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/3mlzbskta5c2yGigli and Grogu [contains quote post or other embedded content]17 May 2026 02:09 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlzbskta5c2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlw6t7gw3c2xAn interesting thing to ponder is a world where we wait to see the results of such studies *before* commercially deploying LLMs at scale. Independent research has already been conducted and the results aren’t impressive! [contains quote post or other embedded content]15 May 2026 20:38 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlw6t7gw3c2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlvomhcurs2u“As someone who studies culture, I would say that consciousness is at least partly for separating metaphor from reality.” There is so much to think about in that single sentence. (The entire op-ed is excellent.) [contains quote post or other embedded content]15 May 2026 15:48 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlvomhcurs2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlvnuh7kp22u“A second-grader named Lillian Keshet, who got up to speak at the board meeting, said Google Docs will give her ‘suggestions’ about what to write in class. ‘I’m a pretty good writer by myself,’ Lillian said. ‘I don’t need your suggestions, Google!’” Hell yeah Lillian! [contains quote post or other embedded content]15 May 2026 15:35 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlvnuh7kp22uhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlvcaeqpx22uAt least in Texas, a pro-AI coalition is currently running ads during the PGA Championship that loudly declare, “Trump will build data centers!” and I’ve never witnessed a greater political miscalculation. People hate these things. The battlefront against the Nerd Reich is here. [contains quote post or other embedded content]15 May 2026 12:06 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlvcaeqpx22uhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlvbtqz3ac24"Nobody wants a parasocial bestie who shills for the plutocrats who are nullifying their votes, degrading their educations, jacking up their power bill, stealing their wages and rigging the system. There is no feminist case for scaring people into adopting AI. Why would anyone even try?" [contains quote post or other embedded content]15 May 2026 11:59 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlvbtqz3ac24https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlvb425lx224"Technology platforms [have] flattened our arguments, our politics, our culture...such that people became ensconced in their own bespoke realities. The same dynamics govern the AI conversation. Humanity rewriting the social contract together sounds nice; less so when you have a gun to your head." [contains quote post or other embedded content]15 May 2026 11:46 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlvb425lx224https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mltc4b27gk2wWhich came first, the music or the misery? @davekarpf.bsky.social clocks this weird little online space we call BlueSky as the modern-day record store and boy does that feel right. And I need to stop making so many mixed tapes. https://davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/bluesky-is-a-record-store?utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=bluesky-is-a-record-store&_bhlid=dce9853b66f462ae527738766fdff6c46cffa2ca14 May 2026 16:59 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mltc4b27gk2whttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mltarkq7w22wGates Foundation releases new RFP pleading for someone to build an open-source AI math tutor "that is as effective as human experts," for $8 million and spread out over hree years. It's incredible how much money is being lit on fire in pursuit of dumb ideas. k12-ai-infrastructure.org/loi-1/ https://k12-ai-infrastructure.org/loi-1/14 May 2026 16:35 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mltarkq7w22whttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlt3ia22pc2wQuotes from kids who digitally detoxed: "When I didn’t have my phone, I couldn’t stop my thoughts. They were overflowing." "As the challenge went on, I learned to concentrate more." "I still haven’t opened TikTok, and I don’t miss it." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/world/europe/smartphones-austria-children-experiment.html14 May 2026 15:00 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlt3ia22pc2whttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlsrx3xqkc2aBetween the opposition to the building of data centers in largely rural red America and the growing realization that it’s terrible for education, anti-AI sentiment may be the issue that alleviates our partisan polarization in the US. Or leads to the creation of a new political party. [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 May 2026 12:10 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlsrx3xqkc2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlrqfhihds2kTed Chiang memorably and metaphorically described AI as a “blurry JPEG of the web” but in this thread we see it functioning to blot out and sanitize history, quite literally. [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 May 2026 02:09 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlrqfhihds2khttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlr5sbjqts2y"Marketing efforts [] demystifying how AI works may inadvertently reduce consumers’ receptivity toward AI by making it seem less magical. Thus, marketing efforts targeting low-AI-literacy consumers may benefit from promoting an aura of magic around AI..." Why I do what I do, full stop.13 May 2026 20:36 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlr5sbjqts2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlqgoeac2s2aI don’t know how often AI “genre glitching” occurs — defined, per @jilltxt.bsky.social, as the weird infusion of extraneous detail irrelevant to the main text — but this is both