Tootfinder

New shirt. (https://octophant.threadless.com/designs/destroy-a-i/mens/t-shirt/premium?variation=front&color=black )

David Gerard on the "AI doomers"/"rationalists" and their beliefs.
In the end they are a bunch of eugenicist, racist losers afraid of death.
(Original title: AI doomsday and AI heaven: live forever in AI God)
https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/08/17/ai-

AI doomsday and AI heaven: live forever in AI God
I get a lot of requests for a piece on the AI 2027 paper. That’s the one that draws a lot of lines going up on a graph to show we’re getting a genuine artificial general intelligence by 2027! Then …

A few thoughts on LLMs and the super-rich
https://tante.cc/2025/07/17/never-hearing-no/

Never hearing No
If you are very rich – think multi-millionaire or billionaire – there is a thing you no longer experience really: Hearing no. Sure there will always be people on social media yelling at you and what you did and what you stand for but in your daily life, your actual environment that will happen increasingly […]

They (or an intentional DDoS) have been pounding the #SpamAssassin RuleQA site into catatonia. They construct URLs which are legitimate and which each cause the site to go digging for the specific performance of a rule on an arbitrary date in the past. Hundreds of rules tested daily for ~20 years.

This story is cute: A malicious "Solidity" (that's the smart contract language Ethereum and other blockchains use) extension for Cursor, the Vibe-Coding Editor included code that steals your tokens/coins.
I find it funny for two reasons:
- Blockchainers love talking about how you need to verify things you interact with but someone wasn't checking if they have the right extension
- Programming smart contracts is hard because it's a massively hostile envir…

Code highlighting with Cursor AI for $500,000
Kaspersky GReAT experts uncover malicious extensions for Cursor AI that download the Quasar backdoor and a crypto stealer.

@… Here this combines two of your favourite things: https://securelist.com/open-source-package-for-cur…

Code highlighting with Cursor AI for $500,000
Kaspersky GReAT experts uncover malicious extensions for Cursor AI that download the Quasar backdoor and a crypto stealer.

@… 😻
https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/114858416741418980

tante (@tante@tldr.nettime.org)
Attached: 1 image I built this cupboard with space to put in towels. I was so naive. As if it were up to me.

La Dispute's new album is great from what we've heard to far. But "I Dreamt of a Room with All my Friends I could not get in" might be the best thing they've done so far.
https://youtu.be/BfhTfsy7Kzo?si=KhUh89xENFoAWQ5N

Basically the core argument of my last article
https://merveilles.town/@lrhodes/114869651115717099

(Today was another day where me writing directly into the CMS bit me: Due to some issue with iocaine WordPress wouldn't save the document so when hitting publish I lost the first version. The joys of hosting everything yourself ;))

Teaching people how to use LLMs is not "upskilling", it's the opposite.

Nifty-looking article: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsestair.5c00138 (paywalled, but the abstract does the job). TLDR, 222nm UVC kills bugs but makes indoor pollutants, existing air cleaners mitigate that pollution nicely.

Been wanting to build it but I haven't had the time recently: Has anyone integrated iocaine or some similar anti AI scraper tools into apache?

That's literally the kind of behavior that sparked the Luddite uprising.
And it's why you should not collaborate when being asked to train "AI" at work.

I built this cupboard with space to put in towels. I was so naive. As if it were up to me.

"The understanding that the total supremacy of the “data” discourse was always a problematic, neoliberal way of seeing and structuring the world, of legitimizing violence according to the needs of those in power."
(Original title: The “Data” Narrative eats itself)
https://tante.cc/2025/09/15/…

The "Data" Narrative eats itself
“The first model fakes the data, then the second model trains on the fake data. Any problems in the synthetic data set are amplified further. Then the second model — based on fake data — is used to treat real patients. This is, of course, all fine.” Today I want to take David Gerard’s recent […]

"The first model fakes the data, then the second model trains on the fake data. Any problems in the synthetic data set are amplified further. Then the second model — based on fake data — is used to treat real patients. This is, of course, all fine."
Sythetic data using "AI" is such a toxic pattern that keeps being amplified (because of the structures that guide "science")
(Original title: Medical research ethics is hard — but fake AI data is easy!)

