Mark Riedl

Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless Independent research identifies few learning gains

Blistering piece on ed tech in @economist.com.

‘Although ed-tech companies tout huge learning gains, independent research has made clear that technology rarely boosts learning in schools—and often impairs it.’
economist.com/united-state...

‘Pax Silica’ and Pursuit of Greenland Give Shape to Trump’s Imperial AI Ambitions Trump's efforts to secure critical minerals are part of what experts regard as more nakedly imperialist US foreign and industrial policies.

From this week's @techpolicypress.bsky.social newsletter.

"The Trump administration says it intends to organize the AI age the way Rome 'organized' the ancient world. Access to critical minerals is the priority that underlies these imperial ambitions." 🙄

www.techpolicy.press/pax-silica-a...

It’s always funny when palantir employees discover that they work at palantir

It is January 21th. A conference paper author is criticized for similarities with his own work

It is January 26th. A conference paper author is criticized for similarities with his own work

Reviewer #2: please state more clearly the relationship of this work with that of Riedl et al.

Um...

YouTubers sue Snap for alleged copyright infringement in training its AI models | TechCrunch The YouTubers claim Snap, like others, used AI datasets meant for research and academic use to train its AI models.

The YouTubers claim Snap, like others, used AI datasets meant for research and academic use to train its AI models.

Someone is going to use this and make decisions that result self-harm.

😬

Clawed: A Language Model Written in Scratch This blog post started as a joke Claude is the name of the Large Language Model from Anthropic. It also sounds like “clawed”, which sounds…

This is mine: medium.com/@mark-riedl/...

CONTRIBUTOR GREG BROCKMAN AMOUNT ELECTION TO DAT $25,000,000 $25,000,000

The largest Trump superPAC donor so far this cycle is the president of OpenAI

Why Yann LeCun’s Startup Advanced Machine Intelligence Is Targeting Healthcare Alex LeBrun, cofounder of medical scribe startup Nabla who LeCun hired to be the CEO of Advanced Machine Intelligence, thinks the startup’s new AI models could start to roll out in a year, with health...

LeCun’s new company to focus on healthcare www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

I haven’t sent anything to ARR in a while and I live a happier life because of it

Retrieval augmented generation has always had a hidden weakness: the retrieval algorithm that feeds information into the LLM context window. Doesn’t matter how “smart” an LLM is if it is operating in corrupted information.

This is assuming OpenAI isn’t training directly on Grokipedia tokens.

Musk’s ability to alter the worldview of people now expands beyond just users of Grok.

I am not so sure about that. Rumor is Philadelphia will be actively targeted soon. Seems more likely to me that the main distinction is red-state cities vs blue-state cities.

Growing sense of embarrassment at Fifa over Donald Trump peace prize There is a growing sense of embarrassment among mid-level and senior officials within Fifa over the awarding of the peace prize to Donald Trump

Just trying to give FIFA a way to turn a shit sandwich into lemonade
www.theguardian.com/football/202...

The major football states *should* threaten boycott. And even then, probably FIFA did nothing.

FIFA could say: “we gave you our peace prize. You didn’t live up to it. We are moving all US games to Mexico and Canada.”

They won’t do it though.

If you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.

Complaint – #1 in DOE v. X.AI Corp. (N.D. Cal., 5:26-cv-00772) – CourtListener.com COMPLAINT against X.AI Corp., X.AI LLC ( Filing fee $ 405, receipt number ACANDC-21578755.). Filed by JANE DOE. (Attachments: # 1 Civil Cover Sheet)(Rios, Sophia) (Filed on 1/23/2026) (Entered: 01/23/...

A Jane Doe has initiated a class action lawsuit against xAI for Grok's creation of nonconsensual revealing and sexual deepfakes.

Relief claims include allegations of defective product, negligence, public nuisance, defamation, privacy violation & more. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72185...

The line for at least one Republican seems be “white person killed for carrying a gun”. Pretty on-brand I guess.

Founding Fathers: you’re going to want well-regulated state militias. Trust us.

Me (in high-school civics class): why tho?

Me (now): oh

As if I need more excuses to shop at my local bookstore littleshopofstories.com

A screenshot of the Little Shop of Stories Instagram account of a graphic that reads: SAT AND SUN AT LITTLE SHOP OF STORIES a portion of all sales this weekend will go to mutual aid orgs in the twin cities (includes both in store and online sales) The caption reads: littleshopofstories: Like you, we are devastated by all that is transpiring in Minneapolis. Today, we are especially thinking of sweet Liam Ramos, and we are completely overwhelmed with worry for him. This all seems so big, and it is hard to know what to do. This weekend, Little Shop will be donating a portion of all sales, both in store and online, to mutual aid organizations in the Twin Cities. If we are forced to close because of the weather, please consider shopping online with us. Or, check out the link in our IG bio to find organizations you can donate to directly. We’ve also included a link to 5calls.org as well. Stay safe and warm this weekend. Give your kids an extra big hug from us. Thank you from Little Shop of Stories"

If you're looking to buy some books this weekend, one of my fav kid lit locals is donating a portion of all their sales to mutual aid orgs in the twin cities

littleshopofstories.com

(instagram src: www.instagram.com/p/DT3NfEriYM...)

The One Ring basically the lawn darts of Middle Earth. Recalled 3000 years ago, still showing up to cause trouble.

"AI didn't just increase its footprint in Washington in 2025. It ate tech lobbying whole." www.axios.com/2026/01/23/a...

Also I think I will power it with portable gas generators.

I have plans to build a stand-alone home-office in my neighbor's yard.

It will be several times larger than my current home office.

I have yet to secure my neighbor's land or their approval.

The Best Use for Smart Glasses Might Have Nothing to Do With Entertainment It's not all about getting email notifications plastered on your eyeballs.

The Best Use for Smart Glasses Might Have Nothing to Do With Entertainment https://gizmodo.com/the-best-use-for-smart-glasses-might-have-nothing-to-do-with-entertainment-2000713395