Micah Corah
@micahcorah.bsky.social
Assistant Prof, CS@Mines
Aerial and multiple robots; autonomous filming, mapping, perception
Enjoys: 🧗♂️🚴♂️🎸🎶🤘
Ursula Le Guin stan. Call me on my ansible.
He/him pronouns 💖💜💙
Opinions my own.
https://www.micahcorah.com/
Aerial and multiple robots; autonomous filming, mapping, perception
Enjoys: 🧗♂️🚴♂️🎸🎶🤘
Ursula Le Guin stan. Call me on my ansible.
He/him pronouns 💖💜💙
Opinions my own.
https://www.micahcorah.com/
Reasons I'm not in Texas.
I teach courses on AI and a course involving robot sensing and perception.
But, technology has politics, and my teaching reflects that.
I teach courses on AI and a course involving robot sensing and perception.
But, technology has politics, and my teaching reflects that.
The new rules require presidential approval for courses that "advocate" race or gender ideology and ban material outside approved syllabi. Students can use a hotline to report course content. bit.ly/3XxszrC
November 14, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reasons I'm not in Texas.
I teach courses on AI and a course involving robot sensing and perception.
But, technology has politics, and my teaching reflects that.
I teach courses on AI and a course involving robot sensing and perception.
But, technology has politics, and my teaching reflects that.
Reposted by Micah Corah
A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions.
A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
November 13, 2025 at 10:31 PM
A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions.
A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
Reposted by Micah Corah
As all this disgusting Epstein shit starts surfacing more and more, I hope we don't lose sight of the fact that apparently every major media outlet knew everything and instead spent their time money and energy attacking the trans community.
November 13, 2025 at 1:07 AM
As all this disgusting Epstein shit starts surfacing more and more, I hope we don't lose sight of the fact that apparently every major media outlet knew everything and instead spent their time money and energy attacking the trans community.
🤖 Robot people: I am looking at purchasing one or more mobile robot platforms for my lab.
Are there any alternatives to Clearpath products (e.g. Jackal) that I should consider?
Are there any alternatives to Clearpath products (e.g. Jackal) that I should consider?
November 13, 2025 at 12:40 AM
🤖 Robot people: I am looking at purchasing one or more mobile robot platforms for my lab.
Are there any alternatives to Clearpath products (e.g. Jackal) that I should consider?
Are there any alternatives to Clearpath products (e.g. Jackal) that I should consider?
Reposted by Micah Corah
New from 404 Media: ICE plans to spend as much as $180 million on bounty hunters to physically locate and stalk immigrants. I spoke to multiple private investigators/skip tracers. Some horrified. Others said they will do this work. "Money is money."
www.404media.co/ice-plans-to...
www.404media.co/ice-plans-to...
ICE Plans to Spend $180 Million on Bounty Hunters to Stalk Immigrants
Newly released documents provide more details about ICE's plan to use bounty hunters and private investigators to find the location of undocumented immigrants.
www.404media.co
November 12, 2025 at 4:09 PM
New from 404 Media: ICE plans to spend as much as $180 million on bounty hunters to physically locate and stalk immigrants. I spoke to multiple private investigators/skip tracers. Some horrified. Others said they will do this work. "Money is money."
www.404media.co/ice-plans-to...
www.404media.co/ice-plans-to...
Reposted by Micah Corah
Earnest post: there is increasingly direct evidence that Trump participated in child sex trafficking or at least knew about it.
He should resign, be impeached and removed from office, and prosecuted.
Even if you don’t think that WILL happen it’s important to say publicly that it SHOULD happen.
He should resign, be impeached and removed from office, and prosecuted.
Even if you don’t think that WILL happen it’s important to say publicly that it SHOULD happen.
November 12, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Earnest post: there is increasingly direct evidence that Trump participated in child sex trafficking or at least knew about it.
He should resign, be impeached and removed from office, and prosecuted.
Even if you don’t think that WILL happen it’s important to say publicly that it SHOULD happen.
