Adam Becker

A post on X from the betting platform Polymarket that says “BREAKING: Anthropic CEO says Claude may or may not have gained consciousness, as the model has begun showing symptoms of anxiety.”

Literally as I’m arguing with someone about whether AI companies are misleading people into believing their technology possesses God-like super-intelligence I see this monstrosity

Are we falling out of love with nonfiction? In the early 2020s, readers flocked to books to explain political turbulence. But is the world now too grim to read about – and are podcasters taking the place of authors?

If we learned nothing else from 2025, it’s that we shouldn’t take for granted that what we love will continue to be funded

If people and libraries don’t buy a certain kind of book, publishers will stop investing in them

That’s also one reason the library book bans are so scary

freelanceastrophysicist.com/ukl/

Please do! But it might take me time to reply, my inbox is a nightmare rn

God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning

This excellent book by Meghan O'Gieblyn is precisely what you're looking for here, @suhr.bsky.social:

Hey LA! This is TODAY at 4PM! See you there! datax.ucla.edu/news-events/...

Hey LA! This is TODAY at 4PM! See you there! datax.ucla.edu/news-events/...

“If [wealthy, powerful people] can get us to accept that the future’s already settled, AI is already here, the end is already here, then we will create that for them. My most daring idea is to refuse.” — @tressiemcphd.bsky.social

U.S. House District 30: Freddy Haynes earns Democratic nomination, GOP candidates head to runoff Jasmine Crockett's endorsement paid off for Dallas Pastor Freddy Haynes, who earned the Democratic nomination for her old U.S. House District 30 seat.

Don't think so? She even endorsed a successor, who won his primary tonight: www.fox4news.com/news/texas-p...

Agreed, but I don't believe she was gerrymandered out. She just chose to run for Senate instead of re-election for the House, and Texas has one of those laws that says you have to pick one or the other.

😭

ARIEL NO

you can't just pop into my science feed with a jumpscare pun like this

See you all soon! This one will be fun.

AI bros continually telling on themselves. What do they think the purpose of "academic labor" is, exactly?

This is like building a robot that does pull-ups (poorly!) and expecting to get stronger just by watching it do its thing.

(tp be clear, this war is a horrible tragedy instigated by a fascist who doesn't care how many people he gets killed. But I am finding some bleak humor in Bezos seeing consequences for his support of this regime.)

Oh no. Not the data centers.
Whatever will we do.

TODAY ⬇️

Tune into the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 livestream, featuring @adambecker.bsky.social!

Monday, March 2, noon PT
twitch.tv/dair_institute

This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t

I can't fucking believe we're doing this again.

This book should be essential reading for anyone who has anything to do with AI. Well researched, with proper reference to recent history, revealing the insane underlying philosophies that enthusiastic techies & EA advocates buy into in the name of techno optimism.

Thank you!

🚨 New paper "social scale."

"On the Manifest Naivete of Techno-Optimists: A Review of 'More Everything Forever' by Adam Becker" (@adambecker.bsky.social) for The American Journal of Biological Anthropology

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Come to campus and check out these two amazing book talks at #UCLA next week!

Karen Hao’s Empire of AI: datax.ucla.edu/news-events/...

More, Everything, Forever Book Talk with Adam Becker: datax.ucla.edu/news-events/...

dair_institute - Twitch Twitch account for The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR).

On the next Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 livestream, we’ll be keeping our feet firmly on the ground on the best planet as @adambecker.bsky.social joins me and @alexhanna.bsky.social to discuss flimsy fantasies of data centers in space:

Monday, March 2, noon PT,
twitch.tv/dair_institute

That's a good point!

Silicon Valley’s Fantasies of Control, Singularity, and the End of the World

Giving a talk this afternoon at UCSD (sold out!) and the banner graphic they created is the most 1989 thing I've seen since my kindergarten class photo. It looks like a dogeared sci fi mass market paperback (complimentary).

god dammit that's awful and really good

Definitely.

OpenAI Wants To Use Biometrics To Kill Bots And Create Humans Only Social Network OpenAI is quietly building a social network and considering using biometric verification like World’s eyeball scanning orb or Apple’s Face ID to ensure its users are people, not bots.

we’re all trying to find the guy etc etc

Hey @anthonymoser.com which of the Three True Altman Photo Classes does this fall into?

"There are deeper strata of truth…there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization." - Werner Herzog