Phil Feldman, PhD

@philfeldman.com

251 Followers 232 Following

For a turbulent and unruly people may be spoken to by a good man, and readily brought back to good ways; but none can speak to a wicked prince, nor any remedy be found against him but by the sword. - Niccolo Machiavelli

Screenshot of a Google Scholar search results page. At the top is the heading "Sycophantic AI increases attitude extremity and overconfidence", with a checked option labeled "Search within citing articles." Below are six academic search results, each showing the title, authors, journal, year (2026), a brief abstract snippet, and links such as "Save," "Cite," "Cited by," "Related articles," and "All versions." The visible results are: 1. Technological folie à deux: feedback loops between AI chatbots and mental health (Nature Mental Health) 2. Artificial intelligence-associated delusions and large language models: risks, mechanisms of delusion co-creation, and safeguarding strategies (The Lancet) 3. Intelligent systems, vulnerable minds: A framework for radicalization to violence in the age of AI (Personality and Social Psychology journal) 4. Principles for understanding trust in artificial intelligence (Nature Reviews) 5. Relationships in the age of AI: a review on the opportunities and risks of synthetic relationships to reduce loneliness (Computers in Human Behavior, Elsevier) 6. A rational analysis of the effects of sycophantic AI (arXiv preprint) The screenshot emphasizes recent (2026) scholarly literature related to AI, mental health, trust, synthetic relationships, radicalization, delusions, and sycophantic behavior.
A photo of a wingless gulfstream sitting in a field behind a rusting jalopy
Still from the movie "A Monster Calls" where the the monster is looking down at the boy, who is looking up. A church is in the distance. Hazy sunset light permeates the frame
New York Times lede: "No One at Waffle House Remembers FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported In Gregg Phillips, who is in charge of responding to fires and floods, says the hand of God suddenly and mysteriously moved him to a 24-hour breakfast spot in Rome, Ga."
A Cervelo S3 road bike propped up on an overlook of the local big climb
Two panels from the Calvin & Hobbs comic where they sing the "Very Sorry Song," a key element of Calvinball
Image shows a text block criticizing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), stating that since 2005 one CBP agent or officer has been arrested every 24–36 hours. It cites CBP discipline reports claiming at least 4,913 CBP and Border Patrol agents were arrested between 2005 and 2024, notes that this number would equal the size of the Philadelphia Police Department, and claims CBP agents’ per-capita crime rate has at times exceeded that of undocumented immigrants.
Xitter post from the White House showing an AI generating image of a stern ICE officer handcuffing a crying brown woman
A photoshopped image of a child playing cup-and-ball, but with the Demon Core
A catalog picture of a Zamberlan 996 Vioz GTX men's hiking boot that I picked up at the local REI co-op. Great boot - 10/10 would buy again
Cover from the children's book Creatures of the Deep by Lionel Bender
A very dirty and neglected bottom bracket and chain
Scene from Star Trek's first episode, "The Man Trap", where Kirk is getting the salt sucked out of him
A gray cat in his box, leaning on the opening in a casual, yet slightly nervous way
A table titled "Catalogue of alignment laws" with two columns: "Law" and "Formal Statement." Each row names a law related to AI alignment and provides its corresponding formal or symbolic description. Below the table is a caption explaining that each law captures a recurring regularity in alignment, such as reward hacking, sycophancy, optimization saturation, or the alignment trilemma. The laws are described as consistent with Murphy’s Gap. **Laws and Formal Statements (as shown in the table):** 1. **Reward Hacking** – Δ grows with β when r ≈ U 2. **Sycophancy** – Proxy upweights agreement, Δ increases 3. **Overfitting to Noise** – β >> vm ⇒ divergence 4. **Optimization Overhang** – Scaling β faster than m ⇒ Δ → ∞ 5. **Annotator Drift** – Time-varying r\_t ⇒ oscillatory Δ 6. **Proxy Capture** – Raters adapt ⇒ instability persists 7. **Constitutional Loopholes** – Constraints shrink κ, not eliminate 8. **Alignment Mirage** – Δ, T ≥ Δ\_5 − cW(S, T) 9. **Rare-Event Blindness** – Absent tails ⇒ large Δ, T 10. **Preference Inconsistency** – Conflicts imply irreducible ε > 0 11. **Goodhart Revisited** – lim β→∞ Δ(r|β) = ∞ if r ≈ U 12. **Value Collapse** – Compressing plural U\_i ⇒ ε > 0 13. **Optimization Saturation** – Proxy gain plateaus, Δ grows 14. **Adversarial Amplification** – Adversarial p ⇔ ε\* = ε + Kp 15. **Shift Fragility** – Small shift ⇒ O(β|W|) misalign 16. **Corrigibility Erosion** – If U\_corr undervalued ⇒ Δ grows 17. **Instability Persistence** – As m → ∞, Δ ≥ cβϵ 18. **Trilemma Inescapability** – O + V + G impossible together *Caption* Catalogue of alignment laws. Each law captures a recurring regularity such as reward hacking, sycophancy, optimization saturation, or the alignment trilemma. These patterns are consistent with the structural mechanism identified by Murphy’s Gap.
