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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 3h

Very cool!

Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 4h

Thanks for getting this into my view! Some very good choices: have you read the Simpson one yet? (On my list.)

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 11h

I'd definitely say that students who are struggling with a writing assignment aren't ready to read "reams of raw content" that may or may not be helpful!

Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 11h

A perfect Golden Delicious is as advertised! Even though it's also true that when we taste, we taste at a particular time, from the experiences we've had until then: sometimes I've been a bit sad when I've gone back to what I thought of as a favourite food, but certainly NOT always.

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 11h

I've finally finished (after an embarrassingly long series of rereads, hiatuses, and the like) @biblioracle.bsky.social's book MORE THAN WORDS: HOW TO THINK ABOUT WRITING IN THE AGE OF AI. Just so very thoughtful, even where I don't agree! #resistAI #againstAI bsky.app/profile/bibl...

John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 11d

I know AI can't replace me because it can't think what I think, feel what I feel, experience what I experience. I'm lucky that my work allows me to make use of these things. I don't think it's that impossible a lift to make it so what students do in school brings similar values to the table.

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Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 1d

Note to political leaders - stop AI overhype.
Today's letter from 73 scientists led by my colleague @krisshrishak.bsky.social to Ursula von der Leyen demands that she retract her budget speech non-scientific AI statement that parroted tech CEO hype.
www.mlex.com/mlex/article...

European Commission asked by 73 scientists to withdraw 'AI hype' statement | MLex | Specialist news and analysis on legal risk and regulation

MLex Summary: Seventy-three scientists from Europe, the UK and North America asked the European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen to withdraw a statement claiming AI would reach human-level ...

www.mlex.com

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 2d

Are you actively looking for books, then, with characters who aren't miserable people?

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 3d

Folks in British #naturewriting circles: some time ago there were skeets about who to read who wasn't Callum Robinson. I've just finished Ingrained (it was good enough, but), and I've been unable to find those old skeets. Anyone else got them? #booksky

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 3d

Indeed I know them both, and fine writers they are! I'm recalling some posts specifically about labouring or working-class writers, mostly women writers, but I just can't find those again. boughtbooks.blogspot.com/2024/04/roge...

Roger Deakin, Wildwood

There was a time when I would've thrilled to almost everything about Roger Deakin's 2007 book Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees . It's truly...

boughtbooks.blogspot.com

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 3d

Folks in British #naturewriting circles: some time ago there were skeets about who to read who wasn't Callum Robinson. I've just finished Ingrained (it was good enough, but), and I've been unable to find those old skeets. Anyone else got them? #booksky

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Polly Atkin @pollyrowena.bsky.social · 12d

I see @oxfordunipress.bsky.social are cancelling independent scholars and researchers. I couldn't have written #RecoveringDorothy without an individual subscription and this is going to make similar work impossible for me going forward, including contributions to scholarly editions. What BS.

Form email from Oxford University Press, titled Changes to Your Subscripton.
Hello Polly,
Thank you for being a valued subscriber to Oxford Scholarly Editions Online. We appreciate your support and hope you've found the resource helpful in your work and research.

We’re writing to let you know about a change to subscriptions. Moving forward, we will be retiring the option to purchase individual subscriptions to Oxford Scholarly Editions Online. Please rest assured that your current subscription will remain active until its scheduled expiration date. However, after that time, it will no longer be possible to renew it. You may still receive automated emails about renewing your subscription and its expiry—please ignore those messages.

Oxford Scholarly Editions Online may still be available through institutional subscriptions via your university, organization, or local library. You can recommend the resource to your librarian to gain access in the future.

If you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact our customer services team.

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 3d

Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID

Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine

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Brian F. Kelcey @stateofthecity.bsky.social · 4d

Proposal: from here forward, anyone proposing to move, or move a business in protest of a future elxn result must put their assets in a trustee-controlled escrow account, or professional media will refuse to report the threat.

Forbes @forbes.com · 4d

Big Apple billionaire John Catsimatidis planned to move his business to New Jersey if Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor. Now he’s reconsidering.

Supermarket Billionaire Reacts To Mamdani’s Win

Big Apple billionaire John Catsimatidis planned to move his business to New Jersey if Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor. Now he’s reconsidering.

www.forbes.com

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Serenainthesky @serenaindescai.bsky.social · 4d

I read somewhere that it should actually be called Simulated Intelligence. It makes immediately clear what it actually is.

