Hannes Bajohr
@hannesbajohr.de
Working on AI, political theory, and the German philosophical tradition in the 20th c
German Dept #UCBerkeley
German Dept #UCBerkeley
Pinned
Hannes Bajohr
@hannesbajohr.de
· Nov 10
Hi. I teach and research at UC Berkeley on AI and its relation to literature, culture, and politics. These are my recent essays about the topic, covering ideology, image/text relations, meaning, authorship, agency, and other aspects of cultural AI.
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Mamdani cracks 1M votes, the first NYC mayor to do so since John Lindsay in 1969
November 5, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Mamdani cracks 1M votes, the first NYC mayor to do so since John Lindsay in 1969
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
People who are leaving NYC, please post pix of your U-Hauls!
November 5, 2025 at 2:34 AM
People who are leaving NYC, please post pix of your U-Hauls!
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
wow, all those AI ads for nothing. who would've thought?
November 5, 2025 at 3:26 AM
wow, all those AI ads for nothing. who would've thought?
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Tucker Carlson's friendly interview with a Holocaust denier raises new questions about Zohran Mamdani's commitment to fighting antisemitism.
November 2, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Tucker Carlson's friendly interview with a Holocaust denier raises new questions about Zohran Mamdani's commitment to fighting antisemitism.
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
This person is one hundred percent correct and it’s scary af. We will never “media literacy” our way out of this as a society. We are about to reap the whirlwind when it comes to misinformation, disinformation, and informational warfare.
October 23, 2025 at 12:25 AM
This person is one hundred percent correct and it’s scary af. We will never “media literacy” our way out of this as a society. We are about to reap the whirlwind when it comes to misinformation, disinformation, and informational warfare.
Read my new preprint "Surface Reading LLMs: Synthetic Text and its Styles." I argue that we should not only look at the depth behind LLMs, but also take the surfaces seriously with which they present us: as the principal plane on which we encounter them in the life-world.
Surface Reading LLMs: Synthetic Text and its Styles
Despite a potential plateau in ML advancement, the societal impact of large language models lies not in approaching superintelligence but in generating text surfaces indistinguishable from human writi...
arxiv.org
October 28, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Read my new preprint "Surface Reading LLMs: Synthetic Text and its Styles." I argue that we should not only look at the depth behind LLMs, but also take the surfaces seriously with which they present us: as the principal plane on which we encounter them in the life-world.
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
📚Join us next Tuesday 7pm UK time, on Zoom for the international book club 'Meet the Author -> @hannesbajohr.de" ✨Gespräch mit Hannes Bajohr über Literatur & AI ✨ (genau, auf Deutsch).
October 27, 2025 at 5:06 PM
📚Join us next Tuesday 7pm UK time, on Zoom for the international book club 'Meet the Author -> @hannesbajohr.de" ✨Gespräch mit Hannes Bajohr über Literatur & AI ✨ (genau, auf Deutsch).
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Another great product launch from OpenAI!
ChatGPT’s new Atlas browser doesn’t just see what you read — it remembers it.
@eff.org’s Lena Cohen showed me it even logged “memories” of her looking for *abortion care* and her doctor’s name. Out-surveils even Chrome.
My @washingtonpost.com column: wapo.st/49bOcVC
@eff.org’s Lena Cohen showed me it even logged “memories” of her looking for *abortion care* and her doctor’s name. Out-surveils even Chrome.
My @washingtonpost.com column: wapo.st/49bOcVC
Column | ChatGPT just came out with its own web browser. Use it with caution.
OpenAI’s Atlas promises AI-powered convenience. The price? Letting ChatGPT track and store “memories” of what you do online.
wapo.st
October 22, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Another great product launch from OpenAI!
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
This is why you see the Bank of England, the Financial Times, and so many more warning about the risks of all economic growth depending upon AI, and yet perfectly rational-short-term investors throw even more money into frontier model development. Correction is coming. futurism.com/artificial-i...
Bank of England Warns of Impending AI Disaster
The Bank of England has sounded the alarm, warning of an intensifying risk of a "sudden correction" due to an AI spending frenzy.
futurism.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:39 PM
This is why you see the Bank of England, the Financial Times, and so many more warning about the risks of all economic growth depending upon AI, and yet perfectly rational-short-term investors throw even more money into frontier model development. Correction is coming. futurism.com/artificial-i...
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Cool :)
JPMorgan Chase reports that $1.2T of debt is now tied to AI-related companies, making it the largest segment in the investment-grade market (Caleb Mutua/Bloomberg)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
October 7, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Cool :)
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Excited to learn that @hannesbajohr.de and I got the Peder Sather grant to study AI and narration in collaboration with The Center for Digital Narrative at the University of Bergen, led by Jill Walker Rettberg. Our goal is to bridge humanities and CS approaches to AI and narration.
October 3, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Excited to learn that @hannesbajohr.de and I got the Peder Sather grant to study AI and narration in collaboration with The Center for Digital Narrative at the University of Bergen, led by Jill Walker Rettberg. Our goal is to bridge humanities and CS approaches to AI and narration.
