Amanda Foster Kaufman
@abananasfoster.bsky.social
instruction coordinator/librarian, interested in #infolit and #critlib. questionable taste in literature. she/her/hers. opinions are my own.
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
Never forget that a Democratic US Attorney’s decision to prosecute Aaron Swartz for downloading JSTOR PDFs contributed to his suicide but AI firms’ decision to download everything ever will be a justification for hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer bailouts and legal exemptions.
“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
OpenAI in Danger After Authors Suing It Gain Access to Its Internal Slack Messages
Authors and publishers, who are suing OpenAI, secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the deletion of pirated books.
futurism.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Never forget that a Democratic US Attorney’s decision to prosecute Aaron Swartz for downloading JSTOR PDFs contributed to his suicide but AI firms’ decision to download everything ever will be a justification for hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer bailouts and legal exemptions.
AI boosterism is still thriving in my neck of the woods, but all I can see is the Big Short 2.0 heading towards us like a freight train.
so @matteowong.bsky.social & I wrote on data centers: arguably the most important buildings in the world & are, in a way, holding the economy hostage. Byzantine financial instruments, private equity, depreciating tech, hype, $trillion valuations. it’s all there. an ai crash prob starts here.
Here’s How the AI Crash Happens
The U.S. is becoming an Nvidia-state.
www.theatlantic.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:11 PM
AI boosterism is still thriving in my neck of the woods, but all I can see is the Big Short 2.0 heading towards us like a freight train.
Dusting off this old gem for homework in Critical InfoLit. If you've never read it, it's a fascinating accounting of the growth of the academic publishing industry in the 60's and 70's. The twist is it's also about Ghislaine Maxwell's dad.
Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science?
The long read: It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons: Robert Maxwell
www.theguardian.com
October 22, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Dusting off this old gem for homework in Critical InfoLit. If you've never read it, it's a fascinating accounting of the growth of the academic publishing industry in the 60's and 70's. The twist is it's also about Ghislaine Maxwell's dad.
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
🧵It has been clear for years that a key difference between past instances of book banning and the present censorship cataclysm is that the banning happening now targets not only books, but librarianship as a profession and libraries as an institution. 1/4
October 15, 2025 at 1:58 PM
🧵It has been clear for years that a key difference between past instances of book banning and the present censorship cataclysm is that the banning happening now targets not only books, but librarianship as a profession and libraries as an institution. 1/4
I loved my UNC SILS experience (circa 2012~) so much, but even then most of the resources being directed to the "iSchool" side of the house. Here's to hoping this is a fruitful partnership for MLS program, but to say I'm concerned would be an understatement.
Hey, this sucks. Like... a lot. 📚
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UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’
www.dailytarheel.com/article/univ...
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UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’
www.dailytarheel.com/article/univ...
UNC schools of data science and information science to merge, forming unnamed ‘School of AI’
SDSS Dean Stanley Ahalt will be made dean of the new school while SILS Dean Jeffrey Bardzell will stand as the University’s Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI.
www.dailytarheel.com
October 9, 2025 at 9:14 PM
I loved my UNC SILS experience (circa 2012~) so much, but even then most of the resources being directed to the "iSchool" side of the house. Here's to hoping this is a fruitful partnership for MLS program, but to say I'm concerned would be an understatement.
This episode is such a joy. Glad to see Reading Rainbow back! :)
Reading Rainbow… is back! 🥹
This LeVar Burton/Reading Rainbow raised human is feeling all of the library joy. We hope your kids believe they belong in books, just like you ✨
Take a look, it’s in a book 📚🌈🦋🌌
youtu.be/gHAIjSkmnYI?...
This LeVar Burton/Reading Rainbow raised human is feeling all of the library joy. We hope your kids believe they belong in books, just like you ✨
Take a look, it’s in a book 📚🌈🦋🌌
youtu.be/gHAIjSkmnYI?...
No Cats In The Library 🐱📚 | Reading Rainbow 📖 🌈 | Full Episode | @Kidzuko
YouTube video by Kidzuko
youtu.be
October 7, 2025 at 2:55 PM
This episode is such a joy. Glad to see Reading Rainbow back! :)
I dislike the title's framing around productivity, rather than destroying trust and reputation among colleagues, but I'm glad to see "workslop" reported on more.
AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity
Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appea...
hbr.org
September 24, 2025 at 12:05 PM
I dislike the title's framing around productivity, rather than destroying trust and reputation among colleagues, but I'm glad to see "workslop" reported on more.
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
this exists it is called thinking
September 20, 2025 at 12:15 PM
this exists it is called thinking
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
In 2022 Texas A&M reorganized their libraries (over faculty protests) and pulled all librarians out of faculty status.
