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Tom Chatfield

@tomchatfield.bsky.social

360 followers 100 following 44 posts

Tech philosopher, author, dad. Critical thinking, AI ethics, future skills. Latest book: Wise Animals (Picador) https://tinyurl.com/WiseAnimals Views mine

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Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Jan 21

First glimpses of Wise Animals in its paperback incarnation, out on 13th February. Please do consider picking one up! I'm very proud of this book. www.panmacmillan.com/authors/tom-...

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Substack

To love and to learn

Against optimisation Against optimisation

Reposts 0 Jun 11

Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Apr 1

I've spent the last six months writing and researching this white paper about why our greatest challenges are human, not technological. Do take a look. www.sagepub.com/explore-our-...

Human skills for an AI age: How today’s business schools can develop tomorrow’s leaders

Stay updated with the latest company news, press releases, and media resources. Visit our Press Office for corporate announcements, media inquiries, and brand assets.

www.sagepub.com

Reposted by Tom Chatfield

Sage @sagepub.com · Mar 12

Missed our webinar on AI and academic excellence?

Catch up on the discussion with Dr. Leo Lo & Dr. Tom Chatfield & discover how to turn AI into a collaborative tool for research while maintaining critical thinking & ethical standards.

Watch now: ow.ly/5aYV50VgkTF

@tomchatfield.bsky.social

Free webinar. AI and academic excellence: Ethical considerations and best practices. Dr. Leo Lo & Dr. Tom Chatfield

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Substack

On staying amazed

How to remain shocked by the world Above: thank you, Daunt Books Marylebone

Reposts 0 Feb 13

Reposted by British Library, Tom Chatfield

mia @miaout.bsky.social · Feb 12

Video from our 'Libraries and AI' panel is now online! www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsRk... Thanks @britishlibrary.bsky.social @cawston.bsky.social @suelacey-bryant.bsky.social @tomchatfield.bsky.social @timandraharkness.bsky.social, Maja Maricevic and Svein Arne #AIDebates

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Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Feb 4

A newsletter on the usefulness of hasty, heartfelt writing; plus some suitably speedy thoughts on AI, critical thinking and the future of literature. open.substack.com/pub/tomchatf...

Thinking out loud onscreen

Harnessing the hasty and the heartfelt

open.substack.com

Substack

Thinking out loud onscreen

Harnessing the hasty and the heartfelt Harnessing the hasty and the heartfelt

Reposts 0 Feb 4

Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Jan 30

The above is from Oliver Burkeman's marvellous newsletter. I love it as general advice. And in the context of social media, I think it has an interesting flipside. 70% is a *high* standard for content on here (say) to meet. Pause, reread. If you're not living up to this, delete.

Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Jan 30

"If you think you might have something to contribute, don’t you have some kind of duty to move forward at 70%, instead of depriving us of your contribution thanks to your finicky and frankly rather self-indulgent insistence on perfection?"
ckarchive.com/b/wvu2hghk5m...

The Imperfectionist: Seventy per cent

@media only screen { .email * { word-break: break-word; } } @media screen and (max-width: 384px) { .mail-message-content { width: 414px !important; } } @media only screen and (m...

ckarchive.com

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Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Jan 29

Perfection, of a kind.

Reposted by Tom Chatfield

mia @miaout.bsky.social · Jan 21

I'm looking forward to an excellent panel at @britishlibrary.bsky.social 's #AIDebates on 'Libraries and AI' on Thursday, with @suelacey-bryant.bsky.social @cawston.bsky.social @tomchatfield.bsky.social @sveinarne.bsky.social and Svein Arne Brygfjeld

thebritishlibrary.seetickets.com/event/librar...

Libraries and AI: Opportunity or threat? from See Tickets

Buy tickets for Libraries and AI: Opportunity or threat? at British Library from the official retailer, The British Library.

thebritishlibrary.seetickets.com

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Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Jan 20

Given that AIs will in due course be trained upon all the papers currently being written about AI—including about ethics, deception and alignment, and how to test and explore such things—is there a genuine risk that today's scholarship will help improve tomorrow's automated manipulators?

Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Jan 20

Very much looking forward to this: do join us!

mia @miaout.bsky.social · Jan 17

I'm looking forward to taking part in the British Library's #AIDebates on 'Libraries and AI' next week! https://thebritishlibrary.seetickets.com/event/libraries-and-ai-opportunity-or-threat-/british-library/3188447

(And a pre-FAQ - yes, it might be recorded; I don't think it's streamed)

Libraries and AI: Opportunity or threat? from See Tickets

Buy tickets for Libraries and AI: Opportunity or threat? at British Library from the official retailer, The British Library.

thebritishlibrary.seetickets.com

Reposted by Tom Chatfield

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · Jan 18

there is so much hype around AI agents, but like most current AI, they spectacularly fail when put to actual real-world use www.answer.ai/posts/2025-0...

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Reposted by Tom Chatfield

mia @miaout.bsky.social · Jan 17

Libraries and AI: Opportunity or threat? from See Tickets

Buy tickets for Libraries and AI: Opportunity or threat? at British Library from the official retailer, The British Library.

thebritishlibrary.seetickets.com

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Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Jan 1

Crept into new days,
Dodging old futures, sly looks
From rickety dreams.

Reposted by Tom Chatfield

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Dec 6

Grand Theft Hamlet review – in-game Shakespeare performance is brilliantly exciting

In a hilarious and surreal documentary, two out-of-work actors decide to stage the tragedy within Los Santos with dreamlike and fascinating results A brilliant idea, brilliantly executed; hilarious, surreal and, yes, in its weird way, genuinely exciting.…

www.theguardian.com

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Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Dec 13

A moral milestone. My children are old enough to have learned the golden rule: do unto others whatever they'll let you get away with.

Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Dec 11

The notion that we may be glimpsing the nature and properties of a multiverse via quantum computation is rather beautiful blog.google/technology/r... the most fundamental informational properties of existence as we know it, shedding light on its unimagined other echoes

Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip

Our new quantum chip demonstrates error correction and performance that paves the way to a useful, large-scale quantum computer.

blog.google

Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Dec 7

Front-line reportage from the school Christmas fair's darker peripheries...

Reposted by Tom Chatfield

James McConnachie @jamesmcconnachie.bsky.social · Dec 5

Coffee, to prevent that murmur, soon replies:
"Lift doors opening. Going up."

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Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Dec 5

Morning tea brewing:
A rope ladder dangled down
The deep well of sleep.

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Reposted by Tom Chatfield

Chris Baraniuk @chrisbaraniuk.com · Dec 5

NEW: I spoke to Gaia Vince about her book on the coming climate upheaval - and how cities and infrastructure will have to change.

www.thereengineer.pro/p/we-have-to...

‘We have to adapt’ – Gaia Vince on cities, tech and climate migrants

The climate upheaval is already, arguably, underway.

www.thereengineer.pro

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Reposted by Tom Chatfield

ALCS @alcs.co.uk · Dec 4

The results from our AI survey are in! Thank you to all 13k writers who took the time to share their thoughts - we've learned that you want choice, recognition and transparency.

Get the full report at www.alcs.co.uk/ai/

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Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Dec 2

Confirmation bias can sound so (laughably!) easy to avoid. And yet.

To carefully ask what the evidence does and does not show, and how and why, is not only hard but can also be painful and thankless.

So much simpler first to pick your side, then your story, then your evidence.

Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Nov 29

The season's sweet mulch
Rots into a thousand lives.
Hope, but not for you.

Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Nov 29

I'm very much looking forward to discussing Wise Animals with the great Adam Rutherford this Saturday afternoon in Hay. If you're there, do come!
www.hayfestival.com/p-22707-tom-...

Tom Chatfield talks to Adam Rutherford - Hay Festival

A challenge to re-evaluate our thoughts on humanity’s entanglement with technology.

www.hayfestival.com

Reposted by Tom Chatfield

Clare Spencer @clarespencer.bsky.social · Nov 29

“… The promise of ‘human-in-the-loop’ approaches sits awkwardly alongside AI’s central selling point: scalability.”
@felixsimon.bsky.social

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/neither...

I would add: Sometimes it is quicker to write from scratch than it is to fact check AI output.

Neither humans-in-the-loop nor transparency labels will save the news media when it comes to AI

“The notion of a human needing to intervene in every decision undercuts the idea of speeding up various tasks,” argues our researcher Felix M. Simon.

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk

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Tom Chatfield @tomchatfield.bsky.social · Nov 28

Easy to overlook the simple fact that people are above all interested in other people and even the choicest AI-generated content won't sustain a platform of engaged, curious humans. In the short term, people are easily duped. In the long term they get wise (and bored, and angry).