Yan Basque
@yanbasque.com
Writer, artist and musician. Queer. Critic of technology. Grad student (Information Studies at McGill). Typos in every post. Reposts/links are often bookmarks for me to return to later. (He/they)
https://linktr.ee/yanbasque
https://linktr.ee/yanbasque
Pinned
Yan Basque
@yanbasque.com
· Jun 16
Exciting news! I am joining the Homosaurus Collective as project coordinator to help with the French translation of the LGBTQ+ linked-data vocabulary. Among other responsibilities, I will be reviewing terminology and planning feedback sessions with Quebec-based community organizations.
The Cloudfare security checks on @letterboxd.social are out of control lately. A real buzzkill.
September 24, 2026 at 11:19 PM
The Cloudfare security checks on @letterboxd.social are out of control lately. A real buzzkill.
"Can I just say, the biggest turn-on thus far is your use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling."
I don't know how to receive this feedback from someone I've been chatting with all day about sex.
Flattered? Embarrassed?
I don't know how to receive this feedback from someone I've been chatting with all day about sex.
Flattered? Embarrassed?
September 24, 2026 at 9:35 PM
"Can I just say, the biggest turn-on thus far is your use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling."
I don't know how to receive this feedback from someone I've been chatting with all day about sex.
Flattered? Embarrassed?
I don't know how to receive this feedback from someone I've been chatting with all day about sex.
Flattered? Embarrassed?
Reposted by Yan Basque
Buried at the end of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's NYT interview: the single most terrible yet somehow confusingly appropriate metaphor for fossil-fuelled AI I have ever seen
ketanjoshi.co/2026/09/16/n...
ketanjoshi.co/2026/09/16/n...
September 24, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Buried at the end of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's NYT interview: the single most terrible yet somehow confusingly appropriate metaphor for fossil-fuelled AI I have ever seen
ketanjoshi.co/2026/09/16/n...
ketanjoshi.co/2026/09/16/n...
Confession: I panic every time someone asks for my phone number or postal code. And yet, I always remember them. But I still have a mini heart attack because what if I've forgotten?!
Anyway. The CEO of Nvidia apparently doesn't know his own phone number or zip code.
Anyway. The CEO of Nvidia apparently doesn't know his own phone number or zip code.
I had a few thoughts on why techbros always say these embarrassing, weird things
https://tante.cc/2026/09/24/the-test/
https://tante.cc/2026/09/24/the-test/
The Test
Jensen Huang, the NVIDIA CEO and wearer of the most midlife crisis looking leather jackets in the world, was on Ezra Klein’s podcast. Now I don’t really want you do go through all of what was being said in that recording/writeup. It’s painful. You feel your mental capabilities decaying with every minute of listening … […]
tante.cc
September 24, 2026 at 8:38 PM
Confession: I panic every time someone asks for my phone number or postal code. And yet, I always remember them. But I still have a mini heart attack because what if I've forgotten?!
Anyway. The CEO of Nvidia apparently doesn't know his own phone number or zip code.
Anyway. The CEO of Nvidia apparently doesn't know his own phone number or zip code.
Reposted by Yan Basque
Just when I think I can’t hate OpenAI and Sam Altman any more, new details come out about how ChatGPT helped a shooter plan one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history in Tumbler Ridge, BC.
OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.
OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.
ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge school shooter focus on guns, tactics, and terror, our investigation reveals
OpenAI’s chatbot fed the shooter’s violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre.
www.motherjones.com
September 24, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Just when I think I can’t hate OpenAI and Sam Altman any more, new details come out about how ChatGPT helped a shooter plan one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history in Tumbler Ridge, BC.
OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.
OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.
Reposted by Yan Basque
Great excuse to show you all the single hottest photo ever taken of a human man
April 25, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Great excuse to show you all the single hottest photo ever taken of a human man
Gavin Newsom seems like the Mark Carney of USA (extremely derogatory).
I know this is backwards, because usually political trends flow from USA to Canada, not the other way around, but this country just elected a Liberal prime minister out of panic/desperation and look where it got us?
