Liam Hogan
@liamhogan.bsky.social
Librarian & Historian. Twitter migrant.
Researching Slavery - Memory - Power.
Blog > https://medium.com/@Limerick1914/
hcommons > https://hcommons.org/members/liamhogan/
Researching Slavery - Memory - Power.
Blog > https://medium.com/@Limerick1914/
hcommons > https://hcommons.org/members/liamhogan/
Pinned
Liam Hogan
@liamhogan.bsky.social
· May 29
Can’t help but feel that we are living in an era of overwhelming anti-intellectualism on every front, with AI being the corporate vanguard of this cultural emptiness.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
Rebuttal to John Collison's highly contested Irish Times “sermon to the nation", by lawyer @andrewlrjackson.bsky.social. A fact-check pushing back on the tech-optimist, deregulation-first vision - defending environmental law, democratic oversight & evidence-based planning elajucd.com/2025/11/21/o...
On Environmental Democracy and the Collisons’ “Abundance-Verse”
Andrew Jackson 21 November 2025 I. Introduction A clamour of praise greeted John Collison’s “how to get Ireland moving” Op-Ed following its publication in the Irish Times on 25th October: the Irish…
elajucd.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Rebuttal to John Collison's highly contested Irish Times “sermon to the nation", by lawyer @andrewlrjackson.bsky.social. A fact-check pushing back on the tech-optimist, deregulation-first vision - defending environmental law, democratic oversight & evidence-based planning elajucd.com/2025/11/21/o...
Reposted by Liam Hogan
New data shows just £1.5 million was given to councils in England in the past year to tackle air pollution – down from a high of £225 million in 2021 @bylinetimes.bsky.social
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/21/t...
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/21/t...
The Government Has Cut Air Pollution Funds to Councils by 99% as Illegal Levels of Pollution Shorten Lives
New data shows just £1.5 million was given to councils in England in the past year to tackle air pollution - down from a high of £225 million in 2021
bylinetimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:02 PM
New data shows just £1.5 million was given to councils in England in the past year to tackle air pollution – down from a high of £225 million in 2021 @bylinetimes.bsky.social
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/21/t...
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/21/t...
Reposted by Liam Hogan
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
A masked national secret police force using a mix of physiognomy and face scans to more efficiently kidnap children is the kind of nightmare situation Nathan Bedford Forrest might have dreamt up if he somehow had had access to the novels of WIlliam Gibson and Octavia Butler.
ICE is using a new app called Mobile Fortify to scan people's faces and determine their immigration status.
The government's use of biased, unreliable facial recognition tech to supercharge its mass deportation campaign endangers all of our rights.
The government's use of biased, unreliable facial recognition tech to supercharge its mass deportation campaign endangers all of our rights.
Face Recognition and the ‘Trump Terror’: A Marriage Made in Hell | ACLU
ICE and CBP are smashing their way not only through car windows but also through any constraints on the use of face recognition
www.aclu.org
November 19, 2025 at 5:22 AM
A masked national secret police force using a mix of physiognomy and face scans to more efficiently kidnap children is the kind of nightmare situation Nathan Bedford Forrest might have dreamt up if he somehow had had access to the novels of WIlliam Gibson and Octavia Butler.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
Well, it's a little clearer now why billionaires are so invested in technology that produces better written emails.
November 12, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Well, it's a little clearer now why billionaires are so invested in technology that produces better written emails.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
every company in 2025
November 12, 2025 at 5:59 PM
every company in 2025
Reposted by Liam Hogan
If you missed Hiram Morgan's talk on 'Anatomies of death: force famine in the Tudor conquest of Ireland', an recording is now available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hAI...
Irish Studies Seminar: Hiram Morgan
YouTube video by QUB Irish Studies
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:21 PM
If you missed Hiram Morgan's talk on 'Anatomies of death: force famine in the Tudor conquest of Ireland', an recording is now available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hAI...
The private ownership claim to Lough Neagh (Loch nEathach) originates with Sir Arthur Chichester, English commander during the Nine Years’ War and one of the architects of the Plantation of Ulster. There was even an attempt by colonists to rename the lake ‘Lough Chichester’.
“Main cause is an overload of phosphorus & nitrogen from agriculture, including farm runoff, fertilisers & animal waste”.
