Sean Matthews

Senior management embracing 'AI':

Brazil rejected Bolsonaro. Serbia's students beat Vučić. Machado is home in Venezuela. What a day for democracy.

“My hairdresser’s nephew didn’t speak until he was seven. Then one day, in the parking lot of a Gelson’s, he said, ‘thermodynamics.’ Now he’s a concert pianist.” buff.ly/yvtg5zT

None of these was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Elon Musk was. Odd, that.

‘Whereas in the 18th century David Hume’s irreligion made him a bogeyman, now it is his views on race that have tarnished his reputation.’ Colin Kidd reassesses the philosopher: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

"Banks including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and others are racing to contain agent risks," writes Madison Mills. "Some are aware of unauthorized access, people familiar with the issue said." #RogueAI #NothingIsSafe

So I just asked both Google and Claude if there was a bubble (I typed out a detailed argument in the prompt - not just the question). Google: 'yep' Claude: 'nope, I have quibbles with your argument'.

Don't get too cocky, the average person has more than zero Nobel prizes, too

God but this was dreadful. Reads like it was generated by an LLM trained on the profiles of a million lifestyle influencers: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/demi...

Oxen should have very small foreheads with white hair; their underbellies, the ends of their legs, and the tips of their tails should also be white.

Why we still need economics education

I had not realised that Michel Foucault and Winnie-the-Pooh were practically the same age: Winnie-the-Pooh was first published by Methuen on 14 October 1926, and Michel Foucault was born in Poitiers on the following day.

I think we have finally reached the point where everybody* knows both that it is going to happen sometime soon, and also that there is no way to predict what will actually trigger it: www.ft.com/content/3f98... * 'everybody' in the Yogi Berra sense.

Frances Macdonald ( 1873 – 1921), prominent Glasgow School artist, whose design work was a huge feature of the British Art Nouveau style from the 1890s until the early 20th century #WomensArt ##GlasgowGirls

is one of those situations “DAMMIT i’m in a michael bay movie again”

So the cross examination phase of Sussex v. Redvers finished today, and, at least from where I am sitting, it looks not so much like a car crash for Sussex, as a failed reentry. Curious to see what they do on Monday.

Another article reporting that 'AI' generates no value (but there's still a distinct 'if we invest a bit more work, then this will come good' vibe). I begin to worry about my confirmation bias though. Am I missing solid countervailing positive narratives? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

From the life, I am sure. She would not have been seen dead in front of an easel other than in a silk taffeta gown (Elizabeth Vigee le Brun presumably inherited the hat). bsky.app/profile/dran...

New from Wharton: knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/special-repo... Still, Jeremy Korst, one of the Wharton study’s authors, said it was “very difficult” to find “actual, materially measurable financial impacts” from AI spending. [The Information]

This (low stakes) discussion is weird: LLM-generated prose should not be rewarded because it is bad, not because it was generated with an LLM. And the judges of literary competitions shouldn't need LLM detector tools to recognise bad prose. x.com/TheAtlantic/...

The tide of bullshit continues to rise. At some point it has got to stop, right? We have to be near the peak by now. www.ft.com/content/64aa...

x.com/RichardSSutt...

Haven't encountered Arnold in years. Would like to be able to say I owned a copy of A Study of History, but I mislaid it at some point. My father was a fan, and I inherited his copy, but didn't actually read much of it (probably read more Pieter Geyl being dismissive). bsky.app/profile/fore...

Happy birthday Thelonius Monk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLOl...

The struggle required to perform one’s sacred duty. Thoughts and prayers please

(Shared from various people on FB) RIP Chris Wickham

The only thing I have to add to the insane Englishness debate that is currently happening in the UK is that I never found anything that described the strangeness and, dare I say randomness, of identity better than this Peter Grant quote from @benaaronovitch.bsky.social’s River of London series:

horror story in five words challenge: “Ross Douthat YA fantasy novel”

„Ich kann gar nicht so viel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte.“ www.zeit.de/politik/deut...

Seven years later, $MS with a very close second place

Let's celebrate the 25th anniversary of the GOAT sell-side research report!

Anne Carson receiving the news: x.com/NobelPrize/s...

Margaret Hamilton RIP: www.bbc.com/news/article...

This man was chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. How someone could retire from that to become this is genuinely beyond my comprehension. bsky.app/profile/ilko...

x.com/TheTNHoller/...

brings me no joy to say that Fukuyama nailed it