Keeping the Riff-Raff Out: AI and the Art of Gatekeeping
A Threads post says AI users were never meant to be artists. Einstein, Faraday and a Cornell mathematician suggest the gate was always the problem.
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Be careful what you wish for: AI and the genie in the bottle
Claude Code uninstalled a program I never meant it to touch. Like the genie in the bottle, AI gives you exactly what you asked for.
Read more →Vermeer Left No Receipts
Vermeer left no receipts, and nobody minds. Why publishing’s hunt for AI provenance misses the point of art.
Read more →The AI Mountain: Why the View Gets Better the Higher You Climb
Too many AI critics judge the view from a few feet up. A coding accident, a maths video and Grothendieck’s rising sea make the case for climbing on.
Read more →Will the Korean Bank Hacks Spark a War on Open-Source AI?
AI-assisted hacks on South Korean banks are a gift to regulators. If poker and crypto are a guide, KYC for AI and open source comes next.
Read more →Lean Back, Lean Forward: What 32 Students and a Satnav Tell Us About AI
32 of 35 students handed in AI essays mentioning Madagascar, unread. Why leaning back on AI fails and leaning forward makes it a tutor worth having.
Read more →AI Isn't a Photocopier: What the Copyright Cases Actually Show
Is AI just a photocopier for other people's work? What the copyright cases show about when, and why, AI actually reproduces text word for word.
Read more →Are We All John Henries Now?
John Henry beat the steam drill and it killed him. The race with AI is coming for writers too, and the folk ballad has the wrong lesson in it.
Read more →The AI Debate Is Sponsored Content Now
Everyone wants to tell us whether AI is good or bad. The question nobody is paying us to ask is who owns the machinery.
Read more →Is AI Making Us Stupid, or Are We Just Using It Badly?
On Chicago's staff-inclusive AI ban, New York's moratorium, and why keeping students away from the tool might be the bigger risk.
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