Pluralistic: LLMs are slot-machines (16 Aug 2025)

Today's links

LLMs are slot-machines: You only remember the jackpots.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Heinlein bio; Amazon bans Amazon-critical podcasts; How to Argue With a Racist.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Goodhart's Law (of AI): When a metric becomes a target, AI can hit it every time.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: Bill Ayers graphic novel; Foxconn in India; Uber loses $4B; Warren Buffet, monopolist.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

When Google's slop meets webslop, search stops: Botshit, botshit everywhere.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: White Wolf's pay-to-play; Penn on artistic satisfaction, California antitrust v Google; Project 2025's true meaning
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Anyone who trusts an AI therapist needs their head examined: Same goes for trusting an AI with your trade secrets.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: 2010, 2015, 2020, 2024
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Penguin Random House, AI, and writers' rights: "You can't train an AI with our books" isn't the same thing as "We won't train an AI with YOUR book."
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Podcasting "How To Think About Scraping": How to preserve the benefits of web-scraping while targeting the real harms.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

How plausible sentence generators are changing the bullshit wars: My September column in Locus Magazine.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2008, 2013, 2018
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Supervised AI isn't: Automation blindness can't be automated away.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading