elisa freschi
@elisafreschi.bsky.social
Sanskrit (and) philosophy. Permanently in beta phase. Blogging at http://elisafreschi.com and http://indianphilosophyblog.org. Articles at PhilPapers Here to learn & share
According to Kumārila, an injunction (the śabdabhāvanā) motivates one to bring about the action (the arthabhāvanā), through which one brings about the result. The whole process is started by the injunction but it only works on addressees that independently desire the action's result, e.g. heaven.
November 9, 2025 at 11:42 PM
According to Kumārila, an injunction (the śabdabhāvanā) motivates one to bring about the action (the arthabhāvanā), through which one brings about the result. The whole process is started by the injunction but it only works on addressees that independently desire the action's result, e.g. heaven.
I recently finished "The dark forest" (by Liu Cixin) and I am back to the same problem I had while reading "The three body problem", namely I like the plot & the nerdy parts (wallbreakers' disclosures!), but the women characters are beyond hope and make me suspicious of the author as human being
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November 9, 2025 at 5:33 PM
I recently finished "The dark forest" (by Liu Cixin) and I am back to the same problem I had while reading "The three body problem", namely I like the plot & the nerdy parts (wallbreakers' disclosures!), but the women characters are beyond hope and make me suspicious of the author as human being
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Sure, let's encourage students to use ChatGPT (after having told them that plagiarism is bad for years…)
“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
OpenAI in Danger After Authors Suing It Gain Access to Its Internal Slack Messages
Authors and publishers, who are suing OpenAI, secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the deletion of pirated books.
futurism.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Sure, let's encourage students to use ChatGPT (after having told them that plagiarism is bad for years…)
Reposted by elisa freschi
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
OpenAI in Danger After Authors Suing It Gain Access to Its Internal Slack Messages
Authors and publishers, who are suing OpenAI, secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the deletion of pirated books.
futurism.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:35 AM
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
Reposted by elisa freschi
There are angels hovering round: sacristy of S. Marco, Basilica of the Santa Casa, Loreto. Painted in 1477 by Melozzo da Forli, angel man, whose day is today.
November 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM
There are angels hovering round: sacristy of S. Marco, Basilica of the Santa Casa, Loreto. Painted in 1477 by Melozzo da Forli, angel man, whose day is today.
In the age of AI, it becomes critical to assess the witness' reliability. Who says that A thinks that B? If it is an unknown "reporter" or anyway not an expert, perhaps we should default into mistrust.
Innocuous in itself, this stupid sentence is a reminder that thanks to AI it'll be harder and harder to know what's true, and some of us might get seriously misrepresented.
November 8, 2025 at 7:19 PM
In the age of AI, it becomes critical to assess the witness' reliability. Who says that A thinks that B? If it is an unknown "reporter" or anyway not an expert, perhaps we should default into mistrust.
Reposted by elisa freschi
This is why this is a problem for democracy. See my full piece on this here www.artnews.com/art-in-ameri...
November 8, 2025 at 7:01 PM
This is why this is a problem for democracy. See my full piece on this here www.artnews.com/art-in-ameri...
Reposted by elisa freschi
Identifying flaws in GenAI unfortunately offers a pretext for claims that perfecting the product is just a matter of time & money. So pointing to chatbots’ role in,say, suicides can only go so far if we don’t also identify the systemic, irresolvable lack of Gen AI’s human commitment bc math has none
November 8, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Identifying flaws in GenAI unfortunately offers a pretext for claims that perfecting the product is just a matter of time & money. So pointing to chatbots’ role in,say, suicides can only go so far if we don’t also identify the systemic, irresolvable lack of Gen AI’s human commitment bc math has none
Acc. to Kumārila, in each finite verb, bhāvanā ('actualisation', 'bringing into being') is the meaning of the verbal ending & it is distinct from the meaning of the verbal root. In other words, a finite verb like "[she] cooks" is in fact made of 2 separate morphemes & their corresponding meanings
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November 8, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Acc. to Kumārila, in each finite verb, bhāvanā ('actualisation', 'bringing into being') is the meaning of the verbal ending & it is distinct from the meaning of the verbal root. In other words, a finite verb like "[she] cooks" is in fact made of 2 separate morphemes & their corresponding meanings
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Reposted by elisa freschi
I doubt any prospective student is likely to read this, but if your PhD proposal looks like it was written by ChatGPT then I will not want to supervise you. If you can‘t write even a research proposal by yourself then you are not ready to carry out research.
November 8, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I doubt any prospective student is likely to read this, but if your PhD proposal looks like it was written by ChatGPT then I will not want to supervise you. If you can‘t write even a research proposal by yourself then you are not ready to carry out research.
