Batucada @42Librarians
@42librarians.bsky.social
RIP Twitter. Passionate cat herder of English and lapsed librarian. Shifting to Sky mid semester. “Thou shalt get sidetracked by BS every time” (Ghoul). #RhetComp #TeamRhetoric
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
OpenAI's VP for education recently said the company wanted to become "core infrastructure" for schools and universities. Any infrastructure, though, always depends on habituating users to its technical affordances - so I've been trying to track how it's doing that 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/t...
Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.
www.nytimes.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:51 PM
OpenAI's VP for education recently said the company wanted to become "core infrastructure" for schools and universities. Any infrastructure, though, always depends on habituating users to its technical affordances - so I've been trying to track how it's doing that 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/t...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
Whenever I see data like this from Inside Higher ed survey, I want to go back and ask the students these questions: 1. What kind of brainstorming? Did you ask for an idea for your research paper? For a list of points you could cover in your paper? For ideas about how to research your topic? /1
September 12, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Whenever I see data like this from Inside Higher ed survey, I want to go back and ask the students these questions: 1. What kind of brainstorming? Did you ask for an idea for your research paper? For a list of points you could cover in your paper? For ideas about how to research your topic? /1
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
In late June, Google quietly scrubbed its pledge to hit net zero by 2030 from its sustainability website as it goes full steam ahead on hyperscale data centers and generative AI.
Google deletes net-zero pledge from sustainability website
Five years ago, Google’s climate action ambitions were the gold standard for Big Tech. Then, with power demand spikes from AI data centres, in July it scrubbed its sustainability website of its 2030 n...
www.nationalobserver.com
September 11, 2025 at 9:27 PM
In late June, Google quietly scrubbed its pledge to hit net zero by 2030 from its sustainability website as it goes full steam ahead on hyperscale data centers and generative AI.
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
“That’s what history as-a-process-of-finding-out-about-the-past actually is: a series of constant shocks and disorientations. You thought you knew something …, but you are repeatedly confronted with you own ignorance and forced to adapt your ideas.” 🗃️ williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/g...
Glazed and confused
In a piece for the Guardian Jeremy Ettinghausen introduced me to a term I hadn’t come across before: glazing. Ettinghausen’s article draws on eighteen months of chat logs between three …
williamgpooley.wordpress.com
July 29, 2025 at 11:52 AM
“That’s what history as-a-process-of-finding-out-about-the-past actually is: a series of constant shocks and disorientations. You thought you knew something …, but you are repeatedly confronted with you own ignorance and forced to adapt your ideas.” 🗃️ williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/g...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
"Teaching students how to best research and formulate an argument now requires them using AI."
FALSE. Equivalent to: "Teaching students how to best research and formulate arguments now requires them to use statistical proprietary technologies that make average arguments while committing mistakes."
FALSE. Equivalent to: "Teaching students how to best research and formulate arguments now requires them to use statistical proprietary technologies that make average arguments while committing mistakes."
July 29, 2025 at 6:46 PM
"Teaching students how to best research and formulate an argument now requires them using AI."
FALSE. Equivalent to: "Teaching students how to best research and formulate arguments now requires them to use statistical proprietary technologies that make average arguments while committing mistakes."
FALSE. Equivalent to: "Teaching students how to best research and formulate arguments now requires them to use statistical proprietary technologies that make average arguments while committing mistakes."
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
I was just rereading a short story that I wrote 15 years ago and I just need everyone to know that I counted four em dashes in the first three pages--a sign of LLM use, my ass.
July 6, 2025 at 9:25 PM
I was just rereading a short story that I wrote 15 years ago and I just need everyone to know that I counted four em dashes in the first three pages--a sign of LLM use, my ass.
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
NEW from me: TikTokers have been using tools like Google’s Veo 3 to AI-generate racist videos. The videos are garnering millions of views by bringing centuries-old racist tropes to life. It’s an actual dystopian nightmare!
www.mediamatters.org/tiktok/racis...
www.mediamatters.org/tiktok/racis...
Racist AI-generated videos are the newest slop garnering millions of views on TikTok
www.mediamatters.org
July 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
NEW from me: TikTokers have been using tools like Google’s Veo 3 to AI-generate racist videos. The videos are garnering millions of views by bringing centuries-old racist tropes to life. It’s an actual dystopian nightmare!
www.mediamatters.org/tiktok/racis...
www.mediamatters.org/tiktok/racis...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
I got tired of the nonsense some AI leaders were coming out with, and so I wrote this for @newscientist.com
www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...
www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...
