Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 1h

So the business model is dependent on theft.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Jennifer Kretchmer @dreamwisp.bsky.social · 15h

Because it feels relevant as we continue to evaluate the media and our representatives’ statements, my favorite way to identify the active vs. passive voice.

A post by Rebecca Johnson:
“I finally learned how to teach my guys to ID the passive voice. If you can insert "by zombies" after the verb, you have passive voice.”

A tumblr respond from mightymur:
“The final, brilliant word on passive voice.
"She was killed [by zombies.]"<--passive
"Zombies killed [by zombies] her." <-- active”

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pieist.xenoplasm.com @pieist.xenoplasm.com · 1d

Why bother to read something nobody could be bothered to write?

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 20h

ideally, the only places i want to be in AI are spaces for resistance, refusal and community organising

in reality, i find myself in spaces where AI governance, regulatory or institutional/scientific decisions are made where either i my input is paid lip service or entirely ignored

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 1d

This is true for students too. Yes there are many factors impacting student reading, but working 30+ hours a week to be able to afford college is definitely one of them.

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 1d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 1d

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Kara Patterson 🇨🇦 @karakpatterson.bsky.social · 1d

This piece makes several excellent points but this quote summed it up very well …

“You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music…”

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda hits out at AI-generated videos of her dead father: ‘Stop doing this to him’

Film-maker tells the public to stop sending her videos, saying: ‘You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings’ Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor and comedian Robin Williams, has spoken out against AI-generated content featuring her father. “Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” Zelda wrote in an Instagram story on Monday. “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t. If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on. But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop. It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Andy Brockman @andybrockman.bsky.social · Sep 19

Everybody makes money out of academic authors except the authors...News.

Wiley is the latest academic publisher to reach a multi-million deal to allow access to its content to AI developers, with no opt out, let alone payment, for the authors who created that content.

Wiley set to earn $44m from AI rights deals, confirms “no opt-out" for authors

The US publisher is the latest to capitalise on deals to give tech firms access to its authors’ content to train their Large Language Models (LLMs).

www.thebookseller.com

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Andrew Tobolowsky @andytobo.bsky.social · 1d

My university has something called the "raft debate" where professors defend their disciplines. I've been chosen to represent the humanities and they asked me to make a promo video. You know what I had to do.

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Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 1d

Junk science + AI + political agendas = knowledge crisis.

Are We Facing a New Dark Age for Public Health Data? www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/ment...

Huge issue: "AI can produce compelling 'scientific' papers featuring plausible data and convincing figures."

Are We Facing a New Dark Age for Public Health Data?

The quality of scientific research is facing the twin threats of AI-generated data fabrication and the loss of long-standing, trusted, public domain datasets.

www.psychologytoday.com

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DocAtCDI @docatcdi.com · 2d

How to cook the correct amount of pasta:

1. Pour out how much you think you need.

2. Wrong.

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Colleen Chanel (Colleen Toscano) @colleenchanel.bsky.social · 4d

This petition calls on Ottawa to enforce the Canada Health Act, attach strict transparency rules to federal transfers, and stop provinces from hiding the true costs of privatization.
Sign protect health care, education, and infrastructure from costly privatization.
www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...

www.ourcommons.ca

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Kara Patterson 🇨🇦 @karakpatterson.bsky.social · 4d

“A university, in other words, does not exclusively benefit students. It is a locus of civic uplift and transformation. That we ever came to understand the gifts of higher education as unaffordable liabilities is absurd.”

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 4d

yet another way that the war on academic knowledge is a war on the past & a violent thinning out of historical experience — you’re taking years & often decades of slow-building expertise (& the investments that made it possible) and just tossing it in the bin

Rob Hawkes @robbhawkes.bsky.social · 5d

As more of my valued colleagues face the threat of redundancy, here’s a quick reminder that it takes years and years of public investment to train an academic. Cutting someone with this wealth of experience loose isn’t “saving” anything. It is a massive waste of our collective resources.

