You're playing a game with your lying friends Alice and Bob.
Bob flips a coin and shows it to Alice. Alice tells you what she saw - but she lies 20% of the time. Then you take your best guess on whether the coin is heads or tails.
Your best strategy is to trust whatever Alice says. You're right 80% of the time.
Now Bob joins in. He makes up his mind independent of Alice, and he _also_ lies 20% of the time.
Instagram is generating headlines for users’ Instagram posts without their knowledge, seemingly in an attempt to get those posts to rank higher in Google Search results.
I first noticed Instagram-generated headlines thanks to a Bluesky post from the author Jeff VanderMeer. Last week, VanderMeer posted a video to Instagram of a bunny eating a banana. VanderMeer didn’t include a caption or comment with the post, but noticed that it appeared in Google Search results with the following headline: “Meet the Bunny Who Loves Eating Bananas, A Nutritious Snack For Your Pet.”
Another Instagram post from the Groton Public Library in Massachusetts—an image of VanderMeer’s Annihilation book cover promoting a group reading—also didn’t include a caption or comment, but appears on Google Search results with the following headline “Join Jeff VanderMeer on a Thrilling Beachside Adventure with Mesta …”
I’ve confirmed that Instagram is generating headlines in a similar style for other users without their knowledge. One cosplayer who wished to remain anonymous posted a video of herself showing off costumes in various locations. The same post appeared on Google with a headline about discovering real-life locations to do cosplaying in Seattle. This Instagram mentioned the city in a hashtag but did not write anything resembling that headline.
Google told me that it is not generating the headlines, and that it’s pulling the text directly from Instagram. Meta acknowledged my request for comment but did not respond in time for publication. I’ll update this story if I hear back.
“I hate it,” VanderMeer told me in an email. “If I post content, I want to be the one contextualizing it, not some third party. It's especially bad because they're using the most click-bait style of headline generation, which is antithetical to how I try to be on social—which is absolutely NOT calculated, but organic, humorous, and sincere. Then you add in that this is likely an automated AI process, which means unintentionally contributing to theft and a junk industry, and that the headlines are often inaccurate and the summary descriptions below the headline even worse... basically, your post through search results becomes shitty spam.”
“I would not write mediocre text like that and it sounds as if it was auto-generated at-scale with an LLM. This becomes problematic when the headline or description advertises someone in a way that is not how they would personally describe themselves,” Brian Dang, another cosplayer who goes by @mrdangphotos and noticed Instagram generated headlines for his posts, told me. We don’t know how exactly Instagram is generating these headlines.
By using Google's Rich Result Test tool, which shows what Google sees for any site, I saw that these headlines appeared under the <title></title> tags for those post’s Instagram pages.
“It appears that Instagram is only serving that title to Google (and perhaps other search bots),” Jon Henshaw, a search engine optimization (SEO) expert and editor of Coywolf, told me in an email. “I couldn't find any reference to it in the pre-rendered or rendered HTML in Chrome Dev Tools as a regular visitor on my home network. It does appear like Instagram is generating titles and doing it explicitly for search engines.”
When I looked at the code for these pages, I saw that Instagram was also generating long descriptions for posts without the user’s knowledge, like: “Seattle’s cosplay photography is a treasure trove of inspiration for fans of the genre. Check out these real-life cosplay locations and photos taken by @mrdangphotos. From costumes to locations, get the scoop on how to recreate these looks and capture your own cosplay moments in Seattle.”
Neither the generated headlines or the descriptions are the alternative text (alt text) that Instagram automatically generates for accessibility reasons. To create alt text, Instagram uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to automatically create a description of the image that people who are blind or have low-vision can access with a screen reader. Sometimes the alt text Instagram generates appears under the headline in Google Search results. At other times, generated description copy that is not the alt text appears in the same place. We don’t know how exactly Instagram is creating these headlines, but it could use similar technology.
