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Harry McCracken

@harrymccracken.com
9.3K followers 4.4K following 3.1K posts

Fast Company global technology editor. Boy journalist. Bon vivant. Lefthander. Westcoastian. 🇺🇦 Sign up for my free Plugged In newsletter: www.fastcompany.com/section/plugged…

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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 8h
Supers, ranked: 1. Superchicken 2. Superman/Supergirl (tie) 3. Super Mario 4. Super Elastic Bubble Plastic 5. Superfly 6. Superbad 7. Superdry 8. Krofft Supershow 9. Super Size Me 10. Supercuts 1,586 Super Intelligence
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 8h
Why is Keeps running these terrible ersatz Peanuts slop ads on Facebook?
Keeps ad using Peanuts characters to compare hair loss treatments, with Charlie Brown having least hair, Pigpen having most.Keeps hair loss ad using Peanuts characters with progressively more hair to illustrate treatment effectiveness, ending with Keeps Chew+.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 11h
I love Safari’s new feature for vibe coding extensions, and made one to update a common term in tech stories.
Screenshot of Anthropic's website displaying "Super-duper intelligence research and products that put safety at the frontier" headline.Screenshot of a news headline reading "Super-duper intelligence Brings Big Gains to Hurricane Forecasts, Google Researchers Say"News headline reading "Super-duper intelligence can copy anyone's voice and likeness. Washington debates a solution."Screenshot of a paywalled article headline: "Google Is Paying About 100 Digital Publishers for super-duper intelligence Overviews"
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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 14h
This one’s definitely not gonna work and for a million different reasons
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 14h
Imagine how luck Schmitt is that he doesn’t represent a state that has the Jets, Mets and Nets. He’d never figure out who was doing what.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 13h
Why is AI so often anthropomorphized as being blobby? Except for Clippy, who was downright lithe.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 14h
Looks a bit funereal.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 14h
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that's all.”
John Tenniel illustration of Alice shaking hands with Humpty Dumpty perched on a wall, from Alice in Wonderland.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 14h
I’m still at OpenAI DemoDay, henceforth to be known as OpenSI DemoDay.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 14h
Super Intelligence, not to be confused with Superintelligence (a vague term for something that may or may not ever exist, but not a synonym for AI).
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 18h
“I don’t think the Industrial Revolution was all good…the point of this technology is not just to turn the crank faster and faster for the sake of AI.”
 Sam Altman speaks at OpenAI Dev Day
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 18h
Altman says that OpenAI has considered stopping the use of tokens as a pricing factor. They’re confusing to consumers. But customers push back on switching to direct dollar-based pricing.
Two men speaking at OpenAI DevDay 2026 event; Sam Altman holds a mic and speaks, the other listens, both holding microphones.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 18h
Altman says he wants OpenAI to be a public company “someday” but feels good about not heading into it with “guns blazing” until more progress has been made on the long-term safety front.
Sam Altman speaks into microphone in front of large screen.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
In case OpenAI wants to make another acquisition.
Cover of Little Dot Dotland comic #46, showing cartoon girl painting polka dots, priced 15 cents, Harvey Comics.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
Altman says OpenAI wants AI to be less of a new Industrial Revolution than a new Renaissance.
Man in gray sweater and jeans speaks on stage, gesturing with one hand, microphone on cheek, wooden panel backdrop.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
OpenAI keynote didn’t address AI fears and controversies. But it did try to end on an uplifting note.
Sam Altman with large screen displaying "To the builders of our time" and group photo.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
ChatGPT will proactively suggest plugins and (finally) have a plugin marketplace.
Sam Altman displays a ChatGPT plugin discovery screen on a large stage monitor.Sam Altman on stage at an OpenAI Marketplace event, with partner company logos displayed on a large dark backdrop.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
OpenAI announcing a login feature for other apps that lets you use your OpenAI tokens, which is actually pretty cool.
OpenAI conference presentation showing "Continue to Devin" ChatGPT login screen on large display, speaker on stage, seated audience.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
Onstage reference to “our friends at Hugging Face” probably should have provoked heartier laughter from the audience than the scattered chuckling it got.
Conference presentation screen showing OpenAI Codex chat interface with "Rewrite backend in Rust" task running.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
Codex is figuring out how to play a game it coded.
Presenter on stage showing "Astra Adventures" space game demo on large screen at OpenAI DevDay
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
I’m really glad that most tech companies haven’t followed Apple’s lead and stopped doing live demos during events. Even when they have glitches they earn credibility.
Presenter at OpenAI podium showing 3D interior rendering of a large event hall on a big screen to a packed conference audience.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
OpenAI A keynote gets around to the pretty important topic of agents doing stuff you actually want them to do.
OpenAI slide showing "Computer-use safety stress test" bar chart comparing Fable (9.5%), unknown (6.1%), and GPT-6 As (2.4%).
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
Sounds like Jev.
OprnAI conference stage displaying "Decisions API In Preview" slide with Google Flights demo shown on large screen.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
“Very near Astra performance at a fifth the price…your new daily workhorse.”
OpenAI keynote slide showing "GPT-6.1 Sol" with a DeepSWE benchmark graph comparing GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Sol, and GPT-6 Astra by cost per task.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h
