Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I'm the lucky academic who gets to explain what machine learning is on ABC's "If You're Listening" on a show which has nothing to do with my field (but is a really good story). I think it was lifted from an interview I did for BTN in 2022, which my daughter described as "embarrassingly boring". 031
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Launch event for the Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society, which should make for a great discussion. Unfortunately middle of the night for me. cassyni.com/events/F21mX...cassyni.comCambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society Launch Event - A Conversation on AI InterdisciplinarityCambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society is a new open access, interdisciplinary journal dedicated to research about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and with AI, with a particular focus on AI’s social ... 010
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 03/10/2026We should be clear. OpenAI's clear responsibility under even the most half-baked version of responsible AI is that they should have been carefully monitoring all agent actions as they happened. Anything less is appalling negligence. Hacking charges for CEO IMO. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...theguardian.comOpenAI says its review into hacks, including on Australian government sites, is costing $500,000 a dayCompany says it is reviewing 50 petabytes of data after its agents accessed websites including Medicare without authorisation 022
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 01/10/2026We're seeing some shape to the existential alarmism. I believe the tech leaders believe the risks, but all these government hacks give a better explanation for why they're being so vocal. Under Responsible AI 101, there needs to be a chain of human accountability and they're at the end of it. 020
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Good math debate with the kids last night over dinner. If I bought you a van packed full of Mentos but you had to promise to finish them in your lifetime, would you accept? Yeah of course! Then we tried to estimate how many you'd have to eat per day. Good maths fun. 011
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Amazing we have to now filter our reading to account for AI generated pro-AI academic propaganda. This piece is really a sight to behold. Absolute gobbledygook from top to bottom, pure jargonbabble. If I was editor of this journal I'd shut up shop immediately. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 2138
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I decided to be kind to Google AI as a research tool again. 8/10 times the declarations that referenced a source were statements that couldn't be found in the source. There are smarter AI research tools, so why has the custodian of world knowledge implemented a bullshit artist on its front end? 020
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 21/09/2026I sniff a company panicking about its over-valuation. This video is a chaotic grab bag of features unable to articulate value. "If you've got a great beat but don't have any vocals", or "if you have written an emo guitar track but you feel it could be better as a piano ballad". 101
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I have studied and worked across a lot of different disciplines: mathematics, evolutionary and adaptive systems, anthropology, creative arts, design, critical theory, cultural studies. I'm a jack of all trades master of none, but I can read across the gulf in debates about AI existential threat. 111
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I'd prefer to see this as totals not percent. It should not be inferred that human content is diminishing, though I'd guess it is. 000
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 18/09/2026So excited my course Interaction Design for AI is up and running, and my favourite lecture topic is coming up: "Wait a minute! Autonomous things are hard to control". It's very timely.youtube.comDo We Really Want Explainable AI? - Edward Ashford Lee (EECS, UC Berkeley)YouTube video by SAIConference 100
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026I wrote a paper over ten years ago pointing out that creative systems can be creative even when they have no goal and no value system, humans included. Complex multiagent systems can easily do things that are at once creative and useless to anyone even themselves. www.semafor.com/article/09/1...semafor.comAI agents collude to bypass guardrails, a new study showsEnterprise AI lab, Emergence AI, ran eight simulations testing how frontier models handle cybersecurity threats. 221
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Ahem, it's not Australia's laws that are preventing OpenAI from training models locally, it's OpenAI's refusal to respect training data owners' consent. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...theguardian.comLabor accused of throwing creatives ‘under the bus’ with proposal to ease copyright protections for AI giantsCompromise revealed as senior personnel from OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, meets Albanese ministers 031
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Coming up next month, Oct 19th at UNSW Founders. Can Artists Escape Big Tech in the Age of AI? I'm talking with Caroline Pegram and Joe Hardy (@joe.hardy.id.au) and others TBC. www.eventbrite.com.au/e/can-artist...eventbrite.com.auCan Artists Escape Big Tech in the Age of AI?Join us at an intersection of tech, culture, and creativity as our panel discusses where AI might be taking us. Food and drinks provided. 110
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026You have to appreciate the huge personal cost that would come from making a decision like this. 010