Medical research ethics is hard — but fake AI data is easy!
Medical research means dealing with ethics boards — who keep asking all these pointed questions on how you’re going to use people’s most personal data. What if we just … fake the data? Sorry,…

Sagt mal @…: Einen Artkel mit dem Titel "Curl-Entwickler erwägt Ende der Bug-Bounty-Prämien" mit einem AI Slop Bild zu illustrieren ist aber schon auch etwas schräges Messaging, oder?
(Link:

Wegen KI-Schrott: Curl-Entwickler erwägt Ende der Bug-Bounty-Prämien - Golem.de
Minderwertige Bug-Reports belasten Open-Source-Entwickler immer stärker. Curl-Maintainer Daniel Stenberg zieht nun radikale Maßnahmen in Erwägung.

This includes his tech writing and code.
I don't care about tech insights and code of fascists and their supporters.
https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/115213016785784099

So DHH has gone fully open right winger? Maybe that gets people to stop sharing and reading his takes.
If you still share that motherfucker's writing or advertise his business rethink your whole life decisions and move to the woods or something.

For those who care about that kind of stuff: The Mailing List Presale Code for the upcoming Deftones EU tour already works.

With the browser being such a core part of our digital reality and how we access it I find it incomprehensible to move my life and workflows over to a closed source browser by some money burning "AI" startup that might not be there in a year.

Been looking at Kagi for search which isn't bad but I don't want or need all the LLM stuff they put everywhere.
Is there a comparable (potentially also paid) search engine that does not spend their income building another LLM based browser or whatever?

Not fully sure if _reading_ or _writing_ CVs is worse.

First a tragedy, then a farce: LLMs bring back Facebook's old "Move fast and break things" motto. And that in a time where we need to move slower, more deliberately.

New Deftones track is an absolute banger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqZrI9JE6Q

"Einfach rechte Themen zu übernehmen, funk­tio­niert nicht. Das hat die Forschung immer wieder gezeigt. So gewinnt man Wäh­le­r:in­nen nicht von rechtspopulistischen Parteien zurück"
(Original title: Soziologin über AfD: „Rechte Themen zu übernehmen, funktioniert nicht“)
http://www.taz.de/Soziologin-ueb…

Soziologin über AfD: „Rechte Themen zu übernehmen, funktioniert nicht“
Die AfD legt in Umfragen zu. Wenn andere Parteien Wäh­le­r:in­nen zurück wollen, müssen sie strategisch geschickter agieren, findet Clara Dilger.

I feel very seen here: I also write directly into the CMS.
(Original title: A Salute To The 13%)
https://aftermath.site/godot-version-control-statistics-cms

A Salute To The 13% - Aftermath
Let them live a little

"AI is a tool (sorry!) that people who are bad at their jobs will use badly and that people who are good at their jobs will maybe, possibly find some uses for. People who are terrible at their jobs (many executives), will tell their employees that they “need” to use AI, that their jobs depend on it, that they must become more productive, and that becoming an AI-first company is the strategy that will save them from the old failed strategy, which itself was the new strategy after other f…

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work
AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

Cursed but beautiful
https://shitpost.trade/@xyla/114851268799965721

xyla 🐀📈 (@xyla@shitpost.trade)
Attached: 1 image

Straßenbahnen sind mehr als nur alternative Verkehrsmittel: Sie sparen Platz, schaffen lebenswerte Urbanität.
(Original title: Verkehrswende mit Straßenbahn: In vielen Städten kommt die Tram zurück)
http://www.taz.de/Verkehrswende-mit-Strassenbahn/!6097474/

Verkehrswende mit Straßenbahn: In vielen Städten kommt die Tram zurück
Weltweit wird dieses alte Transportmittel in immer mehr Städten wieder oder neu eingeführt. Sie bietet viele Vorteile – nicht nur fürs Klima.

Read the term "pacifiers for adults" describing vapes and yeah. I'll adopt that terminology.

