TechTakes

Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

and you thought Windows was supposed to run software

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAeNFkZJVxc&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251119-whoops-microsofts-windows-ai-agent-platform-lets-in-malware - podcast

time: 4 min 27 sec

A straightforward product review of two AI therapists. Things start bad and quickly get worse. Choice quip:

Oh, so now I'm being gaslit by a frakking Tamagotchi.

‘GenAI for Nuclear Licensing’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW9lusiwMz8&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251118-vibe-nuclear-lets-use-ai-shortcuts-on-reactor-safety - podcast

time: 6 min 24 sec

Thought this essay had some interesting things to say. It speaks directly to the existence of tech takes overall, specifically those coming from the “oligarch-intellectuals”. Tried to quote some things to give an overview:

There is a certain disorienting thrill in witnessing, over the past few years, the profusion of bold, often baffling, occasionally horrifying ideas pouring from the ranks of America’s tech elite.

To write off these founders and executives as mere showmen—more “public offering” than “public intellectual”—would be a misreading. For one, they manufacture ideas with assembly-line efficiency: their blog posts, podcasts, and Substacks arrive with the subtlety of freight trains. And their “hot takes,” despite vulgar packaging, are often grounded in distinct philosophical traditions. Thus, what appears as intellectual fast food – the ultra-processed thought-nuggets deep fried in venture capital – often conceals wholesome ingredients sourced from a gourmet pantry of quite some sophistication.

Today, it’s increasingly clear that it’s the tech oligarchs — not their algorithmically-steered platforms—who present the greater danger. Their arsenal combines three deadly implements: plutocratic gravity (fortunes so vast they distort reality’s basic physics), oracular authority (their technological visions treated as inevitable prophecy), and platform sovereignty (ownership of the digital intersections where society’s conversation unfolds). Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X), Andreessen’s strategic investments into Substack, Peter Thiel’s courting of Rumble, the conservative YouTube: they’ve colonized both the medium and the message, the system and the lifeworld.

E: this was linked closer to its original publish date here

making AI haters seem very cool and effective

(send this to an AI data centre hater you know!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPbTXEOJEVM&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251117-data-center-watch-worries-anti-ai-activism-is-working - podcast

time: 6 min 29 sec

Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

Be VERY SCARED, okay?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTbyGFW0new&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251114-anthropic-claims-chinese-ai-hackers-security-researchers-call-bs - podcast

time: 5 min 40 sec

the market for AI bands is gullible journalists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrvenVdkOYA&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251113-no-fake-ai-music-bought-onto-a-minor-chart-is-not-popular - podcast

time: 6 min 02 sec

yo ho ho, rum, etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPTYrU73Z9o&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251112-gema-wins-against-openai-on-copying-song-lyrics -podcast

time: 4 min 47 sec

Getty insists this is a win, actually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWctD7wl1Xg&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251111-getty-images-loses-uk-suit-against-stable-diffusion - podcast

time: 4 min 26 sec

let’s dump 24% in an hour!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpQP-X8EvOc&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251110-rightmove-discovers-ai-is-no-excuse-for-profit-warnings - podcast

time: 4 min 21 sec

Consent to use of your data for AI training is non-optional! This is progress, we have declared! You don't want to stand in the way of progress, do you?

Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

The edge is where it’s at

Interview with Nick about the post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5rLzNxRjEQ&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251107-nicholas-weaver-the-futile-future-of-the-gigawatt-datacenter - podcast

time: 26 min 53 sec

How could all these benchmarks be fake, it’s a mystery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcYZN6sTZjQ&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251106-oxford-pretends-ai-benchmarks-are-science-not-marketing - podcast

time: 6 min 16 sec

no plans to fix it, though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dOPo6eVv6E&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251105-ai-gets-45-of-news-wrong-but-readers-still-trust-it - podcast

time: 4 min 58 sec

the best ad Pepsi never paid for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0GU2ryjKZo&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251104-its-the-fake-thing-coca-cola-tries-another-ai-christmas-tv-ad - podcast

time: 5 min 01 sec

The finest academic papers money can buy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShXvaJ46hI0&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251103-mit-releases-retracts-nonsense-ai-cybersecurity-paper - podcast

time: 5 min 59 sec

Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

Dunning-Kruger for everyone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvmlb1S6ogE&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251031-ai-makes-you-think-youre-a-genius-when-youre-an-idiot - podcast

time: 3 min 57 sec

Daily Interactive topic cloud that highlights everything that happend in AI.

and you thought living near a bitcoin miner was bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XREXd8V7Fck&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251030-ai-powered-by-old-jet-engines-near-you - podcast

time: 4 min 16 sec

from non-profit to no-profit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqyWoAjBM44&list=UU9rJrMVgcXTfa8xuMnbhAEA - video
https://pivottoai.libsyn.com/20251029-openai-goes-for-profit-what-happens-next - podcast

time: 8 min 06 sec