Prof. Dr Beth Singler
@bvlsingler.bsky.social
Anthropologist/Geek thinking about how you think about AI & robots. Assistant Professor in Digital Religions at UZH. Bvlsingler.com. She/her. 🌈 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003256113/religion-artificial-intelligence-beth-singler
Pinned
I will never stop banging this drum! 🥁 There 🥁 is 🥁 no 🥁 AI 🥁 in 🥁 the 🥁 predictive 🥁 policing 🥁 in 🥁 Minority 🥁 Report!
Its three psychics in a paddling pool!!
Its three psychics in a paddling pool!!
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
the account which posted this appears to be an AI agent farming karma before it turns into an advertising bot
lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard
February 15, 2026 at 4:36 AM
the account which posted this appears to be an AI agent farming karma before it turns into an advertising bot
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
This is your regular reminder that the idea that Christianity is a thing uniform beliefs that everyone within “Western Civilization” believed and agreed on is a fiction that just ignores centuries of Christians killing each other and fighting literal wars over their different beliefs.
The Rubio speech really is appalling, and if you haven’t read it yet, you should.
www.state.gov/releases/off...
www.state.gov/releases/off...
February 15, 2026 at 1:53 AM
This is your regular reminder that the idea that Christianity is a thing uniform beliefs that everyone within “Western Civilization” believed and agreed on is a fiction that just ignores centuries of Christians killing each other and fighting literal wars over their different beliefs.
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
🚨 We have heard that the County Archaeologist for Hampshire is being made redundant, with no plans to replace him. 🚨
If you live in Hampshire please write to your MP and Councillors.
If you live elsewhere treasure and support your County Archaeologists, and stand by to protect them. 🏺
If you live in Hampshire please write to your MP and Councillors.
If you live elsewhere treasure and support your County Archaeologists, and stand by to protect them. 🏺
February 13, 2026 at 12:33 PM
🚨 We have heard that the County Archaeologist for Hampshire is being made redundant, with no plans to replace him. 🚨
If you live in Hampshire please write to your MP and Councillors.
If you live elsewhere treasure and support your County Archaeologists, and stand by to protect them. 🏺
If you live in Hampshire please write to your MP and Councillors.
If you live elsewhere treasure and support your County Archaeologists, and stand by to protect them. 🏺
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
no, it simply isnt.
People are talking about capital using gAI as an excuse to conduct mass lay-offs, about students losing learning because theyre being lied to about gAI in education, about the mass theft of the work of artists and authors to train LLMs, about CSAM and nonconsensual sexual images.
People are talking about capital using gAI as an excuse to conduct mass lay-offs, about students losing learning because theyre being lied to about gAI in education, about the mass theft of the work of artists and authors to train LLMs, about CSAM and nonconsensual sexual images.
The predominent anti-AI position on bsky is that AI is useless, fake, shit and basically the same as NFTs, destined to collapse in months once everyone sees how poor it is. So anyone who suggests that it could improve or be useful to any boss in any situation in the future must be evil.
February 12, 2026 at 1:19 PM
no, it simply isnt.
People are talking about capital using gAI as an excuse to conduct mass lay-offs, about students losing learning because theyre being lied to about gAI in education, about the mass theft of the work of artists and authors to train LLMs, about CSAM and nonconsensual sexual images.
People are talking about capital using gAI as an excuse to conduct mass lay-offs, about students losing learning because theyre being lied to about gAI in education, about the mass theft of the work of artists and authors to train LLMs, about CSAM and nonconsensual sexual images.
Love how massive my image appears on the page here (they're working on it :D
aiandfaith.org/member/dr-be...
aiandfaith.org/member/dr-be...
Dr. Beth Singler - AI and Faith
Read More
aiandfaith.org
February 13, 2026 at 10:16 AM
Love how massive my image appears on the page here (they're working on it :D
aiandfaith.org/member/dr-be...
aiandfaith.org/member/dr-be...
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
They're already there, you fucking ghouls. The only question is whether or not you care enough about trans kids to keep them safe.
February 13, 2026 at 9:44 AM
They're already there, you fucking ghouls. The only question is whether or not you care enough about trans kids to keep them safe.
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
PwC somehow more lucid on AI and education than most university leaders these days
February 13, 2026 at 6:52 AM
PwC somehow more lucid on AI and education than most university leaders these days
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
🤬🤬
So, I moderated a local history panel last weekend. An organizer just sent me a "summary" to approve. They uploaded the audio to some AI, which fabricated an outline and "pull quotes." The quotes are fake. No one on the panel said any of that.
