Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
@olivia.science
https://olivia.science
assistant professor of computational cognitive science · she/they · cypriot/kıbrıslı/κυπραία · σὺν Ἀθηνᾷ καὶ χεῖρα κίνει
assistant professor of computational cognitive science · she/they · cypriot/kıbrıslı/κυπραία · σὺν Ἀθηνᾷ καὶ χεῖρα κίνει
Reposted by Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
useful is a red herring tho for a lot of stuff bsky.app/profile/oliv...
From the moment we know a technology steals/obfuscates people's labour to perform task X, it matters 0 how effective the people's labour you steal to do X is. They will likely get better at X over time and you will get better at stealing. Nothing of this justifies the theft. bsky.app/profile/oliv...
February 10, 2026 at 5:50 PM
useful is a red herring tho for a lot of stuff bsky.app/profile/oliv...
Reposted by Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
without context this looks severely impish lmao bsky.app/profile/oliv...
Buy a physical book and remove the cover. Vandalism like mess is acceptable when it's for good 🥰
February 10, 2026 at 2:28 PM
without context this looks severely impish lmao bsky.app/profile/oliv...
Reposted by Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
an LLM is effectively hijacking those cues.
people *feel* like it's listening.
it is not listening; it is a statistical word model.
people *feel* like it's paying attention.
it is not paying attention; it has no attention to pay.
it tricks them into trusting the output
people *feel* like it's listening.
it is not listening; it is a statistical word model.
people *feel* like it's paying attention.
it is not paying attention; it has no attention to pay.
it tricks them into trusting the output
February 10, 2026 at 5:24 PM
an LLM is effectively hijacking those cues.
people *feel* like it's listening.
it is not listening; it is a statistical word model.
people *feel* like it's paying attention.
it is not paying attention; it has no attention to pay.
it tricks them into trusting the output
people *feel* like it's listening.
it is not listening; it is a statistical word model.
people *feel* like it's paying attention.
it is not paying attention; it has no attention to pay.
it tricks them into trusting the output
Reposted by Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
the thing about not shaming and being patient is that in a human interaction, those are cues
they tell you somebody is paying attention to you, really listening, trying to understand with an open mind what you're experiencing.
those things are good because they are *indicators* of a good thing
they tell you somebody is paying attention to you, really listening, trying to understand with an open mind what you're experiencing.
those things are good because they are *indicators* of a good thing
February 10, 2026 at 5:24 PM
the thing about not shaming and being patient is that in a human interaction, those are cues
they tell you somebody is paying attention to you, really listening, trying to understand with an open mind what you're experiencing.
those things are good because they are *indicators* of a good thing
they tell you somebody is paying attention to you, really listening, trying to understand with an open mind what you're experiencing.
those things are good because they are *indicators* of a good thing
Reposted by Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
I’ve tackle the fantasy aspect in a number of pubs but most recently in my piece here, which might be of interest to your followers. www.artforum.com/features/gen...
MACHINE YEARNING
Sonja Drimmer critically examines art historians’ recent embrace of generative AI as a tool for humanities research.
www.artforum.com
February 10, 2026 at 2:56 PM
I’ve tackle the fantasy aspect in a number of pubs but most recently in my piece here, which might be of interest to your followers. www.artforum.com/features/gen...
yup, the arguments here are so scary, some below bsky.app/profile/oliv...
Fifth, the equivocation of human-human & human-AI relationships; a slip that is so ubiquitous that most seem to ignore it, but it's harmful and even probably illegal or against codes of conduct in many settings that involve professional psychologists. See section 7: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
9/
9/
![These problematic beliefs exist on a spectrum, from the assumption that AI products can help in mental health (e.g. Dehbozorgi et al., 2025; Siddals et al., 2024; Wellcome, 2025) to the
assertion that a chatbot can be a therapist (Kilgore, 2025), which
is a regulated profession (e.g. European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations, 2025) with codes of ethics (e.g. American Psychological Association, 2017; British Psychological Society, 2021).
Proponents of these beliefs use the guise of labour shortages and
the global mental health crisis (Kaplan, 2024), as cover to deskill
(for an alarming case, see Budzyń et al., 2025; also Akingbola et
al., 2024; Lebovitz et al., 2021), contributing to the polycrises the
technology industry and their allies uniquely profit from (McConnell & Jacobs, 2025).
All AI, and indeed any technology in mental or other healthcare settings requires “keeping users safe [and this in turn] requires substantial input from clinicians and careful planning to
reduce risk.” (Abrams, 2025) This is key because it is not possible to keep people safe without a highly qualified human-in-theloop (Amironesei et al., 2021; El-Mhamdi et al., 2022; T. Liu et
al., 2025; Salecha et al., 2024; Sharma et al., 2025; Weidinger et al.,
2022) and even then the risk of deskilling is present (e.g. Budzyń
et al., 2025; recall section 4: Outsourcing Programming to Companies). Relatedly, and taking the example of the therapist-client
relationship, dehumanising parallels encoded in expressions such
as: “the country needs all the quality therapists we can get —
be they human or bot” (Riddle, 2025) cannot become normal
in our scientific discussions. No therapist under proper ethical
functioning would cause their client to be addicted to their therapy (Huntington, 2025) nor would they, as in the Replika example (The Luddite, 2024), introduce a sexual relationship between
them and their client (Pettit, 2024b). Any such suggestions to
use a chatbot as a therapist would go aga…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vsyj5jtayxcq5dw5mtja4xtb/bafkreigr3wk3yvqjp5vxuc3esobfssy64gnx2xhlkxe4ahac27gxlri6p4@jpeg)
February 10, 2026 at 5:54 PM
yup, the arguments here are so scary, some below bsky.app/profile/oliv...
Reposted by Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
but an LLM is neither a community nor a connection to another human being so it cannot offer that value
February 10, 2026 at 5:33 PM
but an LLM is neither a community nor a connection to another human being so it cannot offer that value
Reposted by Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
you're describing the pernicious sycophancy of llms here as a good thing
February 10, 2026 at 5:29 PM
you're describing the pernicious sycophancy of llms here as a good thing
Reposted by Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
it is using the cues we associate with trustworthy humans to make them think the model is trustworthy
but those cues do not mean the same thing because the language model is not a person.
and the advice is often dangerously incoherent
but those cues do not mean the same thing because the language model is not a person.
and the advice is often dangerously incoherent
My mom and Dr. DeepSeek
In China and around the world, the sick and lonely turn to AI.
restofworld.org
February 10, 2026 at 5:28 PM
it is using the cues we associate with trustworthy humans to make them think the model is trustworthy
but those cues do not mean the same thing because the language model is not a person.
and the advice is often dangerously incoherent
but those cues do not mean the same thing because the language model is not a person.
and the advice is often dangerously incoherent
useful is a red herring tho for a lot of stuff bsky.app/profile/oliv...
From the moment we know a technology steals/obfuscates people's labour to perform task X, it matters 0 how effective the people's labour you steal to do X is. They will likely get better at X over time and you will get better at stealing. Nothing of this justifies the theft. bsky.app/profile/oliv...
February 10, 2026 at 5:50 PM
useful is a red herring tho for a lot of stuff bsky.app/profile/oliv...
grok vapor siemens
February 10, 2026 at 5:49 PM
grok vapor siemens
Reposted by Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ
or rock vapor scissors
February 10, 2026 at 5:43 PM
or rock vapor scissors