The Dann Chronicles: October đŻď¸
Quarantining AI art, basking in spooky season, valuable parties, unseen product improvements, a early scripts never meant to be seen.
October 2025
Hey all,
I believe that AI poses a real, existential risk to humanity. Companies today are competing against each other to achieve superintelligence whichâif pursued using current technology, could kill us all.
Thatâs why I chose the AI Futures Project as the recipient of my Dann Chronicles charity t-shirt drive.
Humanity has been in this spot beforeâwhen nuclear weapons were first developed. Humankind was on the cusp of extinction, but scientists, researchers, and writers banded together to help people understand the true danger of these weapons. And that likely saved humanity.
Weâre at that same point again with artificial intelligence. We need researchers and writers to help AI engineers around the world understand that the risks are just as greatâif not greater.
Thatâs why I believe itâs more important than ever to support the people who are trying to push back against this race to superintelligence.
Thereâs one more week left to get a Dann Chronicles t-shirt. 100% of the proceeds go to the AI Futures Project. Plus, you get a pretty snazzy t-shirt, designed by me without the use of any AI.
I hope youâll join!
-Dann
𫧠Pop goes the AI bubble
I predict that weâll see more and more AI pushback in 2026. Thereâs no doubt weâre currently in an AI bubble, and next year weâll start to see a refinement of useful use cases and a correction against AI slop.
I really enjoyed The Oatmealâs contribution to the conversation around AI art. Likewise, I think John Gruberâs disagreement was also compelling. I think my own opinion lies somewhere in the middle.
I donât think AI-generated art has no place in the world, but I do think it should be quarantined off. It is, and should be, treated as a second-class medium.
In a perfect world, images and videos created by AI would all be properly labeled as such (like the videos created by the new Sora 2). Pretty soon, AI-generated media will be completely indistinguishable from real content, and thatâs extremely frightening to me.
And thatâs a completely separate issue from the risks superintelligence poses to humanity. Iâve been reading If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares and am convinced AI is as much of an existential threat as nuclear weapons...if not more.
This next decade is going to be both exciting and scary; weâre on the cusp of seismic change. And the risk of it all going wrong is far higher than Iâm comfortable with.
đ That spooky season
Sometimes it feels like I blink and itâs suddenly Halloween. Other times, the change of season goes slowly, and I really have a chance to bask in the spooky season. This year has been the latter.
Most people of a certain age will have a special fondness for The Blair Witch Project. It was released at a magical time when the Internet was still new and its innovative online marketing strategiesâwhich would be ethically questionable at best in todayâs worldâwere mind-blowing and revolutionary.
Michael C. Williams, one of the actors in The Blair Witch Project, has been posting a daily TikTok video (start here) sharing his behind-the-scenes experience filming the movie. My morning routine this month has included watching these daily updates, and itâs been a wonderful way to get into the spirit of the season. The full story of how that movie was filmed is incredible.
I also re-watched both It and It Chapter Two, along with the two behind-the-scenes featurettes (I & II). For anyone wondering, they hold up smashingly. I read the book It in 2017, in preparation for the first movie, and decided to make my way through the ~45 hour audiobook this year. Itâs a marathon tour-de-force performance by Steven Weber and I canât recommend it enough.
Iâm not sure why some years I dive deep into the Halloween spirit and others I donât, but Iâve been really enjoying reveling in the season this year.
đŚ Social Lubricant
There is an art to throwing parties. Itâs a skill that takes practice and one that anyone can learn. As the host of occasional social gatherings and networking events, I can attest that you get better over time.
I think the most important thing to remember is that throwing a party is a public service (from 21 Facts About Throwing Good Parties):
Let me repeat that: Parties are a public serviceâyouâre doing people a favor by throwing them. Someone might meet their new best friend or future lover at your gathering. In the short term, lovely people may feel less lonely, and thatâs thanks to you. In the long term, whole new children may ultimately exist in the world because you bothered to throw a party. Throwing parties is stressful for most people, but a great kindness to the community, so genuinely pat yourself on the back for doing this.
Itâs not easy throwing parties, but it really is about more than just having a good time in the moment.
I really liked that 21 Facts article linked above. It has some solid tips for throwing a good party. For a bit of a deeper dive, I also really enjoyed The 2-Hour Cocktail Party by Nick Gray.
I think Iâm going to make some New Yearâs goals around hosting more events. It takes work, and often Iâm just not in the mood, but I do recognize that itâs incredibly valuable to everyone involved.
đ Out of sight...
Did you know that cell phone screen protectors donât suck anymore? Itâs been decades since I last tried one, and they used to be impossible to apply without tiny bubbles and dust spots. Then, within weeks, the edges would start to peel. It was a good concept but nearly impossible to execute properly.
Now, screen protectors come with precise application systems that remove dust and apply the protector perfectly. After a bit of research, I decided to go with the Belkin ScreenForce InvisiGlass Privacy Screen Protector for my new iPhone 17 Pro Max. Specifically, I wanted side-angle privacy. It works great. I guess Iâm a screen protector person now.
Small discoveries like this are a great reminder of how fast technology changes. When you follow product releases closelyâlike smartphones, computers, or smartwatchesâall you see are small incremental changes each year. Itâs easy to lose perspective on the broader evolutions.
Last July, I described a similar experience with inflatable air mattresses when I purchased the Exped Duo. It had again been decades since Iâd used an air mattress, and my assumption that they all still sucked was completely shattered when I tried this specific product.
Maybe this has less to do with the rate of technological change than it does with simply getting older. The longer youâre alive, the more time everything has to improve. And when there are certain products or categories that arenât front of mind, those improvements can feel miraculous.
𼞠Creative writing journeys
The creative process is a magical thing, and I always appreciate catching glances of the evolution of my favorite films and TV shows.
Last month, I mentioned my love of the movie Beau Is Afraid. It turns out thereâs an early script of the film floating around online, and a good portion of the story is radically different from whatâs in the theatrical release. By all accounts, the film version is superior to this early draft, but itâs fascinating to see the threads that would eventually become this complex film.
Likewise, the first draft of Being John Malkovich, available on Charlie Kaufmanâs website, has a completely different ending than the film. In it, Malkovich doesnât become a puppeteer but is instead Craigâs puppet and battles a large puppet of Harry S. Truman in the climax of the story.
Both Beau Is Afraid and Being John Malkovich are cerebral films that are so good they make me angry. Seeing these earlier drafts, and getting peeks at the creative process, always makes me feel better about my own work. No, these ideas didnât just materialize fully formedâitâs a journey getting to the final version.
End note
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Thanks for reading. Until next time,
Dann