AI gives you the general shape of thoughts.

I've noticed some local right-wing nutcases dropping into the "AI will destroy us all" rabbit hole, I wonder where this shit is getting shared.

I mean... It's not technically wrong that we could end civilisation with allowing AI to go ahead unchecked. Not because it gets sentient but crashes the economy very badly in multiple countries, multiplied by the environmental damage and the absolute wreckage it's making of the information system.

I've been struggling to come up with a term other than 'coddling the conspiracy brain' for this effect. I've been thinking of it in terms of anti-vax or like the people who believe in ancient giants/aliens. Having your biases confirmed with fantasy *feels* like critical thinking in a seductive way

I wonder if the non-booster to full-on "AI is an existential threat cult" pipeline is more like the alt-right one or the TERF one?

something is afoot, I have been receiving upwards of 1 review request per day... utterly unsustainable to do any of them since I already reviewed 10 times more than I have published this year and it's May

It's surprising how quickly Sanders has been taken the existential risk bait. It took less than a year for him to start doing events with Hinton and Tegmark. He should perhaps pause to consider how groups like FLI are so well-resourced, and what political function x-risk narratives serve.

I'm reminded of one of my posts. bsky.app/profile/kiss...

The extra cognitive load in reading the AI text is at least in part because our brain is trying to sus out the pragmatics of text, but it's an empty, vacuous text-shaped extrusion devoid of pragmatics. So the hamster wheel spinloops, and exhausts the reader, even while all the text itself is fluid.

People wonder why it is — how could that happen? — that many Germans made such bad choices in WW2. Well, from now on we can point to what is happening with pedo/fash AI in the 2020s in Europe & USA. There are times in life when you have to very actively and effortfully choose to be a good person.

Thank you! Also slightly new version (nothing important that affects anything you said of course), here in the published one: Guest, O., Suarez, M., Müller, B., et al. (2026). Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia. Digital Culture & Education. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

I love when someone gives me an opportunity to post a link to this beautiful paper by @olivia.science et al hcommons.org?get_group_do... I am not implying you said the stupid "AI is a like a calculator" sentence. I just jumping at the opportunity.

Ditto for abstracts for journal articles! 🤡

> In 1895 the Coast and Geodetic Survey grew concerned because Tide-Predicting Machine No. 1 had developed considerable wear [so] decided to construct a new machine > Tide-Predicting Machine No. 2, also known as Old Brass Brains > Old Brass Brains en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide-Pr...

the techno-optimist belief in a bright future is hand-in-glove with a wholesale rejection of human capacities, socialising, communication much like "national socialism" which destroys nations and is not socialist, techno-optimism is a rejection of ANYTHING positive humans can do alone or together

I’m sketching dandelions 🌼 There’s something so calming about drawing them again and again… I don’t think it ever gets old.😅 #botanicalart #dandeliondrawing #sketchbook

More #everydayableism at work: "In an effort to truly bring people together, this will be an in-person only event. For those unable to attend and who would like to catch up on the festivities, we will circulate a video round-up following the event.”

also I feel so sad that many students do not even know what plagiarism is in their final years in the degree I teach on 🫠 my course manual... doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Eve Fairbanks: “The tell for AI isn’t rhythm, wording, or fact errors. It’s that problems with *all these elements* exist equally & at once.” archive.ph/rPLjp

It's just occurred to me that the AI-assisted text is country cousin to the text written by the student who overuses the thesaurus. In search of "impact," the technique tends to erase both meaning and personality, but at the level of the sentence rather than the word.

I DID NOT KNOW HE WAS A BUSINESSMAN

"One must suffer the thinking to obtain the knowledge." You can say that again. And should. @olivia.science @irisvanrooij.bsky.social

🚨 NEW REPORT: EU handing industry #Permission2Pollute 🚨 At the request of oil&gas, mining + BigTech lobbyists, the Commission is ripping up permitting rules to fast-track polluting projects like pipelines, mines + data centres. Read more corporateeurope.org/en/2026/05/permission-pollute 👇 🧵 1/6

enjoy the last quote here too bsky.app/profile/oliv... "That work — the real work of teaching and learning — cannot be automated." @jessehagopian.bsky.social

@olivia.science @irisvanrooij.bsky.social (and, of course, @retractionwatch.com) (There's also an interesting - translation: tragic - debate on LinkedIn that made me lose the will to ever read anything again that I won't inflict on you) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

These texts are really driving me crazy, and then when you're told to write detailed feedback on AI writing, how are you supposed to give sense to something that is foundationally nonsensical. That's university process making no sense anymore.

