beth semel
@bethmsemel.bsky.social
AI killjoy, prednisone hater, writing a book about voice analysis AI and the limits of technosolutionist listening in American mental healthcare
sadly i'm no longer able to attend AAA this year but Josh will be holding down the two panels this CFP has generated, both of which explore "AI" in a multitude of grounded contexts (eg Chinese Internet lit, data centers in Memphis, artificial kpop idols) through a linguistic anthropological lens
CFP from Josh Babcock and me for AAA 2025. we're looking for participants who take a grounded, ethnographic approach to explore computational technologies (broadly construed) and questions of agency. please share / send your abstract to either of us by April 14
November 17, 2025 at 2:33 PM
sadly i'm no longer able to attend AAA this year but Josh will be holding down the two panels this CFP has generated, both of which explore "AI" in a multitude of grounded contexts (eg Chinese Internet lit, data centers in Memphis, artificial kpop idols) through a linguistic anthropological lens
Reposted by beth semel
Deeply honored to receive the Book Prize from the Society for the Anthropology of Work!! Grateful to SAW and to everyone who engaged with my work. 💜
Congratulations to Winner of 2025 SAW Book Prize
Hector Beltran's Code Work: Hacking Across US-Mexico Techno Borderlands, Princeton University Press, 2023.
Honorable Mention
Hemangini Gupta’s Experimental Times: Start-up Capitalism and Feminist Futures in India, U of California Press, 2024.
Hector Beltran's Code Work: Hacking Across US-Mexico Techno Borderlands, Princeton University Press, 2023.
Honorable Mention
Hemangini Gupta’s Experimental Times: Start-up Capitalism and Feminist Futures in India, U of California Press, 2024.
October 31, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Deeply honored to receive the Book Prize from the Society for the Anthropology of Work!! Grateful to SAW and to everyone who engaged with my work. 💜
Reposted by beth semel
Worth remembering this is the same news org that effectively bans its reporters from using terms like “occupied territory” or “genocide” in reference to Israel and has effectively sanctioned decades of its occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing (another phrase NYT says to “avoid”).
To recap: Jeffrey Epstein offered a NY Times reporter photos taken in Epstein's kitchen of Donald Trump and girls in bikinis *and* implored the NYT reporter to put this information in the public discourse in 2015
What did the NY Times editors know about this offer?
What did the NY Times editors know about this offer?
“would you like photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen?” -Jeffrey Epstein
November 12, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Worth remembering this is the same news org that effectively bans its reporters from using terms like “occupied territory” or “genocide” in reference to Israel and has effectively sanctioned decades of its occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing (another phrase NYT says to “avoid”).
hanging on by a thread rn but at least the thread in question is the Gerald's Rham on Acid remix of Voodoo Ray www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtd3...
A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray (Gerald's Rham on Acid Remix)
YouTube video by Krasswerk
www.youtube.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:39 PM
hanging on by a thread rn but at least the thread in question is the Gerald's Rham on Acid remix of Voodoo Ray www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtd3...
Reposted by beth semel
Just now seeing that this March event has been posted. I’m so excited for this and so grateful for this group of brilliant minds. I’ve been learning so much from them!
You can register here: www.disconetwork.org/disco-events...
You can register here: www.disconetwork.org/disco-events...
November 10, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Just now seeing that this March event has been posted. I’m so excited for this and so grateful for this group of brilliant minds. I’ve been learning so much from them!
You can register here: www.disconetwork.org/disco-events...
You can register here: www.disconetwork.org/disco-events...
Reposted by beth semel
will kim is still in ICE detention
will taeheung kim, a korean american scientist and doctoral candidate with a green card, is still being detained by ICE. he's been in detention since July 21, first at SFO for over a week and then in various ICE facilities all over the country.
