Cthos
@cthos.dev
(he/him) Just a guy with a blog and some TTRPG stuff occasionally talks about tech. I mostly blog about tech over at alextheward.com and ttrpg stuff at cthonicstudios.com
@[email protected] over on Mastodon
@[email protected] over on Mastodon
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Cthos
@cthos.dev
· Oct 20
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Alex Ward, Software Developer / Architect
alextheward.com
It occurs to me I never did an intro post. Hi, I'm cthos (also Alex) and I've been doing tech professionally for a long time and now I'm doing a lot of #ttrpg design and writing and stuff.
I blog tech over here: alextheward.com
I blog ttrpgs here: cthonicstudios.com
And itch here: cthos.itch.io
I blog tech over here: alextheward.com
I blog ttrpgs here: cthonicstudios.com
And itch here: cthos.itch.io
Reposted by Cthos
Is OpenAI a turkey because this headline is a stonecold murder
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates on.ft.com/4ij0yh8
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates
A burning platform
on.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Is OpenAI a turkey because this headline is a stonecold murder
Reposted by Cthos
i agree with this
People are calling this “lazy” which I think is kind of missing what’s going on here. Increasingly convinced that the comparable technology, in how it interacts with the human nervous system, is the slot machine.
November 26, 2025 at 9:25 PM
i agree with this
New 24xx microgame is out! Lo-fi Body Horror awaits you in Enhanced Ink: cthos.itch.io/enhanced-ink
And yes, I am pleased with myself that the maybe-evil corporation is called "Enhanced Ink, Inc."
And yes, I am pleased with myself that the maybe-evil corporation is called "Enhanced Ink, Inc."
Enhanced Ink by cthos
cthos.itch.io
November 26, 2025 at 9:13 PM
New 24xx microgame is out! Lo-fi Body Horror awaits you in Enhanced Ink: cthos.itch.io/enhanced-ink
And yes, I am pleased with myself that the maybe-evil corporation is called "Enhanced Ink, Inc."
And yes, I am pleased with myself that the maybe-evil corporation is called "Enhanced Ink, Inc."
Reposted by Cthos
NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet -- And Thanksgiving Dinner
Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures
www.bloomberg.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving.
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Uggghghhhhhhhh
OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS
Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service
November 26, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Uggghghhhhhhhh
Reposted by Cthos
OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS
Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service
November 26, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Reposted by Cthos
hey LA, my pal @markvigeant.bsky.social has a new show happening v soon that you should go see www.elysiantheater.com/shows/outthe...
Mark Vigeant: OUT THERE — The Elysian
Journey into the wilderness of Alaska where you’ll meet Larry, a burnt-out engineer who is risking his life to make it big on YouTube as a survivalist. But his relentless pursuit of fame quickly spira...
www.elysiantheater.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:29 PM
hey LA, my pal @markvigeant.bsky.social has a new show happening v soon that you should go see www.elysiantheater.com/shows/outthe...
Reposted by Cthos
Notice the sleight of hand in the last post below where Sacks talks about AI’s contribution to GDP *growth* while hoping people will misinterpret it as total GDP.
November 25, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Notice the sleight of hand in the last post below where Sacks talks about AI’s contribution to GDP *growth* while hoping people will misinterpret it as total GDP.
Oh, so bailout it is then. Great.
November 25, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Oh, so bailout it is then. Great.
Reposted by Cthos
Like, the very first rule of doing anything at all creative is *you have to give a fuck about it*
Using genAI is proof you don't.
Using genAI is proof you don't.
November 24, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Like, the very first rule of doing anything at all creative is *you have to give a fuck about it*
Using genAI is proof you don't.
Using genAI is proof you don't.
Reposted by Cthos
If you are an Actual Play producer (or otherwise the copyright holder) and you are interested in uploading your show to the Internet Archive, please let me know and I can help you through the whole process!
If we get 50 shows to coordinate, we can make a collection :)
Message me here or email me!
If we get 50 shows to coordinate, we can make a collection :)
Message me here or email me!
I updated my guide to digital preservation of Actual Play to make it easier to navigate & added a little diagram to explain the relationship between backups, digital preservation & digital archives
allmyfriendsarestories.neocities.org/digitalpres
Also, now it has a glitter cursor.
allmyfriendsarestories.neocities.org/digitalpres
Also, now it has a glitter cursor.
Digital Preservation of Actual Play
All My Friends Are Stories is a project designed to help people tell collaborative stories through Table Top Roleplaying Games (TTRPG). There are so many ways to play TTRPGs: you can play them for the...
allmyfriendsarestories.neocities.org
November 24, 2025 at 3:35 AM
If you are an Actual Play producer (or otherwise the copyright holder) and you are interested in uploading your show to the Internet Archive, please let me know and I can help you through the whole process!
If we get 50 shows to coordinate, we can make a collection :)
Message me here or email me!
If we get 50 shows to coordinate, we can make a collection :)
Message me here or email me!
Reposted by Cthos
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 11:16 PM
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
Reposted by Cthos
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 Cthos
"THE FUCKING POINT IS, SUPPORT INDIE PUBLISHING."
Great thread here of some fantastic indie presses to support directly with your dollars this holiday season (and all other seasons).
Great thread here of some fantastic indie presses to support directly with your dollars this holiday season (and all other seasons).
@shortwavebooks.bsky.social for books across the speculative genres;
@chmmagazine.bsky.social for the best Weird Horror/Sword & Sorcery magazines;
@malarkeybooks.bsky.social who force us all to be smarter & more literary;
I'll never remember everyone.
THE FUCKING POINT IS, SUPPORT INDIE PUBLISHING.
