Marketing to pre-teen gamers must be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Don’t even need to do much - Stellar Blade threw some fanservice their way and laughed all the way to the bank. Gamers are stupid.

NASB: GamersNexus just put out a lengthy investigation into NZXT and their predatory practices

New post from Brian Merchant: No thanks to generative AI, which is about AI-run publisher Spines and their attempt to enshittify the literature world. Pulling a paragraph near the end here:

For another, the needle can move here; if the noise is loud enough, AI publishing can get slapped with a stigma that can at least help slow the erosion of the industry. Public shame can be a powerful tool, when warranted! So yeah: This is why I’m thankful that we’re building this community, and that there are people out there willing to go to the mat to oppose things like the AI-enabled automation of book production. (I fully resent that ‘AI enabled automation of book production’ is a phrase I had to write in 2024.)

Giving my thoughts, I feel Merchant and co. have a headstart when it comes to moving the needle here, for two main reasons:

• AI has been thoroughly stripped of whatever “wow factor” - showing off that your gen-AI system can make books isn’t gonna impress Joe Public the way it would’ve back in '22 or '23.

• The one-two punch of the slop-nami and the plagiarism lawsuits have indelibly associated “AI” as a concept with “zero effort garbage made of stolen shit” - as a consequence, using or supporting it will immediately disgust a good portion of the crowd right out of the gate

Pulling a random post from Bluesky:

The linked rant is a damn good read, BTW.

NASB: Baldur Bjarnason’s released a second edition of The Intelligence Illusion

It probably is total bullshit

On the one hand, that spectacular failure could potentially dissuade the military from buying in and prolonging this bubble. On the other hand, having an accountability sink for war crimes would be a tempting offer to your average army.

Starting things off with a fresh post from Brian Merchant: Tech under Trump, part 1

You just know Netflix’s inbox is getting flooded with the absolute worst shit League of Legends players can come up with right now

I don’t run any websites, what are you coming at me for

If H5N1 does turn into a full-blown outbreak, part of me expects it’ll rack up a heavier deathtoll than COVID.

If we came across very mentally disabled people or extremely early babies (perhaps in a world where we could extract fetuses from the womb after just a few weeks) that could feel pain but only had cognition as complex as shrimp, it would be bad if they were burned with a hot iron, so that they cried out. It’s not just because they’d be smart later, as their hurting would still be bad if the babies were terminally ill so that they wouldn’t be smart later, or, in the case of the cognitively enfeebled who’d be permanently mentally stunted.

wat

This entire fucking shrimp paragraph is what failing philosophy does to a mf

Character.AI Is Hosting Pedophile Chatbots That Groom Users Who Say They’re Underage

Three billion dollars and its going into Character AI AutoGroomer 4000s. Fuck this timeline.

Wired tried to put out a defence of tech and the result is incoherent drivel. See for yourself.

This is pure gut instinct, but I suspect Twitter’s probably gonna die sometime during Trump’s term - the banks which funded Musk’s takeover consider it their worst deal since the Great Recession, and the rapid exodus of users is gonna further cripple Twitter’s ability to attract advertising revenue.

Part of me suspects we’re gonna see Twitter getting banned somewhere during Trump’s term as well, a la Musk’s tangle with Brazil.

Dorsey jumping ship’s about as good a reason as any to jump to Bluesky, especially considering Twitter’s currently haemorrhaging users from the one-two-three punch of the AI training, the crippled blocking and THE ELECTION^tm.

By my guess, the AI training is probably doing the most damage - that one’s prompting artists to bolt for the exits, and if Tumblr’s NSFW ban taught me anything, its that if the artists start leaving, they’re gonna start taking their fans with them.

Got recommended a video from a friend, and its a damn good sneer at the state of YouTube sponsorships:

Why YouTube Sponsors Are (Almost) Always Terrible

Four Passengers Die in Burning Tesla After Electronic Doors Seemingly Won’t Open

I always had a hunch Teslas were death traps but Jesus Christ

Its gonna be the largest embezzlement scheme in US history, that much I’m certain. How much damage the pair will do to the federal gov I’m not sure, but I expect there won’t be much left of it once they’re done.

Elon Musk, Ramaswamy land Trump admin roles

President-elect Trump has tapped tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead an advisory group focused on cutting federal spending and reducing the size of the government.

Trump announced Tuesday that Musk and Ramaswamy would lead his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), an initiative meant to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures” and restructure federal agencies.

We live in the dumbest timeline