iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Said to me by my partner to relay to my brother: "I've had good food in gas stations, he doesn't know what he's talking about. This place is supposed to be good, everybody's talking about it online. Why does it matter it's in a gas station. Does he not want to go because it's in a gas station?"

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

What is it about capitalism that is turning literally every store into versions of TJ Maxx.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

To all the people who are anti-shit sandwich, I have one question: If shit sandwiches disappeared tomorrow, could you still get through an entire day without a nugget, berry, or any other remnant? Imagine shit sandwiches were suddenly banned. Would you actually be willing to give it up?

Basically the same as the main text, but actually serious about AI.

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Reposted by Reid Southen

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

New: Police in Wisconsin used Flock to create a pretext to search a man's car for weed. Their justification? He drove from Wisconsin to Michigan, a “known source state for marijuana as it is legal there,” and Flock showed he "travels to Michigan frequently." www.404media.co/cops-used-fl...

404media.co

Cops Used Flock to Track a Man Across State Lines to Create Pretext to Search His Car for Weed

"The vehicle travels to Michigan frequently which is a known source state for marijuana as it is legal there," a probable cause justification reads.

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Tanya D. || Writer || Narrative Designer @cypheroftyr.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Daaaamn. “AI is the asbestos we're shovelling into the walls of our technological society. Our descendants will spend generations digging it out again, and the longer the bubble goes on without popping, the longer it will take to repair the damage." www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...

thenerve.news

Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying

It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

"Stochastic Sheep", 2026 (non finito)

A caravan of sheep repeating pro-AI rhetoric as they head to their own demise. The stochastic parrot looms large.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

We get birds hitting our windows sometimes, but today was something new. A full grown turkey slammed into our kitchen window, lol. I looked outside and she was fine, but startled, and there were something like 8 little turkey fledglings darting around. We have a humming bird friend now too.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

We've been throwing corn out to our squirrels, it's so funny watching them run around trying to stash the cobs.

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

The Luddites are having a moment (again): they're being discussed and rehabbed everywhere from NPR to US Catholics Magazine to Psychology Today. So, adapted from my book on the subject, here's a short-ish rundown of what you need to know to understand the Luddites in the age of AI.

bloodinthemachine.com

Understanding the Luddites in the age of AI

The Luddites are back in fashion, but too many people still get them all wrong. This is what they really stood for, fought against, and why they matter now more than ever.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

You would never sit down and eat two full sized potatoes while watching a movie, but turn them into chips, and it's just a little snaaack.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

The entirety of Disclosure Day I was thinking about how it would've killed if it were adapted as the third and final X-Files movie.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Somewhat of an update, they're doing well it seems!

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Zachary Berger @zacharyberger.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

There is a bill in California that would allow creators to look under the hood of AI training datasets to see if their work was being used, but it needs your support - please sign this petition, it’ll take you 2 minutes: tinyurl.com/4uxbp963 (video credit hitrecordjoe on IG) 1/

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Nebula Rasa @nebulanomad87.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

My company just bought Claude licenses. Our IT VP asked it to put FAQs from a Word doc into a PowerPoint. $0.57 token cost for that one task. We’re a several thousand person company. We’re going to spend 5 years of IT budget on Claude in a week.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

What a ghoul she turned out to be.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

If you want AI companies to have to divulge their training data, sign this!

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

🔥 Sign sign sign! This is for the AI transparency bill that would require AI companies to divulge their training data. It keeps clearing hurdles, help it clear the last few! Anyone can sign it, go go go!

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Hey... I uh... I'll be speaking at ICON13 in July on the mainstage! I pulled an all nighter delivering my slides where I had to reduce it from 140 to 95, so you HAVE to go, it's only fair.

Title slide with huge dork Reid Southen.

Resistance and Optimism in the Face of AI.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Some people treat social media like a human search engine. Instead of spending 8 seconds on Google, they'll ask easily verifiable things to strangers. It's like asking someone else to pull out their phone and tell you the time when you're already on your phone. Just wasting everyone's time & energy.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

If you can make it there, I promise you it makes a difference!

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I'm probing an AI image model right now for infringing material, and it's doing things I've never seen before in a way that I think proves the compression argument beyond a shadow of a doubt. I'm honestly gobsmacked.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

I haven't shared my Alien: Earth work yet, but I was digging through an old folder and found a really early rough render from when I was concepting the ship crash. This was 5 years ago now if you can believe it. Will get around to sharing more soon!

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Saw a family of woodcocks crossing the road and immediately turned around to help, but by the time we got back, the mother had gotten hit. I crawled under a railyard gate and we were able to find all 4 babies after rooting through poison ivy, but my heart is so heavy from watching the mother pass 😔

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Anyone who's used Da Vinci Resolve can see that he's quite literally touched nothing here in the color workspace. It's kind of like taking a picture of a cockpit at an airshow, and then telling everyone you were flying the plane. AI "filmmaking" is such a LARP.

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Radical Graffiti @radicalgraffiti.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

A message from Mary, a 72-year-old Amazon worker from North Carolina projected onto Jeff Bezos’s $120 million penthouse before tonight’s #MetGala, chaired by Bezos.