“The larger implications are terrible—search results could show inaccurate results that are reputationally damaging or promulgating a falsehood that actively harms someone who doesn't drill down,” VanderMeer said. “And we all know we live in a world where often people are just reading the headline and first couple of paragraphs of an article, so it's possible something could go viral based on a factual misunderstanding.”
Roughly one-in-five U.S. teens say they are on TikTok and YouTube almost constantly. At the same time, 64% of teens say they use chatbots, including about three-in-ten who do so daily.
It's a short text adventure where you, a Silicon Valley Guy, have billions of dollars invested in generative AI. Which is putting you in regular contact with a cast of characters who, uh, just need to talk to you. Sometimes to warn you, other times to sign business deals that are totally cool and normal.
Whichever response you choose when prompted throughout these conversations, I'm sure everything is gonna turn out just fine.
Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Retailers
Board games and card games make great gifts because they can provide lots of fun for years to come, and people who enjoy games always seem to like trying a new one. Another type of game I’d submit as highly giftable is the role-playing game, or RPG. The most famous RPG is Dungeons & Dragons, but it can also be one of the most intimidating RPGs to start with because the mechanics — essentially the rules and procedures that dictate how the game is played — are pretty complicated. With lots of character stats and abilities to keep track of and a very technical approach to gameplay (plenty of math and very structured rules), there is a lot to figure out before you can even really begin.
But there are hundreds of other RPGs out there with every kind of setting, theme, or style that you could imagine. And many of them are actually more beginner-friendly and easier to play than D&D itself. Unlike board games, the main thing you need to play most RPGs is the book that lays out the rules and story along with a few accessories like dice or pen and paper. As a bonus, RPG books are usually filled with thematic artwork — sort of like a nerdy coffee-table book — so they can be especially gift-worthy to the right person. To find the best RPGs that aren’t D&D, I asked game-shop owners, RPG podcasters, and experienced players to recommend their favorites. The 16 games below span a variety of settings and skill levels, and they’re listed in order, albeit very roughly so, from the easiest for new players to learn to the slightly more complex.
‘Mice and Mystics’ Board Game
Number of players: 1 to 4 | Game master needed? No | Accessories: None | Time commitment: Multiple sessions to play through all nine chapters
For someone looking to make the jump from traditional board games to role-playing games, Mice & Mystics is a great entry point. Players portray a prince and his allies who have been transformed into mice and have to go on an adventure to save the kingdom. The game comes with a board, pieces, and dice that make it feel like a board game, but it uses simplified RPG mechanics to guide you through different challenges and battles. You don’t have to keep track of as many character stats as you would in many RPGs, and the board has lots of visual elements. For example, there’s a wheel full of cheese pieces that players can earn or lose; they can spend from the wheel for advantages but face consequences if all the pieces are lost. There are nine “chapters” of the game; depending how long you want to play, you could play through one or two per session. I played this with friends earlier this year and really enjoyed how the simple mechanics let us have fun with the story. Mice & Mystics would also make a great introduction to RPGs for kids.
Number of players: 3 to 5 | Game master needed? No | Accessories: None | Time commitment: Single session
Fiasco requires neither a game master nor prep, making it just about as easy to jump into as a traditional board game. The game will guide you through everything you need to do to play right on the spot. Designed to tell “cinematic tales of small time capers,” it’s all about playing through situations where everything goes wrong due to the characters’ faults and flaws. “It’s like a Cohen-brothers film where everything goes totally chaotic by the end,” says Lauren Bilanko, owner of the Twenty Sided game shop in Brooklyn.
Number of players: 3 to 5 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: Dice | Time commitment: Single session
In this no-prep-required game, everyone plays goblins who have to run an errand in the human world. “You’ve got to work together and be scrappy to get what you need and get out without causing a huge commotion,” says Emma Scaggs, a co-host of the Read, Play, Gamepodcast. The fun is that the goblins will inevitably be noticed and hilariously cause a commotion among the humans.
