José Marichal
@josemarichal.bsky.social
Pol Sci Prof at CalLutheran. Author of "You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem" (Bristol Univ Press) and "Machine Liberalism" (Forthcoming from Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press)
https://www.callutheran.edu/faculty/profile.html?id=marichal
https://www.callutheran.edu/faculty/profile.html?id=marichal
Brilliant analysis... We are the AI slop
'A Londoner spreading deepfakes of white women saying they don’t feel safe ‘because of migrants’ told me impatiently that everyone knows the videos aren’t real, but I was missing the point: ‘It’s about us showing everyone what’s really happening.’
'A Londoner spreading deepfakes of white women saying they don’t feel safe ‘because of migrants’ told me impatiently that everyone knows the videos aren’t real, but I was missing the point: ‘It’s about us showing everyone what’s really happening.’
Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines
Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 17, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Brilliant analysis... We are the AI slop
'A Londoner spreading deepfakes of white women saying they don’t feel safe ‘because of migrants’ told me impatiently that everyone knows the videos aren’t real, but I was missing the point: ‘It’s about us showing everyone what’s really happening.’
'A Londoner spreading deepfakes of white women saying they don’t feel safe ‘because of migrants’ told me impatiently that everyone knows the videos aren’t real, but I was missing the point: ‘It’s about us showing everyone what’s really happening.’
Reposted by José Marichal
Listen to @brocktoon.bsky.social, Get Off Twitter
(and subscribe to @flaminghydra.com
flaminghydra.com/issue-479/
(and subscribe to @flaminghydra.com
flaminghydra.com/issue-479/
See no evil
Some advice from Ian Williams
flaminghydra.com
January 17, 2026 at 8:57 PM
Listen to @brocktoon.bsky.social, Get Off Twitter
(and subscribe to @flaminghydra.com
flaminghydra.com/issue-479/
(and subscribe to @flaminghydra.com
flaminghydra.com/issue-479/
Modern architecture "softened by wood, light and landscape" sounds like my new political manifesto.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVtD...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVtD...
Alvar Aalto: The Architect Who Humanized Modernism
YouTube video by Design Docs
www.youtube.com
January 17, 2026 at 8:38 PM
Modern architecture "softened by wood, light and landscape" sounds like my new political manifesto.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVtD...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVtD...
a viable politics of liberalism needs to make space for community and collective life... D's would never do it, but what if they turned every campaign office into a "workers club" like this one in Finland by Alvar Aalto
January 17, 2026 at 8:30 PM
a viable politics of liberalism needs to make space for community and collective life... D's would never do it, but what if they turned every campaign office into a "workers club" like this one in Finland by Alvar Aalto
What about a politics of charm? Freedom and autonomy require an ability to appreciate the beautiful. But citizens RN aren't conditioned to desire charm through politics...
January 17, 2026 at 8:11 PM
What about a politics of charm? Freedom and autonomy require an ability to appreciate the beautiful. But citizens RN aren't conditioned to desire charm through politics...
Fascistic Dream Machines www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines
Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 17, 2026 at 7:32 PM
Fascistic Dream Machines www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
It's always a free speech party until power shows up
this is a rollicking great read
it's a story of a bunch of tenured idealists who believed that they were building a university dedicated to free speech and free inquiry, but then lost control of their project to... the right-wing megadonors who funded the university
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
it's a story of a bunch of tenured idealists who believed that they were building a university dedicated to free speech and free inquiry, but then lost control of their project to... the right-wing megadonors who funded the university
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
They Wanted a University Without Cancel Culture. Then Dissenters Were Ousted.
Inside the civil war at the anti-woke university backed by Bari Weiss.
