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Skand Hurkat

@skandhurkat.bsky.social
229 followers 358 following 353 posts

I talk about tech, politics, and whatever else catches my fancy. Do I really need a disclaimer that I work for Nvidia and that I don't speak for the company?

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Reposted by Skand Hurkat
Silverman on Security @silvermansecurity.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It's not psychosis. It's that a technology has been rapidly developed & pushed by some of the worst people to ever exist, far too many of whom are completely immune from any/all consequences, all while the average person has no real use for the technology. 22/
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Silverman on Security @silvermansecurity.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I think there are three separate issues here. 1) People that know what the LLMs & LIMs, what there limitations are, & have legitimate uses for them & those legitimate uses are things that the LLMs & LIMs doing business as AI can actually do well w/appropriate human oversight. 1/
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I'm torn on sharing this essay because it's partly criti-hype. But it raises a good point – move fast and break things as a culture results in things getting broken. The solution seems simple, criminal liability for the people and companies that act recklessly.
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 27/09/2026
The imagined influence of the algorithm controls all language, which is the same thing as controlling thought, ultimately. And the generation that’s grown up saying “unalive” doesn’t even know they’ve been muzzled all along.
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The Needling @theneedling.com · 30/09/2026
Ballard Congratulates Golf Course on Its New Light Rail Station: tinyurl.com/yncw9jep
Map of new Pinehurst light rail station opening Sept. 30 next to I-5 and 160-acre Jackson Park Golf Course.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The techbros don't want you to see this trailer. Pass it on.
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SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · 27/09/2026
Well, just had a leading LLM get an internal error processing a Material Safety Data Sheet I sent it, so it HALLUCINATED THE ENTIRE THING INSTEAD and created a fake version of the product... so it could give answers about the product. Oh lord.
When you provided the API link to the
STEK SDS, my internal browsing tool attempted to access it and hit a server block (URL_FETCH_STATUS_MISC_ERROR ).
Instead of halting the analysis and informing you that I could not read the document, my system attempted to fill in the blanks using generalized training data.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I experienced this acceleration in my friend's Rivian (empty road, and we didn't go past 30 mph). It is absolutely stupid – the acceleration is strong enough to move your insides, and you're so unpredictable yay no one else in the road would have a chance to react. I see Teslas do this all the time.
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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 27/09/2026
This admin has spent years going after science. It proposed the largest cut in NASA’s history, about a quarter of the agency and half of its science programs. But last month, a groundbreaking telescope left the launch pad anyway. And the story of how it got there is our good news this Sunday.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If you or I hacked the government, we'd have the book thrown at us. OpenAI's agents didn't do this automatically, OpenAI engineers prompted the agents to, or through carelessness did not prevent their LLM tools from attacking others. Where are the consequences?
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Here's something to consider – say we agree that the useful text generation machine generates a doomsday Bible, how the heck is it going to build biological weapons? That would require us to hand it complete control of a wet lab and never monitor what it's doing.
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Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It's pretty damn impressive how much ground Mayor Mamdani has been able to cover after only nine months in office on a wide range of basic quality-of-life issues in NYC. I was reading through the numbers this morning, and they're kinda astonishing. (thread)
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ben @benrs.uk · 17/09/2026
good morning
APStylebook • @APStylebook • 16h

We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing "the" labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French, the disabled, the college-educated. Instead, use wording such as people with mental illnesses. And use these descriptions only when clearly relevant.

