alapite.bsky.social

"[Using] randomized experiments... We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, & debugging abilities, w/o delivering significant efficiency gains on average. Participants who fully delegated coding tasks showed some productivity improvements, but at the cost of learning"

GOLDMAN: “.. we are starting to see clearer signs that the AI impact is spreading beyond the technology sector. .. the share of US firms that have adopted AI in regular business functions now shows a statistically significant negative correlation with employment growth ..”

The macOS built-in curl, git, pip, python3, perl, ruby, and openssl all read /etc/ssl/cert.pem, which still has the emSign root, but they don't check revocation like Apple's Secure Transport libraries. This is, uh, a problem. git and pip especially. I added a short-term workaround to this page.

The epidemic of Ebola - the 2nd largest reported and likely to become the largest ever - caused by Bundibugyo virus, is continuing to expand. I’m in Nigeria presently and unless an international response kicks into place, the current trajectory will continue with (many) more countries affected.

"The widespread effects of DOGE’s efforts—the cures that won’t be found; the vaccines that won’t be made; the food meant to save lives, left instead to rot..." www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law – national and international – underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts non-violently. Peace requires justice.

You may remember the breathless media coverage globally about an Anthropic employee recently after he tweeted AI will end humanity in a decade. Here are his prior tweets. Will these get mainstream coverage? futurism.com/artificial-i...

Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc

Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...

Welp. According to Semafor, David Ellison has discussed bringing Elon Musk on as an investor in Paramount's merger with Warner Bros., which could mean Musk could have a stake in CBS News and CNN. www.semafor.com/article/09/2...

Very quick and dirty Jev test for hiring bias. One resume for a Wall Street job; asked whether the applicant should get a first-round interview. 76 evaluations, changing only the first name. 19 of each: White-associated men/women, Black-associated men/women. console.typesafe.ai/playground?s...

Here’s my first attempt to grapple with AI companies’ conquest of mathematics and our new mathematical condition.

I'm back, I missed you all. Since this is an important subject I know too much about, here's a 🧵 explaining that AI Safety Is Mostly A Sex Cult. I don't think these people should make policy. (1/?) (alternative title: Time For Some Cult Theory)

If spending more on schools raises the earnings of the children who benefit, does it eventually make the whole economy richer? My new NBER paper examines this using school-finance reforms. 🧵 www.nber.org/papers/w35755

The 3-hour-and-45-minute “Musk” (plus a 10-minute intermission) hits theaters on Oct. 16, but it’s already causing a stir. The documentary paints Elon Musk as an emotionally unstable grifter with more power and influence than perhaps any other human. https://wapo.st/4ydlXzL

I wrote this quickly at a bus stop and didn't realize it would go viral, or else I would have worded it better. But the point is that the media is too credulous about AI killing everyone in 10 years (how?) when climate change is killing people now and will only get worse (we know exactly how).

I resigned from ExxonMobil today. I spent the last three years doing fossil fuel extraction research at both BP and ExxonMobil. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing to maximize extraction while the window to act closes, and gambling with our lives. More below.

8 years ago, I tweeted side-by-side maps from NASA GISS showing global temperatures in 1976 and 2018 – both hot summers in the UK. It subsequently went viral and was printed in the Daily Mail! The 2026 version is stark. Two locally extreme summers separated by 50 years of global climate change.

More and more studies show that vaccination against various infectious diseases also leads to fewer cardiovascular deaths and lower rates of dementia. A rational public health system would be getting as many people vaccinated as possible. But. . .

One reason England does so well is our second generation immigrants outperform their peers which is not true in most OECD countries. We are also very good at integration. And it's v sad that this is never acknowledge in debates on immigration.

The U.N. has backed a new map showing Africa in its true relative size, with the U.S. standing alone in opposition. n.pr/4cq8Sdp

It's gonna get much hotter next summer. Right now the Niño 3.4 anomaly is +2.3°C. The previous record was in 1997 - then the anomaly hit +2.8°C. But we're not even in an El Niño yet! We'll probably get one next year. And then the Niño 3.4 anomaly is expected to hit 3.5-4.3°C. Really scary.

