Tom Fisher
@drsamaki.bsky.social
OfDIA/DSIT. Ex-Privacy International. PhD African Studies from University of Edinburgh. Posts on digital identity, DPI, and human rights. Views own.
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Tom Fisher
@drsamaki.bsky.social
· Feb 14
BBC just released damning research on AI assistants' news accuracy.
Results: 51% of AI responses had significant issues. 19% introduced errors when citing BBC. 13% misquoted or made up BBC content entirely. 🤐🤐
www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/... via @ezraeeman.bsky.social
Results: 51% of AI responses had significant issues. 19% introduced errors when citing BBC. 13% misquoted or made up BBC content entirely. 🤐🤐
www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/... via @ezraeeman.bsky.social
A BBC news story is a clearly structured piece of writing; it will have a clarity, and won't contain any tricky things like irony or insinuation.
So if an AI has trouble summarising a BBC news report, it's not going to be able to manage anything else.
So if an AI has trouble summarising a BBC news report, it's not going to be able to manage anything else.
Wish I had an interesting anecdote for this. My own career path is just so cliched, you’re seen it a thousand times. (lecturing in North African history at a Tanzanian University/road safety charity in Huddersfield/privacy NGO/civil service).
November 23, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Wish I had an interesting anecdote for this. My own career path is just so cliched, you’re seen it a thousand times. (lecturing in North African history at a Tanzanian University/road safety charity in Huddersfield/privacy NGO/civil service).
A tour-de-force on the history of the lindy hop, written with an infectious joy that appeals even to someone like me who can barely manage the Hokey Cokey.
New post:
How migration and technology enabled a special form of togetherness: A multimedia origins story for the lindy hop
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/modernity-...
How migration and technology enabled a special form of togetherness: A multimedia origins story for the lindy hop
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/modernity-...
Modernity In Rhythm
How migration and technology enabled a special form of togetherness: A multimedia origins story for the lindy hop.
thomscottphillips.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:59 PM
A tour-de-force on the history of the lindy hop, written with an infectious joy that appeals even to someone like me who can barely manage the Hokey Cokey.
This is good news! The weapon we have against the AIs conquering the world isn’t military resistance, or that humans are capable of love: it’s cat memes.
And if there’s anything the human race is good at, it’s producing inane nonsense on social media. The world is safe.
And if there’s anything the human race is good at, it’s producing inane nonsense on social media. The world is safe.
If only every single critical "AI" researcher had warned about the likelihood of this danger for machine learning-based systems for the past decade or so and if only an acronym like "GIGO" had existed for decades Prior.
Oh If Only 😐
"Too much social media gives AI chatbots ‘brain rot’"
Oh If Only 😐
"Too much social media gives AI chatbots ‘brain rot’"
Too much social media gives AI chatbots ‘brain rot’
Large language models fed low-quality data skip steps in their reasoning process.
go.nature.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:52 PM
This is good news! The weapon we have against the AIs conquering the world isn’t military resistance, or that humans are capable of love: it’s cat memes.
And if there’s anything the human race is good at, it’s producing inane nonsense on social media. The world is safe.
And if there’s anything the human race is good at, it’s producing inane nonsense on social media. The world is safe.
I originally included a footnote on this very issue in my PhD on the political history of Kilimanjaro. However, I followed the advice of a friend and removed it.
I have regretted it ever since.
I have regretted it ever since.
Kilimanjaro does not, in fact, rise above the Serengeti. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
And, SOMEONE GIVE ME ANOTHER SONG TO GET THIS ONE OUT OF MY HEAD!!
And, SOMEONE GIVE ME ANOTHER SONG TO GET THIS ONE OUT OF MY HEAD!!
November 1, 2025 at 9:55 AM
I originally included a footnote on this very issue in my PhD on the political history of Kilimanjaro. However, I followed the advice of a friend and removed it.
I have regretted it ever since.
I have regretted it ever since.
I don’t know what to worry more about:
A) the subeditor who decided that “Pharoh’s anus” would make it click bait; or
B) the algorithm that decided I was a Pharoh’s anus kind of guy.
A) the subeditor who decided that “Pharoh’s anus” would make it click bait; or
B) the algorithm that decided I was a Pharoh’s anus kind of guy.
October 22, 2025 at 7:45 AM
I don’t know what to worry more about:
A) the subeditor who decided that “Pharoh’s anus” would make it click bait; or
B) the algorithm that decided I was a Pharoh’s anus kind of guy.
A) the subeditor who decided that “Pharoh’s anus” would make it click bait; or
B) the algorithm that decided I was a Pharoh’s anus kind of guy.
Reposted by Tom Fisher
Learned that an anonymous outside expert on submersibles did an interview with the OceanGate Titan investigation, and they released a transcript, with all the names redacted. The first line of his first answer? "I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."
