LLMs don't "store facts"; they map conventions. And that's dangerously seductive. Chatbots don't encode and retrieve "knowledge"; they reproduce cultural clichés. And that makes them powerful tools for social engineering.

New Post. Subscribe for free. (Just ignore the payment options, they aren't set up anyway).
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Brooders' Roundup #6 How should we treat Chatbots, an LLM tries to read Jane Austen, Vibe Coding makes fraud frictionless.... and deranged MAGA penguins! Here's some of what I've been brooding on lately.

How should we treat Chatbots, an LLM tries to read Jane Austen, Vibe Coding makes fraud frictionless.... and deranged MAGA penguins! Here's some of what I've been brooding on lately. accordinglee.substack.com/p/brooders-r...

The Age of Frictionless Fraud AI can now spin up entire fraudulent apps, websites, news stories, images, and video with just a few clicks. It's a golden age for online scammers.

“Vibe coding” tools like Claude Code can allow even amateurs to effortlessly spin up entire code, websites, and applications which seem real but are in fact just attempts to mislead and defraud the public. accordinglee.substack.com/p/the-age-of... #AI #deepfake #ClaudeCode #Scams

Um es klarzustellen: Das ist Betrug. Lassen Sie sich nicht auf solche unseriösen und gefälschten „KI“-Plattformen ein!

Einen komplett manipulierten "deepfake" Facebook-ad Artikel gestoßen, der sich als Tagesschau-Beitrag ausgibt. Das ist Betrug, und so sehr ich Wegenknecht nicht mag, es handelt sich um eine betruglich und missbräuchliche Darstellung. @Tagesschau seid ihr da? #Deepfake #FakeNews #Deutschland #KI

Can AI Analyze Literary Style? Jane Austen & Notebook LM It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a researcher in possession of little time, must be in want of an AI research assistant... but are they really useful?

accordinglee.substack.com/p/can-ai-ana... #literature #AI #NotebookLM

Ruminations on that DHS Penguin Tweet YouTube video by Folding Ideas

Canadian video essayist Dan Olson (Folding Ideas) is the best (semi-)popular commentator on trash culture that I know of. And boy, is the Trump admin PR team just constantly whipping up an open buffet of piping hot trash. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Wq...

Sign and Symptomatic Reading: Gravity's Rainbow, Operative Paranoia, and the Ideology of Close Reading Or, what a dash-ing text you have there.

More from the vault: open.substack.com/pub/accordin... #literature #litcrit

On Reading Heidegger Hermeneutic Cyclicality in "The Origin of the Work of Art" (1935, 1950).

Just something pulled out of the vault for the nerds out there. #philosophy #Heidegger #LitCrit accordinglee.substack.com/p/on-reading...

The big question everyone should be asking over and over these days is: WHERE THE FUCK IS CONGRESS?!

Am Freitag beendete die schwarz-rote Koalition die sogenannte „Turbo-Einbürgerung“. Am Montag führte sie die „Aktivrente“ ein. Was denken junge Deutsche, neu-Ausländer und arme Rentnern dieser Verschankung von Jobs, Steuergeld und Zukunftschancen an die reiche CDU-Babyboomer Klientel? #Aktivrent

Sympathy for the Machines? How should we treat AI chatbots? They may not be sentient, but our treatment of AI may condition our treatment of each other... and their treatment of us. We'd better watch ouselves.

How do you behave when interacting with AI? Does it influence the way we engage with real people? And will it eventually influence the ways in which AI treats us?
open.substack.com/pub/accordin...
#AI #Technology

Congress eliminated public media funding, and the president signed it into law. At a time of deep division, public media brings us together.

Help keep it strong. Join our monthly donors today: n.pr/458sOhq

Boycott CBS and Paramount.

Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement targets

Trump's America is a total police state.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Boycott Paramount and CBS... except Late Show ofc.

Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' canceled by CBS, ends May 2026 CBS is canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” next May, shuttering a decades-old TV institution and removing from air one of President Donald Trump's most prominent late-night critics.

Paramount/CBS cancels Colbert's Late Show only days after he criticized the parent company's bribe-like "settlement payout" to Trump... BOYCOTT CBS, Paramount, and skydance). Just don't watch any of it (except the Late Show... make them feel it in the ratings.)
apnews.com/article/step...

My cartoon in this weeks @newyorker.com

Our future may depend on the humanities For Peter Sutoris, the humanities hold the key to understanding and responding to the many civilisational crises we face

"the antidote to our overlapping crises is not just better data or smarter technologies—it is expansive imagination. And that imagination is cultivated not in labs or spreadsheets, but through the critical, creative, and interpretive work of the humanities." wonkhe.com/blogs/our-fu...

Brooders' Roundup #5 AI Vampirism, podcasting politics, affirmative action for conservative professors, and the maldistribution of social friction. Here's some of what I've been brooding on lately.

A brooder's gotta brood. Check out my most recent roundup and recommendations!
accordinglee.substack.com/p/brooders-r...

This conversation also reminded me of the (bit dated and controversial) post-ecological anarchist manifesto "Desert" (anonymous, 2011). Its politics are perhaps very flawed (& writing at times feels rushed) but it operationalizes the polysemy of 'desert' (& politics of desertion) in interesting ways

I don't have the sense that anyone's competing or trying to be pious. Sure, the discussion is a bit academic, but I think it makes sense to think together sometimes about the nuances of the medium we all work in. And as I pointed out in another subthread, I recognize the challenge here. 🤷‍♂️

I like it, but some audiences - especially outside the UK, and/or less educated - may find it a bit too grandiloquent. I think there is a real challenge for journalists/editors here, and especially @ The Guardian, since their prose has to be as legible to a very wide range of audiences as possible..

Sorry to butt in, but I'd also agree that natural "deserts" are misunderstood & underappreciated, in part because of the word's polysemy and varied usage. Here, the issue might have been better addressed with just a line or two, or perhaps an expert's quote, briefly explaining the controversy.

The Most Valuable Commodity in the World is Friction AI Chatbots, Newark, and the West Village Girls

Great read: "...friction has become a class experience. Wealth has always helped smooth over bumps - but when the physical world is such a mess and the digital world is so easy, it’s simple to curate the digital into the physical if you have money." kyla.substack.com/p/the-most-v...

If Harvard grads were all LGBTQ, Congress would be *dramatic wave* FABULOUS!
What she wants is a less educated citizenry and a more precarious workforce.
Here's an idea: let's make it affordable to go to Harvard and then become a plumber anyway.

Lessons from the "Podcast Election." I teach a class on Podcasting Politics. Here's what my digital-native students routinely say about new media and political campaigning.

I teach a class on podcasting and politics. While I’m focused on explaining theories and elaborating concepts, my students are hyper-fixated on what works. And that’s valuable. Here are some quick-and-dirty lessons we’ve learned together.
open.substack.com/pub/accordin...

Why Ezra Klein is So F***ing Angry (with Democrats) YouTube video by Hasan Minhaj

"How do you get a bunch of Democratic Lisa Simpons to all the sudden wile out, because Nelson is now the president."
Hasan Minhaj interviews "Dark Ezra." www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUNS...

Hah! Bravo.

Well first you have to stop fighting the last election. Then go to where they actually are (both irl $ online). Third, don't be a stale soda cracker who talks down to them in language only those with advanced degrees understand. I really don't understand why this is such a mystery to these people.