The dangers of so-called AI experts believing their own hype
Beware the tech leaders making grandiose statements about artificial intelligence. They have lost sight of reality, says Philip Ball
www.newscientist.com
July 4, 2025 at 10:36 PM
I got tired of the nonsense some AI leaders were coming out with, and so I wrote this for @newscientist.com
www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...
www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
Ultra-Processed Minds: The End of Deep Reading and What It Costs Us
An erudite long-read by co-author, colleague, and friend @carlhendrick.substack.com - More than worth the time and effort to read!
#EduSky
open.substack.com/pub/carlhend...
An erudite long-read by co-author, colleague, and friend @carlhendrick.substack.com - More than worth the time and effort to read!
#EduSky
open.substack.com/pub/carlhend...
Ultra-Processed Minds: The End of Deep Reading and What It Costs Us
A reflection on the reading life. What formed it, what threatens it, and what remains.
open.substack.com
April 18, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Ultra-Processed Minds: The End of Deep Reading and What It Costs Us
An erudite long-read by co-author, colleague, and friend @carlhendrick.substack.com - More than worth the time and effort to read!
#EduSky
open.substack.com/pub/carlhend...
An erudite long-read by co-author, colleague, and friend @carlhendrick.substack.com - More than worth the time and effort to read!
#EduSky
open.substack.com/pub/carlhend...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
This video has a list of people you should follow for actually insightful and uncompromising criticism of Silicon Valley (see the comments section): www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCj_...
Beware the Network State: The Tech Blueprint to Dismantle the USA
YouTube video by The Nerd Reich with Gil Duran
www.youtube.com
March 15, 2025 at 7:52 PM
This video has a list of people you should follow for actually insightful and uncompromising criticism of Silicon Valley (see the comments section): www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCj_...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
Can't even describe how much I hate what AI has done to the process of grading student work. I hate finding it, I hate the paranoia it fosters, I hate the confrontations with students who have used it. Nothing else in my experience has ever changed my job this much for the worse
March 11, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Can't even describe how much I hate what AI has done to the process of grading student work. I hate finding it, I hate the paranoia it fosters, I hate the confrontations with students who have used it. Nothing else in my experience has ever changed my job this much for the worse
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
In the LA area? I'm speaking at UCLA's Marschak Colloquium on Tuesday at 1 PM PST on Tuesday.
Not in the LA area? You can RSVP to attend by zoom.
www.library.ucla.edu/visit/events...
Not in the LA area? You can RSVP to attend by zoom.
www.library.ucla.edu/visit/events...
March 2, 2025 at 6:38 AM
In the LA area? I'm speaking at UCLA's Marschak Colloquium on Tuesday at 1 PM PST on Tuesday.
Not in the LA area? You can RSVP to attend by zoom.
www.library.ucla.edu/visit/events...
Not in the LA area? You can RSVP to attend by zoom.
www.library.ucla.edu/visit/events...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
And the followup article: futurism.com/microsoft-ce...
After Its CEO Expressed Hesitation About AI, Microsoft Backing Out of Expensive New Data Centers
After its CEO expressed hesitancy about AI's real-world value, Microsoft is backing out of the construction of new data centers.
futurism.com
February 24, 2025 at 7:25 PM
And the followup article: futurism.com/microsoft-ce...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?
Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.
thebullshitmachines.com
Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.
thebullshitmachines.com
INTRODUCTION
thebullshitmachines.com
February 4, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?
Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.
thebullshitmachines.com
Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.
thebullshitmachines.com
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
New from 404 Media: anyone can push updates to the Doge.gov site. Two sources independently found the issue, one made their own decision to deface the site. "THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN."
www.404media.co/anyone-can-p...
www.404media.co/anyone-can-p...
February 14, 2025 at 7:06 AM
New from 404 Media: anyone can push updates to the Doge.gov site. Two sources independently found the issue, one made their own decision to deface the site. "THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN."
www.404media.co/anyone-can-p...
www.404media.co/anyone-can-p...
Unpopular opinion: regulate tech
All the ways Elon Musk is breaking the law, explained by a law professor www.vox.com/politics/398...
