iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Harry McCracken

@harrymccracken.com

9.3K followers 4.4K following 3.2K 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…

Posts Replies Media

Reposted by Harry McCracken

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 8h

Tech industry is laser focused on solving the problem of humans enjoying each other’s company bsky.app/profile/down...

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 16h

In there somewhere.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 16h

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

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 16h

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+.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 19h

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"

Reposted by Harry McCracken

Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 22h

This one’s definitely not gonna work and for a million different reasons

Reposted by Harry McCracken

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 22h

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 21h

Why is AI so often anthropomorphized as being blobby? Except for Clippy, who was downright lithe.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 22h

Looks a bit funereal.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 22h

“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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 22h

I’m still at OpenAI DemoDay, henceforth to be known as OpenSI DemoDay.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 22h

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).

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

Having Bonzai Buddy solemnly read the news got me and a colleague through the bleak days immediately following 9/11.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

Might be my phone camera.

100

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

“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

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

000

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

000

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

000

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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

000

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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%).

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

Sounds like Jev.

OprnAI conference stage displaying "Decisions API In Preview" slide with Google Flights demo shown on large screen.

000

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

“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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

More adorable AI.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

000

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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%

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

OpenAI DevDay begins.

Sam Altman stands on stage presenting, with his name displayed in large purple text on a dark backdrop.

000

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/09/2026

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 28/09/2026

Ad for TV movie based on Ray Bradbury’s story The Electric Grandmother, starring Maureen Stapleton

Reposted by Harry McCracken

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...

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 28/09/2026

I don’t recall Pottsylvania causing much trouble for us in this century.

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

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 28/09/2026

Fact check: Partially true

Snidely Whiplash looking gleefully menacing

Reposted by Harry McCracken

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

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 28/09/2026

Dynomutt? Dog? Wonder?

100

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 28/09/2026

Or shows whose titles should have asked about the location of dogs.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 28/09/2026

Why did Hanna-Barbera make so many shows whose titles asked about the location of dogs?

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.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 27/09/2026

Also, why do I have to tell Combos how old I am in order to visit its website?

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 27/09/2026

I haven’t really thought about Combos in decades, but I DO associate a jingle with them: “Combos really cheeses your hunger away.” youtu.be/gqio9zlzVjE?...

Combos cheese snacks "Combos really cheeses your hunger away" (1984)

YouTube video by PrincessofPower84

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 27/09/2026

What a towering intellectual colossus this guy is.

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 27/09/2026

Yes, SFO.

100

Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 26/09/2026

In other news, I finally rode on a highway in a Waymo (though I did so in an early, semi-secret Google self-driving car way back in 2013).

Nighttime view from inside a Waymo self-driving on the Bay Area’s Highway 280, dashboard lit up, freeway signs for San Bruno and San Francisco visible.

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.