I suspect there is a profound fear of judgement for a generation who grew up in a digital fishbowl and unfortunately they are asking GenAI instead, oh so cleverly designed to be a sycophantic...

Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex X.com #ArtificialIntelligence systems increasingly shape and permeate our mentality and social environments. Like every great historical transformation, this too calls not only for technical competence, but also for a humanistic formation capable of making visible the logic behind economics, embedded biases and forms of power that shape our perception of reality. 1:31 PM • 4/17/26 • 91K Views

Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex X.com Within digital environments — structured to persuade — interaction is optimized to the point of rendering a real encounter superfluous; the otherness of persons in the flesh is neutralized, and relationships are reduced to functional responses. Dear friends, you, however, are real persons! Creation itself has a body, a breath, a life to be listened to and safeguarded. 1:31 PM • 4/17/26 • 209K Views

Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex X.com When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth. 1:31 PM • 4/17/26 • 696K Views

Pope Leo on AI:

“Within digital environments — structured to persuade — interaction is optimized to the point of rendering a real encounter superfluous; the otherness of persons in the flesh is neutralized, and relationships are reduced to functional responses.”

This short thread is worth reading:

Song of Solomon hands down; "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense..."

This is what we should be focussing on, not creating the death, destruction & dehumanisation of war, nor building energy-hungry AI data centres, for a product that only removes us further from nature and one another... but "to cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known" (Sagan, 1994)

More good news!

Why the AI backlash has turned violent And why it's probably only going to get worse from here.

Goes great with this!

The in-built sycophancy of GenAI is untethering some people from reality in truly dangerous and disturbing ways - strong regulatory frameworks are needed asap

‘We don’t want him’: Dance Against Vance protest at US vice-president’s Cotswolds holiday About 100 people turn up for ‘not welcome’ party in Charlbury, Oxfordshire as Trump’s No 2 stays nearby

We're going to need a Vance Blimp this time: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

i'd die on the hill that @caelan.bsky.social is doing some of the best work on chatbots & AI harms surrounding young people these days. every video lately has been harrowing but really illuminating, and asks serious questions about what the fuck "safety" and "guardrails" AI companies purport to have

Artificial intelligence Jesus chatbot sparks debate over future of faith For some evangelical Christians, a personal relationship with Jesus is central to their faith. Now, a tech company called Just Like Me is offering to take that concept to an unprecedented level, allowing users to engage in video calls with an artificial intelligence-generated avatar of Jesus for $1....

When you see one set of footprints, that’s because a chatbot is non-corporeal.

Wow I had no idea Uber in the US used this practice, monitoring how "desperate" for work their drivers are and paying the most "desperate" a lower wage (from Cory Doctorow's website)

On the same topic, this is worth reading too:

bsky.app/profile/ianb...

Very interesting...

Opinion | Anthropic’s Restraint Is a Terrifying Warning Sign

A scary step up - Anthropic's Claude Mythos is capable of finding (and of course potentially exploiting) security risks in all sorts of infrastructure and tech applications which could previously only be hacked with difficulty by specialists...

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/o...

Generative AI is a powerful propaganda machine

You have lived through one of history's greatest crimes.

It was caused not by vast forces of history but one man's twisted racist imagination and malevolent disregard for the world's poorest people.

A truly miserable approach antithetical to the joy (and lifelong benefits) of learning to think critically

Oh shit, he's at the sharpie again

Where/ when is this from please?

PHOTO OF THE DAY. A US soldier's Zippo lighter from the Vietnam War (1972). 📷 google images

Chats with sycophantic AI make you less kind to others Even people who were sceptical of chatbots’ utility fell under the sway of the AI tools’ flattery.

Nature paper suggests AI sycophancy actually makes people more sure they are in the right and less willing to apologies or make amends www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"AI companies are competing to serve customers who are paying for accurate, objective and, well, intelligent, tools that deliver factual information" - I thought that was quite delusional, given the amount of AI generated propaganda coming out of the White House alone

Elderly man with a thin mustache holding a cardboard sign

TRUMP RUINED BAD TASTE

John Waters at #NoKings in Provincetown

(Pic via petermarietoto on X)

Wow - so impressed NY - love from the UK

Great conversation - look forward to the reverse episode

Thanks to @twelves.bsky.social for this thing of beauty

"Negotiations"

Important ruling...

BBC: Meta told to pay $375m for misleading users over child safety www.bbc.com/news/article...