Brook
@wombattitude.bsky.social
170 followers 180 following 150 posts
PhD student and wombat appreciator
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Reposted by Brook
The worst thing about this is that the service provider seems to be taking the line that a few citations of non-existent sources is something to shrug off and 'correct' - when clients ought to be treating errors this bad as utterly invalidating a report methodologically and ethically
Reposted by Brook
kids teacher just sent this home as part of an assignment he's doing and i want to smash every computer at the school
Reposted by Brook
It's still going. The republished Deloitte report into the Targeted Compliance Framework is STILL full of slop references. How long is it going to take the Albanese Government to do something about this?

✍️ @paulkarp.bsky.social
More errors, ‘irrelevant citations’ in Deloitte’s revised AI report

Paul Karp
NSW political correspondent
Oct 14, 2025 – 5.31pm

The corrected version of a Deloitte report to the Albanese government reissued by the big consulting firm after it was found to include AI-generated mistakes contains new citation errors and other flaws in referencing the academic work it relies on.
Two academics have questioned the relevance of citations of their work in the new report, raising concerns that Deloitte merely substituted out false references to works that don’t exist in favour of real works with no or very limited relevance to welfare compliance, which was the subject of the report. The republished report also incorrectly cites work by Australian National University’s John Braithwaite by giving the wrong publication year and repeatedly omitting his co-author.

Officials from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, while unhappy about the use of AI and errors in the original report, told a Senate estimates hearing last week the recommendations in the Deloitte report had not changed and would be taken up by the department.
Details of errors will further embarrass Deloitte and the department as both parties claimed to have checked the references of the rewritten report. The academics say the new problems call into question the quality of the research used to back up Deloitte’s effort to recommend how to fix IT systems for welfare compliance.
Reposted by Brook
Using ChatGPT
What's something that isn't considered embarrassing but you think it should be?
Reposted by Brook
For all the students at the social work uni intensive who told me they now use AI at work to write up case reports:

NDIS participant’s bid for more support failed in part because two physiotherapists used AI to write letters used to back her claim to top up her package

www.afr.com/politics/bid...
Bid to boost $200k NDIS package rejected after AI use found
The National Disability Insurance Agency warned about cut-and-paste medical reports. Throw artificial intelligence in and the results are even worse.
www.afr.com
Reposted by Brook
God this is going to sound obnoxious but I'm doing it anyway: one of the most radical and genuinely bolshy things you can do right now is just fucking check stuff. Take a moment, find some sources, talk to some humans, corroborate stuff using independent pathways.

It is going out of fashion fast
In which John Oliver methodically unpacks how thin it is to claim you’re all about “the truth” when you’re only running essays don’t get properly fact-checked — and don’t hold up to even basic reporting scrutiny www.youtube.com/watch?v=gieT...
Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
YouTube video by LastWeekTonight
www.youtube.com
I find the biggest reaction comes when I call myself middle-aged. Which without a massive medical breakthrough is just objectively true
Reposted by Brook
Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop
Reposted by Brook
I don't know where this revisionism has come from about the suffragettes - people saying "if the suffragettes were around today, they'd be considered terrorists."

The suffragettes were arrested and tortured, sexually assaulted and beaten by the state. They *were* considered terrorists!
The most horrific thing about this is the comments suggesting there ANY possible circumstances that this could be valid.
People are running stats on LLM-generated participants and think they’re being social scientists when in fact they’re technically just playing a very strange video game. This is like saying you’re doing math research because you’re playing sudoku.

www.science.org/content/arti...
AI-generated ‘participants’ can lead social science experiments astray, study finds
Data produced by “silicon samples” depends on researchers’ exact choice of models, prompts, and settings
www.science.org
Reposted by Brook
One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."
A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute.
Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner.
I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly, but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to pri-matology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way.
Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose.
The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why.
Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes.
I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe. It's a wonderful place (sort of like right out of National Geographic).
"To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid." —Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus
Marrickville high is tiny. The last few years have seen more students join but it’s still a LONG way from full.
Reposted by Brook
Reposted by Brook
The way this article is framed positions the loss of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences as of secondary importance. This both reflects and entrenches attitudes towards these as 'lesser' disciplines, which is what got us into this mess in the first place.
I’ve made roti toasted sandwiches before. Why have I never considered jaffles?!?
Huh, I was also convinced it happened when I was at school but I finished in 98.
sicily and at least some of calabria. Winning.
Reposted by Brook
New:
A deep dive with some alarming new revelations on the silencing of one of the few remaining independent progressive voices in Australian media. Who killed Meanjin?
Who killed Meanjin?
And why won’t Melbourne University Publishing engage with efforts to save it?
www.crikey.com.au
I haven’t seen much media coverage of this but the sheer number of people turning up over the entire three weeks of the race was really something.
Huge crowds in Madrid, Spain block the La Vuelta cycling race in protest to Israel’s participation, amidst Israel’s escalating attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Reposted by Brook
Some of the high quality content Zuckerberg’s platform is algorithmically shoveling into the brains of American consumers. This story is 100% made up, in case that wasn’t obvious.
The Harmonica Chronicles • Follow .•• X
1d • p
Tears on Stage: Bob Dylan Pauses Mid-Song After Learning of Charlie Kirk's Passing
It was meant to be just another night on tour — a full arena, the crowd hanging on every lyric — until Bob Dylan suddenly stopped mid-song.
He stepped back from the mic, his eyes shining under the stage lights. The band went completely silent.
"They just told me.." Dylan's voice trembled. "Charlie
Kirk has passed."
For a long, heavy moment, no one moved. Then Dylan whispered, "This one's for him," and began playing a raw, stripped-down version of Blowin' in the Wind.
Fans were overcome with emotion as the song became a quiet prayer.
What Dylan said after the final chord - his last words to the audience - left the world in stunned silence.
F.u.ll s.t.o.ry be.lo.w
Of course. But the office is empty and there are often protests in this spot and this is a lot more than I’m used to seeing.
There is a decent sized but still small enough to he contained to the footpath protest outside of albos office right now and at least three mounted police (& lots on foot) across the road.

Just a little excessive…
I’ve been meaning to give this a try for ages but never catch them on days I could actually pick up.