Tuomas Pernu
@tuomaspernu.bsky.social
PhD and all that. Lecturer in Philosophy of Science and Research Ethics at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF). Some things I'm responsible for:
http://www.tuomaspernu.london
http://www.tuomaspernu.london
Pinned
Tuomas Pernu
@tuomaspernu.bsky.social
· Mar 7
‘It would be seen as political’: why the Royal Society is torn over Elon Musk
Many fellows feel the billionaire has breached its code of conduct, but others say scientific neutrality is at stake
www.theguardian.com
“My worry is that ejecting Musk from the Royal Society would be seen as a political move.”
My worry is that the @royalsociety.org makes the scientific community look like a bunch of pathetic pushovers!
Are you for science or against it? It's as simple as that.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
My worry is that the @royalsociety.org makes the scientific community look like a bunch of pathetic pushovers!
Are you for science or against it? It's as simple as that.
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
GIVE THIS MAN $1,000,000,000,000
November 10, 2025 at 7:45 PM
GIVE THIS MAN $1,000,000,000,000
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
“changes in statistical significance are often not themselves statistically significant. … even large changes in significance levels can correspond to small, nonsignificant changes in the underlying quantities.”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#Statistics
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#Statistics
The Difference Between “Significant” and “Not Significant” is not Itself Statistically Significant
It is common to summarize statistical comparisons by declarations of statistical significance or nonsignificance. Here we discuss one problem with such declarations, namely that changes in statisti...
www.tandfonline.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM
“changes in statistical significance are often not themselves statistically significant. … even large changes in significance levels can correspond to small, nonsignificant changes in the underlying quantities.”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#Statistics
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#Statistics
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
Scientists and scholars in AI and its social impacts call on von der Leyen to retract #AIHype statement.
@olivia.science
@abeba.bsky.social
@irisvanrooij.bsky.social
@alexhanna.bsky.social
@rocher.lc
@danmcquillan.bsky.social
@robin.berjon.com
& many others have signed
www.iccl.ie/press-releas...
@olivia.science
@abeba.bsky.social
@irisvanrooij.bsky.social
@alexhanna.bsky.social
@rocher.lc
@danmcquillan.bsky.social
@robin.berjon.com
& many others have signed
www.iccl.ie/press-releas...
Scientists call on the President of the European Commission to retract AI hype statement
Experts in AI call on the President of the European Commission to retract unscientific AI hype statement she made in the budget speech.
www.iccl.ie
November 10, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Scientists and scholars in AI and its social impacts call on von der Leyen to retract #AIHype statement.
@olivia.science
@abeba.bsky.social
@irisvanrooij.bsky.social
@alexhanna.bsky.social
@rocher.lc
@danmcquillan.bsky.social
@robin.berjon.com
& many others have signed
www.iccl.ie/press-releas...
@olivia.science
@abeba.bsky.social
@irisvanrooij.bsky.social
@alexhanna.bsky.social
@rocher.lc
@danmcquillan.bsky.social
@robin.berjon.com
& many others have signed
www.iccl.ie/press-releas...
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
It's weird that this needs to be so clearly spelled out. Humans are ultra-social, cultural beings. This is at the core *everything we do - especially in things that matter most to us, like politics, law, economics & medicine. Of course humanities are central! Who's to blame if this isn't understood?
What's lost when we lose staff, departments, programmes and faculties in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and what's that got to do with organ donation?
Amid the looming losses faced by Cardiff, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leicester and Nottingham (among many others), here's a worked example. 1/8
Amid the looming losses faced by Cardiff, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leicester and Nottingham (among many others), here's a worked example. 1/8
The organ donation ‘opt-out’ has been a fatal failure | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 11:19 AM
It's weird that this needs to be so clearly spelled out. Humans are ultra-social, cultural beings. This is at the core *everything we do - especially in things that matter most to us, like politics, law, economics & medicine. Of course humanities are central! Who's to blame if this isn't understood?
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
A good primer on the more entangled problems with this sort of trash science aka lacking epistemic soundness by Mel Andrews, @abeba.bsky.social, @andrewthesmart.bsky.social on www.cell.com/patterns/ful...
The reanimation of pseudoscience in machine learning and its ethical repercussions
Machine learning has a pseudoscience problem. In this perspective, the authors explore
the recent resurgence of deep learning-assisted physiognomy and argue that pseudoscientific
and socially harmful ...
www.cell.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:11 AM
A good primer on the more entangled problems with this sort of trash science aka lacking epistemic soundness by Mel Andrews, @abeba.bsky.social, @andrewthesmart.bsky.social on www.cell.com/patterns/ful...
Erinomaista summausta AI:sta.
"Yli 80 prosenttia kielimallia kirjoittamisen apuna käyttäneistä ei kyennyt siteeraamaan omaa tekstiään."
"[J]os haluaa jonkin asian todella tajuta ja muistaa, pitää tajuamiseen liittyvän ponnistelunkin tapahtua aivoissa, ei tietokoneessa."
Niinpä.
"Yli 80 prosenttia kielimallia kirjoittamisen apuna käyttäneistä ei kyennyt siteeraamaan omaa tekstiään."
"[J]os haluaa jonkin asian todella tajuta ja muistaa, pitää tajuamiseen liittyvän ponnistelunkin tapahtua aivoissa, ei tietokoneessa."
Niinpä.
