It's a Python loop and a chatbot. The people responsible didn't accidentally create god: they created autonomous malicious software and then failed to closely monitor it, resulting in it doing something both foreseeable and bad.
Sarah Steel
@letstalkaboutsects.bsky.social
Podcaster: Let’s Talk About Sects | Author: Do As I Say https://linktr.ee/letstalkaboutsects
I wrote down my thoughts about the last several weeks of AI hell. aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading...
Misleading Metaphors, Real Risks
What To Fear from AI Agents and How to Reclaim Our Human Agency
aiguide.substack.com
Anyway, good piece in the Times here. (It still happens!) People are starting to talk very weird about AI on this site, and honestly it's kind of distressing seeing people fall into the abyss thinking it's alive. That ain't good. The rest of us should expect boring bad stuff and guard against it.
Opinion | How Scared Should We Be of A.I. Right Now? (Gift Article)
The dark and distressing way that Silicon Valley talks about A.I. can be traced to a philosophy that influenced many tech executives.
nytimes.com
“Our governments are ramping up suppression of protest instead of tackling the very real threat to Australians’ welfare.” Yes, they do know something we don’t know. Climate refugees, food and water insecurity, unaffordable insurance and climate ‘permacrisis’ - good word @davemilbo.bsky.social
David Milner@davemilbo.bsky.social · 7d agoHere's @lucyham.bsky.social. "Governments (and their corporate owners) have no safety net plans for our climate permacrisis"
Can’t wait for Alex Gibney’s latest “adventurous but methodical movie grounded in the thesis that, as he sees it, a dangerous huckster is stealthily aggregating power to exploit us”
e.w. niedermeyer@niedermeyer.online · last wk.If you want to learn more about "MUSK," I highly recommend this recent piece by The Hollywood Reporter. My understanding is that Musk's lawyers already tried to intimidated THR over it, showing just how sensitive he is about this film www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
This thread (and essay) on a chain of AI-first private schools points to the staggering influence of the optimization cult. It reminded me of reading about children of acid cults or EST workshops. Kudos to Ben for digging in and laying this out.
Benjamin Riley@benjaminjriley.bsky.social · last wk.SPECIAL REPORT Last month, Alpha School invited people to follow student social media accounts "if curious about life in our high schools." I accepted their offer. What I've found shocks me. Forget the AI and ask instead: Is Alpha Schools a cult? Follow along for a summary of my findings.
I'm currently in the middle of PhD research that is showing unequivocally that this is not even close to a thing. Women are still massively underrepresented in the curriculum and almost every teacher I interviewed raised the manosphere's influence on male students as an explicit blocker.
Richard Chirgwin@rchirgwin.bsky.social · 2w agoCanavan really is a piece of work ... womensagenda.com.au/latest/femin...
“Never in human history have so many people been forced from their homes, by persecution, by violence or climate shocks, by economic instability and political fragility.”
Mark Johnson@markjohnson.bsky.social · 2w ago"Even at 20,000, Australia resettles fewer refugees now than it did when Malcolm Fraser’s government was in power. In 1980-81, Australia accepted 22,545 refugees for resettlement. The population of this country then was less than 15 million." www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
A good primer on the PBCC and the accusations of election interference on 7am today 7ampodcast.com.au/episodes/the...
The “cult” church accused of paying far-right activists for election stunts
Last year, the Prime Minister was ambushed in his hotel lobby by far-right figures boasting of being fed “private intel” during the last election campaign. The incident was one of about a dozen stun...
7ampodcast.com.au
A Times Reporter went undercover at Scientology’s Edinburgh headquarters and uncovered labour exploitation including serious exploitation of children podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/t...
Undercover at the Church of Scientology
Podcast Episode · The Story · 13 August · 39min
podcasts.apple.com
Australia Institute research showed in 2023 that 69% of the inflation above the RBA's target after COVID was due to excess corporate profits. But the Reserve Bank continues to ignore profits driving inflation. #auspol @richarddenniss.bsky.social
Your next thrilling read? Universal Predator is a true courtroom drama like no other. How I faced aggressive retaliation and defamation action when I exposed sleazebag guru Serge Benhayon and his creepy Universal Medicine scam #cults youtu.be/mcqETL6UlA0?...
Universal Predator - Esther Rockett reads the first 2 chapters of her memoir
YouTube video by Esther Rockett
youtu.be
A few more tix on sale for this one, will sell out again soon… festivalofdangerousideas.com/program/how-...
HOW TO START A CULT // Anke Richter [GER/NZL], Laura McConnell
Inside of the world of coercion and control.
festivalofdangerousideas.com
It’s honestly outrageous that META continues to ban queer accounts across Facebook and Instagram. On the face of it a very obvious breach of discrimination law that the Government should be looking to enforce.
