Lucy Osler
@lucyosler.bsky.social
Philosopher at University of Exeter, 4e and phenomenological approaches to AI, digital technology, online sociality, emotions, phenomenological psychopathology, feminism. she/they
#philosophy #philsky
www.lucyosler.com | www.projectemote.com
#philosophy #philsky
www.lucyosler.com | www.projectemote.com
Pinned
Lucy Osler
@lucyosler.bsky.social
· Sep 19
AI Psychosis Is Rarely Psychosis at All
A wave of AI users presenting in states of psychological distress gave birth to an unofficial diagnostic label. Experts say it’s neither accurate nor needed, but concede that it’s likely to stay.
www.wired.com
Chatbots are explicitly being designed “to elicit intimacy and emotional engagement in order to increase our trust in and dependency on them” (me in Wired magazine 🤭). This designed intimacy combined with AI sycophancy creates serious risks for delusional thinking
www.wired.com/story/ai-psy...
www.wired.com/story/ai-psy...
Our sense of reality is intimately entwined with our interactions with other people. What happens when those interactions are instead with social AI? See my piece on (so-called) ‘AI-induced psychosis’ in The Conversation
theconversation.com/ai-induced-p...
theconversation.com/ai-induced-p...
AI-induced psychosis: the danger of humans and machines hallucinating together
We’ve always relied on friends and family to confirm our sense of reality. Now we’re increasingly expecting AIs to do it instead.
theconversation.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Our sense of reality is intimately entwined with our interactions with other people. What happens when those interactions are instead with social AI? See my piece on (so-called) ‘AI-induced psychosis’ in The Conversation
theconversation.com/ai-induced-p...
theconversation.com/ai-induced-p...
Reposted by Lucy Osler
✨CFA✨
I’m hosting a workshop on Social AI at the Uni of Exeter, generously funded by the Society of Applied Philosophy (10&11 Feb). If you fancy joining us to present your work, please submit an abstract!
Confirmed speakers: Rob Clowes, Pii Telakivi, Joel Krueger, Tom Roberts, & me. #philsky
I’m hosting a workshop on Social AI at the Uni of Exeter, generously funded by the Society of Applied Philosophy (10&11 Feb). If you fancy joining us to present your work, please submit an abstract!
Confirmed speakers: Rob Clowes, Pii Telakivi, Joel Krueger, Tom Roberts, & me. #philsky
October 28, 2025 at 4:25 PM
✨CFA✨
I’m hosting a workshop on Social AI at the Uni of Exeter, generously funded by the Society of Applied Philosophy (10&11 Feb). If you fancy joining us to present your work, please submit an abstract!
Confirmed speakers: Rob Clowes, Pii Telakivi, Joel Krueger, Tom Roberts, & me. #philsky
I’m hosting a workshop on Social AI at the Uni of Exeter, generously funded by the Society of Applied Philosophy (10&11 Feb). If you fancy joining us to present your work, please submit an abstract!
Confirmed speakers: Rob Clowes, Pii Telakivi, Joel Krueger, Tom Roberts, & me. #philsky
Reposted by Lucy Osler
Three weeks left to submit to our conference in June 2026 -- submit your abstract via this form!
November 10, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Three weeks left to submit to our conference in June 2026 -- submit your abstract via this form!
✨CFA✨
I’m hosting a workshop on Social AI at the Uni of Exeter, generously funded by the Society of Applied Philosophy (10&11 Feb). If you fancy joining us to present your work, please submit an abstract!
Confirmed speakers: Rob Clowes, Pii Telakivi, Joel Krueger, Tom Roberts, & me. #philsky
I’m hosting a workshop on Social AI at the Uni of Exeter, generously funded by the Society of Applied Philosophy (10&11 Feb). If you fancy joining us to present your work, please submit an abstract!
Confirmed speakers: Rob Clowes, Pii Telakivi, Joel Krueger, Tom Roberts, & me. #philsky
October 28, 2025 at 4:25 PM
✨CFA✨
I’m hosting a workshop on Social AI at the Uni of Exeter, generously funded by the Society of Applied Philosophy (10&11 Feb). If you fancy joining us to present your work, please submit an abstract!