(From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_after_Vel%C3%A1zquez's_Portrait_of_Pope_Innocent_X) Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X is a 1953 painting by the artist Francis Bacon. The work shows a distorted version of the Portrait of Innocent X painted by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez in 1650. The work is one of the first in a series of around 50 variants of the Velázquez painting which Bacon executed throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. The paintings are widely regarded as highly successful modern re-interpretations of a classic of the Western canon of visual art. The painting itself is oil on canvas, and depicts a frontal, seated figure of a pope enclosed within a geometric, cage-like structure rendered in bright yellow. The figure is painted with expressive, gestural brushwork using layered oil paint, with heavy vertical strokes suggesting a curtain or veil in the background. The pope’s face is distorted in a scream, with paint applied in streaks and smudges to blur facial features, evoking a sense of motion or psychological tension. The garments are defined with contrasting textures—opaque purples for the robe and smeared whites for the vestments—applied with visible, dynamic brushstrokes.
A card catalog that is part of a built-in bookcase. A drawer has been pulled out revealing a dense row of alphabetically arranged index cards. The drawer is labeled with classification numbers "HQ 792 - HQ 799.9" and drawer number "241". The card catalog unit has multiple drawers with metal label holders and pull handles. The shelf for taking notes has also been extended. In the background, a bookshelf filled with books and journals is visible.
A photo of Jeff Koonz's "Split Rocker" which is a topiary sculpture of a rocking horse head. It's about 40 feet tall. More information is here: https://www.publicartfund.org/exhibitions/view/jeff-koons-split-rocker/
A screenshot of the attributed quote with a 100% AI generated score
Credit sequence from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where those responsible for the subtitles are sacked. Along with those who sacked them.
A chart from Google Trends showing the plots of the words "Fracking + water" and "AI + water use." The fracking line trends steadily up from about 2010 to 2021, then levels out. From 2021 to present the AI trend line moves steadily up
A sinusoidal pattern of monthly temperature readings that slowly increase from 2013 - 2025. In 2013 the high was a bit over 25C and currently it's a bit over 30. Lows also show a trend, though not as clear. The chart uses data from Strava and visualized on VeloViewer.
Screenshot of a paragraph from the paper which says: 'For the time being, I suggest we stop calling artificial intelligence “intelligent.” These systems show similarities to intelligence, but they are also different. Therefore, I suggest, as a perhaps temporary working term, to call them “paraintelligent” and speak of “paraintelligence” instead. We could use the corresponding term “euintelligence” for our normal intelligence, but I will stick with the familiar term “intelligence”. For reasons to be explained later, I will also speak of “creative intelligence” to denote our normal intelligence.'
Photo of Silvio Lorusso’s book ‘Essays on Design and Disillusion’ sitting on my coffee table
A screenshot of text from my book, Stampede Theory: The thing is, people will use anything to justify prejudice and discrimination. Paul Piff, an associate professor of psychological science at the university of California, Berkeley had 200 people play a rigged Monopoly game and found some remarkable things. “Rigged” in this case meant that one of the two players got to be a “rich” player. This was decided by a coin flip. They got two times as much money; when they passed Go, they collected twice the salary; and they got to roll the dice two times instead of once. It was obvious they had an advantage. They played this way for 15 minutes. I’m going to repeat that for emphasis. This was not a full game. This was not a long game. It was just 15 minutes. Would you, dear reader, think that you were winning because you got twice as much money and were able to move twice as much? Most of us believe we would acknowledge this was unfair because the game was rigged. After 15 minutes, Piff and his colleagues asked the players about their experience during the game. Piff, in a TED talk, described how the rich players talked about why they had won in this rigged game of Monopoly: “They talked about what they’d done to buy those different properties and earn their success in the game. And they became far less attuned to all those different features of the situation – including that flip of a coin – that had randomly gotten them into that privileged position in the first place.” We have a deep bias towards exploiting positions of dominance. If we are winning, we will rationalize that we are winning because of our inherent abilities. This deep bias is one of the reasons that we have stories that align with “The divine right of kings.” We are terrible about admitting that we might just be lucky.
