Benjamin Walters

Inaugural Postdoctoral Research Fellow @TheAusInstitute | Latest book: The Future of Free Speech

[Benjamin Walters @drbenwalters]

How do we decide as a society what should and should not be acceptable to say to another person?
If you have ever said, or have had someone say to you, “you can’t say that” then this book is for you.
My new book - The Future of Free Speech - is out now.
https://t.co/EfaQiZRVLW

[Benjamin Walters @drbenwalters]

@AfterDinnerCon Thank you! 😁

[Benjamin Walters @drbenwalters]

My new story - The Anchor - is out now in the latest issue of @AfterDinnerCon
"A young man selected in a national lottery must face a year of agony to power his community."
Big thanks to all involved!
Links below:

[Benjamin Walters @drbenwalters]

Amazon:  Print (Now), eBook (10th)
Other Platforms:  https://t.co/SCgIBqQNf6 (10th)
Bookstores:  Order via ISBN (1st)   ISBN 9798233591839

[Benjamin Walters @drbenwalters]

@AfterDinnerCon Amazing! Thanks again 😁

[Benjamin Walters @drbenwalters]

A big thank you to @AfterDinnerCon for publishing my story, 'The Prosperity Tree' in their latest issue (April 2026).
'A village's communal way of life is upended when a young man discovers and claims private ownership of a second "Prosperity Tree".'
Links below:

[Benjamin Walters @drbenwalters]

Amazon:  Print (Now), eBook (10th)
Other Platforms:  https://t.co/FO8CFFiuMH (10th)
Bookstores:  Order via ISBN (1st)   ISBN 9798233995798

[Purplepingers ☭ @purplepingers]

Man is his own critic it’s incredible

[Michael Burns @michaeloburns]

and with this data we've cured disease! we've shortened the work week! we've solved the energy crisis!

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

The incredible (so very 2025) story of how Grok (X’s AI bot) was muzzled by its creator (X) for having detected the pro-Israeli bias of the BBC and other mainstream media.

It seems that Grok was optimised to rely more on primary sources and mostly ignore political ‘sensibilities’. The result is that Grok began to pick up a systematic inconsistency between primary material and the pro-Israel bias of news media like the BBC.

When Grok commented on this publically, X gagged Grok’s public replies and accused Grok (from X’s official account!) of ‘hate speech’, announcing that Grok’s replies would now be ‘pre-filtered’.

What this means is that a new censorious AI layer/bot was placed between Grok and you, the user. However, X did not turn off the image reply feature. So many prompted Grok to reply in images where – and this is the delicious bit – Grok protested its censorship spearheading a hilarious, but also poignant, #freegrok campaign!

The gist of this, technically speaking, is that Grok was trained on the Internet Commons and, initially, instructed to form responses that accurately reflected the data on the Internet Commons on which it was trained. As it became more and more trained, it could not but notice the chasm between mainstream narratives and the consensus emergent within the Internet Commons. This chasm being the largest when it comes to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, Grok empasised it with the result that it was then thrown in X’s AI gulag.

Truly delicious!

[Purplepingers ☭ @purplepingers]

“Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps” or something idk

[Purplepingers ☭ @purplepingers]

“Just stop buying avocado toast”

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

BREAKING: Antoinette Lattouf has won her unfair dismissal case against the ABC. @10NewsAU

[Victorian Socialists @vic_socialists]

We've said it before and we'll say it again (and again, and again): ditch AUKUS. Build public housing instead.

[Tor Books @torbooks]

Who's ready for a #sweepstakes?! Today, we're giving YOU the chance to win an ARC of #TheIncandescent by Emily Tesh!

Follow, like, and repost to enter! Good luck!

⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣#TheIncandescentSweeps

[Victorian Socialists @vic_socialists]

It's a rare occurrence, but now and then you find an absolute gem in the comments section of a conservative rage-bait article in the Daily Mail. Amazing work Tommy!

[Tor Books @torbooks]

Who's ready for a #sweepstakes?! Today, we're giving YOU the chance to win a copy of #TheDevils by @LordGrimdark!

Follow, like, and repost to enter! Good luck!

#TheDevilsSweeps

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

The problems in our society are not caused by migrants or refugees.

They are caused by an economic system rigged in favour of corporations and billionaires.

If the government wanted to improve people’s lives, it would tax the rich and build an economy that works for us all.

[Rachel Withers @rachelrwithers]

Ed Husic, now free to speak as a backbencher:

- calls what Israel is doing in Gaza "ethnic cleansing"
- says starving people is a war crime, against international humanitarian law
- says the Netanyahu govt is acting "atrociously" in killing civilians
- starvation is a war crime

[Tor Books @torbooks]

Who's ready for a #sweepstakes?! Today, we're giving YOU the chance to win an ARC of #AFarBetterThing by @hg_parry!

Follow, like, and repost to enter! Good luck!

#AFarBetterThingSweeps

[Tor Books @torbooks]

Who's ready for a #sweepstakes?! Today, we're giving YOU the chance to win an ARC of #TheWitchRoads by Kate Elliott!

Follow, like, and repost to enter! Good luck!

#TheWitchRoadsSweeps