It had the full audio and STILL made up quotes.
It had the full audio and STILL made up quotes.
February 11, 2026 at 10:15 AM
🤬🤬
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
The reason I'm so emphatic that Vance's comments about "childless cat ladies" aren't harmless is that he pals around with people like Fuentes who see women as breeding stock and punching bags.
I know this is controversial, but I think it is bad that the person who will take over once It Happens is friends with this person.
Fuentes then fantasizes about “breeding gulags”: “So just like Hitler imprisoned Gypsies, Jews, communists, you know, all of his political rivals, we have to do the same thing with women… They go to the breeding gulags. The good ones will be liberated. The bad ones will toil in the mines forever.”
February 12, 2026 at 6:33 PM
The reason I'm so emphatic that Vance's comments about "childless cat ladies" aren't harmless is that he pals around with people like Fuentes who see women as breeding stock and punching bags.
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
Trump dined with this Nazi at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022, a week after Trump announced he was running for a 2nd term as president.
Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”
Nick Fuentes: “The number one political enemy in America is women. … They have to be imprisoned.”
www.mediamatters.org
February 12, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Trump dined with this Nazi at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022, a week after Trump announced he was running for a 2nd term as president.
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
None of them would make it quicker. And I can see how you can easily get into chatting to it, trying out things it says, it’s very enthusiastic and feels like it knows what it’s talking about. Perhaps one would come to the solution with it. But it would take me longer than just working it out.
February 12, 2026 at 3:09 PM
None of them would make it quicker. And I can see how you can easily get into chatting to it, trying out things it says, it’s very enthusiastic and feels like it knows what it’s talking about. Perhaps one would come to the solution with it. But it would take me longer than just working it out.
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
I recently discovered a database query that was taking 5 hours to run (overnight, so hadn’t been noticed). I got annoyed, sad, investigated, worked something out, and now it takes 2 minutes.
I’ve just asked Claude how it would improve this query. It has given me three “Immediate Improvements”, ooh.
I’ve just asked Claude how it would improve this query. It has given me three “Immediate Improvements”, ooh.
This post argues AI is having a moment similar to when you heard about some illness in China back in February 2020.
Tech workers just watched AI go from “helpful tool” to “does my job better than I do.” Everyone else is next. Get your financial house in order and lean into what’s hardest to replace
Tech workers just watched AI go from “helpful tool” to “does my job better than I do.” Everyone else is next. Get your financial house in order and lean into what’s hardest to replace
Something Big Is Happening
A personal note for non-tech friends and family on what AI is starting to change.
shumer.dev
February 12, 2026 at 3:09 PM
I recently discovered a database query that was taking 5 hours to run (overnight, so hadn’t been noticed). I got annoyed, sad, investigated, worked something out, and now it takes 2 minutes.
I’ve just asked Claude how it would improve this query. It has given me three “Immediate Improvements”, ooh.
I’ve just asked Claude how it would improve this query. It has given me three “Immediate Improvements”, ooh.
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
I'm available for indexing academic volumes. Areas of specialization include fan studies, media studies, gender studies, visual culture, art history. DM if interested!
Please share if you know someone who may need their monograph or edited collection indexed!
Please share if you know someone who may need their monograph or edited collection indexed!
February 11, 2026 at 10:30 PM
I'm available for indexing academic volumes. Areas of specialization include fan studies, media studies, gender studies, visual culture, art history. DM if interested!
Please share if you know someone who may need their monograph or edited collection indexed!
Please share if you know someone who may need their monograph or edited collection indexed!
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
i'd like to see AI do this!!! [draws a convex function which i label concave and discuss as if it's concave for the entire lecture despite the vague feeling that i've made some kind of error, only realising next week what happened]
AI simply cannot stand in front of a classroom, gesticulating wildly and writing semi-illegibly on chalkboards, both of which are key to building rapport and convincing your students you are worth learning from
If people think AI can replace historians and political scientists, I have a bridge on the Thames to sell you.
February 12, 2026 at 2:55 AM
i'd like to see AI do this!!! [draws a convex function which i label concave and discuss as if it's concave for the entire lecture despite the vague feeling that i've made some kind of error, only realising next week what happened]
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
To me the chatbots pose zero interesting questions about the ‘nature of selfhood’ but dozens about the nature of manipulation. Here the Claude team pretends they are programming the robot for ethical responses but they land on one that is false and disingenuous.