The price of our current model of industrial farming is the death of nature. Is that *really* a price worth paying?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
The price of our current model of industrial farming is the death of nature. Is that *really* a price worth paying?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
‘It’s dying in front of our eyes’: how the UK’s largest lake became an ecological disaster
Signs tout a natural paradise, but pollution from over-farming has left Northern Ireland’s Lough Neagh choked by toxic algae
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:38 AM
The private ownership claim to Lough Neagh (Loch nEathach) originates with Sir Arthur Chichester, English commander during the Nine Years’ War and one of the architects of the Plantation of Ulster. There was even an attempt by colonists to rename the lake ‘Lough Chichester’.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
The far right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Musk keeps posting about "hobbits" because modern scientific racism owes more to fantasy worlds and gaming systems than genetic science, and they see both as effective mediums for right-wing propaganda www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Why Elon Musk Needs Dungeons and Dragons to Be Racist
The fantastical roots of “scientific racism”
www.theatlantic.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:42 PM
The far right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Musk keeps posting about "hobbits" because modern scientific racism owes more to fantasy worlds and gaming systems than genetic science, and they see both as effective mediums for right-wing propaganda www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Liam Hogan
Excellent paper on Digital Skills Development which as a by-product highlights the amount of digital support library workers are doing.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Rethinking digital skills in the era of compulsory computing: methods, measurement, policy and theory
Around the world, digital platforms have become the first – or only – option for many everyday activities. The United Kingdom, for instance, is implementing a ‘digital-by-default’ e-government agen...
www.tandfonline.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Excellent paper on Digital Skills Development which as a by-product highlights the amount of digital support library workers are doing.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
It’s difficult to underestimate the extra burden that this is placing on our public libraries. For example, on a daily basis library workers are now filling the in-person/human service gap that billion euro banking institutions have abdicated from to maximise their profit margins.
"Essential services are now digital by default, leaving many older people feeling locked out of their own lives."
As more of our lives move online by default, digital ageism has quietly become one of the last unchallenged prejudices, writes Fiona Daly.
jrnl.ie/6864189
As more of our lives move online by default, digital ageism has quietly become one of the last unchallenged prejudices, writes Fiona Daly.
jrnl.ie/6864189
Opinion: We’ve grown far too comfortable excluding older people from the digital world
As more of our lives move online by default, digital ageism has quietly become one of the last unchallenged prejudices, writes Fiona Daly.
jrnl.ie
November 11, 2025 at 8:40 AM
It’s difficult to underestimate the extra burden that this is placing on our public libraries. For example, on a daily basis library workers are now filling the in-person/human service gap that billion euro banking institutions have abdicated from to maximise their profit margins.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
A bit of good news: I think you'd all be pleasantly surprised by how resistant the undergrads are becoming to AI. Institutions have lost their minds on this front, but more and more the students themselves are saying "no" to this horribly corrosive technology.
November 8, 2025 at 7:37 PM
A bit of good news: I think you'd all be pleasantly surprised by how resistant the undergrads are becoming to AI. Institutions have lost their minds on this front, but more and more the students themselves are saying "no" to this horribly corrosive technology.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
"Relying on LLMs for literature summaries without independent verification could lead to the unknowing citation and perpetuation of false information."
#AcWri #SciComm
#AcWri #SciComm
ChatGPT is blind to bad science - Impact of Social Sciences
A new study finds ChatGPT fails to take into account retraction notices across a wide range of research.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
October 26, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Liam Hogan
Yet again, we can't afford to let LLMs become a source of epistemic grounding for society.
Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory
An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC
www.bbc.co.uk
October 24, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Yet again, we can't afford to let LLMs become a source of epistemic grounding for society.
I’m very late to this but I tried to watch House of Guinness and found it almost impossible to finish the first episode. A Temple Bar fever dream as period drama.
October 19, 2025 at 9:19 PM
I’m very late to this but I tried to watch House of Guinness and found it almost impossible to finish the first episode. A Temple Bar fever dream as period drama.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
every single tech idea is like “soon our robots will be capable of playing catch with your kid, freeing you up to spend more time working on your employers’ spreadsheets”
October 11, 2025 at 2:07 PM
every single tech idea is like “soon our robots will be capable of playing catch with your kid, freeing you up to spend more time working on your employers’ spreadsheets”
Reposted by Liam Hogan
The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”
OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT
GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.
www.theverge.com
October 11, 2025 at 12:02 PM
The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”
Reposted by Liam Hogan
One curious thing on this site about speaking out against the encroachment of LLMs is that inevitably you get accused of being anti-tech. I don’t hate technology. I’ve used machine learning in my own code before. But I also recognize that oligarchs are so hellbent on pushing this tech for a reason.
