Melanie I Stefan
@melanieistefan.bsky.social
Computational Neurobiologist at Medical School Berlin. Poster child of failure. She/her
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
I assign an UnEssay to my students as a fun way to end the semester, so they can show what they've learned in the class and show off their creative talents. This year I had students turn in AI SLOP. FOR THE FUN CREATIVE ASSIGNMENT! They're so steeped in AI hype that they're outsourcing FUN itself.
December 5, 2025 at 2:47 PM
I assign an UnEssay to my students as a fun way to end the semester, so they can show what they've learned in the class and show off their creative talents. This year I had students turn in AI SLOP. FOR THE FUN CREATIVE ASSIGNMENT! They're so steeped in AI hype that they're outsourcing FUN itself.
Is there any university that has made a thoughtful, ethical and critical approach to AI one of their core values? That is deliberately not falling for the hype, and instead placing a premium on human creativity and thought? I feel like this could be a real USP these days, and also please hire me!
December 3, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Is there any university that has made a thoughtful, ethical and critical approach to AI one of their core values? That is deliberately not falling for the hype, and instead placing a premium on human creativity and thought? I feel like this could be a real USP these days, and also please hire me!
Day 1 of #marcothon : Went out for an early run, felt super smug, then later in the day promptly came down with a cold and started coughing like a chain smoker. There will be no day 2. Please congratulate me on my [checks notes] one-day running streak.
December 2, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Day 1 of #marcothon : Went out for an early run, felt super smug, then later in the day promptly came down with a cold and started coughing like a chain smoker. There will be no day 2. Please congratulate me on my [checks notes] one-day running streak.
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
Intuit is integrating ChatGPT into their TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, & Mailchimp services, & vice versa. Which is to say, I think a SHIT TON of people are about to get audited.
They also claiming no bleedover btwn your financial data & ChatGPT, which… okayy… 😬
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/i...
They also claiming no bleedover btwn your financial data & ChatGPT, which… okayy… 😬
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/i...
November 19, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Intuit is integrating ChatGPT into their TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, & Mailchimp services, & vice versa. Which is to say, I think a SHIT TON of people are about to get audited.
They also claiming no bleedover btwn your financial data & ChatGPT, which… okayy… 😬
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/i...
They also claiming no bleedover btwn your financial data & ChatGPT, which… okayy… 😬
www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/i...
Customer support AI bots are their own circle of hell. This particular one just suggested I contact customer support.
November 10, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Customer support AI bots are their own circle of hell. This particular one just suggested I contact customer support.
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments
“People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”
www.vox.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
The amount of AI generated art in slides at this conference, primarily used by older scientists, is killing me. Scientists please. Don’t use these ai platforms to make your figures or slides. They look bad and I have yet to see them meaningfully improve the message of talks.
October 31, 2025 at 3:09 AM
The amount of AI generated art in slides at this conference, primarily used by older scientists, is killing me. Scientists please. Don’t use these ai platforms to make your figures or slides. They look bad and I have yet to see them meaningfully improve the message of talks.
A little thread on how the crisis around GenAI in academia is also a crisis of confidence, and it makes me quite sad. [1/n]
October 29, 2025 at 9:03 AM
A little thread on how the crisis around GenAI in academia is also a crisis of confidence, and it makes me quite sad. [1/n]
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
@umich.edu faculty call for an honorary degree for Trump
“We have proven that we have no hard moral principles and no hill on which we will die.”
www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...
“We have proven that we have no hard moral principles and no hill on which we will die.”
www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...
Why Trump would be perfect for an honorary U-M doctoral degree
Awarding Trump an honorary doctoral degree would be an opportunity to recognize the long way the University has walked in less than two years. U-M juniors may still remember times when the campus code...
www.michigandaily.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
@umich.edu faculty call for an honorary degree for Trump
“We have proven that we have no hard moral principles and no hill on which we will die.”
www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...
“We have proven that we have no hard moral principles and no hill on which we will die.”
www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
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.
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
Ich finde auch, dass wir den Umgang mit der AfD normalisieren sollten: Normal im Sinne des Grundgesetzes wäre es, ein Verbotsverfahren gegen diese Partei einzuleiten. Das wäre die Normalität, die wir brauchen!
October 17, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Ich finde auch, dass wir den Umgang mit der AfD normalisieren sollten: Normal im Sinne des Grundgesetzes wäre es, ein Verbotsverfahren gegen diese Partei einzuleiten. Das wäre die Normalität, die wir brauchen!
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
2021, MSFT claimed a Teams app could read emotional affect & I's like "holy shit this will fuck over so many Black & autistic & otherwise neurodivergent & women & non-binary ppl & ppl w/ chronic pain & … like Everybody at any of those intersections."
This PainChek thing is that, but a doctors' tool
This PainChek thing is that, but a doctors' tool
October 16, 2025 at 12:15 AM
2021, MSFT claimed a Teams app could read emotional affect & I's like "holy shit this will fuck over so many Black & autistic & otherwise neurodivergent & women & non-binary ppl & ppl w/ chronic pain & … like Everybody at any of those intersections."
