Five Things: January 9, 2025
This is my bi-weekly “newsletter” delivered straight to your inbox with at least one guaranteed typo I’ll catch after hitting send! If email collectors’ items aren’t your thing, don’t hesitate to switch to the RSS feed.
NOTE: While I’m flattered you care about my commentary, I also encourage you to click through the main links, too, and if you enjoy something, send an email, leave a comment, or hit the socials. There are only five links (the others are easter eggs for hardcore tea sippers) and I promise they’re usually more interesting than just excuses for my own ranting!
_ONE
Fable embroiled in controversy over offensive AI reader summaries. What happened? | Clare Mulroy
Gallello said the company had implemented safeguards and an offensive language filter: “Clearly in both cases, that failed this time around,” he said. “So I think as a company, we kind of underestimated how much work needs to be done to make sure that these AI models … are doing this in a responsible, safe way.”
2025 wasn’t even a full day old when yet another ill-conceived “AI” initiative predictably blew up in a company’s face, which I first saw via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books before mainstream media outlets picked it up after a typically weak mea culpa was offered, conveniently hidden in a video posted on Threads. From what I’ve seen, there’s been no mention of what happened, nor the steps taken to “fix” it anywhere on their website. Nothing about it on LinkedIn, either, where they’ve been notably quiet so far, presumably hoping to ride it out, which they probably will.
That it was a publishing-adjacent startup was even more predictable, though, and skimming the resumes of the senior executives involved, Fable appears to be yet another wannabe disruptor with no actual experience in the industry they’re trying to disrupt, just a blind belief in the inevitable power of a technology they don’t actually know how to use. Whatever value they thought they might get from an AI feature no one asked for, they got the opposite in spades, including a wave of bad PR (that was likely the first time many people had ever heard of Fable), and several members publicly declaring their move to alternatives.
Interestingly, while SBTB raised the question of AI being involved before Fable confirmed it, the actual examples feel like they had some massaging from a snarky human hand first, which they’ll surely never admit to and just let AI take the fall. My wife just recently started using Fable and her summary felt more like what I’ve come to expect from AI, a generic word salad of genres and settings you usually see from these Wrapped clones.
The only truly inevitable thing is this definitely won’t be the last AI-related own goal of the year.
__TWO
Meta surrenders to the right on speech | Casey Newton
“He chose to ignore research that shows that politically asymmetric interventions against misinformation can result from politically asymmetric sharing of misinformation,” Mantzarlis said. “He chose to ignore that a large chunk of the content fact-checkers are flagging is likely not political in nature, but low-quality spammy clickbait that his platforms have commodified. He chose to ignore research that shows Community Notes users are very much motivated by partisan motives and tend to over-target their political opponents.”
I recently criticized Newton’s bad takes on AI, particularly for his penchant for being fooled by tech executives he loves to give the benefit of the doubt, despite them consistently proving they don’t deserve it. Fortunately, the movie he claims to have seen before is more memorable for him when he’s dealing with Meta’s bullshit, and calling Zuckerberg’s announcement about their changes to content moderation a “surrender” was on point. Anyone who doesn’t think this is just Zuckerberg currying favor with Trump probably already owns three Brooklyn Bridges, but you can probably sell them one more if you act fast.
Interestingly, Danah Boyd came out of hibernation and offered a slightly different, even more scathing take, declaring, “if Mark Zuckerberg’s pursuit of having his masculinity validated wasn’t glaringly obvious, he made it crystal clear when he asked a professional fighter known for domestic violence to be his boss not-boss.”
Meanwhile, I’m in the process of deleting my Instagram account this week. The modern internet has become a cesspool of bad options but having been off Facebook since 2019, Twitter since 2022, and refusing to tolerate Substack’s Nazi Bar business model, I can’t justify staying in Meta’s world just because I’ll probably lose touch with a handful of people. I use IG so rarely nowadays anyway (mostly reading and sending nonsense from/to the three people I live with), that it barely counts as being connected, so I’ll either find other ways, or those relationships will simply fade into the past.
Everyone has their own line in the sand and compromises they’re willing to make. YMMV.
___THREE
New Balance CEO Joe Preston on Strategy, Values, and What He Learned From a 2016 Trump Controversy | Ayesha Javed
“All this is a commitment for us to be a great American company and a global brand. We’re very proud about both of those things. And, as a privately-held company, we can take a long-term view, and we’re doing that with manufacturing, and we just continue to hope that the government supports that—supports domestic manufacturing.”
I vaguely recall when New Balance got pulled into the Culture Wars (barf emoji), but I’d never been a fan of their shoes so didn’t pay much attention to the backlash, and didn’t know the details of what started it all. I’ve owned a pair of cheap NB cross-trainers for years that I use for at-home workouts (bought on clearance at DSW), but other than that, it’s a brand that’s generally off my radar with a tinge of negativity associated with it.
I got a Fleet Feet gift card for Christmas and, as I periodically do, went in for a fitting and asked for some alternatives to my beloved Brooks Ghosts, which I try to take a break from every 3-4 pairs. I usually exclude New Balance from the options upfront, but this time I decided to give the fitter free reign, so of course, the first pair they offered me were NB’s Fresh Foam 880s. I tried them on and, while pleasantly surprised, was pretty sure they’d have better alternatives. Three other shoes later, including the latest Ghosts, and the 880s were unequivocally the best of the bunch!
So now (when it’s above 40 degrees) I’m out running around in some basic-ass black New Balance, fingers crossed that Preston and his colleagues don’t do or say anything stupid in the next year or so, because running shoes are expensive, even with a gift card!
