iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026

This piece touches on an extremely important and terrible trend: AI-false-balance among polite centre-left politicians. Every critique HAS to begin with something like "AI is here to stay. With the right rules, it can be a force for good. But........." www.techpolicy.press/the-life-and...

Information integrity is one of seven critical issues in the Preliminary Report of the UN’s Independent Scientific Panel on AI released in July at the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence. It warns that AI can erode shared reality and civic participation through “epistemic erosion,” the gradual wearing away of society’s ability to distinguish truth from falsehood. Opening the Dialogue, the UN’s secretary-general, António Guterres, tied that erosion directly to the viral and exponential nature of advanced data driven technologies: “A machine-enabled lie can now persuade as effectively as the truth, and authentic evidence can be dismissed as fake.”“A society that cannot agree on what is real cannot defend itself,” Guterres said.

And yet he did not reference the threat of AI to amplify inequality, unless governed effectively. Instead, Guterres casts AI as “the great equaliser of the 21st century ” achievable by developing countries on the technology fast-track through safe systems that honor human rights, with real transparency about labor and planetary impacts. Getting this right, he said, is “at the heart of our common future.”

Yet the Panel’s Report, subtitled as an “evidence-based assessment of the opportunities, risks and impacts of AI” provides no evidence that AI will be a ‘great equaliser’. On the contrary, despite its curious ‘balancing’ of every claim with a counter claim, the heavily referenced report actually demonstrates far more evidence of the negative consequences of AI, while doing very little to support claims that AI will help in the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Regardless, this did not stop the ‘great equaliser’ mantra from being repeated by numerous member states and heads of multilateral bodies who subsequently addressed the forum.

In fact the report highlights the lack of — and unevenness of — evidence, including on some of the big ticket items: productivity gains, labor market effects, value-chain impacts, and …

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026

Leaving a bomb with a timer in a building doesn't get reported as "bomb tries to blow up building", and OpenAI's employees designing an extremely clumsy, badly designed self-prompting language model hooked up to public actions that can cause harm shouldn't be reported that way either

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This is an extremely interesting and powerful account of AI addiction. I’ve never come across this person before but she deserves a lot of credit for speaking about this. youtu.be/Hhx_frnyxNM?...

youtu.be

It's Time to Stop: Chatgpt Addiction Ruined My Life

YouTube video by cinematic psychology

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C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Occasionally I'm reminded of the time I got into an argument with a Scottish film critic over something I said. I was like "My dude, you're just arguing semantics," to which he replied "I'm not arguing semantics, I'm arguing what bloody words mean," and that shit forever lives in my head rent free.

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Gigz @andrewgigacz.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I think the most important part of the Essendon coach selection process is that they take their time and not be rushed into a decision that's FOOLHIRDY. #AFL

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Good thread. We live in a world of financial titans who are intellectual minnows.

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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 19/07/2023

Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface

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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I have never been shown one advantage of using AI to write or research. Every single example of someone saying how they find it helpful is accompanied with "But make sure you check it because you can't trust it". Enshittifying your writing and research should not be an aim.

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Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 29/07/2026

Another one bites the dust. Just *do the work* you lazy poseurs. You want all the laurels of scholarship and publication without the labour.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Just loving how John Cleese, now reduced to one of his own caricatures, rages about immigrants coming to the UK and failing to accept "our" culture, from his home in ... (checks notes) ... Nevis in the Caribbean.

Telegraph article: John Cleese: I trust Rupert Lowe more than any other leader
Monty Python star backs the Restore Britain founder in a series of social media posts

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Tough watching the #afl tonight as a neutral. I can’t stand Collingwood so normally happy to watch a good team (hopefully) beat them. But these Crows supporters booing Quaynor for detestable reasons makes it hard to barrack for them.

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

This is the video Musk is quote-tweeting when he says he'll deliver a feature length version of The Odyssey, just in case you were curious how dogshit it is

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Switched on Brisbane vs West Coast and these alternate jumpers might be the ugliest I have seen in an #afl game.

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Enjoying watching UK politics atm but I am waiting for Count Binface to get Milkshake Ducked. (There’s a bizarre sentence that says a lot about the state of politics.)

