Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

mia @miaout.bsky.social · 4h

'Our research suggests large language models exhibit parahuman responses to persuasion techniques, despite not being human. This suggests that social scientists have a valuable role to play in understanding AI behavior.' gail.wharton.upenn.edu/research-and...

Call Me A Jerk: Persuading AI to Comply with Objectionable Requests

Research

gail.wharton.upenn.edu

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mia @miaout.bsky.social · 1d

And this year’s Open and Engaged Conference is themed for Open Access Week, and explores the power, ethics, and responsibility in how cultural heritage is created, shared, and preserved. Attend online over three afternoons openscholarship.gitbook.io/open-and-eng...

Open and Engaged 2025 | Open and Engaged 2025

Who Owns Our Knowledge? Exploring ownership, access, and stewardship of cultural heritage in the new era.

openscholarship.gitbook.io

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mia @miaout.bsky.social · 1d

Join me at two events at the British Library later this month:

On 20 October, the British Library joins forces with Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation to explore the impact of AI on open knowledge and the wider information landscape. In-person only! www.bl.uk/stories/blog...

Knowledge is Human: The Information Ecosystem in the age of AI

A summit to mark the role of human-created, open knowledge in the age of AI and our collective responsibility to safeguard knowledge integrity and sustainability.

www.bl.uk

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Merrilee Proffitt @merrileeiam.bsky.social · 1d

📢New blog post! Backlogs and beyond: AI in primary cataloging workflows

Facing cataloging backlogs, legacy metadata issues, and language challenges, libraries are exploring how AI may offer practical support—while keeping human expertise central.

(🎉Me, celebrating the OCLC RLP!)

#AIandLibraries

Backlogs and beyond: AI in primary cataloging workflows - Hanging Together

Facing backlogs, legacy metadata issues, and language challenges, libraries are exploring how AI may offer practical support—while keeping human expertise central.

hangingtogether.org

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mia @miaout.bsky.social · 1d

'Are you a data professional, researcher or practitioner (user) working with data within or across communities and sectors? This survey is for you!' qualtrics.ucl.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_...

Via Melissa Terras on a DH mailing list, so GLAMs and arts and humanities work is probably within scope!

Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management

The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.

qualtrics.ucl.ac.uk

Reposted by mia

Connected by Data @connectedbydata.org · 1d

📢 Call for Abstracts: Participatory AI Development, Governance and Power at PAIRS26, taking place alongside the India AI Impact Summit in Feb 26! 🚀

www.pairs.site/

Open for papers, presentations or poster abstracts for online or in-person (Delhi) sessions. Deadline: 31st October.

PAIRS: Participatory AI Research & Practice Symposium

Exploring how public voices can shape the future of artificial intelligence.

www.pairs.site

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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 1d

Job! Postdoc in Digital Cultural Heritage: Data Ethics & Software Ecosystems, on new EU funded grant. 3.5 years, @designinf.bsky.social, Edinburgh. Design ethical processes, & evaluate open source tools for Digital Cultural Heritage Objects, with me! elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Digital Cultural Heritage Data Ethics & Software Ecosystems)

We are looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Digital Cultural Heritage Data Ethics & Software Ecosystems to join the Institute for Design Informatics, Edinburgh College of Art.

elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com

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British Library @britishlibrary.bsky.social · 4d

Don't miss our free, online Open and Engaged Conference 2025, as part of #InternationaOpenAccessWeek.

This year we're exploring the power, ethics, and responsibility embedded in how cultural heritage is created, shared, and preserved.

Register for free: bit.ly/BLEngagedCon...

A collage of images including a person with headphones on working at a desk, a person weaving straw together and someone in a lab holding a bottle. A open padlock graphic is laid over each image and text reads Open and Engaged 2025. Who owns our knowledge? Monday 20th, Wednesday 22nd, Thursday 23rd October, online conference..

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Daniel Malmer @malmer.com · 3d

As I've said before, no software should be released without asking "what's the worst thing that someone can do with this technology?" and it's totally believable that never occurred to anyone at OpenAI.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d

Altman claims the company didn’t anticipate people not wanting their deepfakes to say “offensive things or things that they find deeply problematic,” which sounds like a lie but is also indicative of how they recklessly release tech into the world.

OpenAI wasn’t expecting Sora’s copyright drama

It felt “more different to images than people expected.”

www.theverge.com

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Research Society for Victorian Periodicals @rs4vp.org · 2d

Are you doing #19thC attribution research? Do you have DH skills and nowhere to use them? YOU could be the next editor of the Curran Index! We're still accepting applications thru next week on 15 Oct. Lead this ongoing + fully supported DH project into its next iteration! rs4vp.org/curran-edito...

Lead the Curran Index as Our New Editor – RSVP

RSVP seeks a new Editor or Editors to lead the Curran Index! Applications should be sent to VP Alison Chapman by October 15.

rs4vp.org

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Matthew Kollmer @matthewkollmer.com · 2d

If you, like me, sometimes need to generate thousands of clipping images from Chronicling America, then you may find this post helpful.