www.politico.com
January 16, 2026 at 5:47 PM
It's always a free speech party until power shows up
Reposted by José Marichal
THREAD of offers of guest lectures (via Zoom) for Minneapolis-area classes so faculty can offer their students a top-quality education while dealing with other crises
Seeing tons of extremely generous offers. I'll try to post 'em all here--please add your own w topics you can cover & how to contact
Seeing tons of extremely generous offers. I'll try to post 'em all here--please add your own w topics you can cover & how to contact
Finally, a note to the many professors in my networks: One other specific, small thing you can do from outside of Minneapolis is reach out to colleagues who are heavily affected (because of their own or their family's risk, or because they're very busy protecting neighbors) and offer a guest lecture
January 15, 2026 at 7:43 PM
THREAD of offers of guest lectures (via Zoom) for Minneapolis-area classes so faculty can offer their students a top-quality education while dealing with other crises
Seeing tons of extremely generous offers. I'll try to post 'em all here--please add your own w topics you can cover & how to contact
Seeing tons of extremely generous offers. I'll try to post 'em all here--please add your own w topics you can cover & how to contact
Reposted by José Marichal
I'm fully confident literary magazines will survive the AI apocalypse. There is no better time to become a creative writer. You already have an inside track because most people have never even heard of these things that can never die. We will be here with the cockroaches and Taco Bell
January 16, 2026 at 5:35 PM
I'm fully confident literary magazines will survive the AI apocalypse. There is no better time to become a creative writer. You already have an inside track because most people have never even heard of these things that can never die. We will be here with the cockroaches and Taco Bell
Postdoctoral Associate Positions at the Digital Ethics Center
postdocs.yale.edu
January 16, 2026 at 5:27 PM
"the state is booming obvious falsehoods in our face and demanding we accept them, and they are simultaneously being packaged into infotainment to delight the converted and enrage the opposed."
“Abolish the senses - by Brian Merchant”
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/abolish-the-senses
> the main thing that you need to know about big tech and AI in 2026 is that they are key pillars of a political economy that is enabling the new American fascism
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/abolish-the-senses
> the main thing that you need to know about big tech and AI in 2026 is that they are key pillars of a political economy that is enabling the new American fascism
Abolish the senses
How the post-truth politics of Donald Trump and Elon Musk engineered the brutal, unpopular ICE occupation -- and what the resistance is actually about.
www.bloodinthemachine.com
January 16, 2026 at 12:41 PM
"the state is booming obvious falsehoods in our face and demanding we accept them, and they are simultaneously being packaged into infotainment to delight the converted and enrage the opposed."
"A top Trump adviser told Axios: "I wouldn't say he's concerned about the policy. He wants deportations. He wants mass deportations. What he doesn't want is what people are seeing. He doesn't like the way it looks. It looks bad"
Trump's immigration erosion worries his team
Some Trump advisers quietly are talking about "recalibrating" the White House's approach — though it's unclear what changes Trump would embrace, if any.
www.axios.com
January 16, 2026 at 12:34 PM
"A top Trump adviser told Axios: "I wouldn't say he's concerned about the policy. He wants deportations. He wants mass deportations. What he doesn't want is what people are seeing. He doesn't like the way it looks. It looks bad"
Reposted by José Marichal
are you displeased with today’s AI safety evaluation landscape and curious about what greater conceptual clarity, methodological soundness, and rigour in AI evaluation could look like? if so, consider coming to Dublin to pursue a PhD with me
apply here: aial.ie/hiring/phd-a...
pls repost
apply here: aial.ie/hiring/phd-a...
pls repost
January 15, 2026 at 11:55 AM
are you displeased with today’s AI safety evaluation landscape and curious about what greater conceptual clarity, methodological soundness, and rigour in AI evaluation could look like? if so, consider coming to Dublin to pursue a PhD with me
apply here: aial.ie/hiring/phd-a...
pls repost
apply here: aial.ie/hiring/phd-a...
pls repost
Reposted by José Marichal
For social scientists interested in LLMs for text classification/coding, the process here is potentially very helpful (even if you don't use the product itself).
Their core technique: Contradictory Example Training
Their training method: Binocular Labeling
More details in the linked post below.
Their core technique: Contradictory Example Training
Their training method: Binocular Labeling
More details in the linked post below.
We just published the methodology behind CoPE, our 9B parameter model that matches GPT-4o at content classification at 1% the size! The model is already open source, but now we're sharing our training technique. blog.zentropi.ai/how-we-built... 🧵 1/6
How we built CoPE
We just published the methodology behind CoPE. This is the model that powers Zentropi, and we think the approach might be useful for others working on policy-steerable classification systems.
We had ...
blog.zentropi.ai
January 15, 2026 at 7:37 PM
For social scientists interested in LLMs for text classification/coding, the process here is potentially very helpful (even if you don't use the product itself).
Their core technique: Contradictory Example Training
Their training method: Binocular Labeling
More details in the linked post below.
Their core technique: Contradictory Example Training
Their training method: Binocular Labeling
More details in the linked post below.
