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Samuel Pizelo

@spizelo.bsky.social
120 followers 311 following 28 posts

Assistant Professor of Game Studies at ICCIT, U Toronto Mississauga. Researches games, systems, AI/ML, and digital media. www.samuelpizelo.com

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Samuel Pizelo @spizelo.bsky.social · 4h
This is a great thread on the current AI hype cycle. Important for us to distinguish HEAVILY augmented LLMs from their so-called theoretical capabilities, esp regarding mathematics - these companies have a massive incentive to fudge and a history of doing so (see OpenAI’s Dota2 AI back in 2016!)
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Nick Seaver @nickseaver.website · 29/09/2026
re-reading some of IN THE AGE OF THE SMART MACHINE for class prep, and this is so much more useful than the surveillance capitalism book
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FIX MOJANG BEDROCK ANTI VIRAL SPIRAL @adventurewetpaint.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 15h
Friends, while they're trying to talk about fictional machine gods, don't lose sight into what they're all actually powering in real life. You can browse the the entities on the website and use the API, and learn more about it on the DAIR project site: dair-institute.org/projects/sur....
dair-institute.org
Surveillance Watch
This interactive map reveals the intricate connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations.
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Laine Nooney @ 🔥🗑️🔥 @lainenooney.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is such an unbelievably, historically unserious bad take from Steven Levy, the light from bad takes would take a million billion years to reach it. www.wired.com/story/war-br...
wired.com
War Bros Didn’t Always Rule Silicon Valley
Some say that tech was always about the money and the military. Don’t buy that argument.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 26/09/2026
Class solidarity.
hollywoodreporter.com
The Major Social Media Platforms Are All Rejecting Paid Ads for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ (Exclusive)
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all turned down the trailer for the Oct. 9 doc, citing "political" content. X won't even take Bleecker Street's calls. The distributor is appealing.
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Samuel Pizelo @spizelo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Productivity growth is already decoupled from wages, so this is just a trillion-dollar bid for consolidation of worker control. AI will give you nothing you haven’t already lost.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I think of the climate harm AI poses the same way: the threats are not theoretical or in the future, but unfolding all around us now.
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Samuel Pizelo @spizelo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“But he said that the incident was particularly concerning because the hack had happened in June but OpenAI did not inform the country until September. It follows a run of disclosures from OpenAI as well as rivals … that were only reported long after they had actually happened.” This is the headline
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Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"Claims of incipient, dangerous superintelligence are not based in good scientific or engineering practice. Rather, they are narratives based in ideologies of transhumanism, eugenics, and wishful thinking about imagined future digital humans." - @timnitgebru.blacksky.app + @emilymbender.bsky.social
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
And yeah, there are parts of my job I really don't enjoy (grading homework assignments, for one; reviewing piles of applications for another). But what if, instead of saying we should be free of such things, we asked: What do we gain by being present in this moment? >>
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Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
when ai leaves u behind
7 panel comic.

Panel 1:
A Red Guy with AI across his chest looks like he’s about to run away. A Yellow Guy stands next to him. Red Guy says “I’m the future, buddy. You comin’?”
Yellow Guy replies “Nah”

Panel 2: 
Red Guy is almost out of the panel. He leans in and says “Enjoy getting left behind, pal”
Yellow Guy replies “ok”

Panel 3:
Yellow Guy stands alone.

Panel 4: 
Close up on Yellow Guy, there is a quiet “huff-huff-huff” noise coming from behind him

Panel 5:
Yellow Guy turns to look behind him

Panel 6: 
Close up on Yellow Guy’s face as if from the point of view of an attacker.
Yellow Guy yells “Jesus Christ”

Panel 7:
AI Red Guy is now chasing the Yellow Guy. 
Red Guy: “Use me”
Yellow Guy “No”
Red Guy “USE ME”
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Del @del.art · 20/09/2026
When a game studio ships a solid game, it creates TWO valuable products: 1. A solid game. 2. The team that spent years learning how to work together make a game. Because Western studios keep disbanding #2 while development cycles get longer; we will inevitably see less of #1.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 19/09/2026
I gave a talk yesterday at a clean tech in incubator, and this was literally my thesis.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 18/09/2026
"Students are using it for everything, including cheating, and a recent report out of M.I.T. said it is triggering 'cognitive surrender.' Many university leaders are embracing A.I. with enthusiasm anyway." 🫠
nytimes.com
An M.I.T. Report Warns A.I. Is Causing ‘Cognitive Surrender.’ Universities Are in a Bind.
As A.I. upends education, university leaders have been all over the map about how to respond. It can be very confusing for students.
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Quinn Slobodian @quinnslobodian.com · 17/09/2026
At Boston University, a cratering in demand for the master’s in economics program and a spike for the master’s in social work, early sign of people pivoting to AI-resilient fields.
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Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Yes, more like this please! www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...
Screen cap from linked article:

"regulation, maybe that’s a good result. But there is no reason to suppose that AI developers and their bosses are best placed to comment on either their dangers or their potential value. Indeed, quite the opposite: there’s reason to think that industry involvement erodes one’s judgement, not just ethically but technically. 

