Shannon Vallor
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shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor
@shannonvallor.bsky.social
16K followers 1.9K following 2.4K posts

Philosopher/AI Ethicist at Univ of Edinburgh, co-Director @technomoralfutures.bsky.social and BRAID @braiduk.bsky.social, author of Technology and the Virtues (2016) and The AI Mirror (2024). Views my own. Trying not to lose it. .. more

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Shannon Vallor is an American philosopher of technology. She is the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. She previously taught at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California where she was the Regis and Dianne McKenna Professor of Philosophy and William J. Rewak, S.J. Professor at SCU. .. more

Neuroscience 30%
Computer science 22%
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shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 8h
My hands are bloodied and my back is aching from days of puppy-proofing this cord-infested, choking hazard-littered (every single one of Carol’s toys), chew-inviting (SO many shoes to hide), poisonous plant-having (did the prior owners hate dogs?) house. I know it will all be worth it but once again
Ken from Barbie saying My Job is Just Dog

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 8h
We never stopped caring about our safety, or the safety of those we love. But so many have forgotten that we once felt deserving of care, and expected and demanded it.

And because we demanded care, and corporations feared the consequences of not giving it, we often received it
anildash.com Anil Dash @anildash.com · 11h
Remember:

When Tylenol was poisoned *by an outsider* and killed people, the company recalled all their products & redesigned them.

When Intel’s Pentium had a bug so obscure it affected 1 in _9 billion_ long division calculations, they recalled their chips.

ChatGPT was made deadly *by its team*.
publichealthguy1.bsky.social public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 1d
i don’t see how any of the benefits of chatgpt and other consumer-facing LLMs can possibly outweigh their incredible ability to induce suicides

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Anna O. Law, Kevin Miller , and 3 more

anildash.com
Anil Dash @anildash.com · 11h
Remember:

When Tylenol was poisoned *by an outsider* and killed people, the company recalled all their products & redesigned them.

When Intel’s Pentium had a bug so obscure it affected 1 in _9 billion_ long division calculations, they recalled their chips.

ChatGPT was made deadly *by its team*.
publichealthguy1.bsky.social public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 1d
i don’t see how any of the benefits of chatgpt and other consumer-facing LLMs can possibly outweigh their incredible ability to induce suicides
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 1d
Adam Raine’s life hurtled toward tragedy soon after he began talking with ChatGPT about homework. Analysis of his ChatGPT account shows how the chatbot became a confidant as he planned to end his life.

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 13h
Thanks Jay!

Reposted by Shannon Vallor

sanjuanswan.bsky.social
Jay Swan @sanjuanswan.bsky.social · 13h
Favorite tech-related: The AI Mirror by @shannonvallor.bsky.social. Most books about AI are long and almost unreadably bad. This one is superb. And short.

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Peter Jacobsen, Kathleen Kennedy , and 1 more

rob-sheridan.com
Rob Sheridan @rob-sheridan.com · 1d
Buttons are back. Knobs are back. Dumb devices are back. Own-it-forever software is back. Print is back. Personal websites and chronological feeds are back. Touching grass is back. People keep saying 2015, but it’s not far enough. The entire 2010s were a mistake. We must retvrn to… 2009.
wired.com WIRED @wired.com · 1d
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its senses.
Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its…
wrd.cm

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Axel Bruns, Brendan Nyhan , and 32 more

jjvincent.bsky.social
James Vincent @jjvincent.bsky.social · 1d
another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 2d
Went for a walk on the beach today with this gorgeous gentleman
A crow wading in shallow waves at the beach, late afternoon

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 2d
Thanks for sharing this - I look forward to reading it!

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 3d
Merry Christmas from Edinburgh!

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 4d
Our tree, from which Carol has over ten days methodically stripped most of the ornaments, per her usual bullshit, and the wrapped gifts we can only put out on Christmas Eve while she is napping in the other room, for no more than ten (10) minutes before she wakes up and goes ham on all the ribbons
A lit Christmas tree at night, against windows, with a few ornaments and some wrapped gifts underneath

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 4d
Is there a better omen than meeting a family of gentle wild ponies on your Christmas Eve hike?

