Sara Reinis

The rise of AI tools that write about you when you die Families and funeral directors are using AI obituary generators to more efficiently memorialize the dead. What happens when they get it wrong?

New: A few weeks ago, when my father-in-law died, the funeral home asked if we wanted to use AI to write his obituary. So I dug into it and found that it's the biggest new trend in "death care." Tens of thousands of AI obits have been made already. Often the families don't even know wapo.st/4okuxIg

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

Thank you for reading!

Brilliantly said

An OpenAI Investor Appears to Be Having a ChatGPT-Induced Mental Health Crisis Bedrock co-founder Geoff Lewis has posted increasingly troubling content on social media, drawing concern from friends in the industry.

These seemingly trite trends ease the way for AI to enter more and more deeply personal layers of our lives. This feel particularly concerning as more stories such as the below emerge futurism.com/openai-inves...

ChatGPT, What is My Curse? What does it mean to feel seen by a machine?

Users on TikTok are asking ChatGPT what their "curse" is. What does it mean for us to want surveillance? To crave it? To feel comforted by being intimately known by software?

open.substack.com/pub/holyscro...

My latest academic publication is out! After watching 3,000+ manifestation videos on TikTok, I dive into the ways platform features are shaping modern spirituality.

🔮🙏🏻 share this post to claim your blessing ✨🪽

Open access here: ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared. ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis is the most detailed look yet into a rise in life-threatening complications for women experiencing pregnancy loss under Texas’ abortion ban.

Dozens more pregnant and postpartum women have died in Texas hospitals since the state banned abortion, our analysis shows.

As the maternal mortality rate dropped nationally, it rose in Texas by 33%.

AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality Generative AI spammers are brute forcing the internet, and it is working.

My latest: Generative AI is enabling a brute force attack against the algorithms that control reality. AI slop is taking over every algorithmically controlled social media platform and search platform, and the tech platforms are helping:

www.404media.co/ai-slop-is-a...

the creator presidency can promise only two things for certain: engagement and pain

love this

Taking The Life Out Of "Day In The Life" | Defector 11:59 a.m. The tiny clock at the bottom of the screen counts down to the top of the hour, and like a bizarre bell chime from a digital clocktower, large pink text overtakes the Whitney Museum’s websit...

Maya Man's digital piece on "day in the life" vlogs at @whitney.org prompted me to think about the internet content that renders the ordinary uncanny. (also, the AI slop historic pov videos and the humans-imitating-AI-imitating-humans videos that made me spiral 😵‍💫)

defector.com/taking-the-l...

How #ChristianTikTok Users Understand and Utilize the Platform’s Algorithm

Here is a more general summary of the research findings for those interested: www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/...
(also happy to share PDF of original article as well!)

thanks so much!

How #ChristianTikTok Users Understand and Utilize the Platform’s Algorithm

Are you seeing this post? It might be because of divine intervention. A new study by @sarareinis.bsky.social and @corrinalaughlin.bsky.social shows the many ways the #ChristianTikTok community conceptualizes and makes use of the TikTok algorithm:

yeah I think chiseled muscles are an extension of the self-transformation, hustle culture vibe too, it's a way to physically communicate your "discipline" and "aboveness," a way to claim deservedness of success (e.g. jacked Bezos and Musk)

Wrote some thoughts about memes of data nihilism and Meta takeover conspiracies in the wake of the temporary (but still vaguely looming) ban of TikTok.

YouTube video by Praxis_tv EVERY ANGEL IS TERRIFYING

also, not to extend any masochistic preoccupation with the network state, but...if you want to go down the horrible rabbit hole, Praxis imagery/messaging/etc is an endless well www.youtube.com/watch?v=FECy...

terrible tech-fueled Manifest Destiny reboot

This looks fascinating!

The particular brand of Christianity at play here is one that permits retribution, exclusion, and punishment for those not "chosen" or in the sacred fold. There's also a kinship between the idea of technological progress as an inevitable destiny and traditional apocalyptic thinking.

Silicon Valley is Embracing Christianity (With the Help of Peter Thiel) When tech luminaries talk about their Christian faith, people listen.

Despite people's impressions of the tech world and religion being quite separate spheres, this has been brewing for a long time. We will only see more of this as tech leaders seek some sort of cosmic moral framework to justify their actions and deflect criticism. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/b...

This is a screenshot of the title and abstract of a research article. The link features the title, author names and article abstract.

New article on spirituality & social media by Steering Committee member @sarareinis.bsky.social and co-author @corrinalaughlin.bsky.social “GOD IS MY SPONSORED AD!! MY ALGORITHM!” Read it here: bit.ly/4hPLUMY @asc.upenn.edu @bzelizer.bsky.social

In other words, the nature of global "democracy" is changing again. The same way the citizen was replaced by the consumer, the consumer is now being replaced by the creator. Politics shifted from something you participated in to something you consumed. It's now something you parasocially relate to.

I think this is right on. Also, the widespread sensibility of self-as-brand goes far beyond those who would actively label themselves as a "creator." Maybe the previous strains of participation and consumption have fused into this weird parasocial-creator-brand mentality we have now.

You dropped this 👑

If I just read one million more posts tonight, I will have complete control over what comes next

thought so! but wanted to check. baby and I will be supporting in spirit :)

i think it is important to say that the open and explicit racism of the president and the vice president isn’t just uncouth or “controversial” but a direct attack on tens of millions of americans and a dereliction of their duty to represent the entire country

emailing you!