"For a site that recently rose to prominence despite the calcified nature of the platform ecosystem [...] this is a crucial moment. Bluesky, some users feel, is failing to meet it."
(Original title: Bluesky Really Doesn’t Want People To Say ‘Rest In Piss’ About Charlie Kirk)
https://afterma…

Seit heute "trägt eine Gleitsichtbrille" Jahre alt.

Modern US republicans.
(Original title: Standing Aside Athwart History)
https://leftycartoons.com/2025/07/12/standing-aside-athwart-history/

Standing Aside Athwart History
This cartoon is by me and Jenn Manley Lee. TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows the same two characters, wealthy men, as they relax inside an exclusive country club.…

Submitted without comments.

If I were a cynic I'd just start some AI-company with a fancy website and big promises hoping to get bought up in tech's brainless acquisition spree.

"Kirk’s violent rhetoric helped shape this world, and yet, it has been deemed “civil” by those on both sides of the political divide. This is the mark of a sick society, one that is perfectly fine with an unconscionable body count as long as none of the disfigured, barely recognizable faces are ones we know from a screen."
(Original title: OK, But You Do Know You’re Eulogizing Charlie Kirk, Right?)

OK, But You Do Know You’re Eulogizing Charlie Kirk, Right? - Aftermath
Conspicuously, eulogies of Charlie Kirk from mainstream media neglect to quote Charlie Kirk. So here's Charlie Kirk in his own words.

"it is undeniable that Kirk was not just a part of the extremely tense, very dangerous national dialogue, he was an accelerationist force whose work to dehumanize LGBTQ people and threaten the free speech of professors, teachers, and school board members around the country has directly put the livelihoods and physical safety of many people in danger. We do no one any favors by ignoring this, even in the immediate aftermath of an assassination like this."
(Original title: Cha…

Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way
The mainstream media seems entirely uninterested in explaining Charlie Kirk's work.

Procrastinated it for a long time but given the world we live in, I added an "AI and content policy" to my website: https://tante.cc/ai-and-content-policy/

AI and content policy
Nothing I write, present or otherwise attribute to myself is generated by or created with the help of so-called “AI” systems (specifically generative “AI” systems like LLMs). I will explicitly mark “AI” generated content and will only use it if it is necessary to make a point about said content or the system generating it. […]

Maybe the last few days have made more people realize that GitHub is not your friend and not there to facilitate Open Source but to accumulate power for Microsoft. Anything GitHub says or does needs to be understood in that light.

The solution is not to open source "AI" but to resist it.

If you still share Klein's work I will judge you for it.
"The Nazi did politics right: By being a demagogue who attacked any marginalized group he could find - even if I, a liberal laserbrain am uncomfortable with what he said (mostly in style)" is a take that is impossible to come back from.
https://

Very good!
https://social.vmbrasseur.com/@vmbrasseur/115187259237755030

There used to be this deal between Google (and other search engines) and the Web: You get to index our stuff, show ads next to them but you link our work. AI Overview and Perplexity and all these systems cancel that deal.
And maybe - for a while - search will also need to die a bit? Make the whole web uncrawlable. Refuse any bots. As an act of resistance to the tech sector as a whole.

I did a short keynote for a bunch of composers and music people a few days ago on "AI". And since it landed well but wasn't recorded I'll try to redo it (maybe expand it marginally) and upload it.
It's about AI but more about the permission to to what feels right and humane anyways.
And it sounds weird to give people permission for something natural, but the reaction in that room felt like it was meaningful. That standing against the tide of "AI is wit…

A lot of open source is this and it needs to stop.
https://yearning.gay/objects/ee32d3cc-e1f3-4716-a115-6b54f149363d

well you will in a minute (@tenthousandisopods@yearning.gay)
we just need a safer, privacy-oriented torment nexus

"I deleted my second brain" by Joan Westenberg is very worth reading. I am on a similar path right now, removing a lot of digital cruft and structures I had applied to my life in the belief that I could gain more control.
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/p/i-deleted

I Deleted My Second Brain
Why I Erased 10,000 Notes, 7 Years of Ideas, and Every Thought I Tried to Save

Business software was a mistake https://hachyderm.io/@katemorley/114817160349601290

Kate Morley (@katemorley@hachyderm.io)
Attached: 1 image You know that meme about the ridiculous names of business productivity software? This is an actual notification I received at work this morning:

Don't use the "Change my Mind" meme with Stephen Crowder for anything.
He is a racist and a homophobe who abused his ex wife while she was pregnant with their kids. Fuck that guy and find a better meme.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Crowder

Steven Crowder - Wikipedia

Noch mal laut

Laut.

