My proposed Minister for AI

This is important @foundationsofthedigitalstate.com @alisonphipps.bsky.social @munross.bsky.social Freedom as infrastructure and systems design - as regulation and good institutional design - law, tech and governance

#TeamRE We are delighted to share today’s news from the Secretary of State for Education. Find the full article on NATRE’s latest news natre.org.uk/news/a-step-forward-for-re-government-includes-subject-in-september-curriculum-consultation/

On why we should regulate platforms, not (young) users: www.heraldscotland.com/news/2625722...

This is a fantastic step forward to secure quality RE provision in all schools in England #TeamRE schoolsweek.co.uk/re-will-form...

Of all the things we heard from young people during @erpioe.bsky.social #TeachingForDigitalCitizenship by far the worst failing was hearing "it's already too late for me" - coming from 17 year olds 1/2 Social media bans are trending. But it’s too late for my son and me share.google/TGIZ39ZFmkZw...

New insights on the social media ban for under 16's and education💡📲 Prof @lundieeducation.bsky.social writes that a total ban can create barriers to educators being able to talk to young people about harms and the complex digital world they already inhabit. Read: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

'Limited' evidence for AI tutoring tools, government says | Tes share.google/twlJPNFNstzs...

Social media on trial: Four important cases to watch #edusky #eduskyai

Theology in Scotland @theoscot.bsky.social is launching an early-career public lectureship competition on “Church in a changing society.” 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Open to late-stage PhDs+recent grads (Scotland) 🏆 £500 honorarium+public lecture+publication in the journal 📅 Deadline: 15 July 2026 See further info below!

Dark Patterns in AI Chatbots: A Taxonomy to Inform Better Design cdt.org/insights/dar...

I am not exaggerating when I say that a quarter of the sources about how "AI" harms workers in our research come from Harvard Business Review. It's gotten very bad when the management professors flag it!

"A Chinese company has been trying to develop artificial intelligence-powered technology that would enable authoritarian governments to not just monitor dissidents but also potentially predict who could become one in the future."

Our SHAPE Involve and Engage 2027-28 programme is now open for applications, offering an exciting opportunity for humanities and social sciences researchers to engage with the public. Apply now: https://bit.ly/43JR4oA

This sounds just awful. As a convert, I remember the "I need to read all the books, know all the answers and constantly bug my priest with questions" phase. What I needed back then was not a superintelligence, but to touch grass, meet people, and live the beatitudes. share.google/0Ubi8xW72oZH...

It's like they want to be the chaotic journalist-antihero Spider Jerusalem from the Warren Ellis comic book Transmetropolitan, but they missed the entire point of the book and only picked up on the violence.

Reading Magnifica Humanitas very slowly, because I find myself incapable of not hearing every word of it in Pope Leo's carefully measured tones.

Can someone explain to me how prediction markets make money? What is the value they derive from prediction? It's not the same as sports betting, where there are punters betting on both teams, and the bookmaker just needs to make sure the odds even out over time, plus a profit.

Petition from Meta workers: “We are calling for a clear commitment that employees (FTEs, CWs and Interns), must not have their "computer use data" - also referred to as human-computer interaction data - collected for the purposes of training AI models” mcipetition.com

"Against Optimized Efficiency: Why Foreign Language Learning Still Matters" by Kit Pribble in latest issue of Critical AI Free to read #OpenAccess #LanguageLearning #LangSky read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...

You know that if Kier Starmer single-handedly solved the Iran-Israel War, the Tory press in the UK would lead with the headline "Starmer's Blow To UK Arms Industry Exports"

First Sloth born in Scotland named after Sir David Attenborough, after zoo rejects naming him Slothy McSlothface share.google/r41XhmP8i6MG...

Honestly, I don't need to use GenAI. Every day, I have fascinating conversations with real, intelligent human beings. In PhD supervisions & project meetings I am "prompt engineering" those intelligences, and they are going out into the world, gathering views of other experts in a real neural network

Major new publication with the first findings of my @templetonrelig.bsky.social project on empathy, pro-social and pro-environmental behaviours in Journal of Environmental Psychology @uofgdumfries.bsky.social Free to read at: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"we are living through attacks on our science from both the outside & inside wherein non-theory & non-science produced by industry players is presented as computational modelling of the phenomena and capacities we study, and worse as theories thereof (van Rooij & Guest, 2026; van Rooij et al. 2024)"

Why is there so much fly-tipping in Birmingham? Because there aren't any cows in the city to tip. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is good. Read it, especially but not only if you are a government minister. It comes from a reflective place of praxis. Unlike much of what has been said on this topic, this is not slop.

