AI

We're just fine as we are, my fellow humans.

Read this if you want to switch to Claude

Bank details, sex and naked people who seem unaware they are being recorded. Behind Meta’s new smart glasses lies a hidden workforce, uneasy about peering into the most intimate parts of other people’s lives.

Every student in your class can produce a polished answer in under 30 seconds.

Some Claude Code fan fiction about the economics of publishing with AI agents set in the very near future

How the latest set of models changes things.

The increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in student assessment has led to institutional reliance on detection tools. Unlike plagiarism detection, AI detection relies on unverif...

Play an interactive Jeopardy game testing knowledge of AI detection myths, false positives, and academic integrity based on peer-reviewed research.

AI excels at codifiable knowledge but can't transmit the situated, embodied expertise that makes human experts irreplaceable. Introducing expert signals.

An exploration in agentic AI use

Hundreds of millions of people now regularly interact with large language models via chatbots. Model developers are eager to acquire new sources of high-quality training data as they race to...

A digital safe allows workers to speak up about concerns even in places without strong whistleblower protections

and how leaning into hypotheticals was incredibly meaningful

The OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026 explores emerging research on the use of generative AI in education and presents innovative tools and applications that show promise. The report examines the use of generative AI in different teaching and learning scenarios: by students to learn subject knowledge, by students and teachers together as part of instruction, and by teachers alone to support their work in the classroom. The Outlook also showcases how generative AI can enhance the efficiency of education institutions and systems, such as research, analysis of learning pathways and support for study advisors. While highlighting the opportunities and benefits of generative AI, the report also notes key challenges and concerns. It provides a state-of-the-art overview of the impact and possibilities of generative AI in education and is an essential resource for education policymakers, institution leaders, researchers, as well as other stakeholders.

A step-by-step guide to building your first MCP server: pull your Substack articles into SQLite, set up your MCP server, connect it to Claude Desktop, and start asking questions about your own newsletter in plain English

Despite didactic, ethical, and environmental concerns, the use of GenAI is on the rise in academia. For most applications, the jury is still out on whether and how they will benefit education and research in the long term. But it’s already safe to conclude that one popular use case is, in fact, a bad one: AI-generated summaries.

Paste your DOIs. See where your knowledge comes from. Free geographic diversity analysis for academic reading lists.

Life is complicated. Regardless of what your beliefs or politics or ethics are, the way that we set up our society and economy will often force you to act against them: You might not want to fly somewhere but your employer will not accept another mode of transportation, you want to eat vegan but are […]

A young tech entrepreneur launched the tool Einstein this week, marketing it as a way to free students from busywork—and triggering robust faculty debate. Einstein’s creator says that was the whole point.

I don't necessarily believe in second brains. The notion (pun-intended) that you can offload your thinking to a perfectly organized system of notes and links has always struck me as a fantasy. The people I know who've built elaborate Notion databases or Obsidian vaults mostly end up with digital hoarding

The 3 levels of using Claude (and AI) in 2026. Claude, Claude Code, Claude Cowork

I show a bit of the set of Claude skills I built that transform handwritten math notes to editable and accessible wiki pages in Canvas. Part of a larger set ...

A refreshing take on AI from a perhaps unexpected angle: Cory Doctorow defending the use of LLMs.

Stephen's fascinating conversation with author Michael Pollan continues with a look at how consciousness begins and whether AI will achieve it. "A World Appe...

Stephen's fascinating conversation with author Michael Pollan continues with a look at how consciousness begins and whether AI will achieve it. "A World Appe...

There might be a better point here just poorly expressed but "GenAI is like Ozempic because you're going to be on it forever (and shame on you for being that weak!)" is inadvertently a succinct summary of a certain type of judgmental rot that gets in the way of real analysis. Who says "yeah, the housing industry wants you to get used to living in a house, so you will need a house forever! The scam!" Look around your living area, with electricity, heat, refrigeration, books, running water, internet. Can you do your work without these things that society has rendered you dependent on? Are these things immoral shortcuts? The question is not about dependence. If you believe you are independent from your technical environment you have already lost me. If you believe the solution to obesity is everyone just has to try a little harder, and that Ozempic is worrisome "because it works" I don't know what to do with that. Our starting point is not the value of the human stripped of technology as the mythical "real" human. Our starting point is the inherent potential of every human and how technology can best augment that and help people to realize that potential. True, that requires careful thought and design, and attention to developing the skills that allow one to harness its potential rather than be steamrolled by it. But start with these moralistic notions and we won't get there at all.

AI literacy has become synonymous with prompt engineering. It should mean something else entirely.