Encrypted messaging like Signal and Briar is so much more accessible thanks to smartphones. People who would've never touched GPG can get a lot of its benefits thanks to smartphone apps.

(Which doesn't mean we have to give in to big corporations. Gotta love GrapheneOS!)

Why would you want to be non-political in 2026? The current administration is awful in ways we couldn't have imagined. There's no sense in not talking about it.

You should spend less at Amazon. $100 less per year.

I do agree with you.

I am simultaneously grateful that you told us about this, and also kind of wish I didn't know. There's so much.

It happened not too long ago! https://hackernews.hn/item?id=46990729

Was it ever verified that this was an independent AI?

It was not. In the article, first few paragraphs.

People who agree with you are right-minded and sensible, and people who disagree with you are "jumping on the bandwagon".

"every critique of AI assumes to some degree that contemporary implementations will not, or cannot, be improved upon."

They're token predictors. This is inherently a limited technology, which is optimized for making people feel good about interacting with it.

There may be future AI technologies which are not just token predictors, and will have different capabilities. Or maybe there won't be. But when we talk about AI these days, we're talking about a technology with a skill ceiling.

"productivity theatre" is a brilliant phrase. Thank you!

I'm starting to see a new genre of post here in the AI bubble, where people go to topics that aren't about AI at all, and comment something like, "this doesn't matter because it's not AI". This is the third I've seen in a week.

The Ars Technica journalist's account is worth a read. https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p

Benji Edwards was, is, and will continue to be, a good guy. He's just exhibiting a (hopefully) temporary over-reliance on AI tools that aren't up to the task. Any of us who use these tools could make a mistake of this kind.

> He's just exhibiting a (hopefully) temporary over-reliance on AI tools that aren't up to the task. Any of us who use these tools could make a mistake of this kind.

Technically yes, any of us could neglect the core duties of our job and outsource it to a known-flawed operator and hope that nobody notices.

But that doesn't minimize the severity of what was done here. Ensuring accurate and honest reporting is the core of a journalist's job. This author wasn't doing that at all.

This isn't an "any one of us" issue because we don't have a platform on a major news website. When people in positions like this drop the ball on their jobs, it's important to hold them accountable.

I feel bad for the guy, but.. a journalist in tech whose beat is AI should know much better. I'd be a lot more forgiving if this was like a small publication by someone that didn't follow AI.

Using a tool that adds unnecessary risk to your professional reputation/livelihood is - of course - not worth the risk.

lol this feels a little bit suspect to me. "i was sick, i was rushing to a deadline!" im not saying the guy should lose his journalist license and have to turn in his badge and pen but seems like a bit of a flimsy excuse meant to make us forgive him. hope hes feeling better soon!

Not proof reading quotes you've dispatched to be fetched by an AI ignoring that said website has blocked LLM scraping and hence your quotes are made up?

For a senior tech writer?

Come on, man.

> Any of us who use these tools could make a mistake of this kind.

No, no not any of us.

And, as Benji will know himself, certainly not if accuracy is paramount.

Journalistic integrity - especially when quoting someone - is too valuable to be rooted in AI tools.

This is a big, big L for Ars and Benji.