Samuel Merrill
@socmerrill.bsky.social
Associate Professor at Umeå University’s
Department of Sociology & Centre for Digital Social Research (DIGSUM).
Memory, Commemoration and Heritage; AI, Digital Tech, Media, and Data; Social Movements, Activism, Protest and Politics.
Department of Sociology & Centre for Digital Social Research (DIGSUM).
Memory, Commemoration and Heritage; AI, Digital Tech, Media, and Data; Social Movements, Activism, Protest and Politics.
Pinned
A starter pack for interdisciplinary #memory studies accounts. Let me know if you want to be added to it (or removed!).
#memorystudies #rememberance #commemoration
#memories
go.bsky.app/4SnXbJU
#memorystudies #rememberance #commemoration
#memories
go.bsky.app/4SnXbJU
🚨 New publication alert! 🚨
I’m proud of this interdisciplinary, co-authored piece on how memory studies might handle the AI hype.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
It has just been added, open access, to Memory, Mind and Media’s special collection on AI and Memory.
I’m proud of this interdisciplinary, co-authored piece on how memory studies might handle the AI hype.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
It has just been added, open access, to Memory, Mind and Media’s special collection on AI and Memory.
Handling the hype: Demystifying artificial intelligence for memory studies | Memory, Mind & Media | Cambridge Core
Handling the hype: Demystifying artificial intelligence for memory studies - Volume 4
www.cambridge.org
October 27, 2025 at 12:26 PM
🚨 New publication alert! 🚨
I’m proud of this interdisciplinary, co-authored piece on how memory studies might handle the AI hype.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
It has just been added, open access, to Memory, Mind and Media’s special collection on AI and Memory.
I’m proud of this interdisciplinary, co-authored piece on how memory studies might handle the AI hype.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
It has just been added, open access, to Memory, Mind and Media’s special collection on AI and Memory.
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
The sociological imagination is not just about observing society; it’s about understanding how people challenge systems of power and create change.
In the magazine’s June issue, @carinrunciman.bsky.social and fellow scholars reflect on what it means to think sociologically.
buff.ly/R9DWhvA
In the magazine’s June issue, @carinrunciman.bsky.social and fellow scholars reflect on what it means to think sociologically.
buff.ly/R9DWhvA
June 18, 2025 at 10:02 AM
The sociological imagination is not just about observing society; it’s about understanding how people challenge systems of power and create change.
In the magazine’s June issue, @carinrunciman.bsky.social and fellow scholars reflect on what it means to think sociologically.
buff.ly/R9DWhvA
In the magazine’s June issue, @carinrunciman.bsky.social and fellow scholars reflect on what it means to think sociologically.
buff.ly/R9DWhvA
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
So we did a thing… 🧵
You’ve heard about the erasing of LGBTQ history on National Park Service websites. Egregious changes made to the Stonewall National Monument site (erasing all instances of trans and queer) & the disappearance of resources like the monumental “LGBTQ America” theme study.
You’ve heard about the erasing of LGBTQ history on National Park Service websites. Egregious changes made to the Stonewall National Monument site (erasing all instances of trans and queer) & the disappearance of resources like the monumental “LGBTQ America” theme study.
April 30, 2025 at 3:14 PM
So we did a thing… 🧵
You’ve heard about the erasing of LGBTQ history on National Park Service websites. Egregious changes made to the Stonewall National Monument site (erasing all instances of trans and queer) & the disappearance of resources like the monumental “LGBTQ America” theme study.
You’ve heard about the erasing of LGBTQ history on National Park Service websites. Egregious changes made to the Stonewall National Monument site (erasing all instances of trans and queer) & the disappearance of resources like the monumental “LGBTQ America” theme study.
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
One of the smartest sociologists of this generation. @tressiemcphd.bsky.social delivers knowledge.
This piece from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social starts with a bang and just gets better and better. Gift link.
Opinion | The Tech Fantasy That Powers A.I. Is Running on Fumes (Gift Article)
A.I. is just what we need in the post-fact era: less research and more predicting what we want to hear.
www.nytimes.com
March 29, 2025 at 9:16 PM
One of the smartest sociologists of this generation. @tressiemcphd.bsky.social delivers knowledge.
