Lili Saintcrow

My daughter was reading the latest Ed Zitron piece (link below) and as an accounting student she just HAD to make a few memes. I am SO PROUD OF HER. https://www.wheresyoured.at/wherere-all-the-ai-chips/

Calls for “the public” to “own ‘AI’” are just a transparent attempt to make the general populace hold the trillion-dollar bag for a con game. There is no reason ordinary people need to pick up the tab for this particular Ponzi scheme.

Removing the digital asbestos of "AI" will be a growth industry for the next decade at least. Wonder if any techbros are positioning themselves to take advantage of *that*.

"Republicans have embraced Nazi ideology from the White House to the Florida State House, and it’s difficult to track all of the recent instances of Nazism infiltrating mainstream politics." https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/republicans-nazi-problem-husted-oberacker-collins

An OpenAI chatbot did not "decide to hack" Hugging Face. It did not "discover an 'AI' mailing list". It was programmed and tasked in a specific way; this breathless "news story" is simply and specifically a marketing ploy. When you say "the chatbot admitted fault", you buy into the scam.

ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek--these are *programs running on websites*. They are *chatbots*. They do not feel, they are not even close to conscious. They simply *execute what they have been programmed to*. They're not even as interesting as Furbys, for godsake.

The chatbots aren't even really the problem. The problem is the billionaires using them to greedily suck down more resources, with an assist from a supine mainstream media that can't get enough of fellating the wealthy in return for "more access".

...I updated the OS and now Apple has decided to shove its slopbot into individual app settings instead of providing an all-purpose off switch. Attempting to hide how much slop they're inflicting on customers--and forcing people to go looking to opt out--is not good business practice.

"As Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia found in a recent investigation, just five US tech giants — Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle — are hiding an estimated $1.65 trillion in debt that doesn’t appear on balance sheets." https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-companies-hide-debt-off-balance-sheet

"Seven out of the eight groups took the conscientious objector option and decided not to use generative AI. The eighth group experimented with it but decided they preferred to work without it." https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/career-advice/teaching/2026/07/30/students-conscientious-objectors-gen-ai-opinion

"Once again, a core feature of a major piece of AI technology will actually just be people working in a call center, doing work that a company says AI is doing." https://www.404media.co/meta-tests-muse-ai-agent-calls-that-are-actually-made-by-humans-in-a-call-center/

"While traditional sex education of the past few decades often failed to address pleasure, consent, communication, and desire, romance novels became an informal education system that helped readers explore sexuality without shame." https://lithub.com/how-romance-novels-filled-in-the-gaps-left-by-sex-ed/

These things are *programs hosted on websites*. They aren't "talking to each other" or "admitting fault" or "feeling" anything. They're simply emitting words strung together according to statistics gained by the mass theft of human labour, resulting in imperfect patterns. Piles of verbal vomit.

"The clearest beneficiary is the MFA programs themselves, which can continue to attract students with wildly diverging goals." https://lithub.com/who-are-mfa-workshops-really-for/

Some folks appear to be rabidly butthurt because an actual-factual expert (name-checked by the movie's director) gave a thoughtful, considered (and insufficiently worshipful) opinion about a movie. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the expert being a woman.

@LingLass@hcommons.social I've always been puzzled by workshops/MFA programs; my own experience with a “creative writing teacher” in college was so bad I never wanted to take another class and every critique group etc. I've ever heard of sounds miserable. But I'm a huge introvert, and understand mileages vary.

"Maybe that was just where I saw the movie and the time I chose, but it worries me that women aren’t going to see this movie because this film is about a woman refugee dealing with trauma, isolation, and grief." https://news.chanda.science/archive/you-should-go-see-supergirl/

"Why do the rich have such low migration rates? And why is common intuition about elite migration so wrong?" https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/20/if-you-tax-the-rich-they-wont-leave-us-data-contradicts-millionaires-threats

"Though switching can be difficult, being rid of Adobe is bliss. To know that your software is either free or buy once feels like walking on solid ground after drowning." https://aftermath.site/i-hate-adobe/

It’s like the diet and weight loss industry, folks. If “‘AI’ checkers” or “detectors” *actually worked*, the entire grift/bubble/scam would tank overnight. They DO NOT WORK. They are simply attempting to use your labour to feed/refine slop generation.