TBH I don't care too much _how_ Nazis die.

The current Some More News episode on "Toxic Nostalgia" and how it leads to fascism is a very good summary. It only slightly points at "generative AI" (which of course is very much connected to it) but it really illustrates the structures at play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEddowzqOQE

Vielleicht weniger Bullshit Worthülsen raushauen und mal die eigenen Security-Issues konzeptionell und praktisch fixen, Gematik? Nee, das wäre richtig Arbeit und wer will das schon? Okay...
https://social.heise.de/@heiseonline/115180268444211551

But this makes me happy.
(My Iocaine mostly generates garbage based on Karl Marx' "Capital", I might add some more stuff in there)

(Original title: How to not build the Torment Nexus)
https://buttondown.com/monteiro/archive/how-to-not-build-the-torment-nexus/

How to not build the Torment Nexus
This is No Gods No Masters, 2024, painted by me, in wax. 65x78” Join the $2 Lunch Club! This week’s question comes to us from Will Hopkins: When your job and...

An analysis of Github's recent studies on "AI" agents for software development
(Original title: Jussi Pakkanen: Let's properly analyze an AI article for once)
https://nibblestew.blogspot.com/2025/08/lets-properly-analyze-ai-article-…

Let's properly analyze an AI article for once
Recently the CEO of Github wrote a blog post called Developers reinvented . It was reposted with various clickbait headings like  GitHub CEO...

Last week I had the great honor to give a talk with my friend Malte about capitalism, (tech-)fascism and how it connects to "AI".
(Original title: “Fascist AI” talk at LOOPS)
https://tante.cc/2025/07/04/fascist-ai-talk-at-loops/

"Fascist AI" talk at LOOPS
The New Practice space at TU Berlin runs a series of talks called LOOPS. Together with my friend Malte I was invited to talk a bit about “Fascist AI”. How capitalism, fascism and AI narratives are very closely aligned and (re)produce one another. I enjoyed giving the talk (I rarely do those together with others) […]

People hired for their skill are openly using ChatGPT and I wondered, what the long term strategy is?
(Original title: So what are you saying?)
https://tante.cc/2025/07/06/so-what-are-you-saying/

So what are you saying?
I had a conversation with a friend who described sitting in a workshop where clients and the people they hired were working on problems. As you do. Happens in every consultingy kind of job. But what has totally become normalized is for the people hired, the “experts” to use ChatGPT and similar services to come […]

You remember when everyone (including AI firms) claimed that "Hallucinations" would soon be solved and I got so much shit for arguing that they are a structural property of LLMs?
Now OpenAI releases a paper stating the same and just gets to move on (with all its sycophants).
Really fucking annoys me.

"Voice commands" have been embedded into our vision of computing for a long time: Star Trek did it and it does the whole anthropomorphization thing that tech loves.
But from a practical standpoint it's a bad interface: Think of a handful of people sitting in an office yelling at their computers, it would be like working next to people having loud phone calls all day.
And who exactly wants every thing they do with their computer broadcasted around them?

I keep using "thinner iPad" as my main example for the lack of vision and innovativeness of the tech sector. Not sure "thinner iPhone" hits as hard but I really love how Apple makes my case.

Samesies.
As I was with the Metaverse. As I will have been with "AI".
It's as if there was a pattern of people with domain experience valuing good solutions who call out bullshit tend to be right.
https://mastodon.social/@mhoye/115174150692070811

All good advice.
https://mastodon.social/@GeePawHill/114820870596337330

Das mit "Das Begleitforschungsprojekt hat als Kommunikationsplattform einen Slack eingerichtet" ist diese digitale Souveränität, richtig?

Nein, sorry. Ich werde "BMFTR" (Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt) niemals "BMFuture" aussprechen und ich verurteile jede*n, der das tut aufs schärfste.