@chmmagazine.bsky.social for the best Weird Horror/Sword & Sorcery magazines;
@malarkeybooks.bsky.social who force us all to be smarter & more literary;
I'll never remember everyone.
THE FUCKING POINT IS, SUPPORT INDIE PUBLISHING.
November 22, 2025 at 10:42 PM
"THE FUCKING POINT IS, SUPPORT INDIE PUBLISHING."
Great thread here of some fantastic indie presses to support directly with your dollars this holiday season (and all other seasons).
Great thread here of some fantastic indie presses to support directly with your dollars this holiday season (and all other seasons).
I ranted a bit about the Mozilla thing because I keep hearing the same arguments of AI inevitability wrapped in a "but I think a better future is possible (with 'ethical LLMs')" - alextheward.com/blog/mozilla...
If your solution to "LLMs are causing harm" is "more LLM", then you're a booster.
If your solution to "LLMs are causing harm" is "more LLM", then you're a booster.
Mozilla is now an AI company
Let's talk about Mozilla going all-in on genai.
alextheward.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:17 PM
I ranted a bit about the Mozilla thing because I keep hearing the same arguments of AI inevitability wrapped in a "but I think a better future is possible (with 'ethical LLMs')" - alextheward.com/blog/mozilla...
If your solution to "LLMs are causing harm" is "more LLM", then you're a booster.
If your solution to "LLMs are causing harm" is "more LLM", then you're a booster.
Reposted by Cthos
America putting most of its eggs in the generative AI basket, China going hard into green tech. When history looks back on this period, someone is going to look awfully stupid.
November 22, 2025 at 7:18 PM
America putting most of its eggs in the generative AI basket, China going hard into green tech. When history looks back on this period, someone is going to look awfully stupid.
Reposted by Cthos
Grand opening, grand closing.
X quietly disabled a new feature that showed which country an account was posting from when it revealed that lots of popular right wing MAGA accounts were being run from foreign countries like India and Nigeria.
X quietly disabled a new feature that showed which country an account was posting from when it revealed that lots of popular right wing MAGA accounts were being run from foreign countries like India and Nigeria.
November 22, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Grand opening, grand closing.
X quietly disabled a new feature that showed which country an account was posting from when it revealed that lots of popular right wing MAGA accounts were being run from foreign countries like India and Nigeria.
X quietly disabled a new feature that showed which country an account was posting from when it revealed that lots of popular right wing MAGA accounts were being run from foreign countries like India and Nigeria.
Reposted by Cthos
So I updated to Firefox 145.0 and you know what it did, it switched all the browser.ml.* stuff on again!
When @firefox.com claims this is a choice, they are lying. They continue to try to force AI garbage onto people.
When @firefox.com claims this is a choice, they are lying. They continue to try to force AI garbage onto people.
Thank you for the feedback David. It's important to note that these features are optional and local models are downloaded if the feature is used.
Skip it entirely if you want. We understand this won't please everyone but we strongly believe in giving people a choice in how they browse.
Skip it entirely if you want. We understand this won't please everyone but we strongly believe in giving people a choice in how they browse.
November 22, 2025 at 4:47 PM
So I updated to Firefox 145.0 and you know what it did, it switched all the browser.ml.* stuff on again!
When @firefox.com claims this is a choice, they are lying. They continue to try to force AI garbage onto people.
When @firefox.com claims this is a choice, they are lying. They continue to try to force AI garbage onto people.
Reposted by Cthos
Can you really even call yourself a writer if you've never used an ellipsis... (a parenthetical aside) and an em dash—in the same paragraph?
(this is a joke, don't yell at me)
(but also, I just did this, no regrets)
(this is a joke, don't yell at me)
(but also, I just did this, no regrets)
November 21, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Can you really even call yourself a writer if you've never used an ellipsis... (a parenthetical aside) and an em dash—in the same paragraph?
(this is a joke, don't yell at me)
(but also, I just did this, no regrets)
(this is a joke, don't yell at me)
(but also, I just did this, no regrets)
Reposted by Cthos
Reposted by Cthos
"History shows us that the right to literacy came at a heavy cost for many Americans, ranging from ostracism to death. Those in power recognized that oppression is best maintained by keeping the masses illiterate, and those oppressed recognized that literacy is liberation."
Beautifully written & reasoned 3 min read. “To my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”
Commentary from a cool prof in 🧵
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
Commentary from a cool prof in 🧵
www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
I Set A Trap To Catch My Students Cheating With AI. The Results Were Shocking.
"Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead."
www.huffpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:48 PM
"History shows us that the right to literacy came at a heavy cost for many Americans, ranging from ostracism to death. Those in power recognized that oppression is best maintained by keeping the masses illiterate, and those oppressed recognized that literacy is liberation."
Reposted by Cthos
🦊
“Artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future.”
I hear that line a lot. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-li...
“Artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future.”
I hear that line a lot. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-li...
The line and the stream. — ethanmarcotte.com
“Artificial intelligence is the future,” they tell me. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:05 PM
🦊
“Artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future.”
I hear that line a lot. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-li...
“Artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future.”
I hear that line a lot. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-li...
Reposted by Cthos
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
Reposted by Cthos
If you're doing any sort of Medieval #WorldBuilding, for game design or novels or whatever, & you haven't seen Ruth Goodman's "Tudor Monastery Farm", you're in for a treat. I highly recommend her & the crew, & not just for this particular series. #ttrpg #history
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
BBC Two - Tudor Monastery Farm, Series 1
Turning back the clock to early Tudor farming on monastery land.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 12:25 AM
If you're doing any sort of Medieval #WorldBuilding, for game design or novels or whatever, & you haven't seen Ruth Goodman's "Tudor Monastery Farm", you're in for a treat. I highly recommend her & the crew, & not just for this particular series. #ttrpg #history
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...