Jesús Pineda

Professor of Mathematical Physics, sceptic and atheist. Dropping mad science connections James Burke-style.

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

Exclusive: I have seen OpenAI's audited financials for 2024 and 2025.

In 2025, OpenAI had $13.07 billion in revenue and $34 billion in costs. $867 million of its revenue came from SoftBank, and $303 million came from Microsoft.
https://t.co/0xpILXnURG

[Iain Abernethy @iainabernethy]

NEW VIDEO: https://t.co/z4OAKFeKth In this video I discuss Seven “Ranges” of Combat. Personally, I dislike the term “range” but if we think of these “ranges” as “aspects of combat” then things become clearer and we can better consider the emphasis we place on each “range”.

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

New Better Offline: I’m joined by @pkedrosky to talk about why nobody can find the ROI of AI, why there won’t be a Dot Com Bubble-style recovery for AI data centers, and how Google’s $80bn share sale shows we’re near the end.
https://t.co/hwcuNTEZAq
https://t.co/GYMUrIENvt

[Rohan Paul @rohanpaul_ai]

New paper from MIT, Stanford, New York Univ, Princeton.

AI can make people feel more efficient even when they are not actually becoming much more efficient.

that people often use AI for simple tasks because it feels like it saves time and effort, but the measured benefit is often tiny, missing, or even negative.

The biggest point is the feedback loop: once people use AI, they become more likely to use it again, even for easy tasks where doing it themselves would often be just as fast or faster.

i.e. AI dependence can grow from a mistaken feeling of convenience, not just from real productivity gains.

Across three preregistered studies with 2,691 participants, people used AI for basic arithmetic, spelling, recall, and short rewriting at higher rates than they predicted, especially on easy tasks.

They also expected AI to save 55.7 seconds on average, when the measured saving was only 7.5 seconds.

For simple work, the hidden cost is not intelligence but interface friction: writing the prompt, waiting, reading, checking, and deciding whether the answer is acceptable.

Once that loop begins, it can feel like effort has been outsourced, even when effort has only been rearranged.

Here’s the key part: the study suggests that AI use can train its own justification.

After using AI on just two tasks, participants became more likely to use it again, even when independent completion was faster.

The danger is not dramatic dependence, but quiet recalibration.

A person who asks AI for a trivial answer today may not become less capable tomorrow, but they may become less accurate at judging when their own mind is already the faster tool.

----

Paper Link – arxiv. org/abs/2605.22687

Paper Title: "The efficiency-gain illusion: People underestimate the rate of AI use and overestimate its benefits on simple tasks"

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

Joined the Times Tech Report to talk about nobody can measure the ROI of AI, the reality check of token-based billing, and how firms spending millions on AI are doing so because of the executive incompetence of Business Idiots that don't do any work.
https://t.co/zYH2vDYK0h

[The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe ⚛️ @SkepticsGuide]

RFK Jr. is making it easier for supplement companies to sell peptides without FDA approval, putting questionable products in the hands of consumers and taking away any incentive to conduct large clinical trials that would be needed for FDA approval.

https://t.co/Y6x0AsSRpJ

[AlumnUSB @Alumn_USB]

⚡ Este es el video de Física en Infocarreras 2026 💛

📌 Recuerda que cada like, comentario y compartido cuenta para el concurso de redes.

💬 Déjales tu apoyo y ayúdalos a demostrar el orgullo uesebista de su carrera.

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

Today’s free newsletter is about how LLMs are the perfect grift to exploit an economy dominated by do-nothing managers and executives disconnected from any real work, and how the facade is crumbling as companies pay the true cost of AI.
https://t.co/X7qmNMFjYm

[Kyle 🚄 @KyleTrainEmoji]

PICARD: Data, shields up

DATA: Brilliant! Shields can reduce damage we sustain. Not immunity. Not hubris. Just prudence. It's not precaution—it's strategy.

[camera shakes]

WORF: HULL BREACHES ON NINE DECKS

DATA: Here's what happened: you told me to raise shields, and I didn't

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

This is the shit they’ve been saying ai can or will do since 2024

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

In this week's Better Offline, I'm joined by @gamersnexus to talk about NVIDIA’s alleged GPU shipments to China, how AI is choking the PC gaming industry, and how mad Jensen Huang keeps getting on podcasts.
https://t.co/ISXf4PnOeY
https://t.co/BvD19N6btP

[THE GHOST IN THE SHELL Anime Series | July 7, 2026 @thegits_animeEN]

#theghostintheshell SYNOPSIS REVEALED.

Wired bodies.
Networked ghosts.

#thegits

[Martín Monteiro @fisicamartin]

Hoy cumple 80 años el físico uruguayo Rodolfo Gambini 🇺🇾 nacido en Montevideo el 11 de mayo de 1946, destacado físico teórico, referente internacional en gravitación cuántica.
Te cuento más sobre su trayectoria en el blog: 
https://t.co/T9qV0PDYHb

[Tej Parikh @tejparikh90]

Donald Trump's green new deal

My latest column for @FT: The US president has inadvertently raised the appeal of renewable energy across the world: https://t.co/HotuPyh8Bz

[WeRateDogs @dog_rates]

This is Sadie. She was finally reunited with her human, astronaut Christina Koch, after her mom’s voyage around the moon took her the furthest any human has ever been from their dog. She can't wait to hear all about the universe. 14/10

[Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols @sjvn]

On Earth or in space, Outlook stays the same.

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

On today’s Better Offline, I’m joined by @RonanFarrow and @andrewmarantz of the New Yorker to talk about their investigation into Sam Altman, his ouster from OpenAI, and the consequences of trusting Silicon Valley with the future.
https://t.co/fLpBvPJRTf

https://t.co/LbhthuicXy

[Kaiser Kuo @KaiserKuo]

New @SinicaPodcast : @adam_tooze was back in Beijing for the China Development Forum, and didn't hold back as we caught up. The 15th Five-Year Plan, CO2 peak, the Iran war, the flooded zone, and the skinny on his new book on carbon! Don't miss this one. 👇

[The Expanse Verse @TheExpanseVerse]

Godspeed Artemis II crew as you launch into the expanse!! 🚀🙏✨💫🌎🌗

[Andrea C. Love, PhD @dr_andrealove]

Annual reminder: the Dirty Dozen is a decades-long scam by the EWG. They lie to you about safe & nutritious fruits & veggies while making millions.

Nope, your produce isn’t contaminated. It’s safe. And just as nutritious + more affordable than organic.
https://t.co/Hyt2HOn07C