Annoyed microbiologist 🦠

Unless you are living under a rock or have already perished from COVID-19, you've likely seen a YouTube video making the rounds where a medical doctor (wearing scrubs!) purports to give COVID-19 advice. (1/33)

Yet another goofy "making food in your dishwasher" video. This one seems safe and might even be not terrible. riskyornot.co/episodes/904-d…

@ArthurCDent Goddamnit now I want tacos

This isn’t just a bit just so you know

OK so the algorithm keeps showing me birria taco videos and I keep making them and eating them & thinking about them all the time and then watching more taco videos and

We get a chance to talk about the famous Finnish butter Listeria outbreak, and came across a nice article from the literature. Planning to talk more about the article on upcoming episode of FST. riskyornot.co/episodes/903-t…

A shout out to Gregory who just wouldn't give up, and also to ChatGPT for such a lovely picture. riskyornot.co/episodes/902-o… Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!🍀

Article in the Guardian warning about the dangers of AI psychosis. Apparently the "first major study" says chatbots can encourage delusions. Sounds bad! On closer inspection this study turns out to be a "personal view" based on analysis of 20 media reports There are no case studies or new data and the authors actually say the term AI psychosis is "unhelpful and potentially misleading"

One of those impersonations that completely captures the essence of the subject. Great stuff.

I hate to support such obviously clickbait-y video's, but it's not a bad topic and lets us discuss actual risk versus things that are just gross riskyornot.co/episodes/901-c…

@Birdprenorphine @C_Kavanagh Same but I blame @GurusPod

@C_Kavanagh I will never forgive sam harris for making me know who the weinstein bros are.

And if there is one thing Bret knows it’s how to be ‘cool’.

What a giant baby. washingtonpost.com/business/2026/…

This one starts off a bit silly, but hey it's episode 900. We eventually get down to the topic at hand. riskyornot.co/episodes/900-d…

@ArthurCDent @CkLorentzen I’m still waiting for the episode where you guys cover, as Chris called them “Chapo Trapo Funhouse”

@CkLorentzen @bugcounter Can’t speak for Trapo but DTG is TIME WELL SPENT

I need to scroll about 5 posts max to determine what kinda guy you are

@ArthurCDent @minzlicht @C_Kavanagh Just now realizing this is Mickey who you’ve had on your show before, this is great. I hope he will come on the show!

@bugcounter @minzlicht @C_Kavanagh We are hoping Mickey will come on to talk to us about this research. Not to ding non-AI fans. But the cultural response to this technology (boosters, doomers, deniers, etc) is genuinely fascinating.

Ask a colleague why they refuse to use AI. They say it uses up all that water. You point out the water use is far smaller than some would have them believe. Then it's the hallucinations. You mention accuracy has improved dramatically. Then, finally: the process is the point. The struggle. The craft. The deeply human act of sitting with uncertainty. They're not reasoning. They're rationalizing their gut intuitions. My amazing student @vicoldemburgo, with Éloïse Côté, Reem Ayad, @yorl, Jason Plaks and I have a new preprint that explores this more thoroughly, called "The Moralization of Artificial Intelligence". We started by asking how moralized AI has become in public discourse. Analyzing 69,890 news headlines from 2018 to 2024, we found that AI was moralized at levels comparable to GMOs and vaccines, technologies whose moral opposition has been studied for decades. It ranked above both. The sharpest spike came within weeks of ChatGPT's launch in late 2022. When we surveyed representative samples of Americans, a majority of AI opponents said their views wouldn't change even if AI proved safe and beneficial. That's consequence insensitivity, the hallmark of moral conviction, not practical calculation. Across art, chatbots, legal tools, and romantic companions, AI moralization loaded onto a single latent factor. A global moral stance, dressed up in whatever practical language is available. The behavioral data make this concrete: a one standard deviation increase in moralization scores predicted a 42% drop in actual AI usage, even when it would have benefited that person personally. The conviction preceded the behavior by up to 573 days. The next time someone gives you three different reasons to oppose AI, each one dissolving under mild scrutiny, you're probably not watching someone think. You're watching someone feel. Preprint avaulable here: osf.io/preprints/psya…

Legend says they’re still looking for the ball.. 😂

@ArthurCDent Do they have sensitivity training for dogs? I mean it’s a border collie, so theoretically it’s smart and trainable right? But if I recall correctly it’s also old and set in its ways.

Our Border Collie’s racial hierarchy: (1) Other Collies: Not Sheep. Be nice. (2) Small Dogs: Not Sheep. Be nice. (3) Other Large Dogs: Might be Sheep. DOMINATE! Other large white dogs cop it particularly hard. This is intersectionality

@ArthurCDent @minzlicht @C_Kavanagh I’ve downloaded the pre-print to read later. I really like the idea of comparing to other historically fear inducing technologies like GMO’s and vaccines.

@ArthurCDent @minzlicht @C_Kavanagh Thanks so much for reposting this Matt.

@minzlicht I have seen so much of exactly this, and love youse have done the work to investigate! @C_Kavanagh

The volume is now cranked to the maximum I can tolerate and I can still hear her, I just can’t hear what she’s saying.

Sitting in the airport lounge and wondering why the fuck Americans talk so loud. I mean I’m professor, so also a loud talker so I sort of get it. This woman who’s sitting about 20 feet away does not drink alcohol and also had a heart attack. But it’s time for Allman Brothers.

@CkLorentzen @ArthurCDent I’m still trying to make up my mind.

@ArthurCDent pales in comparison with my strategy of listening to five, three-hour podcasts to determine what kind of podcast host you are