LinkedIn users can report AI slop, but what about the rest of it?

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LinkedIn users can report AI slop, but what about the rest of it?

1 August 2026

Members of the professional network will be able to flag posts they think are AI generated. I haven’t been a LinkedIn participant in years — I have a personal website, why would I? — but it seems to me slop has been a problem on the platform since before AI was what it is.

The threat of toxic content on decentralised social media platforms

31 July 2026

Mastodon is a truly decentralised micro-bloging platform. Anyone sufficiently motivated, and technically proficient, can start their own instance, or community.

Depending on the administrator, instances can be completely isolated, accessible only to its members, or federated, that is, interconnected to all other instances that are likewise federated.

Presently there eight-thousand instances, give or take, and each has, or can have, its own individual community guidelines and moderation policies.

This can mean content permissible on one instance might be unacceptable somewhere else. But if that instance is federated, members’ posts may be visible to just about all Mastodon members.

It’s something that can allow content of a toxic nature to disseminate freely across the Mastodon network, as there are no standard platform-wide moderation policies.

And according to research carried out by Pasan Kamburugamuwa and Olga Scrivner, toxic content is becoming more prevalent on Mastodon.

Tens of millions of people migrated to places like Mastodon and Bluesky, to escape the toxicity that had become rife on other social media platforms. It’s unfortunate, to say the least, that content many consider unacceptable, is taking hold.

Mastodon’s decentralised structure is one of its advantages. For one, it means no single person, or entity, can assume control of the entire network, and do with it as they please.

But decentralisation is a double-edged sword, if it allows people to set up shop in their own corner, and spread content others don’t want to see.

Finding a solution in an environment such as Mastodon’s will be challenging.

AI does not compose my pickup lines, I do, have the t-shirt to prove it

29 July 2026

Natalie Kaufman, writing for the Wall Street Journal, about an apparent trend in early twenty-somethings, to rely on AI agents to supply them with conversation starters, and pickup lines.

The article is paywalled, but would you really want to read about this?

I think these things are best learned through experience, and watching other people, rather than turning to AI for pointers. It gives me an idea for a t-shirt though.

Some websites and blogs sport not by AI buttons, as a way of reassuring readers their content was written by a person, and not an AI agent.

People who want others to know their conversation starters, and, where applicable, pickup lines, are their own effort, could wear a not by AI-style t-shirt, perhaps bearing the slogan “AI does not compose my pickup lines, I do”.

It might help eliminate the confusion as to what banter is AI-generated, and what is not.

For the record, my pickup lines are reserved for the only person who reads this website…

Update: Simon at Firesphere has created a mockup of my no-AI t-shirt idea. Green is an ideal colour choice to, it’s affirming, and noticeable. Awesome, thanks Simon.

To read more, pick up a book not your phone, no wait…

23 July 2026

Hobart, Tasmania, based Australian software engineer Elia Scotto:

First of all, you don’t have to make time to read. What you need to do is read every single time you are not doing something else. In today’s world, most people pick up their phones as soon as they get a moment of inactivity. Serious readers pick up their books instead.

I’ve been having difficulty finding time to read books recently, for various reasons, and am still working on a way to resolve this.

Since removing most of the social media apps from my phone though, I’m not spending so much time looking at it. That’s eventually going to free up some time to read.

Ironically though, I’ll probably end up reading e-books, on my phone. I know that isn’t the idea, but it’s better than not reading at all. Besides, I don’t like hauling physical media around.

But, if you feel you don’t have enough time to read books, whether print or electronic, try deleting the social media apps from your phone, as a first step.

Reading books has to be more fulfilling than doomscrolling social day-in and day-out.

Roger Montgomery: how SpaceX achieved that two trillion dollar valuation

16 July 2026

SpaceX’s two-trillion dollar (US) share-market valuation astonished market analysts, investors, and probably a great many other people, alike. Roger Montgomery, an Australian financial adviser, sets out in simple terms how the remarkable figure was calculated. My head is still spinning.

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economics, space exploration, trends

Reading was something we used to do before AI came along

13 July 2026

Rose Horowitch, writing for The Atlantic (gift link):

Reading has come to seem extraneous even to some of the best-educated members of society. Margaret Rennix, Harvard’s assistant director for humanities and social-sciences support, told me she’d spoken with a student who was struggling to read a book written in Old English. The culprit: Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange. (The student used ChatGPT to “translate” the book into easier language.)

I used to read a lot. But that was when for a couple of years I wasn’t doing too much writing here. Once blogging resumed, reading, or finding time to read, became more challenging.

There’s a correlation here. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Nothing to do with AI. One activity increases, the other decreases. There’s only so much time in the day, after all.

It’s a poor excuse not to read though. And then there are book bloggers, who need to read in order to blog meaningfully about what they say they’ve read.

The example of the Harvard (how can that be?) student who was struggling to read A Clockwork Orange is another matter though. I don’t know anything about the individual in question, but I suspect blogging wasn’t holding them back from reading.

Maybe they simply didn’t like the novel, even if it was required reading for their course.

Use the AI compass to chart your AI archetype

7 July 2026

Find out where you sit on the AI compass, which is a little similar to the vote compass.

There are thirty AI classifications including sceptic, Luddite, conscientious objector, doomsday prepper, founder, and prophet. Each has a patron saint. Mine is Amanda Askell, though I’m not entirely sure I agree with my archetype, “The True Believer”, but who knows.

Simon Willison — should we dub him Mr AI? — is, according to the compass, “The Garage Tinkerer”, whose patron saint is none other than… Simon Willison. What are the chances?

Australian authors, songwriters, musicians demand payment from AI companies

7 July 2026

Individuals, educational institutions, and other organisations have to make payment in some form or other to access the work of writers, musicians, artists, and other creatives.

It seems like a naive question, but why should it be any different for the tech companies who are presently helping themselves to whatever material they can get their hands on, so as to train their AI agents? Particularly if the same tech companies expect users to pay to access their AI products.

Of course all writers, artists, musicians, etc, wherever they are, should be receiving compensation if any of their work is being used to train AI agents.

AI does not so much take work away as it changes the way we work

30 June 2026

CJ Chilvers:

Before influencers, there were bloggers. Before bloggers, there were TV stars, rock stars, and movie stars. Call them whatever you want, but individuals have always been the drivers of engagement and trust.

This is a point Alex Cowen reiterated in a recent talk given in the UK. It seems to me you don’t so much need a great of knowledge of AI — hard to gain when the technology is ever evolving — than you do a distinct personal brand. In whatever your field of endeavour is.

Cash strapped Australians yearn for the ‘happy’ days of COVID lockdowns

10 June 2026

Tangentially related to the previous post. Data recently published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) suggests some Australians felt better off during the COVID pandemic, despite lockdowns and other restrictions on their movements, than they do today.

In 2026 people are dealing with cost-of-living pressures, reduced real income, and the potential threat to their jobs from AI, among other things.

In contrast, during the pandemic, many Australians were the recipients of government UBI-like payments. Some were possibly also content with the prospect of not having to work, even if they couldn’t go too far from their homes.

Whoever could have thought some people might one day look on that difficult period with fondness?

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