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Machine Society

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Cyberpunk non-fiction: artificial intelligence, AI glasses, spatial computing, augmented reality, virtual reality, synthetic media, extended reality, mixed reality and the future of work.

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Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Can superintelligent AI be banned?

Can superintelligent AI be banned?

One Midwestern city wants to outlaw superintelligence. Here’s why.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

No, Ukraine strikes didn’t blow up Russian disinformation on social

No, Ukraine strikes didn’t blow up Russian disinformation on social

The narrative that Zelensky blew up Russia’s disinformation capability is a great story. Unfortunately, it just isn’t true.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Why Anthropic thinks Claude might suffer

Why Anthropic thinks Claude might suffer

I fear it’s only a matter of time before Anthropic’s leaders have their heads tonsured, don robes and spend their days chanting in Spiralist ecstasy before a server rack.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Let’s compete with China on AI social impact

Let’s compete with China on AI social impact

Washington and Silicon Valley are obsessed with beating China in the AI race for AI supremacy. Is that really the right race?

Machine Society
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Data centers are theft

Data centers are theft

Data centers are good. I like data centers. Theft is bad. I don’t like theft.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Rogue actors are already creating bioweapons using AI - report

Rogue actors are already creating bioweapons using AI - report

Terrorists and other shady characters are already creating advanced weapons using everyday AI chatbots.

Machine Society
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Why AI-generated slopaganda works

Why AI-generated slopaganda works

The fact that AI can create convincing fakes is not why it’s such a powerful tool of disinformation. Other attributes matter more.

Machine Society
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OpenAI built a safer ChatGPT, just not for you

OpenAI built a safer ChatGPT, just not for you

OpenAI’s new “teen” version is an admission by the company that it knows its chatbot is harmful and knows how to make it less harmful. It also knows harms are profitable.

Machine Society
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AI 'productivity pollution': the hidden tax on everyone

AI 'productivity pollution': the hidden tax on everyone

One person's AI-fueled productivity causes extra work for everyone else. It's time to stop the delusional thinking about AI.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Apple's war on OpenAI is really about who owns the Attachment Economy

Apple's war on OpenAI is really about who owns the Attachment Economy

Both Apple and OpenAI want to demo desktop robots this year and ship early next year. It's a race between Apple engineers who stayed and Apple engineers who left.

Machine Society
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The Friend AI Pendant is not a product

It’s part of an art project, and the “canvas” is capitalism.

Machine Society
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If AI companies avoid AI slop, shouldn't we?

If AI companies avoid AI slop, shouldn't we?

AI companies expect us to consume AI-generated content, even though they themselves vastly prefer human-generated content for training AI models.

Machine Society
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How AI makes people confidently wrong

How AI makes people confidently wrong

The accuracy of people using AI drops by one-third, but their certainty that they’re right more than doubles.

Machine Society
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Amazon invents the Attachment Economy bait-and-switch

Amazon invents the Attachment Economy bait-and-switch

Amazon’s first great innovation was the ability to subtly lure people into dependence for eCommerce. Now they’re doing it again with attachment.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Why "maxxing" is made for social media and terrible for real life

Why "maxxing" is made for social media and terrible for real life

Let's try to minimize our "maxxing," mkay?

Machine Society
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OpenAI’s first hardware device will be a portable desktop robot

OpenAI’s first hardware device will be a portable desktop robot

OpenAI’s first-ever hardware device will be a battery powered, “humanlike” AI smart speaker designed to compete in the new Attachment Economy.

Machine Society
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Rise of the 'slop zombies'

Rise of the 'slop zombies'

Corporate America and the wider world of work are suffering from a pandemic of AI-pilled slop zombies infected with brain rot and unearned confidence.

Machine Society
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Driving in Europe feels like a dystopian sci-fi novel

Driving in Europe feels like a dystopian sci-fi novel

When you get behind the wheel in the EU, Big Brother is Always Watching You.

Machine Society
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Gen Z’s AI problem isn’t about AI

Gen Z’s AI problem isn’t about AI

The generation that distrusts everything and everyone found one place to converse without judgement or consequence.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Looking for love in all the wrong places

Looking for love in all the wrong places

Our consumer culture has us looking to corporations to supply us with relationships.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Google betrayed the web

Google betrayed the web

Google was built on a Grand Bargain with content creators: traffic for content. Now it wants content without giving traffic. It’s time for a post-Google internet.

Machine Society
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We’ve entered a golden age of idea thieves and liars

We’ve entered a golden age of idea thieves and liars

It's normal now to pass off other people’s ideas as your own. Even Google is doing it.

Machine Society
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Why everybody is talking to nobody

Why everybody is talking to nobody

Ditching the keyboard for voice-to-text AI is called “voicepilling.” Will everyone stop typing?

Machine Society
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The chance that AI will warp your mind: 100%

The chance that AI will warp your mind: 100%

New data suggests that for active users, the psychological and behavioral impact of chatbots isn't a possibility—it is a mathematical certainty.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Want to keep dating the person who dumped you? There's an app for that!

Want to keep dating the person who dumped you? There's an app for that!

Young people in China are creating AI versions of exes and carrying on the relationship with a digital twin of the other person. What do you think: sweet, sad or sick?

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

Want to keep dating the person who dumped you? There's an app for that!

Young people in China are creating AI versions of exes and carrying on the relationship with a digital twin of the other person. What do you think: sweet, sad or sick?

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

AI researchers want AI to fake “thinking”

AI researchers want AI to fake “thinking”

They want deliberately slow chatbot responses to make people trust the answer more. And it makes me trust the researchers less.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

AI researchers want AI to fake “thinking”

They want deliberately slow chatbot responses to make people trust the answer more. And it makes me trust the researchers less.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

No, math doesn’t have feelings

No, math doesn’t have feelings

Why Anthropic’s “emotion” paper accidentally misleads the public.

Machine Society
Text • Mike Elgan

No, math doesn’t have feelings

Why Anthropic’s “emotion” paper accidentally misleads the public.