Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
@anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social
Botanist, taxonomist, phylogeneticist.
Pinned
Phylogenomics and genetic admixture of the invasive fireweed complex (Senecio inaequidens–Senecio madagascariensis) at a global scale - Biological Invasions
The southern African Senecio inaequidens–S. madagascariensis complex, (‘fireweed complex’), contains several species that have established as weeds outside of their native ranges. Senecio madagascarie...
doi.org
We have expanded our target capture dataset of the Senecio inaequidens - S. madagascariensis complex to a global scale. More clarity on the areas of origin of invasive madagascariensis, but also raising new questions.
doi.org/10.1007/s105...
@biolinvasions.bsky.social
#asteraceae #compositae #weeds
doi.org/10.1007/s105...
@biolinvasions.bsky.social
#asteraceae #compositae #weeds
Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
“I wish someone at Google would remember scholar exists!”
…and the monkey paw curls.
…and the monkey paw curls.
November 25, 2025 at 3:08 PM
“I wish someone at Google would remember scholar exists!”
…and the monkey paw curls.
…and the monkey paw curls.
The singularitarians and AI bros simply do not understand how science works. Hypotheses actually have to be tested with empirical data and experiments. Faster thinking doesn't do anything there.
They could just as well invest into Hollywood movies to increase timber production. Cargo cult stuff.
They could just as well invest into Hollywood movies to increase timber production. Cargo cult stuff.
Ok so.
"The Genesis Mission will build an integrated AI platform to harness Federal scientific datasets — the world’s largest collection ... — to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs."
"The Genesis Mission will build an integrated AI platform to harness Federal scientific datasets — the world’s largest collection ... — to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs."
"the president has directed the Department of Energy to launch an AI project called the genesis mission" sounds like something out of a technothriller
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 AM
The singularitarians and AI bros simply do not understand how science works. Hypotheses actually have to be tested with empirical data and experiments. Faster thinking doesn't do anything there.
They could just as well invest into Hollywood movies to increase timber production. Cargo cult stuff.
They could just as well invest into Hollywood movies to increase timber production. Cargo cult stuff.
Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
We should have listened when the modems screamed at us.
July 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM
We should have listened when the modems screamed at us.
Capitulescence of a Cassinia (#Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae) at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.
November 25, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Capitulescence of a Cassinia (#Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae) at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.
It is kind of funny how regularly the autocomplete suggestions for a search on any software or operating system include "disable AI".
November 25, 2025 at 12:09 AM
It is kind of funny how regularly the autocomplete suggestions for a search on any software or operating system include "disable AI".
The fee would have to come from somewhere. Assume USD400, as frequently suggested, a rejection rate of 50% after one round of with two reviewers, and accepted papers on average needing only a second round with one reviewer. That means a publication fee of currently USD2000 would have to be USD4000.
I think we need to pay reviewers.
25 no response out of 30 requests to review!
Drives me mad this selfish behaviour, which I also see as a journal editor. And it's almost always established folk with secure jobs, not least those endlessly brandishing their right-on-ness on social media
Drives me mad this selfish behaviour, which I also see as a journal editor. And it's almost always established folk with secure jobs, not least those endlessly brandishing their right-on-ness on social media
November 24, 2025 at 8:55 PM
The fee would have to come from somewhere. Assume USD400, as frequently suggested, a rejection rate of 50% after one round of with two reviewers, and accepted papers on average needing only a second round with one reviewer. That means a publication fee of currently USD2000 would have to be USD4000.
If you don't buy new stuff even when your old stuff still works, the economy suffers. Between that and building the entire civilisation on non-renewable energy sources, people a thousand years from now will consider us all to have been collectively insane. But for most of us, it's just Monday.
November 24, 2025 at 3:20 AM
If you don't buy new stuff even when your old stuff still works, the economy suffers. Between that and building the entire civilisation on non-renewable energy sources, people a thousand years from now will consider us all to have been collectively insane. But for most of us, it's just Monday.
Nymphoides (Menyanthaceae), presumably N. montana, near Braidwood last week.