Confirmed speakers: Rob Clowes, Pii Telakivi, Joel Krueger, Tom Roberts, & me. #philsky
I’m hosting a workshop on Social AI at the Uni of Exeter, generously funded by the Society of Applied Philosophy (10&11 Feb). If you fancy joining us to present your work, please submit an abstract!
Confirmed speakers: Rob Clowes, Pii Telakivi, Joel Krueger, Tom Roberts, & me. #philsky
Reposted by Lucy Osler
🎈Book launch!
The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy
edited by Jonathan Webber
Wednesday 12 November 2025 : 18:00 - 19:30
Oat & Bean, 26 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3BA
Everyone is welcome! No need to register. Just turn up!
The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy
edited by Jonathan Webber
Wednesday 12 November 2025 : 18:00 - 19:30
Oat & Bean, 26 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3BA
Everyone is welcome! No need to register. Just turn up!
October 26, 2025 at 6:07 PM
🎈Book launch!
The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy
edited by Jonathan Webber
Wednesday 12 November 2025 : 18:00 - 19:30
Oat & Bean, 26 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3BA
Everyone is welcome! No need to register. Just turn up!
The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy
edited by Jonathan Webber
Wednesday 12 November 2025 : 18:00 - 19:30
Oat & Bean, 26 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3BA
Everyone is welcome! No need to register. Just turn up!
Getting packed up for my visit to the Human Abilities Center in Berlin 🤗 among other things, I’ll be running this awesome workshop with Jan Slaby on ‘The Self as a Political Problem’ - check out the amazing speaker list and do sign up if you want to join us (limited spots available) ✨
October 26, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Getting packed up for my visit to the Human Abilities Center in Berlin 🤗 among other things, I’ll be running this awesome workshop with Jan Slaby on ‘The Self as a Political Problem’ - check out the amazing speaker list and do sign up if you want to join us (limited spots available) ✨
Reposted by Lucy Osler
Check out the latest issue from affiliated journal Passion, the SI 'Emotions—More Like Stars or Constellations?', edited by Heidy Meriste and Bruno Mölder (Tartu). The issue asks how to categorize emotions, and how much weight should we put on the study of folk emotion concepts. Open access! /1
October 13, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Check out the latest issue from affiliated journal Passion, the SI 'Emotions—More Like Stars or Constellations?', edited by Heidy Meriste and Bruno Mölder (Tartu). The issue asks how to categorize emotions, and how much weight should we put on the study of folk emotion concepts. Open access! /1
Reposted by Lucy Osler
CrAIC Launch Workshop is a success! 🌟
Our two-day event @exeter.ac.uk was packed full of great presentations and conversations. We're really excited to build on the connections made, grow our network, and push forward this research in Critical AI together.
Quick wrap up of the sessions in thread 🧵
Our two-day event @exeter.ac.uk was packed full of great presentations and conversations. We're really excited to build on the connections made, grow our network, and push forward this research in Critical AI together.
Quick wrap up of the sessions in thread 🧵
October 10, 2025 at 11:08 AM
CrAIC Launch Workshop is a success! 🌟
Our two-day event @exeter.ac.uk was packed full of great presentations and conversations. We're really excited to build on the connections made, grow our network, and push forward this research in Critical AI together.
Quick wrap up of the sessions in thread 🧵
Our two-day event @exeter.ac.uk was packed full of great presentations and conversations. We're really excited to build on the connections made, grow our network, and push forward this research in Critical AI together.
Quick wrap up of the sessions in thread 🧵
Reposted by Lucy Osler
It's been a great first day at the CrAIC launch workshop! 🌟
Two panels, nine speakers, lots of good discussion
You can still sign up for our hybrid roundtable, tomorrow 2pm-3pm BST 👇
www.eventbrite.com/e/the-critic...
Two panels, nine speakers, lots of good discussion
You can still sign up for our hybrid roundtable, tomorrow 2pm-3pm BST 👇
www.eventbrite.com/e/the-critic...
October 7, 2025 at 4:52 PM
It's been a great first day at the CrAIC launch workshop! 🌟
Two panels, nine speakers, lots of good discussion
You can still sign up for our hybrid roundtable, tomorrow 2pm-3pm BST 👇
www.eventbrite.com/e/the-critic...
