Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 23/07/2026I wrote a whole article about how you probably won’t read it, and I don’t blame you. www.oreilly.com/radar/you-pr...oreilly.comYou Probably Won't Read This Article...and That's OK“Help! There are too many [LLM bug reports, blog posts about LLM bug reports, books, treatises, codices, scrolls, papyri, cuneiform tablets]! How do I choose 100
Reposted by Rufus RockThe Economist @economist.com · 13/07/2026“The people who promise that their frontier AI systems will be safe and aligned are, inside their own companies, stripping out the alignment mechanisms that three centuries of conflict produced,” writes Tim O’Reillybit.lyElon Musk is building a form of capitalism that Adam Smith would hateThe merchants are becoming princes, writes Tim O’Reilly 3176
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 25/04/2026Apparently, I think AI is more aware than most people do... Learn how you think about #consciousness compared to the crowd on awareometer.com 021
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 25/04/2026I've been building a small site, awareometer.com, to test these kinds of intuitions! Thus far it seems like people think AI is less aware than a fruit fly, but more aware than a carrot 😂awareometer.comAware-o-meterWhich is more aware? 000
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 24/04/2026I’ve been building a side project called Aware-o-meter. It’s a simple comparison site that asks people to choose which of two things seem more aware. Check it out here if you are interested: awareometer.com - I’ve already got 2300 responses somehow!awareometer.com 010
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 24/04/2026I’ve been building a little website (awareometer.com) to test people’s intuitions about this stuff! 000
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 17/04/2026I’m not sure about that myself. But it would definitely be nice if we had more reliable ways of measuring model performance. Also feels a good time to plug this again: open.substack.com/pub/asimovad...open.substack.comAre LLMs the Best That They Will Ever Be?Without careful disclosure architectures, AI products may only get worse, even as the technology gets better. 000
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 17/04/2026Evidence is mostly anecdotal, or that it’s failing the ‘should I walk to the car wash’ style prompts. So this might be a kind of collective delusion, but there are some pretty interesting takes floating around about why nerfing models might be in Anthropic’s interests. 100
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 17/04/2026People are convinced 4.7 is a downgrade on 4.6. It seems “lazier” or like it’s “not thinking” anymore (quotes from Reddit). 100
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 17/04/2026Watching the fallout from Anthropic’s latest model (Opus 4.7) release has been fascinating 100
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 30/11/2025@simonpoulton.com thinks that there is a "possibility that shopping agents empower consumers so they aren’t forced onto a platform to transact.” I think this exemplifies exactly why LLMs might only get worse from here asimovaddendum.substack.com/p/are-llms-t...asimovaddendum.substack.comAre LLMs the Best That They Will Ever Be?Without careful disclosure architectures, AI products may only get worse, even as the technology gets better. 000
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 28/11/2025The technology just feels momentous. But, as I argue here, no one has worked out how to make it profitable: substack.com/@asimovsadde...substack.comAre LLMs the Best That They Will Ever Be?Without careful disclosure architectures, AI products may only get worse, even as the technology gets better. 000
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 28/11/2025This is shocking considering that ChatGPT got 100 million users in 2 months. 100
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Thanks Jack! Trying my best to put all that I learnt in HPSC0061 to good use :) 010
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Love this. Every time I use Google Scholar it amazes me to think that it is how Google once was. I miss the point of search being... search. 000
Reposted by Rufus RockJohn Herrman @jwherrman.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Provocative title here from @rufusrock.bsky.social but it's hard to disagree on this point 1/ phttps://asimovaddendum.substack.com/p/are-llms-the-best-that-they-will?r=3f5ape&triedRedirect=true 132
Reposted by Rufus RockJack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Maybe those sunlit uplands are actually hallucinations? Maybe we're at peak-LLM? 031
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Not sure if tech better = product better is a type of "technological determinism" (but it's certainly a fallacy) @jackstilgoe.bsky.social and @stsucl.bsky.social ? 110
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 25/11/2025The tech getting better does not mean that the product will. The incentive structures (slop, engagement maxing, attention economics) on the internet as it is are ominous. 120
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 25/11/2025I helped write a thing (just in case you are not tired of reading about AI) open.substack.com/pub/asimovad...open.substack.comAre LLMs the Best That They Will Ever Be?Without careful disclosure architectures, AI products may only get worse, even as the technology gets better. 100
Reposted by Rufus RockThe AI Disclosures Project @ai-disclosures.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Are LLM's the best that they will ever be? A guest post on Asimov Addendum by @rufusrock.bsky.social "The technology might continue to get better, but that doesn’t mean that the user experience will. Why? Primarily because no one knows how to make LLMs profitable." Read more below👇 111
Reposted by Rufus RockLouise Amoore @amoorelouise.bsky.social · 22/08/2025UK government simultaneously replaced expert advice on technology with tech company “consultants” and displaced their civil servants’ experience and expertise into AI models… It’s a disaster & an absolute gift to the tech vendors… 0257
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 12/08/2025I wonder if he trusts plumbers, electricians, civil engineers, etc, who build and maintain all the infrastructure he needs to survive… 010
Reposted by Rufus RockMariana Mazzucato @mazzucatom.bsky.social · 06/08/2025Public Sector Capabilities Index ➡️ www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/res... Council on Urban Initiatives ➡️ www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/res... 3/3ucl.ac.ukPublic Sector Capabilities IndexIIPP, with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, has launched an initiative to establish a Public Sector Capabilities Index – the first global measure of city governments’ capacity to solve problems. 032