I do wonder what having to read so much AI-generated writing now, like unauthorised students' use & peer reviews that slipped through, does to MY brain, not only to their brain. It hurts, and I feel confused because the text just doesn't make sense regardless of how slowly and carefully I read it.

Hemingway: "Does he think big words mean big ideas?"

This is exactly the reason why they purge acadamics and religious groups who don't tow the line. Brave people who are immovable objects to the facist unstoppable force.

@olivia.science It sounds like Palantir writing about its AI ethics, "oriented towards humans" [see Gaza for refencences]. Anyway, @irisvanrooij.bsky.social could kindly send him one of her books. Any one.

Steinbeck! I love Steinbeck and his writing is so good because it's so decisive. The vocabulary isn't a test, the sentences aren't technical marvels, he's an extremely elegant writer who makes reading a breeze because of how freely, yet efficiently, you move through ideas.

I see people say "Oh but I don't know how to write, I can't create good sentences or have a sophisticated vocab", neither of which matter. Writing lengthy, aimless paragraphs is bad writing, not the lack of sophistication of the techniques used. Like, some GOAT authors write very accessibly.

It’s an extra layer of depressing to think that wanting to hear from an actual human instead of inane computer babble might be considered hoity. 😅

Eve Fairbanks: “The tell for AI isn’t rhythm, wording, or fact errors. It’s that problems with *all these elements* exist equally & at once.” archive.ph/rPLjp

the long, vacuous paragraphs of nothingness drive me up the wall. More than anything because someone presumably has read or listened and gone "Yes, that's acceptable" and it's so gutting to see people have such low standards, as hoity as that sounds.

> My brain shut down and stopped paying attention to the script and started wondering if Rash was using AI just for the intro script? [...] I turned the podcast off. brain goes much and stops receiving info when I see this kind of writing, painful stuff

There’s a quote I haven’t handy right now but the sentiment is: i’m not doing this because my actions will change things but because I’m acting to my morals. iOW: I don’t want to win. I want to honor my values, my morals. I butchered it but I suspect others might have it handier than me.

anyway also while I'm thinking deep thoughts, I enjoyed this essay from @jasonkoebler.bsky.social www.404media.co/your-ai-use-...

ah, the irony of preaching pan-africanism while 10–14 african nations still pay a colonial tax to france via the CFA franc agreement, a currency born under colonial rule and kept long after independence

Today is a good day to read this essay on rewilding the internet by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon if you haven't already: www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-r...

the techno-optimist belief in a bright future is hand-in-glove with a wholesale rejection of human capacities, socialising, communication much like "national socialism" which destroys nations and is not socialist, techno-optimism is a rejection of ANYTHING positive humans can do alone or together

the speaker, who's spent her career creating shareholder value, tells a class of humanities grads to look on the bright side. meanwhile, this is what they're graduating into:

read the room! www.404media.co/ucf-ai-comme...

Yeah kids don't want this paradigm of "AI," y'all. They think it sucks.

Gaslightning: "Chiamarlo “effetto statistico” , pensando che questo chiuda la questione, è un tipo di pensiero magico" (To call it a ‘statistical effect’, thinking that this settles the matter, is a form of magical thinking)

People wonder why it is — how could that happen? — that many Germans made such bad choices in WW2. Well, from now on we can point to what is happening with pedo/fash AI in the 2020s in Europe & USA. There are times in life when you have to very actively and effortfully choose to be a good person.

A person I know (and who is? was? a good professional al) left an AI-generated comment under my LinkedIn post. Full-on AI slop. I asked: why do this? He replied. It’s because of “engagement.” People are burning their profession al reputation, paying for AI tools, for nothing

jfc true tho

what does this have to do with old brass brains?

I think it's possible to be entirely non-confrontational and still be experienced as confrontational, just because something that provoked thought, lead someone to conclusions that made them confront their own standpoint. Which some people don't seem to like, and instead want to blame on others.