We've arrived on Bluesky! We hope you will follow along as we share inspiring, motivational and exciting content about the achievements and individuals that have been awarded a Nobel Prize. Stay tuned.

Both the Economist and others suggest this study demonstrates that AI can help students. So I contacted the lead researcher to figure out how many. Answer: Out of ~26,000 kids, a total of 20. And five months after starting to use AI, only four continued to spend 65 minutes on homework. Four.

NEW: Teen boys are using smart glasses — mainly Meta's AI Glasses — to film themselves harassing classmates at school, following girls around and "rizzing" them or "ragebaiting" them w/ insults. In several videos we reviewed, girls plead w/ the poster to stop filming. futurism.com/artificial-i...

I don't think people understand the extent to which this has been a decade plus long billionaire funded campaign (obviously Thiel is involved). We've tried to ring the alarm about these eugenicists but it is too easy for them to get parroted by the mainstream media. bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/t...

“X’s algorithm learns what you hate and shows you more of it, according to a new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” www.404media.co/xs-algorithm...

there is no such thing as "age verification." All "age verification" is actually "identity verification." You can coat it in glitter and "privacy-preserving" wrapping paper. But in the end, mandating age verification means mandating surveillance be built into software and hardware. Period.

Temperatures have now provisionally exceeded 37°C 🌡️ Before 2026, the UK had recorded 37°C or higher on only six occasions. This year alone, we've already reached that mark three times.

🚨 The last three months have averaged the highest global mean sea surface temperature on record relative to any other May-June-July period since records started in 1850... Data from the new @noaa.gov ERSSTv6. 🌊

Preliminary data shows that we may have set a new all-time record high for the daily global average sea surface temperature. The warmth in the ocean has already been quite remarkable over the last several months this year. Find more of our briefing graphics: www.climatecentral.org/climate-brie... 🌊

A severe bout of COVID-19 can wake up an army of dormant viruses hiding inside the body go.nature.com/4fDUY9w

Two fictional (presumably AI) stories in recent X posts, now repeated as a Google summary. No need to tell tall tales about your achievements when the AI ecosystem will now do it for you…

A data-driven picture of our rapidly changing planet - updated through June 2026... Download the graphic at zacklabe.com/climate-chan...

Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.

Elon Musk, owner of X, has called the editor of the Economist "a traitor to the West, plain and simple" after her recent interview with him. He now argues that "anyone who opposes remigration is a traitor" Musk has been socialising violence since Aug25: "fight or die, that's what it comes down to"

Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...

They are at it again www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

🎉 After 2 years of building it off and on, my side project app is done: Habik: Life Manager! The premise is that you can do hard things. Break them down, and take them one day at a time. Habik takes the guesswork (and the self-negotiation) out of what to do today. apps.apple.com/us/app/habik...

wrote for the magazine about the open source software that underpins our digital lives, how it is being upended by AI code tools, and about maintainers as.ft.com/r/b7f62212-9...

Good news: We can tell you how much the globe will warm if we continue to burn fossil fuels and emit CO₂ at an alarming rate. Bad news: We’re terrible at telling you how bad the impacts will be, and they’re consistently worse than we predicted.

Human-caused climate change is increasing the risk of hotter temperatures, including these dangerous heat waves. Watch the entire distribution shift to the right. I'm afraid these headlines about record heat are only going to become more common. 🌡️ Visualization by svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5613/

Just one possible outcome... but the GFS weather forecast model is suggesting 40-41°C is possible in the UK around 7th July. This is a long-range forecast with significant uncertainty, but the fact that we are even seeing such values fairly regularly in the forecasts is extraordinary.

Paris, the capital of France, has recorded more days above 40°C this week than during the 147-year period spanning from 1872 to 2019. Historic is an understatement.