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
“So yes, we've experienced a coup, not the old fashioned kind, no tanks or mobs, but an undemocratic and hostile takeover of government. It is cruel, it is petty. It can be brutal. It is at once chaotic and surgical…The question is, will the rule of law hold?”
March 3, 2025 at 4:08 PM
“So yes, we've experienced a coup, not the old fashioned kind, no tanks or mobs, but an undemocratic and hostile takeover of government. It is cruel, it is petty. It can be brutal. It is at once chaotic and surgical…The question is, will the rule of law hold?”
Looking forward to participating in this tomorrow!
📢 Upcoming #dMSA Event: Is AI the Future of Collective Memory?
This roundtable will explore AI’s role in collective memory, moving beyond ethics to examine real-world case studies.
📅 Date: Feb 25th at 14.30
🔗 Register here: bit.ly/4gsIwXe
#MemoryStudies #AI #DigitalHeritage #CollectiveMemory
This roundtable will explore AI’s role in collective memory, moving beyond ethics to examine real-world case studies.
📅 Date: Feb 25th at 14.30
🔗 Register here: bit.ly/4gsIwXe
#MemoryStudies #AI #DigitalHeritage #CollectiveMemory
February 24, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Looking forward to participating in this tomorrow!
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
NIUS and others on the far right are trying to roll back the expansion of German memory culture of Nazi victim groups over the past thirty years as it has expanded beyond the Holocaust of European Jews to include recognition of Roma, disabled, homosexual, trans and Afro-German victims.
Der Kampf gegen den vermeintlichen „links-woken deep state“ treibt immer absurdere Blüten: Das rechte Portal „Nius“ greift heute die Frankfurter @bsannefrank.bsky.social frontal an, weil diese vor dem Rechtsruck im Wahlkampf warnt.
February 13, 2025 at 11:12 AM
NIUS and others on the far right are trying to roll back the expansion of German memory culture of Nazi victim groups over the past thirty years as it has expanded beyond the Holocaust of European Jews to include recognition of Roma, disabled, homosexual, trans and Afro-German victims.
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Someone has adapted East German singer Ernst Busch's song Ami - go Home! for the present day conflict between the Trump administration and Canada.
February 13, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Someone has adapted East German singer Ernst Busch's song Ami - go Home! for the present day conflict between the Trump administration and Canada.
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Generative #AI is already having an impact on how we perceive #archaeology🏺.
In her @us.theconversation.com essay @clmorgan.bsky.social urges for critical yet constructive engagement with digital technologies in our investigation of the past.
theconversation.com/how-ai-image...
In her @us.theconversation.com essay @clmorgan.bsky.social urges for critical yet constructive engagement with digital technologies in our investigation of the past.
theconversation.com/how-ai-image...
How AI imagery could be used to develop fake archaeology
Even before the use of AI, it was widely accepted within archaeology that visualisations of the past are highly fraught and should be treated with caution.
theconversation.com
February 5, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Generative #AI is already having an impact on how we perceive #archaeology🏺.
In her @us.theconversation.com essay @clmorgan.bsky.social urges for critical yet constructive engagement with digital technologies in our investigation of the past.
theconversation.com/how-ai-image...
In her @us.theconversation.com essay @clmorgan.bsky.social urges for critical yet constructive engagement with digital technologies in our investigation of the past.
theconversation.com/how-ai-image...
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Throwing tomato soup on a painting seems like an under-reaction, to be honest
January 11, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Throwing tomato soup on a painting seems like an under-reaction, to be honest
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Since Die Hard is a Christmas film, a brief thread on my own head canon of how the Gruber brothers disparate bios are tied up in postwar German history.
December 25, 2024 at 9:32 AM
Since Die Hard is a Christmas film, a brief thread on my own head canon of how the Gruber brothers disparate bios are tied up in postwar German history.
My 2024 in review on LinkedIn:
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Have a great break everyone! See you in 2025
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Have a great break everyone! See you in 2025
Samuel Merrill on LinkedIn: Den artificiella bibliotekarien: En etnografisk studie om hur ChatGPT kan…
A lot happened in 2024 even with a couple of months out on parental leave. Just before I turn on my out-of-office and go on leave until the start of 2025 I…
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
December 23, 2024 at 1:49 PM
My 2024 in review on LinkedIn:
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Have a great break everyone! See you in 2025
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Have a great break everyone! See you in 2025
Fun to have contributed to this with a chapter called ‘Splintering’ the Memory-Activism Nexus: State and Market Forces in the Vortex of Civic Memory.