Two panels, nine speakers, lots of good discussion
You can still sign up for our hybrid roundtable, tomorrow 2pm-3pm BST 👇
www.eventbrite.com/e/the-critic...
Philosophers of emotion, the call for abstracts for EPSSE 2026 is now open! Hosted at Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Southern Germany by our lovely president Imke von Maur on 24-26 June 2026 💕
#philsky
#philsky
PSA 🔈Our call for abstracts for EPSSE 2026 is now open! Our 2026 annual conference will be hosted in Germany by Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt on 24-26 June 2026 💫
Deadline for abstracts on all things philosophy of emotions: 1 December 2025
www.epsse.org/call-for-abs...
Deadline for abstracts on all things philosophy of emotions: 1 December 2025
www.epsse.org/call-for-abs...
Call for Abstracts | EPSSE
www.epsse.org
October 2, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Philosophers of emotion, the call for abstracts for EPSSE 2026 is now open! Hosted at Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Southern Germany by our lovely president Imke von Maur on 24-26 June 2026 💕
#philsky
#philsky
Reposted by Lucy Osler
The British Society of Aesthetics seeks to appoint a paid, part-time Editor for its website, newsletter, and social media. Applicants will be expected to be UK-based postgraduates working in aesthetics.
The deadline for applications is 22 October 2025.
The deadline for applications is 22 October 2025.
Position Available: BSA Website & Social Media Editor - The British Society of Aesthetics
The British Society of Aesthetics seeks to appoint a paid, part-time Editor for its website, newsletter, and social media. DUTIES OF POST WEBSITEThe Editor will be responsible for editing and maintain...
british-aesthetics.org
September 29, 2025 at 7:10 AM
The British Society of Aesthetics seeks to appoint a paid, part-time Editor for its website, newsletter, and social media. Applicants will be expected to be UK-based postgraduates working in aesthetics.
The deadline for applications is 22 October 2025.
The deadline for applications is 22 October 2025.
Reposted by Lucy Osler
Some academic conferences are treasurable spaces to meet new people, get together with old friends and share research with keen students—and this was one of those. Thanks @bexmillar.bsky.social, @lucyosler.bsky.social and staff and students at @cardiffphilosophy.bsky.social! (It was not sad at all)
September 27, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Some academic conferences are treasurable spaces to meet new people, get together with old friends and share research with keen students—and this was one of those. Thanks @bexmillar.bsky.social, @lucyosler.bsky.social and staff and students at @cardiffphilosophy.bsky.social! (It was not sad at all)
Absolute peak academia at our sad philosophy workshop! The cosiest and kindest contemplation of exbots & heartbreak, grief & negative relations, and AI psychosis that you could wish for. Thanks @bexmillar.bsky.social, @lopezcantero.bsky.social & our lovely participants 🖤
hope we can do a part 2 👀
hope we can do a part 2 👀
September 26, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Absolute peak academia at our sad philosophy workshop! The cosiest and kindest contemplation of exbots & heartbreak, grief & negative relations, and AI psychosis that you could wish for. Thanks @bexmillar.bsky.social, @lopezcantero.bsky.social & our lovely participants 🖤
hope we can do a part 2 👀
hope we can do a part 2 👀
Reposted by Lucy Osler
This is today! Please do come along if you're in Cardiff.
#philsky
A Sad Philosophy Workshop
GRIEF, HEARTBREAK, & HALLUCINATIONS
Pilar Lopez-Cantero (Antwerp)
Becky Millar (Cardiff)
Lucy Osler (Exeter)
13:30-17:30, Friday 26 September
1.57 John Percival Building
Cardiff University
Free! All welcome!
Register here: bit.ly/CdfGHH#philsky
A Sad Philosophy Workshop
GRIEF, HEARTBREAK, & HALLUCINATIONS
Pilar Lopez-Cantero (Antwerp)
Becky Millar (Cardiff)
Lucy Osler (Exeter)
13:30-17:30, Friday 26 September
1.57 John Percival Building
Cardiff University
Free! All welcome!