"For survivors of high-control groups, often referred to as cults throughout the inquiry, the 'monumental' report offers a sense their experiences were heard, and there was hope ahead." www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07...
Cult inquiry recommends outlawing coercive control in groups
A Victorian inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups is recommending world-leading laws against group coercive control.
abc.net.au
The report is out! Much reading to do: www.parliament.vic.gov.au/cofg-reports
Reports - Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups - Parliament of Victoria
parliament.vic.gov.au
Sarah Steel@letstalkaboutsects.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into cults and "organised fringe groups" will table its report this week, earlier than we were expecting. Patrick McIvor (co-author of the Beyond Belief submission) has put together a scorecard by which we can measure it: patrickmcivor.com.au/2026/07/27/w...
The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into cults and "organised fringe groups" will table its report this week, earlier than we were expecting. Patrick McIvor (co-author of the Beyond Belief submission) has put together a scorecard by which we can measure it: patrickmcivor.com.au/2026/07/27/w...
What Victoria’s Cult Inquiry Needs to Deliver
This week, the Victorian Parliament’s Legal and Social Issues Committee is expected to table the final report of its inquiry into cults and organised fringe groups. The report follows an avalanche …
patrickmcivor.com.au
FINALLY. Christian Brothers tried to say they had no money to pay out abuse survivors when they’d divested $billions into their education arm but said it had nothing to do with them. Lawyer says “It was a cruel, shocking way to treat people who were raped as children.” www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07...
Edmund Rice Education to pay out victim-survivors of Christian Brothers
Victim-survivors of abuse by members of the Christian Brothers organisation will be able to receive compensation for civil claims under a new payout proposal.
abc.net.au
My book will never earn out its advance, but you know what royalties I retain and receive each year in Australia? Public lending royalties!
Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 2mo agoSomeone said to me, "I'm sorry but I got your book from a library." Nobody should ever apologise for that. You read my book! That's brilliant! I grew up hanging out in libraries and the idea of a world without them fills me with dread. Without libraries, authors, like readers, will only suffer.
Being involved in something like this has been an intensely stressful experience, and seeing her face constantly pop up in the headlines I guess is a kind of weird exposure therapy at least? Pleased that this prolonged chapter of it is done now.
The Sydney Morning Herald (unofficial)@smhaustralia.nzcow.com · 2mo ago📢 Almost six years since her mysterious disappearance and 56 court mentions later, the estate of fraudster Melissa Caddick has finally been wound up. 👉 More news/weather bots
Single session tix are now available for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas just in case anyone was waiting for these… looking forward to it.
Sarah Steel@letstalkaboutsects.bsky.social · 3mo agoStoked to be chairing Anke Richter’s session at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas on 22 August, also featuring the excellent Laura McConnell. We will not be encouraging anybody to start a cult. festivalofdangerousideas.com/program/how-...
“That Segal, the government’s official envoy, would present false material and bad-faith arguments to a royal commission is disturbing, but it also draws attention to deeper flaws in the commission.”
Nick Feik@nickfeik.bsky.social · 2mo agoIn her testimony to the antisemitism royal commission, Segal couldn’t name a single example of antisemitism in ABC or SBS coverage of Israel, let alone in any local stories. That didn't stop her from attacking the broadcasters and calling for a new regulator.
‘Christianity is an important part of the Australian story but it does not own that story. And if being “insulted and mocked” becomes a mechanism for eviction, every artist who challenges power is vulnerable.’
Josh Taylor@joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2mo agoI still get messages from my Christian grandparents telling me they hope I find Jesus and other subtle messages that they don't agree with me being gay. The reason subversion of that particular religion happens more here is we have been oppressed by it. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Weird that letting people know about the terrible things done by the Israeli government does not, somehow, make people like Israel more. The only way we could possibly change this is censorship
Peter Hollo@peterhollo.com · 2mo agoHmmm, I wonder why that is, Jillian?
Why does it matter what term we use? Because diagnoses imply remedies. If the problem is polarization, the solution is civility. Dialogue. Lowering the temperature. Finding common ground. Compromise. But what if the problem is right-wing radicalization?
Finding out single points of failure is likely to be a big part of our lives from here on in yeah
Josh Taylor@joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2mo agoMe on the Telstra outage today. I have covered so many in my time as a reporter and it's always hunting to figure out which exact single point of failure is responsible this time. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Overheard at lunch: “In Australia, high school is where you meet people who determine your future.” Yikes.
Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.
Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 3mo agoNEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...
