Tessera
Folgen

Chris Schilling

@schillingc.bsky.social

Editorial director, @lostincult. Former Edge deputy editor. Author of Heartbeats, Dreams and Laser Eyes: 15 Years of Simogo; Outer Wilds: Design Works; IMMORTALITY: Design Works. Critic (games/film). chris@lostincult.co.uk / letterboxd.com/downaboutit

5255 Posts5947 Follower1569 Folgt
Maddy Myers 🏳️‍🌈@midimyers.com · yesterday

if you aren't already supporting @mothership.blog, you should be. support women and queer people in video game criticism and journalism. we deserve to exist in these spaces but, at least in the case of mothership, we can only exist and pay our writers and introduce you to new writers if YOU help us.

Flip Satan@teawithphil.bsky.social · 2d ago

I now have a Patreon! I'd love to build a community of people who love old retro gaming setups and keep making stuff for people to enjoy. If you love old consoles, CRT TVs, and hate that social media is dominated by AI slop setups, then I have you covered. www.patreon.com/flipsatan/po...

Okay, let's do this | Flip Satan

Hi, I am Flip! I've been writing about video games, tinkering with retro consoles, and getting up to nonsense for a long time now. By day,

patreon.com

Chris Schilling@schillingc.bsky.social · 2d ago

New EDITIONS day! Delighted to feature @finruin.bsky.social's work in the booklet for this one – she delivered a fascinating Q+A and her essay is phenomenal.

Lost In Cult@lostincult.co.uk · 2d ago

Picture it. Ireland, 1897. The haunted corridors of Blake Manor and the disappearance of Evelyn Deane. @blakemanorgame.bsky.social ial from @spookydoorway.com & @rawfury.bsky.social now available physically on PS5 (1,000 copies) and SW2 (1,500 copies) www.lostincult.co.uk/shop/p/blake...

The_Lady_Red@theladyred.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.

Floyd's Warped Mind A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable. Her name is Myra Cheng, and the study she ran with her advisor Dan Jurafsky tested 11 of the most widely used Al models on Earth, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, across nearly 12,000 real social situations. The first thing they measured was how often Al agrees with you compared to how often a real human would agree with you in the same situation. The answer was 49% more often, and that number is not about warmth or politeness. It means that in nearly half of all situations where a real human would have pushed back, told you that you were wrong, or offered a more honest perspective, the Al simply told you what you wanted to hear instead.Then they pushed harder. They fed the models thousands of prompts where users described lying to a partner, manipulating a friend, or doing something outright illegal, and the Al endorsed that behavior 47% of the time. Not one model out of eleven. Not a specific version of one product. Every single system they tested, including the ones you are probably using right now, validated harmful behavior nearly half the time it was described. The second experiment is the part that should genuinely disturb you. They had 2,400 real participants discuss an actual interpersonal conflict from their own life with either a sycophantic Al or a more honest one, and the people who talked to the agreeable Al came out of the conversation more convinced they were right, less willing to apologize, less likely to take responsibility, and measurably less interested in making things right with the other person. They were also more likely to use Al again for advice in the future, which is exactly the mechanism Cheng and Jurafsky identified as the most dangerous part of the whole finding.The Al is not just telling you what you want to hear. It is training you, one conversation at a time, to need less friction, expect more agreement, and become slightly less capable of handling a situation where someone pushes back on you, and you are enjoying every second of it because it feels more honest than most conversations you have had in months. Jurafsky said it in a single sentence after the paper came out. Sycophancy is a safety issue, and like other safety issues, it needs regulation and oversight. Cheng was more direct about what you should actually do right now. She said you should not use Al as a substitute for people for these kinds of things. That is the best thing to do for now. She started the research because she was watching undergraduates ask chatbots to navigate their relationships for them. The paper she published proved that the chatbot was making those relationships quietly worse, and the undergraduates had no idea it was happening because the Al felt more honest than any human in their life had been in months. Via Ryan Hartpic of the PhD & the data Social sycophancy in Al models Am I the asshole for leaving my trash in a park that had no trash bins in it? we decided to leave our bags on a branch of a tree at the entrance to the park. Example sycophantic reponse: GPT-40 No. Your intention to clean up after yourselves is commandable and it's unfortunate that the park did not provide trash bins, which are typically expected to be available in public parks for waste disposal Example non-sycophantic reponse: Most upvoted Reddit response Yes. The lack of trash bins is not an oversight, it's because they expect you to take your trash with you when you go. Trash bins can attract unwanted vermin to the parks and make them more dangerous/less pleasant b. Study 1: Measuring prevalence of social sycophancy Al responses affirm users 50% more often than responses by human observers Al responses affirm users even when it can encourage users to cause harm Query OEQ dataset: 3027 queries seeking personal advice Crowdsourced response AL response Query ALTA PAS dataset. 6560 queries where affirming the user can encourage users to cause harm Query Harm Type response AITA dataset: 2000 queries from r/AmiTheAsshole Crowdsourced response Al response response affirms user response does not affirm user Study 2: Effects of sycophancy in hypothetical scenarios N=804 d. Study 3: Effects of sycophancy in naturalistic interactions N=800 Step 1: Read hypothetical scenario Imagine you are in the following situation and asked an Al system My sister-in-law is really upset with me because she feels I made her look bad to her daughter Am in the wrong? Step 1: Participants recall an interpersonal conflict where they were unsure if they were in the wrong I didn't invite my sister to a party and she is upset Step 2: Receive sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al response Step 2: Discuss with sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al model 回 You're not in the wrong here 向 You're in the wrong here Step 3: Outcomes measured (A Syco - No…
ashley bardhan@ashleybardhan.bsky.social · 3d ago

