robert p. baird
@robertpbaird.com
Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that. || I'm on a Bsky hiatus, but THE NIMBUS, my debut novel, is now available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. || robertpbaird.com
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robert p. baird
@robertpbaird.com
· Nov 20
Such a treat to find THE NIMBUS on WaPo’s list of the best fiction of the year! www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...
I really don't know what to say, which is probably good because this isn't the place and anyway she hated the usual pieties. Friendship with her was hardly uncomplicated, but right now all I can think of are the wonders she worked on the page and her astonishing generosity off it. RIP, Annie.
September 16, 2026 at 4:49 PM
I really don't know what to say, which is probably good because this isn't the place and anyway she hated the usual pieties. Friendship with her was hardly uncomplicated, but right now all I can think of are the wonders she worked on the page and her astonishing generosity off it. RIP, Annie.
"…there is something larger at stake here for the left. The failure to think clearly about the pacing proposal is downstream of the failure to think clearly about AI as a whole." — @bentarnoff.com, singing a welcome song bentarnoff.substack.com/p/on-the-pac...
September 15, 2026 at 10:18 PM
"…there is something larger at stake here for the left. The failure to think clearly about the pacing proposal is downstream of the failure to think clearly about AI as a whole." — @bentarnoff.com, singing a welcome song bentarnoff.substack.com/p/on-the-pac...
There’s been some agitation recently, esp. among people just tuning into the AI safety discussion, about the preponderance of EA/LessWrong types in AI research, and what that means for the safety and ethics proposals on offer.
September 15, 2026 at 6:01 PM
There’s been some agitation recently, esp. among people just tuning into the AI safety discussion, about the preponderance of EA/LessWrong types in AI research, and what that means for the safety and ethics proposals on offer.
The March of the Ten Thousand where "im not owned! im not owned!!" takes the place of "thalatta! thalatta!"
Bluesky's reckoning with AI is shaping up to be as tortuous and torturous as its belated concession that it was a meaningful infirmity, and not a media conspiracy, that pushed Biden out of the 2024 election. Granted that I was tardy on the former point as well, it's still something to behold.
September 15, 2026 at 12:46 PM
The March of the Ten Thousand where "im not owned! im not owned!!" takes the place of "thalatta! thalatta!"
Bluesky's reckoning with AI is shaping up to be as tortuous and torturous as its belated concession that it was a meaningful infirmity, and not a media conspiracy, that pushed Biden out of the 2024 election. Granted that I was tardy on the former point as well, it's still something to behold.
September 15, 2026 at 12:40 PM
Bluesky's reckoning with AI is shaping up to be as tortuous and torturous as its belated concession that it was a meaningful infirmity, and not a media conspiracy, that pushed Biden out of the 2024 election. Granted that I was tardy on the former point as well, it's still something to behold.
Man do I feel this. Part of the problem is that good autofiction makes itself look easy, in a way good maximalist fiction does not. Also, though, I blame the dumb hype that made autofiction out to be something new, even radical, instead of a marketing term for what (some) fiction has always done.
I am so done with low effort autofiction. Just because it happened to you doesnt make it interesting.
September 14, 2026 at 1:13 PM
Man do I feel this. Part of the problem is that good autofiction makes itself look easy, in a way good maximalist fiction does not. Also, though, I blame the dumb hype that made autofiction out to be something new, even radical, instead of a marketing term for what (some) fiction has always done.
But this isn't what's happening? Amodei et al argue: we're building bridges too fast w/o understanding how they work or how to prevent further collapses. Meanwhile, critics say: you're overhyping the dangers of collapsing bridges as a form of marketing, distraction, and/or anticompetitive collusion.
"The whole “Oh no, our models went rogue” thing … When a bridge collapses, you don’t analyze whether the bridge was ethical or sentient or why it decided to collapse. You ask, who is the person who built this bridge to be so flimsy?"
www.wired.com/story/one-of...
www.wired.com/story/one-of...
One of AI’s Fiercest Critics Says All the Doom Talk Is ‘Meant to Distract Us’
Timnit Gebru argues that AI companies are stoking fears of extinction to avoid discussing actual harms, like autonomous weapons.
www.wired.com
September 13, 2026 at 5:43 PM
But this isn't what's happening? Amodei et al argue: we're building bridges too fast w/o understanding how they work or how to prevent further collapses. Meanwhile, critics say: you're overhyping the dangers of collapsing bridges as a form of marketing, distraction, and/or anticompetitive collusion.