Reposted by José Marichal
Good stuff from @davekarpf.bsky.social
"We will study those things that Claude Code makes it remarkably easy to study. The first-movers will be rewarded with jobs and promotions and accolades"
Maybe an opportunity for "counter-spaces"that focus on new questions rather than narrowly contributions?
"We will study those things that Claude Code makes it remarkably easy to study. The first-movers will be rewarded with jobs and promotions and accolades"
Maybe an opportunity for "counter-spaces"that focus on new questions rather than narrowly contributions?
The 100x Research Institution
For the past few months, I’ve been running an experiment that felt both thrilling and vaguely unsettling: could I automate myself?
freesystems.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Good stuff from @davekarpf.bsky.social
"We will study those things that Claude Code makes it remarkably easy to study. The first-movers will be rewarded with jobs and promotions and accolades"
Maybe an opportunity for "counter-spaces"that focus on new questions rather than narrowly contributions?
"We will study those things that Claude Code makes it remarkably easy to study. The first-movers will be rewarded with jobs and promotions and accolades"
Maybe an opportunity for "counter-spaces"that focus on new questions rather than narrowly contributions?
Reposted by José Marichal
Thoughtful piece by @himself.bsky.social on the "genrefication" of social science by academics using LLMs
I wonder whether academia will be forced to adjust so that social science T&P decisions won't be based on paper volume or journal prestige but rather on applicability to social questions.
I wonder whether academia will be forced to adjust so that social science T&P decisions won't be based on paper volume or journal prestige but rather on applicability to social questions.
AI is great for scientists. Perhaps it's not so great for science
Large language models may start to genre-fy scientific research
www.programmablemutter.com
January 15, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Thoughtful piece by @himself.bsky.social on the "genrefication" of social science by academics using LLMs
I wonder whether academia will be forced to adjust so that social science T&P decisions won't be based on paper volume or journal prestige but rather on applicability to social questions.
I wonder whether academia will be forced to adjust so that social science T&P decisions won't be based on paper volume or journal prestige but rather on applicability to social questions.
I'd love to know how this is playing out on TikTok
🚨BREAKING: ICE/DHS agents launch flash bang grenades and tear gas at unarmed Minneapolis protesters in front of the federal building.
"We have a constitutional right to assemble here! You are committing treason!" protester screams amidst cloud of tear gas. LIVE NOW ⬇️
"We have a constitutional right to assemble here! You are committing treason!" protester screams amidst cloud of tear gas. LIVE NOW ⬇️
January 15, 2026 at 11:42 PM
I'd love to know how this is playing out on TikTok
Thoughtful piece by @himself.bsky.social on the "genrefication" of social science by academics using LLMs
I wonder whether academia will be forced to adjust so that social science T&P decisions won't be based on paper volume or journal prestige but rather on applicability to social questions.
I wonder whether academia will be forced to adjust so that social science T&P decisions won't be based on paper volume or journal prestige but rather on applicability to social questions.
AI is great for scientists. Perhaps it's not so great for science
Large language models may start to genre-fy scientific research
www.programmablemutter.com
January 15, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Thoughtful piece by @himself.bsky.social on the "genrefication" of social science by academics using LLMs
I wonder whether academia will be forced to adjust so that social science T&P decisions won't be based on paper volume or journal prestige but rather on applicability to social questions.
I wonder whether academia will be forced to adjust so that social science T&P decisions won't be based on paper volume or journal prestige but rather on applicability to social questions.
Reposted by José Marichal
Proofs day!
Sadly drafted before “ChatGPT Health” and others like it came out, but nevertheless, will be happy to share this piece once it is officially published in The Routledge Handbook of Health and Environmental Humanities.
Sadly drafted before “ChatGPT Health” and others like it came out, but nevertheless, will be happy to share this piece once it is officially published in The Routledge Handbook of Health and Environmental Humanities.
January 15, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Proofs day!
Sadly drafted before “ChatGPT Health” and others like it came out, but nevertheless, will be happy to share this piece once it is officially published in The Routledge Handbook of Health and Environmental Humanities.
Sadly drafted before “ChatGPT Health” and others like it came out, but nevertheless, will be happy to share this piece once it is officially published in The Routledge Handbook of Health and Environmental Humanities.
Good stuff from @davekarpf.bsky.social
"We will study those things that Claude Code makes it remarkably easy to study. The first-movers will be rewarded with jobs and promotions and accolades"
Maybe an opportunity for "counter-spaces"that focus on new questions rather than narrowly contributions?