More adorable AI.
OpenAI stage presentation showing "Dottie" logo — a green blob character with dark diamond eyes — on a large display screen.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 20h
You’ll be able to place voice calls to your Dot.
Person in orange vest holds iPhone at a podium; projected screen shows an active phone call with "dottie" app at 0:10.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 20h
OpenAI is also introducing Spaces, a sort of AI-infused rough counterpart to something like Dropbox Paper.
Sam Altman on stage beside large screen showing "Dispatch beta tracker" bar chart with September traffic data reaching 2.4B.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 20h
OpenAI is unveiling its agent, Dots.
Sam Altman presents on stage in front of a large dark backdrop displaying the colorful word "dots."Conference stage displays a projected chat message from "Felipe" about consumer experience numbers and a board meeting deck.Conference presentation slide showing "Consumer Experience" metrics with bar charts and blue statistics: 75%, 68%, 41%, 99.1%
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 20h
OpenAI DevDay begins.
Sam Altman stands on stage presenting, with his name displayed in large purple text on a dark backdrop.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 20h
The peaceful, spirited scene immediately outside OpenAI’s DevDay at Fort Mason this morning.
Protesters holding signs reading "No Killer Robots for ICE," "No Climate Destruction," and "People Over AI" on a city street.
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Elizabeth McCracken @elizmccrack.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
To mark the occasion of the first piece of AI scammy spam about "Seven Stories About Tammy." www.biblioasis.com/shop/fiction...
biblioasis.com
Seven Stories About Tammy - Biblioasis
The first in a new short stories series from Biblioasis. Morris Harkin brings his new girlfriend Tammy to meet his family. She is not who they expected and they do not like her.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 28/09/2026
My great-grandfather won an Iowa election. It was just for the local board of education. But he beat a member of the KKK and had to deal with a klansman’s claim that he didn’t have the right to vote.
1926 newspaper article about ML Jacobson’s victory in Valley Junction’s education board election against a member of the Ku Klux Klan
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 28/09/2026
Fact check: Partially true
Snidely Whiplash looking gleefully menacing
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Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Russell Brand, who's awaiting trial in London next month on rape and sexual assault charges, will moderate a panel at DC's MAHA summit tomorrow on reforming a U.S. health agency
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 28/09/2026
I assume this campaign will eventually show Ava slaughtering humans.
Bus shelter ad: "Sorry for saying stop hiring humans." Woman with praying hands. "Hire Ava, the AI BDR" by Artisan.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 27/09/2026
What a towering intellectual colossus this guy is.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 26/09/2026
First time I’ve seen public signage establishing rights for robots over humans.
Red and white "No Stopping Except Authorized Autonomous Vehicles" sign at night near San Francisco airport.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m sure this won’t be at all embarrassing
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 26/09/2026
I visited the set of one of these shows. Perhaps you can guess which one. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/ar…
nytimes.com
The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century: A Printable List
More than 500 stars, showrunners and TV lovers voted on their favorite shows of this century. Here are the results of our poll.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 26/09/2026
I wrote about the tech industry’s love of anthropomorphizing AI—seen most recently in Muse’s adorable avatar—and why it might be better to intentionally rob it of any personality. www.fastcompany.com/91612364/mus...
fastcompany.com
The case for embracing AI's inhumanity
The tech industry loves to slather AI in anthropomorphism. What if it was proudly mechanical?
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 25/09/2026
I never thought I’d live to see White Castle vending machines. But here we are.
White Castle "Crave & Go" automated food vending machine with touchscreen display and QR code scanner.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 23/09/2026
This would have been a great premise for a 1970s disaster movie, but who would have played the president?
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 23/09/2026
I found myself at HumanX.
Harry McCracken  istands beside his portrait on an orange wall displaying speaker headshots at HumanX.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 23/09/2026
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy your visit to the Donald J. Trump-Ford Theatre? (I’ve always found it weird that it’s still a theater rather than a very solemn museum/memorial.) www.ms.now/news/trump-fords-theatre…
ms.now
Trump aides explore attaching president’s name to Ford’s Theatre
The playhouse where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated has been mentioned among federal properties that could carry the president’s name, people familiar with the effort told MS NOW.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 23/09/2026
Meta’s Muse has gone a little sideways on my iPad. Literally.
iPad screen showing "Muse" AI assistant app with onboarding chat, offering nickname options: Arlo, Torque, or Something else. It’s being displayed at a 90 degree rotation.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 23/09/2026
I sure hope I never have to use my earthquake policy, but I continue paying for it.
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 22/09/2026
Healthy people are a pox on the whole idea of insurance.
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Jesse Hawken @jessehawken.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
FIFA Peace Prize winner
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 22/09/2026
Not to be confused with Super Invisibility.
Poster for Mr. Superinvisible, a movie starring Dean Jones
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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 22/09/2026
1950s comic book panels showing that Superman is so smart he can learn how to become an expert surgeon in moments.
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