Vinsel gives away the game, not only by encouraging everyone to just "wait and see" while more and more damage is being done in the name of "AI" --- as if he were taking an impartial position, >>

I want to flag a certain kind of move in some quarters wherein authors attempt to position themselves not as AI boosters, but as critics of AI criticism. 🧵>>

In honour of “AI Literacy Day” join a star studded lineup in unpacking “AI” “Literacy” – Sunday, March 29th! Register here! Notaidoc.com/literacy

My campus is prettier than your campus! Thanks @uwcherryblossom.bsky.social

Why ridicule works to keep big tech’s claims in check, and what makes us hopeful for the future.

@alexhanna.bsky.social and I had a blast chatting with @samleecole.bsky.social from @404media.co for their podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t... Thanks again, Sam!

I appreciate @seanhollister.bsky.social 's reporting here about the latest step Google is taking in their quest to destroy the information ecosystem and disempower information seekers: www.theverge.com/tech/896490/... 🧵>>

kind of seems like the people saying data center energy use is overstated were full of shit

First off, there's plenty of nuance in anti-AI conversations: people digging into the political economy of the project of "AI", people surfacing different lenses with which to study it, people talking about differnet kinds of harms. >>

Good thread (and not just because the good professor links to Anna’s and my article), but this bit is the whole game. Never take your eye off this particular ball when talking about any corporation who makes money by selling information or any form of access to it

I appreciate @seanhollister.bsky.social 's reporting here about the latest step Google is taking in their quest to destroy the information ecosystem and disempower information seekers: www.theverge.com/tech/896490/... 🧵>>

Do genAI boosters come to treat human interlocutors like chatbots, or does genAI appeal to those who need others to echo their feelings?

Join us if you are in the area 👇

A decade ago I was calling out how the overfunding of CS was starting to become the overfunding of AI (research & faculty) in academia & how it was producing truly dogshit research—because the barriers to getting funding were so low almost anyone (is CS/ML) with a terrible idea could get funding.

I love this metaphor because of how it speaks to the contortions people (here: AI boosters) go through to ignore/pretend not to notice the race science.

Continually astounded at not only people's lack of imagination when motivating their use of chatbots etc but also their lack of memory. Case in point: >>

🙏🏾🙏🏾 bsky.app/profile/emil...

Was touched to see Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 end their latest show quoting my insta and shouting out The Overseer Class (h/t @louiseseamster.bsky.social @dairinstitute.bsky.social @alexhanna.bsky.social) podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

There's a learned helplessness here that feels a lot like obeying in advance. Use your brain, don't let anyone tell you you can't, and definitely don't tell others they can't.

I'm also reminded of the many stories documenting how hard it is to fully sever ties even when that contract ends.

"'It helps you read 50 papers in a month rather than 50 in a year.'" What's lost when a goal of graduate school is volume rather than careful reading? A few things. I learned to write academic papers by learning to read academic papers and attend to their structure and authors' rhetorical moves. 🧵

Oh yeah, I’m sure the next thing the American people want after long lines at TSA is to get wrongfully detained, beat up, and harassed by ICE. No blank check for ICE. We need reform & accountability. In the meantime, how about you tell Republicans to just vote to pay TSA.

Continually astounded at not only people's lack of imagination when motivating their use of chatbots etc but also their lack of memory. Case in point: >>

This is the way.

I love this metaphor because of how it speaks to the contortions people (here: AI boosters) go through to ignore/pretend not to notice the race science.

“What was really surprising to me during my initial dive into all of this was how, when you look at the question of superintelligence as a documentarian or journalist, it doesn’t take long before you smack your forehead into the low doorframe of race science, because it’s baked into this technology”

Bernie bros came for me on Muskrat's platform when I quote tweeted this Calude ad saying, "at this point, Bernie’s job seems to be lobbying for Anthropic." So let me elaborate. Bernie has been repeating, almost verbatim, Dario Amodei's talking points, for a while now, even quote tweeting him.🧵

Hey Bernie bros -- it's time to come get your guy. We need leaders who are not so easily taken in by the tech companies, for real.

So a great thing about contracts is that they usually have and end date and/or means of ending them. If your university or other organization bent the knee to OpenAI or any of the other chatbot providers, when a contract is up, there is an opportunity for pressure: forms.gle/ZGn5brEGU4t9...

Watching Bernie talk to a phone so you don't have to

i'm glad to see people doing the optimistic work of exercising autonomy over what role and to what extent certain technologies exist in their lives & their work don't let anyone tell you that the garbage they work on or promote is inevitable, or that taking control over your future is a lost cause

Thinking about how the universities that were "leaders" in adopting this stuff now have an opportunity, as contracts come up for renewal (or, ahem, not) to be "leaders" in leaving it behind.

As one of the authors of this thought I’d share a bit about how we got here and how you can do what we’ve done at you institution. Over the two years I’ve been at the University of Edinburgh I’ve grown increasingly concerned by fellow academics uncritically using LLMs, especially OpenAIs’s ChatGPT.

Love to see this

My university claims (despite operating at a surplus) that we need to cut jobs by £90M, but somehow has money for a contract with OpenAI, directly entangled with the US government, military, & ICE, for large language models to make the students less capable of thinking for themselves. Let's not.

So a great thing about contracts is that they usually have and end date and/or means of ending them. If your university or other organization bent the knee to OpenAI or any of the other chatbot providers, when a contract is up, there is an opportunity for pressure: forms.gle/ZGn5brEGU4t9...

Hey Bernie bros -- it's time to come get your guy. We need leaders who are not so easily taken in by the tech companies, for real.

hoooo boy it is strange seeing what my face does when @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social read me this particular piece of insanity

Musk thinks data centers in space wouldn’t need ANY maintenance. I loved @adambecker.bsky.social's response to this on our latest episode of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000. Check out episode 73: "Data Centers in Space!?”. (with @emilymbender.bsky.social)

Mood for 2026, (the artist is Ainsley Drew, on Instagram)

“If you still like AI after watching this movie, I don’t want to know you.” @filmsnobreviews.bsky.social

4th post is the kicker. If I see someone doing that I know they're not serious/not genuine about having an actual conversation about either AI-related technology *or* the use of AI as a branding tool.

What really irritates me about the US labor movement is the virulent racism dressed as "I'm too radical to see color." If you're happy to "build bridges" with eugenicists for "the greater good" I'm not interested in being around you. Its not an accident that these "labor" spaces are so white 🙄

Loll folks, taping this sign again. At this point you know what you're doing if you're "building bridges" with these people. bsky.app/profile/timn...

@alexhanna.bsky.social and I recommend reframing from "AI" to automation in our book, because it always helps to make the conversation clearer. >>

It's hard to do satire of a field that is continually self-satiring, but this is a valiant attempt: puregenius.education

Too many students are convinced by their own universities, by some of their teachers and professors, and by the AI companies themselves that ‘using ai to study is getting ahead of the game’ But the process they seek to get ahead of is the point.

Meanwhile, the people I see complaining about this usually use the term "AI" without saying what they mean by it. In other words, they're starting the conversation form a non-nuanced position. >>

Are you kidding me, @aflcio.org? You are having an AI policy summit and one of the keynotes is Max Tegmark? Of the Future of Life Institute? FLI is and has been part of the longtermist cult, funded by Tallinn and Musk. This is a dangerous alliance, and y'all are joining forces for a pittance.

FLI, that penned their infamous "pause" letter, signed by Musk, Gates, and others. @timnitgebru.blacksky.app @emilymbender.bsky.social and @mmitchell.bsky.social wrote a rejoinder, which is worth reading again. www.dair-institute.org/blog/letter-...