Marianne O'Doherty
@marianneodoherty.bsky.social
Medievalist. Likes maps, birds, nature, cycling, cider and primates. She/her.
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
When OpenAI released ChatGPT, it was trained on pirated books.
This finally came to light in a lawsuit three months ago, but it has gone essentially unreported.
🧵 1/5
This finally came to light in a lawsuit three months ago, but it has gone essentially unreported.
🧵 1/5
February 15, 2026 at 8:22 AM
When OpenAI released ChatGPT, it was trained on pirated books.
This finally came to light in a lawsuit three months ago, but it has gone essentially unreported.
🧵 1/5
This finally came to light in a lawsuit three months ago, but it has gone essentially unreported.
🧵 1/5
I don't even know where to start. With the 'pensions are untouchable so let's stiff the young', with the 'did my essay the night before it was due' excuse, or with the boring fact that I wrote to my Tory MP at the time to point out that once they'd kicked down the door other govts would...
"Student loan architect admits system was designed in ‘mad rush’"
Student loan architect admits system was designed in ‘mad rush’
Plan 2 loans are facing mounting criticism over punitive interest rates graduates are unable to repay
www.thetimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 11:19 PM
I don't even know where to start. With the 'pensions are untouchable so let's stiff the young', with the 'did my essay the night before it was due' excuse, or with the boring fact that I wrote to my Tory MP at the time to point out that once they'd kicked down the door other govts would...
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
🧪🏺 Update - authors have new paper showing how useless gen- #AI is for archaeological illustration.
All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts.
JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts.
JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
February 13, 2026 at 6:09 PM
🧪🏺 Update - authors have new paper showing how useless gen- #AI is for archaeological illustration.
All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts.
JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
All 400 images were multiply inaccurate (physically, socially, technologically, environmentally), even with improved prompts.
JUST USE HUMAN EXPERTS & ARTISTS
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
It's still a shock to find a new PFAS forever chemical hotspot, even when it's inevitable. A bit of digging around paper mills, which often use PFAS, revealed the banned carcinogen PFOS at levels as high as 3,000ng/l in groundwater in south Cumbria
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Race to find source of carcinogenic Pfas in Cumbria and Lancashire waters
Exclusive: High levels of banned ‘forever chemical’ have been detected in rivers and groundwater at 25 sites
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 7:37 AM
It's still a shock to find a new PFAS forever chemical hotspot, even when it's inevitable. A bit of digging around paper mills, which often use PFAS, revealed the banned carcinogen PFOS at levels as high as 3,000ng/l in groundwater in south Cumbria
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
God, I hope Gorton and Denton tell him to do one.
Reform candidate calls for young girls to be given "biological reality check" www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
Reform candidate calls for ‘young girls’ to be given ‘biological reality’ check
Exclusive: Matt Goodwin argued ‘young girls’ should be explained ‘the biological reality’ that ‘many women in Britain are having children much too late in life’
www.independent.co.uk
February 13, 2026 at 9:00 AM
God, I hope Gorton and Denton tell him to do one.
It would be nice if my constituency MP had a word or two to say about the tens of thousands of job losses in universities.
I reckon there's a strong likelihood that Andrew Murrison MP believes that businesses should stand or fall on their ability to turn a profit. Unless of course those businesses are second-rate private schools in which case they should have VAT exemptions.
www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/2584013...
www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/2584013...
Private school closures blamed on 'vindictive' VAT policy
A Wiltshire MP has slammed the government’s ‘vindictive’ measures in the wake of a spate of private school closures and sell-offs.
www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk
February 12, 2026 at 11:19 AM
It would be nice if my constituency MP had a word or two to say about the tens of thousands of job losses in universities.
So we thought we would invent a big machine to do all the writing and summarise everything so no-one has to read anymore and translate so no one needs to learn languages. There will definitely be no massive cognitive health costs down the line which the companies that did this won't pay.
February 12, 2026 at 7:53 AM
So we thought we would invent a big machine to do all the writing and summarise everything so no-one has to read anymore and translate so no one needs to learn languages. There will definitely be no massive cognitive health costs down the line which the companies that did this won't pay.
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
In Jan OpenAI fired VP of public policy (safety) for discrimination against a male colleague. There are no details about the alleged complaint but she had raised concerns about the ChatGPT’s proposed adult mode and was vocal that co wasn’t doing enough to stop CSAM. She also led mentorship for women
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 4:57 PM
In Jan OpenAI fired VP of public policy (safety) for discrimination against a male colleague. There are no details about the alleged complaint but she had raised concerns about the ChatGPT’s proposed adult mode and was vocal that co wasn’t doing enough to stop CSAM. She also led mentorship for women
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
"we have realised that, while we can launch to the Moon every 10 days, trains go to Bedfordshire every half hour. Mars and the moon remain on the long-term roadmap but the immediate priority is now "securing the future of civilization" via the faster route of a city in Bedfordshire."
