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Adrian Kirwan

@adriankirwan.bsky.social

590 followers 1.8K following 150 posts

Historian of Science and Technology. Mostly talking about history of telecommunications, Irish history, radium and technology in teaching and learning. Teaches Critical Skills Maynooth University.

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 19d

My latest article has just been published in The Irish Journal of Medical Science

'An Irish Radium Institute: the Royal Dublin Society and the promotion of radioactive therapy in twentieth-century Ireland'

rdcu.be/eHct4

a man playing a trumpet and a man playing a guitar are standing next to each other

ALT: a man playing a trumpet and a man playing a guitar are standing next to each other

media.tenor.com

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Peter Farrelly @pfarrelly2025.bsky.social · 18h

The Thatcher conference posters are up and you may see mine and Ciara Nicholson face about @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social . Anyone interested in attending the information is on the poster, or just let me know. @qubhistory.bsky.social @irishstudiesqub.bsky.social

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 18h

Enjoyed talking to second-year marketing students at Maynooth University yesterday. Drawing on work by @emilymbender.bsky.social @alexhanna.bsky.social @biblioracle.bsky.social @wayne-holmes.bsky.social @timnitgebru.bsky.social and others to discuss Critical AI literacies.

Reposted by Adrian Kirwan

Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 1d

Just to be clear, an English degree - learning to critically assess texts - is actually one of the most dangerous for people such as Badenoch.

An educated population, able to bring hundreds of years of context to statements in a dawning age of AI slop and attention-seeking dishonesty is also vital.

The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 1d

So, the plan is to cut English, the arts, and sociology - the degrees that actually study culture - while on another part of your platform claiming to “defend” British culture.

It’s performance nationalism with a reading age of seven.

Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English
The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 2d

Delighted that the @maynoothuniversity.ie Teaching and Learning Reading Group returns tomorrow to discuss 'Title: Exploring the role and performance of Graduate Teaching Assistants'. Full details: www.maynoothuniversity.ie/centre-teach...

Continuous Professional Development

Professional Learning Workshops and Events for Staff The Centre for Teaching and Learning team provides a range of professional learning workshops and events for staff throughout the year covering a

www.maynoothuniversity.ie

Reposted by Adrian Kirwan

Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 3d

The fact they jumped straight to AI actors modeled after women when, if I’m not mistaken, male actors are a higher labor cost kind of says it all doesn’t it,

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 4d

Like… it's kind of right there, no?

"AI" generated image of woman with dark hair sitting in a chair in front of posters with random shapes and symbols meant to look like images and text on movie posters, all superimposed with a post from k.w.bogen reading
"AI actresses can't negotiate. They can't say they'd prefer their bodies not be shown certgain ways. They can't refuse degrading scenes. They can't express distress about disturbing content. They can't ask the creators :why would you do that to me? Why put any woman through watching that? If AI film winds up being the path, we're about to see an entirely new generation (and more brutal depiction) of media misogyny."

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Myra Cheng @myra.bsky.social · 5d

AI always calling your ideas “fantastic” can feel inauthentic, but what are sycophancy’s deeper harms? We find that in the common use case of seeking AI advice on interpersonal situations—specifically conflicts—sycophancy makes people feel more right & less willing to apologize.

Screenshot of paper title: Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence

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🪓💀 Dr. Alexei Q Tschuner 💀🪓 @surliertexan.bsky.social · 4d

"and some even hope AI could simulate the responses of minorities or other groups who are often underrepresented in studies."

You fucks trained a parrot to talk words & now instead of studying trans people you're writing up the parrot's responses as research. there is no place in hell hot enough

Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 5d

People are running stats on LLM-generated participants and think they’re being social scientists when in fact they’re technically just playing a very strange video game. This is like saying you’re doing math research because you’re playing sudoku.

www.science.org/content/arti...