February 7, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Unpopular opinion: regulate tech
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
7 Surprising Facts About Dragons in the Middle Ages, by @anyfourcastles.bsky.social https://www.medievalists.net/2025/01/dragons-middle-ages/ #dragons #medievalsky
7 Surprising Facts About Dragons in the Middle Ages - Medievalists.net
Why were dragons so popular—and what was a dragon in the Middle Ages, anyway? Here are a few things you might not know about medieval dragons
www.medievalists.net
January 26, 2025 at 12:40 AM
7 Surprising Facts About Dragons in the Middle Ages, by @anyfourcastles.bsky.social https://www.medievalists.net/2025/01/dragons-middle-ages/ #dragons #medievalsky
Unpopular opinion: regulate tech
In case anyone had delusions about this: everything Mark Zuckerberg is doing right now is to try and secure one of the biggest tech monopolies in human history
January 18, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Unpopular opinion: regulate tech
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
I have updated the Academic Workload Tracker for 2025. I strongly encourage all academics to track how long you actually work, and at what tasks. It's a crucial way to counter the deliberate wage-theft of obfuscatory university workload models.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Academic Work Tracker Template v2.2 (2025)
docs.google.com
December 31, 2024 at 2:51 AM
I have updated the Academic Workload Tracker for 2025. I strongly encourage all academics to track how long you actually work, and at what tasks. It's a crucial way to counter the deliberate wage-theft of obfuscatory university workload models.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
I disagree with a lot that @yudkowsky.bsky.social says, but he has always been 100% right that we don’t have a serious plan for when AI significantly advances.
This per @philipcball.bsky.social is more evidence of that.
This per @philipcball.bsky.social is more evidence of that.
"Nature contacted four leading AI firms to ask about their plans for AI welfare. Three — Anthropic, Google and Microsoft — declined to comment, and OpenAI, based in San Francisco, did not respond." It's a very speculative possibility, but still this seems a bit shit.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What should we do if AI becomes conscious? These scientists say it’s time for a plan
Researchers call on technology companies to test their systems for consciousness and create AI welfare policies.
www.nature.com
December 11, 2024 at 5:32 PM
I disagree with a lot that @yudkowsky.bsky.social says, but he has always been 100% right that we don’t have a serious plan for when AI significantly advances.
This per @philipcball.bsky.social is more evidence of that.
This per @philipcball.bsky.social is more evidence of that.
What could possibly go wrong?
UCLA is creating an entirely AI-generated course. Except apparently the grading won't be AI-generated. 🤔
newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/comp...
newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/comp...
Comparative lit class will be first in Humanities Division to use UCLA-developed AI system
The textbook for Zrinka Stahuljak’s winter 2025 course is generated by the Kudu platform.
newsroom.ucla.edu
December 9, 2024 at 12:24 AM
What could possibly go wrong?
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
The Strand owner Nancy Bass-Wyden is reportedly worth more than $50 million and received $2.7 million in COVID loans. The Strand union said they are asking for $.50 raises.
December 8, 2024 at 5:35 PM
The Strand owner Nancy Bass-Wyden is reportedly worth more than $50 million and received $2.7 million in COVID loans. The Strand union said they are asking for $.50 raises.
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
Brandon Ogbunu @cbo.bsky.social and I have a new piece on AI coming out in Scientific American next week.
In the meantime, this piece from last year remains evergreen.
undark.org/2023/04/06/c...
In the meantime, this piece from last year remains evergreen.
undark.org/2023/04/06/c...
ChatGPT Isn’t ‘Hallucinating.’ It’s Bullshitting.
Opinion | Artificial Intelligence models will make mistakes. We need more accurate language to describe them.
undark.org
December 9, 2024 at 12:01 AM
Brandon Ogbunu @cbo.bsky.social and I have a new piece on AI coming out in Scientific American next week.
In the meantime, this piece from last year remains evergreen.
undark.org/2023/04/06/c...
In the meantime, this piece from last year remains evergreen.
undark.org/2023/04/06/c...
Reposted by Batucada @42Librarians
My take on the Department of Government Efficiency’s approach: “There’s a better chance of getting action with a positive vision than a negative vision” www.npr.org/2024/12/04/n...
www.npr.org
December 5, 2024 at 4:31 PM
My take on the Department of Government Efficiency’s approach: “There’s a better chance of getting action with a positive vision than a negative vision” www.npr.org/2024/12/04/n...