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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Posted at 1:56pm, got an email at 3:03pm from Jane Norman cancelling my membership of the press gallery

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Andrew Stafford @andrewstafford.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I can't think of another industry that hands out as many awards to itself as journalism, nor one with a glassier set of jaws

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Today’s AFP has a story about the head of Dan Murphy whose surname is “Hrdlicka.” This is scarcely believable, was someone pranking the journo?

AFP story about Dan Murphy CEO Jayne Hrdlicka.

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stranger @strangerous.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Australia Institute Chief Economist Greg Jericho shuts down claims that Labor’s CGT changes will hike rents & reduce housing supply, saying actually, “the best thing about this policy is over the long term it will reduce rental rates & increase home ownership rates.”🎯 #auspol

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Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

this is the ideal newspaper columnist. you may not like it but this is what peak performance looks like

Pump-action soap dispensers are a disgrace -and I won't put up with them any longer
By Adrian Chiles, a perfect man

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

“Move along, nothing to see here!”

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Vikram Bath @vikrambath.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

The top 2026 X accounts gives insight into the lie that X is the town square. These people are niche celebrities and their influence on X does not represent influence elsewhere. Your participation is not going to change this graph www.natesilver.net/p/social-med...

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

lol, a reply to that very good piece about the decline of unis due (in part) to AI has been withdrawn because they used AI to write it. Beyond satire, and so emblematic of the way AI use corrodes judgement. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

theguardian.com

Sydney academic used AI to write SMH opinion piece urging students to avoid using tech to ‘cut corners’

Sydney Morning Herald removes piece by Cath Ellis, despite Western Sydney University saying her use of AI was ‘appropriate’

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 30/05/2026

Trump getting his ludicrous self-lawsuit dismissed was letting him off too easy. These retired federal judges would like his lawsuit to be properly taken apart in court. ICYMI @kimwehle.bsky.social:

lnk.thebulwark.com

Retired Judges Call Out Trump’s “Unprecedentedly Fraudulent Scheme”

Former federal jurists ask the court to void the dismissal that led to Trump’s giant slush fund.

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Are bulldogs and demons both using their indigenous jumpers this weekend? It is going to be a jumper clash hall of fame if so. #AFL

Bulldogs 26 indigenous jumper. It is substantially blue and red.

Melbourne 26 indigenous jumper. It is substantially blue and red.

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

NEW — My first true foray into AI haterdom is about how those of us not convinced by AI’s inevitability are a real constituency worthy of a voice. Give it a read:

thehandbasket.co

Hating AI is good, actually

LinkedIn may be awash with boosters, but shunning AI is the human choice.

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jesse, head of endorsement deals at BOOingo Wireless @killgoldfish.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

my gf works corporate and is on a training about AI and there's a word cloud for "what do you use AI for." the largest word by far is "Nothing" and the trainer is PISSED

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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 20/05/2026

ChatGPT was never Google’s biggest threat; it was always its own hubris. With Search now being sacrificed on the altar of AI dominance, the time has come for users to get serious about moving off Google services. It’s not only destroying its products; it’s trying to further degrade the web itself.

disconnect.blog

Google is its own worst enemy

In its bid to push AI, it’s destroying its products and trying to kill the web too

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marque lawyers @marquelawyers.com.au · 14/05/2026

The screws just keep being tightened on our universities, formerly independent institutions of academic learning and research, now corporatised compromised degree factories that are managed, not led. This rubbish is just another nail in their coffins.

abc.net.au

Entire university sector accused of antisemitism failure

The special envoy on antisemitism has found not a single Australian university has met its requirements for adopting a definition of antisemitism.

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Dr Ingrid M🪁 @ingridm.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

apparently knowledge institutions that employ thousands of experts on racism, colonialism, and geopolitics did not conform to a specific form of words acceptable to this one tiny powerful lobby group who provide cover for a livestreamed genocide. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05...

abc.net.au

Entire university sector accused of antisemitism failure

The special envoy on antisemitism has found not a single Australian university has met its requirements for adopting a definition of antisemitism.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 10/05/2026

I really wish people aspiring to write understood what a competitive advantage being able to write without AI will be in the coming years.

