books: Wrong Way (2023) and Lurking (2020)

LA
Joined December 2006
didn’t expect this ….The Best Books of 2023 (!) newyorker.com/best-books-202…
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joanne mcneil retweeted
obviously correct thread about a very sad situation, idk what else there is to say tbh
In 2020, a large, hidden group of disabled Americans, some with chronic physical illnesses and others with anxiety disorders like agoraphobia and contamination OCD, experienced a flood of validation and care the likes of which they'd never experienced.
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joanne mcneil retweeted
Exclusive: A rare bookseller suspected his books were being bought by AI companies. He stuck an AirTag in a book and we tracked it to a secretive Amazon facility in Las Vegas where they scan and destroy books called VGT3: 404media.co/we-tracked-a-shi…
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joanne mcneil retweeted
Vanishing too is the ability/inclination to engage with the work as something apart from its creator, that may know things she doesn't
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joanne mcneil retweeted
Another reason to lament the decline of reviews; now that interviews are a dominant form of coverage, there is so much focus on personality instead of the work at hand, in all its strangeness + ambivalence
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Mark Zuckerberg texts Elon Musk February 3, 2025
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joanne mcneil retweeted
I think we are really underestimating the genuine danger that is being created by using AI code in such an unrestricted and unmanageable way. I've heard recently that one hyperscaler is allowing non-coders to ship actual code (with engineers "overseeing"), seems very dangerous
"A rogue AI agent recently triggered a major security alert at Meta Platforms, by taking action without approval that led to the exposure of sensitive company and user data to Meta employees who didn’t have authorization to access the data." @jyoti_mann1 theinformation.com/articles/…
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joanne mcneil retweeted
Three years into the AI era, educators say they face a crisis. Bosses and clients replacing tutoring jobs with AI. Replacing *athletic coaching* with AI. Teachers with students who can't grasp why they shouldn't use AI to generate homework. And worse. 1/x
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joanne mcneil retweeted
The premise of this test is incredibly dumb. LLM has always done passable pastiche, since it landed in 2022. Where it begins to fall apart is any writing over 2 or 3 pages because it has no nuance, narrative structure, rhythm, or characterization. More parlor tricks for midwits.
We made a blind taste test to see whether NYT readers prefer human writing or AI writing. 86,000 people have taken it so far, and the results are fascinating. Overall, 54% of quiz-takers prefer AI. A real moment! nytimes.com/interactive/2026…
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joanne mcneil retweeted
There is no "Claude" there is only the will of the people who own and operate it. All AI just exists to outsource the preferences, decisions and choices of a small group of people to a vaguely defined "tool" that can sold as some kind of perfectly objective third party.
WSJ reporting that the U.S. used Claude for the air strikes in Iran. Report says Centcom has been using Claude "for intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios"
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joanne mcneil retweeted
Replying to @jomc
@jomc wrote a book about this newyorker.com/books/page-tur…
Yesterday, I got Waymo to admit they are using people 8000 miles away in the Philippines tohelp guide their self-driving cars in the U.S.    This should scare us all. It must end.
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joanne mcneil retweeted
Yesterday, I got Waymo to admit they are using people 8000 miles away in the Philippines tohelp guide their self-driving cars in the U.S.    This should scare us all. It must end.
Chief Safety Officer at Waymo says the company employs remote vehicle operators in the Philippines. 🤯
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joanne mcneil retweeted
You're unlikely to find a harder-working editor in this business than Vadim, whose writing/criticism displays his authoritative knowledge of all things in the U.S. indie film, festival, and financing ecosystems but might not reflect his Herculean abilities as a manager and admin.
Some news: I'm being laid off! After 11+ years and 48 issues, Friday will be my last day. I'm 100% looking for work and definitely not married to being in film. I have many transferable corporate/organizational skills. Email in bio.
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joanne mcneil retweeted
Tomorrow is my (Scott’s) last day at Filmmaker, and it’s also the last day for our estimable director of editorial operations @vrizov, who has been a valued partner for 11 of my 33 years. Here, he curates some of his best work that we’ve had the privilege of publishing.
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joanne mcneil retweeted
Publishers leave the dead malls of Web 2.0 niemanlab.org/2025/12/publis… by @jomc
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“To watch the movie today, after it languished six decades in obscurity, feels akin to breaking the seal on a long-buried time capsule.” @jomc inhales a new restoration of Franco Rossi’s SMOG (1962) in LARA no. 2. nyra.nyc/articles/when-you-w…
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50 percent of cambridge residents having a graduate degree is so funny
Top US cities (min. 100K) by % of adults 25 and up with a graduate degree or higher: Cambridge, MA (50.4%) Ann Arbor, MI (47.2%) Berkeley, CA (41.6%) Arlington, VA (41.4%) Boulder, CO (39.9%) Sunnyvale, CA (38.9%) Washington, DC (37.5%) Bellevue, WA (35.2%)
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joanne mcneil retweeted
1. “Waymo Money, Waymo Problems” @jomc "An essential tour of several overlapping landscapes—physical, technological, and political—shaped by the robber barons of the 21st century.” nyra.nyc/articles/waymo-mone…
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joanne mcneil retweeted
What Comes After Social Media? I’m giving a talk at the Philosophical Research Society library in LA on what’s changed since LURKING was published. learn about the past and future of the web, and alternatives to corporate online community. Nov 1st 5-7pm eventbrite.com/e/what-comes-…
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