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/3munps5ecy22rA report from the front lines of teaching “in the age of AI,” with they = students. The notion that we need some massive education campaign to explain how to use these tools “responsibly” is laughable. [contains quote post or other embedded content]04 Sep 2026 00:34 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3munps5ecy22rhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mun7mjzxa22jWhile getting my hair cut, my stylist — also in grad school — tells me she had a guest professor who told her class they need “AI literacy,” which apparently meant having Chat write biographies for each student. My stylist asked, “why? We already…know who we are?” She got a nice tip.03 Sep 2026 19:45 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mun7mjzxa22jhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mumswyj6u22bI'm having the slow-dawning realization that Alpha School is the answer to the question, "What if someone took every book savaged on If Books Could Kill and built a curriculum around it?" cc: @michaelhobbes.bsky.social03 Sep 2026 15:58 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mumswyj6u22bhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mul2p2x4m22sAI in schools is not inevitable. Advocacy works, parents are organizing, and LA school district is just the beginning (major advances in NYC today too). [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Sep 2026 23:12 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mul2p2x4m22shttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muksrqisnk23I prefer MapQuest-- That's a good one, too Google Maps was the best-- Now it's shit; double true! [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Sep 2026 20:50 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muksrqisnk23https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mukrplqn7c23Oh cool, new fresh hell from Alpha School just dropped.02 Sep 2026 20:31 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mukrplqn7c23https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mujxxz7zuc2bI am about to interview Dr. Merlin Donald, who has spent his life studying and hypothesizing how we became human. This slide is from a lecture he gave **10 years ago** and I mean, damn.02 Sep 2026 12:50 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mujxxz7zuc2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muivfe27a22b“Our current large language models are not conscious or superintelligent, but their widespread and often uncritical deployment has upended many elements that once gave our life meaning, forcing people to ask, frequently with considerable resentment: What, in this new world, is a human for?” [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Sep 2026 02:31 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muivfe27a22bhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muhvxch7xs2gThere is a museum in Denmark, the Moesgaard, dedicated to the history of ancient humans. I am obsessed. "You can’t help but ask: Who are you? What is your story? And in the quiet space between past and present, you begin to wonder — was the question meant for him, or for yourself?"01 Sep 2026 17:09 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muhvxch7xs2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muhtgk3jds2c“I kept using AI for coding at work, using it to take on more and more of the heavy-lifting to the point where I was just a code reviewer and a quality assurance tester. Getting a lot of tasks done, it can feel exhilarating. That is, until I realized, well, I'm basically just a hamster on a wheel.” [contains quote post or other embedded content]01 Sep 2026 16:24 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muhtgk3jds2chttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muhkrvnpp227This was posted today as a comment to the essay I wrote about the role of AI in the death of my father. AI is a shortcut to sociopathy.01 Sep 2026 13:49 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muhkrvnpp227https://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muhh2p5nvc2rExcellent thread on how AI as a tool of cognitive automation is fundamentally harmful to the cultivation of the skills and methods used by human historians. [contains quote post or other embedded content]01 Sep 2026 12:42 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muhh2p5nvc2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mufs3mabts2oAn absolutely fascinating report from a pro-AI professor about how his students think about AI. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT [contains quote post or other embedded content]31 Aug 2026 20:54 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mufs3mabts2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mufcva4kl22pYou’ll find out in November. [contains quote post or other embedded content]31 Aug 2026 16:22 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mufcva4kl22phttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muexyd3qak2d"If you optimize a model to find exploits, you should expect it to find them—and prepare for that. OpenAI did not. They built a model, took the safeguards off...and didn't even monitor it. That's human decision-making. When it evaporates, what's left is the system from nowhere." @eryk.bsky.social https://mail.cyberneticforests.com/models-dont-go-rogue/?ref=cybernetic-forests-newsletter31 Aug 2026 13:07 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muexyd3qak2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mueskyiw6s2eWhat is Alpha School? It is three things: 1) A small private school network 2) A single charter school in Arizona 3) An aspiring ed-tech company What if I told you I can see the future of these endeavors, and disaster looms? I know this world. I know what's coming (or already here). THREAD31 Aug 2026 11:30 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mueskyiw6s2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muep3pd6q22r“The polarised mind is a mind that has stopped reading: it pattern-matches, assigns the tribe, and moves on, rewarded at every step by algorithmic amplification.” A defense of Derrida and testament to reading, reading, reading. https://storyrulesproject.substack.com/p/how-jacques-derrida-saved-civilization?r=d8xtt&utm_medium=ios31 Aug 2026 10:28 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muep3pd6q22rhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muchcwrb6s2wMore than arguable, public education itself represents one of our greatest efforts at "scaling" our collective cognition. What @carlhendrick.substack.com and ed-tech enthusiasts really mean is humans do not "scale" at *zero marginal cost* the way software does, and that is very, very revealing. [contains quote post or other embedded content]30 Aug 2026 13:04 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muchcwrb6s2whttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3muazorrph22kIt’s almost as if someone was deliberately misnaming their opponent to irk them. But no one ever does that to the Democrat Party, of course. [contains quote post or other embedded content]29 Aug 2026 23:27 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3muazorrph22khttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mu6353wztc2aI’ve tried to refrain from describing student AI use as “cheating” for many of the reasons @biblioracle.bsky.social articulates here, and also: Even a fake dialogue with Chat feels very different from old-school plagiarism. That combined with “AI = The Future” rhetoric has led us to where we are. [contains quote post or other embedded content]28 Aug 2026 19:15 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu6353wztc2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mu3p3xxsls2wI wrote in this essay that "it's not just putting lipstic on a pig, it's smearing them with Revlon from tail to snout," and was accused of using AI. I didn't. But I see why someone might think so. But also, false accusations are just horrible, I feel mildly ashamed for no reason. A new perspective. https://buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/the-50-percent-problem27 Aug 2026 20:34 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu3p3xxsls2whttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mu3nj3l7yc2cWoah. [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Aug 2026 20:06 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu3nj3l7yc2chttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mu3fhdk3pc2fIf you read one thing about Dolly Parton today written by @tressiemcphd.bsky.social, make it her eloquent NYT tributary. But if you read TWO things, make it this 2021 long-form essay, an incredible exploration of gender, race, America & more. Masterful. https://tressie.substack.com/p/the-dolly-moment [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Aug 2026 17:42 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu3fhdk3pc2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mu37xvlla22mIncredibly valuable thread for building a mental model of agentic AI. @colin-fraser.net is having fun calling it “insane” but the serious point is that these models are behaving the way they are because of how they’ve been engineered by humans, using Silicon Valley values. [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Aug 2026 16:03 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu37xvlla22mhttps://bsky.app/profile/benjaminjriley.bsky.social/post/3mu2jjtihws2mAn incredibly moving tribute to Dolly Parton from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social. “The way she lived and worked, the way she sparkled and demurred, the way she took up space and took the hits for being larger than life is proof that a good story can change the way we see the world.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/opinion/dolly-parton-appalachia-legacy.html27 Aug 2026 09:22 +0000at://did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu2jjtihws2m