Founder of Cognitive Resonance, a new venture dedicated to helping people understand human cognition and generative AI. Advocate for humans. Newsletter: https://buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mrkqfmfqhs2tSometimes I think the AI hysteria is worth it just for this guy. I’ve literally got tears in my eyes. [contains quote post or other embedded content]26 Jul 2026 15:52 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrkqfmfqhs2thttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mrfjrrxal22c"America wins the AI era by diffusing it into the workflows of factories, hospitals, farms, classrooms, and main street businesses." -- Jensen Huang The hell it does. [contains quote post or other embedded content]24 Jul 2026 14:10 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrfjrrxal22chttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mrcy5a3mxc24This NYT visual does a nice job showing both the power and the extreme frailty of "AI agents" in handling relatively mundane real-world work tasks. Many assume there'll be continued leaps in performance but what if we're approaching the top of the S-curve? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/07/23/technology/ai-agents-office-jobs.html23 Jul 2026 13:49 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrcy5a3mxc24https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mr5xdlczys2bThere is an interesting divergence right now between artificial agency aka "agentic AI" and how scientists are grappling with ways to conceive of human agency (and that of other living things). @philipcball.bsky.social covers the latter well in this essay. https://www.quantamagazine.org/is-life-just-different-20260708/21 Jul 2026 13:51 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr5xdlczys2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mr5w3s262s2y"To wall off 'contemporary political issues' from our recent history is to make a choice, and here, Anthropic’s algorithm, programmed by Anthropic’s software engineers, is making it very clear that teachers should not connect the past to the present. Shudder." https://buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/why-is-claude-for-teachers21 Jul 2026 13:29 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr5w3s262s2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mqzqvcrbpk2dI’m happy yet still annoyed. Also the game should be over right now. [contains quote post or other embedded content]19 Jul 2026 21:45 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqzqvcrbpk2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mqzqbeywdc2dThe feeling of rooting for Spain to score while being completely annoyed by them is a new sports sensation for me.19 Jul 2026 21:34 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqzqbeywdc2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mqusvefpn22kJust received an email from OpenAI about all the neat things one can create using Codex and it hit me — this is just the old SkyMall catalog but at scale. Stuff that’s kind of novel and semi-intriguing for like two minutes but ultimately solving problems no one really has.17 Jul 2026 22:38 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqusvefpn22khttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mqu7khro522qHas anyone written the definitive essay already on how Anthropic's "Claude for Teachers" is nightmarish package of surveillance software & privacy intrusions, or is that really something I'm going to have to take on over the weekend?17 Jul 2026 16:52 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqu7khro522qhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mqts4hjfas2rThis describes the bigger shifts in my own thinking about human cognition (with culture added as one of the biggest feedback loops). We need to break free from the algorithmic input-output paradigm and get much more dynamic. [contains quote post or other embedded content]17 Jul 2026 12:51 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqts4hjfas2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mqrga6zb5c2kBehold, Claude for Teachers demonstrating its complete inability to connect the past to the present.16 Jul 2026 14:13 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqrga6zb5c2khttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mqevfgvshc2l [contains quote post or other embedded content]11 Jul 2026 14:40 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqevfgvshc2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mq55ib5quc2yAh, you don’t say. (From Brown University class, midterm was take home and professor suspected, accurately, that most students used AI.) [contains quote post or other embedded content]08 Jul 2026 12:43 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mq55ib5quc2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mpjevpfook2uNothing to see here, just a prominent political commentator joking (?) with a pre-teen girl about appointing a Grand Inquisitor to burn women alive. [contains quote post or other embedded content]30 Jun 2026 16:03 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpjevpfook2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mpj5ovaxnc2uThe education question is well crafted. [contains quote post or other embedded content]30 Jun 2026 13:54 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpj5ovaxnc2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mpj4gcmh2c2uTacky, fascist, and slop — the Trump trifecta! [contains quote post or other embedded content]30 Jun 2026 13:31 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpj4gcmh2c2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mpggvoyq3k2i“Large language models, do they write? They certainly produce words. But the process they use is always algorithmic and automated. The word for this process has always struck me as equally apt and harrowing: Autoregression. A mechanistic process of stepping backwards, thoughtlessly.” https://open.substack.com/pub/buildcognitiveresonance/p/how-are-we-writing-the-future-of?r=d8xtt&utm_medium=ios29 Jun 2026 12:01 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpggvoyq3k2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mpcatozon22tBorn a Bicentennial baby, as a kid I imagined how cool it was gonna be to turn 50 the same year that the US turned 250. [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Jun 2026 20:02 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpcatozon22thttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mpc4nplvjs2rHell yeah and this is going straight into my workshops. If you want to call what LLMs are doing “reasoning” I can’t stop you, but I *can* point to the bevy of research including this cool new study that shows how human and AI cognition diverge. [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Jun 2026 18:47 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpc4nplvjs2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mpbckwh3vs2rNice to see more dancing on the grave of Sal Khan’s blighted “vision” for AI in education. (I, ahem, did call my shot two years ago.) [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Jun 2026 11:00 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpbckwh3vs2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mpb6nsim2k2r“All of them are now pronouncing with equal confidence that the future is AI. But we weren’t consulted on the metaverse, either, and as it turned out that mattered a great deal more to the companies than to us. There are limits to how far big tech moguls can impose their vision of the future.” [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Jun 2026 09:50 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpb6nsim2k2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mp7cmdukfc26Powerful thread on what's been a very foreboding week in the US and how we can continue to fight back. Inviting people to participate in civic resistance is key -- activism is contagious, and we need pro-democracy efforts to "break contain" by this November. [contains quote post or other embedded content]26 Jun 2026 15:55 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mp7cmdukfc26https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mp6pmmu7522b“The academic hiring system is simply not designed for candidates like me. It privileges a kind of performative intellectualism…This is not how science works anymore. Science works by prompting, iterating, and deploying.” God I wish I’d written this, it’s perfect. [contains quote post or other embedded content]26 Jun 2026 10:15 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mp6pmmu7522bhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mp34antpuk2uThe “Age of AI” is gonna open up so many opportunities for new businesses that are explicitly pro-human and anti-weird shit like this. [contains quote post or other embedded content]24 Jun 2026 23:51 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mp34antpuk2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mozyhpre6c2tMany interesting thoughts here on AI in education, including this one: “One of the biggest surprises for me was the vocal opposition from a group of students around any AI usage at all—something that was almost entirely absent last year.” I expect this will keep growing. [contains quote post or other embedded content]24 Jun 2026 13:11 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mozyhpre6c2thttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mossbzijcs2iThis essay present a highly accessible overview of what we know, and don’t know, about artificial neural networks. A refreshingly sane, skeptical, and insightful take. [contains quote post or other embedded content]21 Jun 2026 16:31 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mossbzijcs2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mospfso2tc2iEuropean countries were about a year ahead of the US on banning smartphones in school. Just an observation. [contains quote post or other embedded content]21 Jun 2026 15:40 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mospfso2tc2i