A painting of The Ascension of Jesus that I saw at the Museum of Evora in Portugal. It shows 10 very pious-looking people at the bottom of the frame, and at the top is the bottom of a robe and then two bare feet, about two meters off the ground. You know the scene at the end of Close Encounters, where the alien space ship lifts slowly off the ground? It's like that, only biblical. Details of the painting from Wikimedia: Ascension of Jesus (1530-1537) by an anonymous disciple of Gerard David; It is part of the Polyptych of Esporão Chapel (Cathedral of Évora) and now is on display at Museu de Évora, Portugal. Português: Ascenção de Cristo (1530-1537) por um discípulo anónimo de Gerard David; É parte do Retábulo da Capela do Esporão (Sé de Évora) e atualmente está exposta no Museu de Évora, Portugal.
a red cloak, a white bonnet, a woman stands, still, against the yellow cart. another, a sign in her hands, "THIS IS HOW IT STARTED IN NAZI GERMANY!" the crowd blurs, a plaid shirt, a cap, a blue tee, voices rise, a rally's hum, on asphalt gray, near trees of green. one figure, a scarlet stain, a silent scream, in fabric's reign.
A dense crowd of people participating in the "hands off" rally near the Washington Monument in Washington DC. Many individuals in the foreground and throughout the scene are holding signs and banners. One prominent sign held aloft in the center reads "CECOT IS A CONCENTRATION CAMP" in handwritten capital letters. To the left of this, a larger banner with an image and the text "RefuseFascism.org" is visible. Further in the background on the right, another sign reads "GET ORGANIZED TO DEFEAT FASCIST AMERICA." The crowd is diverse in appearance, with people of various ages and styles of dress. They are gathered on a grassy area with trees in the background, suggesting a park or public space. Tall lampposts with multiple lights are interspersed throughout the crowd. The sky is overcast, providing diffused lighting. The overall impression is of a large and engaged group of people expressing their views through signs and participation in the rally.
The image shows a crowd of people gathered on a grassy area in front of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. There is a signpost in the foreground with arrows pointing in different directions and labels for various locations, including the White House and the German-American Friendship Garden. There are also several bicycles parked near the signpost. The people in the crowd are walking, sitting, and standing, and some are holding signs or banners.
Two people at today's "Hands off rally" in Washington DC hold up hand-painted signs. The person on the left, who appears to be a woman with short blonde hair and a wide smile, wears a horizontally striped long-sleeved shirt and a colorful floral print skirt. She holds a sign titled "AMERICA'S HEALTH REQUIRES:" followed by a numbered list that includes "CLEAN AIR (EPA)," "CLEAN WATER (EPA)," "SAFE FOOD SUPPLY (FDA)," "ACCESS TO HEALTHY FOOD (WIC)," and "PREVENTIVE MEDICINE (VACCINES, MEDICAID)." The person on the right, who appears to be a man with a beard and a baseball cap, wears a gray t-shirt and has a backpack on. He holds a sign above the woman's that reads, in large colorful letters, "ONE IS A GRIFTER, ONE IS A TROLL NEITHER BELONG" with the word "TROL!" written in smaller letters below. They are standing on a grassy area with other people and trees visible in the background. The National Museum of African American History and Culture is partially visible behind the person on the left. The overall impression is of a political demonstration focused on health and accountability.
A large crowd of protesters gathered outdoors, holding various signs with political messages. One prominent sign in the foreground shows a close-up image of a man with the text “If we eat only one billionaire, the rest will start behaving.” Other signs in the background include “CLOWNS belong in the CIRCUS, not our GOVERNMENT” and “F ELON” with a photo of Elon Musk. People of various ages are engaged in conversation, taking photos, and marching peacefully among trees under an overcast sky.
A group of women dressed in red cloaks and white bonnets, resembling characters from "The Handmaid's Tale," stand at a protest holding political signs. Messages on the signs include "Trump's Royal Fools," "Make America Think Again," and a quote attributed to Voltaire. A large crowd of protesters surrounds them, many holding signs of their own. The Washington Monument stands prominently in the background, with several American flags nearby.
