Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by 😶 stuart reeves 😶

berserk @worstplace.bsky.social · 3d

Who can say if dice are sentient

😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 4d

when the bubble bursts I'm wondering what will happen to research fields and researchers who have pivoted everything they do to "AI"

I'm thinking particularly about the lack of conceptual depth in tech driven research (cough CHI cough)

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 5d

Woman saying “Jeff Bezos says Al is in an industrial bubble but society will get 'gigantic' benefits from the tech” and a man opening a calendar to see a picture of Ed Zitron, the smiling man

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Reposted by 😶 stuart reeves 😶

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 5d

“.. His conclusion is very stark: not just that an economy already at stall speed will fall into recession as both the data-center and wealth effects plateau, but that they’ll reverse, just as in the dot-com bubble did ..”

@marketwatch.com
www.marketwatch.com/story/the-ai...

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 6d

you think GS is bad?

just wait till you learn about Scopus - picks and shovels par excellence

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Reposted by 😶 stuart reeves 😶

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 12d

Curbing ‘unfunded’ research ‘could chase away academics’.

Researchers wary of signals from senior figures that universities “can’t afford” research without external funding.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Curbing ‘unfunded’ research ‘could chase away academics’ - Research Professional News

Researchers wary of signals from senior figures that universities “can’t afford” research without external funding

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 10d

turns out relational databases are actually very damaging for your health and turn you into whatever this is

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 11d

Larry Ellison envisions a surveillance state in which techbros rule. '“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.'

Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state where ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ | Fortune

Oracle's Larry Ellison believes citizens and police alike will be under constant surveillance of each other.

fortune.com

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 13d

I'm reminded of a recent pearl I found in Newcastle

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 15d

I was curious so I looked but I wish I hadn't

tossing off a column every week composed of someone else's milquetoast opinions he's read online somewhere - where do you even start?

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 15d

www.nottinghampost.com/news/notting...

Huge cost of university's controversial new campus revealed

It has been spending millions while cutting staff jobs

www.nottinghampost.com

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 19d

FWIW I think we need to just ban all UK government ministers from visiting Silicon Valley or talking to any tech people

they lack the critical faculties to handle it, just as they probably shouldn't be allowed on the internet either

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 19d

Peter Kyle going through his own personal "Silicon Valley" phase

apparently students must aspire to be individualist entrepreneurs not collegiate teamworkers

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 19d

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade

Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’

Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 20d

precisely

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 20d

learning how to be a border guard

absolute garbage online course about how to "support immigration compliance as an academic member of staff" - you really don't want to know what is written on this page, honestly.

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 20d

claiming "it's the WiFi" in front of a tech audience

Shacknews @shacknews.com · 20d

LiveAI demo fails on the first prompt at Meta Connect 2025. #Meta #AI #LiveAI

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Reposted by 😶 stuart reeves 😶

Tim Krief @timkrief.com · 22d

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 23d

have you told him?

UUK already has pretty low credibility with many staff, particularly those who went through the USS debacle

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 26d

if Malcolm Press really did make this offensive and ignorant statement about "unfunded hobbyist research" then he's not fit to represent universities in the UK

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 26d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 28d

they can spin it as much as they like, i.e., 'super-university'

but it doesn't change the underlying UKHE conditions - 'mergers' (more like 'takeovers') are about kicking the financial can down the road because no-one wants to deal with the real problems

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · Sep 5

the standard university management mindset that I've consistently encountered is "I know metrics and rankings are made up nonsense but we have to engage with it because if we don't we'll be left behind"

the notion of a principled resistance is completely alien

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · Sep 4

12th Jan 2025: "Today’s plan mainlines AI into the veins of this enterprising nation – revolutionising our public services and putting more money in people’s back pockets."

www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/m...

M365 Copilot fails to up productivity in UK government trial

: AI tech shows promise writing emails or summarizing meetings. Don't bother with anything more complex

www.theregister.com

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · Sep 4

"You don’t want to spend more time doing this than you need to, and you don’t want this to be more complicated than it has to be"

umm what

I have a clever solution to this "spending time on REF" thing

Reposted by 😶 stuart reeves 😶

Aoife Nolan @aoifenolan.bsky.social · Sep 2

A university is not just made up of academics and students. And those groups of University citizens cannot function properly without the work of the staff whose jobs are at direct risk here.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

University of Nottingham workers vote to strike over job cuts

Unison said more than three quarters of staff who voted were in favour of industrial action.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by 😶 stuart reeves 😶

Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · Aug 26

It's worth noting that these are not merely stupid questions, but have the function - as does much of the professional and academic ethics industry - of taking up up space for serious discussion of politics and value with speculative, sci-fi bollocks.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Can AIs suffer? Big tech and users grapple with one of most unsettling questions of our times

As first AI-led rights advocacy group is founded, industry is divided on whether models are, or can be, sentient

www.theguardian.com

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😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · Aug 24

I'm not sure there's much relevant here tbh

I'm talking about the kinds of shared, probably quite widespread understanding amongst many UK researchers whose institutions adopt these sorts of technologies in house - whatever the legal actualities are is disjoint from that

😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · Aug 24

it's unfortunately extremely UK gov behaviour to get taken in by a charlatan in the belief that somehow this will contribute to growth

even in the best case scenario, how will using the ofuscated plagiarism machine go beyond diminishing returns? no-one ever explains that

Fabio Chiusi @fabiochiusi.bsky.social · Aug 24

“The non-binding deal could give OpenAI access to government data and lead to its software being used in education, defence, security and the justice system”

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Deal to get ChatGPT Plus for whole of UK discussed by Open AI boss and minister

Exclusive: Deal that could have cost £2bn was floated at meeting between technology secretary Peter Kyle and Sam Altman

www.theguardian.com

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