AI-generated ‘participants’ can lead social science experiments astray, study finds

Data produced by “silicon samples” depends on researchers’ exact choice of models, prompts, and settings

www.science.org

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Kate Kirkpatrick @philosofemme.bsky.social · 5d

JOB: Associate Professor or Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, in association with a Tutorial Fellowship at Merton College. AoS Ethics and/or Political Philosophy, with at least an AoC in Feminist Philosophy.
#PhilJobs
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOW474/a...

Associate Professorship or Professorship of Philosophy - Philosophy APTFC at University of Oxford

Explore an exciting academic career as a Associate Professorship or Professorship of Philosophy - Philosophy APTFC. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities...

www.jobs.ac.uk

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 7d

Great discussion. Thinking about how we implement some great ideas. How do we train students to utilise these technologies in a critical way that aids rather than hinders learning. #LTHEchat

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 7d

A6 #LTHEChat @nurun.bsky.social Coming from the humanities I going to say all for slow thinking.

Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 7d

Excellent point. A central consideration is if GenAI will contribute further to this. (Reflecting here on training data etc. which reinforces a particular worldview). #LTHEChat

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 7d

This is a really good point. Lots of discussion around the usefulness of Socratic dialogue with GenAI. However, we need to consider how we train students to do this if we are considering Chatbots as a teaching and learning tool.

Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 7d

I agree. Even thinking about the concept of intelligence and what we mean when we use that word needs consideration (has a lot of loaded connotations). These are particularly important conversations when considering 'Artificial Intelligence'. #LTHEChat

Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 7d

A3 #LTHEChat @nurun.bsky.social Critical AI literacies are really important. Students need to understand the ELIZA effect and view GenAI as a synthetic text machine. It can be useful but it is not 'intelligence'. More than this, understanding why their 'intelligence' is unique is just as important.

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 7d

Limitations. Students need foundational knowledge to do this. Danger that students will not engage in dialogue without training as to what this is. May just use GenAI for answer. Danger of isolation of students from peers and instructors.

Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 7d

A2 #LTHEChat

Benefits. Provides students with potential to offer alternative viewpoints, perspectives that help them question their knowledge/interpretation/perspective

Reposted by Adrian Kirwan

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 7d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 10d

Everyone hates a police state until it’s a police state with Tech

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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Dave Lee @davelee.me · 10d

Why does it take years, Amazon?

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$fractalecho.bsky.social$

Rua M. Williams @fractalecho.bsky.social · 11d

The e book is available link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 14d

Would highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about not only Generative AI but also why we should value and cherish writing.

John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 14d

Someone alerted me to the fact that the audiobook of More Than Words is currently on sale at Amazon, only $6.95. I think right now the audio version is exclusive to Amazon so if you're an audio book person, this is your chance to grab a bargain. www.amazon.com/More-than-Wo...

More than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI

Amazon.com: More than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI (Audible Audio Edition): John Warner, Eric Jason Martin, Blackstone Publishing: Books

www.amazon.com

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 15d

A good (short) course on Designing Course layouts is here: www.ahead.ie/ARK-Designin...

Free Course | Designing Course Layouts for Learner Success

- AHEAD

www.ahead.ie

Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 15d

'Digital natives' are a myth. If anything, the current student cohort -- due to their engagement with the internet via Apps -- are less equipped than there Millennial predecessors. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Not to say that VLE's are navigable.

The myths of the digital native and the multitasker

Current discussions about educational policy and practice are often embedded in a mind-set that considers students who were born in an age of omnipres…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Adrian Kirwan @adriankirwan.bsky.social · 16d

Heading to @ria.ie to talk about AI and assessment at 'The future of AI and education' conference today. #edchat #HigherEd

The future of AI and education - Royal Irish Academy

Join us for a conference exploring the future of AI and education across the post-primary and higher education sectors. About the event Co-organised by the Royal Irish Academy, the Insight Research Ir...

www.ria.ie

Reposted by Adrian Kirwan

Prof. Catherine Flick @liedra.net · 17d

In other news, sky is blue, sea is wet, and anyone who has worked with machine learning has known this all along

Prof Mike Yearworth @mikeyearworth.bsky.social · 17d

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."

www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws

In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...

www.computerworld.com

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