Chris Deaton

Writer and consultant who loves 🇺🇸 and resents its reinvention as a system of presidential hagiography, congressional disempowerment, and judicial distrust.

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

Maybe this story subject *does* deserve some sort of strict accountability. The work here was nowhere close to demonstrating why that should be the case.

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

Before this gets coded by the usual suspects as being about "woke," the average person should understand the bigger issue here is the lack of professionalism. Journalists are obligated to minimize harm and be thorough. "Here are some dumb tweets from a HS soph" is unacceptable.

[John Tierney @jtierney6]

KGW uncovered the sexist and racist tweets this afternoon. We worked to report the story, including seeking comment from Bell's agent and the team. The Blazers replied at 7:50 pm saying they had fired Bell. @KGWNews

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

When journalists lose sense of proportionality and skip over the thoroughness part, the profession suffers, and the purpose of sources being examined under the light goes from "creating accountability" to "grabbing attention." I've doubtless made this mistake.

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

@jtierney6 @KGWNews A far, far more responsible approach to this would've been to use those posts as the basis for talking to some sources close to him about his character, if you were so inclined to dig in. Get the screen shots, have the conversations, before getting anywhere close to hitting post.

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

@jtierney6 @KGWNews The SPJ's code of ethics has an entire section on minimizing harm. Ruining a person's life over dumb (and that's what they are — dumb) social media posts sent when he was 15 is unethical. If a random X user wants to try doing that, whatever. But not a professional news outlet.

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

@AriSchulman (Muse fan here)

[Jay Nordlinger @jaynordlinger]

Garry Kasparov is important, and he is brave, and he is invaluable. He has used his fame and influence in the chess world to promote freedom, democracy, and human rights. Naturally, he is in the Kremlin's crosshairs. God bless this man and his fellow dissidents.

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

“[Something something] ‘little platoons,’ ‘Democracy in America,’ etc.”

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

With all respect for those who use an LLM to find connection in a seemingly atomized world, most people have the ability to greet an old acquaintance or family member with an unexpected hello, and the difference is that you cannot make a chat bot’s day. But you can for your aunt.

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

“How people choose to direct their social energy” is one of those issues that is both 100% personal and yet really bad for society the less we take interest in each other and the more we find and prefer solace in non-human interactions.

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

@riccoja (Thanks for the thoughts.)

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

LLMs being designed to communicate in the first person was probably bad (idiotic? disastrous? deeply weird?) for humankind and actually would’ve been practical to work around for all sorts of still-useful outputs

[constans @constans]

I thought it was best to ignore all the “AI alignment” stuff as unimportant, but people need to stop “talking to the AI” and the AIs need to stop being allowed to hold conversations. The LLM is a machine. Don’t allow people to use it as anything other than a machine

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

@riccoja That very last part is what I'm fixing on here, which makes sense as a hypothesis. "Prompt as you would want to be prompted," in other words(?) I still just think this "ease" case could be overcome immediately to produce something equally "useful." The ease part is a choice.

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

@GridironGrading TWELVE SNAPS?

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

@JakeLiscow A lot of doom in the replies right now, but better reaction is probably “typical weird-ass division game that could’ve gone either way and ultimately was decided because of a muffed punt” (holding PIT to a FG was great, but it was the momentum change that was a killer)

2-1

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

@Mjaysportster @JoeGoodberry Correct. Burrow made a mistake. We can love Joe and also say he made a mistake

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

“Yeah, well, do you think Data and Jarvis are ‘weird?!’” I mean, it’s science *fiction* dude

It’s OK not to bring things from sci-fi to the real world in (let’s be honest) what probably, largely fits of self-actualization

[Chris Deaton @deaton_chris]

Curious what the implications of this would’ve been for the progression toward and realization of sandbox escapes, agent collaboration and “swarms,” etc.