Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · last mo.

New: the highly controversial AI music generator Suno was hacked. The hacker sent us Suno source code; it shows the company scraped YouTube Music, Deezer, and Genius. In all, Suno scraped *decades* worth of music from the internet. Obviously didn't pay artists www.404media.co/hack-reveals...

War and memoranda of understanding

Jake_Vig@jakevig.bsky.social · 4w ago

Downplay a book or movie: "Reasonable Expectations"

King of Sploot

I'm attending a digital humanities event in Montreal. There was a keynote on AI and something about the talk made me wonder if it had been written by Claude. I said as much in the Q&A. As I posed the question, the speaker shifted, looking slightly uncomfortable. What he said next shocked the room +

Can we please collectively change the definition of "Champagne Socialist" to mean "a socialist who likes Champagne and thinks it should be accessible to everyone"?

In honor of Lunar New Year, one of my all-time favorite maps: How dumplings spread around the world (tl;dr: It was largely, though not exclusively, the Mongol invasions!)

All this impending snow. Reminds me that now we enter into the 24th of 24 micro-seasons: “Greater Cold” #大寒 - the coldest period of the year. Yet also, a period anticipating the beginning of spring and the warmth of the coming lunar new year. [Kawase Hasui, Evening Snow at Terashima Village, 1920]

I promise you, GenAI is not “the bad one.” It’s just one bad one among a whole host of bad ones.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 8mo ago

So while an emerging trend is to insist that there’s a difference between GenAI and other forms of machine learning that are called AI (and that difference is real!) it makes people think that only the former is harmful.

Friendly reminder

When the Hong Kong fire occurred, initial international media coverage focused on bamboo scaffolding. This Orientalised and exoticised the tragedy, obscuring the fact that it was not just an accident, but an outcome shaped by long-term neglect and inequality, writes @tingguowrites.bsky.social.

The Distance Between Us | Made in China Journal

A week after the devastating fire that claimed at least 159 lives in Hong Kong on 26 November, people were still queuing daily for hours until after midnight to join the mourning. As flowers, gifts, a...

madeinchinajournal.com

Vulgar Marxism implies a Clean Edit Marxism, a Kidz Bop Marxism, a Marxism (Taylor's version) (all flavors of Marxism are, according to managers, NSFW)

oh you’re a nihilist? name zero things that matter

There is a new Pynchon novel coming out next week and I will finish my chapter before that. There is a new Pynchon novel coming out next week and I will finish my chapter before that. There is a new Pynchon novel coming out next week and I will finish my chapter before that. There is a new Pynchon n

New office skeletons

Please enjoy some jellyfish

Academics, take a look - we are all on this list

Ryan Estrada@ryanestrada.com · 12mo ago

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars. OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

My new academic year resolution and calendar of commitments

I'm rewatching Tron (1982) and I feel like all today's AI bros must have seen it and thought Dillinger was the good guy

This book was truly a delight. It has sausage dogs, stalker ghosts, ancient archivists, and even Pompeian penises!

Tom Clancy's Satanic Verses

“Spending as little tuition as possible on educating students, and (instead) investing in start-ups ... This is why I say the University of Chicago’s leadership and trustees run it as a tax-free technology incubator.” www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

The Crisis of the University Started Long Before Trump

The University of Chicago is in crisis. Under extraordinary financial strain, it has diminished its faculty-student ratio and hired hundreds of “lecturers”: teachers whom it pays little and whom it do...

compactmag.com

3 crucial roles for the university: to preserve, transmit, and create knowledge.

Theo Nash@theonash.bsky.social · last yr.

This isn’t an impoverished regional school – this is the University of Chicago. Devastating.

The final statement by Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, written months ago in anticipation of his likely death, posted on Twitter/X by a friend. Israel assassinated him tonight along with his reporting team in an airstrike in Gaza.

So it *does* have the depression of a PhD student after all

Victor Shammas@victorshammas.com · last yr.

Google Gemini doesn’t appear to be doing too well: ‘"I am a disgrace to this planet. I am a disgrace to this universe. I am a disgrace to all universes . . . I am a disgrace to all possible and impossible universes and all that is not a universe," the bot continued.’

Sharon I bloody died Sharon. Sharon they sent me to bloody heaven. Where are the bloody flames Sharon. Sharon it’s all bloody choir music up here Sharon. Sharon for fucks sake all the white is bloody blinding me up here Sharon

I feel personally attacked

Read books. Say no.

It doesn't always come through, but sometimes the inspiration that comes from last minute panic is *chef's kiss