Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
@kconrad.bsky.social
Prof. of English at University of Kansas. Tech and culture. AI ethics. Critical AI literacy. Pandora’s Bot on Substack. #aiethics #criticalailiteracy
A pleasant surprise in our Northern sky here in Lawrence, KS. I've caught auroras through my camera but this was also visible to the naked eye (though not as bright as via my iPhone, here)
November 12, 2025 at 4:03 AM
A pleasant surprise in our Northern sky here in Lawrence, KS. I've caught auroras through my camera but this was also visible to the naked eye (though not as bright as via my iPhone, here)
Hit the breaking point this morning with Michigan after hearing about their planned data center in Ypsi. Put all my in-progress posts on the back burner to write this (which I have also sent to UMGiving).
substack.com/@kconrad/not...
substack.com/@kconrad/not...
A letter to my alma mater
on their embrace of AI
substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Hit the breaking point this morning with Michigan after hearing about their planned data center in Ypsi. Put all my in-progress posts on the back burner to write this (which I have also sent to UMGiving).
substack.com/@kconrad/not...
substack.com/@kconrad/not...
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
"We lived in intense silent fear as an algorithm meticulously tore our family apart…This AI chatbot perfectly mimicked the predatory behaviour of a human groomer, systematically stealing our child's trust and innocence.”
Mothers say AI chatbots encouraged their sons to kill themselves
In her first UK interview Megan Garcia speaks to Laura Kuenssberg about the death of her teenage son.
www.bbc.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:47 AM
"We lived in intense silent fear as an algorithm meticulously tore our family apart…This AI chatbot perfectly mimicked the predatory behaviour of a human groomer, systematically stealing our child's trust and innocence.”
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
me at the end of class: here's a little speculative exercises; imagine you wake up from cryosleep in 2085. what's the kind of tech-society r/ship you'd like to see around you?
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
November 6, 2025 at 6:32 AM
me at the end of class: here's a little speculative exercises; imagine you wake up from cryosleep in 2085. what's the kind of tech-society r/ship you'd like to see around you?
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
students: no AI
I honestly think students' views are missing from the 'should AI be integrated in classrooms' discussion
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
Here's some of what I've learned.
November 6, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Here's some of what I've learned.
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
I have a short piece about what I've learned from teaching my AI course in this @chronicle.com forum on how AI is changing higher ed, along with some very interesting reflections from others, including a lovely piece on why writing matters by @zey.bsky.social . www.chronicle.com/article/how-...
Opinion Forum | How AI Is Changing Higher Education
The technology is reshaping every aspect of university life. Fifteen scholars weigh in on what happens next.
www.chronicle.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:56 PM
I have a short piece about what I've learned from teaching my AI course in this @chronicle.com forum on how AI is changing higher ed, along with some very interesting reflections from others, including a lovely piece on why writing matters by @zey.bsky.social . www.chronicle.com/article/how-...
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
Next in our Creatively Critical Tech virtual speaker series is Audrey Watters @audreywatters.bsky.social on "AI Grief Observed: On the Death of Education."
Don't miss it on November 12, 2025, @ 6:30 pm CT!
Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...
Don't miss it on November 12, 2025, @ 6:30 pm CT!
Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...
October 22, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Next in our Creatively Critical Tech virtual speaker series is Audrey Watters @audreywatters.bsky.social on "AI Grief Observed: On the Death of Education."
Don't miss it on November 12, 2025, @ 6:30 pm CT!
Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...
Don't miss it on November 12, 2025, @ 6:30 pm CT!
Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
i’ve said this before but lemme say it again. it makes absolutely 0 sense to talk about “misuse” of llms because there is no clear use or purpose for llms to begin with. genAI is a purposeless tech floating around looking for uptake
1/
1/
November 2, 2025 at 2:17 PM
i’ve said this before but lemme say it again. it makes absolutely 0 sense to talk about “misuse” of llms because there is no clear use or purpose for llms to begin with. genAI is a purposeless tech floating around looking for uptake
1/
1/
Great talk by @sashamtl.bsky.social suggesting alternative AI futures.
Excited to see one of my @betterimagesofai.bsky.social images up there on the big TED talk screen.
Excited to see one of my @betterimagesofai.bsky.social images up there on the big TED talk screen.
