Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
@katjathieme.bsky.social
Into words, sentences, genres.
#writingstudies #teamrhetoric #cdnwrds #genai+writing
https://katjat.medium.com/
#writingstudies #teamrhetoric #cdnwrds #genai+writing
https://katjat.medium.com/
Pinned
Teaching Scores, Storied Averages, and Small Classes
University administrations are very keen on student evaluations. Behind the scenes, they are a managerial lever in employment decisions and…
katjat.medium.com
If you've ever found yourself in a position of inventing some sort of story that might explain uneven student evaluation scores—your own or someone else's—then this blog post is for you.
#writingstudies #cdnwrds #rhetcomp #teamrhetoric
#writingstudies #cdnwrds #rhetcomp #teamrhetoric
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
The fact that there is no one who has instantly shut this down is one of the biggest indictments of the entire AI industry, Elon Musk, and our current government that we’ve seen yet.
When I was a girl, if someone had made an explicit image of me, I would have been scarred for life. Musk, however, mocked "the situation by sharing an array of Grok-generated images, including one depicting himself in a bikini, punctuated by laughing-crying emojis."
www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/i...
www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/i...
Elon Musk's X faces probes in Europe, India, Malaysia after Grok generated explicit images of women and children
Regulators in Europe, India and Malaysia are scrutinizing X after exploitative images created with the Grok chatbot went viral on Elon Musk's social network.
www.cnbc.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:02 PM
The fact that there is no one who has instantly shut this down is one of the biggest indictments of the entire AI industry, Elon Musk, and our current government that we’ve seen yet.
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
We should categorically reject and contest the assertion or implication that being an "activist" in some way diminishes/qualifies a person's perspective or positions; it's part of an insidious and reactionary project to make "passive apolitical consumer" the only correct mode of citizenship
January 6, 2026 at 1:01 PM
We should categorically reject and contest the assertion or implication that being an "activist" in some way diminishes/qualifies a person's perspective or positions; it's part of an insidious and reactionary project to make "passive apolitical consumer" the only correct mode of citizenship
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
Peter Thiel’s Christmas party had an odd theme this year: “all things Britain.” (per NYT)
As Trump sunsets and backlash builds, expect a focus shift to the UK—where some see brighter possibilities for fascism,network states, and monarchies.
As Trump sunsets and backlash builds, expect a focus shift to the UK—where some see brighter possibilities for fascism,network states, and monarchies.
December 29, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Peter Thiel’s Christmas party had an odd theme this year: “all things Britain.” (per NYT)
As Trump sunsets and backlash builds, expect a focus shift to the UK—where some see brighter possibilities for fascism,network states, and monarchies.
As Trump sunsets and backlash builds, expect a focus shift to the UK—where some see brighter possibilities for fascism,network states, and monarchies.
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day.
Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me.
🧵
Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me.
🧵
January 6, 2026 at 1:23 PM
I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day.
Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me.
🧵
Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me.
🧵
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
Yet another huge contract, awarded without any competitive bidding process, to Wes Streeting's favourite NHS supplier, the Hard Right US surveillance tech specialists Palantir, for military decision making capability.
Palantir lands biggest ever UK defense deal
The £240 million contract with the Ministry of Defence has renewed a debate about Britain’s dependence on American technology.
www.politico.eu
January 6, 2026 at 7:16 AM
Yet another huge contract, awarded without any competitive bidding process, to Wes Streeting's favourite NHS supplier, the Hard Right US surveillance tech specialists Palantir, for military decision making capability.
Whenever I act on the fact that, physically, I simply cannot respond to all the emails that my job sends me by diverting my anxiety to reading, then clearly reading functions as a vice.
we already do treat reading as a vice
To get more young people to read, it’s best to treat the activity not as a public duty but as a vice, Adam Kirsch argues.
January 6, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Whenever I act on the fact that, physically, I simply cannot respond to all the emails that my job sends me by diverting my anxiety to reading, then clearly reading functions as a vice.
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
When I was a girl, if someone had made an explicit image of me, I would have been scarred for life. Musk, however, mocked "the situation by sharing an array of Grok-generated images, including one depicting himself in a bikini, punctuated by laughing-crying emojis."
www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/i...
www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/i...
