Nathan Holbert

An Annotated Guide to OpenAI's Enshittification of Education 1.

OpenAI claims to be pursuing a "moonshot" in education. Today I provide a short annotated guide to what that "moonshot" entails, with nods to @mikecaulfield.bsky.social @simonwillison.net @audreywatters.bsky.social @leonfurze.com @janerosenzweig.bsky.social and especially @heymrsbond.com

100% correct. And I’ve said it before, but anytime a company drops the “s” and writes “learning science,” you can be sure they didn’t actually talk to a learning scientist and are full of shit.

Also searching for this has turned up many articles explaining the horrifying info that this same dataset included graphic images of minors. So messed up.

AI made these stunning images. Here’s why experts are worried | CNN Business A million bears walking on the streets of Hong Kong. A strawberry frog. A cat made out of spaghetti and meatballs.

Now I’m super curious… this maybe?
“Filtering can also lead to other issues: Women tend to be represented more than men in sexual content, for instance, so filtering out sexual content also reduces the number of women in the dataset, said Ahmad.” amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/06/...

She watched the Disney movie and thinks Rasputin is the bat.

NEW YORK, NY – Today, the New York Times reported that Andrew Cuomo is coordinating with President Donald Trump ahead of the upcoming New York City mayoral election to help billionaires buy this race and steal it from the very New Yorkers on the frontlines against Trump's authoritarianism. Andrew Cuomo tried to hide this from the public because he knew how damaging it would be. In response, Zohran Mamdani released the following statement: “Andrew Cuomo has spent his career governing for the powerful and prioritizing his own self-interests over those of the people he was sworn to serve. This is not just a shady backroom deal by a cynical politician, it is disqualifying. It is a betrayal. Donald Trump is sending masked agents to rip our neighbors off the street, gutting the social services so many New Yorkers rely on, and threatening to deport me for having the audacity to stand up to him and his billionaire friends. The job of New York City Mayor is not to be jester for a wannabe king, it is to protect the people of this city.”

Zohran Mamdani just released a statement about Cuomo working with Trump:

Picture of q*bert and a coiled snake on a pyramid of yellow and green cubes

Q*bert is a story that takes place before the fall.

That takes longer than my wife just typing out to me, “Late. Again. Deal with it. But started my period❣️”

My teen is playing Half-Life for the first time and having the time of his life. Just crowbarring face huggers like his life depends on it (it does)

Of course they’re going to release the recording, that’s the whole fucking point of this charade. So everyone can pretend that the word of a madam given in exchange for a cushy prison is more trustworthy than the kids she trafficked

More than once the kids and I have planned to go to the library on Sunday only to realize it’s closed (you’d think I’d remember? Nope!). Glad this is a priority—such an important service in our great city.

Your dissertation is point 0 on your career. It feels massive (it is) and like the most important thing you’ve done, but it is literally the first small step of the rest of your career.

Trump Went to War With the Ivies. Community Colleges Are Being Hit.

the trump administration is selling its war on higher education as a strike against the elites who have disadvantaged ordinary americans. in actuality, the administration is destroying advanced education for *everyone* in pursuit of its effort to deskill the american public

The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact

Reached an age where “everyone is getting married”, “everyone is having kids”, and “everyone is getting divorced”, has transitioned to “everyone’s parents are dying.” It’s awful. Each is unique in a way, but there is a shared experience of sadness and misery.

I don’t know… we might have peaked with Usenet.

Got up this morning and took the subway down to Brooklyn. Ran a few miles through these incredible streets, then checked out a Citi bike and rode the rest of the way home. Cleaned up and then walked to a pub to enjoy a beer outside. Living in a city is the best.

Southern tip of manhattan through the Brooklyn bride

Outside of Grand central station. Lots of runners and bikers on the road

My giant forehead. Also people running along the street behind me

NYC Summer Streets remains one of my favorite traditions. This year ran across the Brooklyn bridge and through grand central!

City streets day let’s go!

Mob shit

But you’re never too young to hate jar jar.

My teen really wanted to watch the Star Wars prequels so here we are. Man these movies are just so so poorly done. A few compelling ideas delivered with the worst dialogue and the most weightless CGI.

100%. I’m convinced the way forward is focusing on the local. There are so many neighbors that need our attention, energy, and care. No time for giving into despair.

Going to dipshit his way into a nuclear holocaust and get millions of us killed (again).

At $250 million, top AI salaries dwarf those of the Manhattan Project and the Space Race A 24 year-old AI researcher will earn 327x what Oppenheimer made while developing the atomic bomb.

You know how I I know these guys are idiots? If they are right, and they really are building AGI (they aren’t), they’re still convinced it’s going to be a slave for them.

the republican party hates public goods and wants to force feed you and your family slop produced by its billionaire allies

Fridays are for chipping away at the pile of external letters and reviews apparently. Not the most thrilling part of the job...

Was doing some market research in bookstores just the other day and realized there are only two types of non-fiction books now: "It's not your fault" and "FUCK" (a book about finances or whatever)

One explanation for the U.S. economy’s ongoing strength is that spending on AI infrastructure *is so big it’s acting as a sort of private-sector stimulus program.*

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