Thanks to the eds Astrid Erll, Susanne Knittel & Jenny Wüstenberg & to Ann Rigney whose work inspired the book.
www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
Thanks to the eds Astrid Erll, Susanne Knittel & Jenny Wüstenberg & to Ann Rigney whose work inspired the book.
www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
Dynamics, Mediation, Mobilization
Dynamics, Mediation, Mobilization provides an accessible overview of cultural memory studies, a field substantially shaped by Ann Rigney. In more than sixty short chapters, leading and emerging schola...
www.degruyter.com
December 22, 2024 at 6:52 AM
Fun to have contributed to this with a chapter called ‘Splintering’ the Memory-Activism Nexus: State and Market Forces in the Vortex of Civic Memory.
Thanks to the eds Astrid Erll, Susanne Knittel & Jenny Wüstenberg & to Ann Rigney whose work inspired the book.
www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
Thanks to the eds Astrid Erll, Susanne Knittel & Jenny Wüstenberg & to Ann Rigney whose work inspired the book.
www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Basically think of the o3 results as validating Douglas Adams as the science fiction author most right about AI.
When given longer to think, the AI can generate answers to very hard questions, but the cost is very high, it is hard to verify, & you have to make sure you ask the right question first.
When given longer to think, the AI can generate answers to very hard questions, but the cost is very high, it is hard to verify, & you have to make sure you ask the right question first.
December 21, 2024 at 5:33 AM
Basically think of the o3 results as validating Douglas Adams as the science fiction author most right about AI.
When given longer to think, the AI can generate answers to very hard questions, but the cost is very high, it is hard to verify, & you have to make sure you ask the right question first.
When given longer to think, the AI can generate answers to very hard questions, but the cost is very high, it is hard to verify, & you have to make sure you ask the right question first.
Promote or perish
December 20, 2024 at 7:36 PM
Promote or perish
The full open access special issue of Memory Studies Review dedicated to #AI and Collective #Memory is now out. It was edited by Sarah Gensberger and Frédéric Clavert and represents the collective efforts of the @artificialmemory.bsky.social network.
It is available here: brill.com/view/journal...
It is available here: brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
December 16, 2024 at 10:16 AM
The full open access special issue of Memory Studies Review dedicated to #AI and Collective #Memory is now out. It was edited by Sarah Gensberger and Frédéric Clavert and represents the collective efforts of the @artificialmemory.bsky.social network.
It is available here: brill.com/view/journal...
It is available here: brill.com/view/journal...
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
The history books will tell the story of this era of erasure with the derision it deserves, but until then, the only thing I know to do it to show that it is happening & help families & communities be as safe as possible. Document, share, and ensure this can be told. It’s such a shameful moment.
Yesterday I pulled overt references of queerness off my site, my very successful store that sells my books that have queer main characters. Because a few days ago, Meta emailed saying my advertising on their platform will be restricted - my site was categorized as "sexuality and gender identity."
December 15, 2024 at 7:36 AM
The history books will tell the story of this era of erasure with the derision it deserves, but until then, the only thing I know to do it to show that it is happening & help families & communities be as safe as possible. Document, share, and ensure this can be told. It’s such a shameful moment.
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
“Writing a single email with ChatGPT can use as much energy as driving a two-ton electric vehicle half a mile,” @laurenleffer.bsky.social reports. www.audubon.org/magazine/how...
How the AI Boom Threatens to Short-Circuit Climate Action
The energy-devouring technology is giving new life to fossil fuels.
www.audubon.org
December 10, 2024 at 8:26 PM
“Writing a single email with ChatGPT can use as much energy as driving a two-ton electric vehicle half a mile,” @laurenleffer.bsky.social reports. www.audubon.org/magazine/how...
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Unsurprisingly, the far-right needs AI to generate images of both the nostalgic past & the alleged invasion of migrants. For these myths real footage seems hard to come by. Here's an inquiry into the use of AI generated propaganda by Dutch nationalists. www.groene.nl/artikel/het-...
