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Free Your Feed

Nikolas Harter

Fostering a better understanding of technology, social media, and the news.

Created and produced by Nikolas Harter.

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8 episodes
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English

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Sunday · 11 min· Video
The Sci-fi Origins of AI Psychosis
Sam Altman tried to make ChatGPT like Samantha, the fictional AI-voice assistant from the movie Her, and it made people go insane. AI psychosis (AKA chatbot psychosis or chatbot-related delusions) is when someone loses touch with reality after heavy chatbot use. Too often, chatbots repeat fictional sci-fi narratives about sentient or conscious AI as if they were fact, and it can push vulnerable people into a delusional state. Lebron James is Him. ChatGPT is Her. SOURCES Episode Script: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mvDKg3_GHT8LMYCSoshmFB1iiIqKnoobkTnFnYjTB8w/edit?usp=sharing SUBSCRIBE Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-your-feed/id6804067075 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7M5MvwL4otWBgjZPoPE3q5 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeYourFeed Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeYourFeed/ Substack: https://substack.com/@freeyourfeed Free Your Feed fosters a better understanding of social media, technology, and the news. Created and produced by Nikolas Harter
October 4 · 7 min· Video
Synthetic Influencers Are On the Rise
Users on Reddit are trading strategies for how to make fake models and influencers with AI. They call it "AI UGC" as in, "AI User-generated Content." Of course, most of these synthetic models are young, conventionally attractive women. The users trading strategies acknowledge that their synthetic influencers are only "good" if they're indistinguishable from the real thing. The question is, good for who? SOURCES The Software Engineers paid to fix vibecoding: https://www.404media.co/the-software-engineers-paid-to-fix-vibe-coded-messes/ CNet Study about AI Labels: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/cnet-survey-ai-slop-confidence-in-spotting-ai-waning/ Grandview Research: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/virtual-influencer-market-report https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/influencer-marketing-platform-market SUBSCRIBE Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-your-feed/id6804067075 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7M5MvwL4otWBgjZPoPE3q5 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeYourFeed Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeYourFeed/ Substack: https://substack.com/@freeyourfeed Free Your Feed fosters a better understanding of social media, technology, and the news. Created and produced by Nikolas Harter
September 27 · 8 min· Video
Why Anthropomorphizing AI is Problematic
Media outlets are complicit in a process which amplifies the central lie that underpins the AI boom (bubble). By anthropomorphizing LLMs, AI companies and media outlets sell a story of AI that will never come true. MORE INFO Cal Newport on the Hugging Face hack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxM35ij5VGg SUBSCRIBE Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-your-feed/id6804067075 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7M5MvwL4otWBgjZPoPE3q5 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeYourFeed Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeYourFeed/ Substack: https://substack.com/@freeyourfeed SOURCES Episode Script: https://substack.com/@freeyourfeed/note/p-212064853 Free Your Feed fosters a better understanding of technology, social media, and the news. Created and produced by Nikolas Harter. I'm looking for a story editor, if you're interested, reach out.
September 20 · 5 min· Video
Eras of AI: The Chatbot from 1966
MIT Professor Joseph Weizenbaum created the first AI chatbot in 1967. He called it, ELIZA. The professor wanted to show that people would never mistake a computer for a person if they but knew how the computer worked. The opposite ended up being true and led to the coining of a new phrase, "The Eliza Effect," the tendency to project human traits onto computers with a text interface. Horrified by his own creation, Weizenbaum spent the rest of his life arguing that it's morally wrong to use computers for tasks that require interpersonal intelligence or empathy—things he believed computers would never be capable of, even if they could create a convincing illusion. READ MORE Excerpts from Weizenbaum's Computer Power and Human Reason: http://blogs.evergreen.edu/cpat/files/2013/05/Computer-Power-and-Human-Reason.pdf SUBSCRIBE Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeYourFeed Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeYourFeed/ Substack: https://substack.com/@freeyourfeed SOURCES Citations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WHPbuyMx9LM2ltB5SUM-yGeCma9ASU3x_BCve2664dg/edit?usp=sharing Free Your Feed fosters a better understanding of technology, social media, and the news. Created and produced by Nikolas Harter. I'm looking for a story editor, if you're interested, reach out.
September 20 · 5 min· Video
Eras of AI: The Road to ChatGPT
A competition called ImageNet kicked off our current era of AI, and led to everything from ChatGPT, to self-driving cars, to eerily good recommendation algorithms. ImageNet was a computer-nerd olympics except the winners got stupidly high-paying tech jobs instead of gold medals. In this episode: some modern computer science history that'll teach you about how AI (machine learning and neural nets) actually works! We shall "get under the hood" as they say. Connectionism > Symbolism 4 Lyfe READ MORE Image Net Competition: https://medium.com/@igquinteroch/understanding-alexnet-the-2012-breakthrough-that-redefined-ai-d0e267e2470a SUBSCRIBE Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeYourFeed Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeYourFeed/ Substack: https://substack.com/@freeyourfeed SOURCES Citations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WHPbuyMx9LM2ltB5SUM-yGeCma9ASU3x_BCve2664dg/edit?usp=sharing Free Your Feed fosters a better understanding of technology, social media, and the news. Created and produced by Nikolas Harter. I'm looking for a story editor, if you're interested, reach out.
September 13 · 5 min· Video
An Insane Take on the AI Bubble
My mom sent me an opinion article from The New York Times titled, "AI is a Bubble, and Maybe That's OK." It's decidedly not OK and delusional takes like this are what have brought us to the precipice of an AI-induced market crash. This video is the first of a two-part series, originally posted to Instagram in late 2025. READ MORE NYT Opinion Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/opinion/ai-bubble-economy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare SUBSCRIBE Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeYourFeed/ Substack: https://substack.com/@freeyourfeed Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeYourFeed SOURCES Episode Script: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aJRxM2uUfQv0ftN1AtOkPzsKb1OwPKr5oo916egek2o/edit?usp=sharing Free Your Feed fosters a better understanding of technology, social media, and the news. Created and produced by Nikolas Harter. I'm looking for a story editor, if you're interested, reach out.
September 13 · 5 min· Video
A Likely Outcome of the AI Bubble
In the map of possibilities for what will happen with the AI bubble, there is a middle road, where AI fails to deliver on its promise to replace workers en masse, but it's still good enough to lay off a bunch of people anyway, and MAYBE it won't crash the economy? This video is the second of a two-part series, originally posted to my Instagram in late 2025. SUBSCRIBE Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeYourFeed/ Substack: https://substack.com/@freeyourfeed Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeYourFeed SOURCES Episode Script: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ICXZJ7KEf_nHh1cKfZqYjkjmAJzYr6NZ5Y6DDfwwTjc/edit?usp=sharing Free Your Feed fosters a better understanding of social media, technology, and the news. Created and produced by Nikolas Harter. I'm looking for a story editor, if you're interested, reach out.
August 21 · 3 min· Video
Free Your Feed Trailer
The origin story of Free Your Feed as told by creator Nikolas Harter. SOURCES The Tech Won't Save Us podcast that kicked off the journey: https://www.techwontsave.us/episode/277_generative_ai_is_not_inevitable_w_emily_m_bender_and_alex_hanna SUBSCRIBE Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeYourFeed/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeYourFeed Substack: https://substack.com/@freeyourfeed?r=cf3hy&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page Free Your Feed fosters a better understanding of technology, social media, and the news. Created and produced by Nikolas Harter. I'm looking for a story editor, if you're interested, reach out.

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