Number of players: Any (best with 2+ but can be played solo) | Game master needed? No | Accessories: None | Time commitment: Single or multiple sessions
This Animal Crossing–eqsue game is easy for beginners to learn, says Jessica Enloe, a co-host of Read, Play, Game, because it doesn’t use dice and there aren’t many rules. The way the book is written is also very accessible, Enloe says. Players create anthropomorphic “animal folk” characters who travel around a peaceful, pastoral world completing challenges to earn tokens. It’s a very open-ended, player-driven game, which doesn’t technically require anyone to facilitate as a game master, with adorable artwork that’s inspired by the worlds of Moomin, Redwall, and Studio Ghibli.
Number of players: Variable depending on the game | Game master needed? Variable depending on the game | Accessories: Dice | Time commitment: Single session
For beginners or those who don’t have time to dedicate to routine gaming sessions (most RPGs are designed to be played over multiple sessions), Scaggs also recommends one-page RPGs, which are shorter, quicker games that you can complete in a single session. Many are available for free or as inexpensive downloads online, but a compilation book like this one from publisher Rowan, Rook, and Decard makes a nice gift. It features 13 games, including one of Scaggs’s favorites, Sexy Battle Wizards.
Number of players: 2 to 4 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: Dice | Time commitment: Multiple sessions
Scaggs also recommends Slugblaster as a good entry-level RPG. The setting is the small town of Hillview, and everyone plays as teenswho ride hoverboards and go on adventures into other dimensions. Scaggs says it’s quick and easy to pick up; the rulebook is well structured, and the onus on players is light in terms of what they need to keep track of.
Number of players: 3 to 5 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: Dice | Time commitment: Multiple sessions
In this game inspired by TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural, the main cast of characters are a team of monster hunters. Each character is built around a monster-hunter archetype, such as the Chosen or the Gumshoe. It’s very simple without too many rules and simplified dice rolling. (I can attest to that myself — it’s one of the first RPGs I ever played.) There’s a lot of flexibility to create different stories in Monster of the Week, but the game is especially fun for those who like solving mysteries.
Number of players: 3 to 5 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories? Dice | Time commitment: Multiple sessions
For sci-fi fans, Enloe recommends Mothership, an alien horror game that’s all about trying to survive in outer space. The game is fairly streamlined, so it’s easy to pick up quickly — there’s even an app to help guide players through creating their characters. She says it’s also a good game for newer game masters (called Wardens in this game), because the information provided in the manual is so well organized.
Number of players: 3 to 5 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: Dice, candles | Time commitment: Single session
The basic setup of this cooperative horror game, recommended by Whitney Wolfe, owner of the Last Place on Earth board-game café in Brooklyn, is that there are ten candles on the table and each candle represents a scene. “All of the players at first have collective narrative power before the game master does,” Wolfe says. “So they are building this horror story together.” Everyone will die in the end, when only one candle is still lit. The whole point is to make something scary, Wolfe says, so it’s very suspenseful and it gets really spooky if you do it right.
Number of players: 2 to 6 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: Dice | Time commitment: Multiple sessions
Brindlewood Bay is a cozy-mystery-meets-cosmic-horror story. “It’s such a cute game where you get to play these little grandmas or grandpas, and you are investigating a mystery,” Wolfe says, “But it turns out you are actually investigating something paranormal.” The game is low prep and easy to jump into, even without much experience, and it comes with six different mysteries to play.
Number of players: 2 to 5 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: None | Time commitment: Multiple sessions
Wolfe also recommends this Jane Austen–inspired game in which players portray Regency-era characters like a striving socialite or a gentleman suitor. “You’re around other high-society people, going to the ball, falling in love, or having some kind of dramatic financial thing with your dad,” Wolfe says. Whatever the story, there will be drama: Each character has a secret desire they’re striving to achieve by using their social connections.
Number of players: 1 to 4 | Game master needed? No | Accessories: Dice | Time commitment: Single session
Bilanko likes this kaiju-themed game that can be played solo or with friends. The story is about a mech pilot (the person controlling a giant robot from inside) who has to defend their home from an invading monster. But it’s up to the player(s) to create the world, the monsters, and the characters. “You can play it as a solo journaling game where you’re developing your home world,” Bilanko says, “and then you can run it for your friends as an adventure.”