November 23, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Nymphoides (Menyanthaceae), presumably N. montana, near Braidwood last week.
This seems kind of obvious, once you take a step back and think about business models. But the entire bubble has not thinking about business models at its core. How many AI coding startups are just funneling queries to OpenAI or Anthropic, meaning that customers could go to the latter directly?
One thing I'd caution against those who say "what my company does can be done entirely with AI... I don't need to pay actual people"...
If that's true, then what are you building that your customers can't just use ChatGPT to get?
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
If that's true, then what are you building that your customers can't just use ChatGPT to get?
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI
Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:13 PM
This seems kind of obvious, once you take a step back and think about business models. But the entire bubble has not thinking about business models at its core. How many AI coding startups are just funneling queries to OpenAI or Anthropic, meaning that customers could go to the latter directly?
Great and wide-ranging read. A different, and less 'mystical', way of putting it:
Maybe AGI would be possible but only by also replicating the trade-offs of the biological brain such as cognitive biases, brittle ego, cancer, and mortality. Maybe you can't eat your electronic cake and have it too.
Maybe AGI would be possible but only by also replicating the trade-offs of the biological brain such as cognitive biases, brittle ego, cancer, and mortality. Maybe you can't eat your electronic cake and have it too.
In which I articulate the case that AGI is impossible and machines just plain cannot think. www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/on-inco...
On Incomputable Language: An Essay on AI
An incidental consequence of having written a book on tech-fascism and the so-called rationalist movement is that I find myself periodically queried for my thoughts on artificial intelligence. On the ...
www.eruditorumpress.com
November 18, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Great and wide-ranging read. A different, and less 'mystical', way of putting it:
Maybe AGI would be possible but only by also replicating the trade-offs of the biological brain such as cognitive biases, brittle ego, cancer, and mortality. Maybe you can't eat your electronic cake and have it too.
Maybe AGI would be possible but only by also replicating the trade-offs of the biological brain such as cognitive biases, brittle ego, cancer, and mortality. Maybe you can't eat your electronic cake and have it too.
Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
What's great about this is that one of them will absolutely nail it, and you're impressed, and then it refreshes after a minute and the same model will be laughably bad, and this is 100% my professional experience with LLMs.
Hahaha! Er. Someone has used AI to make analogue clocks with the live time.
Analogue clocks are really hard.
AI: spectacularly confident. Can be both subtly and spectacularly wrong. This is a lovely illustration of that.
clocks.brianmoore.com
Analogue clocks are really hard.
AI: spectacularly confident. Can be both subtly and spectacularly wrong. This is a lovely illustration of that.
clocks.brianmoore.com
AI World Clocks
The current time as rendered by 9 different AI models. By Brian Moore.
clocks.brianmoore.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:27 PM
What's great about this is that one of them will absolutely nail it, and you're impressed, and then it refreshes after a minute and the same model will be laughably bad, and this is 100% my professional experience with LLMs.
It would be nice if bad things were regulated, and if regulations against bad things were enforced, but apparently "bad things not happening" is not something most voters find that important these days.
Collecting bubbles right now.
* AI bubble
* Wall Street bitcoin
* Private equity bubble
* adding the Buy Now Pay Later bubble, which is ... largely untracked!!
techcrunch.com/2025/11/16/b...
this feeds to my theory that the economy is screwed so we get *multiple* financial scams all at once
* AI bubble
* Wall Street bitcoin
* Private equity bubble
* adding the Buy Now Pay Later bubble, which is ... largely untracked!!
techcrunch.com/2025/11/16/b...
this feeds to my theory that the economy is screwed so we get *multiple* financial scams all at once
'Buy Now, Pay Later' is expanding fast, and that should worry everyone | TechCrunch
As Morris watches his BNPL investments from the other side of the table, he seems to understand the warning signs better than most.
techcrunch.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:06 PM
It would be nice if bad things were regulated, and if regulations against bad things were enforced, but apparently "bad things not happening" is not something most voters find that important these days.