JD Vance standing on a Greenland ice sheet wearing an ill-fitting parka, standing on a snowy, flat landscape with what appears to be a mountainous or icy backdrop. His right arm is raised in an expressive gesture, and he appears to be speaking or shouting. Overlayed text, formatted as lyrics or quotes, reads: "And you may ask yourself, 'How do I work this?' And you may ask yourself, 'Where is that large automobile?' And you may tell yourself, 'This is not my beautiful house' And you may tell yourself, 'This is not my beautiful wife.'"
Screenshot from (https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/yearly-snapshot) that shows two tables displaying data on motor vehicle crash deaths in 2022, categorized by day of the week and time of day. Table 1: Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths by Day of the Week, 2022 * Lists deaths and percentages for each day of the week. * The highest number of deaths occurred on Saturday (7,682 deaths, 18%), followed by Sunday (6,618 deaths, 16%) and Friday (6,472 deaths, 15%). * The lowest number of deaths occurred on Tuesday (5,265 deaths, 12%). A note states that about one-third (32%) of crash deaths occurred between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. in 2022. Table 2: Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths by Time of Day, 2022 Breaks down deaths into different three-hour intervals. * The highest number of deaths occurred between 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. (7,329 deaths, 17%), followed by 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. (6,337 deaths, 15%) and 9 p.m. - midnight (6,678 deaths, 16%). * The lowest number of deaths occurred between 3 a.m. - 6 a.m. (3,627 deaths, 9%) and 9 a.m. - noon (3,808 deaths, 9%). The total number of motor vehicle crash deaths recorded in 2022 was 42,514.
The image is a table from an iSeeCars study titled "Cars With the Most Frequent Occupant Fatalities." It ranks vehicles based on their fatal accident rate (cars per billion vehicle miles) and compares them to the overall average fatality rate. The table includes: * Rank (1-11) * Car Model * Fatal Accident Rate * Comparison to Overall Average Fatality Rate (e.g., 4.9x means 4.9 times higher than average) The top-ranked car is the Hyundai Venue with a fatal accident rate of 13.9 per billion miles, which is 4.9 times higher than the overall average. Other vehicles on the list include the Chevrolet Corvette, Mitsubishi Mirage, Porsche 911, and Tesla Model Y. The table is structured in a simple, easy-to-read format, with data organized in rows and columns.
Panoramic photo looking towards the Lincoln Memorial at the Stand up for Science rally. There are probably 1,000 - 1,500 people visible. Many, many handmade posters. My favorite was "Vaccines cause adults."
We are entering a period of omnishambolic polycrisis.The ominous rumble of climate change, authoritarianism, genocide, xenophobia and transphobia has turned into an avalanche. The perpetrators of these crimes against humanity have weaponized the internet, colonizing the 21st century's digital nervous system, using it to attack its host, threatening civilization itself.
Highlighted text from "the Origins of Totalitarianism": This technique of duplication, certainly useless for the direct overthrow of government, proved extremely fruitful in the work of undermining actively existing institutions and in the “decomposition of the status quo”78 which totalitarian organizations invariably prefer to an open show of force. Arendt, Hannah. The Origins Of Totalitarianism (Harvest Book Book 244) (p. 371). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
An image of a strange attractor that is similar to a Lorenz attractor. It's a series of looped forms, almost like thread falling off a spool. Follow the link in the post for more technical descriptions
A screenshot of Google Maps, showing the Gulf of Mexico now labeled the Gulf of America
The Cambridge dictionary entry for despot, which is "a person, especially a ruler, who has unlimited power over other people, and often uses it unfairly and cruelly:"
A response to a prompt to DeepSeek of "Using the attention mechanism as a metaphor, describe how groups of humans can have their attention focused on something that already matches their biases and how that can be exploited." The screenshot shows response 4: 4. Amplification and Reinforcement - In neural networks, attention can amplify certain features of the input data, making them more influential in the output. In human groups, attention can amplify certain ideas or narratives, making them seem more important or widespread than they actually are. - This amplification can create a feedback loop: as people focus on biased information, their biases grow stronger, making them even more likely to pay attention to similar information in the future.
