Matt Williams

Gen A.I. doth begin wyth the bolde and daringe questioun "What yf we let antivax reddit accountes do our companye budget?"

a woman wearing a mask and a yellow shirt is dancing in front of a street ALT: a woman wearing a mask and a yellow shirt is dancing in front of a street

What watching business/markets coverage feels like right now:

Screenshot of first page of commentary.

After one too many conversations about the ways GenAI + peer review = shitshow for all involved, I dashed off this slightly polemic commentary on how I think we should talk about GenAI as an epistemic carcinogen.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Google Scholar Is Doomed Academia built entire careers on a free Google service with zero guarantees. What could go wrong?

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

Replit's CEO apologizes after its AI agent wiped a company's code base in a test run and lied about it A VC tested Replit to build an app. It wiped live company data, faked results, and triggered a CEO apology.

And let's not forget that the most expensive AI tools in the market did this www.businessinsider.com/replit-ceo-a...

Somebody on LinkedIn said what we're all thinking.

"[LinkedIn] is a digital motor pool full of self-appointed visionaries doing donut in the mud, yelling about scaling, optimising, and disrupting, while actively failing to comprehend anything larger than their own reflection in a ring light." 🔥🔥🔥

A spherical cow (drawing)

Assume

I went to London today and it's unrecognisable. Gone are the cheerful Cockney chimneysweeps and flying nannies of my youth, replaced by terrifying people of different ethnicities and women wearing trousers. Roaming cannibal suffragettes. Giant bears. Tigers. Is it time for my medication?

I have done: 3 books in all

Special shout-out to my great great great grandchildren who are probably reading this in English Lit

Comparisons Between Life in the UK and the USA For most of my life I have lived in the UK, but for six years I lived in the United States of America. Somewhat erratic and unpleasant polit...

I decided to make a long blog post combining general sociological things I am aware of with personal observations of cultural and lifestyle differences between the UK and USA.

sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/07/comp...

Updatid my Bucket List:

• Woodene bucket (oak)
• Woodene bucket (maple)
• Woodene bucket (pine)
• Bucket wyth floral décor
• Bucket yn shape of duck
• Extremelye fragile bucket wyth gems
• Large bucket wyth yron hoopes
• Mysterye bucket somebodye left at the house - TODD?

Some Thoughts on Techno-Fascism From Socialism 2025 "This is the endgame of our isolation."

"Men who sell machines that mimic people want us to become people who mimic machines. They want techno feudal subjects who will believe and do what they’re told. We, as people, are being strategically simplified. This is a fascist process."

organizingmythoughts.org/some-thought...

And yet I can forsee no problems whatever in using chatbots in the medical domain

None. At all.

Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot Air Canada appears to have quietly killed its costly chatbot support.

icymi, from february

After months of resisting, Air Canada was forced to give a partial refund to a grieving passenger who was misled by an airline chatbot inaccurately explaining the airline's bereavement travel policy.

Society of Hopeful Technologists: Survey Results 🥁 🥁🥁 The results are finally in: what do people want from the Society for Hopeful Techologists? 🥁🥁🥁 522 technologists based in the UK responded to the...

Just sent the first email to the Society for Hopeful Technologists mailing list, with results of our survey. We had 522 respondents from across the UK, working in the field of public interest tech.
buttondown.com/society-of-h...
Some headlines 🧵

Society of Hopeful Technologists: Survey Results 🥁 🥁🥁 The results are finally in: what do people want from the Society for Hopeful Techologists? 🥁🥁🥁 522 technologists based in the UK responded to the...

So now we actually need to make that happen, which is both exciting and daunting. More info on how to get involved in the newsletter - we need your help and support to make this happen! buttondown.com/society-of-h...

Man being interviewed: His "Philip K. Dick. Ray Bradbury. Like so many others in tech, I draw inspiration from completely misunderstanding those authors."

Cartoon by Ellis Rosen for The New Yorker.

I seldom agree with the MP for Dubai but I totally endorse bringing back Wimbledon line judges.
We also need to bring back:
Spangles
Jonathan Gullis
My Bonnie to me
Heavy petting
Golden Grahams
Phone boxes
Shabba Ranks
GPs
Cold sores
Briefcases
Itching
The cane
Slacks
Limahl.
🇬🇧

Do you have access to Schwartz rounds (or anything similar)?

Try insertion of steak instead

Yes, but the UK already has PKU screening, without WGS

Plenty studies showing that your postcode is a better predictor of your health outcomes than your genome.

This is the best response I have ever had on social media :)

Here we go Bluesky my two passions Jaws and Mr Blobby brought together in one video. Could be my best work. #Jaws50

Lillie Pakzad-Shahabi on stage at the BNOS2035 conference, about to present her work on PPIE in the PEAR GLIO trial

Great to see our CRP, Lillie Pakzad-Shahabi, presenting the PPIE work embedded in the PEAR GLIO trial, at #BNOS2025

First ever PPIE work in Func Precision Med!

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.

Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on.

slate.com/technology/2...

Last day as parent of A level exam taker today. No regrets. I think I gave it my best. Focusing on the final fridge and snack restocking. One more push and done.

Dr. Seema Dadhania presenting on stage at the BNOS2025 conference, standing behind a podium. The session chairs sit at a table alongside

Delighted to be at #BNOS2025
Even more delighted to see my consultant colleague, Dr. Dadhania, present her PhD work