Dr Pen
@penworks.bsky.social
Londoner in Malta. Technology & media in society academic. UX, TEL, webdev OS CMS. OS advocate. Emeritus rocknroller. Luddite.
Mostly on Masto, follow me there from here with Bridgy Fed. @DrPen.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Website: https://penworks.net
Mostly on Masto, follow me there from here with Bridgy Fed. @DrPen.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Website: https://penworks.net
Pinned
Dr Pen
@penworks.bsky.social
· Feb 11
The Knowledge Web Problem | penworks.net
There is a huge problem rapidly approaching on the horizon of data society: the authenticity and custodianship of the Knowledge Web. This has been...
penworks.net
A theme that many now discuss: the quality of information on the knowledge web. I first wrote about this on my blog back in June 2023. (I discuss it as part of 2 subsequent academic papers.)
#genai #fakenews #misinformation #knowledgecommons https://penworks.net/blog/the-knowledge-web-problem
#genai #fakenews #misinformation #knowledgecommons https://penworks.net/blog/the-knowledge-web-problem
Reposted by Dr Pen
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
www.ru.nl
November 1, 2025 at 10:26 PM
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
Reposted by Dr Pen
The consequences of the recent GEMA vs. OpenAI decision will be very interesting for "coding agents" and the sources they vomit out. Cause a lot of the code their developers accumulated is GPL-licensed.
November 12, 2025 at 12:38 PM
The consequences of the recent GEMA vs. OpenAI decision will be very interesting for "coding agents" and the sources they vomit out. Cause a lot of the code their developers accumulated is GPL-licensed.
Reposted by Dr Pen
Reposted by Dr Pen
My paper about using the fediverse to support urban memory just got cited by an Argentinian university conf paper! Yey! The fediverse is popular in south American countries because its sovereign apps and data.
Every citation counts!
#citations #academia #academicchatter
Every citation counts!
#citations #academia #academicchatter
November 12, 2025 at 2:44 PM
My paper about using the fediverse to support urban memory just got cited by an Argentinian university conf paper! Yey! The fediverse is popular in south American countries because its sovereign apps and data.
Every citation counts!
#citations #academia #academicchatter
Every citation counts!
#citations #academia #academicchatter
Reposted by Dr Pen
German music industry wins a case against OpenAI for unpermissioned and unremunerated use of song lyrics: www.reuters.com/world/german...
Only relevant song lyrics in the comments, please 🥁🎼
Only relevant song lyrics in the comments, please 🥁🎼
www.reuters.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:07 PM
German music industry wins a case against OpenAI for unpermissioned and unremunerated use of song lyrics: www.reuters.com/world/german...
Only relevant song lyrics in the comments, please 🥁🎼
Only relevant song lyrics in the comments, please 🥁🎼
Reposted by Dr Pen
For years, advertising has been how Stereogum made money to pay its writers. While we made progress moving away from that model, Google AI search has decimated the business almost overnight. Today we relaunch with a greater focus on subscription. We’d love your support: stereogum.com/2478838/ster...
November 10, 2025 at 11:40 PM
For years, advertising has been how Stereogum made money to pay its writers. While we made progress moving away from that model, Google AI search has decimated the business almost overnight. Today we relaunch with a greater focus on subscription. We’d love your support: stereogum.com/2478838/ster...
Reposted by Dr Pen
Palantir update via www.wired.com/story/alex-k...
November 11, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Palantir update via www.wired.com/story/alex-k...
Reposted by Dr Pen
A treaty for copyright exceptions for education, research and archives is on the WIPO agenda (standing committee on copyright and related rights) first week of Dec. I fear it’s a trojan horse for AI exceptions. Opposition voices from gov’ts and official ed observers such as www.ei-ie.org/en needed.
