Andrew Maynard

14 essential AI "I can ..." skills every undergrad should have ... I was struggling to find a list of practical interview-ready AI skills that every graduating undergraduate should be able to demonstrate. So I created one 🧵

Running tests with free versions of LLMs on using llms.txt indexed markdown files: Grock — possibly the best Claude — pretty good Gemini — Cannot/won't retrieve files ChatGPT — Doesn't read files and pretends it does!

JUST IN: Vatican announces that Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical — titled Magnifica Humanitas, on the safeguarding of the human person in the age of AI — will be presented at 11:30am on Monday, May 25, in the Vaticanʼs Synod Hall, in the presence of the Holy Father. Speakers at the presentation will include: Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development; Professor Anna Rowlands, Political Theology, including Catholic Social Teaching, and theological ethics of human migration, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, United Kingdom; Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic (USA) and head of interpretability research for artificial intelligence; Dr. Leocadie Lushombo, Political Theology and Catholic Social Thought, Jesuit School of Theology / Santa Clara University, California. Concluding remarks will be delivered by thel Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The presentation will also include an address by Pope Leo XIV. Magnifica Humanitas was signed and dated on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum.

I'll be on sabbatical until August 2027 and using the time to explore some deeply profound questions ... including why I spend so much time writing stuff so few people want to read! futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-nonsense…

AI movies may be less dystopian than we think futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ai-movies-ma…

@PlatoonPod Yes

There's a bit in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (written in 1979) where the heroes come upon an intergalactic flight has been grounded for thousands of years. Its automated systems told it not to launch until it was fully stocked up with lemon-soaked paper napkins, for the comfort of its passengers. But the surrounding civilization collapsed, and the napkins never arrived. Consequently it put all the passengers into hibernation (waking them once every few hundred years for coffee and biscuits) until such time as another civilization might arise, and restock its lemon-soaked paper napkins. The Guide is a more accurate and prophetic account of modernity than most Very Serious Science Fiction writers could dream of creating.

I got so frustrated with grad students (and potential students) struggling to understand what a PhD is — and what it entails — that I sat down with Claude and developed a website designed specifically to allow anyone to explore my perspectives, expectations and advice — either through an AI of their choice or reading the material directly. It was a surprisingly tough process, involving several hours of being questioned by Claude on every aspect of my thinking, and being pushed hard where it was wooly. But the end result is a surprisingly candid and deep reflection on what I think a PhD is, what pursuing one involves, the many challenges that PhD students face, and the type of mindset that is more likely to get you throught. Useful for me in clarifying and capturing my own thinking, but hopefully useful to anyone in a PhD program, contemplating a PhD, or supporting someone who is. Links: This is a resource that's been designed to be engaged with in three primary ways (although I'm sure there are many others). 1. Using an AI of choice as a guide. Simply go to soyouwantaphd.wtf copy the prompt, and paste it into your AI — see the notes on the web page for tips here on what works better and what struggles. 2. Using NotebookLM Point NotebookLM at soyouwantaphd.wtf/llms-full.txt and when the file has loaded ask it anything. Asking for an infographic of the whole file, or specific aspects of doing a PhD seems to work particularly well 3. Browse the source filesThese are written for AI consumption, but all can be read manually at soyouwantaphd.wtf/contents.html And this is an experiment in making content accessible, so please let me know how you get on if you explore it. Thanks!

5 rules to avoid becoming a ChatGPT zombie youtube.com/watch?v=PF8bfs…

@Rizstanford me neither :)

Me neither. Anyone else?

If you have to explicitly explain that this is not a Golden Calf, it clearly is!

I used to make fun of this kind of thing when reporting in North Korea.

Broke out the black glass board for my first Risk Bites video in years! Worried about AI brain rot? 5 rules to avoid becoming a ChatGPT zombie youtube.com/watch?v=PF8bfs…

Working on a research/writing project and have ust moved back to Opus 4.6 from Opus 4.7 in Claude Code – significantly better writing style with the earlier model!

@emollick Been touting Adam's genius for years in relation to truly getting a handle on the intersection between tech, society and the future 😄 — if you dig this comes out at spoileralert.wtf

The single most accurate science fiction author writing about AI turned out to be… Douglas Adams He wrote about AIs that work best when emotionally manipulated & that guilt you in turn. And he understood there was no upper bound on test time compute for hard problem. Also 🐬s.

Are design principles for responsible and beneficial AI useful? ASU's release of its AI education platform Atomic reveals the potential usefulness of AI design principles, and the risks of not following them futureofbeinghuman.com/p/are-design-p…

Very sad to hear of the passing of Craig Venter - controversial, highly influential, impacted my work in synthetic biology years ago, had the privilege of him serving on a WEF committee I chaired way back. Will be missed.

Have you tried it? A beta that you pay to use that doesn’t have any feedback mechanism - none. Content that is unvalidated. Video snips out of context, no attribution, possibly out of date, and in many cases recorded with no expectation of public consumption. The big Q: was it vibe coded by an intern?!

@2020science @ASUResearch 100%. How the hell did this get green-lighted? Clearly, they didn't talk to the many great faculty, staff, and leaders working on AI and higher ed.

I'm mad. I'm mad because I've defended ASU many times (even on this hell-site) regarding our work around AI. I work with folks dedicated to helping ASU navigate this difficult landscape with wisdom, care, and in alignment with our values. And now this? insidehighered.com/news/tech-inno…

@lancegharavi @ASUResearch Three things — Principled Innovation, Principled AI, Ethical AI — three things ASU states unambiguously it practices ...

Honestly, if you put a bunch of really brilliant faculty in a lab and asked them to produce the Platonic ideal of everything people hate about AI, they might come back with something like this. It's embarrassing. Hey @ASUResearch, what gives?

Can't believe I'm saying this but Grok is acing it on tasks I'm giving other LLMs at the moment!

.@AnthropicAI , what have you done to my trusted AI writing companion?! Why I'm falling out of love with Claude — and what I hope Anthropic does to win me back: futureofbeinghuman.com/p/why-im-falli…