Matt Seybold
@mattseybold.bsky.social
American Vandal Pod | Prof of AmLit & Twain Studies + Director of Media Studies, Elmira College | Resident Scholar @MarkTwain.bsky.social | Political Economy of Mass Media
TheAmericanVandal.substack.com
MattSeybold.com
buymeacoffee.com/americanvandalpod
TheAmericanVandal.substack.com
MattSeybold.com
buymeacoffee.com/americanvandalpod
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"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
I watched a bunch of AI sessions at the WEF so you wouldn’t have to.
But you should read this.
But you should read this.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Here's a gift link:
The Accidental Winners of the War on Higher Ed
Go to a small liberal-arts college if you can.
www.theatlantic.com
January 30, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Here's a gift link:
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Can’t literacy ourselves out of this one, I’m afraid.
"there’s no way that we can become more savvy ... this is not a problem that developing the right skill set is going to solve" @tressiemcphd.bsky.social speaking the things I think some librarians may be afraid to say out loud, but are true nonetheless. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/o...
Opinion | The Internet May Look Different After You Listen to This
www.nytimes.com
January 30, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Can’t literacy ourselves out of this one, I’m afraid.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Our work will always be done by humans and we will pay humans to do that work for as long as people are willing to pay us for our human work and we will never, ever adopt this shite.
‘They are no longer strategizing for voluntary adoption by those who come to recognize the technology’s utility by electively applying it to the problems they face. They are planning how to cross the chasm by forced adoption.’
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:21 PM
Our work will always be done by humans and we will pay humans to do that work for as long as people are willing to pay us for our human work and we will never, ever adopt this shite.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
"It’s no wonder AI entrepreneurs and investors are flirting with authoritarianism. The technology they are developing creates the same kinds of bubbles of sycophancy and narcissism which are inevitably constructed around tyrants.”
‘They are no longer strategizing for voluntary adoption by those who come to recognize the technology’s utility by electively applying it to the problems they face. They are planning how to cross the chasm by forced adoption.’
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 11:58 AM
"It’s no wonder AI entrepreneurs and investors are flirting with authoritarianism. The technology they are developing creates the same kinds of bubbles of sycophancy and narcissism which are inevitably constructed around tyrants.”
Reposted by Matt Seybold
«The unveiled force of Nadella’s statement is: All those who have power over workers and consumers are going to need to use it to make them start accepting and using the Generative AI tools our industry has collectively invested trillions in.»
Microsoft and Blackrock have "have largely given up on organic adoption [of AI] by consumers. They have moved on to a new dream of forced adoption mandated by government and managerial coercion."
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 4:06 PM
«The unveiled force of Nadella’s statement is: All those who have power over workers and consumers are going to need to use it to make them start accepting and using the Generative AI tools our industry has collectively invested trillions in.»
Reposted by Matt Seybold
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
College approached and paid student to write op-ed in The Dartmouth
The Dartmouth ran the article on Nov. 17 without knowledge that the College had been involved.
www.thedartmouth.com
January 29, 2026 at 10:40 PM
The college at which I'm employed, which has signed a contract with the AI firm that stole books from 131 colleagues & me, paid a student to write an op-ed for the student paper promoting AI, guided the writing of it, and did not disclose this to the paper. www.thedartmouth.com/article/2026...
Reposted by Matt Seybold
The person who makes an anti-ai search engine today...
Microsoft and Blackrock have "have largely given up on organic adoption [of AI] by consumers. They have moved on to a new dream of forced adoption mandated by government and managerial coercion."
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 5:47 PM
The person who makes an anti-ai search engine today...
Reposted by Matt Seybold
The university I teach in has given over its weekly staff lunchtime research methods seminars to HOW TO USE THIS FUCKING SHIT.
Attendance isn't great.
Attendance isn't great.
January 29, 2026 at 3:37 PM
The university I teach in has given over its weekly staff lunchtime research methods seminars to HOW TO USE THIS FUCKING SHIT.
Attendance isn't great.
Attendance isn't great.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Teaching exercise that is helpful with my policy students. Based on the solution, hiring this fella to a fancy position and giving him $$$ in this environment, what is the root of skepticism with higher ed that Yale is attempting to solve? Whose skepticism do they seek to assuage?