October 16, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Was a picture of a larger weevil also submitted to the contest; did they choose the lesser of two weevils?
Rice weevil on a grain of rice wins 2025 Nikon Small World photomicrography contest. It's an annual reminder that science can be beautiful as well as informative. See the top 20 images. arstechnica.com/science/2025...
Rice weevil on a grain of rice wins 2025 Nikon Small World contest
Nikon Small World photomicrography contest is an annual reminder that science can be beautiful as well as informative.
arstechnica.com
October 16, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Was a picture of a larger weevil also submitted to the contest; did they choose the lesser of two weevils?
Update: no.
Will I be able to understand MacOS 26 if I’ve not seen MacOS16 to 25?
October 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Update: no.
Will I be able to understand MacOS 26 if I’ve not seen MacOS16 to 25?
September 16, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Will I be able to understand MacOS 26 if I’ve not seen MacOS16 to 25?
Clever people of BlueSky, help me out:
a) Putnam’s ant on a beach drawing a caricature of Winston Churchill is disturbingly similar to an AI Chatbot, but why isn’t it? And:
b) does that mean I’m a brain in a vat or not?
a) Putnam’s ant on a beach drawing a caricature of Winston Churchill is disturbingly similar to an AI Chatbot, but why isn’t it? And:
b) does that mean I’m a brain in a vat or not?
August 31, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Clever people of BlueSky, help me out:
a) Putnam’s ant on a beach drawing a caricature of Winston Churchill is disturbingly similar to an AI Chatbot, but why isn’t it? And:
b) does that mean I’m a brain in a vat or not?
a) Putnam’s ant on a beach drawing a caricature of Winston Churchill is disturbingly similar to an AI Chatbot, but why isn’t it? And:
b) does that mean I’m a brain in a vat or not?
My daughter ended up in the ICU after one of the rare complications to chickenpox. While she made a full recovery, I’m delighted that no other kid has to go through that. Brilliant news that the vaccination will be offered on the NHS!
Although rare, chickenpox can lead to severe complications. Infection also means parents and kids have to take time off work and school.
Free vaccination on the NHS is fantastic news.
Free vaccination on the NHS is fantastic news.
Children offered chickenpox vaccine on NHS
All young children in England and Wales will be offered a free chickenpox vaccine by the NHS from January 2026.
www.bbc.co.uk
August 29, 2025 at 6:40 AM
My daughter ended up in the ICU after one of the rare complications to chickenpox. While she made a full recovery, I’m delighted that no other kid has to go through that. Brilliant news that the vaccination will be offered on the NHS!
Great stuff. I know that these are in no way have personalities, but I do find it amusing how often AI comes across as just being really lazy.
For LLMs, it’s always Friday afternoon, with a hangover, in a job they hate.
For LLMs, it’s always Friday afternoon, with a hangover, in a job they hate.
Did you know that LLMs fail at around 70% of all typical office tasks like generating a report on something from a spreadsheet? The Agent Company is a simulated office environment for benchmarking LLMs - I wrote a blog post about the paper here (with links and a rant): jilltxt.net/llms-fail-at...
LLMs fail at 70% of simple office tasks
Occasionally I love ChatGPT. Like when I gave it a research paper I’d written and the itinerary for my planned trip to Australia this November and asked it to look for related art exhibitions…
jilltxt.net
August 27, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Great stuff. I know that these are in no way have personalities, but I do find it amusing how often AI comes across as just being really lazy.
For LLMs, it’s always Friday afternoon, with a hangover, in a job they hate.
For LLMs, it’s always Friday afternoon, with a hangover, in a job they hate.
Hehe President POO-tihn.
Yes, I have been spending the a lot of time with my 5-year olds this summer holiday, why do you ask?
Yes, I have been spending the a lot of time with my 5-year olds this summer holiday, why do you ask?
August 17, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Hehe President POO-tihn.
Yes, I have been spending the a lot of time with my 5-year olds this summer holiday, why do you ask?
Yes, I have been spending the a lot of time with my 5-year olds this summer holiday, why do you ask?
Reposted by Tom Fisher
Not now, giant doomsday herring. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
June 3, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Not now, giant doomsday herring. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
“The Boss” (whoever they are) is a a scary villain.
Anita is pregnant to the Head of HR, who she started a relationship with when potentially in a vulnerable state after finding out about The Doctor and Rogue.
This raises serious questions about the HR policies of this mysterious “Boss” character.
Anita is pregnant to the Head of HR, who she started a relationship with when potentially in a vulnerable state after finding out about The Doctor and Rogue.
This raises serious questions about the HR policies of this mysterious “Boss” character.
Nobody is mentioning this bit from last night's #DoctorWho.
