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Jacob Kramer-Duffield

@jaykaydee.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.9K following 13K posts

Consulting on audience strategy, audiostrategy.org Writing a book for @beltpublishing.bsky.social - preorder here! tinyurl.com/2nr23yep Teaching digital sociability and ethics, NYU-Tandon ACT-UAW Local 7902 Fmr audience data WNYC, NYMag, Megaphone

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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 7h
Again: AI is a technology but it's also an ideology; that ideology is Bossism; neither bosses nor AI advocates really understand what most people do in their jobs so both assume AI can do it. They're *trying* but if these tools could replace jobs beyond Junior Software Developer, we'd know.
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think about this interview with the distinguished philosopher Conan O'Brien a lot. I actually think this is a healthy way to live your life! www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/a...
Is this how you want to go out, with a show that gets smaller and smaller until it’s gone?

Maybe that’s O.K. I think you have more of a problem with that than I do. [Laughs.] At this point in my career, I could go out with a grand, 21-gun salute, and climb into a rocket and the entire Supreme Court walks out and they jointly press a button, I’m shot up into the air and there’s an explosion and it’s orange and it spells, “Good night and God love.” In this culture? Two years later, it’s going to be, who’s Conan? This is going to sound grim, but eventually, all our graves go unattended.

You’re right, that does sound grim.

Sorry. Calvin Coolidge was a pretty popular president. I’ve been to his grave in Vermont. It has the presidential seal on it. Nobody was there. And by the way, I’m the only late-night host that has been to Calvin Coolidge’s grave. I think that’s what separates me from the other hosts.

