Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 3d

I love that shop!

Especially when I coordinate bookings for them at the fringe!

1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 3d

Good

Reposted by Ross Gibson

Cecile Menard @cecilebm.bsky.social · 4d

Get involved. Sign the open letter. Join us.
#womenagainstthefarrightscotland #WAFRS #SUTR

2 4

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you!

And thank you for always replying to Tweets (and whatever they are called here), your responses are always very helpful.

1

Reposted by Ross Gibson

Criminology & Social Justice Research Cluster @ Strathclyde @crimsocjust.bsky.social · 5d

Excited to say that our MSc in #Criminology and Social Policy has a new start date of September 2026.

Want to come learn from dynamic researchers in a supportive and inclusive space? Find out more here:

www.strath.ac.uk/courses/post...

MSc Criminology & Social Policy Masters | University of Strathclyde

www.strath.ac.uk

1 1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 5d

Take her to court, please.

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 5d

It’s been nice knowing you Michael.

1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 6d

Hello.

Congratulations first of all.

Would this chapter be useful for research outwith psychology?
(Social work in my case)

Thank you!

1 2

Reposted by Ross Gibson

Scottish Association of Social Work @scotssocialwork.bsky.social · 8d

Our members tell us that the concept of making a profit from vulnerable children in need of care is deeply uncomfortable. In this consultation, we emphasise the need for high-quality care services which have room to grow and develop without accumulating excessive profit.

Financial transparency and profit limitation in children's residential care, consultation response

Consultation response from SASW

basw.co.uk

2 2

Reposted by Ross Gibson

Unite UCU @uniteucu.bsky.social · 9d

Fifty branches, representing over 36% of UCU members, have now called for @drjogrady.bsky.social to enter unconditional negotiations & remove the threat of punitive deductions against staff.

Unite's repeated requests for such talks have had no response. Will she now listen to @ucu.org.uk members?

We call on Jo Grady and UCU SMT to:
• Enter negotiations with Unite UCU without preconditions.
• Stop the threat of punitive deductions for ASOS - this breaches UCU and TUC policy and only serves to undermine all of us, not least those UCU members currently involved in legal test cases against punitive deductions after taking lawful industrial action.

Signed, 25, no 37, no 46, no 50 UCU branch committees (and still counting)

1 10 10

Reposted by Ross Gibson

Drop Site @dropsitenews.com · 10d

💥Breaking: Italy’s two largest unions call national general strike after Israel’s flotilla attack

The Italian unions CGIL and USB announced a nationwide general strike for Friday, October 3, covering all public and private sectors. The move follows Israel’s attack on the Gaza flotilla carrying...

4 120 280

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 10d

Nobody believes anything university managers say.

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 12d

We won’t.

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 13d

Idenntical

1 1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 13d

Unite too?

1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 13d

Can’t they just stay down there? We don’t want them back.

1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 13d

Well done!

1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 14d

Please read this thread - and the article linked - re AI.

Especially if you have any thoughts of using AI in social work, education, or anything else where humans are inportant.

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Sep 6

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

1 2 3

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 14d

You idiots

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 15d

1,341,958 now.

Please sign this.

[email protected] @francescrook.bsky.social · 15d

Labour’s plan for ID cards is sheer panic. Stirring up hatred for foreigners again. Panic, not policy.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Petition: Do not introduce Digital ID cards

We demand that the UK Government immediately commits to not introducing a digital ID cards. There are reports that this is being looked at.

petition.parliament.uk

1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 15d

And mine.

1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 15d

Is it normal for a speaker to be invited to a union rally when their leadership has resulted in IA and dispute for years?

Do @pcsunion.bsky.social want to be associated with this?

Perhaps they could invited @uniteucu.bsky.social instead?

1

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 15d

Have you been asleep the past 30 years?

1

Reposted by Ross Gibson

Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana.bsky.social · 16d

Labour’s plan for compulsory digital ID risks creating a more authoritarian state.

Under constant surveillance, we would have to pass through digital checkpoints just to live our daily lives — with even more barriers for minorities, migrants and the digitally excluded.

35 150 490

Ross Gibson @rossgibson.bsky.social · 16d

I reckon Wes Streeting would say a lot of things too