AP The Associated Press 
Replying to @APStylebook

The use of "the French" in this tweet by @AP was inappropriate and has caused unintended offense. An updated tweet is upcoming.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The fucked up thing about this story is that the US did not, for the last twenty-six years, resolve a "temporary" protected status. This is the disfunction of the US government, and why most people think it doesn't work, because it doesn't.
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Reposted by Skand Hurkat
Jess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Here's what I actually think these incidents reveal (instead of a rogue AI terminator situation): Much of the infra we expect to be hardened is actually being held together by glue and popsicle sticks.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 11/09/2026
"...solving problems is only a tool and proxy for achieving the primary goal of conceptual understanding and insight. Forgetting this in the world of AI may turn the tool against the primary goal."
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
If you told me ten years ago that @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social would advocate for a four-day work week, I'd say that you had lost your mind. Yet, it has happened.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"Popular art does not have to pander to the lowest level of intelligence and taste" is such a powerful sentiment. This is what I miss in movies and TV shows today.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I guess I'm not working today. Yay! Free holiday!
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Coyote vs Acme was a fun movie for my inner five year old, and a wonderful way for me to relive my childhood. Go watch it!
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dustinboston.bsky.social @dustinboston.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I've been thinking of building some analog synthesizers. This article makes me want to just go for it! www.noemamag.com/why-is-every...
noemamag.com
Why Is Everyone In Tech So Sad? | NOEMA
A lot of people seem to be realizing that knowledge work is mostly pointless. AI might give us the pleasure of finding out what happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This is a good thread, but this post makes a crucial point. We need deep understanding of our code/knowledge/infrastructure, and outsourcing thinking to a computer is never the right answer.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Notice the framing here. The boy was riding in front of a car. Not that the car hit the boy from behind.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 30/08/2026
yes, this is the point - when there is a dispute over the name of a landmark and one country says it’s X and another country says it’s Y, they’ll show X in one country and Y in the other one based on the official sources obviously Canada hasn’t changed the name, so it stays Lake Ontario there
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Ghent University members are asking for support, so its institution can investigate Cofnas as its regulations require, and because: "appeals to absolutist academic freedom as a guise for pursuing racist and pseudoscientific research threaten the integrity and credibility of research as a whole"
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I hate this. How am I supposed to make fun of the L8 going forward? And how am I supposed to beat this in a race where I'm jumping rope?
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Joé McKen @joemcken.net · 24/08/2026
<long tired sigh> Meanwhile, just today:
techdirt.com
Even Some Of The Loudest Kids’ Online Safety Advocates Are Now Warning Against Social Media Bans
We’ve been talking for a while now about how the rush (much of it driven by politicians’ obsession with Jonathan Haidt’s mostly debunked book) to ban kids from social media is dan…
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The Needling @theneedling.com · 20/08/2026
Netflix Releases New Documentary About Whistleblowers Who Worked at Boeafsjkfdsjjajkffdsjfdhfhjjklklllllllllllll: tinyurl.com/2uuusee7
Blood spatter dripping down on white wall
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Fiona @fionasmall.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Real French in Quebec
Delusional cosplayers in France
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
What if we, and hear me out, ban guns?
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Can't wait for the internet urbanists to lost their minds. Decommissioning the BQE would have healed the fabric of the city, but it would be good to hear why this decision was reached. The answers are often more complicated than a YouTube video would have you think.
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Richard M. Nixon @dicknixon.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
An underrated part of Mamdani's videos is that even the most routine ones - snow clearing - contain an element of "This is your city, this is where it comes from, this is how it works."
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This is a great podcast-essay from @acollidaiesperanca.bsky.social, and I must confess, I would have spat out my coffee (if I were drinking coffee) because I couldn't have predicted where this snippet would go. youtu.be/miJbW3i9qQc?...
youtu.be
conspiracy physics and you (and also me)
YouTube video by Angela Collier
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Elon Green @elongreen.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
years ago me and Ms. Moreno talked about how this came together and it was the greatest www.newyorker.com/culture/cult...
“The contrast is outrageous! There’s this sex bomb in front, and this, this creature—I don’t know what else to call him—this fuzzy, violent, nasty creature in back who only got pleasure out of making people and other Muppets unhappy. A creature of impulse, let’s put it that way. And when I watch myself—’cause I’m usually so critical—but when I watch myself, I just laugh at me. What I love about it is that my character’s trying so hard to be sexy and sultry. And this horrible creature in back of me is acting up. [Laughter] See? I can’t stop laughing. It tickles me to death.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
WTAF? If you think it's okay for police to torture kids with electric shock devices, but it's parental negligence when a teen walks home from school, you need to get checked.
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Jenn Barth @magickbarth.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I have changed from a person that used to look at new tech and say "Oooo! I'd love to buy that!" to a person that prays to multiple deities on a daily basis that her current technological items (car, laptop, phone, TV) never fail because she can no longer buy "dumb" versions of things...
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Yep! A fellow researcher in our lab who was from France went to Québec and found them to be "too French."
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Anyone willing and able to create a Snow Crash QR code for these glasses?
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Jake Williams @malwarejake.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
A comment by a fellow IANS faculty George Gerchow drove this point home: "This story shows that right now the voice of reason is a 24-year-old with a portfolio project and no stake in the outcome. Don’t build a security program that depends on him showing up again."
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Americans don't know how to drive, and the car dependent culture normalises people driving who have no business being on the road. Let me count the incidents I've been involved in over the last two weeks. 🧵
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Meanwhile, the US was the only country in the world to oppose a recent UN declaration about the need to reduce crash deaths. The vote was 162 to 1.
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 18/08/2026
This is the desired effect of the draconian e-bike law prepared by machine politicians and signed by the multimillionaire Phil Murphy on the last full day of office as Governor as his parting "fuck-you" to New Jersey residents and commuters: newjerseymonitor.com/briefs/gover...
newjerseymonitor.com
Gov. Phil Murphy signs e-bike bill criticized by bike advocates • New Jersey Monitor
Bill supporters say they want to increase public safety. Critics say the bill targets low-income e-bike users.
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Casey Martin @caseyworks.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Good reminder that adults in Seattle can get a FREE bike helmet from SDOT: www.seattle.gov/transportati...
seattle.gov
How to Use Scooter Share and Bike Share - Transportation | seattle.gov
Learn how to use a scooter or bike share, plus safety tips, discounted helmets and more.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I just read Katie's last book, "The End Of Everything", and it's a page turner. Katie is extremely funny and engaging as an author, and I can't wait to read her latest.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
People are outraged that the expert witness used ChatGPT, but they missed that he used Yahoo! search.
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Gildedtongue @gildedtongue.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
GODDAMMIT, CASSANDRA!
The article about the 2026 market crash, published almost on this date back in 2014
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The average life expectancy in 1900 was 32 years. That the minimum age to be a US president is 35 reflects that 35 was "old geezer" when the US constitution was written.
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
LOL! The sad thing is, I know people like this
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Skand Hurkat @skandhurkat.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I couldn't recollect Chris Wallace's name, so I searched for "Fox News serious anchors". Here's DuckDuckGo's LLM summary. Funny enough, the linked Wikipedia article was to Chris' page.


Search Assist




Fox News has several serious news anchors, including Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and Aishah Hasnie, who cover a range of political and current events topics. These anchors are known for their in-depth reporting and interviews with notable figures.
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Ólafur Waage @olafurw.com · 10/08/2026
[back in the day] Low level programmers: "It's all about optimizing every byte and every cycle, use as little RAM as you can" Other devs: "Nonsense. We have plenty of RAM" [today] Low level programmers: "Well well well"
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