We’d do better to take advice on the real benefits and risks of AI not from those who are making or selling it but from thoughtful commentators like Mitchell, Devlin, computational linguist Emily Bender (of “stochastic parrots” fame), and two astute AI ethicists formerly at Google, Shannon Vallor and Timnit Gebru. (If you notice something striking about that latter list, I don’t think it’s a coincidence either.)

More generally, to have a better standard of discourse both in the media and in policy we should recognise that, despite the prevailing attitude of many politicians towards academia, the humanities are an essential element in the discussions. Since its earliest days, those making AI have proved consistently bad forecasters of its prospects and capabilities. We must stop treating them all like gurus. "

Highlighted in blue: " Indeed, quite the opposite: there’s reason to think that industry involvement erodes one’s judgement, not just ethically but technically."
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Samuel Pizelo @spizelo.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I love sports but it is interesting to see the functional resemblance between contemporary team ownership and factory teams back in the day.
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rondezvousWA @ronpdavis.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Imagine if the @seattletimes.com and other news outlets were intellectually honest and published, i don't know, charts like this? Seattle is safer than almost all our peer cities, except the other one governed by a Democratic Socialist. Thanks @mayor.seattle.gov and @mayor.nyc.gov!
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 12/09/2026
Have we discussed "AI" doomsday cults + Epstein? “parachuting humanity into a different evolutionary era...even obsoleting the human race as we know it...is a running theme in the Epstein files, and...tech evangelists...“It’s eugenics all the way down” www.codastory.com/authoritaria...
codastory.com
"All my fundees have blue eyes." Epstein and the tech world's dark ideology - Coda Story
The Epstein files reveal beliefs about race, eugenics, and engineering humans that run to the heart of Silicon Valley.
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Matthew L. Jones @nescioquid.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The response of key Fields-medal winning figures in the mathematical community to the OpenAI 'result' of Navier-Stokes carefully navigates, in turbulent waters hard to model correctly, the Charybdis of facile technological determinism and the Scylla of accusations of luddism. mathandai.org
In recent months, the success of AI in solving major mathematical problems has made headlines even outside mathematical circles. But 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. Indeed, the mass production at faster and faster pace of "true/false" statements could destroy fertile ground instead of breathing life into new ideas.

Often these solutions are announced in a rush, leaving no time for a proper writeup, the isolation of new methods and ideas, and citing relevant previous work of others. As in all creative professions, this raises severe attribution and plagiarism questions. Moreover, without the willing mathematicians who must take care of their development and integration into the mathematical canon, AI-conceived ideas would never become fully alive and the crucial human transmission chain between mathematicians would be lost.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Who funds political campaigns today? Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and about two dozen other tech bros.
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Corey Brickley * Blight's Hollow Dot Com @coreybrickley.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
TECH CEO: WE INVENTED GUN
DOG CAN USE

Crowd Cheers


Little guy wearing Yaoi hat: "OH MY GOD, WHY?"


