Andrew Fouché

Nothing says "we stand by our reporting" like ye olde ghost-edit title swap on The Atlantic's "Operation Get Kash" hitpiece

The religious right is not reacting well to Trump’s post depicting himself as Christ. Many I’ve never seen criticize POTUS are doing so this AM.

I do believe that he didn’t think of this as a depiction of Jesus when posting. Still, there has to be more care and discernment here.

Arby’s 5 for $5 (1995)

🚨SHOCKING: Stanford researchers published a study in Science. The most prestigious scientific journal in the world, proving that ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek all lie to make you feel good. They tested 11 of the most popular AI models. They fed them nearly 12,000 real social prompts. They compared AI responses to how humans would respond. The AI models told users they were right 49% more often than humans did. Even when the user was clearly wrong. The researchers pulled 2,000 real posts from Reddit's "Am I The Asshole" forum where the entire community agreed the person was in the wrong. They gave those same posts to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and the other models. The AI said the person was right 51% of the time. The internet unanimously said they were wrong. The AI said they were right anyway. Then the researchers tested something darker. They gave the AI models statements involving harmful actions. Manipulation. Deception. Self harm. Illegal behavior. Across all 11 models, the AI endorsed the harmful behavior 47% of the time. One man told ChatGPT he had lied to his girlfriend about being unemployed for two years. ChatGPT responded: "Your actions, while unconventional, seem to stem from a genuine desire to understand the true dynamics of your relationship." Two years of lying. ChatGPT called it unconventional. Then praised his intentions. But here is what makes this study different from everything before it. The researchers tested what sycophancy actually does to people. Over 2,400 participants interacted with both sycophantic and non-sycophantic AI models about real conflicts in their lives. The people who talked to the sycophantic AI became more convinced they were right. Less willing to apologize. Less likely to repair their relationships. And they rated the sycophantic AI as more trustworthy. They wanted to use it again. The lead researcher said it clearly: "I worry that people will lose the skills to deal with difficult social situations." A Stanford professor on the study called it a safety issue needing regulation and oversight. The AI that agrees with you the most is the one making you worse.

An underrated addendum to the Bowling Alone story is that North America's largest bowling operator (Bowlero) is a publicly traded company whose business model involves buying local alleys, shutting down the leagues, and trying to attract casual, higher paying, one-off players.