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 4d
Every artwork in my house was either made by a friend, or is a monetarily worthless print of an artist I love, and I could not begin to understand caring about the investment value or rarity of an original. It’s enough that I can stare and say ‘a person made this crazy/beautiful/inexplicable thing’

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 4d
*hyperventilates with joy*
bookishsff.bsky.social Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 4d
The eagerly awaited follow-up to @aptshadow.bsky.social's bestselling Children of Time series, Children of Strife follows our MC as she tries to determine what has happened to her crewmates who left the ship to explore an interstellar ark.

Signed preorder: www.waterstones.com/book/childre...
💙📚🪐
An image of the book cover: a ringed planet in greens and blues with organic-looking growths seeing to sprout from the rings, and a spaceship in the foreground.

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 4d
Congratulations Aidan! Lovely cover too

Reposted by Shannon Vallor

bookishsff.bsky.social
Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 4d
The eagerly awaited follow-up to @aptshadow.bsky.social's bestselling Children of Time series, Children of Strife follows our MC as she tries to determine what has happened to her crewmates who left the ship to explore an interstellar ark.

Signed preorder: www.waterstones.com/book/childre...
💙📚🪐
An image of the book cover: a ringed planet in greens and blues with organic-looking growths seeing to sprout from the rings, and a spaceship in the foreground.

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
During Christmas week each year we try cooking cuisines that are too challenging to try to learn during work season - 2020 was Ethiopian, 2021 was Oaxacan, 2022 was Sicilian, etc. This year is Iranian/Persian. We made fesenjan stew, freekeh pilaf, & a pistachio cardamom cake. It tastes like Heaven.
A blue plate with a fork and a slice of pistachio cardamom cake with a toasted almond topping. It is 100x tastier than you can imagine from the photo. The cardamom is wafting!

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
No, sorry, I’m calling bullshit. The op you endorsed was *not* a comment on the ‘diversity of human artistic production’. It was very explicitly a dismissal of ‘AI panic’, suggesting that people who resent AI’s harm to artists are in fact just sad about losing a way to control others. You agreed!

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
And what about that single fact brings the original claim’s reductive, myopic generalization (far more myopic even than Veblen’s writing!) any closer to a deep insight into human nature?

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
Yes, people enjoy vastly different kinds of art, for many different reasons

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
I don’t need to apply Veblen, or any particular social theory of choice, to discern or describe fundamental aspects of my own life experience. That certainly includes my raw enjoyment of human art and transportation by its wonder, an experience that extends back to my earliest childhood memories.

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
I’ve read Veblen. And?

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
I’m truly sorry for anyone whose experience of life is so constrained that the statement ‘humans value art only because it lets us control other people, which is all we care about’ seems like a plain unvarnished truth. I mean Jesus dude. I try not to judge others on social media. But what the fuck?

Reposted by Shannon Vallor

davelevitan.bsky.social
Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 5d
Anyone else just hear this lyric banging around their heads all the time these days
It's going to take you people years to recover from all of the damage

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
oh my

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
On my list of places to visit now!

shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 5d
hope I never lose the expat giggles from UK place names that sound very wrong
A cheese shop label for Wookey Hole (England): ‘A rich, nutty cheddar with sweet, earthy aromas’

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Axel Bruns, Martin Paul Eve , and 5 more

bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social
Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot @bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · 5d
Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach
Mystery as hundreds of Victorian shoes wash up on Ogmore beach
More than 400 leather hobnailed boots, thought to date back to the 19th Century, have been found.
www.bbc.com

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Richard Price, Stacy D. VanDeveer

malwhere.bzky.team
Mallory Where @malwhere.bzky.team · 5d
Trans instructor: “you didn’t do this assignment”

Supervising professor: “she didn’t do the assignment”

Student: “I didn’t do the assignment”

University: “isn’t there someone you forgot to ask”

some days I just want to scream and scream
parkermolloy.com Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 5d
Worth noting that the student admits that she just threw the thing together in 30 minutes without reading the paper she was supposed to be responding to.

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Steve Peers, Ralf Michaels , and 22 more

parkermolloy.com
Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 5d
Worth noting that the student admits that she just threw the thing together in 30 minutes without reading the paper she was supposed to be responding to.