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Gareth Thomas

@profgaretht.bsky.social

1.2K followers 700 following 2.2K posts

Emeritus Prof, UEA Law School; Chair, Suffolk Law Centre; Exec Member, Law Centres Network; Founder, UEA Law Clinic. Posts on access to justice, employment & discrimination law, art, music, architecture, gardening, classic cars, Cymru, and NCFC 💛💚

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · Dec 22

Howdy folks - my first post on here, and feeling like the new boy in school - not sure where to go, or what to do!

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 10h

Only lighthouses, you say? Sounds like a fixation of some kind.

🤨

Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 17h

Could be worse. He could start sharing his ailments with you 😬

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 20h

😬

Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 20h

FPTP is an utterly batshit-crazy electoral system in anything other than a straightforward fight between two main parties. In UK politics, those days appear to be well and truly over.

Josh Russell → @MVTFWD @joshfwd.bsky.social · 22h

How would you feel if:

- you ended up with a Reform MP after the 2029 General Election

- who only got 20% of the vote

- and over 50% of people in your constituency had voted LD/GRN/LAB/YP

- and this happened around the country giving Reform 400 MPs and total power

Don’t forget FPTP.

Reposted by Gareth Thomas

Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 22h

With AI we’re putting the most powerful tools in history in the hands of the most irresponsible and untrustworthy people in history.

Shockingly, it’s not going well.

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 20h

Sadly, we do the same with weapons

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Reposted by Gareth Thomas

Elisabeth Parés Pujolràs @epares.bsky.social · Sep 13

Excellent piece.

We know how to improve writing ability: it's by doing more, not less of it.

"LLMs do not improve one’s writing ability much like taking a taxi does not improve one’s driving ability. Students should hone their writing, thinking, and other academic skills at every opportunity."

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Sep 6

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 20h

… said Algernon, blushing hotly

Reposted by Gareth Thomas

Jason Piper @jv8p.bsky.social · 21h

I used to think of "smart" as a synonym for "clever".
These days though it just seems to mean "unable to operate without an internet connection". Which in the case of most household goods, appliances etc is irredeemably stupid.

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Reposted by Gareth Thomas

Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 21h

"Creating Horrid Henry’s gang of characters with alliterative names (Moody Margaret, Anxious Andrew, Sour Susan, Lazy Linda), each with a unique characteristic, was directly inspired by the medieval concept of the four humours" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Kemi Badenoch wants to end ‘rip-off degrees’ – but I wouldn’t have created Horrid Henry without mine | Francesca Simon

I studied Old and Middle English. Although I didn’t know it, I couldn’t have chosen a better subject to train me to become a children’s author, says author Francesca Simon

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Gareth Thomas

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 22h

In 2010, an interviewer told Neil Kinnock that the Labour Party "never used to understand aspiration".

Kinnock gave an absolutely brilliant answer that should be learned by heart by every Labour MP. (0.42 to 1.22)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGhP...

Neil Kinnock goes berserk

YouTube video by Vadrigar

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Gareth Thomas

Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 21h

Don't know how many times I need to say it but advice giving and harm prevention are important, specialist skills. All of us can learn them, but automating 'help' via the massive environment-destroying plagiarism generator is not the answer and remains a danger.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

ChatGPT ‘upgrade’ giving more harmful answers than previously, tests find

Campaigners ‘deeply concerned’ about response to prompts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Gareth Thomas

Tom Scott @tom--scott.bsky.social · 1d

Another extraordinarily stupid & gratuitously nasty policy from Labour, sold under the entirely false pretence that it will promote "integration". Who do they think they're kidding with this nonsense?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in UK

The tougher rules will come in force in January as part of wider plans to cut immigration.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 1d

“Britain’s toxic race debates”?

I think you mean “Britain’s toxic racism”

Do better

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 2d

‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers

Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spread

www.theguardian.com

Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 1d

Standing on the window-seat just now to remove a cobweb, and then gingerly attempting to get down again, I’ve suddenly realised that I’m turning into Mrs Doyle

Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 2d

I’m sure you’ve been called worse 🤣

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 2d

It’s the shot with the kitty over its shoulder…

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 2d

Oh, far, far worse than that 🤣

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 2d

@paulbernal.bsky.social

In the nicest possible way, saw this and thought of you!

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Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 2d

This

Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 2d

“Global community glue”

Love that description! I miss the days when a Saturday morning stroll down Great Darkgate Street could take hours, because you kept bumping into people you knew, and had to stop for a natter, or a quick coffee in the Cabin or the Penguin 🥰

Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 2d

Hard agree. The biggest failing of UCU over the last decade has been to pick its battles. Glad I’m retired, and no longer a member.

Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 2d

And let’s not forget what we called her…

Gareth Thomas @profgaretht.bsky.social · 2d

You’re running backwards now?

Impressive!

Reposted by Gareth Thomas

Louise, Prof/Dr @louiselocock.bsky.social · 2d

National Trust members, remember to vote to keep out Restore Trust. The quick vote may not be your favourite thing, but it's the best way to stop them and not split the vote.

Louise, Prof/Dr @louiselocock.bsky.social · Sep 3

Remember there's an easy quick vote version to support the National Trust's top choice candidates. If you do wish to select your own candidates, here are the Restore Trust ones to AVOID: Gibbs, Goldman, Jenkins, Kerr, Omrani and Streeter. 2/2

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