Daniela Tafani
Daniela Tafani
@danielatafani.bsky.social
Pinned
Preprint, Private governments and AI (in Italian)
On what conceptually links the genocidal project on the Gaza Riviera and so-called AI

zenodo.org/records/1552...
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
CAIL = prerequisite knowledge for a critical perspective, such as to tell apart nonsense hype from true theoretical computer scientific claims. For example, the idea that human-like systems are a sensible or possible goal is the result of circular reasoning and anthropomorphism. olivia.science/ai

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October 23, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Weird situation. AI adoption in the work world is stagnating, while higher-ed institutions are rushing to embrace it so that students will be prepared for…the work world?
“we estimate employment-weighted share of Americans using AI at work has fallen by a percentage point & now sits at 11%. Adoption has fallen sharply at the largest businesses, those employing +250 people. 3 yrs into the genAI wave, demand looks surprisingly flimsy” www.economist.com/finance-and-...
Investors expect AI use to soar. That’s not happening
Recent surveys point to flatlining business adoption
www.economist.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
This open letter against the uncritical adoption of AI in universities, spearheaded by @olivia.science and @irisvanrooij.bsky.social who have both published a whirlwind of excellent academic papers in 2025: openletter.earth/open-letter-...
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
openletter.earth
December 3, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Continued evidence that life's just a scam: A company* that spends more than $60B to create a thing that nobody wants is rewarded when it announces it will pump the brakes on the thing.

*that knows its harmful for kids; contributed to genocide; is a general cesspool
*META SHARES JUMP 5.5% ON PLAN TO CUT BACK METAVERSE SPENDING
December 4, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Very well put…
> The colonisation of educational institutions and universities by technology monopolies [..] therefore has nothing to do with promoting learning. The aim of technology companies is to extract value from services and data, replacing the original purpose of public education with corporate objectives.
Who are the machines that write probable sentences for?

For Big Tech, de-skilling and dependency are intertwined objectives: users who have become incapable of even basic writing and arithmetic will be hostages to proprietary computer systems.

@olivia.science

zenodo.org/records/1781...
December 4, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
"probable text extruder" - I love that description.
December 4, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
> The colonisation of educational institutions and universities by technology monopolies [..] therefore has nothing to do with promoting learning. The aim of technology companies is to extract value from services and data, replacing the original purpose of public education with corporate objectives.
Who are the machines that write probable sentences for?

For Big Tech, de-skilling and dependency are intertwined objectives: users who have become incapable of even basic writing and arithmetic will be hostages to proprietary computer systems.

@olivia.science

zenodo.org/records/1781...
A chi servono le macchine per scrivere frasi probabili
Who are the machines that write probable sentences for?* A probable text extruder cannot write an article, a project or a thesis, but it can extrude a text 'shaped like' an article, project or thesis....
zenodo.org
December 4, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Who are the machines that write probable sentences for?

Language generators – 'conversation-shaped tools' that apparently offer the possibility of conversing even in the absence of another human being – enable a quantum leap in surveillance.

@irisvanrooij.bsky.social

zenodo.org/records/1781...
A chi servono le macchine per scrivere frasi probabili
Who are the machines that write probable sentences for?* A probable text extruder cannot write an article, a project or a thesis, but it can extrude a text 'shaped like' an article, project or thesis....
zenodo.org
December 4, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Who are the machines that write probable sentences for?

For Big Tech, de-skilling and dependency are intertwined objectives: users who have become incapable of even basic writing and arithmetic will be hostages to proprietary computer systems.

