This piece makes some valid points about the problems with leaders using AI products for interpersonal issues. But it says the problem is they need better AI products. How about no. Leadership is a relational human activity. Maybe talk to actual humans, not AI to improve leadership skills.

UC Berkeley Law creates new AI policy that bans AI for "conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, translating, or editing any work submitted for credit" or exams because "thinking remains the sine qua non of good lawyering (and of a quality legal education)." That's what I'm talking about.

Elitism is always about limiting opportunities for the many

Author Thomas Dekeyser explains why modern resistance to Big Tech is a deeply sane response to a narrow vision of humanity https://restofworld.org/2026/techno-negative-thomas-dekeyser-fighting-ai/?utm_campaign=row-social&utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_content=1779123841

"You're saying it's critical to check AI's work, but relying on AI to complete the whole task in the first place means you're not learning enough about the process to correct its work when you end up needing to." "Sure you can. Just rework the prompt." kill me right now I don't want to be here

So companies, that spend BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, create a system that kills people (indirectly), destroys the environment, contributes to firings, sort of encourages people to be lazy, and our role as professors is to teach people how to use these systems?

NEW — My first true foray into AI haterdom is about how those of us not convinced by AI’s inevitability are a real constituency worthy of a voice. Give it a read:

Cut the bullshit: why GenAI systems are neither collaborators nor tutors www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 2025

On the one-year anniversary of EMPIRE OF AI, I am so, so excited to announce The AI Resist List, a new project that documents examples of resistance to the AI empires around the world 😍 airesistlist.org

on my birthday I took to the newsletter to write about the AI commencement address backlash, and how growing anger at AI is now irreversibly tethered to justified rage at the extraction class -- whether AI boosters like it or not

Hi! are you a 2026 graduate who has thoughts and feelings about this? I would love to talk to you for a story on the Verge hello @ janusrose.com

THIS WEDNESDAY: join @dairinstitute.bsky.social as we launch the Luddite Lab Resource Hub, a resource for workers fighting AI at work. We provide strategies for worker-led governance and oversight of this tech through case studies, primers, and a resource library. www.eventbrite.com/e/launching-...

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Universities' "top-down implementation ignores severe institutional risks: imminent workforce displacement, inherent, unfixable data hallucinations, work intensification, systematic intellectual property theft, and widespread student skepticism."

Published with some minor changes! Please share widely. 😊 Guest, O., Suarez, M., ... & van Rooij, I. (2026). Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia. Digital Culture & Education, 16(2), 85–118. doi.org/10.5281/zeno... Journal: www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/volume-162

I highly recommend this Chaparral naturalist course. I learned a lot about California’s largest and most imperiled biodiverse ecosystem (and met some great people along the way) www.californiachaparral.org/education/

The coolest thing about programming (not with LLMs, actually coding) is how close it is to spells. When you know how to code, the computer does what you tell it to. It's pleasing and beautiful. Chatbots take away that ability and skill, in totality forever, since they cannot follow instructions.

"It gives you the illusion of productivity and expertise but at the end of the day you are more divorced from the output you submit than before.” www.404media.co/software-dev...

Related to my previous note about AI literacy... I think that very often the more you *actually* learn about AI (how it works, how it's built, what's behind it, what its impacts are, who controls it -- not "how to use it") the more critical you are likely to become. bsky.app/profile/cfie...

Microsoft researchers find that for non-programming tasks, LLM agents aren't ready for work. For long, truly complex work, they're only currently ready for Python programming. It's great that MS researchers have the independence to publish papers like this.

I wrote about using waves 🌊 as a metaphor for structuring discussions #biomimicry medium.com/@heatherlesl...

In case anyone else needs one. topatoco.com/collections/...

This is the proposed data center tracker. As the name states, the DCs listed are not complete. I propose that most won't be finished but that isn't the goal: capital circulation is: www.trackdatacenters.com/about

For teachers who want to end the year with a critical tech unit, check out my More Work for Mother unit guide! Happy Mother’s Day 😊

Meet the academics refusing to use generative AI www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I really thought American Vandal had maxed out its niche, but a LOT of new listeners finding us this week. Thanks, avaricious EdTech investors, I guess. If you’re new to AV, & you enjoyed “The Secret History of Canvas,” here are a few episodes you might want to check out next… 🧵

BRB again — grass-touching time — but of course you can read the PDF if I left you on a cliffhanger. 🫠 Guest, O., Nuñez Hernández, N. A., & Blokpoel, M. (2026). Understanding Artificial Neural Networks: Mysterianism about Known Mechanism is Mysticism. Zenodo. doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 8/

I wrote a short reflection for Mother’s Day (wish I could’ve spent more time but alas, mom life!) medium.com/@heatherlesl...

I am no cybersecurity expert but I wonder if Canvas’s new integration with OpenAI for their tool IgniteAI made the system more vulnerable for hackers

This is 👌Please join the movement to #savetheAI 😂 savethe.ai

Also, don't even start with the "AI can help us fight climate change" technocratic bullshit. Read @ketanjoshi.co's well-researched "The AI climate hoax"

“Human in the loop” is becoming the default safeguard in public-sector AI. But presence isn’t the same as judgment, argues Nicolas Spatola. Systems built for efficiency can push officials toward deference, reduce scrutiny, and make oversight a procedural formality.

I like how @maxread.info has summarized this. GenAI art will always converge on the kind of aesthetics which are acceptable for a dentist’s office. It is a median of what people find comforting & pleasant, but therefore never thought-provoking or unsettling, which the arts kinda have to be.

New auto-reply for LLM-generated marketing spam ✨

Now waiting for: "Using generative AI to generate student feedback and then simply reviewing it bears no resemblance to the competent practice teaching." *checks watch*

No one could have foreseen this.

This article shows some really disturbing themes running through the Silicon Valley elite and Epstein: "Epstein wrote a 2013 email implying that women “are like shrimp. You throw away the head and keep the body.” "

New blog from me!

I’m looking to submit a text version of a course I created called Critical Thinking in the AI Era as a journal article or book chapter. Anyone know of a good place to submit it to?

Educator friends- who has got a positionality statement in their syllabus on why you are against AI? Looking for examples to show other faculty. Thank you!

Live your life so that you can someday write a takedown like this.

I wrote about why I quit my job, and how weird and tiring tech feels these days.

Educator friends- who has got a positionality statement in their syllabus on why you are against AI? Looking for examples to show other faculty. Thank you!

“The deskilling, denigration, and displacement of teachers and scholars have historically been central to fascist takeovers, since educators serve as bulwarks against propaganda, anti-intellectualism, and illiteracy.” — @olivia.science www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

“Today, AI advocates do not merely assume automation is necessary; they aggressively proselytize their faith, thereby paving the way for techno-fascism.” — @olivia.science www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

Happy Earth Day 🌍 I wrote a short reflection on how I encourage students to go outside before journal writing. Thanks for reading 🙂 medium.com/@heatherlesl...

In which I argue that "AI" as we understand it today is a structurally fascist artifact. https://tante.cc/2026/04/21/ai-as-a-fascist-artifact/

The study points to using libraries and visiting museums as bringing these enormous brain health benefits ... who would have thought? Well, librarians and museum folk for a start ... www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Beyond the hype: Feminists Tackle AI panel Speakers challenge assumptions about Artificial Intelligence By Emily Torrance - April 19, 2026 themuse.ca/beyond-the-h...

What does it look like to critically examine AI in the middle school Computer Science classroom? www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/introdu...