“Hype is seldom based on concrete promises,” explains Stewart. “It is, by design, a speculation boom: it generates a narrative of innovation and future value, but it is driven by logics of business and media, not education or the public good. Hype’s purpose is to generate investment.”

“The report, released this week, says every dollar invested by the federal government in arts and culture generates $29 in economic activity” www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

“Nearly nine in ten Canadians (88 per cent) say they are concerned about AI deception in the news, with over half (52 per cent) “very concerned.”” cjf-fjc.ca/digital-dece...

“Instead of telling their own stories, creatives are funneled into pre-existing IP, often with corporate-issued limitations on what kind of stories they can tell.” #BookSky reactormag.com/with-the-ser...

“I wonder if the emerging threat of AI is restoring a sense of vitality to the humanistic mission... the humanities enable people to feel whole within themselves...[they] help us form coherent narratives…out of the contradictions, challenges, and terrors of daily life. thelocal.to/humanities-i...

“Moral convictions & emotions play a critical role in escalating disagreements. The damage caused when civil arguments are subtly replaced with moral convictions & moral emotions can impact how we co-operate & interact with one another, even in our day-to-day conversations with families & friends.”

"What we're going to see is a growth in the economy around hate and disinformation." www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...

“In short, these models are very good at a kind of pattern recognition, but often fail when they encounter novelty that forces them beyond the limits of their training, despite being, as the paper notes, “explicitly designed for reasoning tasks” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Back to my regular #BookSky posting: I loved Woodworking by Emily St. James for its loving portrayal of different White trans women’s experiences, and the reversal of the generational flow of wisdom.

“Biderman herself doesn't have any illusions that the likes of OpenAI will […]start being paragons of ethical data sourcing. But she hopes her work will at least get them to stop hiding what they're using to train their AI models. "Even partial transparency has a huge amount of social value"

“OpenAI’s push to A.I.-ify college education amounts to a national experiment on millions of students. The use of these chatbots in schools is so new that their potential long-term educational benefits, and possible side effects, are not yet established.”

Today marks the final day of Congress@GBC, and we couldn’t be prouder to be the 1st college ever to host Canada’s largest academic gathering! For over a week, we've welcomed colleagues from across Canada & the world for the 94th Annual Congress of the Humanities & Social Sciences. @federationhss.ca

Limberlost Campus lit up with vibrant dances by the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation for National Indigenous History Month and Congress @ GBC! Thank you to everyone who joined us in honouring Indigenous knowledge through meaningful, embodied learning. @federationhss.ca #Congressh

“What stories can you read that change you and how you operate?” Asks @jaelrichardson.bsky.social at the Care of Togetherness Big Thinking as a way to practice care. #Congressh

“Care is one of those practices that we carry out often without any kind of robuste theoretical framework, it preceeds thoughts in many ways.” - Billy-Ray Belcourt #congressh

"Each person in this room has a responsibility to the land which we live on. It's no coincidence that the land was found in such a beautiful state when settler colonialism began. Climate change is because of colonialism." - Melina Laboucan-Massimo #congressh

Michael Hirsh underscores the similarities between the experimental film culture of the 1960s-1970s and the YouTube creator culture of the past decade, in terms of DIY methods and finding an audience #congressh

Ryan Morrison: How do we slow it down? Heather Krause: We focus on the fact that it wasn’t everybody, but only a few, and amplify it. #congressh

“To me, AI is a very helpful tool to complement your existing critical thinking and existing work.” - Debra Lam. #congressh

Harmful problematic view: as well as we use the right tops, formulas, the results will be value-neutral. Not true. The data will replicate all the racism, sexism issues. This is not inevitable. How does we prevent that-deploy resources for equity? 1/2 Heather Krause #Congressh

“Building institutional data trust with communities is crucial to ongoing data-based research, as is accountability. simply publishing peer-reviewed papers is not sufficient; the community needs to see the benefits/changes that resulted: Debra Lam at #Congressh BT Technologies of Togetherness

[1/8] 🌟 Day 1 of #congressh at @gbcollege.bsky.social is finally here! We’re kicking off a week packed with learning, networking, and collaboration. Ready to dive in? Here’s what’s on the agenda today from @gbcollege.bsky.social:

As part of Congress @ GBC, the Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurial Showcase highlighted bold ideas, faculty & student research, and future-shaping ventures. Big thanks to all who joined! 🔗 georgebrown.ca/research-innovation 🔗 www.georgebrown.ca/startgbc #Congressh @federationhss.ca

“Putting people at the centre, putting culture at the heart, that’s where the humanities and social sciences intersect with the trades”: @gbcollege.bsky.social’s Michelle McCollum #Congressh

These student-designed mementoes are even more beautiful in real life--come and get them at #Congressh

“When the studios don’t take a stance, it emboldens and normalizes the bigotry” www.cbc.ca/arts/commoti...