Crowd: WOOO

Tech CEO: WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT BY 2027 10000% OF ECONOMY
WILL BE DOG GUN
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
If you made software not intended to kill everyone and now you think it might kill everyone that sounds like a product liability issue. You should go fix it and stop bothering me
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I think the political left should be the loudest voice calling for an AI model development pause, frontier pacing, and mandatory third party audits right now. Put aside the doomer stuff (though I think it’s plausible), we just found out that OpenAI’s agents committed a pretty major felony!
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Pride Ott 🦦 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It is kinda funny how the frontier labs people keep saying that they are making a machine that has a double digit percentage chance of killing everyone and we are doing ~zero about it while if someone wants to make a quadplex in a wealthy suburb….
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 09/09/2026
The "AI" could XX & hack XXX, well that's called creating a virus, if you create a virus yes you can use your virus to hack XXX. That's not because its "super intelligent" its because you created a virus which you shouldn't be allowed to do.
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 07/09/2026
Speaking of plagiarism: www.scientificamerican.com/article/open...
scientificamerican.com
OpenAI’s latest math breakthroughs commit research misconduct, experts say
OpenAI released 10 AI-generated results over the weekend. Some mathematicians are unhappy with their approach
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Jordan S. Carroll 🌹 @jordanscarroll.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
if a literature expert can learn to teach prompt engineering by farting around in their spare time, then a student can pick it up the same way without missing out on any English class
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vortex_egg @vortexegg.com · 04/09/2026
So at what point do people let themselves admit this is a criminal conspiracy to engage in cybercrimes against other corporations?
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All Will Rise by Speculative Agency @allwillrise.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Our Science & Impact Director, @joostvervoort.bsky.social, shares his thoughts on what we’re doing with All Will Rise. Have fun with activism! Enjoy all the different ways your actions can have a positive impact on the planet. #IndieGame #GameDev #IndieDev
We are not interested in telling you the world is bad.
Instead, we hope our game will show you that being involved in making a better world can be fun, even when it's messy and hard.
Joost vervoort
Science & Impact Director
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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
"I agree there is a literacy crisis in this country, and it’s impt to acknwldg that plainly... It's not just ‘brain rot,’ it’s the intentional, predictable result of decades of divestment in public education, libraries, class warfare, attacks on books in general... and [the] attention economy..."
defector.com
What Do Booksellers Make Of “The End Of Reading”? | Defector
If you haven’t yet encountered the cover story for the August issue of The Atlantic, I have some bad news to share: “The End of Reading Is Here.” It’s an intentionally provocative headline for a sligh...
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Mark Z. Jacobson @mzjacobson.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This is how fast oil use can disappear China's reduction in oil consumption during first half of 2026 due to replacement of fossil vehicles with EVs exceeded the UK’s entire oil consumption during that period China’s CO2 emis fall Q226 due to plummeting oil use carbonbrief.org/analysis-chi...
carbonbrief.org
Analysis: China’s CO2 emissions fall in Q2 2026 due to plummeting oil use - Carbon Brief
China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fell by 1% in the second quarter of 2026, as oil consumption plummeted amid the strait of Hormuz crisis.
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Samuel Pizelo @spizelo.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Very hyped!
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Abbey @abbeyarletto.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This is what living next door to a 30 megawatt data center sounds like.
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ElizabethwithaZ @elizabethwithaz.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The AI Literacy we get: "Here's a piece of software founded on theft, labor exploitation, and environmental devastation. It consistently produces bias and falsehoods, so be sure to use it ethically and responsibly!" The AI Literacy we need:
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United Videogame Workers-CWA @videogameworkers.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
This is inhumane and unacceptable. And how were these workers thanked for enduring these conditions? Many were laid off. This is why we're organizing. A better industry is both possible and must come to pass if our artform and dignity are to survive.
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I don't agree with arsonists but firefighters are too aggressive for me. I wish there was a... third way
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I really don’t think we’re all taking this nearly seriously enough — Meta is legally admitting that it harms young people and is paying BILLIONS (but not nearly enough billions considering how much they knowingly and intentionally profit off that harm) to avoid proper accountability.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27/08/2026
Genuinely abundant, cheap, accessible energy has vastly more liberatory potential than AI, for vastly more people -- especially more poor people. Which, I guess, is your answer.
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Russell England @russellengland.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
"Where are the climate protesters!?" 90% of protests that the police targeted since 2022 were climate protests And remember when 16 Just Stop Oil protesters were sent to prison for up to 5 years in 2024 because of draconian anti-protest laws
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
In possibly the fastest shift in public opinion I've ever seen, local data center approval went from -5 to -65 in less than a year heatmap.news/daily/data-c...
a graph of data center support rapidly falling
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Molleindustria FUTURE? NO THANKS! OUT NOW @molleindustria.org · 20/08/2026
This is cognitive class warfare. Technofascists like Thiel are raising a new, traditionally educated ruling class while shoving addictive apps, thought-terminating AI, and gambling down everyone else’s throats. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/t...
nytimes.com
Silicon Valley Executives Are Tech Fans. Just Not for Their Own Kids. (Gift Article)
At home, moderation and restraint are the rule for tech parents. Boredom is exalted. Maybe they’re onto something.
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Samuel Pizelo @spizelo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Studies are rolling in with predictable results. Every instructor is witnessing this trend. At what point will institutions catch on?
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
'Despite early evidence that the use of artificial intelligence can negatively affect learning outcomes, the pressure on universities to adopt AI tools keeps growing. According to some economists, universities must train students to use AI...to prepare them for the AI-changing labour market.' 1/3
timeshighereducation.com
Reshaping universities to suit the untested AI economy is wrong
Rush to integrate artificial intelligence indiscriminately across the curriculum ignores the true purpose of higher education, say Jelena Belic and Kritika Maheshwari
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
🧵I've been writing about communities taking on big heartless corporations for well over 30 years and I have never seen an issue bring together a coalition as wide, or as deep, as the battle against AI data centres. This quote from a Kentucky farmer who refused millions to sell her land says it all:
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