Olivier Usher
@ojusher.com
Technology | Innovation prizes | Director of Development at Challenge Works, a @nestauk.bsky.social enterprise | ojusher.com
Not gonna lie, I am not tempted to eat one of these AI oysters
September 16, 2026 at 11:57 AM
Not gonna lie, I am not tempted to eat one of these AI oysters
Not gonna lie, I am not tempted to eat one of these AI oysters
September 16, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Not gonna lie, I am not tempted to eat one of these AI oysters
What happens in a world in which all text is reprocessed for us by LLMs?
ojusher.medium.com/theory-of-mi...
ojusher.medium.com/theory-of-mi...
Theory of mind
When LLMs rewrite things for us, we lose something important: empathy
ojusher.medium.com
September 11, 2026 at 4:56 PM
What happens in a world in which all text is reprocessed for us by LLMs?
ojusher.medium.com/theory-of-mi...
ojusher.medium.com/theory-of-mi...
Reposted by Olivier Usher
I do not need to be jumped scared into not buying a disposable BBQ. Fucks sake.
August 14, 2026 at 6:02 PM
I do not need to be jumped scared into not buying a disposable BBQ. Fucks sake.
I was never quite able to take the BBC series seriously after my dad said he thought the triffids looked like celery
The BBC Day of the Triffids scared the crap out of me when I watched it in 1981. It was broad-minded of my parents to let me watch it. It still lives in my imagination.
August 12, 2026 at 7:46 PM
I was never quite able to take the BBC series seriously after my dad said he thought the triffids looked like celery
Delighted to be targeted for ads for, uh, whatever these are. I wouldn't dream of penny-pinching and going for the £4,600 option.
August 12, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Delighted to be targeted for ads for, uh, whatever these are. I wouldn't dream of penny-pinching and going for the £4,600 option.
My vibes-based but strongly-held opinion:
🪖 The Soviets, Pinochet, Mobutu and Mussolini would have loved AI.
🎖️ The Khmer Rouge, English Puritans, Nazis and Falangists would have hated it.
ojusher.medium.com/chatkgb-what...
🪖 The Soviets, Pinochet, Mobutu and Mussolini would have loved AI.
🎖️ The Khmer Rouge, English Puritans, Nazis and Falangists would have hated it.
ojusher.medium.com/chatkgb-what...
ChatKGB: what would the Soviets have made of AI?
And other what-ifs from the history of tyranny
ojusher.medium.com
July 23, 2026 at 9:57 AM
My vibes-based but strongly-held opinion:
🪖 The Soviets, Pinochet, Mobutu and Mussolini would have loved AI.
🎖️ The Khmer Rouge, English Puritans, Nazis and Falangists would have hated it.
ojusher.medium.com/chatkgb-what...
🪖 The Soviets, Pinochet, Mobutu and Mussolini would have loved AI.
🎖️ The Khmer Rouge, English Puritans, Nazis and Falangists would have hated it.
ojusher.medium.com/chatkgb-what...
This excellent question from @zachweinersmith.bsky.social has been playing on my mind, so I've had a go at thinking through what various horrible dictatorships would have made of AI. ojusher.medium.com/chatkgb-what...
July 22, 2026 at 7:53 PM
This excellent question from @zachweinersmith.bsky.social has been playing on my mind, so I've had a go at thinking through what various horrible dictatorships would have made of AI. ojusher.medium.com/chatkgb-what...
It's now over 18 years since there was a government department led by a Welsh MP (Hain, DWP) and over 16 years since there was a Scottish MP (Darling, Treasury; Alexander, DFID).
I know there's a lot going on, but I think this is genuinely insane if you care even slightly about the union.
I know there's a lot going on, but I think this is genuinely insane if you care even slightly about the union.
July 21, 2026 at 8:15 AM
It's now over 18 years since there was a government department led by a Welsh MP (Hain, DWP) and over 16 years since there was a Scottish MP (Darling, Treasury; Alexander, DFID).
I know there's a lot going on, but I think this is genuinely insane if you care even slightly about the union.
I know there's a lot going on, but I think this is genuinely insane if you care even slightly about the union.
Everyone in science and technology policy world today
July 21, 2026 at 7:42 AM
Everyone in science and technology policy world today
The thing with these freaks like Dominic Cummings and all his imitators is that they've never had a real job, so you could stick a Salesforce or Looker Studio dashboard on a big screen and tell them all about the "PhD physicists" who had developed it and they would be impressed.
ANDY BURNHAM PLANS BEEFED-UP CONTROL CENTRE IN DOWNING STREET - FT
July 20, 2026 at 8:38 AM
The thing with these freaks like Dominic Cummings and all his imitators is that they've never had a real job, so you could stick a Salesforce or Looker Studio dashboard on a big screen and tell them all about the "PhD physicists" who had developed it and they would be impressed.