I had a great conversation with Albert Brooks once. When I met him for the first time, I was kind of stammering. I said, you make movies, they live on forever. I just do these late-night shows, they get lost, they’re never seen again and who cares? And he looked at me and he said, [Albert Brooks voice] “What are you talking about? None of it matters.” None of it matters? “No, that’s the secret. In 1940, people said Clark Gable is the face of the 20th Century. Who [expletive] thinks about Clark Gable? It doesn’t matter. You’ll be forgotten. I’ll be forgotten. We’ll all be forgotten.” It’s so funny because you’d think that would depress me. I was walking on air after that.
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sarah margaret @sarahmargs.bsky.social · 16h
if colleges had to refund the tuition of every student that had been raped during their time there, they would actually fucking give a shit about students getting raped.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Slight addendum to Spencer's point: newspapers broke the economic model that funds journalism *themselves* - tech were only too happy to scoop up the spoils and cut off critique and any easy chance at a new model along the way. You will be able to read more on that soon!
beltpublishing.com
Poor Circulation: How Newspapers Abandoned their Readers and Lost the
Jacob Kramer-DuffieldFebruary 2, 2027 The newspaper industry is in dire straits. It could have been avoided.  Once important enough to be protected explicitly by the first amendment, newspapers today ...
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Max Fenton @maxfenton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
On the one hand, Muse is vibe coded slop malware. On the other hand you could get a $32 check in 10 years if you let it build a stasi file on you and everyone you know or meet.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Pre-registering one possible explanation: for a long time even as more US voters have registered as Independent (~30% now), those voters have almost all *behaved* as reliable partisans for one party or the other. But if a large share of R-partisan Independents flip, it might look like this.
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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It is an abhorrent Bill b/c the athletes participating in a dangerous game that causes widely understood brain damage are often located in southern football leagues that are taking away votes from Black and Hispanic voters. We can die for a sport but not vote. The Senate should be shamed.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It is a fascinating own-goal how the media companies who profited so well from cable bundles that everyone both a) complained about and b) paid, sped into streaming and unbundling in the precise manner to both wreck their comfortable business models and make everyone hate them.
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tweety fish @sifu.tweety.fish · 28/09/2026
the thing about Jensen Huang is that he will never ever ever not fundamentally be a guy who runs a graphics card company. Like sure yeah whatever scientific computing AI ok ok he learned everything he needs to know selling VGA cards with badly photoshopped box art at E3 in 1996
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Kaldrenon @kaldrenon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This thread is especially salient in conjunction with 404's new piece today. One of the few actually popular uses of modern AI tools is pornographic imagery. And while that obviously implies other cultural concerns as well, I think it's in part because it's *what people can think of using it for*.
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Danya Glabau @allergyphd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Hahahahahahahaha hahahahahahaha *breathes* AHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAA
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Baseball is the best and Sarah Langs is the best.
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Garrett Martin @garrettmartin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
you don’t need to know the pop charts after streaming the same way you don’t need to know the Roman emperors after Constantine
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi · 26/09/2026
They shouldn't have wasted the name Skye Rizzy on some drug that does whatever it does. That was meant to be the name of a teen celebrity who's famous for reasons I understand as little as I understand that drug
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Thiel is exactly the consequence of when an intellectual movement ceases to engage with ideas in good faith and concerns itself only with the acquisition of power and language games. Thiel came up in the cloistered world of conservative activist thought, and never thought he had to *prove* anything
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Come birdwatching with me! It is a great hobby and birds are pretty and weird and amazing but as much as anything it is a mindfulness practice - when you are doing it, it is the thing you are doing.
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Jamie McKelvie @mckelvie.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's very "funny" this is happening at the same time the AI companies got away with stealing everyone's books
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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 25/09/2026
The only thing I have to say about iced coffee is that I expect you to pronounce the d.
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 24/09/2026
Just when I think I can’t hate OpenAI and Sam Altman any more, new details come out about how ChatGPT helped a shooter plan one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history in Tumbler Ridge, BC. OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.
motherjones.com
ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge school shooter focus on guns, tactics, and terror, our investigation reveals
OpenAI’s chatbot fed the shooter’s violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre.
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Jason "Red5" Lyall @jaylyall.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
ChatGPT gave the Tumbler Ridge school shooter tips on how to evade its own safeguards around violence, even helped plan the attack for maximum lethality and media coverage “Don’t use real-world locations,” ChatGPT said, later adding: “You can still be twisted. Just be clever about it.”
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Aaron Gleeman @aarongleeman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
When you’re on bird-watching duty and get interrupted for a photo shoot.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Just remembered that I had a dream the other night where I saw some Torrent Ducks and man I wish! Cool-ass duck.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"kicked in the head by a horse" hypothesis for the cognitive experience of hyperwealth confirmed.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Given that depths of "depressing and obnoxious" that @davidjroth.bsky.social has oft plumbed, this is about the direst possible prognosis. The truly gonzo part is that almost all of the AI hyperventilating that is actually *sincere* is being done by the untouchably-rich research teams at AI cos.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Richard Hanania is a rancid little creep with truly appalling views of the world in pretty much every regard; there is no value in engaging with him. To anyone who suggests there is value, the only real response is, "what the fuck, man?"
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A thing I truly loathe about the current Internet is how often it gaslights you into believing *you* are the idiot. I have gotten an error message "Please turn off pop-up blocking in your browser for this page to see it" on two separate browsers where I meticulously turned off pop-up blocking.
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
2022: AI is here! You can just ask it stuff! 2023: Asking it doesn't work, we need to prompt engineer it. 2024: Prompt engineering doesn't work, we need RAG 2025: RAG doesn't work, we need Gastown 2026: Gastown doesn't work, we need Jev 2027: Jev doesn't work, we need Poob 2028: Poob doesn't work…
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is a wild and incredibly compelling piece - very much looking forward to the whole book!
