Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · Sep 9

With students heading back to the classroom, a group of cognitive scientists and AI researchers has published one of the most forceful and evidence-backed calls yet to reject the "uncritical adoption of AI" in academia:

Cognitive scientists and AI researchers make a forceful call to reject “uncritical adoption" of AI in academia

A new paper calls on academia to repel rampant AI in university departments and classrooms.

www.bloodinthemachine.com

5 400 890

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 12d

New analysis of a 1-million yr old fossil skull captured worldwide media attention this week, with many headlines saying it requires a complete rewrite/rethink of human evolution. This is an intriguing study & it's brilliant to see so much public enthusiasm for deciphering our origins, but....1/n 🧪

Image shows just two example headlines from prominent media outlets earlier this week, heralding a newly published discovery that supposedly "rewrites human evolution". Left side, from the BBC: "Million-year-old skull rewrites human evolution, scientists claim"; right side, from the New York Post: "1M-year-old skull discovery could change everything we know about human evolution".

2 26 79

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · Jul 30

Hive mind: If you want to communicate “stop!” with an emoji, would you use 🤚, 🖐️, ✋, 🙅 or a different one? Can you give an example and in which situation?

1

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · Jul 22

Helen Lewis and Yasha Mounk on ‘the genius myth’ www.persuasion.community/p/helen-lewi...

Helen Lewis on The Genius Myth

Yascha Mounk and Helen Lewis discuss why we look for the extraordinary.

www.persuasion.community

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · Jun 4

Amazing account of ChatGPT's sycophancy and confabulation on steroids.

amandaguinzburg.substack.com/p/diabolus-e...

Diabolus Ex Machina

This Is Not An Essay

amandaguinzburg.substack.com

17 89 270

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Charlotte Wiltshire @charlotte9080.bsky.social · Apr 28

Dr Matt Henderson does an awesome job narrating his paper, "Shared semantics- Exploring the interface between human and chimpanzee gestural communication" 🐒 👩‍👦 .
Check it out here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqHB...

Shared semantics: Exploring the interface between human and chimpanzee gestural communication

Henderson et al. 2024 Mind and LanguageAbstractStriking similarities across ape gestural repertoires suggest shared phylogenetic origins that likely provided...

www.youtube.com

1 1 3

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Charlotte Wiltshire @charlotte9080.bsky.social · May 5

Back with another audio paper 🎧! Interested in gestures humans share with chimpanzees? Dr Matt Henderson narrates Patel-Grosz et al’s paper, “Primate origins of discourse-managing gestures- the case of hand fling” 🦾
Listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQRl...
#WildMindsLab #MondayMicDrop #STEM #science

Patel-Grosz et al. 2023 Primate origins of discourse-managing gestures: the case of hand fling

Read by Mathew HendersonThe last decades have seen major advances in the study of gestures both in humans and non-human primates. In this paper, we seriously...

www.youtube.com

1 2 3

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Olivia Ferrari @oliviaferrari.bsky.social · May 12

One of my favorite articles I've worked on—as a drummer aspiring to be as good as these chimps one day!

@vestaeleuteri.bsky.social @nakedprimate.bsky.social and their team find chimpanzees drum rhythmically to communicate

Do chimpanzees have rhythm? Listen to their drumming.

New research on the rhythmic drumming and complex calls of chimpanzees could point scientists to the origins of language.

www.nationalgeographic.com

4 4

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · May 5

Hi Emily! I’m a linguist working on meaning in the natural world, focusing on body movement in human and non-human primates. I’d be very grateful if you can add me to the list. Staff page: www.hf.uio.no/iln/english/...

Pritty Patel-Grosz - Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies

Read this story on the University of Oslo's website.

www.hf.uio.no

1

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · May 5

Joint work with Ragnhild Solberg, Jonah Katz, Mai Ha Vu, Alexander Jensenius and Patrick Grosz. /4

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · May 5

EDM syntax shows that similar cognitive principles are at play in two different modalities, audio (EDM) and visual (comics), allowing for one-to-one mappings between visual categories and EDM categories. /3

a group of peanuts characters are dancing on a stage with yahoo written in the corner

ALT: a group of peanuts characters are dancing on a stage with yahoo written in the corner

media.tenor.com

1 1

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · May 5

We argue: EDM tracks exhibit a structural organization centered around the core sections—parts of tracks in which the main groove is maintained and the bass line and bass drum are present. Core sections are typically preceded by a buildup that culminates in the Drop. /2

a woman playing music on a pioneer dj

ALT: a woman playing music on a pioneer dj

media.tenor.com

1

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · May 5

EDM is produced electronically with the aim to encourage dancing. It is a type of music that encompasses a range of genres, such as house, techno, trance, garage, dubstep, hardstyle, or drum’n’bass. /1

1 1

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · May 5

Electronic dance music (EDM) exhibits a hierarchical structure also found in comics/cartoons! Out now in Musicae Scientiae🧪https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/008866 thread below:

A wave form of an EDM track on the bottom with the syntactic analysis above

1 1 7

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Maël Leroux @maelmleroux.bsky.social · Mar 26

🚨 Job opportunity 🚨
A 3-year post doc position is opening as part of my #APELANG project funded by the @agencerecherche.bsky.social

It’s about multimodal combinatorial communication in wild #chimpanzees 🐵

Job ad here: maelleroux-research.weebly.com/apelang.html
And here 👇🏻

2 50 40

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · Mar 26

Call for papers 👀 🧪
The Emoji Workshop🤩🫶🏽 to take place August 29 2025, University of Oslo

**Abstract submission deadline: May 16**

The workshop will be accompanied by a panel discussion on ‘Emoji meaning: stability and variation’

www.hf.uio.no/iln/english/...

The Emoji Workshop - Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies

The project “Semantics and Pragmatics of Emojis in Digital Communication (EmDiCom)” (funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG) is hosting a one-day workshop on the linguistics of emojis at the Un...

www.hf.uio.no

6 7

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Richard Moore @richardmoore.bsky.social · Mar 19

A sad day for the world of great ape language research.

www.apeinitiative.org/remembering-...

Remembering Kanzi — Ape Initiative

www.apeinitiative.org

29 93

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Theresa Matzinger @thematzing.bsky.social · Jan 9

Don't forget to submit your abstracts for #Protolang9 in Vienna in September 2025! Submission deadline for individual papers and workshops: February 14, 2025. More info: protolang9.univie.ac.at Looking forward to seeing you there!

1 3 4

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · Dec 18

Hi! Thanks a lot for compiling and sharing! Would be grateful to be added!

1

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · Nov 18

Thanks for compiling! Would love to be added, I work on cross cultural co-speech gesture use.

1

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · Nov 15

Oh no I’m sorry! I find day two to be the toughest, then pure energy after that - I hope you’ll feel this way too! ✨

Reposted by Pritty Patel-Grosz

Paul Novosad @novosad.bsky.social · Oct 9

What kind of childhood makes a top scientist? Is it enough to have all the right traits (brilliance, grit, etc) or do you need the right family too?

And why should we care? A 🧵 on our paper on the Nobel Laureates.

A teaser: the income distribution of the laureates' fathers.
1/N

12 200 420

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · Nov 14

Welcome back!

1

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · Nov 14

Thanks for compiling! I’m a linguist working with primatologists and zoologists on structure and meaning in gestures and dance in chimps, bonobos and gibbons, I’d be grateful to be added!

1 3

Pritty Patel-Grosz @prittypg.bsky.social · Nov 13

Thanks for compiling! I’d be grateful to be added. I’m a linguist, working on language evolution through dance and gesture cognition.

1