February 9, 2026 at 7:59 PM
"we have realised that, while we can launch to the Moon every 10 days, trains go to Bedfordshire every half hour. Mars and the moon remain on the long-term roadmap but the immediate priority is now "securing the future of civilization" via the faster route of a city in Bedfordshire."
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
Interested in working for a think tank? We're taking part in a webinar on Wed 18 Feb hosted by @resolutionfoundation.org for undergraduates or those with similar experience on what it's like working in a think tank and how to apply.
🖥️ Register here: www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/worki...
🖥️ Register here: www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/worki...
February 9, 2026 at 3:53 PM
Interested in working for a think tank? We're taking part in a webinar on Wed 18 Feb hosted by @resolutionfoundation.org for undergraduates or those with similar experience on what it's like working in a think tank and how to apply.
🖥️ Register here: www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/worki...
🖥️ Register here: www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/worki...
1/ A very refreshing read, summarising many of the problems this Frankenstein's monster of a system has created. There are so many problems with it that it's easy for even a very good analysis to miss some, and I'd probably add to this 1/ the erosion of the real value of maintenance loans so they...
NEW on Wonkhe: England’s student loan system died gradually, then suddenly bit.ly/4r3uqSa
February 9, 2026 at 8:26 AM
1/ A very refreshing read, summarising many of the problems this Frankenstein's monster of a system has created. There are so many problems with it that it's easy for even a very good analysis to miss some, and I'd probably add to this 1/ the erosion of the real value of maintenance loans so they...
I'm looking forward to another episode of Question Time or News night with pundits opining on why Net Zero is too expensive, while the local news covers people in Somerset who may have to abandon their homes for good and farmers in despair about damage to their yields.
February 9, 2026 at 8:01 AM
I'm looking forward to another episode of Question Time or News night with pundits opining on why Net Zero is too expensive, while the local news covers people in Somerset who may have to abandon their homes for good and farmers in despair about damage to their yields.
Don't tempt me with promises of good times!
A Labour MP tells The House’s Sienna Rodgers McSweeney’s resignation will mean “full speed ahead to uber-woke, net-zeroist, rejoinerism”.
Which sounds good to me, but is also very telling of the beliefs of the faction McSweeney championed.
Which sounds good to me, but is also very telling of the beliefs of the faction McSweeney championed.
February 8, 2026 at 9:58 PM
Don't tempt me with promises of good times!
Excellent.
BREAKING: Keir Starmer’s statement on McSweeney quitting government
February 8, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Excellent.
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
Where is the Dark Academia novel in which Dark Academics spend 80% of their time writing grant applications to the Dark Funding Council and most of the rest being harrassed by Dark ResearchFish (RIP)?
February 7, 2026 at 3:16 PM
Where is the Dark Academia novel in which Dark Academics spend 80% of their time writing grant applications to the Dark Funding Council and most of the rest being harrassed by Dark ResearchFish (RIP)?
That'll be a yes then.
New on FT website:
Downing Street has refused to say whether Sir Keir Starmer knew Palantir was a client of Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm when they both visited the company in Washington last February — ahead of it winning a £240mn UK government contract.
www.ft.com/content/5bba...
Downing Street has refused to say whether Sir Keir Starmer knew Palantir was a client of Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm when they both visited the company in Washington last February — ahead of it winning a £240mn UK government contract.
www.ft.com/content/5bba...
Starmer faces questions over visit to Palantir office alongside Mandelson
Former ambassador was also shareholder in lobbying group that counted US tech firm as a client
www.ft.com
February 7, 2026 at 6:51 PM
That'll be a yes then.
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
Ironically, this is also why LLMs are terrible for historical analysis. They tend to overgeneralize instead of carefully interpreting specific primary sources and pass off the claims of previous researchers as new insights.
Would be interesting to compare the results on more recent models - but this problem won’t go away. LLMs are always going to be extrapolating from what has already, and often, been thought, which is why they aren’t windows to the future but anchors to the past.
Neat demonstration of how artificial so-called intelligence is taking us backwards.
"ChatGPT produced content most consistent with the 1960s and DALL-E 3 in the late 1980s and early '90s."
#AI - see @shannonvallor.bsky.social's work for important thinking on this
phys.org/news/2026-02...
"ChatGPT produced content most consistent with the 1960s and DALL-E 3 in the late 1980s and early '90s."
#AI - see @shannonvallor.bsky.social's work for important thinking on this
phys.org/news/2026-02...
