Ben Werdmuller
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

The worst part of writing is writing

I’ve been neck-deep in a long-form first draft for months; at this point I’m many tens of thousands of words in. Every time I look back at my writing from tens of thousands of words ago, it’s a horrible mistake that opens up floodgates of self-questioning. How

23 Sep 2023

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EV charging infrastruture is a joke – Brad Barrish

Non-Tesla EV charging infrastructure is awful. It's good that Tesla has opened the standard, but it's not good that the only really viable charging infrastructure is owned by one company. It needs to be fixed.  #Technology [Link]

23 Sep 2023

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Notion web Clipper - Klippper

I'm a heavy Notion web clipper user, but this is far better for my needs. I was worried I'd need to build it myself. Luckily: no!  #Technology [Link]

23 Sep 2023

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Nature TTL Photographer of the Year 2023: Winners Gallery

Every image here is stunning.  #Culture [Link]

23 Sep 2023

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California governor vetoes bill banning robotrucks without safety drivers

The legislation passed with a heavy majority - this veto is a signal that Newsom favors the AI vendors over teamster concerns. Teamsters, on the other hand, claim the tech is unsafe and that jobs will be lost.  #AI [Link]

23 Sep 2023

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The #ViewSource Affordance

I strongly agree with this. "View source" has been an important part of the culture of the web since the beginning. Obfuscating that source or removing the option does damage to its underlying principles and makes the web a worse place. I like the comparison to the enclosure

23 Sep 2023

AI is not a paradigm shift. But it could be useful

It’s been interesting to watch all of the articles celebrating the death of NFTs lately. For years, they were the harbinger of the next big thing, hawked by A-list celebrities. Behind the scenes, some of the biggest tech companies in the world spawned NFT strategies, even as critics noted

22 Sep 2023

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ChatGPT Caught Giving Horrible Advice to Cancer Patients

LLMs are a magic trick; interesting and useful for superficial tasks, but very much not up to, for example, replacing a trained medical professional. The idea that someone would think it's okay to let one give medical advice is horrifying.  #AI [Link]

22 Sep 2023

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AI data training companies like Scale AI are hiring poets

These poets are being hired to eliminate the possibility of being paid for their own work. But I am kind of tickled by the idea that OpenAI is scraping fan-fiction forums. Not because it’s bad work, but imagine the consequences.  #AI [Link]

22 Sep 2023

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Mastodon 4.2

Lots of good new changes here - and in particular a much-needed search overhaul. My private instance is running the latest and I like it a lot.  #Technology [Link]

21 Sep 2023

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John Grisham, other top US authors sue OpenAI over copyrights

"A trade group for U.S. authors has sued OpenAI in Manhattan federal court on behalf of prominent writers including John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, George Saunders, Jodi Picoult and "Game of Thrones" novelist George R.R. Martin, accusing the company of unlawfully training its popular artificial-intelligence based

21 Sep 2023

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‘The scripts were the funniest things I’d ever read’: the stars of Peep Show look back, 20 years later

Before there was Succession, there was Peep Show. A brilliant piece of TV that launched a bunch of careers. If you haven't seen it, give yourself the gift of checking it out.  #Culture [Link]

20 Sep 2023
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Werd I/O explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. It's independently published by Ben Werdmuller, reader-supported, and always free to read.