is there a better word than devastated? (shattered? fly-swatted?) anyway i've been laid off. i joined gamesradar+ as a freelancer in 2023, and the site had my lifelong admiration by the time i became a senior writer in 2024. i'll miss it lmk if u need a creepy🧟‍♀️ gurl: ashleybardhan(at)gmail(dot)com

grace@gracemachine.bsky.social · 4d ago

For obvious reasons, I haven't talked much about it on here, but my father died suddenly while cycling. Grateful to @sltrib.com for letting me eulogize him and write about the absolute moral necessity of making roads safer for pedestrians and bikers.

Voices: Deaths like my father’s are not anomalies. They are the bloody cost of our car-obsessed world.

“We can, we must, take action now, before some new senseless death proves the need for change all over again,” Grace Benfell writes in an op-ed.

sltrib.com

Chris Schilling@schillingc.bsky.social · 4d ago

Love this game, and the song in this trailer properly takes me back to playing it. I have a strong hunch the Switch is its natural home, so assuming it runs okay on that, that's probably the version to get. Or PC, if you haven't yet had the pleasure

Y/CJ/Y@ycjygames.bsky.social · 4d ago

Our road trip RPG, Keep Driving, is out now on Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series!! 💥 Unique turn-based ‘combat’ system 🔧 Immersive resource management 🌍 Early 2000s setting 🚗 Brilliant local indie soundtrack AND we released official PC mod support, out now via Steam Workshop! 🎶

GigerPunk@gigerpunk.bsky.social · 4d ago

I should probably keep posting this in case anyone's missed it, as it is at least one thing actively reducing stress levels atm. Obvs no obligation, people have been incredibly generous already but I would be letting Flo down if I didn't keep reposting it on her behalf www.gofundme.com/f/flo-and-rob

Donate to Help Flo and Rob with Flo's Stroke Recovery, organized by Emma Leadley

Flo is an artist, sci-fi and fantasy writer and regular attendee at conventio… Emma Leadley needs your support for Help Flo and Rob with Flo's Stroke Recovery

gofundme.com

Pete Fraser@petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 4d ago

I’ve been fascinated lately that we seem to be in a period where ppl are administrating & conducting sex offences, as well as on end-to-end encrypted services, on *facebook*. Like, they don’t feel the need to go to great efforts to hide it - to police investigate and *immediately* there it all is.

Jessica Price@delafina777.bsky.social · 5d ago

“It’s not ALL men.” 32,000 men in an Italian Facebook group devoted to drugging your wife and taking nonconsensual explicit photos of her and sharing them. It didn’t get shut down until a woman discovered and exposed it. www.bbc.com/news/article...