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 27/07/2025I wrote a thing about this in the context of climate change a while ago medium.com/@rufus.p.roc...medium.comHope, Climate Change and Technological SolutionismOn the 20th of September, 2023, Rishi Sunak delivered an update on the UK’s approach to Net Zero, bringing technological solutions once again to the forefront of climate policy. The “new approach”… 020
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 27/07/2025To be fair, complexity is hard to work with. Humans sort of have to break problems down in order to structure them such that we can work on them. Very hard to sit down and write an entire book. 210
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 27/07/2025I like “technological solutionism” as discussed in Evgeny Morosov’s wonderfully titled “To Save Everything, Click Here” 000
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 19/07/2025Do you think that separation of state and establishment is likely shift ever? E.g., if certain places continue to feel neglected over time through different political regimes … 110
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 19/07/2025Interesting. So the establishment is not equated with the state? Makes sense through the lens of US libertarianism now I’m thinking about it. Harder to do in the UK with royals, Thatcher, etc. 120
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 19/07/2025I wonder why. Plenty of US cities/regions - like the Rust Belt - might rightfully feel aggrieved or left behind. The “coastal elites” vs everyone else narrative feels like a real thing too, yet national identity holds firm everywhere? 110
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 19/07/2025Are there parts of the US where people don’t strongly identify with “American”? Like how some in Liverpool reject being called “English”? 330
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 06/07/2025Another classic case of “let’s automate everything don’t worry it’ll be fine” www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis...bbc.co.ukWimbledon 2025: Play stopped in Sonay Kartal's match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova after electronic line calling failsPlay is stopped in Sonay Kartal's last-16 match at Wimbledon as the electronic line calling system fails to call a ball out. 000
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 30/06/2025Great thoughts on information over abundance from @hankgreen.bsky.social — though calling a lot of the AI slop on TikTok “information” feels generous. youtu.be/9euKCrTyMEcyoutu.beYou’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for InformationYouTube video by vlogbrothers 011
Reposted by Rufus RockRoss Carroll @rosscarroll.bsky.social · 25/02/2025When I worked in UK academia I recall hearing of a Japanese man who was baffled at how Britain had decided to run its universities like firms. “Why? Your universities are excellent and your firms are terrible.” 2354201480
Reposted by Rufus RockFinancial Times @financialtimes.com · 19/02/2025Europe’s dependence on US tech is a critical weakness | Opinion www.ft.com/content/30d6f79f-d1ee-49…ft.comEurope’s dependence on US tech is a critical weakness | OpinionIn order to protect their sovereignty, the continent’s leaders must invest in a digital ecosystem independent of America 66918
Reposted by Rufus RockStephen Curry @scurry.bsky.social · 18/02/2025Signature tally now closing in on 3000. Please keep discussing, sharing and signing to put as much pressure on the Royal Society to respond as possible. forms.gle/AuYvuWqytx8K...forms.gleOpen letter to the President of the Royal Society – time to stand up for your valuesIf you wish to show your support for the letter below regarding apparent inaction by the Royal Society in the face of breaches of its code of conduct by Elon Musk FRS, please sign below. I invite anyo... 26353
Reposted by Rufus RockTim O'Reilly @timoreilly.bsky.social · 05/02/2025I just wrote a piece on why I think the chatter about AI putting programmers out of work is wrong. Every time it gets easier to tell computers what we want them to do, it brings more people into the fold and unleashes a wave of creativity and creative destruction. That reads like opportunity to me.oreilly.comThe End of Programming as We Know It 1175
Reposted by Rufus RockJack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 28/01/2025'Scaling laws' are not laws. They are an industrial strategy. Like Moore's Law. Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman et al's airport books lay it out - Blitzscaling as a way to crush competition and earn monopoly rents. So the story has to be that bigger is better. 16117
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 09/01/2025Thanks to @timoreilly.bsky.social for sending me the article! 000
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 09/01/2025I really enjoyed tinyurl.com/4xupv5kt - “the penultimate goal with AI is to, if you believe them, summon a kind of God… it very much feels like… what I imagine walking through Los Alamos must have felt like during the Manhattan Project, there’s a real searching for a sense of belonging and meaning”stratechery.comAn Interview with Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross About the Human Component of AIAn interview with Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross about the human component of AI, OpenAI drama, Nvidia, Goole, Apple, and predictions for 2024. 111
Reposted by Rufus RockHell-a Bambust 🏳️⚧️ (alleged transsexual)(spooky) @ela-bambust.bsky.social · 21/12/2024Genuinely wild how much the internet 15 years ago felt like a frontier and now feels like those terminals you get in video games with a couple of pages to give you the illusion of an explorable internet, like in cyberpunk 77. Just fully fucked the whole thing up 814567404
Reposted by Rufus Rockncnvrgnt @inconvergent.net · 09/12/2024how hard can it possibly be to understand that LLMs are not good for information retrieval 5052947
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 09/12/2024LLMs only seem good for info retrieval because search engines have been ruined by ads—a very accurate take. My question is what happens when advertising starts being inserted into the LLMs? Will our information environment ever recover? 100
Rufus Rock @rufusrock.bsky.social · 08/12/2024Easy solution: never connect your pc to the internet. 110
Reposted by Rufus RockMariana Mazzucato @mazzucatom.bsky.social · 07/12/2024Not enough to complain about tech bros. Must look at their feudalistic renter practices. In 2019 I wrote on “digital feudalism” www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/p... (based on theory in my book The Value of Everything). In 2023 ran a project on “Algorithmic Rents” www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/pub....project-syndicate.orgPreventing Digital Feudalism | by Mariana Mazzucato - Project SyndicateMariana Mazzucato calls reform of the platform-dominated market for personal data the main economic challenge of our time. 35719
Reposted by Rufus RockJack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 03/12/2024Brilliant analysis from one of our @stsucl.bsky.social alumni 252