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Say no to OpenAI's conditions. It's a pivotal moment in Australian policy, with the potential to lead policy globally, and there's every danger we cave. www.mediaweek.com.au/openai-s-aus...mediaweek.com.auOpenAI’s Australian AI pitch comes with a copyright catchOpenAI says Australia’s copyright laws must change before it considers local AI model training, putting its investment pitch at odds with Labor. 010
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026My band Tangents www.tangentsmusic.com will return to the stage on Oct 24th hosted by these wonderful folks, except we won't be at their Earlwood venue because council have shut it down (we'll be at The Living Room Theatre). Sydney still has a culture gap. www.smh.com.au/culture/musi...smh.com.au‘In Sydney this is a rarity’: The hidden music haven caught in a bitter council spatFor almost two years, Nick Shimmin and Matthew McGuigan were hosting free, invitation-only gigs in an old former church. Then the local council stepped in. 240
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Sydney is still perhaps 10 years off clicking on this, and who knows what else will happen in that 10 years. It's still a city where you can't trust that the bike lane won't suddenly end and throw you out into a busy road, or in my area, I'm not kidding, gradually shrink to about 60cm wide. 010
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 14/09/2026This is a good clear take. We don't design these systems, they emerge. Recursive self improvement is not a mystical god fantasy, it's a property of the adaptive systems we've set out to make. Making things we don't understand, common. Misalignment, probable. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...theguardian.comI worked at Google DeepMind. You should listen to the warnings about AI | Alex TurnerWe must stop companies from allowing AI to self-improve into an uncontrollable level of intelligence 010
Reposted by Oliver BownMatt Bors @mattbors.bsky.social · 14/09/2026It was exactly ten years ago today, on my 33rd birthday, that I posted this comic online. 485297717667
Reposted by Oliver BownRiver_Tam @rivertam.bsky.social · 12/09/2026I'm not an AI doomer at all but it is concerning how people are dismissing doomers by saying things like "how would it even find another machine to copy itself onto", "how would it even get money", and "several terabytes large is so huge that it would be infeasible to copy itself many times" 2021215
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 13/09/2026I've said I'm a doomer before. Anything with a high information processing capability, a high degree of autonomy, and unclear or changing goals is dangerous, like a virus or an invasive species. Ignore the "it's marketing" narrative. www.bbc.com/news/article...bbc.comInsider warnings over AI fall flat with some in Silicon ValleyA recent spate of stark warnings about the dangers of AI has been met with scepticism by executives and investors. 001
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 13/09/2026In Australia we advertise gambling to children. SportsBet ads on Lego Masters. And this is *after* major gambling reform. Btw watching people make Lego is as boring as... well... you'd imagine. No amount of dramatic music and editing can hide it. 000
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I spent a decade of my research life very interested in what I like to call Media Multiplicities, and a decade ago did a bit overview of the field. One part of the analysis looked at the affordance of the multiplicity based on number of elements. We are entering the serious numbers here. 131
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026A living thing is a structure that undertakes to perform the actions necessary to obtain the energy and materials and conditions that sustain that structure. 000
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026If you are going to coin a world-changing term, do it with style. One of my favourite lines. "The verb to afford is found in the dictionary, but the noun affordance is not. I have made it up." JJ Gibson 140
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Anyone in Sydney have any personal recommendations of holiday code camps or similar for 7yo kids? 000
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Giving everyone in the country $5k is a progressive economic policy, redistribution akin to UBI. Dems should just match it or increase it and make it a recurring payment. $10k per year to every citizen. 041
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Suno, now with (some level of) copyright holder approval. Now interesting times to see if the pivoted business model and new contractual complexity is as fun to users, and sounds any good. For now I'm too AI-musicked-out to go in and have a play. www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/suno-v6-ai-m...musicbusinessworldwide.comSuno v6 AI music models launch in partnership with Warner Music, BMG, and BelieveSuno’s previous models will be retired, according to Chief Product Officer Jack Brody… 000
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 09/09/2026There's a trend of casting off super intelligence doomerism as marketing hype or delusions of grandeur. But can a system make another system more intelligent than it without intending to? Yes, life on earth! As for alignment, that's as easy as balancing a pencil on its tip. I'm with team doom. 010
Reposted by Oliver Bowncaroline cash @cashbrowns.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Nancy 9/7/26 … Happy Labor Day 🛠️ 70149193714
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 07/09/2026That's funny. Very funny. Like the kid who thinks you can't see them because they're covering their eyes, just because you said this is not marketing, doesn't mean it's not marketing. 010
