Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Amos Teo

@mossinante.bsky.social

230 followers 220 following 430 posts

Data scientist | Industry linguist | PhD Birds, plants, languages, transit, climate Vancouver, BC He/him 🌈

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 5d

I am a GenAI killjoy and I encourage you to be one too. Here’s how:

Dr. Mag 🌿👾 @nobugsnous.bsky.social · 5d

I wrote this blog about how feeling like a killjoy whenever I talk about GenAI.
refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/o...

On Being a GenAI Killjoy

Maggie Fernandes, University of Arkansas Photo by Maksim Romashkin on Pexels.com At a recent teaching talk about GenAI refusal, an audience member asked Megan, Jen, and me this question: how d…

refusinggenai.wordpress.com

3 6

Reposted by Amos Teo

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 1d

We know — from first principles — that LLMs can only create AI slop.

Why do people keep needing empirical tests?

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · Aug 17

The intractability proof (a.k.a. Ingenia theorem) implies that any attempts to scale up AI-by-Learning to situations of real-world, human-level complexity will consume an astronomical amount of resources (see Box 1 for an explanation). 13/n

Box 1 in the paper, intuitively explaining the implications of the intractability result.

4 14 56

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 2d

“Just scale your data”

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 2d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"I'm correcting your grammar"

Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 3d

No fee, I'm afraid.

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 2d

“At its heart, birdwatching is an act of quiet rebellion. It is the gentle act of noticing – the willingness to see the world around you. And this simple act is, in itself, revolutionary.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Happy belated October Big Day! I’d rather be birding than fighting AI hype

Here’s to the birdwatchers! Optimistic, slightly eccentric custodians of wonder and joy and passion and love

At its heart, birdwatching is an act of quiet rebellion, says Natalie Kyriacou. It is the gentle act of noticing – the willingness to see the world around you

www.theguardian.com

4 12

Reposted by Amos Teo

Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 4d

"In reality, the industry probably needs a revenue range that is closer to the $320 billion to $480 billion range, just to break even on the capex to be spent this year."

The Pleasure Vice Principle (he/him/his) @hannibaltabu.bsky.social · 4d

I saw the dot coms crash from a front row seat. AI is running out of money way faster.

The evangelism is insecurity from people who made the wrong bet. I’ve seen it before. futurism.com/future-socie...

AI Data Centers Are an Even Bigger Disaster Than Previously Thought

An investment manager realized he made a crucial mistake — and that his grim prediction about AI investments may not have been cynical enough.

futurism.com

1 16 60

Reposted by Amos Teo

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 4d

"When these capabilities are delegated to machines, we create a population that consumes and regurgitates information without actually processing or understanding it.” collectivefutures.blog/the-infrastr...

The infrastructure of meaninglessness

Listen, there are two realities that we should be aware of. AI exists to make your job obsolete because the alternative is that AI makes managers obsolete. Let me try to break down this theory, which...

collectivefutures.blog

2 19 36

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 4d

Watching this instead of reading about Sora 2
youtu.be/_zfN9wnPvU0?...

AI Slop Is Destroying The Internet

YouTube video by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

youtu.be

1 2

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 4d

Being one of a handful of people crossing the Cambie Bridge in the drizzle was a good opportunity to practice belting out some songs.

False Creek in Vancouver on a grey cloudy day

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 4d

But the story this comes from does highlight the risk we’ve put ourselves at the mercy of big tech companies like Meta who can delete you based on wonky algorithms, with little option to appeal
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

'It's sheer panic': Ottawa restaurateur says Meta wrongly banned her business accounts | CBC News

Laurie Viau Gillard uses Instagram and Facebook to advertise the small restaurant she co-owns in Kanata. Late last month, Meta suspended her accounts without explanation.

www.cbc.ca

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 4d

“AI is undergoing ‘machine learning’” looks like a really bad paraphrase from CBC. It’s like saying the discipline of mathematics is learning arithmetic.
Machine learning falls within the (too) broad umbrella notion of “AI” and it’s long been used to flag content and profiles before the GenAI hype.