@olivia.science

zenodo.org/records/1781...
A chi servono le macchine per scrivere frasi probabili
Who are the machines that write probable sentences for?* A probable text extruder cannot write an article, a project or a thesis, but it can extrude a text 'shaped like' an article, project or thesis....
zenodo.org
December 4, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Reflective piece by Eve Marder – "What happened to the pursuit of truth"
rupress.org/jgp/article/...
What happened to the pursuit of truth? | Journal of General Physiology | Rockefeller University Press
The knowledge in our brains, not in our phones, is necessary for creative thinking and the pursuit of truth.
rupress.org
January 20, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Ethics’ AI Policy: "attributing some example or objection to ChatGPT could be just as problematic as attributing an objection to your colleague when all they did was tell you about some objection that Rawls raised"
@olivia.science @irisvanrooij.bsky.social
www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/et/...
Ethics: AI policy
www.journals.uchicago.edu
December 4, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Days after we published her essay about reporting from Gaza amid Israeli attacks on journalists, a Palestinian reporter was injured by an explosive dropped from an Israeli drone as she walked with her family. Seven weeks into the Gaza ‘ceasefire’, Ansam Al-Kitaa writes for us again.
Wounds in my body, scars in my heart
Days after we published her essay about reporting from Gaza amid Israeli attacks on journalists, a Palestinian reporter was injured by an explosive dropped from an Israeli drone
continent.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
"Self-driving car company Waymo recently released data covering nearly 100 million driverless miles in four American cities through June 2025..."

Here's the problem; Waymo has their taxis drive circles all night around the same blocks to artificially pump up the "safe miles driven" ratio.
"When compared to human drivers on the same roads, Waymo’s self-driving cars were involved in 91% fewer serious-injury-or-worse crashes and 80% fewer crashes causing any injury. It showed a 96% lower rate of injury-causing crashes at intersections" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
Opinion | The Data on Self-Driving Cars Is Clear. We Have to Change Course.
www.nytimes.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Da ieri mattina ho dovuto bloccare decine di account su X per gli insulti ricevuti per questo post sul rifiuto di @unibo.it di creare un corso di filosofia per i #militari.
Continuerò a criticare la #militarizzazione della società civile italiana quanto voglio.
December 1, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Nothing is more docile than a proletariat unequipped to frame their own arguments, relegated to fact-checking a denial of service machine.
December 1, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
“The deskilling, denigration, and displacement of teachers and scholars have historically been central to fascist takeovers, since educators serve as bulwarks against propaganda, anti-intellectualism, and illiteracy.” — @olivia.science

www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
November 29, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
I made a machine steal the work of a real human being. It's almost as if the stolen work it regurgitated seems like it was written by a real human being. Instead of giving that credit to the breathing person it was stolen from... perhaps the theft machine is actually alive??
can’t fucking catch a breath

make it stop
November 26, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
This is related to a post I saw elsewhere.
“Of course, we have to teach our students about AI technologies. Teaching about AI technologies should be just like how we teach ‘no smoking’ or the causal links between lung cancer and smoke; yet, we do not teach students how to roll cigarettes and smoke them.”

zenodo.org/records/1706...

20/🧵
Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia
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 col...
zenodo.org
November 24, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Ah yes, truly a technological marvel!
November 24, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Trying to have “meaningful” human control over robot swarms is computationally intractable, even for absurdly simple environments.

But sure, go ahead and promote the use of swarm robots in automated warfare.

I guess the gaslighting is the point.

dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
Swarm Control for Distributed Construction: A Computational Complexity Perspective | ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction
Over the last 20 years, human interaction with robot swarms has been investigated as a means to mitigate problems associated with the control and coordination of such swarms by either human teleoperat...
dl.acm.org
November 23, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Ran into this poster on our campus today 😊
September 23, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Love to see community action against this AI nonsense! neighborhoodview.org/2025/11/13/d...
November 14, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Please sign this excellent letter to Ursula vdL, so she can see that nonsense AI hype is neither true nor appropriate for anybody to believe or spread.
November 10, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Based on analysis of years of revenues, losses and funding, since 2023, OpenAI has taken in $28.6bn in cash and had $13.7bn in losses.

However, reports say OpenAI ended 1H 2025 with $9.6bn in cash - suggesting OpenAI's losses are billions higher than reported.

www.wheresyoured.at/where-is-ope...
Where Is OpenAI's Money Going?
Soundtrack: Queens of the Stone Age - Song For The Dead Editor's Note: The original piece had a mathematical error around burnrate, it's been fixed. A few days ago, Sam Altman said that OpenAI’s rev...
www.wheresyoured.at
November 7, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Daniela Tafani
Open letter, led by @olivia.science, now has >1400 confirmed signatories!

If you haven’t yet signed, please consider reading & signing too.

Help us stop uncritical adoption of ‘AI’ technologies in academia.

Feel free to adapt this letter for your employers!

openletter.earth/open-letter-...
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
openletter.earth
November 7, 2025 at 10:12 PM