Judith Allen

Screenshot of an excerpt of "Tom's Crossing" by Mark Z. Danielewski. -- still enjoyin the sight of that black mare and blood bay geldin, who were likewise also still enjoyin themselves. What could be better? And then Lindsey Holt charged up. Hey! he hollered, but the new kid either didn't hear him or didn't care to hear him, because he just kept starin at the horses. Hey, I'm talkin to you! Lindsey shouted again, closin fast the gap between hisself and the object of his fury. The new kid did at least turn around then. -- Speech is italicised rather than enclosed in speech marks, every word that ends in "Ing" has dropped the g from the end without an apostrophe (geldin, enjoyin, starin, closin), the word "hisself" appears. Your school teacher would be most displeased.

This, for better or worse, was intentional.

But the choice carries meaning. When people discuss the words on the page, that's what they're talking about.

AI doesn't make choices in that way.

That's why we don't want to read it.

.... but... but...

When (good) human writers DO opt for "clunky" prose, there's a reason. There's a context - characterisation, emphasis, maybe even just forcing the reader to pause while they parse it.

That's not a mistake for a human.

It's a mistake for AI because it lacks those impulses.

THIS. If you’re in central Glasgow tonight please close your windows; if you have to be out please wear the best mask you have available. If you can smell it, you’re at risk.

How Pixar’s Open Sexism Ruined My Dream Job (Guest Column) A former Pixar employee writes that after John Lasseter's departure, the company still has a lot of work to do to fix its sexist culture.

If you're wondering how bad things were at Pixar for women, the answer is pretty horrifyingly bad.

my neighbour keeps trying to get rid of failed asylum seekers so I asked how many he has and he said he just keeps paying them £10,000 to leave

So I said it sounds like he's just paying £10,000 to incentivise new failed asylum seekers and then his Labour Party started crying

Book cover - Billy Blue-Hat, by Sheila McCullogh. Has a drawing of a plainly-dressed child sitting on a cantaloupe-shaped hill. The child is wearing a blue hat.

Strong feeling that I know what my 'favourite' book would have become for one day a year if dressing up for World Book Day had been a thing when I was small...

(If memory serves, there was also a Roger Red-Hat and Jennifer Yellow-Hat... so, y'know, options)

Again, I have to ask: what do people in power think the UK actually *makes*? Because we don't build stuff any more. You and your predecessors deliberately shifted us towards being a service economy a generation ago. All we have going for us is our art, music, educational establishments...

Can confirm: Once saw my girlfriend being allegedly a user, and she hadn’t even heard of it until I saw the notification.

my advice for the british prime minister YouTube video by Jazz Emu

Of some relevance today: youtube.com/shorts/l5YmB...

As I always say,

"You should definitely go to see Jazz Emu."

So... the head of a department at one of the 'big' AI companies can't prevent this from happening with careful prompting...

... but regular folks are "risking being left behind" if they don't fully embrace that same technology now?

So much that’s good in this, but clipped out this in particular. Yes, yes, yes: it’s a losers’ ideology, demonstrably, historically so. It’s stupid and pointless and wearying, and, as he says, it ends up eating itself. It’s who it takes with it on the way down the shitter that’s the tragedy.

FFS, iPhone. When I type “well” I do NOT need or want you to immediately ‘correct’ it to “we’ll” the moment I tap the space bar.

It was the first word in the sentence. Even Word used to wait for a little more context before putting its blue squiggles all over the place.

Would you like to share your data with us?

No? Well how about these 846 vendors who say they have a legitimate interest in that data?

— every website.

1950s print ad. A toddler has a finger raised. Text reads “Just one question, Mom… Can you afford not to smoke Marlboro?”

Why do you continue to advertise for them?

This one’s been in use since at least the 1950s.

I love technology that’s useful or fun.

I have no desire to embrace a fad piece of code that’s unreliable bullshit.

I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.

And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

If they’re stuck at THIS stage, the rest is going to be a nightmare for them.

They clearly aren’t going to know what they want the ai to spit back out at them. Or why what they’re getting isn’t working.

And for 30k total budget I don’t imagine anyone’s going to be inclined to tell them.

Labour leadership: “Yes, but without FPTP, we won’t have that slim chance of winning alone in 2029 and may end up having to form a coalition with… urgh… the Greens! Or the Lib Dems! Or maybe BOTH!”

Labour members/voters/CLPs: “We’re… OK with that, actually.”

Labour leadership: “QUIET, YOU!”

HI. We see you’ve previously disabled automatic updates, so we’ve gone and switched that back on for you.

Obviously that was a mistake. Who doesn’t want constant increasingly-vibe-coded updates for their essential hardware that’s definitely going to break some important (to you) software?

Congrats on the speedrun.

Whilst a full evaluation requires use stats - some people do drink many hot beverages throughout the day, and desiring a fresh mug untainted by the previous flavourings is understandable; I would still say that that is a lot of mugs.

Paging r/menwritingwomen

Every day Mamdani comes out and is like "hey guys, I turned off the orphan-crushing machine. Literally just had to flip a switch. Took less than 5 minutes."

After decades of dem leadership pissing and moaning and fundraising about how complex an issue it is and how difficult the process is etc

Dem leadership for generations: no you fool, you infant. It is a process. It takes time and political capital and expertise, it's-

Mamdani, dusting off his hands: fixed it

Dem leadership: what do you mean you fixed it

Mamdani: Just had to unplug it.

Every software company right now:

“We’re so excited for our upcoming AI features!”

“JUST RELEASED: v11, with our exciting new AI features”

“Check out our guides on how to use our exciting new AI features”

“Um… we see you haven’t used our new AI features yet?”

I never forgave them for that time c. 2018 they switched the default track select from single track to EVERY track - and took away the ability to select multiple individual tracks. Because holding two modifier keys wasn’t allowed?

They seem to neither know nor care how often people repeat tasks.

The Times, 30th January 2026: "All 2.4m of Britain’s creative workers are at risk — and we know why. A new report into the impact of AI on the creative sector makes for apocalyptic reading. The government must act now." Source: https://archive.is/hvRv2

"The UK creative industries — which contributed £125 billion to the economy in 2024 and supported 2.4 million jobs — are being destroyed by an AI sector that, whatever its long-term potential, contributed just £11 billion in the same year and supported only 85,000 jobs."

archive.is/hvRv2

This is from Darren Aronofsky’s AI content startup, and separate from it being narratively incoherent and rhythmically off, it is absolutely fucking bonkers how lifeless motion pictures are without actors OR even animators to breathe life into performances. These are corpses.

I agree that people should be given AI training.

They should be taught how to identify it, and what the risks (both direct and indirect) are. As part of a wider media literacy and scam awareness agenda.

Even on the pretense of “AI is the inevitable future”, this should come first.