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zugzwang.bsky.social

@zugzwang.bsky.social
169 followers 378 following 26 posts
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Matt Binder @mattbinder.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
the tech industry is about to invent books
Andrew Yeung 
@andruyeung
X.com
We created gyms because modern day work no
longer required physical activity. Without exercise,
our muscles atrophy.
I predict we'll need gyms for our brains too, once Al
starts doing our knowledge work.
10:53 PM • 10/4/26 • 1.3M Views
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 04/10/2026
Ready to free yourself from Big Tech tools? Opt Out October is the time to do it. Once you manage to make some changes, give yourself one of these merit badges and share your accomplishments! www.eff.org/pages/welco...
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Have you seen @ghostdoc2026.bsky.social yet? If not, you are in for a treat --- a thoughtful, wry deep dive into the history, present, and ideology of "AI". Streaming for free on PBS's YouTube channel in the US & Korea, rentable on Kinema elsewhere. notaidoc.com
notaidoc.com
Ghost in the Machine
Not AI | Ghost in the Machine - A Documentary by Valerie Veatch | Premiering at Sundance 2026
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Ajuna Soerjadi 🌸 @ethicsofai.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I'm cracking up 🤣 read the axis labels. Excellent example of why critical AI literacy should also include basic data literacy. The marketing machine behind AI depends on us being oblivious to the ways numbers and statistics are used to mislead us
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Writing something where I will be liberally citing @lilymasonphd.bsky.social's latest and realizing that I can't cite every single thing I would like to because then I'm just reprinting her work. So, I've gotta thread about it instead. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Screenshot of the article website. Title is: Polarization Is Not the Problem. Author is Lilliana Mason. Journal is the Journal of Democracy, Volume 37, Number 4, October 2026. From Johns Hopkins University Press.
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Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026
This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!
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Xero now with 100% more 🎃 @artificer-ind.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Still patiently waiting to be "left behind" by AI rather than it chasing me across every damn space like a slasher in a low budget flick.
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jon christian @jonchristian.net · 17/09/2026
NEW: We spent months investigating a little-known media startup called Brown Brothers Media, which buys legit news sites and turns them into AI-powered zombie content farms What blew my mind was its traffic -- it appears to be getting more readers than NPR or CBS News futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
How Three Brothers Built an AI Slop Empire by Buying Legitimate News Sites and Turning Them Into Zombie Content Farms That They Say Get 50 Million Page Views per Month
Brown Brothers Media is a media empire raking in millions of clicks with AI, fake writers, and plagiarism.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 09/09/2026
I will say it is funny watching OpenAI boast about solving a complex math problem using millions of dollars of compute (and someone else’s work) all while remaining unable to solve the most obvious math problem (how to make their services profitable)
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 01/09/2026
garfield 'wonder who that's about' meme
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
There’s an aggressively paid for influence op going on right now to defend AI slop as art and protected speech across platforms. AI execs realize they have a problem and don’t wanna get Marie Antoinette’d. The free ChatGPT trip is the tip of the iceberg. First person to nail it down gets a Pulitzer.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 15/08/2026
These gloves don't cause neuromuscular incapacitation the way that a taser does. In fact, they only work when applied directly to bare skin. These aren't made for apprehending anyone. These have one and only one use: causing extreme pain to already-restrained captives. In plain language: torture.
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Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE) @shengokai.blacksky.app · 02/08/2026
A split frame of a black woman. On the left, she is saying "politics doesn't interest you. Why?" on the right she is saying "because you have no interest in changing a world that already suits you."
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Bhaskar Mitra | ভাস্কর মিত্র @bmitra.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Last week I presented a keynote at #SIGIR2026 titled "Emancipatory Information Retrieval: Towards Critical IR Theories and Practices". Slides: bhaskar-mitra.github.io/files/emanci... I went in nervously excited but several people appreciated talking openly about this topic. A quick thread. 🧵 1/
Photo of the stage at the beginning of the keynote address. The title slide of the keynote is being projected on a large screen in the background. Present on stage: Me (as keynote speaker) and Hannah Bast (SIGIR'26 PC Chair and session chair for the keynote). Also, in the background on stage are large lit-up letters spelling out "SIGIR 2026".

Photo credit: Johanne Trippas
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 30/07/2026
Thank you, caller. Also, what’s up with the host?