"We will study those things that Claude Code makes it remarkably easy to study. The first-movers will be rewarded with jobs and promotions and accolades"
Maybe an opportunity for "counter-spaces"that focus on new questions rather than narrowly contributions?
The 100x Research Institution
For the past few months, I’ve been running an experiment that felt both thrilling and vaguely unsettling: could I automate myself?
freesystems.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Good stuff from @davekarpf.bsky.social
"We will study those things that Claude Code makes it remarkably easy to study. The first-movers will be rewarded with jobs and promotions and accolades"
Maybe an opportunity for "counter-spaces"that focus on new questions rather than narrowly contributions?
"We will study those things that Claude Code makes it remarkably easy to study. The first-movers will be rewarded with jobs and promotions and accolades"
Maybe an opportunity for "counter-spaces"that focus on new questions rather than narrowly contributions?
Reposted by José Marichal
I spoke with @wired.com about how if local elected officials want to protect their community from ICE attacks, one of the most important things they can do is roll back city-level surveillance programs and restrict law enforcement use of Flock, facial recognition, etc www.wired.com/story/what-t...
What to Do if ICE Invades Your Neighborhood
With federal agents storming the streets of American communities, there’s no single right way to approach this dangerous moment. But there are steps you can take to stay safe—and have an impact.
www.wired.com
January 14, 2026 at 4:02 PM
I spoke with @wired.com about how if local elected officials want to protect their community from ICE attacks, one of the most important things they can do is roll back city-level surveillance programs and restrict law enforcement use of Flock, facial recognition, etc www.wired.com/story/what-t...
Reposted by José Marichal
“As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air...lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.” #WilliamODouglas
January 15, 2026 at 3:09 AM
“As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air...lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.” #WilliamODouglas
An appreciation post for my fellow academics... It's worthy and noble to dedicate your time and effort to the life of the mind and the pursuit of understanding, beauty and the good. The pay isn't great, the hours are long and the plaudits are scarce.... And yet, we keep going.
January 15, 2026 at 5:26 AM
An appreciation post for my fellow academics... It's worthy and noble to dedicate your time and effort to the life of the mind and the pursuit of understanding, beauty and the good. The pay isn't great, the hours are long and the plaudits are scarce.... And yet, we keep going.
Reposted by José Marichal
Join us in Frankfurt or online: "Social Media Access Days" - Social media data between research and infrastructure – sustainable archiving, cataloguing and access. March 17-19. Featuring a keynote by @snurb.info. Full program and registration details at: www.dnb.de/EN/Kulturell...
Social Media Access Days
Social media data between research and infrastructure – sustainable archiving, cataloguing and access.
www.dnb.de
January 14, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Join us in Frankfurt or online: "Social Media Access Days" - Social media data between research and infrastructure – sustainable archiving, cataloguing and access. March 17-19. Featuring a keynote by @snurb.info. Full program and registration details at: www.dnb.de/EN/Kulturell...
Really good post... this isn't just misniformation, but:
"the functional integration of the model into the platform architecture... a form of enclosure, defining the epistemic limits of what is true by way of prioritization, promotion, and monetization for ad sharing, sponsored posts, and more"
"the functional integration of the model into the platform architecture... a form of enclosure, defining the epistemic limits of what is true by way of prioritization, promotion, and monetization for ad sharing, sponsored posts, and more"
For @techpolicypress.bsky.social , a quick turnaround and slightly longer version of the talk I gave at UVA last week, “Grok is an Epistemic Weapon.” Shout outs to @hbcompass.bsky.social, @eliothiggins.bsky.social, others.
Grok stands as the clearest example of an AI that is both ideologically aligned and operationally embedded in a social media platform, says @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social. "Its mechanisms should be taken apart under bright lights, in much the same way people learn how to defuse a bomb."
January 14, 2026 at 9:34 PM
Really good post... this isn't just misniformation, but:
"the functional integration of the model into the platform architecture... a form of enclosure, defining the epistemic limits of what is true by way of prioritization, promotion, and monetization for ad sharing, sponsored posts, and more"
"the functional integration of the model into the platform architecture... a form of enclosure, defining the epistemic limits of what is true by way of prioritization, promotion, and monetization for ad sharing, sponsored posts, and more"