hilarious and embarrassing. (And surely the price of tomatoes tastes bitter?) [contains quote post or other embedded content]13 May 2026 13:43 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlqgoeac2s2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlqdjbjiec2aAh, you don’t say. [contains quote post or other embedded content]13 May 2026 12:46 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlqdjbjiec2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlocdukbxc2n"The prevalence of AI use on college campuses is a cancer on our culture that threatens to turn a generation of promising young Americans into a class of drooling morons, and it will grotesquely disfigure, if not destroy, the university as an institute in every way that it is imagined." [contains quote post or other embedded content]12 May 2026 17:20 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlocdukbxc2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlnzwnxd6k22Incredibly well-reported story here from @tktk.bsky.social on i-Ready, accurately described herein by one parent as “digital snake oil.” The EdTech-lash continues to grow. [contains quote post or other embedded content]12 May 2026 14:49 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlnzwnxd6k22https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlnssre26k2hWhat the f*** does this even mean? Is she saying, build a new type of 3D printer that can print play-doh or whatever? Or that somehow "mentors" and students in this Fakeass Univ will, despite not knowing any chemistry, just invent an entirely new substance on a whim? [contains quote post or other embedded content]12 May 2026 12:42 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlnssre26k2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlnomyw36s2r“It’s kind of looking grim for the future of the internet.” [contains quote post or other embedded content]12 May 2026 11:27 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlnomyw36s2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlli2t22zs27Watching a video of a HS English teacher promoting Brisk, an "AI-powered teaching assistant." She cheerfully reveals that "she doesn't have time to write meaningful feedback that asks good questions" on student essays bc she's too busy correcting their grammar mistakes. What. Are. We. Doing.11 May 2026 14:24 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlli2t22zs27https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlldhgnsuc2tI watched this woman's entire speech, not pictured in this clip is her declaring moments later, "AI capabilities are in the palm of our hands!" and then getting yet another round of booing from the students. Nice start to my Monday. [contains quote post or other embedded content]11 May 2026 13:02 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlldhgnsuc2thttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mljnbud25s2kThe challenge is that we need to move faster than academia is used to moving. I called this study out as bullshit a mere two weeks after Nature published it (receipts below); one year and 500 citations later, only then is it retracted. [contains quote post or other embedded content]10 May 2026 20:52 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mljnbud25s2khttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlgebe6xzc2wThis is a pretty good summary of the growing backlash to AI intrusion. The label “AI Populism” is kinda weird though, if anything it’s Anti-AI Populism. [contains quote post or other embedded content]09 May 2026 13:33 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlgebe6xzc2whttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlg6mdm2qc2qThe author of this unhinged op-ed goes on to describe this daily practice of mass surveillance as "kind of creepy, but kind of useful too." Really? Is it really such a burden to...look at the pictures of other childrens' faces? [contains quote post or other embedded content]09 May 2026 11:52 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlg6mdm2qc2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlg5ugebec2w“Every evening as our children eat dinner [in China], my phone notifies me that our 3-year-old’s teacher has uploaded photos taken at school. An AI facial recognition feature puts a red square around his face, letting me know which photos to look at.” I cannot fathom writing these words. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/opinion/ai-china-america-race.html09 May 2026 11:38 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlg5ugebec2whttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mldr47r3k22aEventually the harms of educational malpractice do manifest. [contains quote post or other embedded content]08 May 2026 12:45 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mldr47r3k22ahttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlcadzhtz22v“Technology will save teachers so much time.” [contains quote post or other embedded content]07 May 2026 22:12 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlcadzhtz22vhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlbrlaczz22rNot only is there no such evidence, just about everything we know from cognitive science about the importance of building knowledge, IN YOUR HEAD, suggests that we should prohibit AI usage in elementary school, and beyond. (Good thread from @janerosenzweig.bsky.social on all this nonsense) [contains quote post or other embedded content]07 May 2026 17:48 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlbrlaczz22rhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mlbpkjwe322v“Our relationships both to major leading figures in public life and to our fellow Americans in general have degraded into strange brews: fandoms, obsessions, resentments, hatreds, jealousies, and pure fictions concocted from the performative, piecemeal way media allows us to experience one another.” [contains quote post or other embedded content]07 May 2026 17:12 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlbpkjwe322v