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Dr Paul Dorfman @drpauldorfman.bsky.social · 5d

#Solar becomes main source of electricity in the #EU for first time. More than half of the EU’s #electricity in the second quarter of 2025 came from #RenewableEnergy
www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-p...

Solar becomes main source of electricity in the EU for first time

More than half of the EU’s electricity in the second quarter of 2025 came from renewable energy

www.independent.co.uk

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 4d

The economic argument for doing fundamental (non-applied) scientific research is that it has a FANTASTIC return on investment. That return may take decades, and you can't predict it, but it has worked out like this since science began. Basic discoveries lead to tech advances, eventually.

2/🧵

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onion person @junlper.beer · 5d

it’s really good when “technology of the future” treats you leaving as if you were leaving a cult

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 6d

What academic worth their salt trusts the word of ANY Big Tech company? Their histories demonstrate they will lie, cheat and steal and that they do not care about anything about making trillions; why trust them? Why entrust our students to them? Why train your chatbot replacements?

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 6d

“The pilot will explore how AI can enhance teaching, research and university operations, while also gathering feedback to guide the responsible and effective use of AI across campus.”

William & Mary launches ChatGPT Edu pilot

By integrating artificial intelligence tools, the university is positioning itself at the forefront of higher education innovation.

news.wm.edu

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Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team · 6d

“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.”
― Jane Goodall

💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero

Jane Goodall with monarch butterfly scarf

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Prof Brendan Crabb AC @brendancrabb.bsky.social · 6d

Such an important piece. The positive momentum behind clean indoor air is palpable. But we’re not there yet as my last post demonstrates. Please read and share and get behind this cause.

theconversation.com/why-investme...

Why investment in clean indoor air is vital preparation for the pandemics and climate emergencies to come

Unchecked airborne infections cost billions in lost health and productivity each year – likely more than the cost of better ventilation to clean up indoor air.

theconversation.com

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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 6d

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

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John Woodside @woodsideful.bsky.social · 6d

"Pouring billions more of Canadian taxpayers' dollars into a new tar sands pipeline when Europe and China are leading a global charge away from fossil fuels would be about as smart as investing in Blockbuster video stores when Netflix was on the rise.” - @climatekeith.bsky.social

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Diabolical Plots @diabolicalplots.com · 7d

IMO every publication and every publisher should have a clear statement about their generative AI policy. To dictate what is acceptable writer usage, yes, but also to declare their own usage (or lack thereof). Do they use it for slushreading, editing, illustration, correspondence?

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Armine Yalnizyan @armineyalnizyan.bsky.social · 8d

The care economy is an economic powerhouse (all annual 2024 data, bigger now)

13.7% of GDP. Eclipses real estate (13.2%). 1.5 x bigger than all manufacturing, 2x bigger than construction, almost 3x bigger than all mining, quarrying and O&G.

>21% of all jobs. Nothing comes remotely close to that.

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Armine Yalnizyan @armineyalnizyan.bsky.social · 8d

It's nuts the care economy is continually excluded as a potential source of economic strength and good jobs in industrial strategy. Without inclusion of how investment proceeds in this huge sector, we'll pay more, get less, and have more crappy jobs instead of decent work.
All within our control. /2

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Tara Moriarty @moriartylab.bsky.social · 9d

ok. More tomorrow on how we dealt with the problem of how to estimate true incidence after the period reported in the Ward paper.

But suffice to say that our approach to this has been anything but amateur....for what it's worth.

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 10d

I realize many people don’t quite get that not every single professor in every single university teaches computer science and might actually be trained in and invested in teaching other things, like let’s say, history? Or poetry.
Or sociology.
It is not our job to teach students how to use AI.

matt94250.bsky.social @matt94250.bsky.social · 10d

If you don’t teach your students how to use AI, you’re doing them a huge disservice because they won’t have jobs in the future.

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