'Really slimy': Texas A&M 'quietly' removes hundreds of LGBTQ+ books
"It just felt really slimy on the university's part."
www.chron.com
September 16, 2025 at 8:26 PM
In 2022 Texas A&M reorganized their libraries (over faculty protests) and pulled all librarians out of faculty status.
Sometimes I worry that I'm telling students things they already know. But as of my class this morning, this is still brand new information to *many* undergraduates.
Why ChatGPT Creates Scientific Citations — That Don’t Exist
It looks convincing, even in White House reports, but it’s often a sign of shoddy backwards research.
medium.com
September 3, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Sometimes I worry that I'm telling students things they already know. But as of my class this morning, this is still brand new information to *many* undergraduates.
New academic year, new articles for my students to read. Love this one from @economist.com on how AI is changing the business model of the internet.
www.economist.com/business/202...
www.economist.com/business/202...
AI is killing the web. Can anything save it?
The rise of ChatGPT and its rivals is undermining the economic bargain of the internet
www.economist.com
September 2, 2025 at 6:37 PM
New academic year, new articles for my students to read. Love this one from @economist.com on how AI is changing the business model of the internet.
www.economist.com/business/202...
www.economist.com/business/202...
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
If something is incorrect on Wikipedia, it can be sourced, traced, disputed, fixed.
If it's wrong in the LLM, it's just...wrong. It's not a fact explicitly stored somewhere, it's just a string of words generated by a probability map
If it's wrong in the LLM, it's just...wrong. It's not a fact explicitly stored somewhere, it's just a string of words generated by a probability map
April 26, 2025 at 6:43 PM
If something is incorrect on Wikipedia, it can be sourced, traced, disputed, fixed.
If it's wrong in the LLM, it's just...wrong. It's not a fact explicitly stored somewhere, it's just a string of words generated by a probability map
If it's wrong in the LLM, it's just...wrong. It's not a fact explicitly stored somewhere, it's just a string of words generated by a probability map
new to me, but perhaps not new: CTRL+F has unlisted @mikecaulfield.bsky.social's Online Verification Skills videos and replaced them. You can still access the old ones (for now?) if you have the original links.
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
CTRL-F Verification Skills 2024 - YouTube
www.youtube.com
August 5, 2025 at 3:29 PM
new to me, but perhaps not new: CTRL+F has unlisted @mikecaulfield.bsky.social's Online Verification Skills videos and replaced them. You can still access the old ones (for now?) if you have the original links.
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
TBR pile recommendation from me. Banger upon banger of insights into the realities of teaching mis/disinfo in the library.
crl.acrl.org/index.php/cr...
crl.acrl.org/index.php/cr...
“I Don’t Think Librarians Can Save Us”: The Material Conditions of Information Literacy Instruction in the Misinformation Age | Willenborg | College & Research Libraries
“I Don’t Think Librarians Can Save Us”: The Material Conditions of Information Literacy Instruction in the Misinformation Age
crl.acrl.org
July 31, 2025 at 7:12 PM
TBR pile recommendation from me. Banger upon banger of insights into the realities of teaching mis/disinfo in the library.
crl.acrl.org/index.php/cr...
crl.acrl.org/index.php/cr...
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
Newsletter: In a media landscape dominated by algorithmic feeds that aim to manipulate and extract, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is choose to read what you want, when you want, without anyone watching over your shoulder.
Here’s how to use RSS.
www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-...
Here’s how to use RSS.
www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-...
Curate your own newspaper with RSS
Escape newsletter inbox chaos and algorithmic surveillance by building your own enshittification-proof newspaper from the writers you already read
www.citationneeded.news
July 31, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Newsletter: In a media landscape dominated by algorithmic feeds that aim to manipulate and extract, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is choose to read what you want, when you want, without anyone watching over your shoulder.
Here’s how to use RSS.
www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-...
Here’s how to use RSS.
www.citationneeded.news/curate-with-...
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
We're in the final day of an emergency fundraising campaign at @wunc.org (due to the pulling of federal funding). We need the support of North Carolinians now more than ever. And that's why I'm asking Bill Belichick, once again, to become a sustaining member, at any level. www.wunc.org/donate
WUNC Recurring Gift - North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC
www.wunc.org
July 24, 2025 at 6:22 PM
We're in the final day of an emergency fundraising campaign at @wunc.org (due to the pulling of federal funding). We need the support of North Carolinians now more than ever. And that's why I'm asking Bill Belichick, once again, to become a sustaining member, at any level. www.wunc.org/donate
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
Reporter: The FDA has a new AI tool that's intended to speed up drug approvals. But several FDA employees say the new AI helper is making up studies that do not exist. One FDA employee telling us, 'Anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently'
July 23, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reporter: The FDA has a new AI tool that's intended to speed up drug approvals. But several FDA employees say the new AI helper is making up studies that do not exist. One FDA employee telling us, 'Anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently'
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
We have decided to ban the use of GenAI for research, writing & creative work at our organization.