He should resign, be impeached and removed from office, and prosecuted.
Even if you don’t think that WILL happen it’s important to say publicly that it SHOULD happen.
Reposted by Micah Corah
It’s wildly disingenuous for @aaron.bsky.team to reply to queries about Sarah Kendzior’s suspension about how they don’t comment publicly on individual users when he knows that we all know that they haven’t even told her privately what the basis for the suspension is
November 11, 2025 at 8:14 PM
It’s wildly disingenuous for @aaron.bsky.team to reply to queries about Sarah Kendzior’s suspension about how they don’t comment publicly on individual users when he knows that we all know that they haven’t even told her privately what the basis for the suspension is
If someone makes *one more* strained reference to Reynolds flocking with fantastical implications about intelligence, I swear I'm going to blow a gasket 😫
Make swarm intelligence cool again
My favorite comment on the FT story
November 6, 2025 at 11:28 PM
If someone makes *one more* strained reference to Reynolds flocking with fantastical implications about intelligence, I swear I'm going to blow a gasket 😫
Reposted by Micah Corah
AS AN EXAMPLE: Aurora, Colorado. Dominated by conservative politics for over a decade. All five city council seats last night? Won by Democrats.
And not like, the kind of milquetoast centrist Democrats we've been told are the only kind of people who can win.
And not like, the kind of milquetoast centrist Democrats we've been told are the only kind of people who can win.
November 5, 2025 at 5:41 PM
AS AN EXAMPLE: Aurora, Colorado. Dominated by conservative politics for over a decade. All five city council seats last night? Won by Democrats.
And not like, the kind of milquetoast centrist Democrats we've been told are the only kind of people who can win.
And not like, the kind of milquetoast centrist Democrats we've been told are the only kind of people who can win.
Reposted by Micah Corah
I'll add a little nuance to this, though I do understand this point: people don't often understand what they're doing when they subscribe to a blocklist. The mental model of how blocklists work is often fundamentally incorrect, and grants far more power to maintainers than they intend.
the anti blocklist discourse always devolves into people either yelling or passive aggressively hrmphing YOU SHOULD LET ME INTO YOUR HOUSE and
no?
i dont have to.
i dont have to explain why.
if i fuck up and miss something i would have liked to know that's on me! im an adult!
good talk!
no?
i dont have to.
i dont have to explain why.
if i fuck up and miss something i would have liked to know that's on me! im an adult!
good talk!
November 3, 2025 at 10:51 PM
I'll add a little nuance to this, though I do understand this point: people don't often understand what they're doing when they subscribe to a blocklist. The mental model of how blocklists work is often fundamentally incorrect, and grants far more power to maintainers than they intend.
Reposted by Micah Corah
Just for those not aware, Margaret Mitchell is an AI ethicist who was fired by Google after co-authoring the famous "Stochastic Parrots" paper that criticized the entire project of ever-larger LLMs way before most of the people now blocking her had ever heard of them. www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/t...
A second Google A.I. researcher says the company fired her. (Published 2021)
www.nytimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Just for those not aware, Margaret Mitchell is an AI ethicist who was fired by Google after co-authoring the famous "Stochastic Parrots" paper that criticized the entire project of ever-larger LLMs way before most of the people now blocking her had ever heard of them. www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/t...
Reposted by Micah Corah
And, for emphasis, Margaret Mitchell is a *central voice and essential figure* amongst people critical of AI, and these lists alienate her from her community and natural audience.
By pushing her away, these lists *impede their own apparently goals*
By pushing her away, these lists *impede their own apparently goals*
November 3, 2025 at 8:02 PM
And, for emphasis, Margaret Mitchell is a *central voice and essential figure* amongst people critical of AI, and these lists alienate her from her community and natural audience.
By pushing her away, these lists *impede their own apparently goals*
By pushing her away, these lists *impede their own apparently goals*
Reposted by Micah Corah
Blocking hatemongers is one thing but this trend of using mass block lists to avoid hearing from people who might or might not hold points of view you expect to disagree with is unhealthy imo and hurts the platform.
