Doug Beeferman

Research programmer @CCCatMIT. NLP, search, computational social science. Past corporate techie. I've run Datamuse since 2000 ( He/him

[Michiel Bakker @bakkermichiel]

🚨📄 New preprint! We find the “boiling the frog” equivalent of AI use. In a series of RCTs, we show that after just 10 min of AI assistance people perform worse and give up more often than those who never used AI.

w Grace Liu @brianchristian Mira Dumbalska and Rachit Dubey 🧵

[George Journeys is Going to Vibecamp 5! @GeorgeJourneys]

So, basically, if Anthropic was not a US company, we’d be facing zero days with multiple unknown points of attack on virtually all of our systems to an adversary who developed this capacity before us.

[Doug Beeferman @dougb]

@25YearsAgoLive @0_mazra @HurricaneStiz @250YearsAgoLive @100YearsAgoLive @50YearsAgoLive The work shows and it is greatly appreciated!

[Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart]

This was a great piece from @jimprosser about how AI companies communicate with the public. Whole thing is really worth reading. Also, I feel like this a great way to characterize a certain mindset https://t.co/QJK76TBQ5Z

[Miles Brundage @Miles_Brundage]

In light of what external lawyers and the Pentagon are saying, OpenAI employees’ default assumption here should unfortunately be that OpenAI caved + framed it as not caving, and screwed Anthropic while framing it as helping them.

Hope that is wrong + they get evidence otherwise

[Anthropic @AnthropicAI]

A statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

https://t.co/Gg7Zb09IMR

[Nikhil Thorat @nsthorat]

The murder in Minneapolis by the government’s secret police this week has stirred something in me.

A mother was gunned down in the street by ICE, and the government doesn’t even have the decency to perform a scripted condolence. No matter which way the tires were pointing, this is a tragedy for her family, her children, and yet JD Vance, Palmer Lucky, and others instantly became the judge and the jury on twitter proclaiming the 37 year old white mother was a domestic terrorist and was trying to murder a federal officer; thus she *deserves* to be shot in the face. And you do too if you don’t comply.

Where is the humanity? How is everyone not terrified that this could happen to them, their mother, their sister? Isn’t it terrifying that the Vice President is immediately defending murder of american citizens?

I normally keep my politics quiet here because of how toxic twitter is and how annoying it can be to people who want a clean tech feed. Right now it just feels wrong not to say anything.

I haven’t quite been able to figure out the right words for how I feel. My first instinct is “fuck ICE” and “what the fuck is wrong with these people”. Those are my lizard brain reactions. But there’s something deeper that’s bothering me.

I can’t shake this feeling that the moral foundation that much of modern society stands upon is infected, and is festering. We teach kids that right and wrong exist, not to lie, that you don’t hurt people, and that you protect the vulnerable. And yet our highest elected officials encourage the burning and pillaging of these sacred lessons.

I could go on about how our current leadership just wants money and power, and they’re using immigrants as scapegoats to do so. Our economy is transforming rapidly, both with AI and because of greedy capitalist policies — the country is angry about legitimate things and democrats are not actually listening. Republicans are listening but are redirecting anger for their own power. The next 5 years are going to look a lot different because of technology; yet our heads are buried in the sand and we’re losing our way.

But maybe the only real thing we can do is to keep living and teaching the lessons of right and wrong, not to lie, that you don’t hurt people, and that you protect the vulnerable. Teach your kids these lessons in spite of Trump, Vance, Noem being lost beyond repair. Teach your kids that everyone deserves to be treated as a human being and not an object to be deported to a brutal prison cell.

I do believe that most people are still good, and that the best thing we can do to combat dehumanization by the government is more humanization of our neighbors. Go spend time with your republican cousins / neighbors and break bread with them. Don’t talk politics, play with their kids. Find common humanity.

But I don’t really have a call to action beyond this. I don’t really know what to do other than vote in November and refuse to pretend this is normal, publicly, even if it’s terrifying that you might get targeted and attacked. People in Nazi Germany stayed silent for this very fear, and we’re certainly living through a cosplay of that now.

The president called a 37 year old mother a domestic terrorist and that her 3 shots to the face by the gestapo was a tragedy of her own making.

The actual tragedy is that the Oval office propped up millions of people arguing about the direction of the tires of the car without having the humility to step back and ask if we want the government murdering civilians in broad daylight.

I am terribly sad for this country, our broken moral compass, and for hard working immigrants living in fear here. But I do believe we will eventually heal.

[Shapooda @Shapooda]

Reminding everyone again that there's an add-on for chrome that you can use in Google docs called "OneLook Thesaurus" and it can do all sorts of stuff

[DOSGAMES.COM @DosGamesCOM]

Random game of the day:
Cyberbox (Puzzle: Doug Beeferman, 1991)

Download/play: https://t.co/LduSFntlzS

#dosgaming #retrogaming #puzzle #sokoban #blockpushing #ega

[Marcus Byrne @Marcus_Byrne]

The 1970s. What if smartphones had existed back then? The old VHS recordings of memories—your parents' lifeless, soulless archive of absence.

Inspired by The Anxious Generation @JonHaidt

@karenvaites @jflier @MattWallace888 @SandyChatterbox @MarioNawfal @BerryRazi @hubermanlab @JohnDCook @leopoldasch
@jayshetty @jean_twenge @MarioNawfal @1996AnxiousGenZ @DelaySmartphone @Melissa_M818 @intelligence2 @techhalla created with @LumaLabsAI

[Doug Beeferman @dougb]

@murasime 申し訳ございません。現在、当サイトには多くのスクレイパーがアクセスしており、その対処を行っています。まもなく復旧いたしますので、しばらくお待ちください。

[Neil Bastian - The Rise and Fall of Vinnie & Paul @Neil_Bastian]

SONGWRITERS!!

Rhymezone's had a makeover!

I can't get used to it, it's like when your Dad shaves his beard off

[CivicSearch.org @civicsearch]

More cities are exploring ranked-choice voting and other alternative electoral systems. Hear their insights and experiences in our latest CivicSearch newsletter: https://t.co/RBeejJ15Jw

[CivicSearch.org @civicsearch]

Short-term rentals create both opportunities and challenges for the residents of cities struggling with housing affordability. In this week's CivicSearch newsletter we look at how city councils are proposing to regulate these units: https://t.co/iPltJmWJYj

[Educational Researcher - Editors @ERjournal_AERA]

Through redrawing attendance boundaries to "promote racial and ethnic diversity in elementary schools," authors hope this study is a useful building block to help inform school desegregation policies. #Diversity

➡️ https://t.co/oB47DpfFfg

@AERA_EdResearch @SageEducation

[Keely Wolfe @keelywolfe]

Writers out there:

If you aren't using https://t.co/xQi2dQddLZ , you are missing out.

Not only is it an excellent thesaurus/dictionary, it will also help you find a word you can't remember. Looking for a word that means 'unable to articulate', it has you covered.

1/2

[John Horton @johnjhorton]

This sound made up, but it really happened. I was at this clam shack in Falmouth today. Older man in front of me steps up to order.

Guy: "I'll have the whole-belly clam roll"
Cashier: "Can I get a name for that order?"
Guy *looking perplexed*: "Uh, hmm - maybe 'clam roll' "

[worms cited @christapeterso]

every website now is like “oh were you looking for Answers? well here are Sentences”

[Doug Beeferman @dougb]

@polunator What phone and browser are you seeing this on? I'll follow up with the developer.

[Doug Beeferman @dougb]

@lenitiv It's available at https://t.co/JdOCkY4pAD now