In fact, we make people sign an agreement saying that their research, analysis, writing, and creative work are *theirs* and not done by GenAI.
In fact, we make people sign an agreement saying that their research, analysis, writing, and creative work are *theirs* and not done by GenAI.
July 17, 2025 at 1:04 AM
We have decided to ban the use of GenAI for research, writing & creative work at our organization.
In fact, we make people sign an agreement saying that their research, analysis, writing, and creative work are *theirs* and not done by GenAI.
In fact, we make people sign an agreement saying that their research, analysis, writing, and creative work are *theirs* and not done by GenAI.
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
May 12, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
weird, what could explain this
Adolf Hitler's “Mein Kampf” is still on U.S. Naval Academy shelves. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Memorializing the Holocaust” are not.
An order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office led to a purge of books that are critical of racism — but preserved volumes defending white power.
An order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office led to a purge of books that are critical of racism — but preserved volumes defending white power.
Who’s In and Who’s Out at the Naval Academy’s Library?
An order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office resulted in a purge of books critical of racism but preserved volumes defending white power.
www.nytimes.com
April 11, 2025 at 7:09 PM
weird, what could explain this
Reposted by Amanda Foster Kaufman
historically the bad faith stuff quickly moves into bedrock belief territory. the way all these reality breaks usually go is that once one of these groups is cornered and hitched to a disastrous idea, they double down and build a fantasy world around it bc it’s easier than admitting they were wrong
The totalitarian levels of bad faith and disingenuousness from MAGA is funny at one level but also deeply depressing because it’s the foundation for all this and until it cracks, I’m not quite sure how we get out alive.
April 4, 2025 at 10:23 PM
historically the bad faith stuff quickly moves into bedrock belief territory. the way all these reality breaks usually go is that once one of these groups is cornered and hitched to a disastrous idea, they double down and build a fantasy world around it bc it’s easier than admitting they were wrong
What is banning books about? Undermining public schools. Coming back to this article from a couple years ago that sums it up.
Extremists Are Using Lies to Undermine America’s Public Schools: We Need to Take a Stand
The right wing is using lies about how American kids are being taught in order to undermine public schools, argues Randi Weingarten and Jonah Edelman
time.com
March 21, 2025 at 1:21 PM
What is banning books about? Undermining public schools. Coming back to this article from a couple years ago that sums it up.
There is something deeply disconcerting to me about this particular company cultivating the optimal aesthetic of a library at their HQ, and all that a library symbolizes (knowledge, learning, preservation) while also simultaneously working to dismantle traditional knowledge creation as we know it.
The Old-Fashioned Library at the Heart of the A.I. Boom
OpenAI may be changing how the world interacts with language. But inside headquarters, there is a homage to the written word: a library.
www.nytimes.com
May 16, 2024 at 1:07 PM
There is something deeply disconcerting to me about this particular company cultivating the optimal aesthetic of a library at their HQ, and all that a library symbolizes (knowledge, learning, preservation) while also simultaneously working to dismantle traditional knowledge creation as we know it.
My students are always teaching me something new. During the 2022 mid-terms, 90% of political disinformation ads were making it through TikTok's vetting process. (not to brag on my students, but this TikTok student group did a tremendous job) www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns...
TikTok and Facebook fail to detect election disinformation in the US, while YouTube succeeds | Global Witness
A whopping 90% of election disinformation ads tested were approved by TikTok
www.globalwitness.org
May 6, 2024 at 2:09 PM
My students are always teaching me something new. During the 2022 mid-terms, 90% of political disinformation ads were making it through TikTok's vetting process. (not to brag on my students, but this TikTok student group did a tremendous job) www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns...
I had the realization years ago that middle and middle-upper class retirement is predicated on capitalism continuing to work more or less exactly how it does right now. Pretty ingenious trick they pulled, really.
Turning people into investors through retirement accounts means we're often incentivizing worse experiences for ourselves as consumers
if you're a publicly-traded company it's just not good enough to provide the public with an affordable product people like. you have to provide endless, unlimited, impossible revenue growth, which incentivizes you inevitably to cut corners and basically become a giant asshole
April 9, 2024 at 3:47 PM
I had the realization years ago that middle and middle-upper class retirement is predicated on capitalism continuing to work more or less exactly how it does right now. Pretty ingenious trick they pulled, really.