Dr Liz Dowthwaite
@lizdowthwaite.bsky.social
Senior Research Fellow at Horizon Digital Economy Research at Uni of Nottingham, working on responsible AI, motivation, human needs and values, online/community participation. Also comics, books, wine, and sci fi. Own views. She/her
So Waitrose has won the Christmas Advert race by a country mile
November 15, 2025 at 10:27 PM
So Waitrose has won the Christmas Advert race by a country mile
"The resurgent war on knowledge, academics, expertise, and critical thinking that AI is currently supercharging has its roots in the hugely successful recent war [...] that painted librarians, teachers, scientists, and public workers as untrustworthy." www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
"Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."
www.404media.co
November 12, 2025 at 2:32 PM
"The resurgent war on knowledge, academics, expertise, and critical thinking that AI is currently supercharging has its roots in the hugely successful recent war [...] that painted librarians, teachers, scientists, and public workers as untrustworthy." www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
Garth Marenghi’s This Bursted Earth, the third volume in his Sunday Times Bestselling TerrorTome trilogy is published TODAY. I.E it is now available.
www.hachette.co.uk/titles/garth...
www.hachette.co.uk/titles/garth...
Garth Marenghi’s This Bursted Earth
'I wish I was half as critically respected as Garth Marenghi, even if I currently trounce him sales-wise (for now)' RICHARD OSMAN
'I bought all three nove...
www.hachette.co.uk
October 30, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Garth Marenghi’s This Bursted Earth, the third volume in his Sunday Times Bestselling TerrorTome trilogy is published TODAY. I.E it is now available.
www.hachette.co.uk/titles/garth...
www.hachette.co.uk/titles/garth...
Super excited for this. London (and surrounding areas) friends do come and join us!
London! Next Friday! The Universe WILL end in the company of @astrokatie.com, Steve Pretty, many musicians and myself. Do please come join us wegottickets.com/event/676292
The End of the Universe
After a magnificent* 13.8 billion years** astronomer Chris Lintott (Sky at Night) and Steve Pretty (Hackney Colliery Band) lead a funeral and wake for the universe, as it sadly heads into heat death.
...
wegottickets.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Super excited for this. London (and surrounding areas) friends do come and join us!
This is a wonderful comic from @theoatmeal.bsky.social on AI in art, highly relevant to my current work with Responsible AI UK and really resonates with how I've been thinking. theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_ar...
A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal
This is a comic about AI art.
theoatmeal.com
October 8, 2025 at 11:31 AM
This is a wonderful comic from @theoatmeal.bsky.social on AI in art, highly relevant to my current work with Responsible AI UK and really resonates with how I've been thinking. theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_ar...
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
The real tragedy of the Nevermind baby is that even if he’d managed to grab that dollar it’s very unlikely he’d have been able to purchase anything with it
October 3, 2025 at 10:46 AM
The real tragedy of the Nevermind baby is that even if he’d managed to grab that dollar it’s very unlikely he’d have been able to purchase anything with it
Reader, I cannot tell you how fast and hard I clicked that Not Interested button.
October 3, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reader, I cannot tell you how fast and hard I clicked that Not Interested button.
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
no one needs a fridge with a screen
September 18, 2025 at 12:51 PM
no one needs a fridge with a screen
Absolutely love this. anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...
I Am An AI Hater
I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.
anthonymoser.github.io
September 16, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Absolutely love this. anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...
AI is being used to 'impersonate' musicians and release work claiming to be them. TIHI www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
'AI slop': Emily Portman and musicians on the mystery of fraudsters releasing songs in their name
Artists on the mystery of being targeted by fraudsters releasing
www.bbc.co.uk
September 9, 2025 at 2:57 PM
AI is being used to 'impersonate' musicians and release work claiming to be them. TIHI www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.
August 29, 2025 at 6:24 PM
We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
🌟 IT LIVES! 🌟 The UK Comics Creator Survey is BACK, baby!
Here to gather up, analyse and disseminate your data to help uplift the comics world, like if Robin Hood was a statistician or something.
ukcomicscreators.org.uk
Here to gather up, analyse and disseminate your data to help uplift the comics world, like if Robin Hood was a statistician or something.
ukcomicscreators.org.uk
September 5, 2025 at 11:04 AM
🌟 IT LIVES! 🌟 The UK Comics Creator Survey is BACK, baby!
Here to gather up, analyse and disseminate your data to help uplift the comics world, like if Robin Hood was a statistician or something.
ukcomicscreators.org.uk
Here to gather up, analyse and disseminate your data to help uplift the comics world, like if Robin Hood was a statistician or something.
ukcomicscreators.org.uk
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
When you unlock your phone in the morning
September 8, 2025 at 2:30 PM
When you unlock your phone in the morning
"AI may be polluting the river but I still have to swim in it or sink" More GenAI Horror for your Monday - AI drowns out actual facts. AI Generated 'Boring History' Videos Are Flooding YouTube and Drowning Out Real History www.404media.co/ai-generated...
AI Generated 'Boring History' Videos Are Flooding YouTube and Drowning Out Real History
"These AI videos are just repeating things that are on the internet, so you end up with a very simplified version of the past."
www.404media.co
September 8, 2025 at 1:25 PM
"AI may be polluting the river but I still have to swim in it or sink" More GenAI Horror for your Monday - AI drowns out actual facts. AI Generated 'Boring History' Videos Are Flooding YouTube and Drowning Out Real History www.404media.co/ai-generated...