Elon Musk's X faces probes in Europe, India, Malaysia after Grok generated explicit images of women and children
Regulators in Europe, India and Malaysia are scrutinizing X after exploitative images created with the Grok chatbot went viral on Elon Musk's social network.
www.cnbc.com
January 6, 2026 at 1:29 PM
When I was a girl, if someone had made an explicit image of me, I would have been scarred for life. Musk, however, mocked "the situation by sharing an array of Grok-generated images, including one depicting himself in a bikini, punctuated by laughing-crying emojis."
www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/i...
www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/i...
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
„By sticking together, and focusing on the things that are within our reach, things can begin to change. All it takes is remembering that the power in tech truly rests with all the people who actually make things, not with the loudmouths at the top who try to tear things down.“ 9/
January 6, 2026 at 4:25 AM
„By sticking together, and focusing on the things that are within our reach, things can begin to change. All it takes is remembering that the power in tech truly rests with all the people who actually make things, not with the loudmouths at the top who try to tear things down.“ 9/
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
They invaded a country because of the 'Friends of Dorothy' joke from Arrested Development.
January 6, 2026 at 12:32 PM
They invaded a country because of the 'Friends of Dorothy' joke from Arrested Development.
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
Folks getting in the weeds about licensing agreements but this research study engaged me in research, by creating a bespoke dataset about me, before I agreed to participate. They already made the dataset before I was invited to participated. That's not how informed consent works
somebody at UChicago is feeding preprints to LLMs without authors' consent, in a research study
they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work.
lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply
they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work.
lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply
January 6, 2026 at 1:40 PM
Folks getting in the weeds about licensing agreements but this research study engaged me in research, by creating a bespoke dataset about me, before I agreed to participate. They already made the dataset before I was invited to participated. That's not how informed consent works
Not just philosophers. 😉
Philosophers on Twitter, 2016: remember to be careful with what you say online, you never know what a hiring committee might see.
Philosophers on Bluesky, 2026: fuck fascism, fuck imperialism, fuck you, and I hope Trump dies in agony yesterday.
Philosophers on Bluesky, 2026: fuck fascism, fuck imperialism, fuck you, and I hope Trump dies in agony yesterday.
January 6, 2026 at 5:39 AM
Not just philosophers. 😉
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
„When language models grasp context and nuance, it is because human judgement has imposed structure on raw data. As Joan Kinyua puts it, ‘AI is not magic—and it would not exist without data workers.‘“ 1/
"I know what it feels like to work in an environment so tense and cold that you instinctively want to run when you see management walking down the corridor" reamby.substack.com/p/joan-kinyu...
Joan Kinyua on the Architecture of Invisibility in the AI Economy
The African Innovators Series(TAIS): Tech, Data, and AI Changing the Game
reamby.substack.com
January 4, 2026 at 1:43 PM
„When language models grasp context and nuance, it is because human judgement has imposed structure on raw data. As Joan Kinyua puts it, ‘AI is not magic—and it would not exist without data workers.‘“ 1/
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
Hey there. This is an excellent response.
The Free Speech Union commissioned a "security" report on us, so we tested their security. Turns out - it sucks.
We've now published the names of everyone who has donated to a FSU fundraiser, along with how much they gave and to which campaign.
www.transbashback.com/fsu.html
xoxo BASH BACK
We've now published the names of everyone who has donated to a FSU fundraiser, along with how much they gave and to which campaign.
www.transbashback.com/fsu.html
xoxo BASH BACK
BASH BACK
www.transbashback.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Hey there. This is an excellent response.
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
As we organize for a better world, we must attend to this: "...a community that maintained networks of connection for years, helping the unemployed find jobs, supporting their legal challenges, attending celebrations of political wins..."
The parallels between the Red Scare of the 1950s and today’s assault on higher ed remind us of the need to join communities of resistance.
Read Joan Wallach Scott (former chair of AAUP’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure) on the stakes of defending higher ed as a public good.