October 30, 2025 at 7:39 PM
will kim is still in ICE detention
Reposted by beth semel
Organized Communities Against Deportations has launched a new mutual aid fund to support immigrant families in Chicago impacted by ICE raids
Link to donate: donorbox.org/mutualaid2025
Link to donate: donorbox.org/mutualaid2025
October 25, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Organized Communities Against Deportations has launched a new mutual aid fund to support immigrant families in Chicago impacted by ICE raids
Link to donate: donorbox.org/mutualaid2025
Link to donate: donorbox.org/mutualaid2025
Miyako Inoue's "The Listening Subject of Japanese Modernity and His Auditory Double" is one of those articles that gets better with each and every reread and reminds me how much (and why) i love linguistic anthropology. i mean, look at her definition of language ideology - perfect, no notes
October 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Miyako Inoue's "The Listening Subject of Japanese Modernity and His Auditory Double" is one of those articles that gets better with each and every reread and reminds me how much (and why) i love linguistic anthropology. i mean, look at her definition of language ideology - perfect, no notes
egregious choice akin to when Yale university hired the architect of Bush admin's "enhanced interrogation techniques," a decision for which they later apologized. it's still possible for U Chicago to amend this grave lapse of judgment, you can reach out here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
October 21, 2025 at 6:39 PM
egregious choice akin to when Yale university hired the architect of Bush admin's "enhanced interrogation techniques," a decision for which they later apologized. it's still possible for U Chicago to amend this grave lapse of judgment, you can reach out here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
in which @lmesseri.bsky.social and @mjcrockett.bsky.social upend the increasingly pervasive premise of the LLM-fabricated human research subject (and the histories/ ideologies of cognition baked into the experimental "tasks" they're called upon to complete) at its epistemic roots
Can the human sciences exist w/out the human? Proposals for using AI as human research subjects suggest yes. But @mjcrockett.bsky.social and I respond with, ‘not so fast.’ In fact, silicon subjects say more about the problems of the research paradigm than the promises of AI. 🚨New article, thread 1/
AI Surrogates and illusions of generalizability in cognitive science
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated enthusiasm for using AI simulations of human research participants to generate new know…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 21, 2025 at 4:43 PM
in which @lmesseri.bsky.social and @mjcrockett.bsky.social upend the increasingly pervasive premise of the LLM-fabricated human research subject (and the histories/ ideologies of cognition baked into the experimental "tasks" they're called upon to complete) at its epistemic roots
no university teaching center i will not join your workshop on how "customized AI-driven chatbots can support student learning" also stop
October 21, 2025 at 1:42 PM
no university teaching center i will not join your workshop on how "customized AI-driven chatbots can support student learning" also stop
Reposted by beth semel
Seems like an opportune moment to re-up our paper about AWS seeking infrastructural dominance in education through a range of operations that include platforming the edtech industry on its cloud services codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2022/07/12/h...
How many classes today were canceled because a whole suite of EdTech services are built atop AWS?
You know what platform never crashes?
You know what platform never crashes?
October 20, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Seems like an opportune moment to re-up our paper about AWS seeking infrastructural dominance in education through a range of operations that include platforming the edtech industry on its cloud services codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2022/07/12/h...
Reposted by beth semel
A. This isn’t what learning is and
B. Sadly more and more classes are being pushed in this direction as class sizes go through the roof because states and universities refuse to invest in their faculty
B. Sadly more and more classes are being pushed in this direction as class sizes go through the roof because states and universities refuse to invest in their faculty
Wow. Just wow.
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
October 16, 2025 at 10:32 PM
A. This isn’t what learning is and
B. Sadly more and more classes are being pushed in this direction as class sizes go through the roof because states and universities refuse to invest in their faculty
B. Sadly more and more classes are being pushed in this direction as class sizes go through the roof because states and universities refuse to invest in their faculty
Reposted by beth semel
Follow the Global Sumud Flotilla live: www.youtube.com/live/Zeq7BQN...
October 1, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Follow the Global Sumud Flotilla live: www.youtube.com/live/Zeq7BQN...
Reposted by beth semel
Once again, it is *faculty*—not administrators—who brought this case and won. Including UC Faculty Association chapters of the AAUP.
Court Rules in AAUP v Rubio: Trump Admin Violated First Amendment
The AAUP and partners sued to block the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty members for ideological reasons.
www.aaup.org
October 1, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Once again, it is *faculty*—not administrators—who brought this case and won. Including UC Faculty Association chapters of the AAUP.
Reposted by beth semel
Protests, mass meetups, conferences—a youth-led movement is reclaiming the Luddite mantle, rejecting a future dominated by Silicon Valley companies, toxic apps, and generative AI.
This fall, a "Luddite renaissance" is in full swing.
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-luddit...
This fall, a "Luddite renaissance" is in full swing.
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-luddit...
The Luddite Renaissance is in full swing
This fall, the new luddites are rising
www.bloodinthemachine.com
September 22, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Protests, mass meetups, conferences—a youth-led movement is reclaiming the Luddite mantle, rejecting a future dominated by Silicon Valley companies, toxic apps, and generative AI.