This PainChek thing is that, but a doctors' tool
This PainChek thing is that, but a doctors' tool
Einer von diesen Tagen wo man dem Wecker antwortet mit „Ja eh.“
October 14, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Einer von diesen Tagen wo man dem Wecker antwortet mit „Ja eh.“
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
It's hard to help Americans left behind because so much of US identity is rooted in individualism. The average American conservative holds all three positions at once:
— Virtue signals about supporting US manufacturing
— Against raising the minimum wage
— Buys foreign imports because they're cheap
— Virtue signals about supporting US manufacturing
— Against raising the minimum wage
— Buys foreign imports because they're cheap
October 12, 2025 at 9:38 PM
It's hard to help Americans left behind because so much of US identity is rooted in individualism. The average American conservative holds all three positions at once:
— Virtue signals about supporting US manufacturing
— Against raising the minimum wage
— Buys foreign imports because they're cheap
— Virtue signals about supporting US manufacturing
— Against raising the minimum wage
— Buys foreign imports because they're cheap
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
CLD isn't alone in this respect - there's many dubious conditions for which charlatans push expensive therapies; Adrenal Fatigue, Toxic Mould, Electromagnetic hypersensitivity. While patients might find label comforting, false diagnosis exploits them and may delay real treatment..
October 6, 2025 at 5:02 PM
CLD isn't alone in this respect - there's many dubious conditions for which charlatans push expensive therapies; Adrenal Fatigue, Toxic Mould, Electromagnetic hypersensitivity. While patients might find label comforting, false diagnosis exploits them and may delay real treatment..
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
I would genuinely like us to build a better, more compassionate, consent-oriented, marginalized-peoples-centered, & just technosocial paradigm of "AI," & for "AI"'s current paradigm to fuck right off into the sun, reduced to its component subaatomic particles, & lost even to the mind of god. Thanks!
September 2, 2024 at 9:02 PM
I would genuinely like us to build a better, more compassionate, consent-oriented, marginalized-peoples-centered, & just technosocial paradigm of "AI," & for "AI"'s current paradigm to fuck right off into the sun, reduced to its component subaatomic particles, & lost even to the mind of god. Thanks!
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
Glasgow Gender Clinic now has a waiting time of 224 years. The average across the UK is now 25 years.
This segregated system isn’t working and is wasting millions. The NHS has been told time and again - informed consent now.
This segregated system isn’t working and is wasting millions. The NHS has been told time and again - informed consent now.
This amazing article from @vic-parsons.bsky.social via @wearequeeraf.com shows the absolute criminal state of trans healthcare in the UK.
Scotland has a 224 year wait for a first appointment. Yes, you read that right.
www.wearequeeraf.com/gender-clini...
Scotland has a 224 year wait for a first appointment. Yes, you read that right.
www.wearequeeraf.com/gender-clini...
Latest waiting times for gender identity clinics in the UK
Revealed waiting times of all GICs in UK: Most Trans+ people in the UK will wait more than a third of their adult life to get an appointment, and some will never receive care
www.wearequeeraf.com
October 4, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Glasgow Gender Clinic now has a waiting time of 224 years. The average across the UK is now 25 years.
This segregated system isn’t working and is wasting millions. The NHS has been told time and again - informed consent now.
This segregated system isn’t working and is wasting millions. The NHS has been told time and again - informed consent now.
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
I’d very much prefer if people only collected data if there was a real chance that it leads to more insights, as opposed to more publishable units.
October 1, 2025 at 4:23 AM
I’d very much prefer if people only collected data if there was a real chance that it leads to more insights, as opposed to more publishable units.
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
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 8:42 PM
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...
When a former student messages you to excitedly share things they are learning in their current course 🥰
September 26, 2025 at 9:05 PM
When a former student messages you to excitedly share things they are learning in their current course 🥰
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
It looks like Dinosaur Field Station of NJ is closing and selling their Dino sculptures
September 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
It looks like Dinosaur Field Station of NJ is closing and selling their Dino sculptures
I am hesitant to participate in the Tylenol discourse, even to say that there is no truth to the claim, because I fear that by repeatedly using both words in a sentence, the only thing most people will remember is that there was some kind of connection.
September 23, 2025 at 5:46 AM
I am hesitant to participate in the Tylenol discourse, even to say that there is no truth to the claim, because I fear that by repeatedly using both words in a sentence, the only thing most people will remember is that there was some kind of connection.
Reposted by Melanie I Stefan
Die Trump-Regierung hat also einen neuen Schuldigen für Autismus gefunden: Paracetamol in der Schwangerschaft. Das ist wissenschaftlich nicht haltbar. Aber es passt perfekt ins Konzept: Autismus ist ein Fehler der Frauen. Die sollen gefälligst Schmerzen erdulden, statt Schmerzmittel zu nehmen.
September 22, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Die Trump-Regierung hat also einen neuen Schuldigen für Autismus gefunden: Paracetamol in der Schwangerschaft. Das ist wissenschaftlich nicht haltbar. Aber es passt perfekt ins Konzept: Autismus ist ein Fehler der Frauen. Die sollen gefälligst Schmerzen erdulden, statt Schmerzmittel zu nehmen.