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Researchers from the MIT Media Lab put out a pre-print that’s garnered some attention: Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. I’m in this angry tribe of elders, steeped in willful confirmation bias, seeking fuel for our hot takes. Many of us want what’s claimed in this paper. I’m a teacher who grades papers, and I want smart-sounding labels and scientific data to confirm what I’ve observed: voiceless writing that reflects a student’s low motivation to think, and that erodes my motivation to read. On the other side of the crossover study, I’m AI optimist, so I want to believe that adding ChatGPT later, after significant effort, can spark greater engagement and produce great writing, the best of human and machine. ...

TL;DR Use Gemini / Chromium Browser? Try my Extension to get titles on your tabs Chairman of the Hoard Hello I’m Kevin. And I’m a tab hoarder.1 I love it that way. I’ve spent years feeling embarrassed of the hoard, feeling the weight of judging eyes. And feeling the sluggishness that comes with too much open on my computer.2 Nowadays I have high confidence that emerging AI tools and agents are on the way help me with this habit, enabling me to go between the different concerns. ...

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Hide and Seek, Part 1: Agony of Distractedness Today (Child is 9) I got up from my coffee and called out to her. No answer. Louder. WHERE ARE YOU!? I walk by the laundry room and there she is. Ducking inside the washing machine. She sees me and is instantly in tears. Inconsolable. Fuck. We were playing Hide and Seek and I. JUST. FORGOT. In my Friday morning haze of caffeine and emails and half-hearted attempts to read my book, I’d committed the Cardinal Sin of Maybe. A memory became clear(ish). She’d asked to play Hide and Seek and I said some word salad version that included that potent seed of child disappointment: “Maybe.” ...

Inserting a New Node Traumatized by years of tech interviews, solving linked list questions on whiteboards, I have been anxious about expressing technical thoughts, scared to insert myself into the chain. It’s been years since my last standup, nearly two decades from my first startup. With time away from Big Tech, I have found a group of inventors, thinkers and creators that have inspired me to join the chat. Here’s a chain that I quite enjoy: First, Simon Willison. Simon has a knack for coining phrases that reflect a bigger concern. He popularized the term “slop” a peer of “spam”, to describe unwanted AI garbage that nobody asked for and no one has vetted. He coined “prompt injection” to describe how attackers exploit AI’s hilarious and horrifying gullibility. ...