BR Cross

BR Cross

@kylleran.bsky.social

Father of two awesome kids. Activist, anarchist, transhumanist and humanist. 1/4 of Posthuman Studios and co-creator of Eclipse Phase RPG. Former sociology professor, former online wellbeing researcher. Loves cats, games, and so much nerd shit.

169 Followers 253 Following 488 Posts Joined Sep 2023
7 hours ago

Question for those who know more about it than I do but is there the same discourse about AI in China? How are they mitigating the environmental and economic impacts? Suppression of dissent? Managed adoption? No prob b/c they have better built infrastructure and social supports? Something else?

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7 hours ago

Guillotine time now? Or are we still waiting until November for the Dems (who btw also support this chucklefuck)?

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8 hours ago

This thing is already getting traction from AI bros who see it as 'proof' that AI is good actually. And it may end up being so, but this study is not proof of it.

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9 hours ago

As for why we should care? Well, keep in mind that that trash ass study about violent video games making people violent has been thoroughly debunked and still gets a ton of interest in press. Not to mention all the bogus autism research.

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9 hours ago

Tl;dr this is a low effort presentation that makes wild claims that are at this point. Unsubstantiated and to all appearances seems to be the kind of effort that I'd expect to find from a first or second year grad student with no prior background in statistics or research design. Shit's bad yo.

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9 hours ago

And then there is the experience that they recorded. The people playing the game with AI NPCs. It's buried about 20 slides in, but they reveal that people only played 20 minutes of each game. That's it.

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9 hours ago

Then there is the shocking number of survey tools they're using here, many of which are not really appropriate for this and several for which it is unclear if they've been validated.

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9 hours ago

And then we get into the data which is a mess. Remember that small sample size? It's back and worse than before as they try to start slicing and dicing it by age, gender and other variables. You cannot do reliable and valid statistical analysis on numbers that small.

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9 hours ago

They also have this metric called unique survey returns which is not one that I've seen before and I'm guessing just is different people answered the same question different ways.

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9 hours ago

For example there is '100 gamers for 122 hour-long playtests.' on one slide but the very next slide reveals they actually only have 80 hours of data and then makes a weird flex about word count (real undergrad energy there)

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9 hours ago

Additionally they use a lot of, let's just call it obfuscating language, that is meant to sound impressive but is deffo a bad look for reputable academics (but totally the move if you're trying to suck up for tech bro $$$)

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9 hours ago

The sample is also sus b/c there is no indication of how subjects were recruited, for all we know they could be students from the AI club, they could have been recruited by the game company, they could have been from an undergrad class. We don't know how biased or not the sample was.

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9 hours ago

The article notes a sample of 68, the actual sample was bigger than that but they split the sample between two groups. So 68 is low for some of the stats they are citing and normally any respectable scientist would be hesitant to offer any sort of certainty regarding the statistical analysis.

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9 hours ago

And then there is the actual research design. They try to bury the red flags here but there are definitely some here starting with the sample.

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9 hours ago

Second they are partnering with a studio but there is no disclosure about if there was a financial arrangement or involvement in the research process, or what that looked like.

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9 hours ago

First off this appears to be based off of a seminar or conference presentation. Not a peer review journal. Peer review will likely tear this apart at a good journal.

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9 hours ago
Preview
New research shows over 90% of gamers find playing with AI-powered NPCs to be "enjoyable and rewarding" "Players kick back at AI that is taking away from creativity. But when AI is used to power totally new types of interactive experience, then it’s a very differe

So this 'study' had been getting shared a lot by folx I know in the game industry and uhhh I'm not saying it's totally shit but there are some definite red flags, let's look shall we /1
www.gamesindustry.biz/new-research...

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1 day ago

This would be news to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.

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1 day ago

John, have you considered that some people might hear Spanish and/or enjoy food with flavor at those other places? Two things that Chilis and their ilk protect people from having to experience.

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1 day ago

Schiff has always been a big supporter of the surveillance state.

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1 day ago

Oh look, it's the usual crop of fuckwad loser Senators who are happy to sell us out for their donors. It will surprise no one that the comments are full of Blue Wave dumbasses telling people to chill out and that this is normal. They love the taste of boot and are proud of their ignorance.

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1 day ago

As another educator let me also say that you, and your editors, probably should have sat this one out. Better to be thought a fool, then to write something like this and remove all doubt.

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3 days ago

I got 'solitary study' at church camp because I kept trying to steer bible study towards Revelations. I was told it was 'not an appropriate book for young people' even though it had all the really wild shit in it.

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3 days ago

Also church camp. That place was a fucking nightmare for any teenage boy who wasn't masc as fuck. Everyone so eager to show god's love, by calling the weaker boys slurs and beating on them after curfew.

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3 days ago

I spent the next few weeks in mortal terror that I was going to be struck down from on high. It didn't happen. No one even said anything. I went from believing in an all knowing wrathful god, to a god that couldn't even be assed to give a shit when someone accidentally set a fire in his own house.

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3 days ago

A literal spark. I was cutting Sunday school when I was about 12 with a friend. We went to the auxiliary chapel and found a book of matches that we started lighting. One of them hit the oil soaked vestments lying over the altar and started a small fire we had to put out.

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6 days ago

I contain myriads

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6 days ago
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6 days ago

In 2026 ladies can be morally bankrupt husks of human refuse as well! Yay progress.

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6 days ago
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Oh so they took time off from fighting to get more kids into gambling and cheerleading for nuclear war to have a verbal slap fight?

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