Read Joan Wallach Scott (former chair of AAUP’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure) on the stakes of defending higher ed as a public good.
A General Air of Anxiety
The Red Scare targeted my father. He taught me the meaning of resistance.
www.bostonreview.net
January 6, 2026 at 4:28 AM
As we organize for a better world, we must attend to this: "...a community that maintained networks of connection for years, helping the unemployed find jobs, supporting their legal challenges, attending celebrations of political wins..."
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
For certain papers about generative AI and its uses there is a hype dynamic of its own, piggybacking in a variety of ways on general generative AI hype. In almost all cases these are pre-prints. Which means low cost to making them look like serious work. Easy paths to promoting them.
#genAI+writing
#genAI+writing
„The paper has serious problems. Specifically, all the scientific process heavy lifting they should have got a human to do … they just used chatbots! I mean, they don’t seem to have written the text of the paper with a chatbot, I’ll give ’em that. But they did do the actual procedure with chatbots.“
Unfortunately, it seems the “adversarial poetry” paper itself may have some serious issues.
pivot-to-ai.com/2025/11/24/d...
pivot-to-ai.com/2025/11/24/d...
December 11, 2025 at 6:22 PM
For certain papers about generative AI and its uses there is a hype dynamic of its own, piggybacking in a variety of ways on general generative AI hype. In almost all cases these are pre-prints. Which means low cost to making them look like serious work. Easy paths to promoting them.
#genAI+writing
#genAI+writing
„What you may have missed is that half a million tech workers have been laid off in the years since ChatGPT was released; the same attacks on marginalized workers and DEI and ‘woke‘ that the tech robber barons launched against the rest of society were aimed at their own companies first.“ 1/
The number one thing I've been hearing from people in tech lately is, basically, "How the hell am I supposed to work in this industry anymore?" Though most folks are kind of afraid to say it out loud. So I wrote about how to think about it: www.anildash.com/2026/01/05/a...
How the hell are you supposed to have a career in tech in 2026? - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
www.anildash.com
January 6, 2026 at 3:54 AM
„What you may have missed is that half a million tech workers have been laid off in the years since ChatGPT was released; the same attacks on marginalized workers and DEI and ‘woke‘ that the tech robber barons launched against the rest of society were aimed at their own companies first.“ 1/
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
The gender studies coursework (and critical race theory) that I took in college and then law school has proved far more useful than many of my advisors at the time ever thought it would be.
Once you understand how it all links together, it’s impossible to unsee it.
Once you understand how it all links together, it’s impossible to unsee it.
kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life
January 6, 2026 at 2:09 AM
The gender studies coursework (and critical race theory) that I took in college and then law school has proved far more useful than many of my advisors at the time ever thought it would be.
Once you understand how it all links together, it’s impossible to unsee it.
Once you understand how it all links together, it’s impossible to unsee it.
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
somebody at UChicago is feeding preprints to LLMs without authors' consent, in a research study
they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work.
lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply
they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work.
lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply
January 5, 2026 at 10:55 PM
somebody at UChicago is feeding preprints to LLMs without authors' consent, in a research study
they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work.
lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply
they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work.
lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
You could say that Bill Ackman knows research and degrees mostly as something to be purchased.
"The degrees were awarded following an undisclosed donation by the couple, which will go toward the construction of a student plaza named for Oxman’s mother."
ejewishphilanthropy.com/at-universit...
"The degrees were awarded following an undisclosed donation by the couple, which will go toward the construction of a student plaza named for Oxman’s mother."
ejewishphilanthropy.com/at-universit...
Bill Ackman gets warm welcome, honorary degree from University of Haifa, says he’s ‘bullish’ on Israel
Israeli institution honors Ackman and his wife, Neri Oxman, after donation in memory of her mother; the investor tells eJP he's looking to get involved philanthropically in Israeli education
ejewishphilanthropy.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:34 AM
You could say that Bill Ackman knows research and degrees mostly as something to be purchased.
"The degrees were awarded following an undisclosed donation by the couple, which will go toward the construction of a student plaza named for Oxman’s mother."
ejewishphilanthropy.com/at-universit...
