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alexsaum.bsky.social
Alex Saum
@alexsaum.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.8K following 250 posts
reader, writer, poet, editor, professor. Doing digital things in and out of UC Berkeley. En inglés y en español. Spain and LatAm, but also English comparative stuff <3 (she/her)

http://www.alexsaum.com/

// not sure if she can do this all over again //
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alexsaum.bsky.social
Alex Saum @alexsaum.bsky.social · 19d
I'm on the news ;)

news.berkeley.edu/2026/01/21/t...

#Elit #digitalliterature #infrastructures #AI
This Berkeley professor is exposing the hidden physical toll of our digital world  - Berkeley News
Alex Saum-Pascual proposes that new artistic representations could help bridge the gap between knowing a technology is harmful and actually changing our behavior.
news.berkeley.edu
Reposted by Alex Saum
eryk.bsky.social
It’s a category mistake nobody really talks about: most AI companies are not trying to sell creative tools, they are trying to sell content streams.
robhorning.bsky.social Rob Horning @robhorning.bsky.social · 7h
Why would anyone buy an AI-written romance novel when you can just prompt the chatbots yourself and "write" your own? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
Last February, the writer Coral Hart launched an experiment. She started using artificial intelligence programs to quickly churn out romance novels. Over the next eight months, she created 21 different pen names and published dozens of novels. In the process, she discovered the limitations of using chatbots to write about sex and love.
February 10, 2026 at 10:39 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
We all intuited this, now we know it:

hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...

Is anyone really surprised about this, though?
AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It
One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consisten...
hbr.org
February 9, 2026 at 6:26 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
Essentially this; a stupid waste of (real) resources

www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/06/1...
Moltbook was peak AI theater
The viral social network for bots reveals as much about our own current mania for AI as it does about the future of agents.
www.technologyreview.com
February 8, 2026 at 4:07 AM
alexsaum.bsky.social
About a year ago I wrote a poetic essay on *this* precise scenario [coming out soon in U of Michigan Press>>https://press.umich.edu/Books/F/First-Encounters-with-AI2] and all I can say now is that it is finally...

time to jump off the internet, friends.

#moltbook #ai
February 4, 2026 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Alex Saum
loriemerson.net
I said some words about labs and the importance of old tech - hopefully the words I spoke align with what I actually think...
February 2, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Alex Saum
alexsaum.bsky.social
Come work with us at The Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies <3 THE BEST JOURNAL of its kind

We are looking for an Assistant Managing Editor to work with our fab editorial collective *and yours truly* starting in May

think.taylorandfrancis.com/editor_recru...

@jscs-revista.bsky.social

RT🙏
Assistant Managing Editor needed for Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies
Assistant Managing Editor needed for Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies
think.taylorandfrancis.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:55 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
About to give a little brown bag talk on AI Aesthetics, Rhetoric, Machine-Human Interaction and much much more with my @bcnm.bsky.social colleagues @ken-goldberg.bsky.social @celestekidd.bsky.social and Lisa Wymore <3

I love my Berkeley Center for New Media, I really do <3

#AI #newmedia
February 2, 2026 at 6:24 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
Come work with us at The Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies <3 THE BEST JOURNAL of its kind

We are looking for an Assistant Managing Editor to work with our fab editorial collective *and yours truly* starting in May

think.taylorandfrancis.com/editor_recru...

@jscs-revista.bsky.social

RT🙏
Assistant Managing Editor needed for Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies
Assistant Managing Editor needed for Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies
think.taylorandfrancis.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Alex Saum
alexsaum.bsky.social
THRILLED to share The Jo Labanyi Essay Prize for best essay in the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies!!

think.taylorandfrancis.com/jo-labanyi-e...

SEND US YOUR BEST WORK FRIENDS!!!

@jscs-revista.bsky.social #culturalstudies #spanish
The Jo Labanyi Essay Prize
think.taylorandfrancis.com
January 29, 2026 at 5:30 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
No excuses now, friends
eliterature.bsky.social Electronic Literature Organization @eliterature.bsky.social · 11d
We know you have too much work, so we are extending the call for ELO26 till February 28! Don't miss out!

anastasiasalter.net/ELO2026/
ELO 2026 - University of Central Florida
anastasiasalter.net
January 30, 2026 at 6:11 PM
Reposted by Alex Saum
elikaortega.bsky.social
ELC5 stickers are out!! 😍 @zachwhalen.bsky.social @videlais.bsky.social @eliterature.bsky.social
January 21, 2026 at 11:08 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
Among all the horrors/ Entre todos los horrores
This beautiful work on the future of writing / Este hermoso trabajo sobre el futuro de la escritura

ensayo-sobre-futuro.viniciusmarquet.com

Gracias, Vin, por invitarnos a pensar sobre todo esto juntes :)
Ensayo sobre el futuro de la escritura-lectura
ensayo-sobre-futuro.viniciusmarquet.com
January 30, 2026 at 6:08 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
THRILLED to share The Jo Labanyi Essay Prize for best essay in the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies!!

think.taylorandfrancis.com/jo-labanyi-e...