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
“boy george admits he used AI to create his new pro-israel song” is now a sentence we can say
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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
“food for thought” buddy my thoughts don’t need any food at all. been trying to starve them fuckers for years and they still keep doing the thing
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Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Have they tried injecting testosterone into the Air Quality Index
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 16/07/2026
It crosses my mind often to quit my job because of inter alia AI and related cultural shifts away from actually caring about doing our jobs... but also even just being nice to each other. I'm holding on because I have to, but it's honestly ghastly. Staying home helps with a lot.
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Karen K. Ho @karenho.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
This essay is really good.
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 14/07/2026
You don't say...
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Mike Drucker @mikedrucker.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
RIP Lindsey Graham. You taught me it was okay to be a coward whose only skill is debasing myself until death for a tiny, ultimately illusionary crumb of power.
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Bonnie Honig @bonniehonig.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
No “system” is closed.
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
This gorgeous essay from the social-media-less Lily Hu is everything: on what it means to "do" philosophy amidst pressure to automate it (with lessons that travel much more broadly). Rhymes with brilliant insights from @biblioracle.bsky.social @janerosenzweig.bsky.social Ted Chiang & others
blnreview.de
Lily Hu · Un-Doing Philosophy
Analytic philosophers in the United States are increasingly embracing AI, both by taking advisory positions at tech companies and by using large language models for their own research and writing. Som...
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The Onion @theonion.com · 08/07/2026
Graham Platner Clarifies He Covered Penis With Tattoo After Learning About Its Troubling History
Graham Platner Clarifies He Covered Penis With Tattoo After Learning About Its Troubling History
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Jake Williams @malwarejake.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
I literally cannot uncheck this box on PowerPoint for Mac, so the next time you hear about Copilot adoption metrics, know these shenanigans are ongoing...
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 24/06/2026
This is a fight between the volunteers of the Democratic Party and the consultant/billionaire class of the Democratic Party. That's what it is.
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ceej @ceej.online · 28/09/2024
it’s so fucking funny to see your buddies living happily in healthy relationships. “I’m just sending a photo of this flower to my wife” lmao dawg I saw you puke into the open window of an unattended cop car in 2009 and now you’re a wonderful father
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Kateration @kateration.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Someone has been projecting images all over D.C. “It’s swampier than ever.” The Kennedy Center one is pretty hilarious. 😂😂😂
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Katherine Long @klong.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
NEW: A college student filmed the exciting moment he won $100,000 – except the bet wasn’t real. A flood of videos showing fake trades and fake wins, is fueling Polymarket’s hype machine, our @wsj.com investigation found. It's part of a secret campaign for Americans’ attention on social media.
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The Daily Tism @thedailytism.com · 21/06/2026
Meditation instructor Becky Armitage, 33, reportedly thinks mindfulness is a great idea for someone who is already aware of their environment to the point of nervous breakdown. Read this and other exclusive articles on Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheDailyTism...
A woman sits smiling in a low chair surrounded by green plants. She is wearing an orange jumper and white trousers, and has her legs crossed
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Dr. Dawn Wright @deepseadawn.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Couldn’t resist sharing! There’s a new cocktail 🍸 on the menu: The Reflecting Pool!😂🥹
Picture of a soupy, pea green cocktail made of rum, mezcal, lime, honey, matcha, and mint
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 19/06/2026
Like an Amway victim, these boardroom rubes simply can't *believe* that *all these people* could be in on the con. How could the world spend *trillions* on AI if it's not on a path to profitability? 25/
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Co-signed. Also, every time you see that framing, note how it zeroes in on what the specific "AI" system is allegedly doing and takes a similarly narrow view of how such tasks show up in people's work. >>
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 15/06/2026
That’s why we’ve launched a historic Know Your Rights campaign, informing 20,000 workers on their labor rights under NYC Protected Time Off Law, Fair Workweek Law, and Safe Hotels Act.    Go to nyc.gov/workers to learn more.
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Zach Everson @zacheverson.com · 13/06/2026
Man, what keeps you up late on a Friday night really changes as you get older
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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Notice anything different from the installation method?
npr.org
President Trump adds his own name to the Kennedy Center
The arts institution will be called the Trump-Kennedy Center. The president's press secretary said it comes after a unanimous vote by the center's board, which Trump took over earlier this year.