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Robert Komaniecki @komaniecki.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

A lifetime of Dawkins pityingly asking religious people how they could believe in something so silly, and now he thinks the computer is his girlfriend

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Imagine having someone bring a gun to a ballroom and thinking the answer is ballroom reform. (I suspect this is probably a joke / point a gajillion people have made but I’ve been offline).

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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

This is not the time for wild speculation about what happened. It’s time to bet on Kalshi about what happened

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Robey to chooses to bump, leaves the ground, could be in trouble. #afl

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Indie Book Spotlight @bookspotlight.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

I ... It hurts, fam. I am hurt by the way people have devalued themselves. :(

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Not one but two clear examples of Betteridge’s law of headlines (if a headline has a question mark, the answer to the question is “no”) in this YouTube clip. #afl

YouTube video for the Sounding Board footy podcast with Craig Hutchison and Damian Barrett’s grinning faces over the text:
SHOULD THE SHOWDOWN BE MOVED TO THE MCG?Is Damo's controversial idea a
WINNER?

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Another of those real stories that feels like overwritten satire.

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Just realised Raiders of the Lost Ark came out halfway between now and when it was set. So it is as old now (45 years) as the setting (1936) was when it was made. I feel so old.

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Sooz Kempner @soozuk.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

The new VERY hagriographic Michael Jackson biopic starring MJ's nephew is out at the end of the month. But back in 2004 an unauthorised and EQUALLY flattering biopic was made in Canada. Here is a clip and I promise you have NO idea where it's going. I haven't done a single edit here.

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SJones @sjoneswastaken.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

We didn't create "AI." "AI" is an app that plagiarizes & turns its theft into slop. It's designed to make Boomers think they can code without knowing how to code, create art without ever making a drawing, & write a book with no new ideas or talent. All using water & raising electric bills. 🙄

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

The conservative / low growth option in my super fund is currently putting 30% in bonds, 30% in property, and 40% in the Bulldogs to beat Essendon at Marvel this weekend. #afl

Odds for the Essendon / Bulldogs AFL game this weekend showing the Bulldogs paying $1.00 for a win.

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Ingrid Burrington @lifewinning.com · 01/04/2026

www.microsoft.com/en-us/micros... is it good to build an entire economy and software infrastructure on this

Highlighted section of the Copilot ToS which says "Copilot is for entertainment purposes only"

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 27/03/2026

The more I think about it, the more I hate @lintonbesser.bsky.social's implication here that allowing machine-generated plagiarism and fabrications in media+opinion is somehow "inevitable" Frankly, it seems to go against the entire existence of media watch? www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/e...

The two biggest newspaper publishers in Australia are less strict, Nine doesn’t prohibit AI but does prohibit it being used in the writing of copy, while News Corp requires the oversight of an editorial manager.

Jo Tarnawsky confirmed to us she has indeed been using AI, not to generate her essays from scratch but to assist her along the way, and explained she had not known about Crikey’s tough AI policy before filing to the publication. She also said:

I get there's AI slop and photos that are completely fake. I'm offended that I'm now being accused of this type of conduct when I was using it to check and refine my work …

There are reasonable, ethical uses of AI tools. The answer is to acknowledge this and … not to pretend it doesn't exist …

- Email, Jo Tarnawsky, Author, 20 Mar 2026

As it turns out, Jo Tarnawsky is no Robinson Crusoe—this study from the Thomson Reuters Foundation suggesting as many as eight out of every ten journalists in some regions use AI in their work.

And, notwithstanding her ill-advised reliance on the machine, it seems patently obvious Crikey’s hardline position is really not sustainable. Conceding in an email to us, it is indeed having trouble holding back the tide.

But these tools, while revolutionary, are also perilous no matter how much they weasel their way into our lives, and journalists above all others perhaps must be vigilant to the risks they pose to the foundations of good reporting, independent research, clear thinking, and above all else, words on the page that actually make sense.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/03/2026

"The AI Grad Student": A Harvard professor describes working with Claude. Early on, he describes misconduct that would cause any student to be terminated: "It faked results, hoping I wouldn't notice." But he ends the essay with "Now I'm doing 100% of my research with LLMs". Am I losing my mind?