Register here: bit.ly/CdfGHH#philsky
September 26, 2025 at 10:31 AM
This is today! Please do come along if you're in Cardiff.
Reposted by Lucy Osler
Announcing New Welsh Voices in English Literature - a new research series at Swansea!
I wanted to devote some of my @leverhulme.ac.uk trust fellowship to promoting work by other ECRs in Wales.
I'm really looking forward to these two talks this semester, with Bridget Bartlett and Beth Pyner.
I wanted to devote some of my @leverhulme.ac.uk trust fellowship to promoting work by other ECRs in Wales.
I'm really looking forward to these two talks this semester, with Bridget Bartlett and Beth Pyner.
September 24, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Announcing New Welsh Voices in English Literature - a new research series at Swansea!
I wanted to devote some of my @leverhulme.ac.uk trust fellowship to promoting work by other ECRs in Wales.
I'm really looking forward to these two talks this semester, with Bridget Bartlett and Beth Pyner.
I wanted to devote some of my @leverhulme.ac.uk trust fellowship to promoting work by other ECRs in Wales.
I'm really looking forward to these two talks this semester, with Bridget Bartlett and Beth Pyner.
Chatbots are explicitly being designed “to elicit intimacy and emotional engagement in order to increase our trust in and dependency on them” (me in Wired magazine 🤭). This designed intimacy combined with AI sycophancy creates serious risks for delusional thinking
www.wired.com/story/ai-psy...
www.wired.com/story/ai-psy...
AI Psychosis Is Rarely Psychosis at All
A wave of AI users presenting in states of psychological distress gave birth to an unofficial diagnostic label. Experts say it’s neither accurate nor needed, but concede that it’s likely to stay.
www.wired.com
September 19, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Chatbots are explicitly being designed “to elicit intimacy and emotional engagement in order to increase our trust in and dependency on them” (me in Wired magazine 🤭). This designed intimacy combined with AI sycophancy creates serious risks for delusional thinking
www.wired.com/story/ai-psy...
www.wired.com/story/ai-psy...
Thanks to Cardiff for funding our Sad Philosophy Workshop next week with me, @lopezcantero.bsky.social and @bexmillar.bsky.social
We’ll be in the melancholy domains of grief and negative relationships, heartbreak and chatbots, and ai psychosis 🖤 🖤🖤
We’ll be in the melancholy domains of grief and negative relationships, heartbreak and chatbots, and ai psychosis 🖤 🖤🖤
#philsky
A Sad Philosophy Workshop
GRIEF, HEARTBREAK, & HALLUCINATIONS
Pilar Lopez-Cantero (Antwerp)
Becky Millar (Cardiff)
Lucy Osler (Exeter)
13:30-17:30, Friday 26 September
1.57 John Percival Building
Cardiff University
Free! All welcome!
Register here: bit.ly/CdfGHH#philsky
A Sad Philosophy Workshop
GRIEF, HEARTBREAK, & HALLUCINATIONS
Pilar Lopez-Cantero (Antwerp)
Becky Millar (Cardiff)
Lucy Osler (Exeter)
13:30-17:30, Friday 26 September
1.57 John Percival Building
Cardiff University
Free! All welcome!
Register here: bit.ly/CdfGHH#philsky
September 15, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Thanks to Cardiff for funding our Sad Philosophy Workshop next week with me, @lopezcantero.bsky.social and @bexmillar.bsky.social
We’ll be in the melancholy domains of grief and negative relationships, heartbreak and chatbots, and ai psychosis 🖤 🖤🖤
We’ll be in the melancholy domains of grief and negative relationships, heartbreak and chatbots, and ai psychosis 🖤 🖤🖤
Kicking off the third AI and Orientation seminar with the wonderful Chris Durt today 😍 really looking forward to having an international and interdisciplinary nerd out each week www.orientation-philosophy.com/seminars/art...
Artificial Intelligence and Human Orientation
www.orientation-philosophy.com
September 15, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Kicking off the third AI and Orientation seminar with the wonderful Chris Durt today 😍 really looking forward to having an international and interdisciplinary nerd out each week www.orientation-philosophy.com/seminars/art...
