ARTexplains.com

About the Author

Alexander R. Toftness is a science communicator with a YouTube channel called ARTexplains. He believes science communication is extra important in an age of misinformation, disinformation, and cognitive surrender to artificial intelligence. That’s why he made this website in WordPress the old fashioned & frustrating way, with brainpowered trial & error, while ignoring all of the AI features that Hostinger/WordPress and Google keep pushing on him. Like this “use AI Assistant” prompt:

A screenshot from when Xander was making this website, showing the prompt asking him if he wants assistance from AI. He did not want assistance from AI.

Links to video-related materials such as scripts and references dwell on this website. Plus, links to Xander’s other writing, such as books and articles. His typical beat is “unusual true stories from science and history.” He belongs to WeCreateEDU, a collective of educational channels. You can support his science communication work on Patreon. Good lord, now it’s asking me if I want to “Edit with AI” the screenshot asking me if I want to use AI.

A screenshot of the options after uploading my previous screenshot, which include an option to edit the image with AI. They really don't want Xander to make any creative decisions using his own noodle, do they?

Xander has been driven since 2013 to make factual content for the Internet, making his dream of creating non-fiction… non-fiction. He earned his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology in 2022, studying metacognition and cognitive neuropsychology, focusing on how people learn, and how people’s mental worlds change following brain injuries. He worked as a college professor for four years before returning to his love of science communication in 2026. Partly because AI is ruining educational systems, and partly because humans are ruining educational systems. Apparently, Xander doesn’t even need his own screenshots, he could just ask it to “Generate with AI” a picture of Xander refusing to use the AI features.

A screenshot of the upload image menu which has a button reading Generate with AI along with Media Library and Insert from URL. Guess which option is closest to the Upload button?

Alongside sci-com videos, he has several academic and not-so-academic publications. Some highlights include:

By the way, the WordPress webpage editor has a built-in SEO optimizing score powered by AI that Xander couldn’t figure out how to disable, and it’s currently sitting at a C-, baby.

A screenshot of the AIOSEO score for this page at the time of writing. It is at 71 out of 100, which as a letter grade would be a C minus. However, it'll all authentically written by a human person, and that's what I'm into.

You know, the other day Xander was watching a scam ad for a (probably) fake product targeting Alzheimer’s patients featuring deepfakes of Steve Martin and Bill Gates, and Xander asked Xanderself whether Xander could think of anything in life that doesn’t feel like a grift right now. He struggled to come up with a solid example of a non-grift. It reminded him of that episode of Friends where Phoebe donates to PBS in an attempt to prove that altruism exists. Can you believe what the political monsters tried to do to PBS? C’mon, people. We all could use a little learning over on Sesame Street. That’s where Bird Bird lives!

A photo of a hilarious typo in a children's book that reads, in part, "They pass by Bird Bird's nest." This is a real typo in a real book.

Xander found that typo while reading a book to Xander’s very good baby the other day. While Xander was cropping that photo, Photoshop asked Xander if Xander wanted more photo via generative expansion, which kind of feels like the opposite of Xander’s crop-job.

A screenshot of the contextual taskbar in Photoshop offering to use AI to make my photo bigger now that I've gone to the trouble of cropping it to make it smaller.

Anyway, Xander was on Forbes skimming an article about the scam when Xander was served an ad for the same exact scam.

A screenshot of the Forbes news article about the scam, which is also serving an ad fro the scam in the middle of the text about why the reader should be cautious of the scam. It reads, in part, "Alzheimer's Begins When You Can't Say This Word." The ad links to a scam website that tries to sell bogus brain supplements, preying on vulnerable people.

Xander guesses that’s what happens when you click on scam ads. You get more scam ads. So, yeah, everything kind of feels like a grift right now, and Xander’d like to fight against that with his science communication work. If you are so inclined, you can support his efforts through PayPal at PayPal.Me/ARToftness or through his Patreon page. It would also be awesome if you subscribed on YouTube to the ARTexplains Science & History Channel. Oh ****, Xander’s About The Author page is up to 73/100! That’s a C-flat! And a lot of it isn’t even really about him! Maybe that’s the strat? Hang on…

A screenshot of the AIOSEO score for this page at the time of writing. It is at 73 out of 100, which as a letter grade would be a C.

Xander has a theory that every time he writes the name of a famous rich male celebrity, like he did when writing about the scam video above, his score increases by one point. To test this theory, Xander will now find a way to work Channing Tatum into the conversation.

A screenshot of the AIOSEO score, which remains at the same score of 73 out of 100.

Shoot. Xander out.

[EDIT] Okay, look. Xander mispelled “Channing Tatum” as “Tanning Chatum” when he first wrote the above section.

A screenshot from part of the current website before it was edited, showing the mispelling "Tanning Chatum" before it was later corrected to "Channing Tatum."

He has now corrected the spelling, and:

A screenshot of the AIOSEO score, which has now increased by one point to 74 out of 100 following the correction of Channing Tatum's name. Coincidence? Probably.