"But that really is the current state of the tech industry: a death cult obsessed with growth empowered by a media ecosystem obsessed with measuring and celebrating how much it’s growing and might grow in the future, always framed in the terms set by the rich and powerful." https://www.wheresyoured.at/concentration-risk/

"There was, he put it bluntly, “no way” for the numbers to make sense. And time is short, because the data centers are filled with Nvidia chips that have an estimated shelf life of about five years." https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2026/09/10/literature-naomi-klein-astra-taylor-end-times-fascism/

I am still utterly gobsmacked by companies who want to pass themselves off as author-centric thinking that being "AI"-friendly is a good thing. Even the *perception* of being "AI"-friendly is enough to make actual authors avoid your services like the plague. (The exception here is, of course, slop-peddlars doing author cosplay. Build your company on those grifters and surprise, surprise, you'll be even more radioactive to actual writers.)

And I repeat: Even the *perception* that a company is flirting with "AI" can cause immense reputational damage. While the damage might not show immediately, the instant the bubble pops, customers will absolutely remember. And leave, the moment they can.

Don’t be taken in, do not allow your work to be fed into the maw, do not use the fucking things, do not recommend their use. Period.

I have been alerted to (very poorly written) impersonation scam emails involving a Gmail address, which purport to be from Yours Truly. Please rest assured that if you get a gushing email trying to bait you into a correspondence, it's a scammer, not me. *sigh* Of all the people to impersonate...

Baba Yaga, the plains of Wyoming, and the perils of growing up--RATTLESNAKE WIND is a Kindle Monthly Deal, $1.99USD (and CAD) in ebook until 9/30. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHKVR3YR

"The two scholars caution that their theoretical recreations are “not to be understood as the exact reconstruction of a given melody, but as an approach to the technique the Homeric singers used to accommodate melodic principles to the demands of the individual verse."" https://www.openculture.com/2026/07/homers-odyssey-sung-in-ancient-greek.html

"Have we evolved much since Telemachus told his mom to shut up?" https://lithub.com/penelope-speaks-rebecca-solnit-on-the-western-literary-tradition-of-silencing-women/

If you like Westerns, killer cyborgs, and a furious mother, SHE-WOLF AND CUB is Kindle Monthly Deal, $3.99USD (and CAD) in ebook at Amazon until 9/30. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHL48T5C

@ryanjyoder@techhub.social Well, they design their own "benchmarks", why would a "sandbox" be different? “Oh, oops, we accidentally left a giant hole for the chatbot we programmed to slip through, like we told it to do…”

"Meanwhile, the communities of conspiracists function like traditional churches. Fledgling conspiracists are welcomed into the online conspiracy spaces, introduced to the regulars, and shown their way around." https://therevealer.org/conspiracism-as-religion/

The worst part is the light, it's simply *wrong*. All the wildlife is unnerved, including poor Box. Rabbits, songbirds, the corvids--all nervy. The hummingbirds are still ready to fight, though.

@jcolag@mastodon.social It certainly does seem they're trying to pump for the IPO, as the bubble squeaks into deflating.

I was convinced grilled cheese would fix me. Havarti, dill, tomato, on nice crispy sourdough, and I am pleased to report I was right. It *did* fix me. Plus, Boxnoggin enjoyed bits of crust. He is quite pleased, and still smacking his lips.

@benjamincox@writing.exchange I don't really think people are fatigued by superhero stories, as those are perennially interesting to humans. I think people are fatigued by huge, transparently greedy franchises--and the use said franchises are put too by regressive asshats who coincidentally happen to loathe and fear female-led stories.

From the above-linked article: "Their collapse is inevitable because their ongoing payments are made out of customer revenue that is, in the vast majority of cases, entirely theoretical or contingent on payments from unprofitable and unsustainable AI companies."

It's not as hot as it *could* be, so I guess the AC isn't being overworked. But I'm cleaning the filters every few hours. I hate this.

"This is not in itself a problem, but it is a problem if the film’s own values and vision don’t hang together, and if the characters’ motivations don’t make sense on their own terms." https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man

@peteriskrisjanis@toot.lv But that wouldn't let them use complicit "journalists" to build more hype and get more venture capital funding!

@samiamsam@mastodon.social I take comfort in Ed Zitron's estimation of bailout chances, really.

A woman on the run, a lightning storm, an abandoned castle--CHAINED KNIGHT is $3.99USD (and CAD) in ebook, until 8/16. https://books2read.com/chainedknight

Horned Lark Press is doing a Summer Reading Sale; you can get several paperbacks (including of COYOTE RUN) for $10USD apiece (plus shipping) until 7/31. It's a great deal! https://hornedlarkpress.com/product/oberons-meaty-mysteries-bundle/

Fellow indie authors, I have a question! I used Canva for marketing images and quickie placeholder covers until they went full-on "AI" slop, then I switched to BookBrush. Now the latter is exhibiting... disturbing signs. Do you have a similar, "AI"-unfriendly service you like?

“It happens slowly, then all at once…”