Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
@ranjodhdhaliwal.com
Critical Media Theory + Science and Technology Studies + Literature + CS.
Associate Prof. of DH, AI, and Media somewhere.
VP, @litsciarts.org
📚: Computation, Political Economy, Infrastructures, History, Games, Design, SF.
☭.
Not a professional account.
Associate Prof. of DH, AI, and Media somewhere.
VP, @litsciarts.org
📚: Computation, Political Economy, Infrastructures, History, Games, Design, SF.
☭.
Not a professional account.
Pinned
[email protected] and I co-wrote this piece on why you are (probably) doing AI criticism wrong as a humanist and why we, in Critical AI Studies, need to do better methodologically than 'So I asked ChatGPT a question and now I have thoughts...'
Now available on arXiv at doi.org/10.48550/arX...
Now available on arXiv at doi.org/10.48550/arX...
Just published: "A few notes on the scalar foundations of foundation models," a position paper in which I discuss the need for rejecting large-scale vague AI, and talk about fascination as a technological operation. Available open-access at doi.org/10.1017/cfc.... .
January 22, 2026 at 9:55 AM
Just published: "A few notes on the scalar foundations of foundation models," a position paper in which I discuss the need for rejecting large-scale vague AI, and talk about fascination as a technological operation. Available open-access at doi.org/10.1017/cfc.... .
Headed to Regensburg—the home of one of my favorite academics, Prof. Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld—to deliver a lecture tomorrow on the aesthetic state of cringe and digitality as a part of the 'In the Borderlands' lecture series. Join if you are around for some reason!
January 20, 2026 at 2:11 PM
Headed to Regensburg—the home of one of my favorite academics, Prof. Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld—to deliver a lecture tomorrow on the aesthetic state of cringe and digitality as a part of the 'In the Borderlands' lecture series. Join if you are around for some reason!
facebook still delivers gems sometimes
January 20, 2026 at 7:39 AM
facebook still delivers gems sometimes
Currently the featured article on the IEEE Annals website www.computer.org/csdl/magazin... . Available open access at doi.org/10.1109/MAHC.2025.3559418 .
January 16, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Currently the featured article on the IEEE Annals website www.computer.org/csdl/magazin... . Available open access at doi.org/10.1109/MAHC.2025.3559418 .
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
January 16, 2026 at 2:36 AM
It was a pleasure to work with the good folks at Disjunctions on this short piece!
next in this issue is @ranjodhdhaliwal.com, on our role as generative AI's involuntary beta testers.
Always Already Betas
The user subject and the GPT grindset
disjunctionsmag.com
January 15, 2026 at 5:09 PM
It was a pleasure to work with the good folks at Disjunctions on this short piece!
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
next in this issue is @ranjodhdhaliwal.com, on our role as generative AI's involuntary beta testers.
Always Already Betas
The user subject and the GPT grindset
disjunctionsmag.com
January 11, 2026 at 2:58 PM
next in this issue is @ranjodhdhaliwal.com, on our role as generative AI's involuntary beta testers.
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
“there are only 7 full-time book critics left in the US: three at NYT ( Jacobs, Garner, Szalai), 2 at WaPo(Rothfeld, Charles), 1 each at WSJ (Sacks), NY mag (Chu), Slate (Miller)
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
Criticism Is Literature. Why Is It Vanishing?, by Adam Morgan
What do the best book reviews do? What is the current state of the critical ecosystem? Chicago Review of Books founder Adam Morgan takes stock of book reviewing in the US.
worldliteraturetoday.org
December 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
“there are only 7 full-time book critics left in the US: three at NYT ( Jacobs, Garner, Szalai), 2 at WaPo(Rothfeld, Charles), 1 each at WSJ (Sacks), NY mag (Chu), Slate (Miller)
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
more people have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living”
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Now published in print: "The Legality of Logistics: On Techno-Orientalism and Geopolitics in Semiconductor Production" in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing as a part of this special issue 'Automation by Design' co-edited by @cperold.bsky.social , Gerardo Con Diaz, and @justcode.bsky.social .
December 22, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Now published in print: "The Legality of Logistics: On Techno-Orientalism and Geopolitics in Semiconductor Production" in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing as a part of this special issue 'Automation by Design' co-edited by @cperold.bsky.social , Gerardo Con Diaz, and @justcode.bsky.social .
Now published in print: "The Legality of Logistics: On Techno-Orientalism and Geopolitics in Semiconductor Production" in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing as a part of this special issue 'Automation by Design' co-edited by @cperold.bsky.social , Gerardo Con Diaz, and @justcode.bsky.social .
December 22, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Now published in print: "The Legality of Logistics: On Techno-Orientalism and Geopolitics in Semiconductor Production" in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing as a part of this special issue 'Automation by Design' co-edited by @cperold.bsky.social , Gerardo Con Diaz, and @justcode.bsky.social .
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Our special issue is out! "Automation by Design: Politics, Culture & Landscape in an Age of Machines That Learn"! Eds. Colette Perold, me, Gerardo Con Diaz. Authors: David Dunning, Christos Karampatsos, Polyxeni Malisova, Eliza Pertigkiozoglou, Jason Ludwig, Megan Wiessner, & Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
December 19, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Our special issue is out! "Automation by Design: Politics, Culture & Landscape in an Age of Machines That Learn"! Eds. Colette Perold, me, Gerardo Con Diaz. Authors: David Dunning, Christos Karampatsos, Polyxeni Malisova, Eliza Pertigkiozoglou, Jason Ludwig, Megan Wiessner, & Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
"literary-critical inferences cannot be identical, but cannot be an interpretive free-for-all or just statistically approximated hearsay. AI cannot suffer the downstream consequences of faked comprehension+wrongful inferences in its body."
