Dr. Acacia Ackles
@alackles.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Interested in computation, evolution, and how to teach those things to curious students.
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
(From a YouTube comment)
"A COMPUTER CANNOT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE..."
COMPANIES: "Yes! Isn't that great?"
"A COMPUTER CANNOT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE..."
COMPANIES: "Yes! Isn't that great?"
February 25, 2025 at 8:04 PM
(From a YouTube comment)
"A COMPUTER CANNOT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE..."
COMPANIES: "Yes! Isn't that great?"
"A COMPUTER CANNOT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE..."
COMPANIES: "Yes! Isn't that great?"
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
If you do not need to mainline US politics for your job, I strongly recommend not cooking your brain in live news updates unless you enjoy the feeling of professional energy vampiricism, anxiety and constant rage-baiting. And charge your phone away from your bedroom.
February 6, 2025 at 8:17 PM
If you do not need to mainline US politics for your job, I strongly recommend not cooking your brain in live news updates unless you enjoy the feeling of professional energy vampiricism, anxiety and constant rage-baiting. And charge your phone away from your bedroom.
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
New piece out!
We explain why Fully Autonomous Agents Should Not be Developed, breaking “AI Agent” down into its components & examining through ethical values.
With @evijit.io, @giadapistilli.com and @sashamtl.bsky.social
huggingface.co/papers/2502....
We explain why Fully Autonomous Agents Should Not be Developed, breaking “AI Agent” down into its components & examining through ethical values.
With @evijit.io, @giadapistilli.com and @sashamtl.bsky.social
huggingface.co/papers/2502....
Paper page - Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not be Developed
Join the discussion on this paper page
huggingface.co
February 6, 2025 at 9:56 AM
New piece out!
We explain why Fully Autonomous Agents Should Not be Developed, breaking “AI Agent” down into its components & examining through ethical values.
With @evijit.io, @giadapistilli.com and @sashamtl.bsky.social
huggingface.co/papers/2502....
We explain why Fully Autonomous Agents Should Not be Developed, breaking “AI Agent” down into its components & examining through ethical values.
With @evijit.io, @giadapistilli.com and @sashamtl.bsky.social
huggingface.co/papers/2502....
I have been thinking often of this anecdote about J. Robert Oppenheimer during the height of McCarthyism.
February 3, 2025 at 9:48 PM
I have been thinking often of this anecdote about J. Robert Oppenheimer during the height of McCarthyism.
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
Depressed about fascism coming to America? This one pot cassoulet will make you feel like you’re living in Vichy France.
February 2, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Depressed about fascism coming to America? This one pot cassoulet will make you feel like you’re living in Vichy France.
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
January 27, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
This is a critically important distinction. There are degrees of "open".
gentle reminder that deepseek is an open-weight model and NOT open source. there's nothing open about it; no information on how its trained or data trained on, just like its western counterparts
Any company whose mission is to “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity” would be ecstatic about a capable open source model like Deepseek released.
Any company which has a mission of making money off closed-source models would be devastated tho.
Any company which has a mission of making money off closed-source models would be devastated tho.
January 26, 2025 at 2:20 PM
This is a critically important distinction. There are degrees of "open".
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
Don't get locked out of your own data in future! Use open, standardised formats – like the Open Document Format used in LibreOffice. Learn more on Document Freedom Day, March 26: blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/01...
January 27, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Don't get locked out of your own data in future! Use open, standardised formats – like the Open Document Format used in LibreOffice. Learn more on Document Freedom Day, March 26: blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/01...
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
In 2020, I wrote a twitter thread titled "Wrong Things That I Learned As An Undergraduate In Computer Science".
My goal was to comment on how CS education shapes and reinforces a prevailing world view of many--perhaps most--CS majors.
Today feels like a day to revisit it (and repost here).
My goal was to comment on how CS education shapes and reinforces a prevailing world view of many--perhaps most--CS majors.
Today feels like a day to revisit it (and repost here).
January 20, 2025 at 6:55 PM
In 2020, I wrote a twitter thread titled "Wrong Things That I Learned As An Undergraduate In Computer Science".