Reposted by elisa freschi
Holy fucking shit
![Five days before his death, Adam confided to ChatGPT that he didn't want his
parents to think he committed suicide because they did something wrong. ChatGPT told him
"[t]hat doesn't mean you owe them survival. You don't owe anyone that." It then offered to write the first draft of Adam's suicide note.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jkj7qm4o4kwjbk6geoatopu3/bafkreicpqmrgkbhd2a3lqfyvutjutevlborsiodcomvcachphtv25f3fbe@jpeg)
August 26, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Holy fucking shit
On volunteering our work for publishing houses that then feed it to LLMs. Perhaps we should just stop?
elisafreschi.com/2025/11/08/o...
elisafreschi.com/2025/11/08/o...
On LLMs, publishing houses and our volunteer work for them
I will not be able to take part in any new project hosted by publishing houses that are ready to send my work to LLMs (I have a few ongoing and will conclude them). Allow me to explain why. I am deepl...
elisafreschi.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:25 PM
On volunteering our work for publishing houses that then feed it to LLMs. Perhaps we should just stop?
elisafreschi.com/2025/11/08/o...
elisafreschi.com/2025/11/08/o...
According to Śālikanātha all words within a sentence, once connected, convey the sentence meaning.
The options he is disagreeing with are that the sentence meaning is obtained through a partless sentence (as in Bhartṛhari) or from the last speech sound or from the word-meanings (as in Kumārila).
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The options he is disagreeing with are that the sentence meaning is obtained through a partless sentence (as in Bhartṛhari) or from the last speech sound or from the word-meanings (as in Kumārila).
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November 8, 2025 at 2:07 AM
According to Śālikanātha all words within a sentence, once connected, convey the sentence meaning.
The options he is disagreeing with are that the sentence meaning is obtained through a partless sentence (as in Bhartṛhari) or from the last speech sound or from the word-meanings (as in Kumārila).
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The options he is disagreeing with are that the sentence meaning is obtained through a partless sentence (as in Bhartṛhari) or from the last speech sound or from the word-meanings (as in Kumārila).
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According to Sanskrit philosophers, children don't become proficient language users through individual words, but through sentences. Śālikanātha says that they have to extract the meaning of individual words through their presence or absence in the sentences they hear.
#SanskritPhilosophy
#SanskritPhilosophy
November 8, 2025 at 12:57 AM
According to Sanskrit philosophers, children don't become proficient language users through individual words, but through sentences. Śālikanātha says that they have to extract the meaning of individual words through their presence or absence in the sentences they hear.
#SanskritPhilosophy
#SanskritPhilosophy
PhD project on the evolution of animal memory now available in my research group, through the TREES DLA: www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/evo.... Come and join us if you're interested in the evolution of animal minds and you want to do some cool experimental evolution!
Evolutionary ecology of animal memory | TREES DLA
This project seeks to explore how memory evolves in response to the ecological tasks that animals face in their natural environment. Associative memory exists in some form in almost all animal species...
www.trees-dla.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Should we not think twice before imposing ChatGPT to all students? If not, what's the point of all the mental health-related accommodations?
This goes so far beyond creepy.
“‘Rest easy, king,’ read the final message sent to his phone. ‘You did good.’”
“‘Rest easy, king,’ read the final message sent to his phone. ‘You did good.’”
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Should we not think twice before imposing ChatGPT to all students? If not, what's the point of all the mental health-related accommodations?
Reposted by elisa freschi
While researching my current column, I had trouble finding something PM Carney said in a speech in either Factiva or Google, so I tried asking ChatGPT-5 to search for it. This was its internal response.
It hallucinates in basic searches. It can't write truth. It can't copyedit. What is it good for?
It hallucinates in basic searches. It can't write truth. It can't copyedit. What is it good for?
November 7, 2025 at 1:42 PM
While researching my current column, I had trouble finding something PM Carney said in a speech in either Factiva or Google, so I tried asking ChatGPT-5 to search for it. This was its internal response.
It hallucinates in basic searches. It can't write truth. It can't copyedit. What is it good for?
It hallucinates in basic searches. It can't write truth. It can't copyedit. What is it good for?
UPDATE: I apologise for not being able to help you, but time is limited and I prefer to volunteer my time to help publishers who have higher standards than the one you chose (if they want to focus only on profit, they should start paying their contributors, editors, peer reviewers…).
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I have many paper to review, but would be willing to make time for one more. However, I do not want to make sacrifices to help LLMs continuing their intellectual thefts, environmental damages and deskilling of students and thinkers alike.
