Dr Nechama Brodie
@brodiegal.bsky.social
South African journalist & academic. teach/research/publish on media, journalism, archives, public health, data & research methods. Strong sideline in homicide studies + forensic pathology. Writes books and sings songs. It’s not AI it’s automation
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
All of these things, deeply underpinned by the most
ridiculously spun misnomer. We should stop calling it artificial intelligence and describe it as IA or ‘Intelligent’ Automation at best.
ridiculously spun misnomer. We should stop calling it artificial intelligence and describe it as IA or ‘Intelligent’ Automation at best.
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
November 16, 2025 at 12:57 PM
All of these things, deeply underpinned by the most
ridiculously spun misnomer. We should stop calling it artificial intelligence and describe it as IA or ‘Intelligent’ Automation at best.
ridiculously spun misnomer. We should stop calling it artificial intelligence and describe it as IA or ‘Intelligent’ Automation at best.
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 7, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
Enshittification is a term coined by Cory Doctorow in 2022. In his new book, Doctorow lays out how tech companies have made our lives progressively worse, finds Matthew Sparkes
Has life today been enshittified? Cory Doctorow's new book explores
Enshittification is a term coined by Cory Doctorow in 2022. In his new book, Doctorow lays out how tech companies have made our lives progressively worse, finds Matthew Sparkes
www.newscientist.com
November 2, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Enshittification is a term coined by Cory Doctorow in 2022. In his new book, Doctorow lays out how tech companies have made our lives progressively worse, finds Matthew Sparkes
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
And from image events, we get POLYSEMIC images that carry multiple forms of ideology into the present. Here, we have the convergence of Shepard Fairey's iconic HOPE poster for the Obama campaign with the frog icon from #NoKings. The is how you visually dismantle fascist iconography.
October 19, 2025 at 2:01 AM
And from image events, we get POLYSEMIC images that carry multiple forms of ideology into the present. Here, we have the convergence of Shepard Fairey's iconic HOPE poster for the Obama campaign with the frog icon from #NoKings. The is how you visually dismantle fascist iconography.
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
Welcome, new users. Posts on Bluesky are called skjörts. If someone re-skjörts you, that is a doppelskjört. If you respond to a doppelskjört, that is called a Trifect, and you cannot skjört again for nine hours. If you do anyway, that's a Time Clench. It's all very simple.
October 16, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Welcome, new users. Posts on Bluesky are called skjörts. If someone re-skjörts you, that is a doppelskjört. If you respond to a doppelskjört, that is called a Trifect, and you cannot skjört again for nine hours. If you do anyway, that's a Time Clench. It's all very simple.
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
The knowledge was already free!! Open textbooks and libraries exist!! The benefit of a professor is having an expert teach it to you in a structured manner with assignments for practice and assessments to keep you accountable. Profs aren't keepers of secret knowledge. We are essentially tutors.
Wow. Just wow.
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
October 16, 2025 at 12:58 PM
The knowledge was already free!! Open textbooks and libraries exist!! The benefit of a professor is having an expert teach it to you in a structured manner with assignments for practice and assessments to keep you accountable. Profs aren't keepers of secret knowledge. We are essentially tutors.
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
“Well-meaning” people are using machine translation to write Wikipedia articles in languages that they don’t speak themselves, accelerating the degeneration in quality of the web corpus for several languages with relatively few native speakers.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/25/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/25/1...
How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral
Machine translators have made it easier than ever to create error-plagued Wikipedia articles in obscure languages. What happens when AI models get trained on junk pages?
www.technologyreview.com
October 16, 2025 at 3:14 AM
“Well-meaning” people are using machine translation to write Wikipedia articles in languages that they don’t speak themselves, accelerating the degeneration in quality of the web corpus for several languages with relatively few native speakers.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/25/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/25/1...
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
October 9, 2025 at 4:42 AM
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
Daughter of Robin Williams, Zelda Williams 💔
October 6, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Daughter of Robin Williams, Zelda Williams 💔
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
This was published the day after the Heaton Park terrorist attack. I find its grim combination of antisemitism, conspiracy fictions and agrarian populism deeply worrying, as this is how it all kicked off a century ago. 🧵
farmsnotfactories.org/articles/zio...
farmsnotfactories.org/articles/zio...
Zionist Money Rules • Farms Not Factories
The purpose of our newsletter is to give you important information that is censored in the mainstream media. “The way... Read More
farmsnotfactories.org
October 6, 2025 at 5:53 PM
This was published the day after the Heaton Park terrorist attack. I find its grim combination of antisemitism, conspiracy fictions and agrarian populism deeply worrying, as this is how it all kicked off a century ago. 🧵
farmsnotfactories.org/articles/zio...
farmsnotfactories.org/articles/zio...
Just an occasional note that … the less you use social media, the less you need to use social media. 🕯️
September 25, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Just an occasional note that … the less you use social media, the less you need to use social media. 🕯️
it’s funny* when i consider that the wars and mass deaths nobody really gives a shit about are also in the regions that will be most adversely affected by climate change and how much that plays into our doing fuck all to reduce emissions.
*not actually funny
*not actually funny
In recognition of us doing fuck all to reduce emissions, let me remind y'all that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is useless unless we decarbonize drastically.
rdcu.be/dbFbB
rdcu.be/dbFbB
Carbon dioxide removal is not a current climate solution — we need to change the narrative
Drastically reduce emissions first, or carbon dioxide removal will be next to useless.
www.nature.com
September 17, 2025 at 12:30 PM
it’s funny* when i consider that the wars and mass deaths nobody really gives a shit about are also in the regions that will be most adversely affected by climate change and how much that plays into our doing fuck all to reduce emissions.
*not actually funny
*not actually funny
my teacher brain is exploding. so now in addition to marking i must generate an anonymised summary of work to prepare it for the AI so the AI can synthesise constructive feedback … based on the summary??? and then I still have to customise the AI feedback.
and yes on the turnaround window thing.
and yes on the turnaround window thing.
Simply astonishing. Maybe Lecturer A should not have to mark over 100 essays in a two-week window in the first place? Invest in qualified staff and reduce impossible workloads FFS www.kcl.ac.uk/about/strate...
September 17, 2025 at 12:23 PM
my teacher brain is exploding. so now in addition to marking i must generate an anonymised summary of work to prepare it for the AI so the AI can synthesise constructive feedback … based on the summary??? and then I still have to customise the AI feedback.
and yes on the turnaround window thing.
and yes on the turnaround window thing.
I see so much of this in academic funding calls ‘we are looking for projects that explore how AI can help to solve … hunger, violence against women and children, poverty, etc.’ But there’s no space in there to say: ‘um, what if AI is not the right tool for this’
AI is the wrong tool to tackle complex societal & systemic problems. AI4SG is more about PR victories, boosting AI adoption (regardless of merit/usefulness) & laundering accountability for harmful tech, extractive practices, abetting atrocities. yours truly
www.project-syndicate.org/magazine/ai-...
www.project-syndicate.org/magazine/ai-...
The False Promise of “AI for Social Good”
Abeba Birhane refutes industry claims about the technology's potential to solve complex social problems.
www.project-syndicate.org
September 16, 2025 at 5:55 AM
I see so much of this in academic funding calls ‘we are looking for projects that explore how AI can help to solve … hunger, violence against women and children, poverty, etc.’ But there’s no space in there to say: ‘um, what if AI is not the right tool for this’
There is so much real news, in so many countries, that there really is never any need to repost AI generated fakery (even if it hooks in to your personal rhetoric).
Repost journalism not algorithm.
Repost journalism not algorithm.
September 6, 2025 at 6:13 PM
There is so much real news, in so many countries, that there really is never any need to repost AI generated fakery (even if it hooks in to your personal rhetoric).
Repost journalism not algorithm.
Repost journalism not algorithm.
some foreign western person in a faraway land (with, at best, a social media-based activism and education) telling other people in their own countries that what they are doing is ‘not good enough’ is … well, a far too common feature of this landscape.
September 5, 2025 at 8:53 AM
some foreign western person in a faraway land (with, at best, a social media-based activism and education) telling other people in their own countries that what they are doing is ‘not good enough’ is … well, a far too common feature of this landscape.
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
AI evangelism is like being in a cult. you abandon any sense of reason and go out of your way to defend it even when it makes no sense
It has been 14.68 years since the last day in 2010. So, the AI is correct.
September 3, 2025 at 7:41 AM
AI evangelism is like being in a cult. you abandon any sense of reason and go out of your way to defend it even when it makes no sense
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
Academia may not give you job security, flexibility, or wealth, but it will let you unexpectedly connect to eduroam in foreign cities
August 20, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Academia may not give you job security, flexibility, or wealth, but it will let you unexpectedly connect to eduroam in foreign cities
In South Africa:
Remembering Marikana, 13 years on - still no justice for the massacre victims.
(An older article exploring the media’s failures at the time:
theconversation.com/marikana-mas...)
Remembering Marikana, 13 years on - still no justice for the massacre victims.
(An older article exploring the media’s failures at the time:
theconversation.com/marikana-mas...)
Marikana massacre: how South African journalism failed the test
The reporting of the Marikana massacre was characterised by embedded journalism, sensationalism and polarisation of views. The media became a loudspeaker for powerful political and economic interests.
theconversation.com
August 15, 2025 at 7:53 AM
In South Africa:
Remembering Marikana, 13 years on - still no justice for the massacre victims.
(An older article exploring the media’s failures at the time:
theconversation.com/marikana-mas...)
Remembering Marikana, 13 years on - still no justice for the massacre victims.
(An older article exploring the media’s failures at the time:
theconversation.com/marikana-mas...)
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
GIVE THE MONEY TO TEACHERS NOT SAM ALTMAN
The sheer quantity of bullshit here. The solution to instructor exhaustion and overwork is not outsourcing grading (if that’s not direct mentoring of students, I don’t know what is) but hiring more faculty and reducing class sizes. Give the money to teachers, not Sam Altman
July 23, 2025 at 10:05 PM
GIVE THE MONEY TO TEACHERS NOT SAM ALTMAN
Really this is one of the reasons it’s so hard to write contemporary dystopian fiction.
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, files a lawsuit in Delaware against Candace Owens for defamation over the American podcaster's “relentless and unjustified smear campaign” alleging his wife, Brigitte, is a secret trans woman and blood relative. clarelocke.com/wp-content/u...
clarelocke.com
July 23, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Really this is one of the reasons it’s so hard to write contemporary dystopian fiction.
Reposted by Dr Nechama Brodie
Bari’s key insight as an entrepreneur is that there is a bottomless demand for rich people to have their existing opinions sold back to them as forbidden knowledge
FT Exclusive: Weiss has met with David Ellison, the incoming owner of CBS News, over a potential deal to sell her three-year-old media company, according to several people familiar with the matter. https://on.ft.com/4eZ6WbM
July 22, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Bari’s key insight as an entrepreneur is that there is a bottomless demand for rich people to have their existing opinions sold back to them as forbidden knowledge