Trailer for upcoming “the AI doc” featuring the usual suspects, notably the big yud himself
https://awful.systems/post/7320415
Trailer for “the AI doc”, an upcoming doc featuring the usual suspects, notably the big yud himself - awful.systems
Full doc title: “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” Per wiki: >The
AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a 2026 American documentary film
directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell. It is produced by the Academy
Award-winning teams behind Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan and
Jonathan Wang) and Navalny (Shane Boris and Diane Becker). What to say here?
This is a doc being produced by the producer and one of the directors of
Everything Everywhere All At Once, who notably have been making efforts to, uh,
negotiate? I guess? with AI companies vis a vis making movies. Anyway the title
is a piece of shit and this trailer makes it look like this is just critihype
the movie. I guess we’ll hear more about it in the coming month. Really
interesting framing this as brought about by thinking about the director’s
child, given Yud’s recent comments about how one should raise a daughter if you
had certain beliefs about AI.
Essay on our SV pals: The New Legislators of Silicon Valley - The Ideas Letter
https://awful.systems/post/6311129
Essay on our SV pals: The New Legislators of Silicon Valley - The Ideas Letter - awful.systems
Thought this essay had some interesting things to say. It speaks directly to the
existence of tech takes overall, specifically those coming from the
“oligarch-intellectuals”. Tried to quote some things to give an overview: >There
is a certain disorienting thrill in witnessing, over the past few years, the
profusion of bold, often baffling, occasionally horrifying ideas pouring from
the ranks of America’s tech elite. >To write off these founders and executives
as mere showmen—more “public offering” than “public intellectual”—would be a
misreading. For one, they manufacture ideas with assembly-line efficiency: their
blog posts, podcasts, and Substacks arrive with the subtlety of freight trains.
And their “hot takes,” despite vulgar packaging, are often grounded in distinct
philosophical traditions. Thus, what appears as intellectual fast food – the
ultra-processed thought-nuggets deep fried in venture capital – often conceals
wholesome ingredients sourced from a gourmet pantry of quite some
sophistication. >Today, it’s increasingly clear that it’s the tech oligarchs —
not their algorithmically-steered platforms—who present the greater danger.
Their arsenal combines three deadly implements: plutocratic gravity (fortunes so
vast they distort reality’s basic physics), oracular authority (their
technological visions treated as inevitable prophecy), and platform sovereignty
(ownership of the digital intersections where society’s conversation unfolds).
Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X), Andreessen’s strategic investments into
Substack, Peter Thiel’s courting of Rumble, the conservative YouTube: they’ve
colonized both the medium and the message, the system and the lifeworld.
Wake up honey, new open letter asking to stop superintelligence research just dropped
https://awful.systems/post/6034767
Wake up honey, new open letter asking to stop superintelligence research just dropped - awful.systems
Peep the signatories lol.
Per Forbes: "Al Singer Xania Monet Just Charted On Billboard, Signed $3M Deal."
https://awful.systems/post/5850004
Per Forbes: "Al Singer Xania Monet Just Charted On Billboard, Signed $3M Deal." - awful.systems
Hi folks, another shitty story from the slop-pocalypse ((AI-)slopalypse?).
Archive link
[https://web.archive.org/save/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fdougmelville%2F2025%2F09%2F27%2Fal-singer-xania-monet-just-charted-on-billboard-signed-3m-deal-is-this-the-future-of-music%2F]
Article from billboard
[https://www.billboard.com/pro/ai-music-artist-xania-monet-multimillion-dollar-record-deal/],
archive [https://archive.is/ggr5u] NB: I think this story is bullshit. I imagine
some parts are true, but there’s no concrete source given for the “$3 million”
figure. So it’s my speculation that this story is hype cooked up by Suno (the AI
company enabling this all) and thrown at publishers for an easy headline. Also
the human behind this has their name spelled differently in the two articles, so
clearly some quality journalism is happening.
[Satire] 5 Secret Ways to Use ChatGPT Like an AI Pro (2025 easy prompt guide!)
https://awful.systems/post/5725311
[Satire] 5 Secret Ways to Use ChatGPT Like an AI Pro (2025 easy prompt guide!) - awful.systems
originally posted to the stubsack but it makes more sense as a top level post.
Meta announces money pit; Alexrandr tapped to lead
https://awful.systems/post/4625311
Meta announces money pit; Alexrandr tapped to lead - awful.systems
https://archive.is/GWz0e [https://archive.is/GWz0e]
OpenAI engineers are flocking to its rival Anthropic. “They let us huff our own farts,” says one
https://awful.systems/post/4567406
OpenAI engineers are flocking to its rival Anthropic. “They let us huff our own farts,” says one - awful.systems
(Archive [https://archive.is/gAJ92]) Tickled pink that BI has decided to
platform the AI safety chuds. OFC, the more probable reason of more dosh get
mentioned, but most of the article is about how Anthropic is more receptive to
addressing AI safety and alignment.
Lionsgate: "The AI movies are coming, we swear, they're just stuck in Canada"
https://awful.systems/post/4566691
Lionsgate: "The AI movies are coming, we swear, they're just stuck in Canada" - awful.systems
>Burns said the driving force behind the Runway deal was to allow filmmakers to
“make movies and television shows we’d otherwise never make. We can’t make it
for $100 million, but we’d make it for $50 million because of AI… We’re banging
around the art of the possible. Let’s try some stuff, see what sticks.” read: “I
huffed my own farts and passed out. This gave me a dream where we made a film
via promptfondling. I decided that I’ll make a press release with made up
numbers based on that dream.” >As reported by New York Magazine: “With a library
as large as Lionsgate’s, they could use Runway to repackage and resell what the
studio already owned, adjusting tone, format and rating to generate a softer cut
for a younger audience or convert a live-action film into a cartoon.” read:
“There’s no need to do requels like disney does. The serfs will gobble the slop
and they’ll like it. After all, why risk creating new jobs or any creative
output when we could just melt the ice caps instead?” >As for another example of
how the studio can use AI, Burns said to consider this scenario: “We have this
movie we’re trying to decide whether to green-light. There’s a 10-second shot —
10,000 soldiers on a hillside with a bunch of horses in a snowstorm.” Using
Runaway’s AI technology, the studio can avoid a pricy film shoot that would cost
millions and take a few days and use AI to create the shot for about $10,000.
read: “Here’s a bottle of my farts. Smell it. Feeling dizzy? Good. Now imagine a
scenario where you’re looking at your bank account, and instead of number go
down, number go up. Isn’t that nice? Have another whiff.”
Google: “after billions of dollars spent, we found a brilliant and innovative way to monetize AI! You’ll never guess what it is!!!”
https://awful.systems/post/4429035
Google: “after billions of dollars spent, we found a brilliant and innovative way to monetize AI! You’ll never guess what it is!!!” - awful.systems
Take that, Saltman! Bet you never thought it was possible!
Theranos 2: Back 2 Tha Blood - awful.systems
Original link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/business/elizabeth-holmes-partner-blood-testing-startup.html
[https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/business/elizabeth-holmes-partner-blood-testing-startup.html]
