Shannon Vallor
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shannonvallor.bsky.social
Shannon Vallor
@shannonvallor.bsky.social

Philosopher/AI Ethicist at Univ of Edinburgh, Director @technomoralfutures.bsky.social, co-Director @braiduk.bsky.social, author of Technology and the Virtues (2016) and The AI Mirror (2024). Views my own.

Shannon Vallor is an American philosopher of technology. She is the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. She previously taught at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California where she was the Regis and Dianne McKenna Professor of Philosophy and William J. Rewak, S.J. Professor at SCU. .. more

Neuroscience 30%
Computer science 22%
a few months ago I said "having generative AI handle absolutely anything with regards to healthcare is a nightmare and should be banned" and a bunch of people made fun of me and called me stupid. anyways,

Just watched Ep1. Omg. The CHYRON
The thing I like best about “Pluribus” is that it’s like “make the whole plane out of the black box”, but for “the ‘Better Call Saul’ scenes where Kim Wexler has no patience for this bullshit”.

Inject this into my veins
The thing I like best about “Pluribus” is that it’s like “make the whole plane out of the black box”, but for “the ‘Better Call Saul’ scenes where Kim Wexler has no patience for this bullshit”.

Reposted by Shannon Vallor

The thing I like best about “Pluribus” is that it’s like “make the whole plane out of the black box”, but for “the ‘Better Call Saul’ scenes where Kim Wexler has no patience for this bullshit”.
Because everything is shit, I give you ... Puggles. #Platypus #AustralianWildlife
Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID

Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
"Store employees are now required to smile if they are within 10 feet of a shopper.

They also must make eye contact with and wave to or greet the customer.

If they’re within four feet, the employee should ask how the customer’s day is going or if they need help."

🙄 Won't stop the boycott, y'all.
Target is now requiring its employees to smile more
As the holiday season fast approaches, Target is urging its employees to add a little more “jolly” to their work routine.
www.wilx.com
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points

For all the needless suffering they have caused domestically in the US, nothing will likely ever surpass this singular evil
Bit late to this but it's such a clever piece of AI criticism, developing a literary critique of Sam Altman's auto-metafiction story as a way to explore the grave threats to the "intellectual infrastructure" of the humanities - and HE more broadly - posed by AI lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...
Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities | Los Angeles Review of Books
Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.
lareviewofbooks.org

Another. Once upon a time there would have been consequences for a company that knowingly enabled this, including a consumer revolt.
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com

It takes a lot for me to be horror-struck by anything a major media outlet writes or does these days, given the absolutely appalling state of journalism, but after what I have seen from the NYT, the Economist, FT and Condé Nast today, I just want to say,
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
Not now, carnivorous death ball
Not every idea is worth airing. Not every point of view is worth hearing. Not everything that "a lot of people believe" should be credentialed by homepage space. Would the NYT editorial board run "Did Homosexuals Ruin Culture?" or "Did Black People Get Too Big for Their Britches?" I guess we'll see.
*US DISMISSES BOEING CRIMINAL CHARGE OVER 737 MAX JET CRASHES
“the documents indicate that Meta’s own research suggests its products have become a pillar of the global fraud economy. A May 2025 presentation by its safety staff estimated that the company’s platforms were involved in a third of all successful scams in the U.S.”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.
www.reuters.com
the question nobody with a soul is asking, answered by people nobody wants to hear from

Reposted by Shannon Vallor

what if technology wasn't something that was done to us, but instead something that we do?

the angles! so pointy!

It is the year 2050. The republic has survived, and there is a footlong on the flag
A ballistic vest meant to stop a bullet “is definitely going to keep you safe from a sandwich thrown at you," Sean Dunn's defense attorney argued.
A ballistic vest meant to stop a bullet “is definitely going to keep you safe from a sandwich thrown at you," Sean Dunn's defense attorney argued.
ah, perhaps instead of pumping millions into endless factional infighting Dem donors could invest in making local Dem organizations genuine civic spaces that can reach people during and between elections

turns out you can just… *not* throw your fellow human beings under the bus?
I’m just a small-town political scientist, & it’s still relatively early, but it appears that The Actual Democrats did not Need To Do any of the Things or Learn any of the Obvious Lessons that Ezra Douthglesias said they Must Do & Learn.
I’m just a small-town political scientist, & it’s still relatively early, but it appears that The Actual Democrats did not Need To Do any of the Things or Learn any of the Obvious Lessons that Ezra Douthglesias said they Must Do & Learn.

For my whole adult life I have been in a love-hate relationship with Catholicism and oh man, is it complicated. But some days, I am just grateful to a Pope and that is that
Oh — the situation has escalated.

Pope Leo has spoken out: says "spiritual rights" of detainees should be respected and calls on the "authorities" to allow "pastoral workers" in.

"Jesus says very clearly … we're going to be asked, how did you receive the foreigner?" www.youtube.com/watch?v=taCi...
Oh — the situation has escalated.

Pope Leo has spoken out: says "spiritual rights" of detainees should be respected and calls on the "authorities" to allow "pastoral workers" in.

"Jesus says very clearly … we're going to be asked, how did you receive the foreigner?" www.youtube.com/watch?v=taCi...

I am concerned about how many people I know who have been seriously messed up, with lasting effects, by Covid in the last two months. Whatever version of it is going around is not to be trifled with.

Reposted by Shannon Vallor

UPCOMING 📚 The Impact of GenAI on the Novel

Join us for the (online) launch of a new report from Dr @clemicollett.bsky.social @braiduk.bsky.social (in assoc with @ifow.org) on how generative AI is impacting novelists and the publishing industry.

Book your spot ➡️ www.mctd.ac.uk/events/gener...