Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
@ranjodhdhaliwal.com
Critical Media Theory + Science and Technology Studies + Literature + CS.
Associate Prof. of DH, AI, and Media somewhere.
VP, @litsciarts.org
📚: Computation, Political Economy, Infrastructures, History, Games, Design, SF.
☭.
Not a professional account.
Associate Prof. of DH, AI, and Media somewhere.
VP, @litsciarts.org
📚: Computation, Political Economy, Infrastructures, History, Games, Design, SF.
☭.
Not a professional account.
Pinned
.@zentralwerkstatt.org and I co-wrote this piece on why you are (probably) doing AI criticism wrong as a humanist and why we, in Critical AI Studies, need to do better methodologically than 'So I asked ChatGPT a question and now I have thoughts...'
Now available on arXiv at doi.org/10.48550/arX...
Now available on arXiv at doi.org/10.48550/arX...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
@desmog.com reviewed US tax records which show Bill Gates’ charity has donated more than $3.5 million to a think tank run by Danish academic and climate crisis denier Bjørn Lomborg www.desmog.com/2025/11/05/b...
Bill Gates Gave $3.5M to Think Tank Run by Climate Crisis Denier Bjorn Lomborg
Tax records reveal that the billionaire’s foundation has donated for years to Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Center.
www.desmog.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:08 AM
@desmog.com reviewed US tax records which show Bill Gates’ charity has donated more than $3.5 million to a think tank run by Danish academic and climate crisis denier Bjørn Lomborg www.desmog.com/2025/11/05/b...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Freue mich auf diesen Workshop in Paris mit Estelle Blaschke und Claus Pias! www.dfk-paris.org/de/event/bil...
Bildlosigkeit: Das digitale Bild gibt es nicht | DFK Paris
www.dfk-paris.org
November 5, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Freue mich auf diesen Workshop in Paris mit Estelle Blaschke und Claus Pias! www.dfk-paris.org/de/event/bil...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Travel data has historically been a correlative proxy. Early 2000s data mining used one way flights (*purchased third party) in terror algorithms. These apparent “errors” by HMRC illuminate machine learning logics: 1/ combine gov cloud data
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
HMRC cuts child benefit for 35,000 families based on incomplete travel data
UK tax agency apologises after flagging people as having emigrated, often when they return via different routes
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Travel data has historically been a correlative proxy. Early 2000s data mining used one way flights (*purchased third party) in terror algorithms. These apparent “errors” by HMRC illuminate machine learning logics: 1/ combine gov cloud data
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
I should say that this is the result of an invitation by @ritaraley.bsky.social and Fabian Offert, but also a reaction to this paper by Fabian and @ranjodhdhaliwal.com that I found very "generative." arxiv.org/abs/2411.18833
The Method of Critical AI Studies, A Propaedeutic
We outline some common methodological issues in the field of critical AI studies, including a tendency to overestimate the explanatory power of individual samples (the benchmark casuistry), a dependen...
arxiv.org
October 28, 2025 at 4:26 AM
I should say that this is the result of an invitation by @ritaraley.bsky.social and Fabian Offert, but also a reaction to this paper by Fabian and @ranjodhdhaliwal.com that I found very "generative." arxiv.org/abs/2411.18833
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Read my new preprint "Surface Reading LLMs: Synthetic Text and its Styles." I argue that we should not only look at the depth behind LLMs, but also take the surfaces seriously with which they present us: as the principal plane on which we encounter them in the life-world.
Surface Reading LLMs: Synthetic Text and its Styles
Despite a potential plateau in ML advancement, the societal impact of large language models lies not in approaching superintelligence but in generating text surfaces indistinguishable from human writi...
arxiv.org
October 28, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Read my new preprint "Surface Reading LLMs: Synthetic Text and its Styles." I argue that we should not only look at the depth behind LLMs, but also take the surfaces seriously with which they present us: as the principal plane on which we encounter them in the life-world.
October 10, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
I am still processing the many impressions, insights and ideas that emerged from our conference. Many heartfelt thanks to all the speakers for their inspiring contributions and the intensive discussion—it was great to welcome you all to Zurich, and I hope we'll be able to continue the conversation!
From 02–04 October 2025, our conference «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism» will take place in Zurich.
Across three locations and with contributions by scholars and artists, the conference will analyze today's economies of networked image cultures.