Spending the next couple of days catching up with colleagues and friends at #UKAIRS the UK AI Research Symposium at Northumbria University. If you’re here, come see our poster (82) on art and AI. If you’re not here, you’re missing out!
September 8, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Spending the next couple of days catching up with colleagues and friends at #UKAIRS the UK AI Research Symposium at Northumbria University. If you’re here, come see our poster (82) on art and AI. If you’re not here, you’re missing out!
More dystopia for your Friday afternoon: On AI generated videos “In reality, there’s not a whole lot of creativity happening. And whatever creativity is happening is coming from the computer.” #ComputersAreNotCreative www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Making cash off ‘AI slop’: The surreal video business taking over the web
A mad rush of creators is using AI video tools to flood the web — and turn a profit — with videos that can seem remarkably real.
www.washingtonpost.com
August 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM
More dystopia for your Friday afternoon: On AI generated videos “In reality, there’s not a whole lot of creativity happening. And whatever creativity is happening is coming from the computer.” #ComputersAreNotCreative www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
This is such a dystopian piece of advice to individuals on saving water during UK droughts: "Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems." www.gov.uk/government/n...
National Drought Group meets to address “nationally significant” water shortfall
Five areas remain in drought with six more in prolonged dry weather
www.gov.uk
August 22, 2025 at 2:25 PM
This is such a dystopian piece of advice to individuals on saving water during UK droughts: "Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems." www.gov.uk/government/n...
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
“A peaceful place, or so it looks from space…”
New image of the home world and our companion moon, captured last month from 180 million miles out by our Psyche spacecraft on its way toward the first rendezvous with a metallic asteroid in 2029.
🧪
www.nasa.gov/missions/psy...
New image of the home world and our companion moon, captured last month from 180 million miles out by our Psyche spacecraft on its way toward the first rendezvous with a metallic asteroid in 2029.
🧪
www.nasa.gov/missions/psy...
August 19, 2025 at 7:18 PM
“A peaceful place, or so it looks from space…”
New image of the home world and our companion moon, captured last month from 180 million miles out by our Psyche spacecraft on its way toward the first rendezvous with a metallic asteroid in 2029.
🧪
www.nasa.gov/missions/psy...
New image of the home world and our companion moon, captured last month from 180 million miles out by our Psyche spacecraft on its way toward the first rendezvous with a metallic asteroid in 2029.
🧪
www.nasa.gov/missions/psy...
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
Lots of discussion of this story yesterday but what really hit me in the solar plexus was the chat transcripts where he desperately pleads ‘I hope you are real’ and ‘please be real’. It assures him “she” is and gives him a (fake) NYC address to visit. He wasn’t Meta’s customer. He was their prey.
A flirty Meta AI bot invited a retiree to meet. He never made it home.
Impaired by a stroke, a man fell for a Meta chatbot originally created with Kendall Jenner. His death spotlights Metaâs AI rules, which let bots tell falsehoods.
www.reuters.com
August 15, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Lots of discussion of this story yesterday but what really hit me in the solar plexus was the chat transcripts where he desperately pleads ‘I hope you are real’ and ‘please be real’. It assures him “she” is and gives him a (fake) NYC address to visit. He wasn’t Meta’s customer. He was their prey.
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
Posting this again. Not enough electricity left to build affordable homes in 3 west London boroughs, because all capacity has been used by a data centre.
#affordablehousingUK
www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/repo...
#affordablehousingUK
www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/repo...
Report: Home building to halt in West London, due to data center power demands
All the electricity capacity is already used up, GLA tells developers
www.datacenterdynamics.com
August 14, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Posting this again. Not enough electricity left to build affordable homes in 3 west London boroughs, because all capacity has been used by a data centre.
#affordablehousingUK
www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/repo...
#affordablehousingUK
www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/repo...
One of my very talented PhD students is seeking female-perceived autistic people to take part in their very interesting and important research on how digital personal data affects your lives. Please do get in touch if you fit the criteria and are interested.
August 14, 2025 at 11:49 AM
One of my very talented PhD students is seeking female-perceived autistic people to take part in their very interesting and important research on how digital personal data affects your lives. Please do get in touch if you fit the criteria and are interested.
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
I'm very excited and proud that my dept @kingsdh.bsky.social is hosting this major conference in 2026. There are many streams of DH, some old, some new, and I've always believed that the future of the field is dialogue between them. This landmark event will do that www.kcl.ac.uk/events/digit...
Digital Humanities Today: Critical Inquiry with and about the Digital
From the 23-26 June 2026, the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London will host an international conference exploring the evolving role of Digital Humanities in a world increasingly ...
www.kcl.ac.uk
August 2, 2025 at 8:13 PM
I'm very excited and proud that my dept @kingsdh.bsky.social is hosting this major conference in 2026. There are many streams of DH, some old, some new, and I've always believed that the future of the field is dialogue between them. This landmark event will do that www.kcl.ac.uk/events/digit...
Reposted by Dr Liz Dowthwaite
When we say we trust a technology, it's never just about the thing. It's also about the people around the thing.
August 13, 2025 at 7:57 AM
When we say we trust a technology, it's never just about the thing. It's also about the people around the thing.