Phillip Fayers

Framing matters. I have a morning news summary on a smart speaker with two source, the English feed of DW news, and the BBC. DW news "Lula wins 52% to 48%". BBC news "Lula wins significant victory by 4 million votes".

It is really this easy. Take any *cognitive capacity* X. For instance, X = reasoning, learning, communicating, summarizing, reading, writing, etc. If any one asks: Can an LLM do X? You can answer: “No, LLMs cannot do X, because X is a cognitive capacity and LLMs have none” LLMs are decoys.

Using LLMs in science for “literature review” or “summarizing" is *automated cryptogyny* olivia.science/cryptogyny/ @olivia.science 🧵

You may have seen reports about the campaign for charities to be more 'transparent' about who funds them. Well it turns out the mysterious new right-wing think tank behind it won't say who funds or runs them, and used fake names for the authors of the report which launched their campaign

The first rule of simple competency tests should be, you don't talk about simple competency tests.

So they're at it again 🙄 Torturing valid HMRC data to create wildly misleading headlines, designed to invoke fear and anger about immigrants. Same old, same old... (and you'll see just how old shortly!) 🧵1/28

Using "Minions" in describing a new AI distributed technology may not be Apple's best marketing move.

“my thoughts are so interesting that I haven’t had time to learn how to express them until now” is the AI fartists credo Honestly not sure how you could pull yourself back from that ledge

I compiled a sort of follow up here olivia.science/before/ on the situation with ppl thinking we're in some special moment: "We have certainly been here before. Many many times in the past, companies — just like artificial intelligence (AI) companies now — have lied to us to sell us products." 1/

Productivity as an adult is just an endless process of applying new psychological tricks and operant conditioning to yourself until an acceptable number of tasks are completed.

Kemi Badenoch wants to exempt the family home from inheritance tax. But that creates a perverse incentive for elderly people to *upsize* to save IHT. That could double the cost of the policy, and push £100bn+ from savings into housing. A 🧵 on bad tax cuts.

I thought the US administration where heading in a bad direction, now it seems that direction is more despot than fascist, with a bit of mad Roman emperor thrown in. news.sky.com/story/firing...

This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

"OpenAi says it's review into hacks is costing $500,000 a day" Oh dear. How sad. Never mind. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The main question arising from this article share.google/m69fylgNknqB... is: When the AI overlords take over, will they be a little more gently inclined to those humans who used to say please and thank you?

I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility

First thought on this quote was 'If you want to reference Mary Shelley make sure you know the name of the characters". Then I thought, no, maybe he is right. Maybe AI is Frankenstein, in that it is creating monsters out of parts it has stolen from elsewhere. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

It's entirely possible to outsiurce services and achieve efficiencies. It just requires your business processes to be simple and consistent with clear governance. There is not a single university in the UK whose business processes are simple and consistent with clear governance.

How could an associate professor in divinity at Cambridge be expected to know that lying is bad? thecritic.co.uk/mone...

Rough Draft vs Final Draft

Sometimes the headline really doesn't reflect the story. This one should have said "Sadiq Khan wrongly convicted over car tax after fraud not detected by DVLA", instead the headline implies Khan is at fault. "Sir Sadiq Khan convicted for not taxing car he denies owning" share.google/1XMoI1PHder3...

Hmmm I wonder if I can inexplicably end up with a large amount of ricotta?

They keep trying to make "correlation is cognition" happen. Through asserting: 1️⃣ models with only correlationist powers (data and correlations over that data) work well & 2️⃣ our own cognitive powers are no different to these machines, which can only rehash the past. @andreaeyleen.eurosky.social 1/

"We ourselves need to see, and then to enable others to see, that migrants and refugees do not only represent a problem to be solved, but are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved." #PopeLeoXIV #LiveTheGospel #ShareGodsLove #WelcomeTheStranger

It feels many only know my work pushing back against AI, which is very fair — but I have a broader research interest, which also forms a protective belt against such forces, as well as being what I have been thinking about since discovering "cognitive science" in ~2006: 🍃 metatheory.space 1/

I have a modest proposal for a new tax. It involves a deck of cards and a monkey throwing darts. Here are the rules:

Incredible statement from the Church in Wales on the ignominious Code of Practice: "The Church in Wales will not use equality law exemptions to exclude trans people from our worship, our sacraments, our pastoral care, or our common life." www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/news-and-...

www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/o...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cz...

Today's "headline doesn't quite match the story" example: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... "Activists agree" should actually be ready as "trouble makers prevented by injunction".

🎯

Since I did do my PhD in cyanobacteria growth and treatment optimization modeling AND work in the water treatment industry, I’m gonna share my theory as to what’s happening here and how to fix it. People are focusing on the painted bottom of the pool increasing residual heat, and while that 1/19

Proposal: Social media platforms *which use an algorithm to influence a user's feed* should be classed as publishers and liable for the content that they deliver This would create better accountability for harmful content 1/n

Gary Stevenson, "This was the country that introduced the proportional income, the, the progressive income tax" "Didn't exist. We did it here in this country, and look at what we did. Look at what we achieved" "So don't tell me it's impossible"

"Burnham to back Shabana Mahmood’s immigration changes, allies say". So, the lesson we learn from the Labour party is that the Labour party seem incapable of learning lessons. If you expect change from a change in leadership it looks like you won't get it.

Step 1 on the path to Labour doing better is replace Kier Starmer. Step 2 is don't replace him with Wes Streeting.

Feeling overwhelmed with all of this. LISTEN. Another Louisiana resident (Marshawn is the only name we have) testifies against the state’s racial gerrymander, speaking truth to power up and down the hearing room and predicts how this story will end. Speak your truth, fight and believe.

A common quote about the UK PM is that he has "lost the confidence of the public". The various trackers show his approval rating and popularity has never been great and Labour became the government off the back of 34% of the votes cast in 2024. So, can he lose something he never had?

With all the discussion around the PM I'm reminded of this, very old Alex Cartoon. For avoidance of doubt replace "Perkins" in the strip with "Starmer".

🔥 AOC on whether she'll run for Senate or President in 2028: "They assume my ambition is a title or a seat. My ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go... But single payer healthcare is forever. A living wage, worker's rights are forever. ✊🏼

If you're thinking about using gen-AI to "write" books, this 🧵 is for you. I’m a highly experienced editor who’s been in the biz a long time. Recently I’ve had manuscripts come to me where the author has used gen-AI – not for writing, I’ve been assured, but for “structuring” or "organising"

Self-promotion... It's been a little over a year since my first commercially published game, Grab Bag Jungle (co-designed with @mikeharrisonwood.bsky.social), was launched. If you have bought it or played it, please would you do us a favour and rate/review on BGG or wherever you bought it. Thanks ❤️

"A large constellation such as SpaceX’s Orbital Data Center... would place thousands of satellites above naked-eye visibility threshold, comparable to the number of natural stars typically visible in a dark sky."

Richard Gere, "The entire planet has fallen off a cliff into the stupid zone" "Do you really believe these clowns like Trump, Orban, Netanyahu, Putin?" "You really believe what these guys say?"