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Lisa Haushofer @haushoferl.bsky.social · 24d

“High technology is often as socially regressive as it is technically revolutionary or progressive.”

Referencing the wonderful @histoftech.bsky.social, this critical piece on the uncritical adoption of AI in universities pulls no punches.

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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Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 1h

The Eliza Effect as a threat to society

Matt Round @mattround.com · 10h

OpenAI’s strategy is very clear, it’s trying to get people - especially young people - so reliant on its products intellectually & emotionally (& now sexually!) that going without them becomes unthinkable. And they need signs of that strategy working to keep the funding flowing in

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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 2h

The whiplash from 'we are going to build responsible AI' and 'were worried about the addictive nature of these tools'

To:

'Were going to build a porn bot', 'were building a additctive, endless scroll social media app' and 'were bringing back the addictive model'

Is pretty big

The Verge @theverge.com · 15h

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults

ChatGPT is about to get flirty.

buff.ly

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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 15h

a couple of people have criticized this "but what if you do bad things with all that power" but like. look around you. the right has already grasped the power at hand and is using it. "republicans use the state to advance their goals; democrats unilaterally disarm" is not a sustainable equilibrium!

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 1d

one thing that has been obvious for a while is this aspect of the authoritarian internationale: they recognize that their allies abroad are not *countries* but *political movements* within foreign countries.

time we liberals woke up and recognized this--because it's the truth.

Rigorous, Fred-based Reporting @thefred.bsky.social · 1d

Or maybe, just maybe, what was obvious in 2024 was correct: Netanyahu fully backed Trump and would not deal with Biden because Trump would give him a free hand to escalate the starvation, bombing, and do full ethnic cleansing. Which he then did, until Netanyahu embarrassed him by bombing Qatar.

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Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 1h

😆 😂 😜

Journal of Cultural Economy @jcultecon.bsky.social · 3h

The editors are thrilled to hear that economists are continuing to discover culture. open.substack.com/pub/worksinp...

What makes Joel Mokyr great

His Nobel is a triumph for history and the importance of ideas

open.substack.com

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Marielza @marielza.bsky.social · 1h

"Inherently unreliable technologies known to exacerbate injustice."

🔥

Leanne Veronica @leanneveronica.bsky.social · 4h

I also recommend reading the work of @abeba.bsky.social - for example:

The False Promise of “AI for Social Good”

Abeba Birhane refutes industry claims about the technology's potential to solve complex social problems.

www.project-syndicate.org

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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 2h

Of all the claims made about AI, the suggestion that it'll help "solve" climate change is, to me, the most risible. Such a claim could only come from people who do not understand the nature of the problem, or what addressing that problem requires.

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Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 2h

Isn't the desire to find that "one weird trick" to solve capitalism/climate change/[insert social problem here] just a response to the fact that the wealthy and powerful found their "one weird trick" -- the electronic computer -- and have been winning ever since?

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 16h

1/Stop everything and read/watch/bookmark this massive investigation between @motherjones.com @lighthousereports.com Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Paper Trail Media a vast global surveillance empire used to target politicians, journalists, tech CEOs, and... Jared Leto.
ow.ly/2LUF50Xb7KE

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you

We uncovered a massive data trove. It revealed the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

ow.ly

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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 2h

This is also basically what Patrick Bateman does. Treats you nice to your face while fantasizing about violently killing you

Eagle Beaver Man @eaglebeaverman.bsky.social · 14h

Every Republican under 30 is a Nazi. Every single one. No exceptions. No, not even that guy who you think is your friend. He’s being nice to you in person but talks about how you shouldn’t have rights in his discord chat.

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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 2h

(Apropos) bsky.app/profile/sky....

Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 13h

You know, I was talking with a friend of mine about our current political moment and the issues we were having in our society, and they said that they had just re-read the books American psycho && bonfire of the vanities, and their argument was basically that we’re being governed by Patrick Bateman

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Hughster @hughster.bsky.social · 1d

X is quite literally funding the defence of the domestic extremists the government is prosecuting but they still won't stop using it

Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 1d

If true, it's an open question which of them this reflects more badly upon.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Tommy Robinson says Elon Musk is paying his legal costs as trial begins

Far-right activist is accused of refusing to comply with counter-terrorism police request at Channel tunnel

www.theguardian.com

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GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 2h

we are starting to get them on the back foot and everyone needs to push

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laura olin @lauraolin.bsky.social · 13h

The “Oops, protein powder is full of lead” thing would explain so much.

