Shea Smith

Exactly right.

They simply want the end product — whether it’s an actual production of art or music or the end result of hard work like a PhD — without doing the work.

It’s cheat codes all the way down.

We are now seeing the rise of AI-obfuscation apps ... such as this 'Don't Record Me' plug-in that injects your voice with random sounds to sabotage any AI-recording software that people might be using in the background ... who needs decent regulation, laws and public oversight! dontrecord.me

What's wrong with a lot of edtech effects research?

"The synecdochic fallacy is why reductive research methods that serve us so well in the natural sciences are often completely inappropriate in the field of technology in general and education in particular"

President Obama: “We got Osama bin Laden.”

President Biden: “We got Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s replacement.”

Donald Trump: “We got Felipe the fruit picker in Florida.”

tweet from @southpark on the hellsite. they’re quoting the dept of homeland security, which tweeted an image of ICE from last week’s scathing episode (the same episode the entire administration railed against, with trump calling the show “irrelevant”) — and @southpark commented: Wait, so we ARE relevant? #eatabagofdicks

in a world of capitulating institutions, be trey parker and matt stone

“It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry.”

This!! This is why I am also so worried about the relentless repetition of “we have to tell better stories about our science!”

Sure, but…

Mark Zuckerberg is Out of Ideas | TechPolicy.Press Dave Karpf reflects on Zuckerberg's mini-manifesto on “Personal Superintelligence" and what it says about the vision for the company.

Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg posted a new online mini-manifesto, titled “Personal Superintelligence,” setting the direction for Meta’s AI program. The one strong prediction we can make right now is that the future of AI will be a gigantic mess, with huge social costs, writes Dave Karpf.

Curate your own newspaper with RSS Escape newsletter inbox chaos and algorithmic surveillance by building your own enshittification-proof newspaper from the writers you already read

Newsletter: In a media landscape dominated by algorithmic feeds that aim to manipulate and extract, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is choose to read what you want, when you want, without anyone watching over your shoulder.

Here’s how to use RSS.
www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-...

Reeder News Reader. Rebuilt for Today.

Long live RSS! Huge fan of Reeder for iOS and Mac. reederapp.com

How to Read an "AI" Press Release — Sonja Drimmer Every so often someone like Mark Zuckerberg or Sam Altman will dribble out some unadorned text in Times New Roman font, announcing with stentorian certitude the advent of a new world that their latest...

Zuckerberg farted out some nonsense today, and since most media outlets refuse to report critically any time a tech CEO offers them some a pseudoserious press release, I've decided to do it for them.

sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/7/30/how-to-read-an-ai-press-release

I feel I have a robust set of alternatives for making people want to punch me in the face

The same guy telling you he’s not in the Epstein files, told you Mexico was going to pay for the wall, and people were eating dogs in Ohio.

Trump's AI Action Plan is a blueprint for dystopia The president is trying to give Silicon Valley nearly everything it wants — at a price.

Trump's AI Action Plan is even worse than I thought it'd be. It's a tech industry wishlist with every box ticked. It signals the further coherence of Silicon Valley and the Trump-led federal government into a cooperative, automation-bent surveillance state. It's a blueprint for dystopia.

Picture of four notecard and one business card sized prints against a black backdrop.

I’m just a hobbyist printer with a few type cabinets, but thank you. I mostly print stationery goods. Some day, I’ll have a big-boy press and spare time.

DDC-090 “Space Shuttle Tribute - 17th Edition” Poster — Draplin Design Co., North America Product Description: I grew up with that Space Shuttle in my dreams. When they retired the thing, a wave of sadness overtook the DDC factory floor. Every 18 months, I’d tune in to see the latest crew...

That’s a print by Aaron Draplin. It’s one of my favorites. Draplin does some amazing design.

www.draplin.com/merch/poster...

A 48-drawer type cabinet with multicolored faces and handles against a wall with posters

I love the idea of printing the syllabus with hand-set type. Might have to give that a go 😆
Although, it’s too bad I don’t have any Garamond in the type cabinet.

Our report on the dangers of AI in US schooling for the National Education Policy Center was pretty downbeat in its analysis more than a year ago. If we wrote a sequel now it would appear near-dystopian just by being descriptive nepc.colorado.edu/publication/ai

"Bias shapes what we see and what we make invisible. Objectivity is politically defined. Data for AI was never collected or interpreted objectively, and language is socially constructed [...] there is no such thing as an unbiased AI system." 👏👏

screencap that says: Chat with an article Save up to 50% of your literature research time by asking your questions to an article.

THE ARTICLE IS NOT ALIVE I CANNOT "CHAT WITH IT"

My essay ends with a point I’ve made many times, EdTech companies have cynically reimagined the “lifelong learner” idealized in HigherEd as a captured customer, whose economic anxiety & job precarity keep them coming back for more.

Purdue has new branding for its online continuing ed catalog.

2/3

You mean that factors outside of the classroom and outside of a teacher's control might impact student academic achievement? " I'm shocked. Shocked!"

And, this is happening because of the current administration’s executive order “restoring gold standard science” 🙄

Cute videos, but little evidence: Police say Amazon Ring isn't much of a crime fighter Hundreds of police departments have signed agreements with Ring to gain access to footage filmed on home surveillance cameras

Ring says they are going back to their “crime fighting” roots. Let’s revisit what happened when a journalist looked into their claims.

AI boosters get mad when I describe LLMs as "Spicy Autocomplete." Sure, it's a bit reductionist ("stochastic parrot" is more precise), but it's far worse for people to see LLMs as "ineffable superintelligence," as WSJ did by claiming ChatGPT expressed "self reflection." No, it didn't.

That's a $16 *million* bribe. #friday

So glad you wrote this book! Your book was the impetus for my pursuit of a doctoral degree in educational technologies. And, I appreciate the work you continue to do. Cheers!

"i asked grok" "i asked chatgpt" yeah well i asked carl sagan and he said the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge 🧪

AFT’s AI Guardrails vs. Big Tech Cash The AFT promises “commonsense guardrails” on AI, then cashes Big Tech checks to train 400,000 teachers. Nobody should be surprised, but…

"You can’t take vendor money, outsource professional development to vendor interests, and still claim that you are preserving educator autonomy. Vendor lock-in ... starts when you accept the premise that those vendors should shape what teachers know, expect, and do." medium.com/chalkdust-si...

a man in a red suit is standing in a room with a statue in the background Alt: a man in a red suit is standing in a room with a statue in the background

MST3K

Owner of pin factory thinks grinding & polishing skills integral to success in the new economy.