October 10, 2025 at 3:52 AM
One curious thing on this site about speaking out against the encroachment of LLMs is that inevitably you get accused of being anti-tech. I don’t hate technology. I’ve used machine learning in my own code before. But I also recognize that oligarchs are so hellbent on pushing this tech for a reason.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
Guardian investigation into Facebook groups with 600k members in which the kind of extreme dehumanising language that socialises racist violence is rife. Facebook has become more permissive towards extreme content in the last year.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
Far-right Facebook groups are engine of radicalisation in UK, data investigation suggests
Rioters were influenced by network that exposes hundreds of thousands of Britons to racist disinformation, Guardian research indicates
www.theguardian.com
September 28, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Guardian investigation into Facebook groups with 600k members in which the kind of extreme dehumanising language that socialises racist violence is rife. Facebook has become more permissive towards extreme content in the last year.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
Reposted by Liam Hogan
“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.
September 28, 2025 at 1:38 AM
“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
It is, far and away, the most challenging thing I’ve encountered since entering the academy. And that is saying a lot. I might be working on this but I keep putting it aside because I’m not medicated enough to describe how demoralizing it all is.
We have allowed the lazy, grifting Silicon Valley charlatans into the front door, & in doing so, we have learned just how many of our own colleagues & administrators simply are not interested in the actual business of education. It's incredibly demoralizing.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Thanks so much for your reporting on this, Ben. I just got an email from my campus's IT office triumphantly advertising free student access to four different AI models -- at the same time as we have a hiring freeze, caps on grad enrollment, and a 7% budget cut -- and wanted to scream.
September 27, 2025 at 9:29 PM
It is, far and away, the most challenging thing I’ve encountered since entering the academy. And that is saying a lot. I might be working on this but I keep putting it aside because I’m not medicated enough to describe how demoralizing it all is.
Reposted by Liam Hogan
Alice Walker said, “When we find our place, we know. Everything else can seem a distraction. We settle in to enjoy the beauty of Life itself.”
September 25, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Alice Walker said, “When we find our place, we know. Everything else can seem a distraction. We settle in to enjoy the beauty of Life itself.”
Reposted by Liam Hogan
NEW
WIRED led the way in reporting on Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle the US government. My colleagues and I spoke to 100s of employees at dozens of agencies to understand what happened.
This is the definitive story of DOGE as told by those who experienced it
www.wired.com/story/oral-h...
WIRED led the way in reporting on Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle the US government. My colleagues and I spoke to 100s of employees at dozens of agencies to understand what happened.
This is the definitive story of DOGE as told by those who experienced it
www.wired.com/story/oral-h...
The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers
WIRED spoke with more than 200 federal workers in dozens of agencies to learn what happened as the Department of Government Efficiency tore through their offices.
www.wired.com
September 25, 2025 at 11:22 AM
NEW
WIRED led the way in reporting on Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle the US government. My colleagues and I spoke to 100s of employees at dozens of agencies to understand what happened.
This is the definitive story of DOGE as told by those who experienced it
www.wired.com/story/oral-h...
WIRED led the way in reporting on Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle the US government. My colleagues and I spoke to 100s of employees at dozens of agencies to understand what happened.
This is the definitive story of DOGE as told by those who experienced it
www.wired.com/story/oral-h...
Reposted by Liam Hogan
More on the failures/erasures that ai chatbots introduce into library search tools aarontay.substack.com/p/the-ai-pow...
The AI powered Library Search That Refused to Search
From Clarivate's Summon to Primo Research Assistant, content‑moderation layers meant mostly for chatbots are "quietly" blocking controversial topics from being searched
aarontay.substack.com
September 24, 2025 at 5:17 PM
More on the failures/erasures that ai chatbots introduce into library search tools aarontay.substack.com/p/the-ai-pow...
Reposted by Liam Hogan
I really hope there's a correction on it saying why they edited the story. It was the right thing to do, obviously, but accountability for harmful writings is the right thing too.
politico has now edited their story to eliminate references to “the autism problem” and deleted their bsky post about it
someone got caught
someone got caught
September 23, 2025 at 9:31 PM
I really hope there's a correction on it saying why they edited the story. It was the right thing to do, obviously, but accountability for harmful writings is the right thing too.