This fall, a "Luddite renaissance" is in full swing.
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-luddit...
This fall, a "Luddite renaissance" is in full swing.
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-luddit...
Reposted by beth semel
Paired texts: bsky.app/profile/hype...
The findings “suggest that medical AI tools powered by LLMs have a tendency to not reflect the severity of symptoms among female patients, while also displaying less ‘empathy’ towards Black and Asian ones.”
AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and ethnic minorities
Large language models reflect biases that can lead to inferior healthcare advice to female, Black and Asian patients
www.ft.com
September 22, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Paired texts: bsky.app/profile/hype...
surely the "medical assistant" tasked with mediating / being the human in the loop likely held the most responsible for the patient-LLM-physician communication pipeline will have totally chill and equitable and well-paid working conditions that def put them in a position to lend a "sympathetic ear"
“Our focus is really on what we can do to pull the doctor out of the visit…” www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/22/1...
September 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
surely the "medical assistant" tasked with mediating / being the human in the loop likely held the most responsible for the patient-LLM-physician communication pipeline will have totally chill and equitable and well-paid working conditions that def put them in a position to lend a "sympathetic ear"
Reposted by beth semel
yeah, i've been thinking about this fixation on Authoritative People using Math to tell us something already collectively understood. it has a conspicuously similar structure as the weird investments, shared even by ostensibly "critical" people, in the idea of Artificial Intelligence
i've been thinking about this off and on since last night and @tisjune.bsky.social got me thinking about like... why are we enamored with this? it genuinely is flummoxing me. @vortexegg.com asked a similar question as to why this is notable. it's just... disorienting to see this fanfare
September 21, 2025 at 5:51 PM
yeah, i've been thinking about this fixation on Authoritative People using Math to tell us something already collectively understood. it has a conspicuously similar structure as the weird investments, shared even by ostensibly "critical" people, in the idea of Artificial Intelligence
Reposted by beth semel
it's not a statistical or a computational limitation, because that implies that if you have better statistical methods or bigger compute or bigger data you can get around these things
the problem is that you're modeling word tokens; you can't get out from under that
this isn't revelatory though
the problem is that you're modeling word tokens; you can't get out from under that
this isn't revelatory though
"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...
www.computerworld.com
September 21, 2025 at 5:20 PM
it's not a statistical or a computational limitation, because that implies that if you have better statistical methods or bigger compute or bigger data you can get around these things
the problem is that you're modeling word tokens; you can't get out from under that
this isn't revelatory though
the problem is that you're modeling word tokens; you can't get out from under that
this isn't revelatory though
Reposted by beth semel
Who is Really Fueling your #AI? Join us on September 17 to discuss precarization and resistance in #datawork, with the @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social, @milamiceli.bsky.social and @superrrnetwork.bsky.social. Don't miss your chance to meet some of the shadow workforce behind AI. buff.ly/dHMHXPV
September 9, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Who is Really Fueling your #AI? Join us on September 17 to discuss precarization and resistance in #datawork, with the @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social, @milamiceli.bsky.social and @superrrnetwork.bsky.social. Don't miss your chance to meet some of the shadow workforce behind AI. buff.ly/dHMHXPV
Reposted by beth semel
Please donate to support the work of the brave volunteers helping our immigrant community in NJ. They need money for gas, food, vests, to print flyers and to cover basic needs of families facing abduction and deportation. Anything helps. Please donate.
Rapid Response Emergency Fund
🌟 Join us in solidarity and resistance! 🌟We are calling on all our allies to take part and make a contribution to our Rapid Response Emergency Fund today. Your support will directly assist detained fa...
www.zeffy.com
August 28, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Please donate to support the work of the brave volunteers helping our immigrant community in NJ. They need money for gas, food, vests, to print flyers and to cover basic needs of families facing abduction and deportation. Anything helps. Please donate.
Reposted by beth semel
Fuck, gonna lose my job at the anxiety factory now
I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.
August 17, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Fuck, gonna lose my job at the anxiety factory now
Reposted by beth semel
Who could’ve seen this coming!?
(Literally everyone who has ever researched “Speech AI”)
(Literally everyone who has ever researched “Speech AI”)
August 16, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Who could’ve seen this coming!?
(Literally everyone who has ever researched “Speech AI”)
(Literally everyone who has ever researched “Speech AI”)