Screenshot of a CBC News article that reads:
Lethbridge explained that AI is undergoing ”machine learning,” a process that trains the software to flag posts that violate or otherwise jeopardize community standards. But the technology is far from perfect — for example, it's sometimes unable to recognize certain images or text.

1 1

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 5d

Today’s view from Vancouver’s Fairview neighbourhood

View of downtown Vancouver towers as seen through a narrow gap between two buildings

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 5d

I am a GenAI killjoy and I encourage you to be one too. Here’s how:

Dr. Mag 🌿👾 @nobugsnous.bsky.social · 5d

I wrote this blog about how feeling like a killjoy whenever I talk about GenAI.
refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/o...

On Being a GenAI Killjoy

Maggie Fernandes, University of Arkansas Photo by Maksim Romashkin on Pexels.com At a recent teaching talk about GenAI refusal, an audience member asked Megan, Jen, and me this question: how d…

refusinggenai.wordpress.com

3 6

Reposted by Amos Teo

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 7d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

150 770 2.1K

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 8d

Crossing the Granville St Bridge on foot was a lot nicer with the wider pedestrian path, but I was very confused by the layout and entry and exit points

View of False Creek and Granville Island as seen from the Granville bridge facing West, with the new Sen̓áḵw buildings under construction, the Burrard Bridge and sea and mountains in the background

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 8d

Happy Monday Vancouver

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 11d

Mrs Bucket has kicked the Bouquet.
Rip Dame Patricia Routledge
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Dame Patricia Routledge obituary: The life of TV's magnificently snobby 'Hyacinth Bucket'

A much-loved actress who became famous in the role of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances.

www.bbc.com

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 12d

Today’s walk home #vancouver

2 5

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 12d

@stephcampisi.bsky.social for your attention

Emily C. Hughes @emilyhughes.bsky.social · 12d

no no the publishing industry is doing fine, why do you ask

A screenshot from Publisher's Lunch:
Jennifer L. Armentrout and Hellmann's
In a promotion designed for BookTok enjoyment, Jennifer L. Armentrout’s just-published THE PRIMAL OF BLOOD AND BONE is available in a special, limited-edition "garlic-scented copy, infused with Hellmann’s Garlic Aioli to create a one-of-a-kind, Craven-proof book." They explain: "This exclusive edition is printed with garlic-infused ink, designed to ward off Armentrout’s bloodthirsty monsters, the Craven. While humans may dread garlic breath, Hellmann’s has cleverly transformed this social faux pas into an unexpected – and delicious – form of supernatural protection."

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 13d

Well that’s when I was teaching students about modals!

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 13d

I used to use this example when teaching about epistemic vs. deontic uses of modal verbs like “can”.

@gretchenmcc.bsky.social has a great post that elaborates on this distinction (as well as the possibility vs necessity dimension) allthingslinguistic.com/post/1380488...

All Things Linguistic

The difference between epistemic & deontic, necessity & possibility, in an overlapping diagram This is a handy reference diagram I made way back in grad school for remembering the difference between...

allthingslinguistic.com

3 14

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 13d

Marge to Homer: Kids can be so cruel
Bart (walking past): We can? Thanks Mom!

Marge saying to Homer: Kids can be so cruel
Bart (walking past): We can? Thanks Mom!

1 1 6

Reposted by Amos Teo

Bronwyn @bron.bsky.social · 13d

The @cla-acl.bsky.social has issued a press release "calling on the Government of Québec to reconsider its decree banning forms of gender-inclusive writing, specifically the inclusive pronoun 'iel', the word 'toustes' and the interpoint." cla-acl.ca/pdfs/Ecritur...

cla-acl.ca

3 14 46

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 15d

Rainbow from the Seabus. Best commute ever. I’m gonna miss it

Double rainbow over North Vancouver with Vancouver Harbour in the foreground

3 9

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 15d

Sorry @merriam-webster.com but Lao and Vietnamese are from completely different language families

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 15d

Mosquito Creek in North Van filling up. #BCStorm

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 24d

Took a break from packing to go look for salmon in the Capilano River