My goal was to comment on how CS education shapes and reinforces a prevailing world view of many--perhaps most--CS majors.
Today feels like a day to revisit it (and repost here).
My goal was to comment on how CS education shapes and reinforces a prevailing world view of many--perhaps most--CS majors.
Today feels like a day to revisit it (and repost here).
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
Why "predictive AI" is inherently conservative and even reactionary.
The impossibility of automating ambiguity (Birhane 2021)
January 25, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Why "predictive AI" is inherently conservative and even reactionary.
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
My initial thought upon reading this: "What could possibly have necessitated this clarification?"
My thought after reading what it's quote-posting:
My thought after reading what it's quote-posting:
January 25, 2025 at 2:33 AM
My initial thought upon reading this: "What could possibly have necessitated this clarification?"
My thought after reading what it's quote-posting:
My thought after reading what it's quote-posting:
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
Coders have such weird ideas about how to party: The 'Obfuscated C Code' Competition Returns
The 'Obfuscated C Code' Competition Returns
The International Obfuscated C Code Contest is back and aims to make C++ code harder to read than ever.
buff.ly
January 11, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Coders have such weird ideas about how to party: The 'Obfuscated C Code' Competition Returns
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
"How many times did the little tyke eat, how long did they sleep, and perhaps most critically, how many times did they poop. The pediatrician will expect you to know these things, so you better start keeping notes": Logging Baby’s Day In Linux
Logging Baby’s Day In Linux
There’s plenty of surprises to be had when you become a parent, and one of the first is that it’s suddenly your job to record the frequency of your infant’s various bodily functi…
buff.ly
January 10, 2025 at 8:00 PM
"How many times did the little tyke eat, how long did they sleep, and perhaps most critically, how many times did they poop. The pediatrician will expect you to know these things, so you better start keeping notes": Logging Baby’s Day In Linux
Very, very proud of my undergraduate student Aparna Gajulapalli for her poster at #SICB2025. She presented her joint senior thesis in biology and computer science!
It was a trip to be on the PI side of the poster session!
It was a trip to be on the PI side of the poster session!
January 9, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Very, very proud of my undergraduate student Aparna Gajulapalli for her poster at #SICB2025. She presented her joint senior thesis in biology and computer science!
It was a trip to be on the PI side of the poster session!
It was a trip to be on the PI side of the poster session!
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
New study finds that frequent use of AI tools encourages offloading cognitive tasks and reduces critical thinking. Higher AI usage correlated with lower critical thinking skills, especially in younger users.
www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15...
www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15...
AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking
The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has transformed numerous aspects of daily life, yet its impact on critical thinking remains underexplored. This study investigates the relations...
www.mdpi.com
January 6, 2025 at 3:15 PM
New study finds that frequent use of AI tools encourages offloading cognitive tasks and reduces critical thinking. Higher AI usage correlated with lower critical thinking skills, especially in younger users.
www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15...
www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15...
Reposted by Dr. Acacia Ackles
From my colleagues Kyle Harper and David Wolpert at the Santa Fe Institute:
Position for two-year postdoc with background in computer science interested in working with social scientists/historians to study social evolution through computational lens. Details here: santafe.edu/about/jobs/p...
Position for two-year postdoc with background in computer science interested in working with social scientists/historians to study social evolution through computational lens. Details here: santafe.edu/about/jobs/p...
sfiscience
SFIhas an opening for a two-year full-time postdoc. We are seeking a highly motivated scholar with expertise in Computer Science and a desire to apply their expertise to analyze the evolution of human...
santafe.edu
January 6, 2025 at 9:58 PM
From my colleagues Kyle Harper and David Wolpert at the Santa Fe Institute:
Position for two-year postdoc with background in computer science interested in working with social scientists/historians to study social evolution through computational lens. Details here: santafe.edu/about/jobs/p...
Position for two-year postdoc with background in computer science interested in working with social scientists/historians to study social evolution through computational lens. Details here: santafe.edu/about/jobs/p...