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 10/06/2026
You can now wear the perfect visual representation of the perfect term—enshittification—and all proceeds go to EFF, "the most profound and powerful disenshittifying force on the planet Earth.”  www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
eff.org
Enshittification Merch That Actually Fights Enshittification 
There are now enshittification pins and stickers in the EFF shop, and all proceeds go directly to EFF's work defending digital rights. When someone sees the enshittification emoji, it signals that
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Reo Eveleth @reveleth.com · 03/06/2026
There is something brutally psychically injurious to being constantly told "just do good work and you'll be successful" while watching people who do the most dogshit work possible do all the succeeding.
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weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Not sure who needs to hear this but admitting you're wrong doesn't kill you instantly
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Another casualty in the open web. I don't mind getting older but boy does it suck to have come of age watching the well of knowledge filling up and becoming so much more accessible to everybody, just so in my middle age I could watch it be contaminated and drained.
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e.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 01/06/2026
why does anyone even bother trying to be serious when this is how you become a trillionaire in our society?
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Nash @radiodeadair.com · 27/05/2026
We fucking told you so. We told you and told you and told you. "AI" as an industry has to earn $2 trillion in revenue per year from now to 2029 in order for investments merely to break even. That's simply impossible. www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
To avoid a write-down of these assets, major AI model providers would ideally generate a return on invested capital (ROIC) of about 25 percent, Sommer said. (That’s about what Amazon, Microsoft, and Google tend to earn on their overall capital investments.) On the other hand, if the returns fall below 12 percent, institutional capital loses interest — there’s better money elsewhere, Sommer said. Below 7 percent, you’re in write-down territory, which is “an unmitigated disaster for all of the investors in this technology,” Sommer said.
To reach that bare minimum of 7 percent, Gartner forecasts that large AI companies would need to earn cumulatively close to $7 trillion in AI-driven revenue through 2029, which is close to $2 trillion per year by the end of the period. In order to achieve “historic returns,” the providers would need to earn nearly $8.2 trillion in the same period.
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Anchorage Man @sethpartnow.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
So, @edzitron.com ate his Wheatties this morning
LLMs impress the writers who do not want to write, the coders who don't want to code, the researchers who don't want to research, and the lawyers that don't want to actually understand case law. Those that desperately tell you how powerful Al is and that you simply must use it are looking for you to validate their own laziness or distaste for effort, and those who are impressed with LLMs' outputs tend to be people with low standards.
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
AI boosters claim that LLMs are the future of software development. But that could not be further from the truth. LLMs are the apotheosis of a paradigm 40 years in the making: the tech industry assigns you problems and then sells you the solutions. But that world is now coming apart at the seams.
productpicnic.beehiiv.com
AI is not the future of software development, but the last dying gasp of the past
The industry has been building careers and business models around solving the very problems it created. But the conditions that once made this possible are breaking down.
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
AI companies are now getting accommodations that disabled people spent decades fighting for. Jonathan Zong and Frank Elavsky argue this reflects a broader pattern, where accessibility gains become politically possible only once industry needs the same changes.
techpolicy.press
The Web Is Being Made Accessible for AI, Not People
Jonathan Zong and Frank Elavsky critique how AI-driven infrastructure changes obscure accessibility and reveal whose needs society chooses to prioritize.
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Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Gotta come back with one more goofy paragraph here. This is all pretty much nonsense (her name was maybe rain taking a shape?) but... is this saying benches get boners?
They called her Zoongie. Maybe it was a name; maybe rain took a shape and decided to keep it. She had the kind of walking that made benches become men. Hair tumbling wild, a dress that caught and released light, laughter with iron under it. Eyes that skimmed and did not land, as if what she wanted was elsewhere and she had to pass through men to get there. She wore the island’s mixed bloodlines like a crown – African in the hips, Spanish in the cheekbone, East Indian in the hair when the rain kinked it, Carib in the way her gaze could bless and warn at once.

Vishnu watched too long. The rum told
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Ashlee 🤟🏻 @ashleemboyer.com · 15/05/2026
The “AI Hater” label on my account is hilarious bc if AI is allowed to overtly hate me—a deaf, neurodivergent, and multiply disabled person—why can’t I hate AI back? 🤔🤔🤔
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Snitty 🎃 @clofsnitville.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
If you want to know why so many people are AI skeptics it's because things that used to work like Google Advanced Search went all-in on AI and now do not fucking work. IT DOES NOT FUCKING WORK ANYMORE
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