Prof Ben Britton
@bmatb.expmicromech.com
Dyslexic atomic sorcerer @ UBC, Vancouver 🍁 (he/him & 🏳️🌈). 🐕 dad.
Materials and Manufacturing Engineering (🔬⚛️), Clean Tech, Academic Governance (UBC Senate & Faculty Assoc.), EDI.
Leads @expmicromech.com.
Has too many hills to die on. Views own.
Materials and Manufacturing Engineering (🔬⚛️), Clean Tech, Academic Governance (UBC Senate & Faculty Assoc.), EDI.
Leads @expmicromech.com.
Has too many hills to die on. Views own.
Pinned
Prof Ben Britton
@bmatb.expmicromech.com
· Oct 24
Scheduling Matters — UBC Senate
The UBC Vancouver Senate is currently considering the timing of its main meetings, following a motion from the Agenda Committee and…
bmatb.medium.com
A brief blog piece that supports the proposal to move the #UBC Senate Meetings to a 4-6.30pm (currently 6-8.30pm).
bmatb.medium.com/scheduling-m...
bmatb.medium.com/scheduling-m...
Waffles does festive cheer under duress (except if there is snow, and then he's all there for it!).
December 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Waffles does festive cheer under duress (except if there is snow, and then he's all there for it!).
Waffles wishes you a very merry Christmas
December 24, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Waffles wishes you a very merry Christmas
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
I don't think free speech on campus ought to mean that a young coddled bigot gets to use their ignorance to casually destroy the career of a knowledgeable trans person on a random Wednesday
Worth noting that the student admits that she just threw the thing together in 30 minutes without reading the paper she was supposed to be responding to.
December 23, 2025 at 4:34 PM
I don't think free speech on campus ought to mean that a young coddled bigot gets to use their ignorance to casually destroy the career of a knowledgeable trans person on a random Wednesday
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Greta Thunberg arrested for holding a sign opposing genocide.
When peaceful protest is a crime, democracy is in deep trouble.
Happening under a Labour Government.
When peaceful protest is a crime, democracy is in deep trouble.
Happening under a Labour Government.
🚨BREAKING: GRETA THUNBERG ARRESTED UNDER TERRORISM ACT FOR SUPPORTING 'PALESTINE ACTION PRISONERS'
December 23, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Greta Thunberg arrested for holding a sign opposing genocide.
When peaceful protest is a crime, democracy is in deep trouble.
Happening under a Labour Government.
When peaceful protest is a crime, democracy is in deep trouble.
Happening under a Labour Government.
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
December 23, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
To a lot of folks, free speech means getting to say what they want and getting to claim the moral high ground when others have the temerity to question it (a slight variant on the OP’s “they can say what they want and you can say what they want” version).
December 23, 2025 at 6:01 PM
To a lot of folks, free speech means getting to say what they want and getting to claim the moral high ground when others have the temerity to question it (a slight variant on the OP’s “they can say what they want and you can say what they want” version).
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Santa told us that people that don’t add alt text are getting coal in their stocking this year.
December 23, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Santa told us that people that don’t add alt text are getting coal in their stocking this year.
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
The devil doesn’t need an advocate.
To play devils advocate-
December 23, 2025 at 2:39 AM
The devil doesn’t need an advocate.
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
suspect a big reason why many academics and others who work in areas where getting facts RIGHT is key are disinterested in using LLMs for research:
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
December 21, 2025 at 4:16 PM
suspect a big reason why many academics and others who work in areas where getting facts RIGHT is key are disinterested in using LLMs for research:
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
they’ve tried it, they keep noticing major errors in output, and they conclude that having to verify all that doesn’t actually save them time.
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Waffles in the snow, because it's the season 🧇❄️
December 21, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Waffles in the snow, because it's the season 🧇❄️
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Alice Sullivan tells universities to suppress pro-trans research to protect GC staff. However, HER OWN DATA shows pro-trans research is already more suppressed.
When I told the BBC this, they edited out any reference to the data. They have now corrected the record.
www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedb...
When I told the BBC this, they edited out any reference to the data. They have now corrected the record.
www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedb...
Corrections and Clarifications
The BBC's responses to editorial, technical and corporate issues.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 18, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Alice Sullivan tells universities to suppress pro-trans research to protect GC staff. However, HER OWN DATA shows pro-trans research is already more suppressed.
When I told the BBC this, they edited out any reference to the data. They have now corrected the record.
www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedb...