"The degrees were awarded following an undisclosed donation by the couple, which will go toward the construction of a student plaza named for Oxman’s mother."
ejewishphilanthropy.com/at-universit...
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
„In a 4,102-word post on X early Friday morning, Bill Ackman wrote that he began covering Francesca Gino’s legal and expert costs after concluding that she was wrongfully accused of research fraud and denied due process by Harvard.“
I bet he still believes his wife wrote her very own thesis.
I bet he still believes his wife wrote her very own thesis.
January 4, 2026 at 9:00 PM
„In a 4,102-word post on X early Friday morning, Bill Ackman wrote that he began covering Francesca Gino’s legal and expert costs after concluding that she was wrongfully accused of research fraud and denied due process by Harvard.“
I bet he still believes his wife wrote her very own thesis.
I bet he still believes his wife wrote her very own thesis.
Hot burning wisdom.
If you have to train students to recognize when a *university provided* resource is lying to them, maybe the university should not provide that resource.
January 5, 2026 at 6:26 PM
Hot burning wisdom.
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
My fellow dehydrated noodles,
Are you staring at your desk wondering what is it that you do?
Have you been forced to chuckle at generic holiday quips?
Is it all just too much?
You know the drill, go get a beverage and take a sip.
The week is hard enough as it is, don't add dehydration to it.
Are you staring at your desk wondering what is it that you do?
Have you been forced to chuckle at generic holiday quips?
Is it all just too much?
You know the drill, go get a beverage and take a sip.
The week is hard enough as it is, don't add dehydration to it.
January 5, 2026 at 4:56 PM
My fellow dehydrated noodles,
Are you staring at your desk wondering what is it that you do?
Have you been forced to chuckle at generic holiday quips?
Is it all just too much?
You know the drill, go get a beverage and take a sip.
The week is hard enough as it is, don't add dehydration to it.
Are you staring at your desk wondering what is it that you do?
Have you been forced to chuckle at generic holiday quips?
Is it all just too much?
You know the drill, go get a beverage and take a sip.
The week is hard enough as it is, don't add dehydration to it.
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
This isn't just risk, it's actual, realised harm.
One might even go so far as to say that it was *always* actual, realised harm.
It's not an explanation issue either.
The problem is not the people doing the explaining, it's the people who don't want to change their own understanding of the world.
One might even go so far as to say that it was *always* actual, realised harm.
It's not an explanation issue either.
The problem is not the people doing the explaining, it's the people who don't want to change their own understanding of the world.
January 5, 2026 at 9:23 AM
This isn't just risk, it's actual, realised harm.
One might even go so far as to say that it was *always* actual, realised harm.
It's not an explanation issue either.
The problem is not the people doing the explaining, it's the people who don't want to change their own understanding of the world.
One might even go so far as to say that it was *always* actual, realised harm.
It's not an explanation issue either.
The problem is not the people doing the explaining, it's the people who don't want to change their own understanding of the world.
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
Two days later and the nonconsensual sexual material generator still hasn't been turned off, at this point it's time to start arresting people
If you want to see what the main use case for AI is to the average consumer, open Twitter, go to the @grok account and click on the "Media" tab
January 2, 2026 at 1:09 PM
Two days later and the nonconsensual sexual material generator still hasn't been turned off, at this point it's time to start arresting people
Reposted by Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they)
The context here is that the US Govt has taken an adversarial position to the work of the ICC and has issued orders such that Microsoft, as a US company, has hampered the ICC’s access to their software.
By the same logic, every state body outside the US should now do the same.
By the same logic, every state body outside the US should now do the same.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.
www.euractiv.com/news/interna...
www.euractiv.com/news/interna...
International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative | Euractiv
The court will move its internal work environment to Open Desk, a German-developed open source software
www.euractiv.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:08 PM
The context here is that the US Govt has taken an adversarial position to the work of the ICC and has issued orders such that Microsoft, as a US company, has hampered the ICC’s access to their software.
By the same logic, every state body outside the US should now do the same.
By the same logic, every state body outside the US should now do the same.