It provides my pipeline (code and explanatory text) for programmatically generating newspaper clipping images via the Chronicling America API.

How to Create Newspaper Clipping Images in Chronicling America, Programmatically – Matthew Johannes Kollmer

matthewkollmer.com

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Sathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 2d

In @thetimes.com letters page today

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Digital Scholarship @ British Library @bldigischol.bsky.social · 3d

We're so grateful to Sak for his work with @britishlibrary.bsky.social playbills - not only does blplaybills.org make them findable online, but we learn from his experiments!

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 3d

6Music is celebrating Ada Lovelace and women in STEM today - find out more about Ada Lovelace Day and some of the events being held this year: findingada.com/worldwide-ev... #ALD #AdaLovelaceDay

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Peter Butler @peter-butler.bsky.social · 3d

Bloomberg research found wholesale electricity up ~270% in areas near data centers

It doesn't seem like nearly enough people are taking it seriously

One A.I. image isn't too much energy, but 5 million videos? Per day/hour/minute whatever. It's not sustainable

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring

Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

www.bloomberg.com

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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 4d

Two of the most common climate misconceptions I see, even among knowledgeable folks, are that (1) most people aren't worried about climate change, and (2) if they were, they'd act.

Not true! Data show (1) most people are worried, but (2) they won’t act if they don’t know what to do-and most don’t.

A map of the world showing how levels of worry in most countries are greater than 70%. Source: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, International Public Opinion on Climate Change, 2023.

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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 4d

Yale researchers didn't stop there. They also identified what people most need to know to catalyze action and support climate policy; and it's not about global temps, ice sheets, or ocean currents.

What people most need to know about climate change is that (1) others care, and (2) there is hope.

Understanding six “key truths” about climate change predicts policy support, discussion, and political advocacy

Social norms and collective efficacy are strong predictors

climatecommunication.yale.edu

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mia @miaout.bsky.social · 3d

In which Sak Supple shares his experiments with using LLMs to transcribe 18th and 19th century playbills from the British Library - manicules, long 's' and all! 'blplaybills.org: better search results using LLMs' www.bl.uk/stories/blog...

#OCR #TheaterHistory #LLMs #AI #ATR

blplaybills.org: better search results using LLMs

Search for, view and download 300 years of theatre posters from Great Britain and Ireland, 1600–1902.

www.bl.uk

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Louis Coiffait-Gunn @louiscoiffait-gunn.bsky.social · 4d

World Economic Forum's report on media & information literacy, with libraries featured throughout www.weforum.org/publications....

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mia @miaout.bsky.social · 4d

Why do LLMs freak out over the seahorse emoji? vgel.me/posts/seahor...

Why do LLMs freak out over the seahorse emoji?

Investigating the seahorse emoji doom loop using logitlens.

vgel.me

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Luke McKernan @lukemckernan.bsky.social · 5d

Thanking librarians, past and present lukemckernan.com/2025/10/05/t...

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Lorcan Dempsey @lorcand.bsky.social · 7d

"from hard experience, I and others working in scholarly communications have learned that the term “institutional repository” often elicits blank expressions from faculty. It is much more efficient to emphasize prestige, visibility, impact, legacy, flexibility—whatever resonates." buff.ly/UsQhdNA

When Focusing on Terminology Becomes a Hurdle to Open Access Outreach

Conversations about open access can be riddled with distracting language. But what if we treated these failures to communicate as opportunities to learn more?

katinamagazine.org

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d

‘175 years ago this year, Queen Victoria gave her assent to “an Act for enabling town councils to establish public libraries & museums”, that enabled local authorities… to levy a ha’penny on the rates to establish a free public library.’ @richove.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Libraries are palaces for the people. Their ramparts need...

The spirit of public improvement that led to the legislation that created free public libraries 175 years go needs to be rekindled

observer.co.uk

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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 6d

I’ve just added my voice to this consultation saying I don’t want a situation in which staff and fellow swimmers might scrutinise or judge my body, or anyone else’s, when I use the ponds. The current policy of trans inclusion works perfectly well. You can fill out the consultation linked below.

Bat Krown 🦇 @katbrownwrites.com · 7d

Those tedious and mysteriously funded transphobes want to limit access to the Ponds so I’ve had a pleasant 10 mins filling this out on why seeing a variety of women is magic and judging by what people look like or can do is very slippery territory hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.isn

Future access to the Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds

Inviting feedback from pond users, the local community, and stakeholders on how the Kenwood Ladies’, and Highgate Men’s ponds should operate in the future.

hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d

This is so good from Cory Doctorow on all the tricks Amazon uses to get both consumers to pay more, and how businesses on the platform end up paying it 45-51 cents on every dollar.

Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and ...

www.theguardian.com

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