I know this is backwards, because usually political trends flow from USA to Canada, not the other way around, but this country just elected a Liberal prime minister out of panic/desperation and look where it got us?
September 23, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Gavin Newsom seems like the Mark Carney of USA (extremely derogatory).
I know this is backwards, because usually political trends flow from USA to Canada, not the other way around, but this country just elected a Liberal prime minister out of panic/desperation and look where it got us?
I know this is backwards, because usually political trends flow from USA to Canada, not the other way around, but this country just elected a Liberal prime minister out of panic/desperation and look where it got us?
Reposted by Yan Basque
video games as a whole make hundreds of billions of dollars a year and apparently somehow nobody can make any money on them or pay anyone to make them
September 23, 2026 at 3:07 PM
video games as a whole make hundreds of billions of dollars a year and apparently somehow nobody can make any money on them or pay anyone to make them
Everything is so bleak.
September 23, 2026 at 3:54 PM
Everything is so bleak.
Reposted by Yan Basque
From @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype:
www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype
Breathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny.
www.technologyreview.com
September 22, 2026 at 1:00 PM
From @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype:
www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
WTF is this nonsense? There is no such thing as “Olde English” and Shakespeare certainly wasn’t writing in this made up language.
Old English is a language. Shakespeare wasn’t writing in that language either.
Old English is a language. Shakespeare wasn’t writing in that language either.
September 23, 2026 at 3:13 AM
WTF is this nonsense? There is no such thing as “Olde English” and Shakespeare certainly wasn’t writing in this made up language.
Old English is a language. Shakespeare wasn’t writing in that language either.
Old English is a language. Shakespeare wasn’t writing in that language either.
Reposted by Yan Basque
As much as radicals get criticized for being "unrealistic," demanding entire demographics facing literal genocide always maintain mild rhetoric and actions is an absolutely delusional level of conformity to expect.
I don't think that gets said enough.
I don't think that gets said enough.
August 1, 2026 at 11:43 AM
As much as radicals get criticized for being "unrealistic," demanding entire demographics facing literal genocide always maintain mild rhetoric and actions is an absolutely delusional level of conformity to expect.
I don't think that gets said enough.
I don't think that gets said enough.
Reposted by Yan Basque
It's interesting to me that these guys put so much energy into refuting (what they think we meant by) "stochastic parrots" and maybe not as much into refuting the (solid) research connecting "AI" to eugenics, racism, and fascism.
>>
>>
September 20, 2026 at 6:41 PM
It's interesting to me that these guys put so much energy into refuting (what they think we meant by) "stochastic parrots" and maybe not as much into refuting the (solid) research connecting "AI" to eugenics, racism, and fascism.
>>
>>
Book/movie/article/conference title tropes I'm sick of:
1. Using a word like "humanity" or "machine" but highlighting the letters A and I.
2. Using the acronym A.I. but for something other than artificial intelligence.
1. Using a word like "humanity" or "machine" but highlighting the letters A and I.
2. Using the acronym A.I. but for something other than artificial intelligence.
September 21, 2026 at 2:23 PM
Book/movie/article/conference title tropes I'm sick of:
1. Using a word like "humanity" or "machine" but highlighting the letters A and I.
2. Using the acronym A.I. but for something other than artificial intelligence.
1. Using a word like "humanity" or "machine" but highlighting the letters A and I.
2. Using the acronym A.I. but for something other than artificial intelligence.
Reposted by Yan Basque
“Canada’s four Atlantic provinces are more than double the size of the United Kingdom. Among 188,000 square miles of craggy coastline, postcard lighthouses, and glacier-carved fjords lives 2.5 million people—the population of Baltimore.”
A Brief History of Atlantic Canada’s Guitar Pop Explosions:
A Brief History of Atlantic Canada’s Guitar Pop Explosions:
A Brief History of Atlantic Canada’s Guitar Pop Explosions
Canada’s four Atlantic provinces punch above their weight when it comes to producing guitar pop.
daily.bandcamp.com
September 21, 2026 at 2:00 PM
“Canada’s four Atlantic provinces are more than double the size of the United Kingdom. Among 188,000 square miles of craggy coastline, postcard lighthouses, and glacier-carved fjords lives 2.5 million people—the population of Baltimore.”
