese ship based on AI hallucination the existential risk from AI: stupid people www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfvH8vHoMX4… - video […] [Original post on circumstances.run]
handheld stopwatch with a mushroom cloud on the face
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 22/09/2026
The best that a general purpose product can be is handy and handy is relative to the cost of accessing it
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 22/09/2026
please explain why this image looks like it's from 2005
a photo of Apple CEO, John Ternus, holding an iphone
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 22/09/2026
Gotta make sure the startup to fascist tech bro pipeline is free flowing and perpetual.
theverge.com
Andreessen Horowitz is launching an ‘academy’ with no homework and partnerships with Palantir, Google, and Meta
It’s the latest attempt by tech billionaires to shape American education.
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bianca wylie @biancawylie.com · 17/09/2026
lesscomputer.ca
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Sewzinski @sewzinski.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The Flick, 2026 you walk up and a wall hand subtly flicks you in the dick
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 21/09/2026
great one from Pavel
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I don't ever do endorsements but Dorian is actually putting his design theory it into practice, so he's worth a listen for anyone in the UX design field
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Matt Gorecki @goreckis.co · 19/09/2026
I would really prefer descriptive names. There is no ambiguity with Flashlight Application for Mobile Device that Lights Your Way at Night and Helps You See Behind Your Couch. It is definitely not a gambling app or weird dating site.
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 19/09/2026
The options for listening to mp3s from a brown device now are basically zero
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 19/09/2026
This is the real meaning of liquid glass
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 19/09/2026
I heard the iOS keyboard team have been told to make it work more like a wet touchscreen or else…!
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 17/09/2026
Mildly interesting fact: There are a lot of phone apps called Lumi, Lumo, or Luma
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 10/09/2026
"exhausting" has become the pertinent adjective of 2026
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 16/09/2026
since software escaped boxes and disks and installation and became pure vapour
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
oh so he’s a comedian now
BBC headline with photo of Sam Altman: “OpenAI boss says world ‘right to be afraid’ but should trust AI firms”
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 16/09/2026
Blockchain really was a fever dream wasn’t it
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 16/09/2026
“trustless economy” “no need for a trusted third-party” same guys:
OpenAI boss says world ‘right to be afraid’ but should trust AI firms. Sam Altman and other tech CEOs say there are incentives to limit advancements in AI, as fears grow over the threats it poses to humanity.
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 14/09/2026
The whole product is to be a know-all oracle. There are no spin-off tools. You should be able to ask for something and get it. This grift is so transparent if you look
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 14/09/2026
“new Claude tool” means “new Claude skin” www.reuters.com/business/ant...
reuters.com
Anthropic targets financial advisers with new Claude tool
AI lab Anthropic on Monday launched a set of tools for financial advisers, ​connecting its Claude chatbot to investment ‌analytics and wealth-management software from firms including BlackRock , Charl...
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kate bush’s husband @airbagged.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
He cooked Ed Sheeran on IG
macklemore
Follow
•••
5/12
Ed was in a fucked up position. He knew it. His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before. He told me that the words
"Free Palestine" and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with. I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn't get past his public facing, "I don't take sides."
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 14/09/2026
Never gonna watch a Sam Altman movie. Don’t care if it’s critical of him.
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e.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 14/09/2026
I just love how basically every user interface is primed to make you butt-dial some generative AI feature or another
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The PBS showing is tonight, but if you want it via YouTube, that's available as of a couple of hours ago! www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLQz...
youtube.com
Ghost in the Machine | What is Artificial Intelligence? | Full Documentary
YouTube video by PBS Documentaries
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Thoughtbarf @thoughtbarf.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
*Shuts down laptop.* I think that's enough internet for today. *Picks up phone* Let's see what the pocket-sized internet is doing.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 14/09/2026
Not a typo. Four thousand.
futurism.com
Police Investigator Accused of Making Over 4,000 Illegal Flock Camera Searches
An employee for the Albany County Sheriff's Office was caught conducting over 4,000 unauthorized queries on five people.
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Baldur Bjarnason @baldurbjarnason.com · 13/09/2026
“The Nonfiction Book Market is Collapsing” dearheadofmine.substack.com/p/the-n… > Two weeks ago, the entire hardcover nonfiction bestseller list sold 42,000 copies This ongoing collapse in non-fiction was news to me.
dearheadofmine.substack.com
The Nonfiction Book Market is Collapsing
This is not one of those periodic “End of Reading” Atlantic click bait essays.
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William Pietri @williampietri.sfba.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026
I really hope "may not realize" is one of them.
Screenshot of news headline from HuffPost: 6 Common Phrases You May Not Realize Are Condescending
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Steve Farrugia @fasterandworse.com · 13/09/2026
She’ll announce TheranosAI and say they’re working on something big and immediately get a billion dollars
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