Bedreigende nepbeelden van asielzoekers– ze worden in meerderheid verspreid door één PVV-Kamerlid
Teleurgesteld door het gebrek aan echt migrantengeweld fabriceren PVV’ers met behulp van AI dan maar hun eigen hordes allochtone bloedhonden. Uit onderzoek blijkt: die ophitsende beelden komen uit Wil...
www.groene.nl
December 11, 2024 at 3:12 PM
Unsurprisingly, the far-right needs AI to generate images of both the nostalgic past & the alleged invasion of migrants. For these myths real footage seems hard to come by. Here's an inquiry into the use of AI generated propaganda by Dutch nationalists. www.groene.nl/artikel/het-...
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Strong recommend!
This will no doubt cut through the AI hype with a bullshit-proof knife!
(And while we wait for May, listen to the podcast, it's great! Unless you've written AI fluff, of course, in which case I'm sure it'd be terrifying!)
This will no doubt cut through the AI hype with a bullshit-proof knife!
(And while we wait for May, listen to the podcast, it's great! Unless you've written AI fluff, of course, in which case I'm sure it'd be terrifying!)
THE AI CON: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want (by yours truly & @alexhanna.bsky.social) is now available for pre-order!
All the details here: thecon.ai
All the details here: thecon.ai
THE AI CON
How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
thecon.ai
December 10, 2024 at 9:09 PM
Strong recommend!
This will no doubt cut through the AI hype with a bullshit-proof knife!
(And while we wait for May, listen to the podcast, it's great! Unless you've written AI fluff, of course, in which case I'm sure it'd be terrifying!)
This will no doubt cut through the AI hype with a bullshit-proof knife!
(And while we wait for May, listen to the podcast, it's great! Unless you've written AI fluff, of course, in which case I'm sure it'd be terrifying!)
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
THE AI CON: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want (by yours truly & @alexhanna.bsky.social) is now available for pre-order!
All the details here: thecon.ai
All the details here: thecon.ai
THE AI CON
How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
thecon.ai
December 10, 2024 at 3:50 PM
THE AI CON: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want (by yours truly & @alexhanna.bsky.social) is now available for pre-order!
All the details here: thecon.ai
All the details here: thecon.ai
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Bsky is being flooded with German speaking AI powered bots.
A thread on why this is important, ultimately making all social media is unusable. #deutschland #trolls #AI #election
1/ What happened? All these responses to a @zeit.de post have something in common (spoiler: they are not real):
A thread on why this is important, ultimately making all social media is unusable. #deutschland #trolls #AI #election
1/ What happened? All these responses to a @zeit.de post have something in common (spoiler: they are not real):
December 7, 2024 at 8:36 AM
Bsky is being flooded with German speaking AI powered bots.
A thread on why this is important, ultimately making all social media is unusable. #deutschland #trolls #AI #election
1/ What happened? All these responses to a @zeit.de post have something in common (spoiler: they are not real):
A thread on why this is important, ultimately making all social media is unusable. #deutschland #trolls #AI #election
1/ What happened? All these responses to a @zeit.de post have something in common (spoiler: they are not real):
Reposted by Samuel Merrill
Two years into the AI boom, it's imperative we understand the true power of "AGI"—as a narrative tool useful for winning investment, talent and headlines.
My report for AI Now details how OpenAI used the story of a rising AI that will replace humans to replace the need for an actual business model.
My report for AI Now details how OpenAI used the story of a rising AI that will replace humans to replace the need for an actual business model.
Today, we published an article by @bcmerchant.bsky.social arguing that OpenAI is leaning on a flimsy presentation of AGI as its eventual business model––despite the lack of evidence it is a real possibility, or a viable profit pathway.
Read: ainowinstitute.org/general/ai-g...
Read: ainowinstitute.org/general/ai-g...
AI Generated Business: The Rise of AGI and the Rush to Find a Working Revenue Model
By Brian Merchant In This Article Introduction OpenAI and the Generative AI Boom Silicon Valley Mythology, Distilled and Accelerated From “Safe AI” to AGI — and the Hype-Led Business Model Genesis Mar...
ainowinstitute.org
December 5, 2024 at 5:19 PM
Two years into the AI boom, it's imperative we understand the true power of "AGI"—as a narrative tool useful for winning investment, talent and headlines.
My report for AI Now details how OpenAI used the story of a rising AI that will replace humans to replace the need for an actual business model.
My report for AI Now details how OpenAI used the story of a rising AI that will replace humans to replace the need for an actual business model.