This posts your Trophies directly to your National Record of Achievement
July 19, 2026 at 7:13 AM
This posts your Trophies directly to your National Record of Achievement
Reviewing dozens of job slopplications today. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
July 17, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Reviewing dozens of job slopplications today. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
This is ridiculous, but there’s also a ridiculous loophole. Fly to Dublin on your EU passport. You’re then in the common travel area and can continue on to the UK without checks.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
British girl, 15, stranded in Rome for six weeks due to new passport rules
The dual national, who missed six weeks of school, is latest of several children affected by recent Home Office policy
www.theguardian.com
July 16, 2026 at 6:30 AM
This is ridiculous, but there’s also a ridiculous loophole. Fly to Dublin on your EU passport. You’re then in the common travel area and can continue on to the UK without checks.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Olivier Usher
"As far as the government is concerned, they’ve washed their hands of us. Would they do that to a white person?" For a @prospectmagazine.co.uk feature on Britain's citizenship-stripping boom, I spoke to families of people who have had citizenship revoked www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/uk/...
Britain’s citizens of nowhere
Hundreds of UK nationals have been made stateless, and left trapped in squalid refugee camps, without being convicted of any crime
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
July 15, 2026 at 1:49 PM
"As far as the government is concerned, they’ve washed their hands of us. Would they do that to a white person?" For a @prospectmagazine.co.uk feature on Britain's citizenship-stripping boom, I spoke to families of people who have had citizenship revoked www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/uk/...
This is art.
looks like Thames Water has given a 14% pay rise to its chief executive and a 26% rise to its finance director
July 15, 2026 at 1:38 PM
This is art.
This is a really excellent question, and I think the answer is that they would have loved it, for reasons that are not a great compliment either to Soviet economics or to AI.
Weird hypothetical: how do you think the USSR would've responded to the development of LLMs?
July 14, 2026 at 7:19 PM
This is a really excellent question, and I think the answer is that they would have loved it, for reasons that are not a great compliment either to Soviet economics or to AI.
Reposted by Olivier Usher
Weird hypothetical: how do you think the USSR would've responded to the development of LLMs?
July 14, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Weird hypothetical: how do you think the USSR would've responded to the development of LLMs?
every hometown’s got the ominous megastructure, what’s yours?
July 10, 2026 at 8:53 PM
every hometown’s got the ominous megastructure, what’s yours?
My controversial take is that Euston Station really doesn't deserve the hate. With more sympathetic shop frontages inside, the mezzanine removed and some clutter cleaned up, it could actually be a pretty classy space.
Ticket Hall, Euston Railway Station
1968
British Rail London Midland Region Architects Dept.
buff.ly/uyX9nJv
1968
British Rail London Midland Region Architects Dept.
buff.ly/uyX9nJv
July 10, 2026 at 10:19 AM
My controversial take is that Euston Station really doesn't deserve the hate. With more sympathetic shop frontages inside, the mezzanine removed and some clutter cleaned up, it could actually be a pretty classy space.
Idea: companies should only be allowed to present AI-generated text to customers if they use a font that clearly indicates you’re talking to a robot
July 4, 2026 at 1:13 PM
Idea: companies should only be allowed to present AI-generated text to customers if they use a font that clearly indicates you’re talking to a robot
Is drug dealers advertising on Google Maps a new thing?
June 30, 2026 at 11:31 AM
Is drug dealers advertising on Google Maps a new thing?
If they could bring it forward to 12 July then it would make it 7 PMs in 10 years.
The most likely transition date is around or just before 16th July 2026 (if there is only one candidate after noms open on 9th July).
June 29, 2026 at 5:45 PM
If they could bring it forward to 12 July then it would make it 7 PMs in 10 years.
@gwr.com If your service is running an hour late and the previous two were cancelled, how about you open the ticket barriers rather than wasting even more of everybody’s time, eh? You’re going to have to delay-repay everyone anyway.
June 27, 2026 at 12:58 PM
@gwr.com If your service is running an hour late and the previous two were cancelled, how about you open the ticket barriers rather than wasting even more of everybody’s time, eh? You’re going to have to delay-repay everyone anyway.
Cars will have a kinetic energy limit, not a speed limit.
This would be based on the current speed limits, as applied to the lightest car currently available on the market.
This would be based on the current speed limits, as applied to the lightest car currently available on the market.
They've finally run out of toffs to stand as PM, your name has been pulled from the hat, what's your one (1) manifesto pledge?
Let's assume UBI, PR & tax/eat the rich are standard. I want your petty policies, your extremely personal grudges, your old man yells at cloud laws
Let's assume UBI, PR & tax/eat the rich are standard. I want your petty policies, your extremely personal grudges, your old man yells at cloud laws
June 23, 2026 at 10:33 AM
Cars will have a kinetic energy limit, not a speed limit.
This would be based on the current speed limits, as applied to the lightest car currently available on the market.
This would be based on the current speed limits, as applied to the lightest car currently available on the market.