OH COME ON. Brooks knows fuck-all about "society at large".
January 29, 2026 at 7:16 PM
Teaching exercise that is helpful with my policy students. Based on the solution, hiring this fella to a fancy position and giving him $$$ in this environment, what is the root of skepticism with higher ed that Yale is attempting to solve? Whose skepticism do they seek to assuage?
The end had come but was not yet in sight.
(from JKG’s “The Great Crash of 1929”)
(from JKG’s “The Great Crash of 1929”)
January 29, 2026 at 6:51 PM
The end had come but was not yet in sight.
(from JKG’s “The Great Crash of 1929”)
(from JKG’s “The Great Crash of 1929”)
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Let me predict what "ideas and projects" the "scholars" associated with this "center" are going to come up with to "help academic institutions regain the public trust": kill higher ed unions, turn everyone into an adjunct, ban ethnic and gender studies, and sell the classroom to AI companies.
January 29, 2026 at 6:12 PM
Let me predict what "ideas and projects" the "scholars" associated with this "center" are going to come up with to "help academic institutions regain the public trust": kill higher ed unions, turn everyone into an adjunct, ban ethnic and gender studies, and sell the classroom to AI companies.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Reposted by Matt Seybold
We're overjoyed to announce next summer's star-studded line-up of scholars. Join us at Merton College, University of Oxford, 4-12 July 2026, for an unforgettable week of poetry!
November 26, 2025 at 12:06 AM
We're overjoyed to announce next summer's star-studded line-up of scholars. Join us at Merton College, University of Oxford, 4-12 July 2026, for an unforgettable week of poetry!
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Hard not to read all of this bully-alpha-man-forced-outcome shit as a robust rejection of consent discourse.
Microsoft and Blackrock have "have largely given up on organic adoption [of AI] by consumers. They have moved on to a new dream of forced adoption mandated by government and managerial coercion."
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Hard not to read all of this bully-alpha-man-forced-outcome shit as a robust rejection of consent discourse.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Microsoft and Blackrock have "have largely given up on organic adoption [of AI] by consumers. They have moved on to a new dream of forced adoption mandated by government and managerial coercion."
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:38 PM
Microsoft and Blackrock have "have largely given up on organic adoption [of AI] by consumers. They have moved on to a new dream of forced adoption mandated by government and managerial coercion."
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Higher education is a hellscspe right now, attacked by the freedom government in one side and AI on the other.
This fall, I spent a month visiting elite liberal arts colleges, on the instinct that they would be more resilient in every way. My story (gift link):
This fall, I spent a month visiting elite liberal arts colleges, on the instinct that they would be more resilient in every way. My story (gift link):
The Accidental Winners of the War on Higher Ed
Go to a small liberal-arts college if you can.
www.theatlantic.com
January 29, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Higher education is a hellscspe right now, attacked by the freedom government in one side and AI on the other.
This fall, I spent a month visiting elite liberal arts colleges, on the instinct that they would be more resilient in every way. My story (gift link):
This fall, I spent a month visiting elite liberal arts colleges, on the instinct that they would be more resilient in every way. My story (gift link):
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Big Tech is “no longer strategizing for voluntary adoption [of AI]…They are planning to cross the chasm by forced adoption. People will use it because they are told they ‘have to’ by their employer, by their school, by their president, or by the police state.”
- @mattseybold.bsky.social
- @mattseybold.bsky.social
"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 12:41 PM
Big Tech is “no longer strategizing for voluntary adoption [of AI]…They are planning to cross the chasm by forced adoption. People will use it because they are told they ‘have to’ by their employer, by their school, by their president, or by the police state.”
- @mattseybold.bsky.social
- @mattseybold.bsky.social
Reposted by Matt Seybold
‘They are no longer strategizing for voluntary adoption by those who come to recognize the technology’s utility by electively applying it to the problems they face. They are planning how to cross the chasm by forced adoption.’