The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought via @wired www.wired.com/story/deepfa... #EduSky #EduSkyAI #TLSky #EdTech #AIinEducation #aisky #ai #deepfakes

How does forgiveness transform the forgiver? 🤝💓 'Wrongdoing and Forgiveness' by Joanna North is available for free as part of our series, '100 Papers That Shaped Our Thinking', celebrating our centenary: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #forgiveness #philosophyoflife #philosophical

In #CriticalAI 3.2, Matthew Halm dives into the politics of “prompt engineering,” arguing that it reflects an ideology that sidelines human judgment in favor of optimization. The essay challenges how generative AI tools are framed—and taught—in writing education. read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...

Over the years we've seen countries across the globe pull the plug on the internet to control narratives and crush resistance. EFF and @Amnesty.org / @AmnestyUK.bsky.social are explaining how you can fight back: www.eff.org/event/effec...

This may be a fundamentally new kind of sin blending blasphemy, idolatry, divination, and simony, among others. Those who are not horrified at this may be entirely lacking in authentic religious awareness and feeling.

Coverage is not progress. Students struggle for 3 curricular reasons: lack of specificity, lack of systematicity, and lack of subject sensitivity. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

In Europe's post-Napoleonic Catholic revival, new vocations flocked to social reformers like Marcellin Champagnat & Don Bosco. People had come to hope for revolutionary change, but also realised it wouldn't come in their lifetimes. Sounds very much like our times. theconversation.com/there-may-no...

There's a definite paradox here. I like being on a network that just shows me what my mutuals and hashtags post, what's relevant, and doesn't try to addict me to doomscrolling for hours. But the flip side of that is that I only post when I have something worth saying, which can be weeks apart.

You asked AI to fix your comma, It fixed your entire personality. This paper proved that ChatGPT rewrites your opinions without permission. You told it to fix a comma. It erased what you believe. And the worst part? You liked the result better.

please do not feed all your thoughts into the jar of hungry ghosts.

Next #Identities event! 'Ceding Sovereignty to the More-Than-Human: A Maori Perspective' with Prof Carl Mika Chaired by Dr Ima Jackson, Glasgow Caledonian University In person, 23 Apr, 2-3.30pm Register: www.eventbrite.co.uk... @nasarmeer.bsky.social @uofgsps.bsky.social @uofgsocsci.bsky.social

New guide from NIoT Centre for Digital Information Literacy on addressing Conspiracy Thinking in the Classroom. Young people suffer real world harm's from believing online conspiracies: niot.org.uk/news-events/...

A little Adam Smith for you. From Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Today I Learned That De Pauw University is it's own place and not just a Glaswegian colleague talking about De Paul University!

If Trump thinks he is in peace talks with Iran, but Iran has no knowledge of these happening, who is Trump really talking to? I have visions of some kebab shop in DC getting the call: "that crazy old man is on the phone again. Yeah, just promise him two lamb shawarma and no nuclear weapons!"

After watching the recent Louis Theroux Netflix documentary on the manosphere, I thought I should check in with my son's viewing habits,check he isn't consuming this kind of content. His response "Those guys are so total cringe!" - you heard it here first, misogyny is cringe!

“AI technology is much more akin to a ouija board than anything else: promoting and enabling mysticism, pseudoscience, and pseudo-intellectualism …” — @olivia.science @marentierra.bsky.social et al. (2025) From: zenodo.org/records/1706...

Glasgow's "young teams" have a reputation for vandalism and antisocial behaviour, but they have nothing on this lot! DOGE lead: It was right for young team to deny grants for DEI | News | Independent TV share.google/KqM2ipje4CMg...

“If plagiarism is wrong & bad & theft is wrong & bad & schools are duty-bound to help instill these values in students, how can they justify adoption of a technology that is, at its core, built on stolen work & whose purpose is the extrusion of text to be passed off as one's own thinking & writing?”

Pitch an unnecessary sequel II Swear