"Why do you have a pony tail? Are you some kind of a rock star or something?"

Essentially, I think that LLM-generated dialogue only makes sense if you believe that the product of writing is words. But the product of writing isn't words, any more than the product of justice is prisoners, or the product of love is weddings. The product of writing is meaning.

a) if you cite it, you'd better read it b) if you don't have time, at min read the abstract/skim the relevant bits c) reviews & (in science) meta-analyses exist for a reason d) it's expected practice to cite secondary sources apastyle.apa.org/style-gramma... e) AI would be such a source (so cite it)

This is a very useful analogy; but be careful not to let it go to your head: I'm more like a utility infielder for the Amarillo Sod Poodles

o h n o

We do not have to offer and I believe indeed should not offer any benefit of the doubt: Anything sold as "AI" should be presumed ineffective, exploitative, environmentally ruinous, bigotry-amplifying and otherwise until proven otherwise. /fin

But let's turn that around: Anyone who wants to call what they are doing "AI" should be accountable for making clear why their product (or research) isn't in fact slop. That's on them. The rest of us do not need to hold space for that. >>

Just a reminder for anyone else who's involved in communicating linguistics to broader audiences, there's a low-traffic but high signal-to-noise ratio lingcomm mailing list here: groups.google.com/g/lingcomm

Penn State professors and faculty members filed for one of the largest public sector union elections in state history on Tuesday. keystonenewsroom.com/2025/12/09/p...

UPDATE: www.pennstatefacultyalliance.org/news/2025/12... A lot of people worked very hard to get us to this point 👏 #pennState #WeAre #PSFA #Union

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

Post your favourite Star Trek character(s). Wrong answers only.

Universities are assembling larger and larger teams to deal with academic integrity issues--mostly focused on AI--while simultaneously holding AI "writing" contests, AI-themed events, "hey, come play with these fun tools!" The messages are so mixed, it's criminal. Because AI is bloated with money.

In lieu of thanksgiving I suggest holding a sort of family court convicting your most annoying relatives of various offenses

Thanksgiving conversation starter: With the caveat that there's excellent/enjoyable music of all kinds, which (sub)genre has the steepest dropoff in quality (ie the median song/artist is most worse than the best), IYHO?

incorrect it's: 1) Strawberry rhubarb 2) Shepherd's 2) Key lime 4) Tomato 3) Cherry 4) Peach or plum 6) Banana meringue 7) and on, garbage

When FLOTUS did that in schools a few years ago, wasn't that communism or something?

By this logic, I should be able to keep the same height and weight on my driver's license that I had when I was 16

@wxpnfm.bsky.social Monopoly: obviously Under The Boardwalk Go to jail: Breakin' The Law (or I Fought The Law (and the Law Won))

Authorities in #Kazakhstan are moving forward with amendments that could ban #LGBTI content, framed as “protecting children.” These laws threaten freedom of expression, equality, and access to information. 🧵

It is also worth saying that everyone who mocks some supposedly fake discipline like “gender studies“ or “Africana studies“ is also really excited about degree programs in things like “AI prompt engineering.” Nothing wrong with a “fake” discipline if it flatters your world view and bank account!

I've been trying to come up with something pithy or snarky to say about this for hours, but I can't; I'm just really, really angry

"I can do it first thing if it's a priority. I may have a chance to do it tonight, but I'm not sure"

Yes, it doesn't feels nice to be told you are wrong. It's also a necessary thing to happen in many circumstances. Not least of which is that instructors cannot let wrong claims simply stand in the room, unanswered, when they've been made in the presence of a whole class. 4/

OH on the broadcast: "Northwestern will just not go away"

i see you're doing something online that you have effortlessly done 100,000 times. would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? would you like to use this ai tool? w

Surging Beef #freeBandName

nb: the problem isn't (primarily) that you know the Nazis; the problem is that the Nazis know you and like what you're doing

Thanks, Gemini 🙂👍👍

Look if you must reverb.com/item/5633360...

Basque flag sighting! #funWithFlags

Tháinig ár lá 🪉🍉

We're going to crack this any day now; I can feel it

as a cognitive scientist, I can confirm we don't know how humans think

Oops

Do any of the professors or journalists or teachers also get their jobs back or nah

NPR Morning Edition: "this is, at the very least, controversial advice" This is why we're $#&@ed. It is malpractice those with a public microphone to call it anything except "insane and dangerous" advice

To me, that is a core part of the anti-trans-rights movement, they are afraid that if people realize that things we take for granted as facts of nature are really just social constructs, then we might start questioning all the other social constructs, like money, value, political power, etc.

Listen, when I shuffle loose this mortal coil, all I ask is that the pyrotechnics be 1) IATSE Local 2 and 2) tasteful.

@colbertlateshow.bsky.social might as well run for president now; whether he breaks or continues the #northwesternUniversity alum losing streak would be equally notable

but yes conservatives who want to spend ten years in grad school to teach a 5:5 load for $45K a year and yes you do have to pay for parking should have the same opportunities as liberals to do so, and largely do.

This is political violence

This is political violence

at Back To School Night (nonUSians: parents meet teachers and learn about the curriculum) I learned that one of the social studies themes is "oppression" (woo!); the units are: 1) oppression of Jews by Nazis ii) oppression of India by Britain c) oppression of American colonists by Britain