Bluesky was better off with folks like Margaret Mitchell and Giada Pistilli on it.
Bluesky was better off with folks like Margaret Mitchell and Giada Pistilli on it.
November 3, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Blocking hatemongers is one thing but this trend of using mass block lists to avoid hearing from people who might or might not hold points of view you expect to disagree with is unhealthy imo and hurts the platform.
Bluesky was better off with folks like Margaret Mitchell and Giada Pistilli on it.
Bluesky was better off with folks like Margaret Mitchell and Giada Pistilli on it.
Reposted by Micah Corah
In Chicago, a woman was driving to get coffee when a DHS vehicle fleeing an angry crowd crashed into her car. Armed agents jumped out of the vehicle, yanked her door open, pulled her by the legs out of her car at gunpoint, held her incommunicado for hours, then released her with no charges.
November 3, 2025 at 6:34 PM
In Chicago, a woman was driving to get coffee when a DHS vehicle fleeing an angry crowd crashed into her car. Armed agents jumped out of the vehicle, yanked her door open, pulled her by the legs out of her car at gunpoint, held her incommunicado for hours, then released her with no charges.
Reposted by Micah Corah
NEW: DHS plans to collect driver’s license data from states.
It’s the latest step in an unprecedented initiative to pool confidential data the Trump administration claims will help identify noncitizens on voter rolls and tighten immigration enforcement.
With @texastribune.org
It’s the latest step in an unprecedented initiative to pool confidential data the Trump administration claims will help identify noncitizens on voter rolls and tighten immigration enforcement.
With @texastribune.org
DHS Wants States to Hand Over Driver’s License Data for Citizenship Checks
It’s the latest step in an unprecedented initiative to pool confidential data that the Trump administration claims will help identify noncitizens on voter rolls and tighten immigration enforcement.
www.propublica.org
October 31, 2025 at 7:50 PM
NEW: DHS plans to collect driver’s license data from states.
It’s the latest step in an unprecedented initiative to pool confidential data the Trump administration claims will help identify noncitizens on voter rolls and tighten immigration enforcement.
With @texastribune.org
It’s the latest step in an unprecedented initiative to pool confidential data the Trump administration claims will help identify noncitizens on voter rolls and tighten immigration enforcement.
With @texastribune.org
Reposted by Micah Corah
"Many of the deals OpenAI has struck — with chipmakers, cloud computing companies and others — are strangely circular. OpenAI receives billions from tech companies before sending those billions back to the same companies to pay for computing power and other services." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
How OpenAI Uses Complex and Circular Deals to Fuel Its Multibillion-Dollar Rise
Here are seven unusual financial agreements helping to drive the ambitions of the poster child of the A.I. revolution.
www.nytimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:58 AM
"Many of the deals OpenAI has struck — with chipmakers, cloud computing companies and others — are strangely circular. OpenAI receives billions from tech companies before sending those billions back to the same companies to pay for computing power and other services." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Micah Corah
Kevin Roberts' defense of Nick Fuentes is a watershed moment: the right has officially declared open, unabashed Hitlerism to be an acceptable position in their coalition
www.vox.com/politics/466...
www.vox.com/politics/466...
The GOP’s top think tank just defended an open Nazi
Reasonable people can disagree about whether Hitler was good, says the Heritage Foundation.
www.vox.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Kevin Roberts' defense of Nick Fuentes is a watershed moment: the right has officially declared open, unabashed Hitlerism to be an acceptable position in their coalition
www.vox.com/politics/466...
www.vox.com/politics/466...
Reposted by Micah Corah
Where can lefties improve?
I think knowledge about Christian nationalism is a big gap with progressives, lefties, socialists, etc. This is a problem because it means that people aren't always strategizing around the opposition we actually face.
Here are my recs for self-ed 🧵
I think knowledge about Christian nationalism is a big gap with progressives, lefties, socialists, etc. This is a problem because it means that people aren't always strategizing around the opposition we actually face.