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos
Authoritarianism is the AI Bailout; But If AI Doesn't Need a Bailout, Does it Need Authoritarianism?
theamericanvandal.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 11:17 AM
‘They are no longer strategizing for voluntary adoption by those who come to recognize the technology’s utility by electively applying it to the problems they face. They are planning how to cross the chasm by forced adoption.’
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
By @mattseybold.bsky.social
yourselves, but cartoon,
Hegelian synthesis edition
Hegelian synthesis edition
January 29, 2026 at 2:29 AM
yourselves, but cartoon,
Hegelian synthesis edition
Hegelian synthesis edition
Writer: The world is a raft of shit piloted by feuding psychopaths.
Reader: The writing is incredible.
Writer: Well, I guess things aren’t that bad after all.
Reader: The writing is incredible.
Writer: Well, I guess things aren’t that bad after all.
January 29, 2026 at 12:58 AM
Writer: The world is a raft of shit piloted by feuding psychopaths.
Reader: The writing is incredible.
Writer: Well, I guess things aren’t that bad after all.
Reader: The writing is incredible.
Writer: Well, I guess things aren’t that bad after all.
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Reposted by Matt Seybold
Oh look, another top Gavin Newsom advisor signing up to work for tech oligarchs amid Silicon Valley fascism.
If you want to know where a politician is headed, look at who is hiring up their favored consultants. Those contracts speak more truth than any speech.
www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
If you want to know where a politician is headed, look at who is hiring up their favored consultants. Those contracts speak more truth than any speech.
www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
California super PAC debuts with $10M from Big Tech
The group says it is trying to identify candidates who avoid partisan spats and are willing to take a “pragmatic” approach to Sacramento.
www.politico.com
January 28, 2026 at 4:51 PM
Oh look, another top Gavin Newsom advisor signing up to work for tech oligarchs amid Silicon Valley fascism.
If you want to know where a politician is headed, look at who is hiring up their favored consultants. Those contracts speak more truth than any speech.
www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
If you want to know where a politician is headed, look at who is hiring up their favored consultants. Those contracts speak more truth than any speech.
www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
Periodic reminder that Gordon Gee straight-up Yellow Wallpaper'd his wife and has never, not once, worked on education's behalf.
The only citation metric I care about is that my work appeared in WVU's motion of no confidence in him (as well as Temple's motion of no confidence in Jason Wingard).
The only citation metric I care about is that my work appeared in WVU's motion of no confidence in him (as well as Temple's motion of no confidence in Jason Wingard).
January 28, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Periodic reminder that Gordon Gee straight-up Yellow Wallpaper'd his wife and has never, not once, worked on education's behalf.
The only citation metric I care about is that my work appeared in WVU's motion of no confidence in him (as well as Temple's motion of no confidence in Jason Wingard).
The only citation metric I care about is that my work appeared in WVU's motion of no confidence in him (as well as Temple's motion of no confidence in Jason Wingard).
Reposted by Matt Seybold
“I’m really mad so thank you for letting me vent.
Abolish ICE.
We keep us safe.”
@seandoolittle.bsky.social and other athletes opened up to us about the DHS murders and the campaign of state terror being waged in Minneapolis and beyond.
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
Abolish ICE.
We keep us safe.”
@seandoolittle.bsky.social and other athletes opened up to us about the DHS murders and the campaign of state terror being waged in Minneapolis and beyond.
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
‘Fascism is here now’: the US athletes pushing back on Trump’s America
World Series winner Sean Doolittle, Super Bowl champion Doug Baldwin and college star McKenzie Forbes have strong opinions on a troubled era
www.theguardian.com
January 28, 2026 at 12:25 PM
“I’m really mad so thank you for letting me vent.
Abolish ICE.
We keep us safe.”
@seandoolittle.bsky.social and other athletes opened up to us about the DHS murders and the campaign of state terror being waged in Minneapolis and beyond.
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
Abolish ICE.
We keep us safe.”
@seandoolittle.bsky.social and other athletes opened up to us about the DHS murders and the campaign of state terror being waged in Minneapolis and beyond.
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
Reposted by Matt Seybold
I want institutions to defend their authority and independence, and the value of actual scholarship
January 28, 2026 at 6:19 AM
I want institutions to defend their authority and independence, and the value of actual scholarship