The Youtube ad selection algorithm in its wisdom decides to serve me, a cyclist Luddite researcher, SUVs, AI-generated vampire fiction, crypto trading apps, and payment systems for small businesses.
I am half-convinced that advertising is a fraud committed against advertisers.
I am half-convinced that advertising is a fraud committed against advertisers.
Also, despite having endless information on my buying history for well over a decade, Amazon is still like: "based on your past purchases of Fimo clay, printer ink and reading glasses, we think you'd like this Hallowe'en banana costume, penis shaped ice cube tray & Jeffrey Archer's autobiography." 🙄
November 16, 2025 at 8:30 PM
The Youtube ad selection algorithm in its wisdom decides to serve me, a cyclist Luddite researcher, SUVs, AI-generated vampire fiction, crypto trading apps, and payment systems for small businesses.
I am half-convinced that advertising is a fraud committed against advertisers.
I am half-convinced that advertising is a fraud committed against advertisers.
I hope, but am not optimistic, that people understand the difference between
(a) I could not do my job without this database.
and
(b) I could not do my job without the hallucinating, plagiarising, text and image generator.
(a) I could not do my job without this database.
and
(b) I could not do my job without the hallucinating, plagiarising, text and image generator.
November 16, 2025 at 8:21 PM
I hope, but am not optimistic, that people understand the difference between
(a) I could not do my job without this database.
and
(b) I could not do my job without the hallucinating, plagiarising, text and image generator.
(a) I could not do my job without this database.
and
(b) I could not do my job without the hallucinating, plagiarising, text and image generator.
Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
If I ever believed this, you couldn't drag this admission from me
November 16, 2025 at 12:40 PM
If I ever believed this, you couldn't drag this admission from me
Look at that, the genus I did my PhD about also occurs in Chile!
dx.doi.org/10.4067/s071...
#minthostachys
dx.doi.org/10.4067/s071...
#minthostachys
dx.doi.org
November 16, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Look at that, the genus I did my PhD about also occurs in Chile!
dx.doi.org/10.4067/s071...
#minthostachys
dx.doi.org/10.4067/s071...
#minthostachys
What gets me about alt text is that unless the image contains text or is a visual gag, it generally shouldn't even be necessary, because the post itself should be informative. Like, if you post an image of a bug, building, machine, or person, just put its name into the actual post under it.
another reason i love alt text is because a lot of y'all post photos of pop culture people and as someone who wasn't allowed to watch anything but SESAME STREET and CARE BEARS and shit until i was like 10... i have no idea who those people are until i read the alt text.
November 14, 2025 at 9:52 PM
What gets me about alt text is that unless the image contains text or is a visual gag, it generally shouldn't even be necessary, because the post itself should be informative. Like, if you post an image of a bug, building, machine, or person, just put its name into the actual post under it.
Okay, but the problem is that if the "AI" here is an LLM, you cannot trust any of its outputs without double-checking the source yourself. I hope it is just a non-probabilistic search function that they call "AI" to sound fancy instead of actually a probabilistic word-guessing model.
Are you an intrepid researcher who wants to explore the Epstein emails, but don't have time to sort thru the unstructured ravings of a deranged lunatic?
Fear not patriots! My colleague @thatsjustlikeyouropinionman.com has used the power of AI for great justice.
epstein-doc-explorer-1.onrender.com
Fear not patriots! My colleague @thatsjustlikeyouropinionman.com has used the power of AI for great justice.
epstein-doc-explorer-1.onrender.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Okay, but the problem is that if the "AI" here is an LLM, you cannot trust any of its outputs without double-checking the source yourself. I hope it is just a non-probabilistic search function that they call "AI" to sound fancy instead of actually a probabilistic word-guessing model.
Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
![[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]
JANET:
Ugh...
LIZ:
What's up?
JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!
LIZ:
Have you tried...
AI peas?
JANET:
AI peas?
LIZ:
They're peas with AI!
[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].
LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas
JANET:
What
LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]
Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?
[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]
LIZ:
Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine
[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]
LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!
JANET:
What
LIZ:
Shut up
LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow
From opening the bag of peas
to boiling the peas
to eating the peas
To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.
