Michelle Prak

Thriller Writer | Barren Cape, The Rush @SimonSchusterAU | Le Déluge @HarperCollinsFR | Rep: @mjostell #WeArePortAdelaide

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

BARREN CAPE, 2 April in Australia and New Zealand

💙☠👀

https://t.co/QG2jG7wpbV

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

Read this 👇

[Jen Horsburgh @jenatlionra]

I just wanted to update my resume. Instead, I accidentally proved how a multi-billion-dollar AI tool hallucinates a glass ceiling for women.

I changed a single variable: My name.

Here is what happened when "Jennifer" became "Jeff."

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

@JosephKahn The actors filmed it; they worked around the clock; it was a monstrous exhausting exercise for them and they made almost nothing from it. That approach certainly helps the margins 🙄

[Edgar Allen Poe @allenakinkunle]

📌

[Ben Sixsmith @BDSixsmith]

I'm getting genuinely depressed about being sent AI-generated articles. Why do you even want to be seen as a writer? I like having a machine to do my dishes because I don't like doing dishes. What attracted you to writing if you don't like WRITING?

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

Gen AI was forced on people. Like Copilot, slipped in as a mandatory part of Microsoft subs, at extra cost and with no fanfare.

I've never asked for AI addons, I disable them across multiple software types.

I won't pay for it, but it looks like humanity will.

[Alex Veremeyenko @alex_verem]

Let me trace the timeline here because nobody's connecting it.

Step 1: Scrape the entire internet. Every book, every article, every conversation, every piece of art, every forum post. Do it without asking. Do it without paying.

Step 2: Train a model on all of it. Call it "artificial intelligence."

Step 3: Go to BlackRock's Infrastructure Summit and announce: "We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter."

Step 3 is where you sell people's own knowledge back to them. On a meter.

They took the collective output of human thought, compressed it into a model, and now they want to charge you by the token to access a version of what you and everyone you know already created.

One Reddit user put it perfectly: "They stole all this data from us, the people, our life's work, creativity, art, by devouring the internet and blowing through all copyright laws. Now they want to sell it back to us in the form of a utility."

Imagine if someone photocopied every book in the public library, burned the library down, and then opened a subscription service for the copies.

That's the metered intelligence business model.

And they're pitching it to infrastructure investors as though they invented water.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This New York Times piece is worth your time. Here’s what is happening, as simply as I can put it.

Back in January, Trump sued the IRS, an agency he controls, demanding $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns a number of years ago.

IRS lawyers did their jobs. They wrote a memo laying out the defenses that could beat the suit, including the fact that Trump filed too late. His own lawyer was in court when the leaker pleaded guilty in October 2023, more than two years before Trump sued.

The Justice Department never showed up to court. Never argued back. Never used the defenses sitting on their desk.

The judge got suspicious and ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually opposing each other or just colluding. The day before that brief was due, Trump dropped the suit.

Same day, his Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization fund.” 

Trump gets a formal apology. The IRS agrees to drop any audits of him and his family, even though a 2024 Times report found a loss in an ongoing audit could cost him over $100 million.

The acting Attorney General, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, picks the five commissioners who decide who gets paid. Trump can fire any of them. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are not ruled out.

This is the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen from an American president.

Where in the hell are my Republican colleagues?

https://t.co/La0nlLuz1r

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

@BeckyLTuch When a longlist has been created, the personal touch is needed, IMO. Conduct face-to-face chats with the entrants.

Once that's part of the process, it might deter many AI users. Downside, of course, is that most comps won't have the resources for this.

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

@JonLeth I think those 'baddies' would claim they follow the code of ethics. Whatever they need to do to be included.

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

"The accusations are another episode in an ongoing conversation about whether artists are passing off AI-generated work as their own – and whether publications will be able to reliably catch them doing it".

The industry needs to wake up. Now.

https://t.co/zpCXDWpwT7

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

❤️

[Maureen Langloss @MaureenLangloss]

Shout out to all the lit mag editors doing their best in this new AI world, often for little or no money, because they believe in writing & art & supporting the people who create it. There's no easy, clear path through this mess AI's creating, but I appreciate you trying.

[David Decosimo @DavidDecosimo]

The first major university that publicly commits to a total AI ban in its undergrad teaching (no AI in class, in creating syllabi or class prep, creating & completing assignments, or grading) and makes that part of its brand will see a major surge in applications & enrollment.

[MilesFranklin @_milesfranklin]

The 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award Longlist is here!
Ten extraordinary Australian novels recognised - which one are you reading first?
🔗 See the full longlist: https://t.co/xX71tJAmd0

#MilesFranklin #MFLA2026 #AustralianLiterature

#MFLA2026 @onRlive

[Acyn @Acyn]

Maddow: So in January, Trump buys hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in Nvidia. Then a week later, his commerce department approves the sale of Nvidia chips to China. 

Also in January, Trump buys between 50,000 and $100,000 worth of stock in AMD. One week after he buys it, his commerce department approves AMD doing business in China as well. 

The following month, in February, Trump buys millions of dollars worth of stock in Dell. Nine days after he buys millions of dollars worth of stock in Dell, Trump veers off script in a speech in Georgia to tell the crowd literally, quote, go out and buy a Dell computer. 

Then in March, Judd Legum at Popular Information reports that Trump repeatedly buys up Thermo Fisher stock, and then he goes and visits Thermo Fisher on a presidential visit and praises the company.

That same day, Trump bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in Apple. And then that same day he bought the stock, he did another event where he singled out Apple and Apple CEO Tim cook for praise. Apple a great company.

Then after that, Trump buys Micron stock. The very next day, he calls into the Fox News channel and tells them Micron is one of the hottest companies.

CNBC reporting Trump makes seven separate purchases of Palantir stock. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Palantir stock. Then he gets on truth social and praises Palantir.

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

This could be devastating for writers of original work, writing competitions..the whole system.

Has anyone seen a statement from @commonwealthorg yet?

[Nabeel S. Qureshi @nabeelqu]

Well, this is a first: a ChatGPT-generated story won a prestigious literary prize (The Commonwealth Prize).

"Not X, not Y, but Z" sentences everywhere, the "hums" trope, and plenty of other obvious markers of AI writing.

A major milestone for AI, at any rate...

@GrantaMag

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

@antoinette_news "Did not respond with words we wanted to use"

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

@blowingtom2 I've been wondering this. A whole generation of my family are permanent residents but not citizens.

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

@adrianmckinty OMG, love her!

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

Shame on the Malinasukas government.

585 trees being destroyed for better golfing. Please sign the petition: https://t.co/G9cNL4LhWy

Also see the community gathering this Sunday:
https://t.co/U4kkbXDwZ8

[Maggie Harrison Dupré @mags_h11]

NEW: The NYT sent an email to freelancers today forbidding contributors from submitting "any material for publication that contains content generated, modified or enhanced" by generative AI.

The "reminder" follows a string of AI incidents at the paper:

https://t.co/eQPpUhJrkS

[Michelle Prak @Prakky]

We passed through there a few years ago, and felt the same weird vibes 🫥

It's very hard to describe. Like being on the edge of something, untethered. Walked past imposing blockish buildings that seemed isolated from their surroundings, very little foot traffic or life.

[verynormalman @verynormalman]

Obsessed with this reddit post where everyone agrees some random town in Tasmania has a deeply sinister and malevolent vibe and nobody can figure out why