Dons #UCU HEC member hat. UK academics on teaching-focused/teaching-only contracts: how, if at all, does your employer support you in doing research? Are there any good local policies on this I should be aware of? My DMs are open and confidentiality assured. #UKHE #academicsky

I genuinely think there is a case that anyone using an AI product of this kind should face a short prison sentence. It's vandalism, just like painting on a wall or smashing a bus stop.

Martin Tyler voice: “LABOUROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”

My critical analysis of the anti-trans astroturf group, the LGB Alliance, has just been published in the special edition of the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies. I recommend the whole special edition - it's open access, no pay wall. bulletin.appliedtransstudies.org/article/4/1-...

And because the Right are entirely predictable and completely incompetent at stats they took that to mean “51% of people in adverts are black” And that’s NOT FAIR because only 4% of the UK population is black so they’re taking WHITE acting jobs (or words to that effect…🙄) 3/

One of the best threads I’ve ever read. Such a smart, thorough debunking that the bunkers should just admit defeat, go home and never bunk again.

It's not in this article but the government asserts that the sandwich was thrown at "point blank range", which implies subway sandwiches have defined effective weapon ranges of varying lethality, and I would like to see the government's chart of these ranges.

#caturday is sometimes a bit much

More than five years in the making, my paper about the metaphysics of pregnancy is out today, open-access in PPR 🧵1/7 doi.org/10.1111/phpr...

Really interesting thread on the use of ChatGPT as tutor for #students

So true. Everything about the apps makes you treat it as a conversation partner, but if you stick in the same chat for too long it breaks down. If only these app were designed around what the technology *is* rather than what they’re trying to convince VC funders it is.

Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.

Our Annual Conference next year is on the question “is there still a god that can save us?”. This marks the 50th Anniversary of Heidegger’s death, but non-Heideggerian submissions also welcome and encouraged! It’s with the Uni of Sussex so looking forward to visiting Brighton! 1/4

When beds malfunction bc of a DNS failure, I think there's some overly poor/over-optimistic engineering at play. Anybody should be able to sleep even with a failed DNS infrastructure (except for the engineers who screwed it up). PSA: Jailbreak your bed! github.com/throwaway312...

Cnut. He's forgotten about Cnut, who went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1027. Oh, and Edward I, who spent 2 months at the court of Gregory X in 1273. Otherwise, all over the detail, as per.

deepseek-drops-open-source-model-that-compresses-text-10x-through-images venturebeat.com/ai/deepseek-dr… #AI #DeepSeek

One of my growing pet peeves is the phrase “in the age of AI”. I don’t deny that #GenAI is disruptive, but I also don’t see it as an epochal break with extant information technologies. It’s a clear advancement, but the essence remains the same: beset, extract, distribute, stand in reserve. 1/2

No thank you.

Professors *never* supply information. Students aren’t paying premium prices for ‘information’ at all. How can people who presumably have attended universities misunderstand their role so badly?

My module of 12 Life Hacks for Mastering Wokery is going great thanks very much

"With the advent of artificial intelligence, the internet transformed from a collaborative space into an extraction zone." Worth reading this even if you don't know what robots.txt is.

“Doth thine box rolleth on wheels?” “It doth not, good sir!” ( Original screengrab by @stevewriteswords.bsky.social )

Several Commons members attended the Academic Freedom conference, co-hosted by @ucu.org.uk and @eduinternational.bsky.social . Report forthcoming, but for now @matildaf.bsky.social and @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social on 'Academic Freedom and the Knowledge Commons' (2024) ucucommons.org/2024/03/22/a...

Never before seen levels of "Kant's dumb mistakes are actually expressions of his genius"

Gary Marcus. See his contribution to the recent Royal Society symposium on the 75th anniversary of the of the Turing test for a pretty brutal breakdown of why LLMs are currently configured are never going to be made reliable and therefore safe through scaling. www.youtube.com/live/GmnBTCK...

This was an excellent conference and an excellent keynote presentation. My big take home from the day was that academic freedom is the condition of the possibility for research as such, and it needs to be material: job security and enough time and space to follow the chaotic threads of free inquiry.

For sale: Mirror. Very cursed. @sellingamirror.bsky.social

Cast off the Norman woke!

I am tired of hearing about AI slop for business powerpoints and I want to hear about AI slop that tattoo artists are using to pretend they've drawn something they haven't I've been obsessed with this lately

"We are developing your campus" - a 'campus' that you OVERPAID for in 2021, whose buildings were LISTED (as they reached 30 years of architectural significance), which are UNSUITABLE for teaching or research...? That's not a campus, that's a FOLLY. Staff before real estate! @uonucu.bsky.social

Call for Papers - Schutzian Research Special Issue: Women, Phenomenology, and the Social Sciences Edited by Daniela Griselda López, Anush Yeghiazaryan, Giulia Salzano www.thebsp.org.uk/2025/10/14/w... #Phenomenology

ChatGPT reverts to Eliza #GOFAI #AI

My first academic publication on soccer and politics is out! It lays out the basics of my theoretical framework of “soccer as civil society” and argues that this is threatened by “modern football” through the tandem of “illiberalism” and “neoliberalism”.

We ran our Manchester Game Centre 2nd annual Games Workshop Research Day on Saturday. As well as great talks, exhibitions, & chat, we had a live Blood Bowl game, filmed by Geek Pride & commentated by @wormito.bsky.social and RickWreckless. You can watch it back here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib_o...

Great. Now 'individual' grants are under attack, alongside staff doing too much research. Meanwhile research finances are described with no reference at all to student finances. And our VCs are all at fault for encouraging us to apply for grants that don't pay 100% FEC. What are universities for?

1) I once again take this opportunity to remind you: to keep its basic functioning, society has to discourage baldfaced lying, especially by authorities 2) is...is it happening?

Pope to journalists: “…it is worth remembering Hannah Arendt’s warning that ‘the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist.’”

In the midst of massive UK wide HE crisis we have two sorts of institutions in local cri: those in genuine financial distress (like Dundee) and those not but making a nasty choice (Edinburgh). I think you can pressure the Edinburghs but it’s hard and shouldn’t be necessary.

The front page of the Milwaukee Journal 43 years ago today, as the Brewers prepared for their first winner-take-all home game. Check out the other headlines. Time is a flat circle.

The word “could” is doing a lot of work here. Despite a lot if anecdotal claims about feeling productive, there’s not a lot of evidence yet that AI does have a measurable positive impact on productivity. See, for eg: pivot-to-ai.com/2025/09/15/u...

The first of @ucucommons.bsky.social new fortnightly newsletter bringing news and points of interest around the sector #ucu

#MedievalSky #EarlyModernists you may not be aware that I offer several services: transcription (no hand too tricky), archival visits and more. I’m happiest in the period 1200-1700 but will consider anything. Get in touch via my website! joanneedge.co.uk/freelance-wo...

Well, at least i have a good excuse not to read GEB today

I think this is a psyop. Boosting how “bad” ai video generation is also boosts perception of it’s capabilities. Not to mention this has clearly been edited by a human. I’ll bet a whole pound on it. futurism.com/future-socie...

I'm sorry: "if I wish to see a virgin on-screen"?

"Peasant Family on the Tramp" c. 1652 Despite the softening tone of the title, this is pretty much a timeless depiction of hard unsettled life. Rembrandt van Rijn (Art Institute Chicago)

My department will be hiring an assistant professor in ethics. I’ll post the PhilJobs ad when we have it. Help me spread the word! #PhilSky

Read our response to the Government’s announcement that university maintenance grants will be reintroduced for certain courses, funded through a levy on international student fees https://bit.ly/4gPz7uO