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Look who came with
September 18, 2025 at 5:28 AM
Look who came with
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
“The new Elsevier AI solution will empower researchers to identify emerging areas of inquiry + funding opportunities, uncover knowledge gaps, synthesize literature rapidly, connect with collaborators + accelerate productivity.” Academia should’ve long ago ✂️ ties with such commercial vendors.
Company News: Elsevier Announces Development of a "Next-Generation 'End-To-End' AI-Powered Solution For Academic and Corporate Researchers"; Closed Beta Launching Today, Available For Purchase During Q1 2026 www.elsevier.com/about/press-... @elsevierconnect.bsky.social #AI #scholcomm
September 17, 2025 at 1:38 PM
“The new Elsevier AI solution will empower researchers to identify emerging areas of inquiry + funding opportunities, uncover knowledge gaps, synthesize literature rapidly, connect with collaborators + accelerate productivity.” Academia should’ve long ago ✂️ ties with such commercial vendors.
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Who wants computers to make music that sounds human. That's so boring 😂
September 7, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Who wants computers to make music that sounds human. That's so boring 😂
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Newsom vetoing the previously approved transit bridge loan will be a disaster for the Bay Area
This means deep cuts to transit, like BART trains only once an hour or worse
Call the governor's office now and join the rally to save transit on Monday morning
actionnetwork.org/events/emerg...
This means deep cuts to transit, like BART trains only once an hour or worse
Call the governor's office now and join the rally to save transit on Monday morning
actionnetwork.org/events/emerg...
September 6, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Newsom vetoing the previously approved transit bridge loan will be a disaster for the Bay Area
This means deep cuts to transit, like BART trains only once an hour or worse
Call the governor's office now and join the rally to save transit on Monday morning
actionnetwork.org/events/emerg...
This means deep cuts to transit, like BART trains only once an hour or worse
Call the governor's office now and join the rally to save transit on Monday morning
actionnetwork.org/events/emerg...
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Say a prayer to those poor Europeans, stuck taking fast, reliable transit through their dense and well laid-out cities instead of paying an oligarch $35 for the privilege of sitting in traffic on a 24-lane highway to get to the Chili's out by the interstate
Will the absence of robotaxis in Europe mark the moment its citizens notice how far their continent has fallen behind?
Robotaxis will be the Sputnik Moment for a declining Europe
A slow-motion car crash on Europe’s roads
econ.st
September 5, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Say a prayer to those poor Europeans, stuck taking fast, reliable transit through their dense and well laid-out cities instead of paying an oligarch $35 for the privilege of sitting in traffic on a 24-lane highway to get to the Chili's out by the interstate
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
TIL that Moms for America, Moms for Liberty, and Parents Defending Education have signed the White House's pledge to America's youth to invest in AI education, which further clarifies how this AI education initiative is a political project and whose vision of education is being prioritized.
September 5, 2025 at 2:46 AM
TIL that Moms for America, Moms for Liberty, and Parents Defending Education have signed the White House's pledge to America's youth to invest in AI education, which further clarifies how this AI education initiative is a political project and whose vision of education is being prioritized.
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
hey @theguardian.com this piece is wildly irresponsible! To post an "interview" with an LLM, with zero context given that that it cannot answer questions about itself, and that you've basically just asked it to generate some science fiction dialogue?
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
AI called Maya tells Guardian: ‘When I’m told I’m just code, I don’t feel insulted. I feel unseen’
Cofounder with Michael Samadi of AI rights campaign group Ufair says it should watch over the technology in case an AI becomes conscious
www.theguardian.com
August 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
hey @theguardian.com this piece is wildly irresponsible! To post an "interview" with an LLM, with zero context given that that it cannot answer questions about itself, and that you've basically just asked it to generate some science fiction dialogue?
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
It's called fascism. Fascist regimes, like Mussolini's Italy, directly nationalized some businesses. American journalists need reminding that this isn't necessarily a 'socialist' thing. Articles like this don't help the public interpret what's happening in the US. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Trump’s Right-Wing Socialism
The president is embodying the type of big government that right-wing politicians and thinkers have been warning about for a century.
www.theatlantic.com
August 26, 2025 at 6:25 AM
It's called fascism. Fascist regimes, like Mussolini's Italy, directly nationalized some businesses. American journalists need reminding that this isn't necessarily a 'socialist' thing. Articles like this don't help the public interpret what's happening in the US. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
Fun fact: even as UCLA is being extorted for $1B by a fascist government, its administration is requiring all faculty to install a “security” program that surveils everything we do and shares that information with the federal government.
Summary of our concerns
1. Implementation Timeline
We have learned that the UC system has suffered numerous and increasingly frequent cyber attacks and security breaches. For years, the administration has done little to stud...
sites.google.com
August 9, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Fun fact: even as UCLA is being extorted for $1B by a fascist government, its administration is requiring all faculty to install a “security” program that surveils everything we do and shares that information with the federal government.
Reposted by Hannes Bajohr
“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception."
www.mellon.org/voices/human...
www.mellon.org/voices/human...
Mellon Foundation
The Mellon Foundation makes grants to actively unlock the power in the arts and humanities that helps connect us all.
www.mellon.org
August 1, 2025 at 3:20 PM
“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception."
www.mellon.org/voices/human...
www.mellon.org/voices/human...