Guy In Philosophy Class Needs To Shut The Fuck Up https://theonion.com/guy-in-philosophy-class-needs-to-shut-the-fuck-up-1819568055/

Exciting!

teachers!

excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone.

take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE
against-a-i.com

AI as corrosive personalised groupthink.

Should be required of all education administrators tempted to go all-in on AI. (Hint: it is kryptonite to the learning process.)

From @julianneregan.bsky.social:

Highly recommended memoir from Budgie - I don't usually well up at the end of a book. I'm not usually able to taste maraschino cherries by just reading / thinking about them either.

👏 #genAI #academia

A warning to people with Academia.edu accounts (as most academics do): if you don't know it yet, they've turned into AI shills. As well as this "podcast", they've also tried to sell me AI-compiled bibliographies. You can go to settings and opt out easily, and I recommend you do.

Exactly. No one is above the law, so maybe these agents should be investigated for excessive force against a Senator.

It feels like AI is at the centre of a clash between people who see university as an awarding business and those who see it as a place of learning and personal growth.

On the one hand, this paper is novel: by framing the challenge in terms of complexity, the authors are offering an original argument. 1/

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

If we're going to save the university, we have to start remaking the humane case for learning - as something we do, not because we are future earners or contributors to GDP, but because we are curious, imaginative & want to expand our understanding; because we are citizens, neighbours & human beings

'Bernard Williams, however, called After Virtue "a brilliant nostalgic fantasy", arguing that the socially distinct moral self, rather than being a product of the Enlightenment, was already present in Plato and Christianity.'

#philsky #Moralphil

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

A nice write-up in the Chronicle that follows up on the Bluesky discussion a couple weeks ago about in-class writing, AI, and that New York magazine article.

www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

Could the term ‘thick’ come from Geertz (even if the idea might be closer to Anscombe)?

So…about AI’s energy use…

“…to create a five-second video, a newer AI model uses ‘about 3.4 million joules, more than 700 times the energy required to generate a high-quality image’. That's the equivalent of running a microwave for over an hour.”

This is the language I put on all of my syllabi this year regarding the use of AI. At this point I don't see any reason to change it.

6. NEVER USE IT YOURSELF. EVER! The most common issue I hear from students is that some of their lecturers use ChatGPT for feedback, syllabus creation, etc., so why shouldn't they? Of course I'm not the boss of you, but as soon as you use it for ANYTHING, you're giving students implicit permission.

'when AI generates summaries, students bypass the cognitive engagement required to actively interpret academic work.

It is precisely this engagement – the effort to comprehend, synthesise and relate ideas – that catalyses learning.' 1/3

Steve Kerr: "I believe in academic freedom. I think it's crucial for all of our institutions to be able to handle their own business the way they want to. And they should not be shaken down and told what to teach, what to say, by our government. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

Blessed are the cheese makers