February 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Ironically, this is also why LLMs are terrible for historical analysis. They tend to overgeneralize instead of carefully interpreting specific primary sources and pass off the claims of previous researchers as new insights.
Community groups are brilliant.
South Lancashire Bat Group AGM tonight including a talk by Laura Torrent who, with her team, discovered the 1500th Bat species, Pipistrellus etula! Looking forward to an evening of batty goodness!
🦇🖤🦇
Picture taken during licenced bat box checks with SLBG.
#bats #lovebats #batconservation
🦇🖤🦇
Picture taken during licenced bat box checks with SLBG.
#bats #lovebats #batconservation
February 7, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Community groups are brilliant.
The important bit here is the disincentive to take a higher paid job because the high loan repayments coincide with other costs that are also out of control- commuting costs are named, but see also house prices. Defenders of this system fail to see how is operating in the real world.
Meanwhile, the underlying financial crisis of English universities continues to inspire scolding and threats of sanctions rather than unease. Past time for a systems-wide systematic review. With a sharing link for 3 non-subscribers.
The student loan system — and its danger for Keir Starmer and Labour
Growing anger among millions of graduates who face decades of debt is causing unease in Westminster
giftarticle.ft.com
February 7, 2026 at 8:20 AM
The important bit here is the disincentive to take a higher paid job because the high loan repayments coincide with other costs that are also out of control- commuting costs are named, but see also house prices. Defenders of this system fail to see how is operating in the real world.
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
Here’s my view: the Mandelson-Epstein crisis reveals a government fuelled by a masculinised realpolitik, responsible for successive failures of legitimacy and accountability.
It’s time to put some women at the centre
www.thenewworld.co.uk/zoe-grunewal...
It’s time to put some women at the centre
www.thenewworld.co.uk/zoe-grunewal...
February 6, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Here’s my view: the Mandelson-Epstein crisis reveals a government fuelled by a masculinised realpolitik, responsible for successive failures of legitimacy and accountability.
It’s time to put some women at the centre
www.thenewworld.co.uk/zoe-grunewal...
It’s time to put some women at the centre
www.thenewworld.co.uk/zoe-grunewal...
Then make it a tax! Why isn't it a tax? Because if it were, the marginal tax rates would look so terrible no-one would support it. So instead we get Schrödinger's tax, which is somehow a tax when I complain about how it functions as a loan, and a loan when I complain about how it functions as a tax.
📊 Read our full explainer on Plan 2 student loans here: ifs.org.uk/articles/how...
February 6, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Then make it a tax! Why isn't it a tax? Because if it were, the marginal tax rates would look so terrible no-one would support it. So instead we get Schrödinger's tax, which is somehow a tax when I complain about how it functions as a loan, and a loan when I complain about how it functions as a tax.
Reposted by Marianne O'Doherty
'If you want a healthy and harmonious civil society, invest in the humanities and the arts'
Jules Verne’s dystopia was a world without humanities. Don’t let his nightmare come true, writes Elif Safak
https://bit.ly/4a0ROtL
Jules Verne’s dystopia was a world without humanities. Don’t let his nightmare come true, writes Elif Safak
https://bit.ly/4a0ROtL
Jules Verne’s dystopia was a world without humanities. Do...
When arts education is dismissed as a waste of time it damages us as a society. The focus of learning is not just to enrich our economy but also to enrich our souls
bit.ly
February 6, 2026 at 1:12 PM
'If you want a healthy and harmonious civil society, invest in the humanities and the arts'
Jules Verne’s dystopia was a world without humanities. Don’t let his nightmare come true, writes Elif Safak
https://bit.ly/4a0ROtL
Jules Verne’s dystopia was a world without humanities. Don’t let his nightmare come true, writes Elif Safak
https://bit.ly/4a0ROtL
1. The RS clearly does tolerate all these things, as this is all Musk does all day. Nurse also needs to rethink his definition of scientific misconduct. He appears to think that boosting racist pseudoscience, pseudoscience-based Holocaust denial and climate change denialism via Grok, the
Update: I have received a repsonse from Sir Paul reiterating the Society's statement to the media:
"“The Royal Society does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment or bullying. That is, and will continue to be, enshrined in our code of conduct.”
See www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
"“The Royal Society does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment or bullying. That is, and will continue to be, enshrined in our code of conduct.”
See www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
February 6, 2026 at 9:59 AM
1. The RS clearly does tolerate all these things, as this is all Musk does all day. Nurse also needs to rethink his definition of scientific misconduct. He appears to think that boosting racist pseudoscience, pseudoscience-based Holocaust denial and climate change denialism via Grok, the