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Nan Z. Da, Literary Criticism in the Age of AI, NLR 155, September–October 2025
Critical analyses of AI usually adopt a stance of defensive humanism. Instead, Nan Da interrogates its mode of reasoning. How do LLMs make the step from data to inference—and what does it mean when th...
newleftreview.org
December 22, 2025 at 2:25 PM
"literary-critical inferences cannot be identical, but cannot be an interpretive free-for-all or just statistically approximated hearsay. AI cannot suffer the downstream consequences of faked comprehension+wrongful inferences in its body."
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Nan Z Da
newleftreview.org/issues/ii155...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
"Encoding all of humanity’s skill and know-how into checklists is an enormous, possibly quixotic undertaking, but the frontier labs have billions to spend, and the sheer scale of their demand is reconfiguring the data industry." Really well-reported story here.
AI companies are spending billions hiring humans to produce training data. @haydenfield.bsky.social and I wrote about the explosion in new vendors and what it means for the future of AI development.
Who’s making the most money in AI? It’s not who you think
The fastest growing companies in the world aren’t AI companies, but the startups that supply them with warm bodies.
www.theverge.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:02 PM
"Encoding all of humanity’s skill and know-how into checklists is an enormous, possibly quixotic undertaking, but the frontier labs have billions to spend, and the sheer scale of their demand is reconfiguring the data industry." Really well-reported story here.
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Would be great if legacy media could get around to covering NSPM-7!
December 15, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Would be great if legacy media could get around to covering NSPM-7!
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
I still think about this piece from last spring, which explains why the dysfunction and inefficiency are *intentional*. Plus, it’s not merely coincidental that executives for these software companies often sit on university boards.
"Since 2006, Workday, which provides software for payroll, talent management, and expense processing, has been making a mint creating misery where painless processes could be. More than half of the Fortune 500 companies use Workday to pay, hire, onboard, and administer benefits to their employees."
The most hated workplace software on the planet
It creates mountains of busywork for everyone. So why do more than half of the companies in the Fortune 500 use it?
www.businessinsider.com
December 12, 2025 at 4:32 PM
I still think about this piece from last spring, which explains why the dysfunction and inefficiency are *intentional*. Plus, it’s not merely coincidental that executives for these software companies often sit on university boards.
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Windows 98 Plus: Falling Leaves
December 12, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Windows 98 Plus: Falling Leaves
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
In my 25yrs in the academy I 👀 the proliferation of expensive enterprise software that shifted the burden of sooo many basic administrative functions — reconciling receipts, paying honoraria, booking travel — from competent, efficient staff to faculty + students. I’d spend entire days on this crap.
Workday project at Washington University hits $266M
Workday project at Washington University hits $266M
Protests force disclosure of costs totaling $16,000 per student over 7 year rollout replacing 80 legacy systems
The total cost of a Workday implementation project at Washington University in St. Louis is set to hit almost $266 million, it was revealed after the project was the subject of protests from students.…
dlvr.it
December 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
In my 25yrs in the academy I 👀 the proliferation of expensive enterprise software that shifted the burden of sooo many basic administrative functions — reconciling receipts, paying honoraria, booking travel — from competent, efficient staff to faculty + students. I’d spend entire days on this crap.
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.'
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
December 10, 2025 at 5:10 PM
SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
NEW: an activist has been charged for allegedly wiping a Google Pixel phone before CBP could search it. Search was by a secretive CBP Tactical Terrorism Response Team, which ACLU says "interrogate innocent travelers." We uploaded the indictment here: www.404media.co/man-charged-...
Man Charged for Wiping Phone Before CBP Could Search It
The exact circumstances around the search are not known. But activist Samuel Tunick is charged with deleting data from a Google Pixel before CBP’s Tactical Terrorism Response Team could search it.
www.404media.co
December 9, 2025 at 3:25 PM
NEW: an activist has been charged for allegedly wiping a Google Pixel phone before CBP could search it. Search was by a secretive CBP Tactical Terrorism Response Team, which ACLU says "interrogate innocent travelers." We uploaded the indictment here: www.404media.co/man-charged-...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
A few years ago I had a partner who was a former roboticist. Through her I became acutely aware of how much of public-facing robotics is now is pure theatrical smoke and mirrors horseshit intended to dupe credulous tech press and VCs.
can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot
December 8, 2025 at 2:19 PM
A few years ago I had a partner who was a former roboticist. Through her I became acutely aware of how much of public-facing robotics is now is pure theatrical smoke and mirrors horseshit intended to dupe credulous tech press and VCs.
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot
December 8, 2025 at 9:29 AM
can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
“Sleeping’s underlying biological need is not a weakness to be remedied, or a limitation to overcome, but a fact of our nature that gives rise to valuable interpersonal and aesthetic activities and is also valuable in itself.”
Sleep is not just a physical need but a delicious pleasure | Aeon Essays
The idea that we should reduce sleep to an efficient minimum in our lives gets something fundamentally wrong
aeon.co
December 7, 2025 at 6:19 PM
“Sleeping’s underlying biological need is not a weakness to be remedied, or a limitation to overcome, but a fact of our nature that gives rise to valuable interpersonal and aesthetic activities and is also valuable in itself.”
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
They claim financial exigency, but then turn down $4 million pledges to keep the PhD programs open and disregard financial analyses that point to the real problem—bad real estate deals, spending on consultants, and their own salaries 2/2
December 6, 2025 at 4:24 PM
They claim financial exigency, but then turn down $4 million pledges to keep the PhD programs open and disregard financial analyses that point to the real problem—bad real estate deals, spending on consultants, and their own salaries 2/2