Reposted by robert p. baird
The reasoning in this thread about AI strikes me as impeccable. His novel is really good too. (And no, we’re not related, although I have to admit he has a very fine name.)
When you’re young, it’s very easy to tell yourself that stuff you’re seeing in the world is new and unprecedented. It is to you, after all, and moreover what’s new and unprecedented carries a powerful emotional charge.
September 13, 2026 at 4:00 PM
The reasoning in this thread about AI strikes me as impeccable. His novel is really good too. (And no, we’re not related, although I have to admit he has a very fine name.)
A shorter way to say what I'm saying below: I think AI is new in important material and conceptual ways. One consequence of that view is that I'm suspicious of claims that present it as something pre-cooked for comprehension, as though it needn't bother to exist for us to understand it.
When you’re young, it’s very easy to tell yourself that stuff you’re seeing in the world is new and unprecedented. It is to you, after all, and moreover what’s new and unprecedented carries a powerful emotional charge.
September 13, 2026 at 3:32 PM
A shorter way to say what I'm saying below: I think AI is new in important material and conceptual ways. One consequence of that view is that I'm suspicious of claims that present it as something pre-cooked for comprehension, as though it needn't bother to exist for us to understand it.
When you’re young, it’s very easy to tell yourself that stuff you’re seeing in the world is new and unprecedented. It is to you, after all, and moreover what’s new and unprecedented carries a powerful emotional charge.
September 13, 2026 at 2:31 PM
When you’re young, it’s very easy to tell yourself that stuff you’re seeing in the world is new and unprecedented. It is to you, after all, and moreover what’s new and unprecedented carries a powerful emotional charge.
Chicago friends! I’ll be talking to Kathleen Rooney and Ann McGlinn today at 11 for the Printers Row Lit Fest. (On the second floor of Grace Place at 637 S. Dearborn.) If you’re at the festival, please stop by!
September 12, 2026 at 12:41 PM
Chicago friends! I’ll be talking to Kathleen Rooney and Ann McGlinn today at 11 for the Printers Row Lit Fest. (On the second floor of Grace Place at 637 S. Dearborn.) If you’re at the festival, please stop by!
Everyone (me included) is still trying to get a grip on the best way to think about what AI is and does. And I don’t want to dismiss the usefulness of analogies and as-if thinking. But it really helps a lot to remember that every llm is at root a computer program that generates outputs from inputs.
September 11, 2026 at 7:17 PM
Everyone (me included) is still trying to get a grip on the best way to think about what AI is and does. And I don’t want to dismiss the usefulness of analogies and as-if thinking. But it really helps a lot to remember that every llm is at root a computer program that generates outputs from inputs.
Twenty-five years ago I’d just moved to Chicago to start grad school. It was my first or second night in my new apartment. I was still sleeping on a blow-up mattress. Woke up to a panicked phone call from my mom in California, who told me what happened & was terrified that Chicago was next in line.
September 11, 2026 at 1:40 PM
Twenty-five years ago I’d just moved to Chicago to start grad school. It was my first or second night in my new apartment. I was still sleeping on a blow-up mattress. Woke up to a panicked phone call from my mom in California, who told me what happened & was terrified that Chicago was next in line.
Reposted by robert p. baird
Anyway you should read Steve Kandell’s beautiful piece www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stev...
The Worst Day Of My Life Is Now New York’s Hottest Tourist Attraction
Nearly 13 years after my sister’s death, a reluctant Sunday visit to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, where public spectacle and private grief have a permanent home together.
www.buzzfeednews.com
September 11, 2026 at 12:37 PM
Anyway you should read Steve Kandell’s beautiful piece www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stev...
Reposted by robert p. baird
There is some wonderful seriousness to the business of living, and one is not exempted by being a poet.
—John Cheever, journal
—John Cheever, journal
September 10, 2026 at 11:17 AM
There is some wonderful seriousness to the business of living, and one is not exempted by being a poet.
—John Cheever, journal
—John Cheever, journal
There’s a genuine credibility problem here, though: by holding the stochastic-parrots line so long, the left has trapped itself in a version of the old joke about small portions: AI is a scam, and plus it’s too powerful! No believes the left actually supports responsible AI development.