‘Mouse Guard’ — Roleplaying Game Box Set (2nd Edition)
Number of players: 2 to 6 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: Dice (the boxed set comes with custom dice, but it can be played with regular dice too) | Time commitment: Multiple sessions
Mouse Guard also has a Redwall-ish vibe — the characters are anthropomorphic mice in a medieval fantasy world — but it’s actually based on a comic series of the same name. No knowledge of the comics is necessary to play, though. The main characters are members of the Mouse Guard, tasked with protecting the mouse territories from predators and other threats. The game has a similar vibe to D&D, thanks to the setting, but the gameplay style and the character creation are different. For example, combat is played with cards that allow a limited range of actions. While I found it simpler than D&D in some ways, it is a bit more complicated than some of the games above.
Number of players: 3 to 6 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: Dice | Time commitment: Multiple sessions
Created by the makers of Critical Role, one of the most popular D&D podcasts, Daggerheart is “designed to be an easier to approach fantasy game that has a lot fewer rules,” says Isaac VanDuyn, founder of the Carcosa Club gaming space in Brooklyn and creator of the game Outcast Silver Raiders. It’s set in a similar Tolkien-like fantasy world as D&D but is more narrative-driven, so the improvisational and imaginative storytelling are at the forefront with less emphasis on doing lots of math and following ultraspecific rules. It would make a great gift for fans of Critical Role as well as those looking for an approachable entry to table-top role play.
Number of players: 3 to 5 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: Dice | Time commitment: Multiple sessions
The aptly named Apocalypse World is a survival story set in a postapocalyptic, Mad Max–style society 50 years out from an inciting event. The game comes recommended by VanDuyn, who says it has “a very interesting mechanical system that is very simple to understand”: Players roll a pair of six-sided dice and add a number between negative two and positive two to the results. That’s the only dice roll needed to do anything in the game; otherwise, the game is played through storytelling and collaboration among players. Players cooperatively build out the world in the first session as they create their characters. Rather than planning everything ahead of time, the Master of Ceremonies (the game’s version of a game master) will ask players questions to expand the world and develop characters.
Apocalypse World has actually inspired a whole subcategory of RPGs, which are called Powered by the Apocalypse (PBtA) games because they borrow from Apocalypse World’s mechanics. Because it’s been so influential in RPG game design, it’s a great pick for both newbies and experienced players. “I have played many Powered by the Apocalypse Games, and I still think that the original one did it best,” VanDuyn says.
‘Vampire the Masquerade’: 5th Edition Core Rulebook
Number of players: 2 to 4 | Game master needed? Yes | Accessories: Dice | Time commitment: Multiple sessions
VanDuyn also likes this gothic game of “personal and political horror” from the ’90s where players portray vampires in a secret society. Like Apocalypse World, it’s more narrative-driven, focusing on the plot and characters more than combat or challenges.
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
I came to Stanford University in 1981 after serving as a district superintendent for seven years on the East coast. I taught four courses during the academic year and advised a small number of doctoral and masters students. After the hectic daily schedule of being a superintendent, responding to frequent requests from individual school board members, and visiting schools weekly in addition to meeting with individual principals, teachers, and disgruntled parents, being a tenured professor at Stanford was like a leisurely walk in the park.
Then, after being at Stanford for five years teaching and advising students, both of which I enjoyed a great deal, a newly-appointed Dean asked me to serve as his Associate Dean. He wanted someone who had administrative experience.
Being superintendent of a school district answerable to my five bosses–the School Board- and then tasting the privileged life of a full professor for five years, I had no inclination to return to being an administrator whose influence on tenured colleagues, was at best severely limited and at worst, non-existent. The Dean, however, wanted me bad enough that he and I negotiated a higher salary–I would be working twelve months rather than nine (it is, after all, a private institution where everything is negotiated). Furthermore, we agreed that I would only serve two years as Associate Dean and, in addition, I could teach at least one or two courses each year. Finally, I would get a sabbatical quarter after completing the second year as Associate Dean. I said OK.