How is AI impacting people and the planet, and how can we do better? 🌍
In my most recent TED talk, I shed light on how the current way we do AI and explore ways forward in which we can make it more sustainable:
www.ted.com/talks/sasha_...
In my most recent TED talk, I shed light on how the current way we do AI and explore ways forward in which we can make it more sustainable:
www.ted.com/talks/sasha_...
We’re doing AI all wrong. Here’s how to get it right
Artificial intelligence is changing everything — but at what cost? AI sustainability expert Sasha Luccioni exposes how tech companies' massive data centers are burning through energy and wrecking the ...
www.ted.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Great talk by @sashamtl.bsky.social suggesting alternative AI futures.
Excited to see one of my @betterimagesofai.bsky.social images up there on the big TED talk screen.
Excited to see one of my @betterimagesofai.bsky.social images up there on the big TED talk screen.
A front-yard haunted house on our street so we’re now a destination neighborhood. We gave kids a choice: candy, mandarin oranges, raisins, or potatoes. WE WENT THROUGH A 10-LB BAG OF POTATOES IN 45 MINUTES (followed closely by oranges. 40 of them.) 🤣
November 1, 2025 at 1:56 AM
A front-yard haunted house on our street so we’re now a destination neighborhood. We gave kids a choice: candy, mandarin oranges, raisins, or potatoes. WE WENT THROUGH A 10-LB BAG OF POTATOES IN 45 MINUTES (followed closely by oranges. 40 of them.) 🤣
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
Great job alert! 👇
📣 I am hiring a postdoc! aial.ie/hiring/postd...
applications from suitable candidates that are passionate about investigating the use of genAI in public service operations with the aim of keeping governments transparent and accountable are welcome
pls share with your networks
applications from suitable candidates that are passionate about investigating the use of genAI in public service operations with the aim of keeping governments transparent and accountable are welcome
pls share with your networks
October 30, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Great job alert! 👇
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
“Film hasn’t bounced back since the strikes and games are experiencing even more layoffs with companies pivoting to AI. Independent artists and freelancers especially are finding it hard to make ends meet.”
Artists behind some of the most popular films of all time are also forging one of the most powerful organized resistances to AI.
With solidarity, class action lawsuits and strong legislation, they're fighting to protect their livelihoods, and pop culture, from big tech.
My latest:
With solidarity, class action lawsuits and strong legislation, they're fighting to protect their livelihoods, and pop culture, from big tech.
My latest:
How artists behind Marvel, Alien, and the Matrix movies are fighting AI
With solidarity, legislation, class action lawsuits, and a little help from Guillermo del Toro. Plus, the Luddite Renaissance continues, and I open the mailbag.
www.bloodinthemachine.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:54 PM
“Film hasn’t bounced back since the strikes and games are experiencing even more layoffs with companies pivoting to AI. Independent artists and freelancers especially are finding it hard to make ends meet.”
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
"The Library of Babel Group is a nascent, international coalition of educators confronting and resisting the incursion of surveillance, automation and datafication into spaces of teaching, learning, research, and creative expression." Join us. www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...
The Library of Babel Group
www.law.georgetown.edu
October 20, 2025 at 7:01 PM
"The Library of Babel Group is a nascent, international coalition of educators confronting and resisting the incursion of surveillance, automation and datafication into spaces of teaching, learning, research, and creative expression." Join us. www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
The resistance finding a home is big, but finding each other has been life-affirming. Join us in the Library of Babel, friends. Check out what we're about at the link.
#NoSurveillance #Humanity #AIRefusal #AIinEdu #EduSky #AIResistance #Luddites #WriterSky
www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...
#NoSurveillance #Humanity #AIRefusal #AIinEdu #EduSky #AIResistance #Luddites #WriterSky
www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...
The Library of Babel Group
www.law.georgetown.edu
October 25, 2025 at 1:24 PM
The resistance finding a home is big, but finding each other has been life-affirming. Join us in the Library of Babel, friends. Check out what we're about at the link.
#NoSurveillance #Humanity #AIRefusal #AIinEdu #EduSky #AIResistance #Luddites #WriterSky
www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...
#NoSurveillance #Humanity #AIRefusal #AIinEdu #EduSky #AIResistance #Luddites #WriterSky
www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...