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Tuffy @smtuffy.bsky.social · 13h

The pivot from “I’m building god” to “I’m building a jerkoff tool” is pretty funny

Reuters @reuters.com · 13h

OpenAI to allow mature content on ChatGPT for adult verified users starting December reut.rs/3J8NTAi

OpenAI to allow mature content on ChatGPT for adult verified users starting December

OpenAI will allow mature content for ChatGPT users who verify their age on the platform starting in December, CEO Sam Altman said, after the chatbot was made restrictive for users in mental distress.

reut.rs

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Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 3h

Not to be too apocalyptic, but capital is pouring into these tools because capitalists believe these tools will lock capitalism in once and for all as an inviolable and unmovable economic system.

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 8h

And the bubble: "In financial markets, a bubble occurs when the level of investment in an asset becomes persistently detached from the amount of profit that asset could plausibly generate... A.I. investment fits that pattern."

Opinion | Warning: Our Stock Market Is Looking Like a Bubble

www.nytimes.com

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 9h

So much for all the noble missions and transformations; Altman's AI is down to talking dirty now. Pretty sure it's a massive lie that they've "mitigated the serious mental health issues" and seems likely this new porn feature will generate lots more of them. Bubble, please pop.

Sam Altman

@sama
·
7h
We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

Christopher Hale
@chrisjollyhale
I'm asking in good faith here as a premium user — what's the difference between adult erotica and the sexbots you said you wouldn't introduce to the platform this past July?

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Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 4h

The Holy Father continues to be the candidate of the Holy Spirit

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 2d

"Pope Leo XIV encouraged international news agencies on Thursday to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation, as he strongly backed a free, independent and objective press." apnews.com/article/pope...

Pope urges news agencies to stand as bulwark against lies, manipulation and post-truths

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation.

apnews.com

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Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 4h

Really wild that it’s entirely possible the Pope subscribes to @blockclubchi.bsky.social

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 2d

"Pope Leo XIV encouraged international news agencies on Thursday to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation, as he strongly backed a free, independent and objective press." apnews.com/article/pope...

Pope urges news agencies to stand as bulwark against lies, manipulation and post-truths

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation.

apnews.com

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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 4h

2. The article belies a total lack of understanding of what constitutes actual storytelling. It calls the forgettable clip the writer produced "surprisingly witty" and never even thinks to grapple with the demonstrated inability of "A.i." to deal with complex storytelling or even basic continuity.

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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 4h

Just two thoughts:

1. The article's an ethical disaster - it handwaves copyright concerns away as "boring plumbing" and makes no mention of environmental impact. I always thought of SciAm as being very concerned with climate change and sustainability. 🤷

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AndreaaaHHhHHHHh!! Grimes @andreagrimes.com · 6h

There's no reason to believe "AI" is inevitable, except that technofascist backers in gov't and business will find a way to destroy us to maintain their investment. We didn't/don't believe lies from big banks/big oil, why are we believing technofascists? AI is neither inevitable nor unavoidable.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 4h

The thing that explains their behavior - almost all their behavior, including the choice to commit incredible violence against random foreigners, is that they not only believe that Twitter is real life, but that real life mostly exists to create content that will play well on Twitter

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Micah @rincewind.run · 14h

I know the headline everyone's running with is "erotica" but "we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues" and "we are putting personality back in ChatGPT so it will act like a friend" are diametrically opposed statements

that's the cause of most of the mental health issues

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 16h

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

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ceej @ceej.online · 10h

I think the leak of the incredibly racist young republican group chat only furthers the argument that millennials were the only generation able to use the computer without going insane, mostly because the computer was once a place separate from the real world. but now the real world is also computer

ceej @ceej.online · Apr 28

that a bunch of billionaires have been irreversibly brainwormed by getting addicted to a glorified chat room adds credence to my theory that spending too much time on IRC as a child acts as a powerful inoculant to the worst impulses of an escalatory group dynamic

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