What did I do as Associate Dean?
I had to insure that all of my colleagues taught at least four courses over three quarters of the academic year. Some did not and I had to badger them to do so. I handled students’ complaints with particular professors’ poor teaching or the few faculty who were habitually inattentive to students’ work, that is, didn’t read student papers, ignored students’ contributions to discussions, or seldom met with their advisees. I also followed up on doctoral students’ complaints about unavailability of their dissertation advisers, and I represented the Dean on occasions he could not attend campus meetings or social events. So with the help of an skillful administrative secretary, the first year went smoothly.
The second year I had an idea. University professors seldom get observed as they teach except by their students. As a superintendent I had observed over a thousand teachers in my district over the seven years I served. Even prior to that when I ran a project in the Washington, D.C. public schools, I supervised groups of first-year teachers. Observe and discuss observations with teachers, well, I could do that. Why not observe university professors?
I sent out a personal letter (this was before email became standard communication) to each of my 36 colleagues asking them if they wanted me to observe one of their classes and meet afterwards to discuss what I had seen. I made clear that I would make no judgment about their lesson but describe to them what I saw and have a conversation around what they had intended to happen in the hour or so I observed, what they thought had occurred, and what I had seen. Nothing would be written down (except for my notes which I shared with each faculty member). It would be a conversation. I did ask them to supply me with the readings that students were assigned for the session I observed and what the professor wanted to accomplish during the hour or 90-minute class.
Of the 36 faculty who received the letter, 35 agreed (the 36th came to me in the middle of the year and asked me to observe his class). None of them–yes, that is correct–none had ever been observed before by anyone in the Graduate School of Education or University. Two professors, however, I had observed previously because of student complaints; I had discussed those complaints with the professor and then observed their lectures and discussions and followed up with another conversation..
So for each of the ten-week quarters of the academic year, I observed professors until I saw all 36 colleagues. Each faculty member scheduled a follow-up conversation with me that we held in their office.
What happened?
For me, it was a fine learning experience. I got to read articles in subject matter I knew a smattering (e.g., economics of education, adolescent psychological development, standardized test development). I heard colleagues lecture, saw them discuss readings from their syllabi, and, for me, I picked up new knowledge and ways of teaching graduate students I had not tried in my courses.
As for my colleagues, a common response during the conversations we had following the observations was gratitude for an experience they had not had as a professor. Simply talking about the mechanics of a lecture or discussion, what they thought had worked and had not, the surprises that popped up during the lesson–all of that was a new experience for nearly all of the faculty. A few asked me to return again and we negotiated subsequent visits. Overall, I felt–and seemingly most of my colleagues agreed–that the experience was worthwhile because I and they wanted to talk about the ins-and-outs of teaching and had lacked opportunities to do so in their career as professors.
Those conversations over the year got me thinking more deeply about the gap between rhetoric and practice among premier universities like Stanford. Research universities preach the importance of teaching–the rhetoric is omnipresent. Moreover, professors and graduate students receive annual teaching awards, and there are programs to help professors to improve their teaching. Yet the University had not created the conditions for faculty to share with colleagues the how and what of their teaching through observation and discussion of lectures and seminars.
That year as Associate Dean sitting in on faculty lectures and seminars led me on an intellectual journey plumbing a question that nagged at me as I observed and conversed with colleagues: how come universities say teaching is all-important yet all of the structures and actual (not symbolic) rewards in tenure, promotion, and salary go to professors who publish research articles and books?
To answer that question I did a historical study of teaching and research at Stanford in one department–History and one professional school, the School of Medicine. In completing How Scholars Trumped Teachers: Change without Reform in University Curriculum, Teaching, and Research, 1890-1990, I learned how universities like Stanford, have both structures and incentives that insure teaching will be subordinate to the primary tasks of doing research and getting it published.
To my knowledge, no voluntary observations of professors and conversations about teaching have occurred in the Graduate School of Education since 1986-1988.
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