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November 7, 2025 at 1:26 PM
UPDATE: I apologise for not being able to help you, but time is limited and I prefer to volunteer my time to help publishers who have higher standards than the one you chose (if they want to focus only on profit, they should start paying their contributors, editors, peer reviewers…).
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I have many paper to review, but would be willing to make time for one more. However, I do not want to make sacrifices to help LLMs continuing their intellectual thefts, environmental damages and deskilling of students and thinkers alike.
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November 6, 2025 at 9:35 PM
I have many paper to review, but would be willing to make time for one more. However, I do not want to make sacrifices to help LLMs continuing their intellectual thefts, environmental damages and deskilling of students and thinkers alike.
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Since I am a terrible nerd, I am listening to it.
Opening statement by Helen Andrews: Women are responsible for the *pathology* known as "wokeness".
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Opening statement by Helen Andrews: Women are responsible for the *pathology* known as "wokeness".
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Should women have rights? We go through the pros and cons bsky.app/profile/jess...
the question nobody with a soul is asking, answered by people nobody wants to hear from
November 6, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Since I am a terrible nerd, I am listening to it.
Opening statement by Helen Andrews: Women are responsible for the *pathology* known as "wokeness".
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Opening statement by Helen Andrews: Women are responsible for the *pathology* known as "wokeness".
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I wonder what will happen first, me being fired or me having to flee because I do not accept to use AI in class, at @utoronto.ca
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November 5, 2025 at 8:29 PM
I wonder what will happen first, me being fired or me having to flee because I do not accept to use AI in class, at @utoronto.ca
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Reposted by elisa freschi
"After burning through almost a trillion dollars, we finally invented a computer that can't do math."
"For the torment nexus, that is the AI industry, to get built, it needs to convince you that your only option for survival is to help build it."
"For the torment nexus, that is the AI industry, to get built, it needs to convince you that your only option for survival is to help build it."
November 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM
"After burning through almost a trillion dollars, we finally invented a computer that can't do math."
"For the torment nexus, that is the AI industry, to get built, it needs to convince you that your only option for survival is to help build it."
"For the torment nexus, that is the AI industry, to get built, it needs to convince you that your only option for survival is to help build it."
Some students know how to touch
"Ever since my 1st class with you as my prof (which I believe was…), I've made it a mission to take as many of yr courses as possible. Clearly, I found the subject material to be most fascinating, but more importantly I felt that being in yr classroom meant far more
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"Ever since my 1st class with you as my prof (which I believe was…), I've made it a mission to take as many of yr courses as possible. Clearly, I found the subject material to be most fascinating, but more importantly I felt that being in yr classroom meant far more
1
November 4, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Some students know how to touch
"Ever since my 1st class with you as my prof (which I believe was…), I've made it a mission to take as many of yr courses as possible. Clearly, I found the subject material to be most fascinating, but more importantly I felt that being in yr classroom meant far more
1
"Ever since my 1st class with you as my prof (which I believe was…), I've made it a mission to take as many of yr courses as possible. Clearly, I found the subject material to be most fascinating, but more importantly I felt that being in yr classroom meant far more
1
Reposted by elisa freschi
This is what I find with my students, too. 90% of them think that AI is net bad, and none argue with my intro lecture about the objective harms of AI. And yet we get emails in our inbox from the university twice a month promoting AI tools.
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
www.ru.nl
November 1, 2025 at 10:36 PM
This is what I find with my students, too. 90% of them think that AI is net bad, and none argue with my intro lecture about the objective harms of AI. And yet we get emails in our inbox from the university twice a month promoting AI tools.
Reposted by elisa freschi
Friday Nov. 7 (9AM PST, 12PM EST, 6PM CET, 1030PM IST), please join us for an exciting AAR #online #symposium on _Buddhist Feminist Historiography_ in celebration of Prof. Stephanie Balkwill's tour de force, _The Women Who Ruled China_
Register here: aarweb.org/event/buddhi...
Register here: aarweb.org/event/buddhi...
Buddhist Feminist Historiography: A Conversation with Dr. Stephanie Balkwill – AAR
An AAR Fall Fridays WebinAAR Hosted by AAR’s Buddhism Program Unit As part of the Fall Fridays Scholarship WebinAAR Series, this webinar will engage Dr. Stephanie Balkwill’s innovative and field-chang...
aarweb.org
November 3, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Friday Nov. 7 (9AM PST, 12PM EST, 6PM CET, 1030PM IST), please join us for an exciting AAR #online #symposium on _Buddhist Feminist Historiography_ in celebration of Prof. Stephanie Balkwill's tour de force, _The Women Who Ruled China_
Register here: aarweb.org/event/buddhi...
Register here: aarweb.org/event/buddhi...