Abe Smith
@abesmith.bsky.social
a complicated human in complicated times
Mathematician and scientist trying to make AI safer.
Talk to me about science, rural life, music, and trying to organize for a better future.
Wisconsin, USA
Mathematician and scientist trying to make AI safer.
Talk to me about science, rural life, music, and trying to organize for a better future.
Wisconsin, USA
Pinned
Abe Smith
@abesmith.bsky.social
· Jan 18
Here's a starter pack for actual people and sources relevant to Dunn County.
go.bsky.app/D4EMGFv
go.bsky.app/D4EMGFv
Reposted by Abe Smith
so basically we’re going to have to figure out how to go back to building systems of knowledge based almost entirely on confirming sources - like you needed to do pre-photograph and video - since all true videos will seem fake and fake videos will seem true
December 8, 2025 at 6:22 AM
so basically we’re going to have to figure out how to go back to building systems of knowledge based almost entirely on confirming sources - like you needed to do pre-photograph and video - since all true videos will seem fake and fake videos will seem true
Reposted by Abe Smith
There's a lot of whataboutism regarding Obama's drone strikes (lots to object to there!) from people wholly unaware Trump massively expanded the drone war and killed, give or take, an order of magnitude more people with it, because this was treated as a non-story with hardly any mainstream coverage.
December 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
There's a lot of whataboutism regarding Obama's drone strikes (lots to object to there!) from people wholly unaware Trump massively expanded the drone war and killed, give or take, an order of magnitude more people with it, because this was treated as a non-story with hardly any mainstream coverage.
Reposted by Abe Smith
Rand Paul: "Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this and it did not happen. It was fake news. It didn't happen. And then the next day, from the podium of the WH, they're saying it did happen. So either he was lying to us on Sunday or he's incompetent and didn't know what had happened."
December 3, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Rand Paul: "Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this and it did not happen. It was fake news. It didn't happen. And then the next day, from the podium of the WH, they're saying it did happen. So either he was lying to us on Sunday or he's incompetent and didn't know what had happened."
Reposted by Abe Smith
Trump on Somalis: "We're gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage."
December 2, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Trump on Somalis: "We're gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage."
Reposted by Abe Smith
ICE raids are cruel, inhumane, and do nothing to serve public safety.
My responsibility is to be the mayor to each and every person that calls this city their home. That includes millions of immigrants— of which I am one.
My responsibility is to be the mayor to each and every person that calls this city their home. That includes millions of immigrants— of which I am one.
December 2, 2025 at 2:18 AM
ICE raids are cruel, inhumane, and do nothing to serve public safety.
My responsibility is to be the mayor to each and every person that calls this city their home. That includes millions of immigrants— of which I am one.
My responsibility is to be the mayor to each and every person that calls this city their home. That includes millions of immigrants— of which I am one.
Reposted by Abe Smith
People who adore the LLM-machine, that by design has no concern for truth, must have no concern for truth
November 23, 2025 at 4:15 PM
People who adore the LLM-machine, that by design has no concern for truth, must have no concern for truth
Reposted by Abe Smith
Thread!
Proud to be part of this work.
Proud to be part of this work.
This month, our members stood up at county budget hearings across four counties in western WI to warn how HR1 (aka One Big Beautiful Bill) will create a fiscal crisis for our county govts and threaten the local services our loved ones rely on every day. Western WI cannot afford HR1.
November 23, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Thread!
Proud to be part of this work.
Proud to be part of this work.
Reposted by Abe Smith
This month, our members stood up at county budget hearings across four counties in western WI to warn how HR1 (aka One Big Beautiful Bill) will create a fiscal crisis for our county govts and threaten the local services our loved ones rely on every day. Western WI cannot afford HR1.
November 23, 2025 at 1:46 PM
This month, our members stood up at county budget hearings across four counties in western WI to warn how HR1 (aka One Big Beautiful Bill) will create a fiscal crisis for our county govts and threaten the local services our loved ones rely on every day. Western WI cannot afford HR1.
Reposted by Abe Smith
Hard for me to say how this is different from Fox News's entire business model, except that it's less sophisticated. This is transparently and obviously bad — and Elon should ban these accounts — but the spirit here of trading rage for money is pretty much a lot of right-wing media.
November 23, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Hard for me to say how this is different from Fox News's entire business model, except that it's less sophisticated. This is transparently and obviously bad — and Elon should ban these accounts — but the spirit here of trading rage for money is pretty much a lot of right-wing media.
