Steph

Boss: "Are you busy?" Me: --closes tab with price comparisons on device that allows my dog to text me-- "No, not particularly."

The thing that confuses me about people who use AI in media is the question of why they’re making that thing in the first place. If you don’t want to write a book, why generate one? If you don’t want to paint, why are you advertising fake paintings?

Turned 35, asked my sis and BIL for a bird feeder camera as my birthday gift. Best middle aged thing ever.

BREAKING: The White House is out with a new National Policy framework for AI. The proposal says: "States should not be permitted to regulate AI development." It also says that states shouldn't be able to penalize AI companies when people break the law with their models.

Things I still want to know re: The "Shy Girl" Scandal 👇🏻 1. How did an AI-written manuscript escape the scrutiny of an agent, editor, and Big 5 publisher? 2. What methods were used to definitively determine the book was written using AI? (And I don't want to hear, "It's obvious!" I've worked with plenty of authors whose work I was suspicious of having been written using AI, but I'd still never go so far as to flat-out accuse them of having done so without actual proof, usually in the form of a baked-in prompt—which, yes, has happened before. So, I'd really like to know how Hachette actually determined this to be AI-generated beyond public outcry. Because if all it takes is a few witch hunters to yell, "AI SLOP!" then I'm sorry, but that's equally problematic.) 3. Did the publisher think the public was too stupid to notice, or is trad pub really *that* overworked/understaffed that they were unable to catch something so obvious, even after multiple rounds of edits?

They still hadn’t cancelled my order, so I did it myself. Absolutely shameful to see this.

Al “writers” are an insult: I was writing for a decade before my writing paid one bill. To write I stole time away from other jobs, time from my family, bleary eyed and full of love for the work. The stories *are* the effort. Without the squeeze your juice isn’t even juice.

Devastating line buried in here

Gen Z will never know the horror/euphoria of watching the sunrise over your college campus as you finish a thesis that will either turn out to be an A- masterpiece or a garbage essay that will make your professor write "What happened here?" (Yes, the latter happened)

"Massive investment in AI contributed basically zero to US economic growth last year," per Goldman Sachs

This genuinely is a fav of the year. It caught me off guard with how funny, scary, nostalgic, and heartbreaking it was. Imagine you’re an adult who can see imaginary friends, but instead of whimsy, it turns deadly—because only the worst betrayal can lead to such ability…

It’s honestly sort of impressive that in their attempt to convince people he is alive, they’ve made it seem even more probable that he isn’t.

this lined up ridiculously well, im astonished

Art by the amazing Matt Ryan Tobin. The fact that this is our *fifth* book together (fifth announced book 😏) makes me so grateful. And SGJ’s intro is like poetry. An honor. Fango article has the links to order.

@SomeCallMeCoach YEAH HAHAHAHA.

Our school system scheduled Unity Day (which is a countywide professional development initiative) for today. Why this matters: we are asked to wear a specific color on Unity Days. That color is orange. Orange on Saint Patrick’s Day.

Explaining the Orange Order seems very antithetical to the purpose of Unity Day, too, which despite its name, is more about culturally responsive classrooms and teaching.

St. Patrick’s Day is about one man.

@Adam_Cesare Honestly my fave of yours!

my goopiest book, soon to be released in a "author's preferred extra viscous edition"

The Andrew Jackson painting in Trump's office: