Liz Renner
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lrrenner.bsky.social
Liz Renner
@lrrenner.bsky.social
410 followers 770 following 490 posts
Academic; cats, culture, child development, cultural evolution, social learning; she/her #BiInSci
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lrrenner.bsky.social
Liz Renner @lrrenner.bsky.social · Nov 17
Are you interested in doing a PhD about what humans infer about animal minds?

Check out this opportunity @northumbriapsy.bsky.social with me, @mdconstable.bsky.social and Lee Shepherd!

Deadline 23 Jan 2026

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Bridging the Species Divide: Animal minds and the human-animal relationship (Ref: RDF26/HW/PSY/RENNER) at Northumbria University on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Bridging the Species Divide: Animal minds and the human-animal relationship (Ref: RDF26/HW/PSY/RENNER) at Northumbria University, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
Reposted by Liz Renner
dingdingpeng.the100.ci
I started reading up on the whole "loneliness pandemic" narrative because this seems like a literature where the age-period-cohort problem may be relevant (or maybe it isn't?).

Here's data from Australia (HILDA), average agreement with the statement "I often feel very lonely" (SD of ca. 1.8).>
Average agreement with the statement "I often feel very lonely" plotted over time
January 15, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
indianawalsh.bsky.social
Gary Larson: In my cartoon I invented Cow Tools as a cautionary tale

Cows: At long last, we have created the Cow Tools from classic newspaper comic Cow Tools
January 19, 2026 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
biotay.bsky.social
Cow Tools!

We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them

It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS

Here I describe our study

(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
January 19, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
danielgray.com
COW TOOLS COW TOOLS COW TOOLS
Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows
Brown Swiss in Austria has been discovered using tools in multiple ways – something only ever seen in humans and chimpanzees
www.theguardian.com
January 19, 2026 at 4:06 PM
lrrenner.bsky.social
So, it was just the weekend yesterday, and now it's the week, and I'm just supposed to flip the switch from doing whatever I wanted to working for 8 hours (OK 7.5)? If you say so.
January 19, 2026 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
davidandress.bsky.social
In a few years, this will all look as stupid as NFTs and MOOCs, but by then, a whole generation will have forgotten how to learn anything.
January 19, 2026 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Liz Renner
poorlycatdraw.bsky.social
🩰
a poorly drawn cat posed like a ballerina, standing upright on its hind legs and wearing a flared tutu a white cat posed upright like a ballerina, wearing a beige fabric lampshade as a tutu
January 19, 2026 at 12:47 PM
lrrenner.bsky.social
The university sent me emails, starting between Christmas and New Year, that a bunch of trainings are "due". I am sensitive to deadlines and used to never skip this stuff. But the dam is now breaking and idgaf - trainings can be late. The uni is coming for my pension
January 19, 2026 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Liz Renner
infinitescream.bsky.social
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
January 19, 2026 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Liz Renner
kjmci.me
#TheTraitors cast members as UK railway liveries.

Stephen as an Avanti West Coast Class 805
A screenshot from the Traitors with Stephen in the confessional wearing a shirt with a distinctive red, white, and blue angular pattern A photo of an Avanti West Coast Class 805 with a similar red, white, and blue angular design
January 15, 2026 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
katie0martin.ft.com
Deutsche Bank here with the good stuff.
Game on.
January 18, 2026 at 6:59 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
kaytee.bsky.social
#traitors #thetraitors #thetraitorsuk
Swimming pool meme but traitors themed - faithfuls loving Rachel while Jessie struggles and Harriet is underwater
January 16, 2026 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
petertarras.bsky.social
Starting a new thread to collect critical perspectives on AI, as they are articulated dozens of times every day and appear repeatedly on my timeline. I can't read everything right away, but if, like me, you want to stay up to date, then this might help a bit:
September 11, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Reposted by Liz Renner
olivia.science
For all those involved in drafting so-called AI guidelines, but being overwhelmed with nonsense, this is a lifesaver. Great work by Dagmar and Ariel!

Resisting Enchantment and Determinism: How to critically engage with AI university guidelines. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
The list of most relevant themes we identified is: 1. Rhetoric of inevitability and technological determinism: presenting the adoption and use of (generative) AI as a fait accompli. 2. Exaggerated narratives: overstating the general capabilities of the technology, or leaving out that certain seemingly impressive capabilities can only be achieved under very specific experimental conditions. 3. Spurious comparison to human intelligence or Anthropomorphism: presenting AI as if it thinks or reason like a human. 4. Ethics and critical washing: presenting AI as being ethically or critically examined but doing so only superficially and inconsequentially. 5. Wishful thinking and uncertain feasibility: assuming desired outcomes or functionality despite lacking realistic evidence they can be achieved. 6. GenAI is presented as indispensable: portraying AI as essential even when simpler or non-AI solutions are sufficient. 7. Unrealistic and ill-defined conditions: formulating requirements for adoption and use that are functionally impossible or too demanding to be met, psychologically implausible to follow, or set unclear boundaries for acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, which could easily create inconsistencies. 8. Resources as propaganda: resources for students, faculty, and other stakeholders are made available but only for incentivizing different degrees of use of genAI. 9. AI Overkill: Substitution or replacement of tasks for which the technology was not designed; from tutoring to teaching to research, everything must be now with AI, even if it is not adequate. Due to space limitations, rather than discussing all of the themes superficially, this essay addresses only the first four, which, in our view, are the most critical and the most urgently in need of critical scrutiny. T
January 18, 2026 at 6:47 AM
Reposted by Liz Renner
dr-g-in-exile.bsky.social
I’ve been spending some of the time when I’d normally be writing grants working on a new course about how and why we built the university/science/government collaboration in the US…for those who will someday need to build the successor to that system.

+sending my best students job ads from Europe.
January 17, 2026 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
ebonyaster.bsky.social
Incredible opportunity
abeba.bsky.social Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 4d
are you displeased with today’s AI safety evaluation landscape and curious about what greater conceptual clarity, methodological soundness, and rigour in AI evaluation could look like? if so, consider coming to Dublin to pursue a PhD with me

apply here: aial.ie/hiring/phd-a...

pls repost
About the PhD: Audits and evaluation of AI systems — and the broader context that AI systems operate in — have become central to conceptualising, quantifying, measuring and understanding the operations, failures, limitations, underlying assumptions, and downstream societal implications of AI systems. Existing AI audit and evaluation efforts are fractured, done in a siloed and ad-hoc manner, and with little deliberation and reflection around conceptual rigour and methodological validity. This PhD is for a candidate that is passionate about exploring what a conceptually cogent, methodologically sound, and well-founded AI evaluation and safety research might look like. This requires grappling with questions such as: What does it mean to represent “ground truth” in proxies, synthetic data, or computational simulation? How do we reliably measure abstract and complex phenomena? What are the epistemological or methodological implications of quantification and measurement approaches we choose to employ? Particularly, what underlying presuppositions, values, or perspectives do they entail? How do we ensure the lived experiences of impacted communities play a critical role in the development and justification of measurement metrics and proxies? Through exploration of these questions, the candidate is expected to engage with core concepts in the philosophy of science, history of science, Black feminist epistemologies, and similar schools of thought to develop an in-depth understanding of existing practices with the aim of applying it to advance shared standards and best practice in AI evaluation. The candidate is expected to integrate empirical (for example, through analysis or evaluation of existing benchmarks) or practical (for example, by executing evaluation of AI systems) components into the overall work.
January 16, 2026 at 12:38 PM
lrrenner.bsky.social
Just one week left to apply!
January 17, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
alanjstedman.bsky.social
This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition,

The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance

Iconic imo
Photograph from 1911 taken by Herbert Ponting whilst with Scott's Antarctic Expedition The monochrome photo is taken from within a cave. The walls of the cave are made of ice. The cave entrance is in the mid distance with two figures standing looking out towards a distant ship. Between them and the ship there is first a 'beach' of ice before the sea itself. The ship could be up to 800 metres away What makes the photo so special is that where the figures are at the cave entrance there is a band of very white snow and ice (contrasting with the comparatively dark inside of the cave) that creates a stark framework in which the men and the ship are captured. It is made even more dramatic by the fact that the cave entrance is at least 30 metres high and is in the shape of a distorted elipse with the tail sloping off to the right at the top of the elipse The photo being in monochrome in a largely white environment makes the photographers skill all the more laudable
January 17, 2026 at 7:12 AM
lrrenner.bsky.social
Why is this cactus blooming in January? 🤔
A small cactus viewed from above, with several orange flowers blooming on top. The cactus is in a light purple container.
January 17, 2026 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Liz Renner
copernicusecmwf.bsky.social
The global warming trend continued in 2025. Each of the past 11 years (2015–2025) has been among the 11 warmest on record. Explore more data from #CopernicusClimate in the Global Climate Highlights 2025. #GCH2025

🔗 climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...

@ecmwf.int
January 14, 2026 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Liz Renner
rosaleenduffy.bsky.social
This ought to be a huge national news story. But the quiet dismantling of a key sector barely registers outside HE. Maybe someone will care when the local economies that Unis sustain start to go bust too. Important story from @patrickjack.bsky.social & @timeshighered.bsky.social
chrishavergal.bsky.social Chris Havergal @chrishavergal.bsky.social · 5d
Ninety UK universities to have posted accounts so far cut 13,300 jobs last year, spending £303 million on severance pay - sector-wide total clearly going to be well in excess of predicted 10,000. Great reporting by @patrickjack.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pay-spe...
Pay-off spend up by two-thirds as universities shed 13,000 jobs
Analysis of UK sector accounts shows number of job losses well above predictions, with experts warning cuts are not over yet
www.timeshighereducation.com
January 15, 2026 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Liz Renner
parkermolloy.com
I wrote about Grok's CSAM problem and how journalists keep fumbling the story

www.readtpa.com/p/grok-cant-...
Grok Can't Apologize. Grok Isn't Sentient. So Why Do Headlines Keep Saying It Did?
Elon Musk’s chatbot has been “undressing” women and children in public. Journalists are letting xAI off the hook by pretending the bot is responsible.
www.readtpa.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
michaelclerx.com
Internet Asbestos
olivia.science Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Nov 14
Love to see community action against this AI nonsense! neighborhoodview.org/2025/11/13/d...
As one Massachusetts school administrator recently said; this moment with AI is remarkably like the moment when we were introduced to asbestos. Yes, it had some remarkably promising characteristics – fireproofing! – and had some real utility in science, research, and industrial applications. But a profit-driven industry bullied us into inserting it everywhere; into our homes and schools and public spaces, before we really understood the risks. This resulted in decades, if not centuries, of illness, injuries, deaths, and the astronomical financial burden of trying to remove the stuff. As you, the leaders and policymakers in our schools, craft an AI policy for our district, we the undersigned call on you to: 1. Ban AI tools into the classroom, protect our students and teachers from de-skilling and allow them the space and time to engage in assignments themselves. 2. Resist any direct financial relationship or contracts with AI providers, as well as the “training” they might offer. 3. Provide a digital literacy curriculum to help students navigate the current digital landscape, and promote critical engagement with technology. 4. Guarantee that anywhere generative AI has already entered our classrooms or curriculum, an opt-out will allow students and teachers to refuse the use of these products at no risk to their grades, progress or employment.
January 14, 2026 at 7:21 AM
Reposted by Liz Renner
disabilitystor1.bsky.social
lol
Consider Amira Zairi, a self-professed “AI educator” and “ambassador” for Adobe, LeonardoAI, and TripoAI, who posted a scathing rant this week on X-formerly-Twitter to her 49,000 followers. Her complaint? Other people were “plagiarizing” her unique AI prompts. “‘Make your own prompts’ isn’t advice. It’s basic integrity,” Zairi wrote, using syntax that reads suspiciously like text generated by ChatGPT. “I’m honestly fed up. Changing a few words, renaming the prompt, or slightly rephrasing it doesn’t make it yours, the idea is still the same, the vibe is the same, and the results are obviously similar.” “And no, this isn’t about one or two people, and it didn’t happen once!!!!” Zairi continued. “Creating your own prompts is actually easier than copying someone else’s work! Try it.”
January 13, 2026 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Liz Renner
thierryaaron.bsky.social
This thread responds to Prof. Christian Dunn’s Telegraph piece on #climate communication.

I argue it misdiagnoses public disengagement, underplays escalating scientific risk, & reproduces a media narrative that has actively shaped, not merely reflected, public resistance to climate action 🧵
January 13, 2026 at 8:58 AM