🎉 What a lovely way to celebrate my first day at Exeter! This fun conversation with Jim Baxter @ethicsuntangled.bsky.social about a paper my now-colleague @joelkrueger.com and I wrote on AI Gossip is now up!
In the podcast we discuss how AI systems might engage in gossip-like behaviour 🙊
In the podcast we discuss how AI systems might engage in gossip-like behaviour 🙊
Happy September everyone. We're back with a conversation about one of the weirder, more unexpectred and potentially more problematic things that large language models can apparently do - gossip.
www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...
September 1, 2025 at 3:40 PM
🎉 What a lovely way to celebrate my first day at Exeter! This fun conversation with Jim Baxter @ethicsuntangled.bsky.social about a paper my now-colleague @joelkrueger.com and I wrote on AI Gossip is now up!
In the podcast we discuss how AI systems might engage in gossip-like behaviour 🙊
In the podcast we discuss how AI systems might engage in gossip-like behaviour 🙊
Reposted by Lucy Osler
Excited to share "Religious Freedom and Meaning Vertigo: A Social Imaginaries Analysis of ‘The Persecuted Faithful’ in The Australian’s Op-Eds" forthcoming in For, Against, Together: Antagonistic Political Emotions edited by the brilliant @lucyosler.bsky.social & Thomas Szanto
tinyurl.com/374skfza
tinyurl.com/374skfza
Religious Freedom and Meaning Vertigo: A Social Imaginaries Analysis of ‘The Persecuted Faithful’ in The Australian’s Op-Eds
In Australia, divisive debate on the matter of religious freedom has come to the fore following the introduction of marriage equality in 2017 and increasing protections against trans and gender divers...
tinyurl.com
August 28, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Excited to share "Religious Freedom and Meaning Vertigo: A Social Imaginaries Analysis of ‘The Persecuted Faithful’ in The Australian’s Op-Eds" forthcoming in For, Against, Together: Antagonistic Political Emotions edited by the brilliant @lucyosler.bsky.social & Thomas Szanto
tinyurl.com/374skfza
tinyurl.com/374skfza
Big move on the horizon and feeling far too emotional to clean my “offloading all my tasks to try and concretise my sense of identity and achievement” whiteboard 🫣
August 20, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Big move on the horizon and feeling far too emotional to clean my “offloading all my tasks to try and concretise my sense of identity and achievement” whiteboard 🫣
Reposted by Lucy Osler
✨Congratulations to our doctoral student Thom Hamer ✨
whose paper
✨ 'A Case for Contingent Absurdity' ✨
has just been published in
✨ European Journal of Philosophy ✨
Llongyfarchiadau, Thom! Gefeliciteerd!
whose paper
✨ 'A Case for Contingent Absurdity' ✨
has just been published in
✨ European Journal of Philosophy ✨
Llongyfarchiadau, Thom! Gefeliciteerd!
A Case for Contingent Absurdity
A popular view on existential absurdity holds that if life is absurd, it must be inescapably so. In opposition to this view, I argue that the concept of existential absurdity allows for life to be co...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 19, 2025 at 8:26 AM
✨Congratulations to our doctoral student Thom Hamer ✨
whose paper
✨ 'A Case for Contingent Absurdity' ✨
has just been published in
✨ European Journal of Philosophy ✨
Llongyfarchiadau, Thom! Gefeliciteerd!
whose paper
✨ 'A Case for Contingent Absurdity' ✨
has just been published in
✨ European Journal of Philosophy ✨
Llongyfarchiadau, Thom! Gefeliciteerd!
Reposted by Lucy Osler
In June, Kathleen Murphy-Hollies hosted a workshop on conspiracy theory and story telling at the University of Birmingham, featuring five exciting academics working on the topic. Today's post presents a brief summary of each of their talks.
#philsky #philpsy
#philsky #philpsy
Conspiracy Theories and Storytelling
A blog about imperfect cognitions, such as delusional beliefs, distorted memories, confabulatory explanations, and implicit biases.
imperfectcognitions.blogspot.com
August 14, 2025 at 7:00 AM
new heights of virtuous procrastination today: uncalled for gantt charting
August 11, 2025 at 10:42 AM
new heights of virtuous procrastination today: uncalled for gantt charting