Here are my recs for self-ed 🧵
The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
bookshop.org
October 30, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Where can lefties improve?
I think knowledge about Christian nationalism is a big gap with progressives, lefties, socialists, etc. This is a problem because it means that people aren't always strategizing around the opposition we actually face.
Here are my recs for self-ed 🧵
I think knowledge about Christian nationalism is a big gap with progressives, lefties, socialists, etc. This is a problem because it means that people aren't always strategizing around the opposition we actually face.
Here are my recs for self-ed 🧵
This exactly. Relying on facial recognition for a "definitive" determination of immigration status is unreasonable and wildly irresponsible for these reasons
This is an especially worrying statement when facial recognition can be inaccurate, biased, and generally make mistakes. Basing whether someone should be in the US or not, and ignoring physical media like a birth certificate, is ripe for disaster bsky.app/profile/jose...
New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
October 29, 2025 at 4:42 PM
This exactly. Relying on facial recognition for a "definitive" determination of immigration status is unreasonable and wildly irresponsible for these reasons
Reposted by Micah Corah
Graham Platner’s campaign thought they could silence me by offering me money and calling me a liar in the press.
I was going to let it go.
It has become increasingly clear they are unfamiliar with Maine women.
I was going to let it go.
It has become increasingly clear they are unfamiliar with Maine women.
October 29, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Graham Platner’s campaign thought they could silence me by offering me money and calling me a liar in the press.
I was going to let it go.
It has become increasingly clear they are unfamiliar with Maine women.
I was going to let it go.
It has become increasingly clear they are unfamiliar with Maine women.
Reposted by Micah Corah
"OpenAI said on Tuesday that it had adopted a new for-profit structure, a long-sought change that could allow the business to operate like a more traditional company while it raises the billions of dollars it needs to develop artificial intelligence."
OpenAI Restructures to Become a More Traditional For-Profit Company
www.nytimes.com
October 28, 2025 at 2:33 PM
"OpenAI said on Tuesday that it had adopted a new for-profit structure, a long-sought change that could allow the business to operate like a more traditional company while it raises the billions of dollars it needs to develop artificial intelligence."
Reposted by Micah Corah
The way python and R foster inclusion directly contributes to their success: joyful places to exist, a steady flow of new maintainers, and a delightful collection of niche tools empowered by wildly different expertise coming together
Watch the new python documentary for more on PSF’s work here
Watch the new python documentary for more on PSF’s work here
October 28, 2025 at 12:20 AM
The way python and R foster inclusion directly contributes to their success: joyful places to exist, a steady flow of new maintainers, and a delightful collection of niche tools empowered by wildly different expertise coming together
Watch the new python documentary for more on PSF’s work here
Watch the new python documentary for more on PSF’s work here
Reposted by Micah Corah
This was a tough but necessary decision - I posted my own notes on this here, from the perspective of a current PSF board member simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/27/...
October 27, 2025 at 8:34 PM
This was a tough but necessary decision - I posted my own notes on this here, from the perspective of a current PSF board member simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/27/...
Reposted by Micah Corah
Resistance is possible, and it’s happening right now.
How Chicago’s MMA gyms, cyclists and pet shelters are uniting to resist ICE
Teachers, clergy and MMA students are finding ways to counter immigration authorities’ attempts to detain undocumented neighbors.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 25, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Resistance is possible, and it’s happening right now.
*taps the sign*
Disingenuously dismissing your past mistakes is not evidence of growth.
Disingenuously dismissing your past mistakes is not evidence of growth.
CNN confirms that multiple sources suggest Graham Platner knew his tattoo was a Nazi symbol years prior to launching his campaign — and is now blatantly lying about it.
www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/p...
October 24, 2025 at 11:51 PM
*taps the sign*
Disingenuously dismissing your past mistakes is not evidence of growth.
Disingenuously dismissing your past mistakes is not evidence of growth.