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Reposted by Reid Southen

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

had a wonderful time talking to @bcmerchant.bsky.social about why and how people destroy surveillance & AI instrastructure as political and economic protest: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z4k...

youtube.com

The New Luddites: Why People Are Destroying Surveillance and AI Infrastructure

YouTube video by 404 Media

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I very much enjoyed this discussion about the growing AI resistance and the destruction of surveillance infrastructure with my good friend Jason

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

One thing that really bugs me is people who go, "AI is here, I don't like it either, but we have to adapt," and then they gleefully post AI stuff. Yeah, you sound really cut up and conflicted about it.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

My partner is playing some game on her phone and goes, "I hit the early middle ages," and I go, "Yeah you have," to zing her, but hurt my own feelings because she's only a few weeks older than me.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

If you're looking to get your portfolio off of ArtStation, @atmovfx.bsky.social has a new tool that allows you to essentially import your gallery automatically to ATMO. It's a great site for professional environment artists or inspiration, check it out if you haven't already! www.atmovfx.com

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Muttering, "Just one night of good sleep and I'll be back to normal," every day until you die.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Our smallest cat just brought me a whole roll of paper towel as a gift. Two nights ago it was a Prismacolor marker. By next week it could be a piece of furniture.

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Animation Obsessive @ani-obsessive.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

A selection of shots animated by Kim Kyeongbae for Scavengers Reign (2023), created by Joe Bennett and Charles Huettner, Titmouse

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

This song kicks ass and the video is a real treat if you love movies, too cool.

youtu.be

Joywave - Obsession (Official Video)

YouTube video by JoywaveVEVO

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Before AI, artists used prompts to engage their own imaginations, to plant a seed and run with their own creativity. Now, prompts are something you feed into a machine so it can imagine and create FOR you. Sadly, many people don't see the difference.

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🥭MANGO - Comms Closed @mgosketches.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I made a papercraft just for this

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

An unaccounted for part of the economy is how much young people virulently hate AI, despite how aggressively it's being forced on them. They realize it's making their friends dumber and ruining the world and they want nothing to do with it. From the Penn student paper: www.thedp.com/article/2026...

Goldman Sachs reports that 300 million full-time jobs could be replaced by AI by 2030. Labor turnover is high and hiring has slowed. 71% of Americans worry that AI will cause permanent job loss. As young people about to enter the workforce for the first time, the fear of unemployment is understandable, but we cannot save ourselves with the very tool that is putting us at risk.

The irony is that as Penn pours endless money and energy into AI advancement in its attempt to get ahead, the University is only quickening its own demise. AI cannot coexist with education — it can only degrade it. As technology advances and workers are replaced by machines, schools are some of the only places we have left to explore and wrestle with human thought. With our own university leading the charge, AI is now corrupting those few sacred spaces and leaving us with nowhere to engage in true scholarship.

Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board who meet regularly to discuss issues relevant to the Penn community. This body is led by Editorial Board Chair Jack Lakis and is entirely separate from the newsroom. Questions or comments should be directed to letters@thedp.com.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Oh HELL yes! 🔥 OpenAI is pulling the plug on their AI video generator Sora, and with it goes their deal with Disney to bring AI gen to Disney+. OpenAI seems to be in serious financial trouble, what a shame 🖕

variety.com

OpenAI Will Shut Down Sora Video Platform

OpenAI is planning to discontinue Sora, the generative-AI video creation platform it launched last year,

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

The fever broke already, which is quite the surprise. I think it only lasted a day to a day and a half. Feeling loads better, what a relief.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Spent last night uncontrollably shaking and oscillating between freezing and boiling and wishing I was dead. Took a test today, it's baby's first Covid!

media.tenor.com

a man is sitting on a couch in front of a sign that says awesome on it

ALT: a man is sitting on a couch in front of a sign that says awesome on it

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

It took 14 years, but we finally have our RoboCop statue in Detroit 🖤

Nestling my head in the hand of the 10 foot bronze RoboCop.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Okay, nope, I put it on the floor just outside the door of my office, and a sign suddenly fell off my wall while I was in there. Never happened before. I don't believe in this stuff, but hell no. It's face down out on the porch until I can get rid of it. Absolutely not. I'm done.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Okay, so we slept with it up, and I had to take it down this morning because my partner SWEARS she woke up and heard it say it was going to kill her. I think she's full of shit, obviously, so I took it to my office because I'm not ready to throw out $50 after like ONE nightmare or whatever.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

This was calling to me at an antique store today. I thought it was like a face or a scarab or something at first until... I mean, look. What is this even. I of course bought it, but now I'm pretty sure it's haunted. It echoes and rings in a weird way if you get close to it or talk near it.

I'm sorry, I don't even know how to describe this fucking thing.

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Reid Southen @rahll.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

I love reading the reviews on some of the sketchy massage places near me. My new favorite is a 1-star review where they complain about it being "all tug and no rub," and how they were sent to the hospital with an injured testicle. My previous fav 1-star also complained about "hammered genitals".

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