Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · 3d

Free translation: Carbon offset are unsurprisingly useless due to capitalism

Or: The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 3d

News that shocks no one: Carbon offsets do nothing for climate.

Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says

Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions

www.theguardian.com

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · 6d

Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia

Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 7d

Please join me in congratulating Woman on her appointment

Sky News @news.sky.com · 7d

Woman named as new Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first

Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally, a former nurse, has been named as the next Archbishop of Canterbury - the first time a woman has been appointed to the role in the Church of England's history.

news.sky.com

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · 8d

Montreal gems

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Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 8d

My favourite Jane Goodall quotes....so many, so to the point, so wise. How different the world would be if enough people listened to her.

"People think hope is wishful thinking, and actually hope is about action." Quote from the Wiser Than Me podcast with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

"Only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our true potential." Graphic by the Jane Goodall Institute of South Africa.

"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." Graphic by Ariana Huffington on Instagram.

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Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 17d

I was part of a working group on AI and Fraternity assembled by the Vatican. We met in Rome and worked on this over two days. I am happy to share the result of that intense effort: a Declaration we presented to the Pope and other government authorities

coexistence.global

In this spirit of fraternity, hope and caution, we call upon your leadership to uphold the following principles and red lines to foster dialogue and reflection on how AI can best serve our entire human family:

Human life and dignity: AI must never be developed or used in ways that threaten, diminish, or disqualify human life, dignity, or fundamental rights. Human intelligence – our capacity for wisdom, moral reasoning, and orientation toward truth and beauty – must never be devalued by artificial processing, however sophisticated.

AI must be used as a tool, not an authority: AI must remain under human control. Building uncontrollable systems or over-delegating decisions is morally unacceptable and must be legally prohibited. Therefore, development of superintelligence (as mentioned above) AI technologies should not be allowed until there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and there is clear and broad public consent.

Accountability: only humans have moral and legal agency and AI systems are and must remain legal objects, never subjects. Responsibility and liability reside with developers, vendors, companies, deployers, users, institutes, and governments. AI cannot be granted legal personhood or “rights”.

Life-and-death decisions: AI systems must never be allowed to make life or death decisions, especially in military applications during armed conflict or peacetime, law enforcement, border control, healthcare or judicial decisions.

Independent testing and adequate risk assessment must be required before deployment and throughout the entire lifecycle.
Stewardship: Governments, corporations, and anyone else should not weaponize AI for any kind of domination, illegal wars of aggression, coercion, manipulation, social scoring, or unwarranted mass surveillance.

Responsible design: AI should be designed and independently evaluated to avoid unintentional and catastrophic effects on humans and society, for example through design giving rise to deception, delusion, addiction, or loss of autonomy.

No AI monopoly: the benefits of AI – economic, medical, scientific, social – should not be monopolized.

No Human Devaluation: design and deployment of AI should make humans flourish in their chosen pursuits, not render humanity redundant, disenfranchised, devalued or replaceable.

Ecological responsibility: our use of AI must not endanger our planet and ecosystems. Its vast demands for energy, water, and rare minerals must be managed responsibly and sustainably across the whole supply chain.

No irresponsible global competition: We must avoid an irresponsible race between corporations and countries towards ever more powerful AI.

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · 18d

🎤 This week I’ll participate at ALL IN 2025, Canada’s largest AI event!

I’ll be in the panel: AI and Climate Change: Can AI Help Solve the Planet’s Biggest Challenges?

I hope it will be a good opportunity to discuss the impacts and opportunities of AI on Climate.

www.allinevent.ai #ALLIN2025

Banner with a photo of the speaker, Alex Hernandez-Garcia, and the dates of the event, 24 and 25 of September and the slogans: J'y serai and I'm attending.

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · 19d

Wow, I thought the EU had regulations about labelling of advertising in the media, but I may be misremembering this.

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · 19d

Was this not clearly labelled as an ad???

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · 21d

I'm attending the Climate Mis/Disinformation Summit at @uottawa.ca. The keynote by @katharinehayhoe.com was wonderful and the various panels are super interesting!

I'll add my humble two cents this afternoon in the panel on Digital Platforms, AI and the Climate Information Environment.

Photo of the conference room hosting the Climate Mis/Disinformation Summit. Slide of the panel Governing the Climate and Information Crisis.

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · 22d

I'm kind of done with the review culture and system in machine learning...

- R1: good, accept!
- R2: everything is well done, but I don't like that. Bad score.
- R3: great, accept!
- R4: great, accept!

AC: One [loud] reviewer didn't like one thing, so reject.

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · Sep 9

If you are into materials discovery and happen to be looking for postdoc positions, the Institut Courtois in Montréal has an open call for applications to wonderful postdoctoral fellowships:

institut-courtois.umontreal.ca/en/postdocto...

Postdoctoral Fellowship 2025 - Institut Courtois

institut-courtois.umontreal.ca

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · Sep 7

Like every September, it's nonsense time in Montreal, as the city dismantles the summer pedestrian streets and cars start to fill them and pollute them again, replacing people and life.

I can't wrap my head around why after managing to arrange all the logistics we have to go back to car nonsense...

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · Aug 30

murena.com

Murena - deGoogled and privacy by design smartphones and cloud services.

Escape the digital surveillance now. We combine privacy by design smartphones with safe and transparent online services.

murena.com

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · Aug 23

"It is a famine that asks ‘but what did you do?’ A famine that will and must haunt us all.

It is a predictable and a preventable famine. A famine caused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity."

www.unocha.org/news/un-reli...

UN Relief Chief says Gaza famine “must spur the world to urgent action”

Remarks on Gaza at the UN press briefing and Q&A by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency

www.unocha.org

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Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · Jul 19

How long is the world going to allow this horror to go on?

Sky News @news.sky.com · Jul 19

Gaza: More than 30 people killed 'as Israeli troops open fire towards Palestinians waiting for aid'

More than 30 people have been killed after Israeli troops opened fire towards crowds of Palestinians waiting for aid, according to witnesses and hospital officials.

news.sky.com

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Reposted by Alex Hernandez-Garcia

Alexandre Duval @NeurIPS @aduvalinho.bsky.social · Jul 2

Sharing this AMAZING opportunity:

A postdoc in AI for Materials Discovery at @mila-quebec.bsky.social, with @alexhergar.bsky.social & @drolnick.bsky.social -- the group that took me in during my PhD. Exciting research topic, fantastic Professors, climate change mitigation = strongly recommended :)

Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · Jun 10

📣 Postdoc call!

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on machine learning research for materials discovery.

All details here: assets-v2.circle.so/4htxv8ljrkzr...

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · Jun 10

📣 Postdoc call!

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on machine learning research for materials discovery.

All details here: assets-v2.circle.so/4htxv8ljrkzr...

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · Jun 7

This week I've participated as a mentor in the hackathon of @mutek.bsky.social AI Ecologies Lab.

A wonderful experience which gives me hope that AI can be different than the big-tech-powered hype. Here, AI was seen and used through an ecological and artistic lens.

forum.mutek.org/en/cohort-of...

Cohort of AI Ecologies Lab Projects

The lab introduces a diverse cohort of artists, technologists, and researchers from across Canada. The selection process prioritized projects that explore…

forum.mutek.org

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · May 28

Taking the median carbon intensity of hydroelectricity (to be conservative) of 63 kg CO2eq./MWh, this amounts to about 10,000 tons of CO2eq. This is the equivalent emissions of more than 2,000 average U.S. cars per year (4.6 tons).

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · May 28

Assuming 25 W per CPU core, the total energy used is 150 GWh. Compared to the average U.S. household yearly consumption of 10.5 MWh, this amounts to the electricity consumed by about 15,000 U.S. households in a year.

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · May 28

In the recent Open Molecules 2025 (OMol25) paper, the authors boast that their work required 6 billion CPU core-hours of compute with Facebook's infrastructure.

No more details are offered, but let's do a back-of-the-envelope estimate of the energy and carbon emissions:

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · May 21

Will the world really not stop the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel? Will we let thousands of children starve while tons of food ready to be delivered is halted by Israel a few kilometres away? Will the academic world stay silent and keep silencing us?

I can't sleep.

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · May 19

Should we resist, refuse, redefine, repurpose... AI? Can AI really be "for good"? What would AI be like if done for the people?

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Alex Hernandez-Garcia @alexhergar.bsky.social · Apr 16

"Reviewers who updated their reviews after receiving LLM feedback increased review length by an average of 80 words, suggesting more detailed reviews."

Longer doesn't imply more detailed or better, especially coming from an LLM...

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