June 1, 2025 at 6:43 PM
“The Boss” (whoever they are) is a a scary villain.
Anita is pregnant to the Head of HR, who she started a relationship with when potentially in a vulnerable state after finding out about The Doctor and Rogue.
This raises serious questions about the HR policies of this mysterious “Boss” character.
Anita is pregnant to the Head of HR, who she started a relationship with when potentially in a vulnerable state after finding out about The Doctor and Rogue.
This raises serious questions about the HR policies of this mysterious “Boss” character.
Or “pen name”, which is almost a name.
The prefix ‘pen’ means “almost.”
peninsula = almost an island
penultimate = almost the last
peninsula = almost an island
penultimate = almost the last
April 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Or “pen name”, which is almost a name.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, yes it will survive.
Five Eyes could not be unpicked without dramatic losses of intelligence collection to every partner, writes James Ball.
But can it survive the Signal scandal?
www.prospectmagazine...
But can it survive the Signal scandal?
www.prospectmagazine...
Can Five Eyes survive the Signal scandal?
Even before the Atlantic’s revelations, the Trump administration had put the intelligence network at risk
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
March 27, 2025 at 11:44 AM
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, yes it will survive.
The head of Teleperformance SE says that Indian accents are “difficult to understand”.
www.dailymotion.com/video/x7sr3t
www.dailymotion.com/video/x7sr3t
February 27, 2025 at 5:58 PM
The head of Teleperformance SE says that Indian accents are “difficult to understand”.
www.dailymotion.com/video/x7sr3t
www.dailymotion.com/video/x7sr3t
If you’re a fan of superheroes randomly getting new powers halfway through a movie: watch out for the scene in Captain America: BNW where Cap inexplicably gains the power to negotiate plea deals.
February 26, 2025 at 9:57 PM
If you’re a fan of superheroes randomly getting new powers halfway through a movie: watch out for the scene in Captain America: BNW where Cap inexplicably gains the power to negotiate plea deals.
A level of soft power that Britain has had for a long time: how many African independence leaders studied in Britain? Nyerere, Kenyatta, Nkrumah.. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
UK universities educate the most national leaders globally, analysis shows
Research reveals UK institutions educated 50 world leaders in post in 2022, despite job cuts, course closures and a fall in foreign students
www.theguardian.com
February 24, 2025 at 10:08 AM
A level of soft power that Britain has had for a long time: how many African independence leaders studied in Britain? Nyerere, Kenyatta, Nkrumah.. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Through necessity at work, been dealing with a travel agent all week; dear God, trying to explain what you want with words is so much harder than a well-designed website.
Of course, if anything goes wrong, I’ll be glad to have someone at the end of the phone. But I want a human for that.
Of course, if anything goes wrong, I’ll be glad to have someone at the end of the phone. But I want a human for that.
Okay this article is completely insane. OpenAI is going to make *more than its entire subscription revenue from 2024* (they spent $9bn to lose $5bn in 2024 btw) - $3 billion - selling “agents”? OpenAI doesn’t have a functional agent product! It doesn’t exist! What the hell is going on?
February 23, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Through necessity at work, been dealing with a travel agent all week; dear God, trying to explain what you want with words is so much harder than a well-designed website.
Of course, if anything goes wrong, I’ll be glad to have someone at the end of the phone. But I want a human for that.
Of course, if anything goes wrong, I’ll be glad to have someone at the end of the phone. But I want a human for that.
This story on the impact of quantum computing on cryptography reads like Good News to me: a future problem was spotted; clever people came up with a solution in good time (except for maybe a handful of edge-cases). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Will quantum computers disrupt critical infrastructure?
Quantum computers will be able to crack existing encryption and threaten critical infrastructure.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 21, 2025 at 11:11 AM
This story on the impact of quantum computing on cryptography reads like Good News to me: a future problem was spotted; clever people came up with a solution in good time (except for maybe a handful of edge-cases). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
As we see once-unstoppable franchises fizzle out, Bond was truly remarkable run of form.
I don’t see that continuing under Amazon, to be honest. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/fe...
I don’t see that continuing under Amazon, to be honest. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/fe...
James Bond producers give Amazon full creative control of 007
Deal is struck with heirs to film producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, long-serving stewards of franchise
www.theguardian.com
February 20, 2025 at 8:43 PM
As we see once-unstoppable franchises fizzle out, Bond was truly remarkable run of form.
I don’t see that continuing under Amazon, to be honest. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/fe...
I don’t see that continuing under Amazon, to be honest. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/fe...
It’s unprecedented because so much of it MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE.
I used to love it when I could draw comparisons to current events in my teaching, but these days, I have to ask my students to actively ignore what is going on in the US since it is in so many ways unprecedented...
February 20, 2025 at 12:56 PM
It’s unprecedented because so much of it MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE.