OpenAI put out a press release today addressing mental health concerns. I have many issues with it, but something super troubling: They estimate a WEEKLY prevalence of 560,000 users displaying signs of psychosis or mania and 1.2 MILLION users indicating suicidal plan/intent.

I have a website now!

As a scientist, I can attest to this!

The world works this way because of you, Mr. Altman. You created a world of runaway digital body snatching and SpongeBob meth labs. Don’t blame human nature to remove your culpability. Quote from today’s article in @theverge.com www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

Check out my discussion of video pedagogy and layered instruction on the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast!

Science is self-correcting, but only if our goal is accuracy over ideology.

The biggest AI problem right now isn’t a Skynet scenario (yet), it’s the concentration of power and lack of oversight or public input. “Your hairdresser has… more regulation…” This is from @theatlantic.com’s recent article “The AI Doomers are getting Doomier” by @matteowong.bsky.social

Currently reading an article about the impact of AI hype. There’s so much here, but the impact of AI investment on the balance of military investment and power is the most damning. (Highlights my own) Paper: dl.acm.org/doi/full/10....

The Just World hypothesis doesn’t necessarily make the world more just…

My General Psychology class had the special treat of a guest lecture from @marawilson.bsky.social! She discussed her article on extroversion that was published in @theguardian.com last September. It’s our week on personality psychology, and I was thrilled that she agreed to speak. She nailed it!

My friend @marawilson.bsky.social wrote a beautifully kind and loving tribute to Michelle Trachtenberg. I highly recommend a read!

What is consent? This is a clip from my general psychology lecture on human sexuality.

I'm currently developing three video lectures for my general psychology module on human sexuality. This is perhaps one of the most complex lectures I've ever created given our current political climate. I am proud of how it is coming together though.

I've been trying to do topic lectures that relate to current events in my general psychology class. This week we've been discussing behaviorism, so I put together a lecture on the operant conditioning methods involved in cancel culture (a thread)

In honor of Oscar season, yesterday's General Psychology lecture explored the operant conditioning methods used to respond to Will Smith's 2022 outburst. It seemed to get the point across well.

There is a German word, "torschlusspanik," which refers to the feeling that your window of opportunity in life is closing. I introduced this to my human emotion class, and it's a little unsettling how many college students deeply relate to this emotion.

I just finished editing the first third of video content for both General Psychology and Human Emotion. It's over 5 hours and 40 minutes of instruction over 24 different videos. I somehow made all of this in a month. Now to grade 150 assignments.This semester has really been baptism by fire.

I'm editing several hours of video lectures where I had my microphone plugged into the headphone jack of my camera 😑 I don't have time to re-record them, and they are usable. But it's making the editing process AGONY!

My first week of in-person teaching is in the bag! I really like my students! I’m not sure my classes were as engaging as I’d like them to be yet, but it’s coming together. Now to get back to curriculum design for my asynchronous courses 😵‍💫

I had my first student recognize me on campus and say “hi professor Flux” as I was getting coffee. Feels like a milestone.

My first three PSYC 1001 mini-lectures are live on YouTube on my LiveLifeinFlux channel. I really did not know what I was getting myself into when I agreed to put this class together. But I’m very pleased with how it’s turning out.

Raw video footage for my class lectures is MASSIVE now that I’m trying to optimize for lighting and color in 4K. I just filmed for about a half hour and the file is 40 GB 😱

I've been feeling a bit torn by the amount that I've leaned on AI while developing my courses. I'm not torn by the level that I'm engaging with generative AI, as I've been using it in very thoughtful ways. I'm mostly torn over the environmental impacts. I've been power-using for weeks...

In the past week I binged 12 hours of lectures, skimmed a textbook, compiled 111 pages of lecture video scripts, and have so far made 357 PowerPoint slides. How do other professors prepare to teach? This is my first in-person class and I feel like I’m going a bit overboard…

I’m currently binging an entire semester of general psychology lectures on double speed because I am unhinged. I’m trying to prepare to record my own versions for the class I’m teaching in 2 weeks. This has been some winter break…

I'm teaching a Winter Session version of Abnormal Psychology, and I added a few assignments to motivate students to interact with their communities at the university's request. The first assignment had them interviewing people about how they view normal/abnormal. The responses are pretty incredible.

Consistent feedback from students has been that they enjoy when I use TikToks to promote and enhance discussion. As I develop a new class in the shadow of the TikTok ban, I’m trying to figure out how to pivot this strategy to other social media.

12 years ago I did a body painting gig for Wiz Khalifa. I worked all day doing primate neuroscience research and then all night painting beautiful people for an album release event. Now I’m getting ready to move to Denver to teach undergrads about psychology. Life is a constant adventure!

Let’s see if my stuff makes it to Denver in 2 weeks 😳

It finally happened. I accused a student of using AI in their assignment based on a hunch and a 100% AI score on GPTZero and I was wrong. In response to their rebuttal I did several more analyses that increased support that their work was original This brings up so many issues as an educator [1/4]

How does a neurodivergent neuroscientist apply for a teaching job? Allow me to introduce myself… Full 3.5 minute video at: youtu.be/bVqs83Koonk?...

I just signed a lease. I'll be moving to Denver on November 30th, 2024. I also am currently interviewing for an assistant teaching professor position at CU Boulder. I'm not sure if I will get it, but I am very committed to teaching there. I already am as an adjunct.

I just got off an international meeting of scientists to determine the next direction for collaborative human emotion research. Interesting things in the works!

@marawilson.bsky.social does it again! Incredibly thoughtful and informative. Check out this amazing article on introversion/extroversion (and keep an eye out for my quotes!)

Did you know that there are 87 trials registered on clinicaltrials.gov exploring psychedelic treatment for PTSD, with 18 peer reviewed studies published based on completed trials? I'm working on a piece and I have far too many spreadsheets to keep track of this...

New work on a series about Abnormal Psychology in the works! I'm creating six video essays designed to motivate us to critically examine how we create models for what is normal in mental health. Stay tuned!

Finally got my new studio workspace set up! I’m looking forward to doing more science and making some fun content.

Just me casually working on VR mind maps in my PJs for the class I’m teaching this summer. A typical Friday morning.

Hey there Bluesky!

My good friend Mara interviewed me for this piece! I speak about the psychology of annoyance and some ways to navigate a frequently annoying world with kindness.