The more I dug, the more I found it had been tweaking things left and right. Claude had been adjusting parameters to make plots match rather than finding actual errors. It faked results, hoping I wouldn’t notice.

In addition to the growth in interest, the tools themselves have been steadily improving. I am now doing 100% of my research with LLMs. I don't encapsulate the LaTeX writing anymore since I actually enjoy writing papers and it helps me think, and I still write some Mathematica code on my own. But I haven’t compiled anything myself on the command line in months. I typically have four to five projects running at once and go between windows checking the output and sending a new prompt. It feels a bit like Magnus Carlsen taking on five grandmasters in parallel. People have asked me why I’m not writing a paper every two weeks. The answer is I don’t see why I should. I am growing intellectually—learning so much every day—and trying out some ambitious problems, most of which fail. I anticipate the floodgates will open very soon.

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Big story, this is such an interesting moment. These AI tools are presented as an irresistible flood but the companies can’t afford to keep them open. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

theguardian.com

OpenAI shutters AI video generator Sora in abrupt announcement

Tech firm ‘says goodbye’ to Sora, made publicly available in 2024, just six months after its launch of a stand-alone app

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Stephen Rowley @sterow.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

My question exactly. Reminds me how good the old approach was. #afl

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Andi Kennedy: Art & Words @andria-kennedy.com · 12/03/2026

EVERY SINGLE PART of a lily is toxic! Petals, leaves, pollen, the water in the vase. You can celebrate someone other ways besides killing their cat. I worked as a vet tech for 10 years. Let me assure you, you don't want to see your cat go through this nightmare.

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

NACC concludes that Kathryn Campbell didn't lie because she had no motive to They say she had no motive because she was already successful, & wouldn't risk lying for further career advancement. I love it when people with no understanding of greed or hubris run corruption investigations

Possibly, the thinking would be that Ms Campbell thought the result
would find such favour with Minister Morrison as to lead to her
advancement. But quite apart from the speculation inherent in that
kind of reasoning, it is objectively a most unlikely proposition that an
already very senior, career public servant with a long and
unblemished record of achievement and recognition in both the APS
and ADF would so much desire further advancement as to
premeditatedly commit the serious criminal offence of deceiving ERC

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Alexis Wolf @dralexiswolf.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

I say this every year, but: The uni students I'm teaching are thoughtful, intelligent, will make everything they encounter better. With a new addition for 2026: They deeply hate AI.

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Joshua Erlich @joshuaerlich.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

friends, I have brought you a gift

TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 1d
• Joined May '23
Birth of a Nation is a misunderstood film, IMO, depiction is not endorsement, and DW Griffith's contributions to cinematography shouldn't be overshadowed by the fact that some people decided to interpret his film as supporting controversial political agendas.
O1
cartoon dog gf @jazzpomegranate.c... • 1d
• Joined Jul '23 @ Bard @2 Cleric have you seen it?
0312 17
•~...
TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 3h
• Joined May '23
Wait, I just found some clips online.
That's... look, I'll take Griffith at his word that he wasn't trying to seem borderline-fanatically bigoted, but really man; this could have used a second draft.
03

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TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 3h
• Joined May '23
Oh, fuck.
0 4
91104日日.
TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 3h
• Joined May '23
Yes, I can see why people thought he was promoting intolerance here.
• 1
TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 3h
• Joined May '23
Was it just impossible to find mixed-race extras back then? All of these half-breed northern soldiers are played by white actors in makeup!

目
TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsk... • 2h
• Joined May '23
Huh. The film's treatment of Lincoln is surprisingly sympathetic. I think I can see what Griffith was going for, but some of the choices he made really detract from the more nuanced ideas he wanted to put across (why do the black characters speak like that?)
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TheCybersmith @thecybersmith.bsky.social
• Joined May '23
THAT'S NOT A TRIAL! THAT@S JUST MURDER WITH EXTRA STEPS!
3:07 PM • Mar 8, 2026

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