Marc Ambinder

TikTok to give users power to reduce amount of AI content on their feeds Platform reveals it hosts more than 1bn AI videos as it starts testing over next few weeks before global rollout

Glad we're doing this. More power to our users and their authentic choices.

Advanced LLMs will make redacting (and releasing) classified documents more challenging, and deciphering those redactions a bit easier. Single word or short redactions will be virtually impossible to sustain when LLMs can better predict the next word in a sequence.

Anyway, if you like Star Trek intelligence and security fan fiction, follow my Substack. Kinda the best I can do at this point. (Also: it's not about misinformation. I don't like the word, no, not anymore.)

marcambinder.substack.com

I’ve been jealous of @vermontgmg.bsky.social since college, when it became clear to me that he would become a prodigious author and I would be, at most, a dilettante. His - must be like 40th? - book is coming out soon.

The White Sox, Aurelio's Pizza and St. Mary's Mass: A South Sider becomes pope Robert Prevost’s Catholic roots were planted in Chicago’s south suburbs, where he lived in Dolton and attended St. Mary’s parish before becoming Pope Leo XIV.

*Eight* byline Chicago Tribune story profiling the new pope’s childhood on Chicago’s South Side — www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/08/r...

Google's AI and search don't align, part 1 million. Hallucinations are getting worse.

Eddie Murphy's impersonation of Tracy Morgan!!!

CNN and NBC reporting that 3 members of the military were on board the Blackhawk, but no designated VIPs.

I continue to believe this stuff is still what most humans want out of social media.

Maybe I should join your TikTok twitch. Lol

The Watch Duty app has provided more life-saving information, adding real value, to a larger audience, than any of the AI use cases that people unfurl in those LLM-written threads. I'd like to see a company make it a priority to use LLMs to help regular people live normally.

The combination of less wind, and the availability of air assets, probably saved hundreds, if not thousands of homes. I think the #SunsetFire will be contained soon. But challenge: mass evacuation of northern Hollywood/West Hollywood is not tenable. Gridlock remains.

We rehearsed our evacuation tonight. Pack bags, load car, etc. We'll be fine, but we need to mentally and materially prepare for the most.

The movie apocalypse scenario - an uncontrolled urban conflagration - is not in the cards, fingers crossed, for now. This time. (The destruction already has been too much to bear). But our credence in the possibility of the unthinkable should increase. All we can do is prep.

We live in the middle of the city. This fire, which (right now) is looking like it'll be contained, verges on the Mid-City and Hollywood - the most dense parts of this dense city. There is no interface between urban and rural areas anymore. Entire cities can burn.

Endorse.

There are numerous fires burning IN the city. Power is out. 35,000 people under mandatory evacuation orders. (Where will they go?). And this is just what we know. On the other side of the fire lines, it's a thermal black box.

There are numerous fires burning IN the city. Power is out. 35,000 people under mandatory evacuation orders. (Where will they go?). And this is just what we know. On the other side of the fire lines, it's a thermal black box.

This is, by far, the worst fire in the LA basin in the 14 years I've lived here. The urban/rural interface is burning. Average wind (AVERAGE) gusts are 25 mph. The county with the most fire resources in the country is overwhelmed. It will get worse before it get better.

A problem I didn't have, about a game I was watching on that device.

Not Apple's AI summarizing Notre Dame's win at the beginning of the third quarter..... Top - summary. Bottom - actual ESPN notification.

+1000. Also, maybe I have natural anxiety.

What's the word for that anxiety you feel when you're stuffing your bag in the overhead bin and realize that a hundred people are waiting to board behind you?

Huh oh. As a committed anti-conspiracy-theorist for the "phones listen to your microphone and targeted ads based on what you say" thing I can tell this is going to be exhausting

Billboards on I-80 - The trip to and from SFO - tells a story of crazes. 5 years ago - fintech, fintech! 2-3 years ago - crypto, web3. Last year - AI for your product! This year - compute capacity for your AI.

If you want a diversion, tune to PBS. They're showing Ken Burns' series on the national parks. If only for Peter Coyote's soothing voice

Quite unsettling to send a dozen or more "are you OK" text to folks in 3 different cities in one day, after MCIs that they might plausibly been affected by. One friend was a few blocks from Bourbon Street. My mind understands the moment, but my brain is begging - just stop.

I saw this as a school kid, live, watching outside from Central Florida. And yep. Next class.

Hmm