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Joel D. Anderson @joelanderson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Looking for an academic or expert who has researched and published about the idea of “The Black (American) Community, past and present.” If you know of anyone, please do holler.
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Kittens MLT (ASCP) @warkittens.makeitbouncy.net · 24/09/2026
Holy shit, AP, you brilliant bastards. YES to this entire thread. We love this. Internalize this. All news and media should embrace this.
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Gwynne Hogan @gwynnefitz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Brooklyn Democratic Party County Committee meeting has ended, the rules changes were passed with hundreds of proxy votes, Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn was nowhere to be found. Chaos reigned. dispatch for @thecityreporter.nyc www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/09/23/b...
thecityreporter.nyc
Raucous Brooklyn Party Meeting Rubber Stamps Rule Changes That Judge Found to Be Illegal
Embattled Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn didn’t attend Wednesday’s chaotic meeting, where four of her allies contended with an angry crowd of opposition leaders.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
You certainly cannot feed *dead* crickets to a chameleon!
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justine zhang @tisjune.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
they're saying the AI can do math and science again, so it's time to reread Thurston's On Proof and Progress in Mathematics, a lovely articulation of the social work of assembling understanding, i.e., the best reason to tackle hard problems. www.ams.org/journals/bul...
When I started as a graduate student at Berkeley, I had trouble imagining
how I could "prove" a new and interesting mathematical theorem. I didn't
really understand what a "proof was.
By going to seminars, reading papers, and talking to other graduate students,
I gradually began to catch on. Within any field, there are certain theorems and
certain techniques that are generally known and generally accepted. When you
write a paper, you refer to these without proof. You look at other papers in the
field, and you see what facts they quote without proof, and what they cite in
their bibliography. You learn from other people some idea of the proofs. Then
you're free to quote the same theorem and cite the same citations. You don't
necessarily have to read the full papers or books that are in your bibliography.
Many of the things that are generally known are things for which there may be
no known written source. As long as people in the field are comfortable that
the idea works, it doesn't need to have a formal written source.At first I was highly suspicious of this process. I would doubt whether a certain idea was really established. But I found that I could ask people, and they
could produce explanations and proofs, or else refer me to other people or to
written sources that would give explanations and proofs. There were published
theorems that were generally known to be false, or where the proofs were generally known to be incomplete. Mathematical knowledge and understanding were
embedded in the minds and in the social fabric of the community of people
thinking about a particular topic. This knowledge was supported by written
documents, but the written documents were not really primary.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My students (engineering undergrads) spent basically the entirety of today's class on epistemology talking about how mid AI is and how glaringly obvious it is that there's no mind behind it. The kids are alright.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I understand both from a conceptual and commercial perspective why tech firms keep searching for the next form factor - we have lived through a period of rapid change, and they all want to own the next space - but we got it right with Phone, it's just Phone for the foreseeable future.
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Rachel Holliday Smith @rachelholliday.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
really great job alert!!! come work with me! city-report-inc.breezy.hr/p/2cd8618d3b...
city-report-inc.breezy.hr
Audience Producer at The City Reporter
The City Reporter is seeking an entrepreneurial and creative Audience Producer to execute on our ambitious strategy to introduce our reporting to new people and platforms and deepen our engagement wit...
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Very good rundown of the wide gulf between promise and reality for agents. For Muse to really work like Facebook wants, every other company with a digital presence would have to unilaterally surrender and turn over their experience to Zuck; same with any other agent. Idk seems unlikely!
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JP @jpbrammer.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
it's important to arrive at sturdy ethical principles that you can't be annoyed out of. people are annoying as shit
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Molly Templeton @mollytempleton.com · 23/09/2026
Absolutely love that we have the one and only @maris.bsky.social reading one of Ursula's tart and satirical and pointed publishing posts this week
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Anne Trubek @atrubek.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
a look back at when I used to schlep heavy cartons
notesfromasmallpress.substack.com
Physical Books
The first book Belt (then called Rust Belt Chic Press) published was basically self-published; I taught myself how to do it as I went.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is imperative not only to get more benefits to people who need them but even moreso with the ongoing adoption of AI - where many are comfortable with VERY high error rates - at all levels of assessment and analysis.
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Ryan North @ryannorth.ca · 23/09/2026
Pompeii is a UNESCO world heritage site not because it was remarkable in its prime, but because it survived to our era untouched: one moment, preserved for all time. But future generations won't know what OUR world was like unless we do the same. This is why we MUST bury Toronto with a volcano
Picture of the streets of Pompeii, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pompei_-_panoramio_(26).jpg. Taken by Tanya Dedyukhina, used under CC
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Good meta-commentary thread on the Present Discourse.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I've been saying for a while that listening to people talk about their own personal use of AI tools is like listening to them talk about their fantasy football team - happy for you but nothing to do with me, boring to boot - and, well.
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Annie Zaleski @anniezaleski.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
R.E.M. broke up 15 years ago today. Back then, I wrote an essay for @salon.com about their life and legacy. www.salon.com/2011/09/22/w...
salon.com
How R.E.M. invented alternative music - Salon.com
The most influential American band of the last three decades walks away with a staggering and secure legacy
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I've been saying for a while that listening to people talk about their own personal use of AI tools is like listening to them talk about their fantasy football team - happy for you but nothing to do with me, boring to boot - and, well.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Google Zero is coming for everyone.
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Listen to Ben, micropayments are not the answer!
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scott b. weingart @scottbot.net · 22/09/2026
Join my team! Help us figure out how to be as careful stewards of today's born-digital archives of state as we've been for physical archives over the last 200 years. Seeking experience in digital archives/collections/preservation, or related cultural heritage work. Due 10/6. Up to $91k.
jobs.virginia.gov
Born-Digital Collections Coordinator #00220 - Richmond, Virginia, United States
Title: Born-Digital Collections Coordinator #00220 State Role Title: Library Specialist III Hiring Range: Commensurate with experience up to $91,080 Pay Band: 5 Agency: The Library of Virginia Locatio...
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Jacob Kramer-Duffield @jaykaydee.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Super excited to dig in here!
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