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Now Is the Time of Monsters
"AI slop is winning," writes The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel. By volume alone, slop may be the most visible and successful by-product of the generative-AI era to date. It is also a hallmark of what I’ve previously described as a collective delusion around artificial intelligence—where
Unlearning, Unchanged
Political commentator Frank Rich recently wrote a lengthy essay for New York Magazine on the mayoral candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. The headline, "The Power Breaker," is surely a play on the title of Robert Caro's biography of Robert Moses, the man who infamously used his power
Fan Tale
Bad Taste, Unfulfilling
I regret to inform you that certain political pundits and education reformers are calling for the return of "high stakes testing." Or at least David Frum talked to former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in a recent podcast published by The Atlantic where this dismal idea was (once
Addictive Behaviors
The Great Blue
Banking on It
The news is bad. I mean that in both senses: "bad news" and "news, bad." There's been much discussion this week of Trump's "university compact," his attempt to bribe the administrations at nine universities by promising them access to funding
Without Our Consent
When I wrote last week’s round-up of “AI”-related news, I didn’t include any of OpenAI’s product releases, mostly because it’s 2025 and I’m exhausted by this game that tech companies and tech journalists continue to play: the former lobs a press release; the latter
Gone to the Dogs
Companion Specious
If you've ridden the NYC subway lately, you've seen the ads for Friend. "Largest subway campaign ever," the founder proudly posted on Instagram. Friend is (of course) an "AI" startup, another one of these "'AI' companion" services, another
Surrender
Surrender, surrender (but don't give yourself away) – Cheap Trick "Does AI coaching cause more injuries?" asks Raziq Rauf in his latest Running Sucks newsletter. I've heard these concerns about the "personalized training" app Runna for a while now– call it "personalized
Cut Back
More Workslop for Mother
Brian Merchant's assertion that "The Luddite Renaissance is in full swing," The Jacobin's claim that "The AI Revolution Might Be Running Out of Steam" – these feel a bit too optimistic perhaps, particularly if you're one of many educators who'
Chit Chat
Chit: an official note, sometimes a voucher or an IOU; a slip of paper that grants permission Chat: an informal conversation; a friendly talk Chit-chat: "A reduplication with vowel variation of chat," according to the OED, like "bibble-babble" and "tittle-tattle." "The reduplication implies
The Wait
How Do You Want to Be Remembered?
"The best way to honor Charlie’s memory," California Governor Gavin Newsom said, "is to continue his work." And so we've seen in the last week: the targeted harassment of those who've spoken out about Kirk's overt racism, his Christian
Voices Carry
I'm truly at a loss of what to say today. (Last week. It lingers, doesn't it.) So (I guess) let me just repeat a point I've made repeatedly: one of the saddest rationales for using "AI" is for "brainstorming" – a
Breaking Rocks in the Hot Sun
I was feeling much better, thank you very much, until this country took another grotesque lurch towards fascism midweek. I think it had helped, if I'm perfectly honest, that Kin and I had finally completed our re-watching of all six seasons of The Sopranos. As I've
The Watch List
In a children's literature class at Texas A&M University this summer, a student interrupted the professor as she began to recap some of the previously covered material, "remarks on gender and sexuality we bring from the last class." "I just have a question,
The Booster Shot
A couple of weeks ago, Ed Zitron published one of his epic rants -- the kind that, as he warned newsletter readers, is probably better read on the web than via email: it’s 16,000 words long; so long that he added a Table of Contents to aid navigation.
How Bad Could It Be?
Brood Parasites
Humans have always invested great meaning in birds. No surprise, what with the feathers, the flight. Each week, when I look at all the stories that've been told about education and technology and try to figure out some coherence to the chaos, I think about what bird might
Thought-Terminating Clichés
Last week, Max Read asked "Is the 'AI' 'bubble' 'bursting'?" – those scare-quotes strategically deployed to encourage readers to question what we mean when we talk about "AI" or "bubbles," when we predict the technology's devaluation or