Francis Beaudet

Feeding the Novelty bias of some people

Not for useful or usable things but for magic beans and shiny beads

Elon Musk Cannot Get Away With This If there is no red line around AI-generated sex abuse, then no line exists.

💯 "Elon Musk Cannot Get Away With This. If there is no red line around AI-generated sex abuse, then no line exists." www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

What this has done in fact has simply moved content off the timeline and into private interactions with grok. So deepfake porn is still happening, in a less transparent way

In 2024, I rose in Senate QP to ask why the Govt of Canada was still using X for official communications. Today, they are still there. What exactly will it take to break the spell?

The only way to win the communications war long term is to stop using the tools owned and controlled by those that hate you and want to stack things against you.

‘Get the f**k off there’: MPs, Senators call on government to abandon X/Twitter following wave of ‘Grok porn’ A proliferation of sexual deepfakes on X (formerly Twitter) has prompted other countries to investigate Grok, the platform’s AI software, but, so far, Ottawa remains silent.

A proliferation of sexual deepfakes on X has prompted other countries to investigate Grok, the platform’s AI software, but, so far, Ottawa remains silent.

www.hilltimes.com/story/2026/0...

This use of Grok isn't personal perversion but political terrorism: it's designed to silence women, make us retreat from public life.

Exemplified by the digital desecration of the body of Renee Good: someone prompted Grok to deepfake a bikini on her corpse.

"You're next" is the message to women.

“We’re very concerned, but we’re going to keep letting it happen for now.”

For all that the media has spent years freaking out about what social media does to our brains, I don’t understand why there appears to be little effort to grapple with the fact that these chatbots are, for some not insignificant portion of the population, literally psychosis machines

Illustration titled Flag Tetris showing flag elements split into geometric shapes and organized by color in horizontal layers from top to bottom: white, yellow, orange, red, green, blue, and black, resembling a stacked mosaic in a Tetris layout.

For my dataviz and flag enthusiast friends, here's a project that analysis flags around the world, their colors, symbols, layout, changes, and so much more (too bad the contrast is meh though, hard to read white on light gray). By Ferdio

flagstories.co/

The "liver, fava beans and a nice chianti" line in Silence Of The Lambs is a little joke for psychiatrists in the audience - those foods cannot be consumed with the meds (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) that Lecter is supposed to be taking.

This is an amazing fact

Explore Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconic Houses Through Eight Short Documentaries Look up the word architecture in the dictionary, and though you won't actually find a picture of Frank Lloyd Wright, it may feel as if you should.

Explore Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconic Houses Through Eight Short Documentaries

Let's start this week.

People do not need "AI literacy".

They need a gd intro to statistics and probability course.

So if you're a MS Office subscriber and got a notice that the price went up. It's because are now charging for Copilot.

You can opt-out by cancelling your subscription. When you do, they will offer a Office365 "classic" option which is at the previous price and doesn't include Copilot.

A notional design studio. — ethanmarcotte.com A design language, if you can keep it.

Check out this excellent reflection by Ethan Marcotte: ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/a-noti...

America by Design Fail Trump fired the best designers in the Federal Government

whoever did this, I would be absolutely thrilled to buy you a drink. seriously - dm or find me, I'm the only Cyd Harrell on the internet. I'm good for an excellent beverage & a civic tech rage session. americabydesign.fail

Geese in Flight
Benjamin Chee Chee ~ Anishinaabe
1976

Me ten years ago: sure, I'll read your 10,000 word thinkpiece on teletubbies as a modern-day justice league.

Me now: it's a 1m57s video and you're imploring me to "watch to the end"? I think not.

😑

But the company would access all those recordings and data mine them for anything they could sell. No, they don’t tell people that. Yes, everyone does know it. No, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Meme of a group of twenty-something women partying next to an image of a forty something woman drinking wine sadly in front of her laptop. Text reads DREAMS AT 25 No kids, no man, no problem. Just vibes and vacations! REALITY AT 45 Why are all the good men taken? I guess men Just can't handle strong women...

Whenever I see men post this I think about how when women are lonely, it's not pitied. It's used to chastise them for not being nicer to men. Meanwhile, when men are experiencing a "loneliness epidemic" they decide the answer is *also* that women should be nicer to men.

Friends, please share!

Proofs are ready for @skeuomorphpress.org's edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s "A Rant About Technology." I am so pleased with this book—in many ways our 1st real book project

Details about how to get one through our fundraiser at skeuomorph.ischool.illinois.edu/le-guin-book...

shutupandtakemymoney.jpg

In Oxfam for £25, calendar with Tolkien in green tweed suit lying against a tree

1974 JRR Tolkien calendar does not get very racy in either his poses or clothes

When I was young, old people had trouble double clicking

Unrelated, it's gotten so my phone has such nuanced gestures that I do the wrong one as often as the right one to accomplish what I want
(eg swipe left to the next tab in the app vs swipe edge left to minimize the whole app)

If it took 8 days to build a massive concentration camp in Florida then it means they could build and house the homeless at any point but choose not to

The Copilot Delusion Disclaimer: This post was written May 2025, and the arguments apply to AI code capabilities at this time. The arguments around lack of competence are certainly likely to become less prevalent-while th...

"When you outsource the thinking, you outsource the learning." deplet.ing/the-copilot-...