TechTakes

More of a pet peeve than a primal scream, but I wonder what's with Adam Tooze and his awe of AI. Tooze is a left-wing economic historian who’s generally interesting to listen to (though perhaps in tackling a very wide range of subject matter sometimes missing some depth), but nevertheless seems as AI-pilled as any VC. Most recently came about this bit: Berlin Forum on Global Cooperation 2025 - Keynote Adam Tooze

Anyone who’s used AI seriously knows the LLMs are extraordinary in what they’re able to do ... 5 years down the line, this will be even more transformative.

Really, anyone Adam? Are you sure about the techbro pitch there?

"Enjoy" this Wronger explaining human sexual attraction

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ktydLowvEg8NxaG4Z/neuroscience-of-human-sexual-attraction-triggers-3

I have but skimmed it, not plumbed its depths for sneers.

James Gleick on "The Lie of AI":

https://around.com/the-lie-of-ai/

Nothing new for regulars here, I suspect, but it might be useful to have in one's pocket.

New Public Good newsletter, talking about YouTube editing users' uploads without their permission/knowledge.

New Ed Zitron: "How to Argue With An AI Booster", an hour-long read dedicated to exactly what it says on the tin.

From the comments:

Finally, I dislike the arrogant, brash, confident, tone of many posts on LessWrong.

Hmm, OK. Where might this be going?

Plausibly, I think a lot of this is inherited from Eliezer, who is used to communicating complex ideas to people less intelligent and/or rational than he is. This is not the experience of a typical poster on LessWrong, and I think it's maladaptive for people to use Eliezer's style and epistemic confidence in their own writings and thinking.

I apologize to bring you the latest example of the intersection of US fascism with silicon valley tech industry.

This time the Whitehouse have decided that UI design is kinda important (gee I wonder if there used to be a department or two for that): https://americabydesign.gov/

Well nothing wrong with a little updating of UI anywa--

What's the biggest brand in the world? If you said Trump, you're not wrong. But what's the foundation of that brand? One that's more globally recognized than practically anything else. It's the nation…where he was born. It's the United States of America.

To update today's government to be an Apple Store like experience: beautifully designed, great user experience, run on modern software.

Oh god kill it with fire.

The web design of their website is also worth remarking on here:

1. The title text that reads "AMERICA by DESIGN" is an SVG. The alt text is "America First Legal logo"
2. The page contents are obnoxiously large and obnoxiously gray before they fade in.
3. ~~For some reason~~ Every single word gets it's own element to make the obnoxious fade in possible. Because I guess that's what happen when you fire all the people who actually know what they're doing.
4. They managed to include a US flag icon with only 39 stars which is too few stars to be official and too many stars to be visible at teeny sizes
5. The favicon is just 16x16 pixels of the word "by" in cursive that's so blurry you can't actually tell that's what it is.
6. If your browser width is between 768px and ~808px there is overlapping text at the top.

The tech bros tied to this? Joe Gebbia co-founder of AirBNB, along with Big-Balls. Maybe others but those are the two who were retweeted by the twitter account.

Edit: also this part:

©2025 National Design Studio

Someone ought to remind them of US copyright law because official federal work is in the public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by_the_federal_government_of_the_United_States

Via, prob posted here already "Stack Overflow data reveals the hidden productivity tax of ‘almost right’ AI code", as the article is a month old.