Great to see this article is finally published! Written with the brilliant Jess McLean, we explore how young Australians think about their agency on TikTok. With the incoming ban, there's a lot of talk about young people on social media, but we need to listen: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

So much for the (terrible) social media ban not including games. We’re already seeing proof that the ban’s definition of social media is broad enough to be applied to any internet service or website the minister of the day wishes to ban. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

The government's proposed FOI Act amendments are out. Media has focused on the new submission fee, but far more alarming are changes making it easier for govt to block access to public information. Two in particular stand out:

In awe of the bravery of @drdemography.com to expose this culture of bullying and threats from leadership at ANU. Julie Bishop should resign www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

Absolutely loved this paper from Tanja Bosch - "As a method, decolonisation demands more than critique. It requires a commitment to building alternative ways of knowing, citing, collaborating and theorising that do not extract from the margins to enrich the centre"

So proud to work with Lorena, Sarah and Ella on this series. Here is part one: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

"Two leading human rights organisations based in Israel, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, say Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the country’s western allies have a legal and moral duty to stop it." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Awful to see ANU making these cuts to Gender Studies

ANU cuts are impacting an innumerable amount of people. Here are just some of their stories. www.shoesofanu.com

My latest with @claresoutherton.bsky.social - on AI and Aesthetic Alienation - aka the thorny issue of ai slop. Completely open access. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Opinion from Victoria University: It’s not appropriate to use generative AI to produce national-level policy, especially the document that will define our approach to AI itself, writes Chris McGavin.

McDonald's uses an AI bot called "Olivia" for hiring. A pair of hackers found they could access every conversation job applicants had with it—including all the personal info they shared—by exploiting security vulnerabilities as basic as using the password "123456". www.wired.com/story/mcdona...

Absolutely died that not only was Marita making a profoundly bland vision board (perfection) but it included in big font “GUT HEALTH” *chefs kiss*. #QueerUltimatum

Back at Aarhus Uni, where I used to be a postdoc, to give a talk about Australia's social media ban. Wonderful to catch up with colleagues and take the opportunity to walk around one of my favourite university campuses.

Bluesky right now:

I sure do love KING KONG VS GODZILLA (1962), I mention for no particular reason

this is a day for those of us who have spent the last six months terminally online. this is for us and honestly, we deserve it.

What I can’t understand is how people think that something they couldn’t be bothered to write (and instead got AI to generate) would be worth reading. There’s already so much to read, why would I waste time on something you didn’t deem worthy of your time??

This was just posted by @tbretc.bsky.social on another platform. The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?

How can education researchers speak directly to teachers? This is such a great article with incredible ideas from teachers themselves!!

Here is my latest article for @aunz.theconversation.com where I analyse Google’s announcement that its Gemini AI chatbot will be rolled out to kids under 13. This is a risky move. The system can generate fake information and mimic social behaviour, which will be confusing for young users #AIethics

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

New Pope Declares All Style Manuals Other Than Chicago As Schismatic

The right-wing attack on universities and the widespread use of ChatGPT to replace thinking and writing are two sides of the same relentless assault on what the Greeks called paideia: the education and development of citizens as ethical beings engaged in their communities.

it's jolting how little AI skepticism has reached the general public. i've had many acquaintances ask whether i use AI for research and seem shocked when i tell them it's completely useless for that purpose. my wife recently told her colleagues about hallucinations and it was news to all of them.

The only thing I want AI to “summarise” is all the tedious AI slop I’m wading through these days #academia #academicsky

lol if you don’t realize that teaching computers is teaching about systems of power I don’t think you should be a professor at a university

"i cant see how the coalition wins from here"

The only way to vote 🌭 #auspol #democracysausage

I’m glad that more people are talking about AI sycophancy! This is why I find it so cringe people say they love talking to AI/use it as a therapist. Bro its trained to tell you what you want to hear 😭 www.theverge.com/news/658315/...

i'm mostly not out here just to repost memes, but this is in fact a photograph of me soooo

RFK Jr. wants to eradicate autistic people and also has no idea what an autistic person is

Whenever I hear those generic presentations about what AI *could* do at universities they always include “personalised student feedback” as a potential use case. As if we don’t already do that and as if an AI trained to please the user would be good at that 🫠🫠🫠

Something to go along with your Friday morning coffee. I wrote about intergenerational inequality for the @aunz.theconversation.com. It's part of a special election series, Australia’s Policy Challenges. theconversation.com/a-fair-go-fo...

Universities have guidelines for how students can use GenAI (declarations on their work etc.) but what about students rights to NOT to use GenAI? Especially if they’re ethically opposed to using it but increasingly seeing subjects were GenAI use is required, opting out seems important.

Coffee icecream can solve a lot of your problems

I wrote a very long blog post about AI writing. I hope you'll read it. meresophistry.substack.com/p/the-mental...

Happy budget day I guess. Go pandas #auspol

the anti-children and tech movement is getting a lot of press for its support from people who aren't experts. don't think we should confuse popular support with a credible basis in fact

Big tech: “We are on the cusp of AGI.” GenAI:

The "campus free speech" and "cancel culture" panics were obvious efforts to seed the ground for a huge expansion of left-wing censorship and right-wing propaganda. That effort appears to have worked.

How it feels to try and write about AI ethics right now #academia #academicsky

Wow.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that nobody is excited about what a single man of large fortune wants anymore.

“I asked ChatGPT something today and it gave me an answer” is a whole genre of LinkedIn personality now

“As Musk and his DOGE team have gone on a cost-cutting rampage, firing thousands of federal employees, the department has doubled its own spending budget in recent days.” 👀

i got my haters a valentine

This is a brilliant piece about this technofascist coup: “the tech industry's weakness is that it has never understood the emotional and social complexity of actual human beings” 👏👏👏