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Phil Nobile Jr. @philnobilejr.bsky.social · 5d

Good morning! AI is being force-fed to you by a handful of billionaires who will lose a bunch of money if they fail to convince you that you need it. You do not need it 🫶

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 5d

And indeed I do find them of use: it's bookmarked, and I stop by regularly.

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 5d

Please read my reply again. I know you're saying that. My point: I'm struggling to imagine how, under anything like the full LLM adoption being forcibly imposed upon all of us, generations of humans can keep developing everything needed to sustain creative discovery. We haven't been here before.

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 5d

LLMs don't make knowledge and aren't creative. In the current acceptance trajectory, we're increasingly failing to convince users to handle LLMs' productions critically. The "AI" button is everywhere, true, but that's not a measure of its utility. What am I missing? 2/2

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 5d

I agree with how you characterize that reply. But genuinely, I'm struggling to see any way that AI can help us "start repairing the arts of knowledge making and creative discovery ... [so that] writing might take care of itself, AI notwithstanding" (to use your words). 1/2

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 5d

I do appreciate the late 2025 reality that "AI" buttons and popups and so on are embedded into almost every app. Saying only "no!" is facile and pointless.

But if there's no data showing positive outcomes (even neutral ones!), why accept its inevitability re pedagogy? Why not actively resist?!?!

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 5d

I mean... bsky.app/profile/iris...

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 7d

“What is there to teach with respect to typing some text into a box and then mindlessly copy-pasting the output? Such a skilless relationship disregards our pedagogical commitment to foster a critical stance in our students and colleagues” — @olivia.science et al. (2025) zenodo.org/records/1706...

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 5d

Hot take: If the project of "critical AI" means finding a way to purchase and work with the marginally least toxic LLM product, and making room for the slop machine on campus, it isn't genuinely "critical."

What am I missing? Resistance is an option, no? #resistAI

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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 8d

Very proud to have worked on this statement of the Modern Language Association with @annamillsoer.bsky.social and other colleagues on the MLA’s task force on AI in Research and Teaching. It is a direct call for faculty input into Ed Tech decision-making, especially AI: www.mla.org/Resources/Ad... 🧵

Screenshots of the following text:

Statement on Educational Technologies and AI Agents
The following statement of endorsement was drafted by the MLA Task Force on AI in Research and Teaching. The Executive Council approved it as an MLA statement in October 2025.
Software, specifically learning management systems (LMSs), is as important to teaching and learning as physical classrooms and facilities. The recent and hasty integration of generative AI features into those systems is already redefining student and instructor relationships, evaluative standards, and instructional outcomes—with no compelling evidence that any of it is for the better. At the same time, so-called agentic browsers are becoming widely available to the public. These offer AI “agents” that can navigate LMSs and complete assignments without any student involvement. All of this is unfolding at a time when contractual arrangements between institutions and commercial vendors often lack transparency, with worrisome implications for data collection and student privacy.

Screenshots of the following text:

The Modern Language Association therefore unequivocally
1. Advocates for full faculty and instructional involvement, including faculty of languages, literatures, and the humanities, at all levels of decision-making in the selection, procurement, and responsible implementation of instructional technology systems and software, including those incorporating AI.  The instructional mission cannot be fulfilled in the absence of faculty expertise, and this expertise extends not only to the “content” of the curriculum but also to the infrastructures and environments—virtual and otherwise—in which learning happens. 
2. Calls upon law- and policymakers, LMS vendors, and companies offering agent-based AI browsers to cooperate in order to prevent misuse and to ensure that academic institutions have the ability and option to block agentic AI when needed.  Without dedicated outside cooperation from lawmakers and technology providers, academic institutions may not have the technical capacity to do so on their own.
If we do not act, we risk seeing the development of a fully automated loop in which assignments are generated by AI with the support of a learning management system, AI-generated content is submitted by an agentic AI on behalf of the student, and AI-driven metrics evaluate the work on behalf of the instructor.

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Richard @rwpickard.bsky.social · 5d

I'm not used to thinking of the @modernlanguage.bsky.social as friends of the revolution or whatnot, but their statement against AI in higher education was a good start.

My language is much more colourful, mind, but small steps! #resistAI #againstAI www.mla.org/Resources/Ad...

Statement on Educational Technologies and AI Agents

The following statement of endorsement was drafted by the MLA Task Force on AI in Research and Teaching. The Executive Council approved it as an MLA statement in October 2025.Software, specifically le...

www.mla.org

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