A few thoughts I had after a conversation with a friend. What are you - as a professional - even saying when openly using ChatGPT for your decision-making?
https://tante.cc/2025/07/06/so-what-are-you-saying/

So what are you saying?
I had a conversation with a friend who described sitting in a workshop where clients and the people they hired were working on problems. As you do. Happens in every consultingy kind of job. But what has totally become normalized is for the people hired, the “experts” to use ChatGPT and similar services to come […]

So yeah. If anyone is looking to hire someone like me, my DMs are open ;)

Had forgotten to mute Teams Notifications on my phone and just got notifications that really make me wonder if I should return after the sabbatical. Holy shit.

Systemd is one of the best things in moving Linux forward in a long time.
(Original title: systemd has been a complete, utter, unmitigated success)
https://blog.tjll.net/the-systemd-revolution-has-been-a-success/

Sometimes you know what you want to say in a keynote and for the longest time don't find the angle, the hook, and then when you suddenly find it, it's so obvious and neat. Doesn't happen always but I love when these things come together.

Still some time to come over to TU Berlin to talk about "Fascist AI" with us.
(Elevator is broken so follow to posted signs that lead you to another elevator and then the session location)

"Whatever" is a brilliant essay on "AI" by @…:
"But I think the core of what pisses me off is that selling this magic machine requires selling the idea that doing things is worthless. Because if doing something has some value, then it must be somehow better than pushing a button and receiving Whatever for essentially no cost."

The rise of Whatever
This was originally titled “I miss when computers were fun”. But in the course of writing it, I discovered that there is a reason computers became less fun, a dark thread woven through a number of events in recent history. Let me back up a bit.

On Thursday 03.07. I'll have the honor of giving a talk with @… on "Fascist AI" in the "Loops" series of events (https://www.newpractice.net/loops

Loops Series
The Loops Event Series brings together perspectives on Art and Technology in relation to current challenges facing society. The event series is supported by the Berlin University Alliance.

One thing that the current exorbitant investments in "AI" show is that the investor class and big tech corporations do not pay enough taxes: If you have billions to set on fire for spicy autocomplete we should take some or all of those to do something useful with.

With their new album Turnstile is kinda growing on me. For some reason the last album didn't click with me. Maybe revisit it?

Okay, finally have iocaine (https://iocaine.madhouse-project.org/) running on my web server. Was a bit of an uphill battle but I'll try to write about a few things tonight to make it easier for others and document a few of the roadblocks I ran into

Tonight!
https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/114771335554622646

Für "Doing Digital Utopia" habe ich einen kurzen Essay dazu geschrieben, wie man "Maintenance" als konstruktive Perspektive jenseits von halbseidenen Innovationserzählungen nutzen kann.
"Und genau hier kommen wir zum Begriff der Wartung zurück. Diese ist nämlich keineswegs nur ein lästiger Kostenfaktor, ein verlorener Kampf, sondern aktive Care-Arbeit (nicht nur) an unserer Gegenwart und die Basis, wenn nicht gar ein Motor für echten Fortschritt. Ein Modus die …

Doing Digital Utopia
Glossar für zukunftsfähige Digitalität

The knots people twist themselves into to defend Perplexity is super funny.
Motivated reasoning is one hell of a drug.

If you couldn't be there yesterday there is a recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMl-yZMD-wA
https://

Stream should be here:
https://stream.udk-berlin.de/w/p/xqqYT1VKfzFtUojF7CRquU?playlistPosition=1

It's kinda fun to see "AI" people basically fleecing Meta/Zuckerberg. bad people scamming bad people is just the perfect 2025 vibe
(Original title: Zuckerberg’s AI hires disrupt Meta with swift exits and threats to leave)
https://arstechnica…

Zuckerberg’s AI hires disrupt Meta with swift exits and threats to leave
Longtime acolytes are sidelined as CEO directs biggest leadership reorganization in two decades.