JANET:
Is it really necessary to-
LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET
[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:
AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreiayqa37f7kik7l7s7fbtfp2sir5ckb662ry2lylinyjrfa2rkvvka@jpeg)
Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
Very excited to have a new publication out in the most beautiful journal in the world, Capitulum! #Compositae #Hecastocleis #Asteraceae #synantherology
www.compositae.org/capitulum_04...
www.compositae.org/capitulum_04...
November 13, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Very excited to have a new publication out in the most beautiful journal in the world, Capitulum! #Compositae #Hecastocleis #Asteraceae #synantherology
www.compositae.org/capitulum_04...
www.compositae.org/capitulum_04...
This makes sense: genAI, being built to generate stuff, replaces jobs in art and writing by generating slop art and slop writing. Many of us find its outputs repulsive, but companies don't seem to care.
How is AI *really* impacting jobs?
Henley Chiu, the CTO of Revealera, a jobs data analysis firm, analyzed 180 million jobs listings in 2024 and 2025, in an effort to find out. Chiu found an:
-8% drop in all jobs postings
-~30% drop in art, photography, writing jobs
-22% drop in journalism jobs
Henley Chiu, the CTO of Revealera, a jobs data analysis firm, analyzed 180 million jobs listings in 2024 and 2025, in an effort to find out. Chiu found an:
-8% drop in all jobs postings
-~30% drop in art, photography, writing jobs
-22% drop in journalism jobs
What’s really going on with AI and jobs?
Record-breaking layoff reports, Amazon's mass firings, and a slump in entry level employment. Is AI behind it all?
www.bloodinthemachine.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:44 PM
This makes sense: genAI, being built to generate stuff, replaces jobs in art and writing by generating slop art and slop writing. Many of us find its outputs repulsive, but companies don't seem to care.
Need to bookmark this to show people what good reporting looks like. Explaining the sources of information. Explaining uncertainty and how the information cold be wrong. Explaining what it means. Clear and concise.
How high are OpenAI’s compute costs? Possibly a lot higher than we thought on.ft.com/43qoQ2L
How high are OpenAI’s compute costs? Possibly a lot higher than we thought
Inference inferred, revenue reconstructed, cash burn quantified
on.ft.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Need to bookmark this to show people what good reporting looks like. Explaining the sources of information. Explaining uncertainty and how the information cold be wrong. Explaining what it means. Clear and concise.
Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
It might be true that the world needs to remove ten billion tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere every year but it’s never going to happen for many different reasons: technical, financial, social, environmental, governance, etc. If we don’t reduce CO₂ emissions, we’re screwed. That’s it.
Removing CO2 from atmosphere vital to avoid catastrophic tipping points, leading scientist says
10bn tonnes must be captured from the air every year to limit global heating to 1.7C, says Johan Rockström
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:51 PM
It might be true that the world needs to remove ten billion tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere every year but it’s never going to happen for many different reasons: technical, financial, social, environmental, governance, etc. If we don’t reduce CO₂ emissions, we’re screwed. That’s it.
Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn
Saying we need massive CO₂ removal is like saying we need fusion power. We might need them but we ain’t got ‘em.
November 12, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Saying we need massive CO₂ removal is like saying we need fusion power. We might need them but we ain’t got ‘em.
I had a classmate who was completely incapable of understanding the concept of sarcasm in writing but who became a STEM professor. Minds are fascinatingly varied. (Which also shows how silly it is to take IQ scores seriously or to believe that AI is a linear thing that you can just crank up to 11.)
this is a rich text but my favorite part is that despite being presumably good at math, her husband is so illiterate that he cannot read a baby's report card
I think the belief by the powerful that "people will put up with many things if you are excellent at math" is incredibly revealing in terms of understanding How We Got Here
November 12, 2025 at 1:09 AM
I had a classmate who was completely incapable of understanding the concept of sarcasm in writing but who became a STEM professor. Minds are fascinatingly varied. (Which also shows how silly it is to take IQ scores seriously or to believe that AI is a linear thing that you can just crank up to 11.)