When I told the BBC this, they edited out any reference to the data. They have now corrected the record.
www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedb...
Waffles in the snow, because it's the season 🧇❄️
December 21, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Waffles in the snow, because it's the season 🧇❄️
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
That’s what these ‘debates’ are really about: framing old fashioned oppression as some kind of high-brow concern for women’s happiness.
You know what makes us happy? Bank accounts. Voting rights. The ability to leave a bad marriage and not have a miscarriage kill us.
You know what makes us happy? Bank accounts. Voting rights. The ability to leave a bad marriage and not have a miscarriage kill us.
December 21, 2025 at 12:29 AM
That’s what these ‘debates’ are really about: framing old fashioned oppression as some kind of high-brow concern for women’s happiness.
You know what makes us happy? Bank accounts. Voting rights. The ability to leave a bad marriage and not have a miscarriage kill us.
You know what makes us happy? Bank accounts. Voting rights. The ability to leave a bad marriage and not have a miscarriage kill us.
Waffles would like you to celebrate his fresh floof-cut
December 21, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Waffles would like you to celebrate his fresh floof-cut
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
All these smoking comparisons making me think of “second hand chatbot exposure”
December 20, 2025 at 10:45 AM
All these smoking comparisons making me think of “second hand chatbot exposure”
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
December 19, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Finally, if you can get through the paywall this piece from earlier in the week illuminates how the experience above is just a tiny part of an industrial-scale, global, and sector-wide catastrophe of AI and citations to nonexistent papers in academic publishing bsky.app/profile/mile...
Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 19, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Finally, if you can get through the paywall this piece from earlier in the week illuminates how the experience above is just a tiny part of an industrial-scale, global, and sector-wide catastrophe of AI and citations to nonexistent papers in academic publishing bsky.app/profile/mile...
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
If any journalist wants to talk to a trans man with a PhD in Human Genomics who was trained in labs that studied the evolution of sex, I'm right here
Or just keep platforming Republicans who have a 5th grade understanding of biology so they get more trans people killed, sure 🤷🏻♂️
Or just keep platforming Republicans who have a 5th grade understanding of biology so they get more trans people killed, sure 🤷🏻♂️
December 18, 2025 at 5:27 PM
If any journalist wants to talk to a trans man with a PhD in Human Genomics who was trained in labs that studied the evolution of sex, I'm right here
Or just keep platforming Republicans who have a 5th grade understanding of biology so they get more trans people killed, sure 🤷🏻♂️
Or just keep platforming Republicans who have a 5th grade understanding of biology so they get more trans people killed, sure 🤷🏻♂️
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google.
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
December 17, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google.
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Did you know that Workday is being sued because an AI tool they sell for hiring actually discriminates against marginalized people?
This is my shocked face.
This is my shocked face.
AI Bias Lawsuit Against Workday Reaches Next Stage as Court Grants Conditional Certification of ADEA Claim
A closely watched class and collective action against the HR management services company Workday, Inc. reached a new milestone recently, when the Northern
www.lawandtheworkplace.com
December 16, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Did you know that Workday is being sued because an AI tool they sell for hiring actually discriminates against marginalized people?
This is my shocked face.
This is my shocked face.
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
Research questions generated by AI. Questionnaires filled out by AI. Paper written by AI. Paper reviewed by AI. Just make it stop.
Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)?
Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
December 16, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Research questions generated by AI. Questionnaires filled out by AI. Paper written by AI. Paper reviewed by AI. Just make it stop.
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
New U-M research from ISR’s Sasha Killewald finds that women now earn about 85% of men’s hourly wages, up from 65% in the mid 1980s, and about 8% of that narrowing is linked to having fewer children.
Learn more: myumi.ch/kPWeG
Learn more: myumi.ch/kPWeG
December 16, 2025 at 2:27 PM
New U-M research from ISR’s Sasha Killewald finds that women now earn about 85% of men’s hourly wages, up from 65% in the mid 1980s, and about 8% of that narrowing is linked to having fewer children.
Learn more: myumi.ch/kPWeG
Learn more: myumi.ch/kPWeG
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
All of Bluesky is like “all of them, but not so much as an adult”
Show your age
17 (have never used a fax machine, a record player, or a phone booth)
17 (have never used a fax machine, a record player, or a phone booth)
December 16, 2025 at 2:41 AM
All of Bluesky is like “all of them, but not so much as an adult”
Reposted by Prof Ben Britton
The season has officially begun
December 14, 2025 at 10:47 PM
The season has officially begun