Education International
We are the voice of teachers and education workers around the world.Through our 386 member organizations, we represent more than 32.5 million teachers and education support personnel in 178 countries ...
www.ei-ie.org
November 2, 2025 at 11:25 PM
A treaty for copyright exceptions for education, research and archives is on the WIPO agenda (standing committee on copyright and related rights) first week of Dec. I fear it’s a trojan horse for AI exceptions. Opposition voices from gov’ts and official ed observers such as www.ei-ie.org/en needed.
Reposted by Dr Pen
It's also been very disheartening for me as an academic editor. Everybody's papers are the same now. And I'm so bored by all the repetition, the endless signposting, the vacuous summaries.
November 7, 2025 at 11:51 AM
It's also been very disheartening for me as an academic editor. Everybody's papers are the same now. And I'm so bored by all the repetition, the endless signposting, the vacuous summaries.
Reposted by Dr Pen
Reposted by Dr Pen
“‘The uncritical adoption of AI can lead to students not developing essential academic skills such as critical thinking and writing. If students are taught to learn through automation, without learning about how & why things work, they won’t be able to solve problems when something actually breaks’”
November 1, 2025 at 10:32 PM
“‘The uncritical adoption of AI can lead to students not developing essential academic skills such as critical thinking and writing. If students are taught to learn through automation, without learning about how & why things work, they won’t be able to solve problems when something actually breaks’”
Reposted by Dr Pen
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
OpenAI in Danger After Authors Suing It Gain Access to Its Internal Slack Messages
Authors and publishers, who are suing OpenAI, secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the deletion of pirated books.
futurism.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:35 AM
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
Reposted by Dr Pen
“OpenAI is getting ready to run hat in hand to the taxpayer for subsidies.” After losing more than $13 billion this year, OpenAI officials are angling for a bailout. From @ryanlcooper.com:
trib.al/CUazMCQ
trib.al/CUazMCQ
OpenAI Is Maneuvering for a Government Bailout - The American Prospect
For artificial intelligence to ever pencil out, some truly enormous revenue streams will be required. And if you need trillions of dollars for data centers forever, there’s only one entity to turn to: Uncle Sam.
trib.al
November 8, 2025 at 9:00 PM
“OpenAI is getting ready to run hat in hand to the taxpayer for subsidies.” After losing more than $13 billion this year, OpenAI officials are angling for a bailout. From @ryanlcooper.com:
trib.al/CUazMCQ
trib.al/CUazMCQ
Reposted by Dr Pen
🎙️🎧new podcast episode: Is using GenAI in education ‘pedagogically irresponsible’?
www.buzzsprout.com/1301377/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/1301377/epis...
November 9, 2025 at 4:17 AM
🎙️🎧new podcast episode: Is using GenAI in education ‘pedagogically irresponsible’?
www.buzzsprout.com/1301377/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/1301377/epis...
In the education sector one of the most stupid idiotic mass investment policies was throwing £m$m at Second Life, for "virtual universities". They are doing the exact same thing with Gen AI.
November 9, 2025 at 9:07 AM
In the education sector one of the most stupid idiotic mass investment policies was throwing £m$m at Second Life, for "virtual universities". They are doing the exact same thing with Gen AI.
Reposted by Dr Pen
A morning question: have you had covid? If so, how many times (including when you thought you might but didnt do tests). Just curious. You may not wish to share this kind of information, in which case, interesting to know reasons why ppl wouldnt share this info.
#covid #uk #usa #health
#covid #uk #usa #health
November 8, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Dr Pen
Every day it feels more and more like a zombie apocalypse over on LinkedIn, in which you start a conversation with someone who you hope is an ordinary person and then a couple of turns in discover that they have surrendered their brains to the "AI" mass delusion.
November 2, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Every day it feels more and more like a zombie apocalypse over on LinkedIn, in which you start a conversation with someone who you hope is an ordinary person and then a couple of turns in discover that they have surrendered their brains to the "AI" mass delusion.
Reposted by Dr Pen
It's embarassing to see someone with a PhD and years if experience use AI to make a presentation on something they are an expert on, and then tell you to ignore some parts of diagrams because the AI made them up and those bits are wrong.
