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@mdmendelsohn.bsky.social
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Positively human | Linguist by training | Would like to live in precedented times
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Reposted
karenhao.bsky.social
Earlier this year, after receiving emails from people in the throes of AI psychosis, I stayed in touch with one man as he journeyed to recovery.

I'm grateful to James that he was willing to go on record. He wanted people to know: humanlike chatbots are dangerous.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkGk...
He Lost His Mind Using ChatGPT. Then It Told Him to Contact Me.
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
www.youtube.com
October 15, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted
sonjadrimmer.bsky.social
For the latest issue of Artforum I wrote about the culture of “AI” in my sector of academia, arguing that a focus on what it does distracts attention away from examining the exploitative conditions that the hopeful rhetoric of its promise upholds. www.artforum.com/features/gen...
MACHINE YEARNING
Sonja Drimmer critically examines art historians’ recent embrace of generative AI as a tool for humanities research.
www.artforum.com
April 1, 2025 at 12:36 PM
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emilymbender.bsky.social
I still think it is worth fighting for this venue to not get absorbed into the AI hype borg. As I said last year: doi.org/10.48448/fm2...
Presidential Address
On-demand video platform giving you access to lectures from conferences worldwide.
doi.org
July 29, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Reposted
iansociologo.bsky.social
Yesterday I used this "AI -Free Statement" in a conference talk for the first time. Still trying to figure out the exact language.

Feel free to borrow, modify, etc.
At no point in this study did I use AI. This includes the literature review, logical organization, writing, analysis, and proofreading. I do not cite any studies that use AI, to the extent that it is possible to know.
June 27, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted
karenhao.bsky.social
In a preview of EMPIRE OF AI for @theatlantic.com, I share new behind-the-scenes details on what happened when OpenAI’s board fired Sam Altman—as well as the core argument of my book and why it matters to everyone. Gift link.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
‘We’re Definitely Going to Build a Bunker Before We Release AGI’
The true story behind the chaos at OpenAI.
www.theatlantic.com
May 15, 2025 at 9:44 PM
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emilymbender.bsky.social
LLMs are nothing more than models of the distribution of the word forms in their training data, with weights modified by post-training to produce somewhat different distributions. Unless your use case requires a model of a distribution of word forms in text, indeed, they suck and aren't useful.
hankgreen.bsky.social Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · Apr 24
There are a lot of critiques of LLMs that I agree with but "they suck and aren't useful" doesn't really hold water.

I understand people not using them because of social, economic, and environmental concerns. And I also understand people using them because they can be very useful.

Thoughts?
April 24, 2025 at 4:54 PM
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eviljoemcveigh.bsky.social
I know the semester has already started, but here's my AI policy that I give to students. They are strictly forbidden from using it. I list a lot of reasons and sources for why. Feel free to use and adapt this for your needs. Link to the doc in the thread.
Screenshot of Joe McVeigh's AI policy for students in his classes. There is a link to the document in the next skeet. Screenshot of Joe McVeigh's AI policy for students in his classes. There is a link to the document in the next skeet. Screenshot of Joe McVeigh's AI policy for students in his classes. There is a link to the document in the next skeet. Screenshot of Joe McVeigh's AI policy for students in his classes. There is a link to the document in the next skeet.
January 24, 2025 at 5:01 PM
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meredithmeredith.bsky.social
Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...
What’s a technology that you think is overhyped? I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry. Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto. It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.
February 19, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted
emilymbender.bsky.social
Interesting piece from @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social at @404media.co on the difference between curation and censorship & the important work of librarians:

www.404media.co/ai-generated...
AI-Generated Slop Is Already In Your Public Library
Librarians say that taxpayers are already paying for low quality AI-generated ebooks in public libraries.
www.404media.co
February 4, 2025 at 2:46 PM