Program & Registration:
Across three locations and with contributions by scholars and artists, the conference will analyze today's economies of networked image cultures.
Program & Registration:
International Conference: «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism»
Bringing together scholars and artists from a range of fields and backgrounds, the international conference «React & Respond» aims to map and analyze these contemporary economies of networked image cu...
digitalculturesandarts.ch
October 6, 2025 at 11:41 AM
I am still processing the many impressions, insights and ideas that emerged from our conference. Many heartfelt thanks to all the speakers for their inspiring contributions and the intensive discussion—it was great to welcome you all to Zurich, and I hope we'll be able to continue the conversation!
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
📣 #OpenCall: SNSF Starting Grants 2026
For researchers wanting to lead their own independent project and research team in Switzerland.
🗓️ Submission deadline: 5 May 2026
➡️ https://sohub.io/rptw
For researchers wanting to lead their own independent project and research team in Switzerland.
🗓️ Submission deadline: 5 May 2026
➡️ https://sohub.io/rptw
October 6, 2025 at 8:01 AM
📣 #OpenCall: SNSF Starting Grants 2026
For researchers wanting to lead their own independent project and research team in Switzerland.
🗓️ Submission deadline: 5 May 2026
➡️ https://sohub.io/rptw
For researchers wanting to lead their own independent project and research team in Switzerland.
🗓️ Submission deadline: 5 May 2026
➡️ https://sohub.io/rptw
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Man, the “institutional neutrality” gambit really worked like a charm….
Gavin Newsom announces that any California university that caves to Trump and signs his “loyalty pledge” will be immediately defunded.
“CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS.”
“CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS.”
October 3, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Man, the “institutional neutrality” gambit really worked like a charm….
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Fascinating to see how the very historical ideologies - stuffy east coast bureaucracies - that Silicon Valley rebelled against are now being used to criticize it... www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/t...
October 2, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Fascinating to see how the very historical ideologies - stuffy east coast bureaucracies - that Silicon Valley rebelled against are now being used to criticize it... www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/t...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
can she take on assemblages
September 23, 2025 at 7:58 AM
can she take on assemblages
youtube algorithms got those nerd dollars on lock.
September 12, 2025 at 6:32 AM
youtube algorithms got those nerd dollars on lock.
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
From 02–04 October 2025, our conference «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism» will take place in Zurich.
Across three locations and with contributions by scholars and artists, the conference will analyze today's economies of networked image cultures.
Program & Registration:
Across three locations and with contributions by scholars and artists, the conference will analyze today's economies of networked image cultures.
Program & Registration:
International Conference: «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism»
Bringing together scholars and artists from a range of fields and backgrounds, the international conference «React & Respond» aims to map and analyze these contemporary economies of networked image cu...
digitalculturesandarts.ch
September 9, 2025 at 3:08 PM
From 02–04 October 2025, our conference «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism» will take place in Zurich.
Across three locations and with contributions by scholars and artists, the conference will analyze today's economies of networked image cultures.
Program & Registration:
Across three locations and with contributions by scholars and artists, the conference will analyze today's economies of networked image cultures.
Program & Registration:
@4sweb.bsky.social friends, we are starting in ~10 mins!! Come see my midnight zoom face. #4S2025
September 4, 2025 at 8:21 PM
@4sweb.bsky.social friends, we are starting in ~10 mins!! Come see my midnight zoom face. #4S2025
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Please submit! Conference CFP
CRIES AND WHISPERS: PODCASTING AND THE PROMISE OF DISRUPTION (Feb 20-21, 2026 at Florida Atlantic University)
Keynote: Jeremy Morris (UW-Madison)
Conference website and submission portal: criesandwhispers2026.wordpress.com
CRIES AND WHISPERS: PODCASTING AND THE PROMISE OF DISRUPTION (Feb 20-21, 2026 at Florida Atlantic University)
Keynote: Jeremy Morris (UW-Madison)
Conference website and submission portal: criesandwhispers2026.wordpress.com
August 30, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Please submit! Conference CFP
CRIES AND WHISPERS: PODCASTING AND THE PROMISE OF DISRUPTION (Feb 20-21, 2026 at Florida Atlantic University)
Keynote: Jeremy Morris (UW-Madison)
Conference website and submission portal: criesandwhispers2026.wordpress.com
CRIES AND WHISPERS: PODCASTING AND THE PROMISE OF DISRUPTION (Feb 20-21, 2026 at Florida Atlantic University)
Keynote: Jeremy Morris (UW-Madison)
Conference website and submission portal: criesandwhispers2026.wordpress.com
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
vibe check on the american polity
September 3, 2025 at 8:00 PM
vibe check on the american polity
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
#CfP: Special Issue “Celebrating 60 Years of ELIZA? Critical Pasts and Futures of AI” of the Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society (WJDS), co-edited by @strippel.bsky.social & Magnus Rust. Submission deadline: November 17, 2025.