Using "AI" is no longer optional at Microsoft. Reminds me how when Meta had to force their engineers to use their "Metaverse" product.
If your product doesn't even gain traction internally, maybe it's just ... shit?
(Original title: ‘AI is no longer optional’ — Microsoft admits AI doesn’t help at work)

‘AI is no longer optional’ — Microsoft admits AI doesn’t help at work
An internal Microsoft memo has leaked. It was written by Julia Liuson, president of the Developer Division at Microsoft and GitHub. The memo tells managers to evaluate employees based on how much t…

Utilitarians are weird
(Original title: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Watch)
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/watch

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Watch
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Watch

Sogar Gartner ist aufgefallen, dass "KI"-Assistenten zu schlecht sind, um seriös eingesetzt zu werden.
(Original title: Künstliche Intelligenz: 40 Prozent aller KI-Agenten bis 2027 wieder abgeschafft)
https://www.golem.…

Künstliche Intelligenz: 40 Prozent aller KI-Agenten bis 2027 wieder abgeschafft - Golem.de
Viele KI-Agenten gehen nicht über die Funktionsweise von skriptbasierten Bots und virtuellen Assistenten hinaus.

"it feels like the hope with generative AI is that no matter how much you may hate it, the goal is to bombard you with its horrors and its excesses so frequently that you become numb to it."
(Original title: I’m Getting Real Tired Of Not Being Able To Trust That A Video Game Doesn’t Have AI Crap In It)
https://

I'm Getting Real Tired Of Not Being Able To Trust That A Video Game Doesn't Have AI Crap In It - Aftermath
It sucks that players are having to scour every asset and line of dialogue

Beautiful
(Original title: Destroy "AI")
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/06/destroy-ai/

Destroy "AI"
Phineas: I've been getting mad a lot about hollow-eyed, artless money ghouls telling me what's inevitable and then I had an idea I had to draw about it. T-shirt!

Nicht die Erste Studie mit dem Ergebnis: Auch Kund*innen parsen "KI"-integration als Signal für niedere Qualität
(Original title: Marketing: Werbung mit KI im Text schreckt Kunden ab)
https://www.golem.de/news/marketing-werbun

Marketing: Werbung mit KI im Text schreckt Kunden ab - Golem.de
Wer mit künstlicher Intelligenz wirbt, verkauft schlechter: Forscher belegen, dass die Erwähnung abschreckt – besonders bei teuren Produkten.

Been on sabbatical for like 3 days and already wonder if I should go back to the job at all...

If you still use Perplexity I consider you morally bankrupt. (this is not the first of that kind of investigation. Perplexity has no moral compass, no regard for website providers' explicit nonconsent or that law. )
https://digipres.club/@dsalo/114971004982301191

Ich habe dem "Human Magazin" für ihren Newsletter ein Interview zu "KI" gegeben:
https://human-magazin.de/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=tnp&na=v&nk=1919-9e9f34f24c&id=78

@… Hi, I got iocaine running and am looking to use it within Caddy. The docs say "This section is slightly out of date: it is no longer required that the reverse proxy do the bot detection, iocaine can do that itself. This documentation will be updated in the next few days to reflect that."
Any link to where I can have iocaine do t…

Haven't been able to ride the bike for a week or do any serious sports and it's making me very antsy.

So if you were following my blog here the new handle is:
@…
Dunno if the rename kept all followers intact.
https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/11477668…

We'll be using Copilot and whatever to fix whitespace in code (adding a few spicy bugs in the process) something rule based formatters have been able to do for decades at basically zero processing cost.
https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/114777369432092953

Sag mir, dass dir die Studienlage zum Effekt von "KI" auf Lernen und kognitive Prozesse nicht kennst, ohne zu sagen ...

"There is a very a good chance that we are watching the MAGA movement decouple from Trump in front of our very eyes. And as delicious as the schadenfreude would be if Trump was impeached by a government controlled by his fellow Republicans, it would actually signal a far more dangerous political reality."
(Original title: The future of MAGA after Trump)

The future of MAGA after Trump
Read to the end for a subtle message from The Dropkick Murphys

Habe übrigens nen Vertrag für ein Buch unterschrieben, das dann wohl im nächsten Jahr raus kommt.
Es wird darum gehen, wie die Tech-Bros uns die Zukünfte geklaut haben.