February 11, 2026 at 3:42 PM
To me the chatbots pose zero interesting questions about the ‘nature of selfhood’ but dozens about the nature of manipulation. Here the Claude team pretends they are programming the robot for ethical responses but they land on one that is false and disingenuous.
Shaun of the Dead
February 11, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Shaun of the Dead
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
I "enjoy" the hybrid roles this sort of doomerism serves to simultaneously misrepresent what the technology is actually capable of, and misdirect attention away from the fact the real problem is a pretty traditional one: greedy, shitty people
Anthropic safety researcher quits, warning ‘world is in peril’
Other AI safety researchers have also left leading firms, citing concerns about potentially catastrophic risks.
www.semafor.com
February 11, 2026 at 4:24 PM
I "enjoy" the hybrid roles this sort of doomerism serves to simultaneously misrepresent what the technology is actually capable of, and misdirect attention away from the fact the real problem is a pretty traditional one: greedy, shitty people
One of the very rare ones where adding an extra letter also makes the same plot, "Mad Max: Furry Road"
Remove a letter, ruin a film:
Mad Max: Fur Road
Max takes a wrong turn leaving Thunderdome, and finds himself trapped at Sydney Fur Con 2052.
Mad Max: Fur Road
Max takes a wrong turn leaving Thunderdome, and finds himself trapped at Sydney Fur Con 2052.
Remove a letter, ruin a film:
Let's Care Jessica to Death
The story of an overly-protective husband and his poor wife.
Let's Care Jessica to Death
The story of an overly-protective husband and his poor wife.
February 11, 2026 at 4:27 PM
One of the very rare ones where adding an extra letter also makes the same plot, "Mad Max: Furry Road"
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
It perfectly encapsulates what Twitter has become that the main topic of conversation there this morning is this AI-written post by Matt Shumer, an AI hype man who’d been busted previously for lying about what his company’s product can do.
Surely, the author of the “AI is an existential threat to the economy and your wellbeing, and the only solution is to use more AI immediately, please” has no financial incentive in making people believe that. Now to take a big sip of my coffee and check out his bio…
February 11, 2026 at 3:52 PM
It perfectly encapsulates what Twitter has become that the main topic of conversation there this morning is this AI-written post by Matt Shumer, an AI hype man who’d been busted previously for lying about what his company’s product can do.
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
This article immediately labels @emilymbender.bsky.social and I as "curmudgeons" because we don't think that the spicy auto complete has a concept of the self.
Experiments conducted with the A.I. system Claude are producing fascinating results—and raising questions about the nature of selfhood. Gideon Lewis-Kraus reports from inside the company that designed it, Anthropic. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/rOfXjg
February 11, 2026 at 3:01 PM
This article immediately labels @emilymbender.bsky.social and I as "curmudgeons" because we don't think that the spicy auto complete has a concept of the self.
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
OpenAI fired a VP who opposed their erotica rollout (and had started a company-wide peer mentorship program for women), allegedly telling her it was because she discriminated against a man 🤔 www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
Exclusive | OpenAI Executive Who Opposed ‘Adult Mode’ Fired for Sexual Discrimination
Ryan Beiermeister, who served as the vice president leading OpenAI’s product policy team, had raised concerns about the upcoming launch of erotic content.
www.wsj.com
February 11, 2026 at 12:03 PM
OpenAI fired a VP who opposed their erotica rollout (and had started a company-wide peer mentorship program for women), allegedly telling her it was because she discriminated against a man 🤔 www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
Reposted by Prof. Dr Beth Singler
I and millions of Americans believe exactly the same thing Kasparov does.
Too many troops, too many new prisons, too much money not under Congressional supervision.
We're not just witnessing a mass deportation scheme anymore.
This is something significantly bigger and scarier.
Too many troops, too many new prisons, too much money not under Congressional supervision.
We're not just witnessing a mass deportation scheme anymore.
This is something significantly bigger and scarier.
February 11, 2026 at 9:37 AM
I and millions of Americans believe exactly the same thing Kasparov does.
Too many troops, too many new prisons, too much money not under Congressional supervision.
We're not just witnessing a mass deportation scheme anymore.
This is something significantly bigger and scarier.
Too many troops, too many new prisons, too much money not under Congressional supervision.
We're not just witnessing a mass deportation scheme anymore.
This is something significantly bigger and scarier.