Screencap of the response for an elicit query of "correlation of the drastic rise of life expectancy for people with down syndrome with the abandonment of widespread mass institutionalization (at childhood)?" "The life expectancy of individuals with Down syndrome has dramatically increased over the past 50 years, approaching that of the general population (Glasson et al., 2002). In Western Australia, the life expectancy for people with Down syndrome was found to be 58.6 years, with 25% living to 62.9 years (Glasson et al., 2002). This increase in longevity is attributed to improved healthcare, including advances in cardiac surgery and deinstitutionalization (Bittles & Glasson, 2010). However, mortality rates remain higher for those living in institutions compared to those living outside, particularly for women (Dupont et al., 2008). The aging Down syndrome population now faces increased risk of age-related morbidities, often appearing at younger ages than in the general population (Bittles & Glasson, 2010). Four distinct life stages of Down syndrome have been identified: prenatal, childhood and early adulthood, adulthood, and senescence, each with specific comorbidity profiles (Bittles et al., 2007)."
Photograph of a Bonsai Tree leaning to the right aligned with diagonal shadows on the wall behind
Rewrite the original summary in Spanish ChatGPT said: Veredicto: Actualmente no comprobado, apoyo débil. La afirmación carece de evidencia creíble o confirmación oficial, y se basa en un video no verificado de TikTok. Retrasar camiones de bomberos para pruebas de emisiones durante una crisis contradice tanto los protocolos históricos de respuesta de California como el sentido común logístico. Sin documentación confiable o declaraciones corroborantes, esta afirmación sigue siendo especulativa. Se necesitan pruebas adicionales, como registros oficiales o declaraciones de los departamentos de bomberos de California y Oregón, para verificar o refutar el retraso. You said: Rewrite the original summary in Portuguese ChatGPT said: Veredicto: Atualmente não comprovado, apoio fraco. A alegação não possui evidências confiáveis ou confirmação oficial, baseando-se em um vídeo não verificado do TikTok. A ideia de atrasar caminhões de bombeiros para testes de emissões durante uma crise contradiz tanto os protocolos históricos de resposta da Califórnia quanto o senso comum logístico. Sem documentação confiável ou declarações que corroborem a história, essa afirmação permanece especulativa. São necessárias mais evidências, como registros oficiais ou declarações dos departamentos de bombeiros da Califórnia e Oregon, para verificar ou refutar o atraso.
ChatGPT Toulminator (https://chatgpt.com/g/g-677e08bde7588191a699e8e89e26b123-toulminator) agent response to the original post: Summary: Verdict: Currently unsubstantiated, weak support. The claim lacks credible evidence or official confirmation, relying instead on an unverified TikTok source. Delaying fire trucks for emissions testing during a crisis contradicts both California's historical response protocols and logistical common sense. Without reliable documentation or corroborating statements, this assertion remains speculative. Additional evidence needed includes official records or statements from California and Oregon fire departments to verify or refute the delay.
A photograph of a pink salamander (axolotl) swimming from left to right. Which, personally, I think looks more like the winter storm coming our way than *ahem* other items. And since salamanders call the mid-Atlantic home, it's meta!
A wooden sign with white lettering that is so weathered, it is completely illegible. Plus it's in Portuguese (I think) for that extra challenge!
A gray cat lounging on a wooden chair with his front paws just hanging off the edge. The picture screams "tooooo cuuuuute!"
A map-like display of conspiracy theories, generated by repeated queries of the GPT-3. Peaks in this display include "puppetmasters,: "government," "Jews," and "aliens.". Lesser peaks include "chemtrails,", "Princess Di,", and "9-11."
A screenshot of the following text: "I think of the LLM use here a bit in terms of what my colleague Sam Wineburg calls “taking bearing” — when we land in the middle of a cognitive task like this the impulse is to run straight off towards the first issue we think of. Taking bearing means surveying the landscape before running off into your research session. Part of that is understanding what your looking at, whether a source, claim, or set of Google results. But I think part of it is this too, getting something to generate a list of relevant questions, the stuff you might not be thinking about, the things that aren’t part of your initial reaction."
View from the crowd at the Trans Rights rally in front of the Supreme Court. About 200-300 people are in the shot, with the court in the background
A photo of the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab. For more info on the only toy that came with its own vial of uranium, see the Wikipedia web page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory
Screenshot of GPTZero analyzing a paragraph of text and declaring it to be 100% human. Given the context, I believed this is accurate
"Seven Diamonds" sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The subtle implication here is that there are multiple places in this movie that turkeys could make a dramatic cameo. Just sayin
A mockup for a scam-detector and user interface using Large Language Models. Using the DNC "Podesta" spearphishing email by the Russian organization Fancy Bear as an example, it shows how manipulative text can be detected before a user reacts impulsively. The email is greyed out, and an overlay provides buttons to let the user "disregard," "report," or get more information.