Steven Curtis

@stevencurtis

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Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· 26d

Cowboy (dir. Delmer Daves, 1958)

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· 26d

You've been murdered! Who do you want on the case?

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· 26d

You've been murdered! Who do you want on the case?

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· 26d

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· 27d

Well this was nice. Not half as annoying as I thought it might be at the outset

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· 27d

I'm greatly enjoying @edzitron.com's long essay on the AI bubble and recommend that you read it too. www.wheresyoured.at/the-openai-b...

At some point, OpenAI will simply run out of money. It’s nearly exhausted every available source of capital, and now that it’s likely delaying its IPO to 2027 — largely in part because it couldn’t list at a $1 trillion valuation — it will have to raise again, potentially at a down-round valuation or at a modest increase which will, in turn, make it much more difficult for investors to see a return in an IPO.

Investors will likely ask questions like “why couldn’t you go public?” and “what is it that bankers didn’t like?” as Sam Altman looks at them like this:

[Picture of a big, fat Brendan Fraser looking up tearfully, from the 2022 film The Whale]

You see, OpenAI is awesome at selling mythology and hype, but crumbles the second that its numbers have to face the cold, harsh light of day.

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· 28d

Phew! Only just made it through that. Now I’m on to something lighter and lovelier

Memories of Bohemia: Antonia Kubalek plays piano pieces by Suk, Janacek, Smetana and Novak

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· 28d

I decided to give this a spin for the first time since c.1994 - yes, I must really hate myself today! - to find that DG had inserted those stupid foam squares which ruined so many of my Decca & Philips CDs. They were dark brown & crumbled to dust, but had only just begun to eat through the second CD

Karajan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Bruckner 8

Disc 2’s surface blemishes. Fortunately, Bruckner seems too heavy a meal for the decaying foam to eat through

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jul 10

Trying to keep Zuckerberg, Big Bird, the Pope, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Malala and Beyoncé happy all at the same time

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jul 10

Enjoying the book Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t want you to read. He comes across as a hapless and cloying little twerp. For students of diplomacy, it contains some interesting insights into corporate diplomacy or “statecraft” (Wynn-Williams was formerly a New Zealand diplomat)

Cover of Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Desperate to break into the Chinese market, Zuckerberg asks President Xi to name his unborn child. Xi refuses (p.193)

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jul 9

Reminder: Real conversations are still available, are less likely to produce psychosis, and don’t consume huge amounts of electricity, water and computing power www.cnbc.com/2026/07/08/o...

OpenAI also announced a new generation of voice models, called GPT-Live, on Wednesday. The company said the models can listen and speak at the same time, which means engaging with the models feels "much more like having a real conversation," according to a blog post.

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jul 8

Generative AI “persuasion bombing”: “The goal is product stickiness, not factual correctness” www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aodg...

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jul 4

This story is chilling, but the journalist doesn’t consider what would happen if women have to deal with men directed to their addresses by AI bots, which is potentially the most serious danger of all. And Meta left the bot running, Reuters; it was never “alive” www.reuters.com/investigates...

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jul 2

He’s learned from the best

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jul 1

But starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. That would have been something special 😄

Poster for the Ridley Scott film, The Duellists

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jul 1

Rock 'n' roll!

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jul 1

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 30

The generative AI companies need to cut the crap and stop “doom trolling” us, argues @author-calnewport.bsky.social calnewport.com/dear-ai-comp...

If these companies truly believe that they’re developing products that might directly lead to widespread harm – from the destruction of our economy in the best case, to the destruction of our species in the worst – then the only morally-valid response would be to immediately stop these efforts, and apply every resource at their disposal to try to stop every other lab as well.

On the other hand, if they don’t really believe that their technology is likely to cause these harms, then they’re effectively “laundering the anxiety of millions to improve the financial fortunes of a vanishingly small number of major stockholders.” Such cynicism would be equally monstrous.

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 29

Jesus Christ! It is frightening how generative AI is infecting workplaces. We need to empower our graduates to resist these pressures, not go along with the inevitability/next-industrial-revolution narrative

“My view of AI was very different from my supervisor’s. I saw it as a tool that could help analyze information, find patterns, and make funny cat meme pictures,” said one worker, an IT staffer at a tech company. “He seemed to use it more as a digital priest whose primary purpose was to confirm that he was right and everyone else was mistaken.”

The supervisor “would routinely copy and paste nearly every conversation he had with employees and managers into ChatGPT, asking whether he had handled the situation correctly,” the IT worker added. “The answer was almost always some variation of, ‘Yes, your approach was appropriate,’ effectively reinforcing whatever decision he had already made.”

Employees of the startup are aware that their boss runs all of their work through ChatGPT, which she views as the ultimate authority. And “within minutes” of meetings, the employee said, the boss sends unhelpful AI-generated suggestions that make little sense to someone who actually understands the situation.

“I asked an AI… whether a $120 annual bonus was reasonable for someone with consistently positive reviews and increasing responsibilities,” he continued. “It basically said the bonus was so low that many employees would view it as symbolic at best and insulting at worst.”

But this time, his employer didn’t take well to the AI’s input.

“I expressed my concerns directly to my supervisor and the company owner,” said the tech worker. “Shortly afterward, I found myself unemployed.”

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 29

Delightful! Thank you so much for sharing. It reminded me of this wonderful bit from I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 29

My dad and I always savoured the piss boy exchange in the History of the World Part 1

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 26

“Is that bad?” The Mooch on Mark Rutte’s continuing attempts to ingratiate himself with Trump

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 25

Finally got around to watching Winchester '73. Wondering if anyone has already written a critique of the film from the perspective of commodity fetishism

Poster for the film Winchester '73 (dir. Anthony Mann, 1950)

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 24

God, if they mention the fucking vintage one more time, I’m going to scream

Poster for The Vintage (dir. Jeffrey Hayden, 1957), which justifiably lost over a million dollars at the box office

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 23

My daughter struck gold with her choice for our film tonight: It Should Happen to You (dir. George Cukor, 1954). A quirky, funny, free-wheeling delight

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 23

“Mystery still surrounds [Murrell’s] motives.” I’ll say! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 21

The plain north of Stanbury, looking towards Farnhill and Ilkley Moor, we think

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 21

I’m not quite sure where we are, but it sure is pretty

Steven Curtis@stevencurtis· Jun 21

The circle of life, I guess. I remember giving my dad a similar card nearly 40 years ago. Like my wonderful daughter, I used to get frustrated at explaining the bits of the films he’d slept through. At least I haven’t done it in a cinema yet (that I am aware of)