A Brief History of Atlantic Canada’s Guitar Pop Explosions:
A Brief History of Atlantic Canada’s Guitar Pop Explosions:
whoa
This thing I made two years ago continues to hold up pretty well
September 21, 2026 at 2:02 PM
whoa
I have so much contempt for Kevin Roose and Casey Newton
one of the 21st century’s great tragedies is seeing a media industry gutted by decisions made by the tech industry elevate a bunch of industry shills as the people meant to help the public understand how tech works and what impacts it’s having on the world
September 21, 2026 at 12:50 AM
I have so much contempt for Kevin Roose and Casey Newton
I have never seen a more pathetic attempt by someone to crawl out of a hole he dug for himself.
Please let this be the end of this man’s career.
Please let this be the end of this man’s career.
1. UPDATE
An emotional Ed Sheeran admits that he made mistakes in the last week in handling the issue between venues and Macklemore.
Sheeran says that he is “deeply worried about the idea that venues should pre-approve content with performers.”
An emotional Ed Sheeran admits that he made mistakes in the last week in handling the issue between venues and Macklemore.
Sheeran says that he is “deeply worried about the idea that venues should pre-approve content with performers.”
September 20, 2026 at 1:32 AM
I have never seen a more pathetic attempt by someone to crawl out of a hole he dug for himself.
Please let this be the end of this man’s career.
Please let this be the end of this man’s career.
Reposted by Yan Basque
This NRA reference is also used by Latour! And I tend to agree with him: we need to look at the full "system," which includes the mechanisms, but also users, designers, bureaucracies, labor, economics. "The machine did this" hides that; "the process produced this" has to surface it.
I’m not sure where the line is beteeen “of course AI agents can’t end the world, they’re just autocomplete bots” and “look, we almost started WWIII by taking our marching orders from bots.” If the point is that it’s people not machines to blame that’s uncomfortably close to an NRA bumper sticker.
September 19, 2026 at 3:01 PM
This NRA reference is also used by Latour! And I tend to agree with him: we need to look at the full "system," which includes the mechanisms, but also users, designers, bureaucracies, labor, economics. "The machine did this" hides that; "the process produced this" has to surface it.
Reposted by Yan Basque
I’m not sure where the line is beteeen “of course AI agents can’t end the world, they’re just autocomplete bots” and “look, we almost started WWIII by taking our marching orders from bots.” If the point is that it’s people not machines to blame that’s uncomfortably close to an NRA bumper sticker.
September 19, 2026 at 2:35 PM
I’m not sure where the line is beteeen “of course AI agents can’t end the world, they’re just autocomplete bots” and “look, we almost started WWIII by taking our marching orders from bots.” If the point is that it’s people not machines to blame that’s uncomfortably close to an NRA bumper sticker.
When you wake up and the very first thing you do is reach for your phone and see a reply to something you posted the night before in a group chat and it pisses you off so much you decide to leave the group chat rather than say something you're gonna regret later. Perfect way to start your Saturday.
September 19, 2026 at 1:30 PM
When you wake up and the very first thing you do is reach for your phone and see a reply to something you posted the night before in a group chat and it pisses you off so much you decide to leave the group chat rather than say something you're gonna regret later. Perfect way to start your Saturday.
Reposted by Yan Basque
incredibly well-done resident evil teaser from a movie theater
September 19, 2026 at 12:58 AM
incredibly well-done resident evil teaser from a movie theater
Reposted by Yan Basque
You would have to pay me a lot of money to get me to watch this shit.
After watching the entire production I found myself constantly surprised by just how much worse things could get. This is the opposite of the future of AI filmmaking — it’ll make you wonder if there’s really any future in it at all.
@andrewrweb.bsky.social watched this so you don't have to.
@andrewrweb.bsky.social watched this so you don't have to.
The 2.5-hour AI-generated Odyssey movie is 2.5 hours too long
Going up against Christopher Nolan with AI slop was ill-advised.
www.theverge.com
September 18, 2026 at 8:03 PM
You would have to pay me a lot of money to get me to watch this shit.