Reposted by Abe Smith
I think Claude Code has achieved AGI
November 22, 2025 at 9:09 PM
I think Claude Code has achieved AGI
Reposted by Abe Smith
“AI workers said they distrust the models they work on because of a consistent emphasis on rapid turnaround time at the expense of quality.”
Meet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AI
When the people making AI seem trustworthy are the ones who trust it the least, it shows that incentives for speed are overtaking safety, experts say
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:12 PM
“AI workers said they distrust the models they work on because of a consistent emphasis on rapid turnaround time at the expense of quality.”
Reposted by Abe Smith
I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.
AirBnB CEO calling it “vibe revenue” just 👨🍳 😘
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
November 22, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.
Reposted by Abe Smith
Brandy you're a fine girl
What a good wife you would be
But my life my love and my lady
Is the See
What a good wife you would be
But my life my love and my lady
Is the See
November 23, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Brandy you're a fine girl
What a good wife you would be
But my life my love and my lady
Is the See
What a good wife you would be
But my life my love and my lady
Is the See
Reposted by Abe Smith
I feel like a lot of us in the comedy world failed the world at large when we stayed silent despite knowing all about Cosby and Louis so let me say right now that Steve Martin has eaten one banjo a year for the last 25 years
November 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM
I feel like a lot of us in the comedy world failed the world at large when we stayed silent despite knowing all about Cosby and Louis so let me say right now that Steve Martin has eaten one banjo a year for the last 25 years
Reposted by Abe Smith
Trump on Truth Social:
I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota.
I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota.
November 22, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Trump on Truth Social:
I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota.
I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota.
Reposted by Abe Smith
Remember a few weeks ago when Trump brought in a couple bulldozers and demolished about a third of the White House? That was weird.
November 21, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Remember a few weeks ago when Trump brought in a couple bulldozers and demolished about a third of the White House? That was weird.
Reposted by Abe Smith
It’s fun to think about the surgeon who will botch your surgery 20 years from now and what he’s doing at this moment. He just ran all his homework through ChatGPT. He just read that article about vaccines and autism at the CDC website. He just watched an Instagram video about the moon landing hoax.
November 21, 2025 at 4:27 AM
It’s fun to think about the surgeon who will botch your surgery 20 years from now and what he’s doing at this moment. He just ran all his homework through ChatGPT. He just read that article about vaccines and autism at the CDC website. He just watched an Instagram video about the moon landing hoax.
Reposted by Abe Smith
They need serious help. We have a mental health pandemic on our hands that will rival opioids IMHO.
November 21, 2025 at 4:28 AM
They need serious help. We have a mental health pandemic on our hands that will rival opioids IMHO.
Reposted by Abe Smith
(this is a supportive QT) I have been getting these messages for 20+ years, and in last 2-3 years, they have moved from "innocent keen slight nutter" to "do not let this guy within 1000 ft of schools or zoos." People have become deranged with AI and an utter lack of mental health care.
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
November 21, 2025 at 4:27 AM
(this is a supportive QT) I have been getting these messages for 20+ years, and in last 2-3 years, they have moved from "innocent keen slight nutter" to "do not let this guy within 1000 ft of schools or zoos." People have become deranged with AI and an utter lack of mental health care.
Reposted by Abe Smith
If you have tenure at Texas A&M and aren't maliciously emailing the president a dozen times every day to ask if you can say this or you can say that, then what's the point in having tenure?
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M adopts policy requiring professors to get OK from school president to discuss certain race and gender issues.
November 13, 2025 at 11:18 PM
If you have tenure at Texas A&M and aren't maliciously emailing the president a dozen times every day to ask if you can say this or you can say that, then what's the point in having tenure?
Reposted by Abe Smith
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
November 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Reposted by Abe Smith
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
November 20, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
Reposted by Abe Smith
Many Southerners view all of the racism and gay-bashing and women-hating as the point of voting for the GOP. You have to understand that many people willingly decide to do evil things because they think they are right. Stop attempting to exonerate them
November 16, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Many Southerners view all of the racism and gay-bashing and women-hating as the point of voting for the GOP. You have to understand that many people willingly decide to do evil things because they think they are right. Stop attempting to exonerate them
Reposted by Abe Smith
This is real. A government agency calling Americans performing their democratic right of protest “imbecilic morons.” This Trump regime is a poison and never should have gotten power. A total disgrace.
November 15, 2025 at 9:55 PM
This is real. A government agency calling Americans performing their democratic right of protest “imbecilic morons.” This Trump regime is a poison and never should have gotten power. A total disgrace.