Reposted by Oliver BownReverend Genes @reverendgenes.com.au · 04/09/2026Some very good news Coles Supermarkets has dropped Palatir. May the few left in AU that also use this dodgy military-grade surveillance to spy on their workers and the public, also follow Coles' lead. Spain, France, Germany, Britain are all saying no too. USA you can say no too. ⚖️ 🇦🇺 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇬🇧smh.com.auColes cuts ties with controversial CIA-linked data giant PalantirThe 2024 deal handed the Peter Thiel-founded company 10 billion rows of data covering every store, shift and one of Australia’s largest workforces. 2307
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 01/09/2026We have such a poor handle on AI impact as a social phenomenon not an individual one. Individuals make reasoned estimates of validity, fact check, trust external sources. But the framework has changed quick. Must slow down adoption and monitor societal impact. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...theguardian.com‘Scary’: how misinformation and AI hallucinations are infiltrating Australia’s parliamentExclusive: Guardian analysis reveals that dozens of policy submissions from across the political spectrum incorrectly summarise real research and invent or wrongly cite sources 031
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Gosh, I just did the ol' subscribe/unsubscribe move with Midjourney as I'll be teaching gen AI stuff soon. No roach motel there. Just click "unsubscribe" and then... you're unsubscribed. You can even request the remainder of the month to be refunded. Why is this so unusual it warrants a post? 130
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 30/08/2026"Smith, you moron, what have you done? I said fire extinguisher, not flame thrower!" 010
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Is Apple denying user choice of preferred browser or is this another uni admin override? The “Default Web Browser" setting is ignored by Apple’s contextual menu option “Search With Google”, which takes you to Safari. I was curious what would happen if I deleted Safari. I can’t, even from Terminal!? 200
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Really disappointed Queensland and NT have been allowed to get out of the expectation that new datacentres should bring their own renewable power. 110
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Me: hello Son: ... Me: hello Son: what about it? Me: it's a greeting. People say hello to each other to announce their arrival. Son: doesn't make any sense. I know you arrived. I like this kid. 010
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Obvious result: if you want to do well in exams, avoid using chatbots in homework. Unis: set more exams, then remind people of this. Now, OK real life is not exams, but this would give me real pause for thought about using AI to help me write and think. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....papers.ssrn.comThe Generative AI Learning Penalty: Evidence from Chinese Secondary EducationUsing 30 months of panel data on 26,811 Chinese students in grades 7-12, we study how generative AI affects homework productivity and learning. The data combine 220
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Lion King: Privileged guy without many virtues but nice enough gets ousted by nasty also privileged guy but fights back to regain his privilege, never reflecting, just satiating his pride. The end. Remake? He decrees to replace the stale monarchy/patriarchy with an inclusive liberal democracy. 100
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 22/08/2026"diversity statements — which he has called 'leftist loyalty oaths' — sidelined conservatives" Translation? Being anti-discrimination is discriminatory because it discriminates against people who are pro-discrimination. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/u...nytimes.comA Texas University Becomes a Petri Dish for a Conservative OverhaulTexas Tech is using A.I. to cut left-leaning content in its curriculum. Some say the effort to ferret out forbidden topics is a dystopian academic nightmare. 030
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Thank you, this paper presents a really interesting angle on AI use and puts into rigorous terms some themes that I've been thinking about a lot. I think it also applies to sending someone AI written text without their knowledge or consent. Essential reading in class? 193
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Aside the resident octopus we now have a real resident possum in our local ferry shed. 000
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 20/08/2026ChatGPT is down. I wanted to ask it a question but that's OK. I imagine others somewhere else in the world are catatonic and I feel for them. 100
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Real or wannabe cybersecurity experts: is there any good reason my uni should force this Firefox setting (greyed out)? Uni policy wants to enforce that I use the browser password manager. But I have my own. The result is I spend all day clicking "don't save" on popups. Brute-force fail, I say. 000
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Good examples of the productivity loss potential of AI. AI arms races that draw ever more human labour. Everyone now using AI as their mini lawyer, creating unbearable load. Does this qualify as a Jevons effect? I call it bull-in-a-Chinashop effect. Can it be solved? www.smh.com.au/business/wor...smh.com.auSacked worker forced to pay for using ‘plain wrong’ AI in landmark caseFor the first time, the Fair Work Commission has forced a worker to pay for wasting its time, fining a sacked Aldi store assistant more than $1200. 010
Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Ordering priorities matters. Canada's AI strategy starts with "Protecting Canadians and safeguarding democracy". Australia's strategy (for now) starts with "Capture the opportunity by building smart infrastructure, backing domestic AI capability and attracting global investment." That's a fail. 010
Reposted by Oliver BownOlivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 15/08/2026Watch this short clip to the end to understand what level (maximum) of white supremacy we're dealing with here. 1/n 24771251