More: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...
More: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...
Special Issue “Celebrating 60 Years of ELIZA? Critical Pasts and Futures of AI”
The Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society calls for papers for a special issue marking the 60th anniversary of ELIZA, one of the first chatbots developed by Joseph Weizenbaum.
www.weizenbaum-institut.de
August 25, 2025 at 1:13 PM
#CfP: Special Issue “Celebrating 60 Years of ELIZA? Critical Pasts and Futures of AI” of the Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society (WJDS), co-edited by @strippel.bsky.social & Magnus Rust. Submission deadline: November 17, 2025.
More: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...
More: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
This is not the AI boom creating a new type of work, this is a classic example of managers using automation to deskill old ones. Creative workers who once made a higher wage creating original art and writing are now paid in piecework to edit automated output. Bosses are using AI to cut labor costs.
The AI boom has created a new type of work: fixing botched AI. Designers are being hired to remake wonky AI art. Writers are asked to make ChatGPT’s writing sound more human. Even software developers are tasked with fixing buggy vibe coding.
www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...
www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...
Humans are being hired to make AI slop look less sloppy
In the age of automation, human workers are being brought in to fix what artificial intelligence gets wrong.
www.nbcnews.com
September 2, 2025 at 11:12 PM
This is not the AI boom creating a new type of work, this is a classic example of managers using automation to deskill old ones. Creative workers who once made a higher wage creating original art and writing are now paid in piecework to edit automated output. Bosses are using AI to cut labor costs.
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
ok it is SO over for the American university system, the overest it has ever been. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Trump administration plans to limit how long foreign students can study in the US
Foreign students have been allowed to stay in the country for as long as they were full-time students making progress in their degrees.
www.politico.com
August 29, 2025 at 9:52 AM
ok it is SO over for the American university system, the overest it has ever been. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Now accepting submissions for my session, "Photography's Other Workers," at the upcoming CAA (Chicago, Feb. 18-21, 2026). Proposals can be submitted via the CAA platform until August 29th
More info here: caa.confex.com/.../webprogr...
Please share widely!
#photosky #filmsky #caa2026
More info here: caa.confex.com/.../webprogr...
Please share widely!
#photosky #filmsky #caa2026
July 11, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Now accepting submissions for my session, "Photography's Other Workers," at the upcoming CAA (Chicago, Feb. 18-21, 2026). Proposals can be submitted via the CAA platform until August 29th
More info here: caa.confex.com/.../webprogr...
Please share widely!
#photosky #filmsky #caa2026
More info here: caa.confex.com/.../webprogr...
Please share widely!
#photosky #filmsky #caa2026
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Going to be wild to have Clarence Thomas and other members of the court write that even the appearance of impropriety is sufficient to allow the President to remove Federal Reserve members from office, and then head off to Harlan Crow’s yacht
August 26, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Going to be wild to have Clarence Thomas and other members of the court write that even the appearance of impropriety is sufficient to allow the President to remove Federal Reserve members from office, and then head off to Harlan Crow’s yacht
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Sounds more like a Microsoft product than before. Some sort of alert system you can't turn off.
news: MSNBC is renaming itself MS NOW (My Source News Opinion World)
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/b...
Goodbye, MSNBC. Hello, MS NOW.
www.nytimes.com
August 18, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Sounds more like a Microsoft product than before. Some sort of alert system you can't turn off.
Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
"A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field. Browse and contribute images of all kinds: diagrams, schematics, photos, graphic elements, and other visual fragments."
Cybernetics Image Library
A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field.
cyberneticsimagelibrary.dev
August 14, 2025 at 6:41 PM
"A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field. Browse and contribute images of all kinds: diagrams, schematics, photos, graphic elements, and other visual fragments."
rip michel callon
August 9, 2025 at 5:39 PM
rip michel callon