"The Library of Babel Group is a nascent, international coalition of educators confronting and resisting the incursion of surveillance, automation and datafication into spaces of teaching, learning, research, and creative expression." Join us. www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...
The Library of Babel Group
www.law.georgetown.edu
October 20, 2025 at 7:01 PM
"The Library of Babel Group is a nascent, international coalition of educators confronting and resisting the incursion of surveillance, automation and datafication into spaces of teaching, learning, research, and creative expression." Join us. www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...
Color me surprised. (And I just want to reiterate that Gavin Newsom continues to look like a corporate villain from a bad movie. Love this picture.)
www.sfgate.com/politics/art...
www.sfgate.com/politics/art...
'Under tremendous pressure': Newsom vetoes long-awaited AI chatbot bill
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have barred youth use of AI chatbots.
www.sfgate.com
October 20, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Color me surprised. (And I just want to reiterate that Gavin Newsom continues to look like a corporate villain from a bad movie. Love this picture.)
www.sfgate.com/politics/art...
www.sfgate.com/politics/art...
F*** no. Next question.
“For more than a decade, researchers have wondered whether artificial intelligence could help predict what incapacitated patients might want when doctors must make life-or-death decisions on their behalf.”
Should an AI copy of you help decide if you live or die?
Doctors share top concerns of AI surrogates aiding life-or-death decisions.
arstechnica.com
October 20, 2025 at 2:13 PM
F*** no. Next question.
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
“Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function(…) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios.” — @olivia.science
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
October 17, 2025 at 10:51 PM
“Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function(…) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios.” — @olivia.science
Preach
That first incredulous "what?" made me cheer. Meanwhile, the disconnect between creatives and AI hypers grows to a chasm.
#writersky #AI #edusky #writesky #AIresistance #AIrefusal
#writersky #AI #edusky #writesky #AIresistance #AIrefusal
October 18, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Preach
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
A Perplexity ad I was served this evening. Discuss.
October 18, 2025 at 1:48 AM
A Perplexity ad I was served this evening. Discuss.
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
October 17, 2025 at 12:16 PM
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
"we are now seeing the emergence of the single platform solution, notably from big tech companies like Microsoft, with apps to cover all aspects of school life—from precise monitoring of student learning through to expense management and human resources" - great paper by @lucipangrazio.bsky.social
New paper alert! In this article I look at the rise of the 'single platform solution' in schools driven by big tech. Very difficult to keep corporate logics at bay!
bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
<em>British Journal of Educational Technology</em> | BERA Journal | Wiley Online Library
This article examines recent trends in the data infrastructures of Australian schools. Data interoperability has become integral to school operations as it enables data to flow between the array of .....
bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 14, 2025 at 11:20 AM
"we are now seeing the emergence of the single platform solution, notably from big tech companies like Microsoft, with apps to cover all aspects of school life—from precise monitoring of student learning through to expense management and human resources" - great paper by @lucipangrazio.bsky.social
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
“There are about a dozen companies that specialize in school surveillance…That monitoring reaches into students’ lives beyond school hours, with all but two of those companies monitoring students around the clock.”
What Do We Know About the Edtech Services That Watch Students? - EdSurge News
After talking with teens lobbying against the dark sides of AI, EdSurge asks: “What’s known about the companies that schools use to monitor students?” ...
www.edsurge.com
October 14, 2025 at 10:13 PM
“There are about a dozen companies that specialize in school surveillance…That monitoring reaches into students’ lives beyond school hours, with all but two of those companies monitoring students around the clock.”
Reposted by Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
"platform-driven bureaucratic processes, although seemingly mundane, reconfigure teacher-student interactions, redistribute pedagogical authority, and introduce complex layers of administrative work into everyday schooling" doi.org/10.1080/1743...
Platform bureaucratization as pedagogy in highly platformized classrooms
This article examines the rise of platform bureaucratization in highly digitalized classrooms. Drawing on an ethnographic study in a Swedish lower secondary school, we examine how teachers and stud...
doi.org
October 14, 2025 at 11:23 AM
"platform-driven bureaucratic processes, although seemingly mundane, reconfigure teacher-student interactions, redistribute pedagogical authority, and introduce complex layers of administrative work into everyday schooling" doi.org/10.1080/1743...