“The incursions also take place amid a conservative insistence on greater “viewpoint diversity.” This push comes just as measures enacted to protect other kinds of diversity are being overturned.”

“Die imaginative Sogkraft, die eine solch charismatische Heldenerzählung entwickelt, speist sich aus der existenziellen Situation einer kriegerischen Begegnung, in der es um das eigene Leben und den Tod anderer geht.”

ETA on spring, #Toronto?

African SF story bundle ends tomorrow (Thursday). It includes my short story collection Jamaica Ginger & Other Concoctions, plus a ton of amazing books by amazing authors.

✨ Looking for a spot to unwind between sessions and expand your network? The Social spaces at #congressh at @gbcollege.bsky.social are your go-to! Enjoy live performances, tasty food trucks and network with colleagues! 🔗 ow.ly/qQ5f50VVYTs

Our @gbcollege.bsky.social colleagues and partners are showcasing unique, compelling, and vital perspectives on working and teaching in #PSE post-secondary education at #congressh, all accessible with a community pass. See you there :)

This is a great list to get folks (back) to reading. I’d add audiobooks & graphic novels also qualify as reading, especially from an accessibility perspective. Number 11; “Read with other people,” reminds me of the Silent Book Club, which @bookgaga.bsky.social champions here. Find your community!

“It was amazing, though, how hard it was to pull yourself together when life was happening at you in your third language, and at least seventy percent of the time you were hazy about what was going on.” #BookRecs #BookSky #SpecFic

For everyone interested in creative writing approaches in the classroom, a special issue of Changing English on "A Close Writing Playbook: Coupling Creative Writing and Close Reading Practices," edited by Michael Lockett & Scott Jarvie www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

My long weekend read is all sorted! At 3% in & Natasha Pulley’s The Mars House is very promising—precise language, plausible world building, compelling protagonist. Reserving judgment on the refugee system which reads a bit like atonement for nation’s colonial history. #SpecFic #BookSky

“I think people make themselves beautiful. I think everything on our outside is a line sketch, and whatever’s on the outside blows those lines into three dimensions.” Lovely writing, strong characters, lots of action—still enjoying this story even at my snail’s pace. #SpecFic #BookSky

There’s a possibility for an In Other Lands sequel?!!! Where do we petition for this to become reality? The world just needs more Elliot and Serene and Luke!

A delightful comfort read is always welcome these days, and Olivia Atwater’s Small Miracles delivers: fallen angels, flawed and well-meaning humans, gender fluidity, and generalized lovely mayhem. #BookRecs #BookSky

Busy times lead to my savouring every 10 minutes I get with KD Edwards’s The Last Sun, and relish that feeling of having a couple of more books in this Tarot Sequence to look forward to. #SpecFic Since it never hurts to add more to my TBR, what books are you enjoying, #BookSky?

Possibly the best place in #Toronto to eat your lunch. Can’t wait for #Congressh attendees to experience it, too!

#Misinformation is built into the current LLM by default if not by design (we don’t have access to the programmers’ intention). The promise of speed and efficiency lures users into relinquishing critical thinking, not to mention agency, creativity and many other boons of being a human

“Murderbot does something which reminds everyone that it’s a being that has done violence and that that’s part of their experience and their DNA.” Nice work teasing us with vagueness; like we’re not already counting the days till #Murderbot drops www.escapistmagazine.com/murderbots-t...

I finished it this morning and heartily recommend it to all and sundry. #BookRecs #BookSky

I wish the relief felt half as strong as the stress and fear had. Still, a huge sigh for tonight and hope for the future.

On a short walk, I took pics of all the blooming trees, and hoped they’ll entice #Toronto folks to come out and vote.

I have a new poem up at @chaudierebooks.bsky.social

Most of these lovely vignettes could easily be a picture book, but they are enchanting all on their own.

We're in a period of both increasing corporate consolidation and a top-down attempt to shift popular culture right the past few years, especially in TV and film but books aren't immune either- be conscious of this and look past the biggest marketing push when you're buying your trad published books

Frances Koncan’s Women of the Fur Trade is witty and irreverent and a total riot. Highly recommended for cutting satire and literal LOLs. Shoutout to Ms. M, my eldest’s English teacher for assigning it and thus teaching me something new, too. #BookRecs #BookSky