____FOUR
Metaphor: ReFantazio Is 2024’s Most Important Video Game | Hayes Madsen
In a year packed with incredible video games, it’s the dedication to tackling lofty ideals and issues that make Metaphor the most important game of the year. Metaphor never shies away from touching on real, deep-rooted societal problems, deftly reflecting those through the lens of a grand fantasy world. Metaphor is a defining piece of art that’s going to be talked about for years to come.
I’ve already talked about this game a lot, including an honorable mention as one of my favorites of 2024 even though I’m still only (maybe?) halfway through it. A consistent thread in the near-universal praise it’s received is its socio-political sensibilities — an unabashedly reasonable belief that racism is bad, while also tackling class and religious issues.
It never shies away from declaring the reasonable stance that discrimination is bad — pointing it out, putting a spotlight on it, and ensuring you know they think it’s bad, at times being so hamfisted that it gets a little distracting even though you fully agree. Coupled with what seems to be Altus’ template for you (as the main character) being the greatest, most noble, most inspiring person ever frequently dull the edges (serious “model minority” vibes), most notably (so far) during a scene where you’re basically forced to say “not all rich people” to diffuse tensions between NPCs who are debating robbing and killing all rich people — an awkwardly timely topic right now.
With no idea how the story fully unfolds, the praise for Metaphor: Refantazio‘s politics feels a little insulting to games as a medium (and, perhaps more explicitly, some gamers), suggesting its popcorn politics are deeper than they really are. It’s kind of the opposite response to V for Vendetta‘s film adaptation twenty years ago (?!?), which was largely dismissed for having a similarly popcorn take on political issues.
Games journalism still struggles with an inferiority complex, occasionally leading to over-praising something that in any other medium would simply be pretty good, or even objectively bad. I made the same mistake with my initial praise for Bioshock Infinite years ago and have been careful about trying to level my perspective ever since. I think Metaphor is great (so far), and hope it sticks the landing, but I don’t think we need to overstate the depth of its politics to consider it an important game.
_____FIVE
Interim note 3: text-based media in the age of showmanship | Baldur Bjarnason
This creates a tension between textual forms that borrow from books – such as newsletters and essayist blogs – and the primary modes of distribution for these texts. No matter how sensible, well-argued, and structured your essay is, once placed in a social media context both its context and frame of reference will be erased. This, obviously, rewards some kinds of writing and punishes others.
Bjarnason is taking a break from more formal writing, but his “notes” are often just as interesting as his longform essays, and this is a particularly insightful one. I’m a sucker for anything referencing one of my all-time favorite books, Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, and he uses it to make some timely points about the internet’s evolution from a text-based medium to multimedia, context collapse, and the rise of showmanship.
I recently discovered Ed Zitron (through recommendations and ubiquity), an extremely vocal and engaged critic of AI companies. While I love the idea of him and have enjoyed some of his writing and podcasts, he’s the epitome of a showman. His Bluesky feed is a firehose, his podcast is bloated with ads (some from companies selling the snake oil he’s critiquing), and he desperately needs an editor— which he’ll presumably have for his next book, due out in 2026. He’s doing important work, though, and is hopefully having an impact in circles where similarly insightful, less bombastic voices aren’t being listened to. (Seriously, though. If you like Zitron and haven’t read The Intelligence Illusion yet, you’re missing out.)
Bjarnason’s recent musings (including these) parallel some of my own in recent years, both personally and professionally. I launched this “newsletter” almost four years ago (?!?) as a way to trick myself into reading more intentionally and writing more consistently, while simultaneously considering doing a podcast vs. wanting to completely retreat from social networks ever since.
I don’t have that luxury for the day job, where I’ve done just enough to keep us visible and relevant, but there’s always more I’d like to do. Unfortunately, that often comes with treading back into waters I’ve pulled myself out of on a personal level, and that can’t be a purely personal decision because it doesn’t just affect me. (Stay tuned….)
Notably, the impulse to do more (on either side) is greatly amplified whenever I hear some pundit’s hot take on publishing or libraries, or I read an ill-advised op-ed giving credibility to bad ideas. For now, though, I’m going to hold steady with this blogging thing, while periodically encouraging Bjarnason to do a little bit more! O_o
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One: “another wannabe disruptor with no actual experience in the industry they’re trying to disrupt, just a blind belief in the inevitable power of a technology they don’t actually know how to use.” The saddest part is that this could refer to C-suite execs as large established corporations. They have been sold on the idea that eternal exponential growth is possible, if only they trim all the “dead wood” in their workforce (meaning, the people making their shit work and keeping their customers reasonably happy) while increasing their prices. And when things inevitably go to hell, their solution is to “fire those responsible” (aka, whoever is left), then wonder what the hell happened. (yes, I’m bitter through first hand experience, my apologies.)
Two: I hate how over the past two decades the enshittification of the internet has meant that people build communities only to see them go down in flames, over and over again. Some people shrug it off because they apparently move their community with them wherever they go, but some of us live on the periphery of our ‘communities’, and so, when they implode, we lose both the community and the individual casual friendships that grew there.
Three: Fingers crossed on New Balance (and I hope they pay their workers at least enough to live on, and not to end up homeless while working forty hours a week, like, oh, Walmart and so many others). I hate how much we are limited in how we “vote with our money”, not only because of cost v income, but also because often there are no feasible alternatives even if we could afford them.
Four: (I don’t game and don’t think I ever will, so I have nothing relevant to say)
Five: I keep seeing more people wonder about a return to blogging, and while the past couple of months have been particularly difficult for me on that front, I cling to my own, and to those who continue to exist through the rise and fall of twitter/threads/facebook/whatever else. (I do need to eventually/soonish find the spoons and means to backup my stuff, because using a free platform means that it could just as easily be wiped off in the next TOS update)