SEND US YOUR BEST WORK FRIENDS!!!

@jscs-revista.bsky.social #culturalstudies #spanish
The Jo Labanyi Essay Prize
think.taylorandfrancis.com
January 29, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Alex Saum
roopikarisam.bsky.social
🎈 @jenguiliano.bsky.social & I are happy to share the January 2026 issue of #ReviewsInDH! This is a special issue on Electronic Literature. Thank you to our guest editors, Samya Brata Roy, Reham Hosny, and Leah Henrickson, for an exciting issue. reviewsindh.pubpub.org/v7-n1
Vol. 7, No. 1: January 2026 - Electronic Literature · Reviews in Digital Humanities
Vol. 7, No. 1 of Reviews in Digital Humanities, a peer-reviewed journal that facilitates scholarly evaluation of digital humanities work and its outputs, edited by Jennifer Guiliano (Indiana Universit...
reviewsindh.pubpub.org
January 26, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Alex Saum
nathankhensley.bsky.social
imagine if all that money had gone to teachers instead
Back in 2013, Bill Gates remarked that it would take a decade to know whether education technology really worked. More than ten years and hundreds of billions of dollars later, the answer is increasingly clear. Notes Emily Cherkin, an advocate and fed-up parent: "Imagine if all that money had gone into teachers instead."
January 25, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Alex Saum
alexsaum.bsky.social
I'm on the news ;)

news.berkeley.edu/2026/01/21/t...

#Elit #digitalliterature #infrastructures #AI
This Berkeley professor is exposing the hidden physical toll of our digital world  - Berkeley News
Alex Saum-Pascual proposes that new artistic representations could help bridge the gap between knowing a technology is harmful and actually changing our behavior.
news.berkeley.edu
January 22, 2026 at 7:38 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
I miss you too, Quinn!!!! 💜🌈
January 23, 2026 at 2:20 AM
Reposted by Alex Saum
elikaortega.bsky.social
Having already read big chunks of it, I can tell you @alexsaum.bsky.social forthcoming Earthy Algorithms is 🔥🔥🔥
And, for the locals, a little bird told me Alex will be in Boulder sometime in the Spring 🎉
January 23, 2026 at 1:08 AM
alexsaum.bsky.social
You and me both! 🤭
January 22, 2026 at 8:38 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
I'm on the news ;)

news.berkeley.edu/2026/01/21/t...

#Elit #digitalliterature #infrastructures #AI
This Berkeley professor is exposing the hidden physical toll of our digital world  - Berkeley News
Alex Saum-Pascual proposes that new artistic representations could help bridge the gap between knowing a technology is harmful and actually changing our behavior.
news.berkeley.edu
January 22, 2026 at 7:38 PM
alexsaum.bsky.social
Eres la mejor. Punto.
January 22, 2026 at 4:53 AM
Reposted by Alex Saum
ashleyrattner.bsky.social
Look for the helpers
Alaska Art Student Arrested for Eating Another Student’s AI-Generated Art in Protest
A University of Alaska student was charged with a misdemeanor for eating another student's AI-generated art in protest.
www.artnews.com
January 18, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Alex Saum
anildash.com
Today, @wikipedia.org turns 25 years old. It's never been more important — or under more attack from authoritarians. Here's what to know about how we got here, and what we can do to push for its future. There's no better example of the web we make together. www.anildash.com/2026/01/15/w...
Wikipedia at 25: What the web can be - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
www.anildash.com
January 15, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Alex Saum
parismarx.com
everyone’s feeling it
tressiemcphd.bsky.social Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · Jan 6
Today is one of those days where I’m struck anew by how *bad* the internet has gotten. It’s almost unusable. Clouds, apps, advertising — nothing is where it should be and it’s nigh impossible sometimes to do basic tasks online.
January 7, 2026 at 3:38 AM
Reposted by Alex Saum
jscs-revista.bsky.social
FREE ACCESS until March 1, Pedro García-Caro explores how the Republican trial of José Antonio Primo de Rivera served as a model of wartime criminal prosecution which was – through Franco’s propaganda – first forgotten then distorted

doi.org/10.1080/1463...
The fabrication of a hero: José Antonio Primo de Rivera’s trial and its afterlife in Franco’s propaganda machine
The Franco regime consolidated power by converting a documented legal event into a foundational myth: it erased public memory of a lawful Republican trial and manufactured a martyr through systemat...
doi.org
January 6, 2026 at 9:48 PM