v0: you are the machine

here's your tl;dr:

once upon a time, there were stories about humans, and stories about AI.

this newsletter aims to tell both. first issue goes out on Friday, 8/16.

q: what is es machina? (or, why am I getting this random newsletter from jordan harrod after she ghosted me last year?)

a: There’s nothing like accidentally taking an extended break from making content to make you feel weird about sending out a newsletter to a few hundred people. 😅

To answer the first question:

es machina is a newsletter that explores the bi-directional relationship between people and AI systems.

The name "es machina" is intended as a play on the Latin¹ phrase "deus ex machina" which translates to "god from the machine." You likely know it better as a plot trope where a seemingly unsolvable problem is resolved by an "act of god," i.e. an intervention that is external to the main story arc/character decisions, and was essentially impossible for them to anticipate or expect.

(For a more concrete example, see the footnotes² end of the newsletter - I'd include it here, but I'm a Marvel nerd and it's a non-trivial digression.)

As for the second question, here's the medium-length answer:

About a year ago, I told you that I’d be taking my content in a new direction. Unfortunately for both of us, I hadn’t quite nailed down what that new direction was, only that continuing to dissect the technicalities of every new Large Language Model (LLM) update as a form of weekly content was definitely not in that direction. So, I spent six months staring pensively out of my living room window trying to figure out what that new direction should be... and then I remembered that my interest in AI is ultimately rooted in my interest in why people do the things they do and what that says about the things we make. And here we are!

q: don’t you already do this on YouTube?

Yes, in that I compress several days of research, interviews with experts, and 10,000+ words of writing into a 10-ish minute video, and then look at all of the interesting stuff I learned/wrote about that didn’t make it into the video (or didn’t turn into a video at all) and feel sad that it will only exist in my private Notion workspace… until now!

In other words, this newsletter will feature those deeper dives, the ideas that don’t turn into videos, and the stories that I haven’t quite untangled yet. You’ll get a taste of this in some of the initial issues, as I’ll be resurfacing research that I did for past videos and discussing how the landscape has changed in the interim.

q: how often will I get this, and is it free?

I'm currently planning to post on a 3-4 times/month on a roughly weekly schedule, but sometimes life might get in the way. If I know that I'll be skipping a week, or taking a break for the holidays, I'll let you know in advance!

And it is free! There will be affiliate links in the roundup section at the end of the newsletter, and the newsletter body may contain sponsored ads or paid newsletter recommendations, both of which will be clearly disclosed and support my work. I don’t have plans for a paid tier at the moment, as I’d like to have a couple months to get into a rhythm first, but I might add one later pending my bandwidth and your feedback.

Right now, I’m using beehiiv* as my platform, but I may migrate if I find another platform that has better functionality - TBD.

q: is this q&a thing intentional or what?

a: Here’s your first peek behind the curtain — this format is actually how I script my videos, because every videos starts with a question. From there, I research and write, and then I have more questions, so I research and write more, and then it’s 2AM and I’ve been reading case law on legal personhood for three hours to answer a question that will almost definitely be cut from the video if it even makes it into the script in the first place.

Anyway.

Yes, it is intentional, and no, I’m not sure whether I’ll keep the format going forward — there are already planned topics that I don’t think will work well with this, so I’ll be experimenting a bit to see what works.

q: what do I do now?

Well, If you know someone who is interested in these questions, you can share this newsletter with them!

Or, if this isn’t up your alley (or if you’re drowning in newsletters and can’t fathom adding yet another one — I totally feel that), feel free to unsubscribe.

And if you have questions that aren’t on this list, reply with them to let me know - I’d love to hear from you.

In Other News

tl;dr - Here, you’ll find a curated collection of things that caught my eye this week, including but not limited to news, research, events, books, etc., plus other projects/content that I’ve posted on other platforms if I think it’s relevant.

If something catches your eye, feel free to reply and send me a link! I’d love to read it, and it may end up in the next newsletter (credited to you, of course).

News:

• YouTuber files class action suit over OpenAI’s scrape of creators’ transcripts (TechCrunch)

  • Related: Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic Used Thousands of Swiped YouTube Videos to Train AI (Annie Gilbertson, Alex Reisner / Proof News)

  • Also Related: Generative AI Has a 'Shoplifting' Problem. This Startup CEO Has a Plan to Fix It (Kate Knibbs / Wired)

    • I’ve been very interested in attempts to create royalty-esque/licensing systems for content, as well as methods to prevent content scraping lately. Video/newsletter potentially incoming.

• OpenAI GPT-4o System Card (OpenAI)

  • This is a long but interesting read for anyone else who has been watching what seems like all of their Alignment team slowly quit. 😅

• Some schools are racing to ban student phones (Natasha Singer / Boston Globe)

  • Since The Anxious Generation came out, I feel like I keep seeing this, and I feel like I’m going crazy. 😅 This was a thing when I was in high school??? Which was 2010 - 2014????

  • Also, If Books Could Kill has a great episode on why that book (and Jonathan Haidt generally) isn’t really backed up by the research.

• Apple Intelligence's Advanced Features Could Eventually Cost Money (Benzinga)

  • boooooooooooooooo

Books/Movies/Shows:

(Note: I read a lot more fiction than non-fiction - follow my second YouTube channel for book hauls/reviews, and check out my Bookshop* page for other recs!)

• Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI, by Madhumita Murgia (Amazon*, Bookshop*)

  • Really interesting exploration of the people that make AI work, many of whom are exploited.

• Follow me on Goodreads or StoryGraph or Fable to see what I’m currently reading!

  • Yes, I do use all three, and yes, they are usually all up to date!

*Affiliate Links

The End.

tl;dr - as an overly online newsletter writer, I’m legally required to leave space at the end for funny tweets/social posts. as a subscriber, you’re legally required to send me funny tweets/social posts. sorry, I don’t make the rules. 😁

1  I'm going for "you are the machine," but it's been roughly 15 years since I took middle school Latin, so don't look too closely at it. 😂

2  Alright, here's the more concrete example: (spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame, sorry, I'm an MCU nerd) The Avengers' goal in Infinity War is to prevent Thanos from using the infinity stones to erase half of all life in the universe, and they fail to do so by the end of the movie. Plus, we learn that Thanos has destroyed the stones at the beginning of Endgame, making it impossible to reverse his snap. This leaves OG Avengers in an unresolvable situation... that is, until Ant-Man, who is thought to be lost to the Quantum Realm, basically stumbles upon the secret to time travel on his way back five years later. This allows the Avengers to go back in time, collect the infinity stones, and reverse Thanos' snap, resolving the overall plot line. I'd personally consider Ant-Man to be the deus ex machina here (also Captain Marvel in the final battle at the end, but that's a whole other rant that could be it's own newsletter), but you could also reasonably argue that the ability to time travel is too.