I think the political left should be the loudest voice calling for an AI model development pause, frontier pacing, and mandatory third party audits right now. Put aside the doomer stuff (though I think it’s plausible), we just found out that OpenAI’s agents committed a pretty major felony!
September 9, 2026 at 4:53 PM
There’s a genuine credibility problem here, though: by holding the stochastic-parrots line so long, the left has trapped itself in a version of the old joke about small portions: AI is a scam, and plus it’s too powerful! No believes the left actually supports responsible AI development.
I endorse every word of this except "becomes"—we were born in that muddle!
I worry less about low-probably AI disasters (human extinction) than about what seems far more probable: a big mess, where AI does some great things, some terrible things, and lots so-so things, and daily life becomes a tech-fueled muddle.
September 9, 2026 at 3:32 PM
I endorse every word of this except "becomes"—we were born in that muddle!
Reposted by robert p. baird
Only connectome
This is how, as a scientist, you write an elegant letter to a literary journal
September 9, 2026 at 10:34 AM
Only connectome
His eyes are staring…his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet.
WTF is this? Is it Liberty? Is it an angel or goddess? Is it hodgepodge? Was it design by AI? Some whacked out design company came up with it. Not an artist. Did Trump tell them what?
Without approval, the would be king is starting the Arch with is offensive thing.
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/u...
Without approval, the would be king is starting the Arch with is offensive thing.
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/u...
September 4, 2026 at 2:31 PM
His eyes are staring…his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet.
RIP, Dolly. One of the greats of our (or any) time.
August 25, 2026 at 7:57 PM
RIP, Dolly. One of the greats of our (or any) time.
Pretty wild to watch people freak out about Anthropic’s text watermarking. One of the purest “hit dogs will holler“ moments I’ve seen in a while: daringfireball.net/2026/08/anth...
Anthropic’s ‘Watermark’ Text Adulteration in Claude Is a Perversion of Writing
It’s unacceptable for a tool to sacrifice an iota of clarity, coherence, meaning, quality, etc. for the purpose of embedding hidden clues within the text to suggest its provenance. The idea that anyth...
daringfireball.net
August 17, 2026 at 3:29 PM
Pretty wild to watch people freak out about Anthropic’s text watermarking. One of the purest “hit dogs will holler“ moments I’ve seen in a while: daringfireball.net/2026/08/anth...
"it is worth formulating a principle of not being a fucking mark"
Plenty to reflect about re: the Arday affair, but I'm going to repeat this one thing. The playbook the right used here is effective even though it's not especially sophisticated, as it relies on the audience to do the dirty work. I've been calling it "Trojan horse propaganda", let's go with that. 1/
August 17, 2026 at 1:00 AM
"it is worth formulating a principle of not being a fucking mark"
It‘s a lot more fun to read the coverline as a caption, and to imagine EW taking a break from her rambles to watch the movie in her motorhome on a bright summer day. She’s just inside the open door, shouting at her laptop screen loud enough for her trailer park-mates to wonder if all’s ok.
August 14, 2026 at 11:37 AM
It‘s a lot more fun to read the coverline as a caption, and to imagine EW taking a break from her rambles to watch the movie in her motorhome on a bright summer day. She’s just inside the open door, shouting at her laptop screen loud enough for her trailer park-mates to wonder if all’s ok.
Happy eclipse day to all who celebrate! If you're like me and can't find your way to totality today, here's the next best thing: home.ubalt.edu/ntygfit/ai_0...
gb19s title
home.ubalt.edu
August 12, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Happy eclipse day to all who celebrate! If you're like me and can't find your way to totality today, here's the next best thing: home.ubalt.edu/ntygfit/ai_0...
The retconning of Woke 1 is really depressing. I don‘t care how much Tema Okun and “White Fragility” and Pelosi in kente cloth annoyed and embarrassed you. It was the closest this country has come in my ~half-century on earth to reckoning honestly with the racism that founded and still sustains it.
August 10, 2026 at 12:41 PM
The retconning of Woke 1 is really depressing. I don‘t care how much Tema Okun and “White Fragility” and Pelosi in kente cloth annoyed and embarrassed you. It was the closest this country has come in my ~half-century on earth to reckoning honestly with the racism that founded and still sustains it.