That's embarrassing for us both.
That's embarrassing for us both.
November 2, 2025 at 8:56 AM
It's embarassing to see someone with a PhD and years if experience use AI to make a presentation on something they are an expert on, and then tell you to ignore some parts of diagrams because the AI made them up and those bits are wrong.
That's embarrassing for us both.
That's embarrassing for us both.
Reposted by Dr Pen
Couldve sworn I saw a whole bunch of posts last night from @benpatrickwill.bsky.social talking about the selling of academic publishing to AI crawler bot 'training sets' but they all seem to have disappeared. Was I imagining it?
@benpatrickwill.bsky.social #academia #academicchatter #research […]
@benpatrickwill.bsky.social #academia #academicchatter #research […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
November 2, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Couldve sworn I saw a whole bunch of posts last night from @benpatrickwill.bsky.social talking about the selling of academic publishing to AI crawler bot 'training sets' but they all seem to have disappeared. Was I imagining it?
@benpatrickwill.bsky.social #academia #academicchatter #research […]
@benpatrickwill.bsky.social #academia #academicchatter #research […]
Reposted by Dr Pen
have you read this? Mirowski, P. (2023). The evolution of platform science. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 90(4), 725-755. doi.org/10.1353/sor....
Project MUSE - The Evolution of Platform Science
doi.org
October 31, 2025 at 4:50 PM
have you read this? Mirowski, P. (2023). The evolution of platform science. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 90(4), 725-755. doi.org/10.1353/sor....
Reposted by Dr Pen
Hello and welcome to another useful learning resource for your 'what is Generative AI' class: Joe Nunnink, The Joy of AI Painting (inspired by Bob Ross). DOnt forget, every time you use a genAI clipart 'image' in your L&T, you are embarrassing yourself badly.
#joenunnink #genai #ai #academia […]
#joenunnink #genai #ai #academia […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
October 31, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Hello and welcome to another useful learning resource for your 'what is Generative AI' class: Joe Nunnink, The Joy of AI Painting (inspired by Bob Ross). DOnt forget, every time you use a genAI clipart 'image' in your L&T, you are embarrassing yourself badly.
#joenunnink #genai #ai #academia […]
#joenunnink #genai #ai #academia […]
Reposted by Dr Pen
so @matteowong.bsky.social & I wrote on data centers: arguably the most important buildings in the world & are, in a way, holding the economy hostage. Byzantine financial instruments, private equity, depreciating tech, hype, $trillion valuations. it’s all there. an ai crash prob starts here.
Here’s How the AI Crash Happens
The U.S. is becoming an Nvidia-state.
www.theatlantic.com
October 30, 2025 at 10:25 PM
so @matteowong.bsky.social & I wrote on data centers: arguably the most important buildings in the world & are, in a way, holding the economy hostage. Byzantine financial instruments, private equity, depreciating tech, hype, $trillion valuations. it’s all there. an ai crash prob starts here.
Reposted by Dr Pen
In Silicon Valley, the latest tariff matters far less than the latest ChatGPT update and the White House less than OpenAI. Why sweat a recession if AGI is on the horizon? I report on the heart of America's tech industry response to Trump 2.0: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Silicon Valley Braces for Chaos
The center of the tech universe seems to believe that Trump’s tariff whiplash is nothing compared with what they see coming from AI.
www.theatlantic.com
May 13, 2025 at 10:01 PM
In Silicon Valley, the latest tariff matters far less than the latest ChatGPT update and the White House less than OpenAI. Why sweat a recession if AGI is on the horizon? I report on the heart of America's tech industry response to Trump 2.0: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Reposted by Dr Pen
Didn't these same assholes claim that people would pay actual money to "rent" "property" in the Metaverse? Monetizing "AI" is based on the same kind of delusional thinking.
October 31, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Didn't these same assholes claim that people would pay actual money to "rent" "property" in the Metaverse? Monetizing "AI" is based on the same kind of delusional thinking.