Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 11h

this is the book I'm currently trying to push on all my friends (it's not working)

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 14h

does this roughly correspond to the divide between 'AI ethics' vs. 'AI safety' labels?

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 1d

is this enough to override Matthew Barnett's preference not to get stabbed? you better believe it! 10^1000 is a big number!

Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 1d

gonna build a Matthew Barnett-stabbing robot equipped with a knife and a CV system built to detect Matthew Barnett. its internal util-o-meter gives it 10^1000 points for stabbing Matthew Barnett.

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Reposted by Shan Kothari

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 3d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 5d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 3d

it is unfortunately true that people continue to post extremely good shit on LessWrong once in a while. (my recent favorite was the post comparing tech founders and church planters)

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 3d

Any ecologist from any country is eligible for the Bazzaz-Pickett Award, as long as they've worked to promote diversity, inclusion, and belonging through their mentorship. Feel free to reach out with any questions!

Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 3d

The nomination deadline for 2026 @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social awards is coming up on November 13, 2025! This year we're accepting nominations for the inaugural Bazzaz-Pickett Award for inclusive mentorship in ecology. We'd love to see as many nominations as possible! esa.org/about/awards/

esa.org

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 3d

the failure of grand theories where all of human social behavior is based on One Big Thing (or a few Big Things) is actually a great source of consolation to me

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Reposted by Shan Kothari

Steve Rathje @steverathje.bsky.social · 7d

🚨 New preprint 🚨

Across 3 experiments (n = 3,285), we found that interacting with sycophantic (or overly agreeable) AI chatbots entrenched attitudes and led to inflated self-perceptions.

Yet, people preferred sycophantic chatbots and viewed them as unbiased!

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Thread 🧵

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Reposted by Shan Kothari

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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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 5d

totally agree with the general thrust, but this seems to be selling short what LLMs do. as I see it, one of the more miraculous things about them is that they can sort of interpolate between existing texts and recombine information to answer questions that haven't been asked before!

"The reason an LLM can answer a factual question is because someone has posted text on that specific question."

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 6d

Maybe not "open source," but it's pretty easy to create your own. Sometimes it even happens by accident! Results may vary, though

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Reposted by Shan Kothari

JP @perrinjan.bsky.social · 6d

All ye of little faith, behold the new Happy Beer Street separated bike lanes, (nearly) complete with jersey barriers! #YEGbike

@yegbike.bsky.social

Photo of the 100 street bike lanes, taken from the corner of 83 ave, facing northeast.

Concrete barriers are in place, and lines have been painted in the lane.

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Reposted by Shan Kothari

Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 7d

Hey authors, the official list of Anthropic works is available for searching.

secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

Submit a Claim

secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 7d

The Toner-Rodgers paper has already been withdrawn as fraudulent

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Reposted by Shan Kothari

Alice Gauthey @a-gthy.bsky.social · 8d

New PhD position in tree ecophysiology at BiFoR-FACE (Uni of Birmingham) 🌳 Looking at tree carbon and water dynamics under elevated CO2 and warming 🌡️
Start Jan 2026. See more info here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/376950

Doctoral Research Fellow - FutureForests - School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences - 106218 - Grade 7

Position Details School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK Fixed salary of £49,747 additional allowances may be applicable depe...

euraxess.ec.europa.eu

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Reposted by Shan Kothari

Florence Ashley @floralashes.bsky.social · 9d

"Why would it bow to antidemocratic pressures by placing a professor on leave without their request, consent, or involvement? That any university would do this is beyond comprehension and is cause for alarm about the future of academic freedom in Canada."

What Happened to the University’s Commitment to Free Expression? Charley Kirk, uAlberta, and Me | Centre for Free Expression

I was shocked when the University of Alberta administration informed me, one of its law professors, that I was being placed on non-disciplinary leave for my social media comments in the wake of Charli...

cfe.torontomu.ca

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Reposted by Shan Kothari

Sally Aitken 🇨🇦 @sallyaitken.bsky.social · 13d

We are searching for a Forest Ecophysiologist (tenure track Assistant or Associate Professor) to join the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry. Please share! Details are here: ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcfacultyjobs

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 17d

Is it narrated by Castle herself?

Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 18d

Not sure what the current situation is, but Boomers was only 4-5 years ago. I think the gist of it is just "here's a person who's willing to piss off the prudes"

Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 18d

Vermeule blurbed Boomers, and Andrews has written glowingly of Vermeule: kirkcenter.org/essays/terry...

Terry Castle: The Anti-Paglia | The Russell Kirk Center

kirkcenter.org

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 18d

(I probably reread Castle's essay on her messy friendship with Susan Sontag once a year—it's that juicy)

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Shan Kothari @shankothari.bsky.social · 18d

in another weird crossover, Blakey Vermeule's partner Terry Castle seems to have some sort of mutual admiration society with, of all people, Helen Andrews

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Reposted by Shan Kothari

Global Change Biology @globalchangebio.bsky.social · 20d

We mourn the passing of our Editor-in-Chief Steve Long.

His vision to establish one of the first journals dedicated to Global Change over 30 years ago was truly ahead of its time. Through GCB, researchers have demonstrated that biology and ecosystems are not simply victims of global change..

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