Katri Saarikiven kolumni: Ymmärtäminen edellyttää, että puurrat tiedon parissa – eikä sitä kannata ulkoistaa tekoälylle
Tekoäly on riuska apuri tiedon käsittelyssä, mutta helppoudesta seuraa ihan uudenlaisia ongelmia, Saarikivi pohdiskelee.
yle.fi
November 8, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Erinomaista summausta AI:sta.
"Yli 80 prosenttia kielimallia kirjoittamisen apuna käyttäneistä ei kyennyt siteeraamaan omaa tekstiään."
"[J]os haluaa jonkin asian todella tajuta ja muistaa, pitää tajuamiseen liittyvän ponnistelunkin tapahtua aivoissa, ei tietokoneessa."
Niinpä.
"Yli 80 prosenttia kielimallia kirjoittamisen apuna käyttäneistä ei kyennyt siteeraamaan omaa tekstiään."
"[J]os haluaa jonkin asian todella tajuta ja muistaa, pitää tajuamiseen liittyvän ponnistelunkin tapahtua aivoissa, ei tietokoneessa."
Niinpä.
"Kysyn teiltä, Helsingin yliopiston ylioppilaskunnan menneet ja nykyiset päättäjät: oletteko ylpeitä itsestänne?"
Niinpä.
Itse vielä kannan ylioppilaskunnan kunniamerkkiä. Mutta kuinka kauan? Meininki on ollut ongelmallista jo pitkään, rakenteellisesti. Suuntaa ei ole. Vastuunkantajat puuttuvat.
Niinpä.
Itse vielä kannan ylioppilaskunnan kunniamerkkiä. Mutta kuinka kauan? Meininki on ollut ongelmallista jo pitkään, rakenteellisesti. Suuntaa ei ole. Vastuunkantajat puuttuvat.
Tuija Siltamäen kolumni: Ylioppilaskunta retkahti kiinteistöbisnekseen – laskun maksaa suomalainen kulttuuriperintö
Helsingin yliopiston ylioppilaskunnan bisnesseikkailulla on surullinen hinta: koko itsenäisyyden historian nähnyt Ylioppilaslehti on loppunsa reunalla, Siltamäki kirjoittaa.
yle.fi
November 7, 2025 at 10:39 AM
"Kysyn teiltä, Helsingin yliopiston ylioppilaskunnan menneet ja nykyiset päättäjät: oletteko ylpeitä itsestänne?"
Niinpä.
Itse vielä kannan ylioppilaskunnan kunniamerkkiä. Mutta kuinka kauan? Meininki on ollut ongelmallista jo pitkään, rakenteellisesti. Suuntaa ei ole. Vastuunkantajat puuttuvat.
Niinpä.
Itse vielä kannan ylioppilaskunnan kunniamerkkiä. Mutta kuinka kauan? Meininki on ollut ongelmallista jo pitkään, rakenteellisesti. Suuntaa ei ole. Vastuunkantajat puuttuvat.
Hei me säästetään!
Mielestäni tämä jää kyllä nyt puolitiehen. Laitetaan eduskunta suoraan eBayhin. Myydään eniten tarjoavalle. Onhan vaalit aivan käsittämätön kuluerä! Järki käteen. Kaikki raha tarvitaan nyt rajoille, että ulkomaalaiset eivät vaan pääse tänne.
Mielestäni tämä jää kyllä nyt puolitiehen. Laitetaan eduskunta suoraan eBayhin. Myydään eniten tarjoavalle. Onhan vaalit aivan käsittämätön kuluerä! Järki käteen. Kaikki raha tarvitaan nyt rajoille, että ulkomaalaiset eivät vaan pääse tänne.
Tämän pitäisi olla laitonta. T. pilvipalveluntarjoaja ja datakeskusoperaattori yle.fi/a/74-20191502
Seuraavat eduskuntavaalit pyörivät amerikkalaisen Amazonin palvelimilla – äänet annetaan edelleen paperilla
Ensimmäistä kertaa vaaleissa ehdokas- ja äänestäjätiedot sekä tuloslaskenta siirtyvät Suomen rajojen ulkopuolelle. Tutkija ei käyttäisi pilvipalvelua kansallisen turvallisuuden asioissa.
yle.fi
November 6, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Hei me säästetään!
Mielestäni tämä jää kyllä nyt puolitiehen. Laitetaan eduskunta suoraan eBayhin. Myydään eniten tarjoavalle. Onhan vaalit aivan käsittämätön kuluerä! Järki käteen. Kaikki raha tarvitaan nyt rajoille, että ulkomaalaiset eivät vaan pääse tänne.
Mielestäni tämä jää kyllä nyt puolitiehen. Laitetaan eduskunta suoraan eBayhin. Myydään eniten tarjoavalle. Onhan vaalit aivan käsittämätön kuluerä! Järki käteen. Kaikki raha tarvitaan nyt rajoille, että ulkomaalaiset eivät vaan pääse tänne.
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
I think we've got a bigger problem: no doubt it's something like this that the today's peer-reviewers would say. Fun fact: Nature adopted the systematic external peer-review policy in 1973. Incidentally, it's before this that the most influential papers were published.
bsky.app/profile/tome...
bsky.app/profile/tome...
Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting
I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:
I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:
November 3, 2025 at 5:16 PM
I think we've got a bigger problem: no doubt it's something like this that the today's peer-reviewers would say. Fun fact: Nature adopted the systematic external peer-review policy in 1973. Incidentally, it's before this that the most influential papers were published.
bsky.app/profile/tome...
bsky.app/profile/tome...
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
‘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 10:26 PM
‘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/...
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
Another casualty of the LLM revolution.
In "arXiv’s CS category, review articles and position papers must now be accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review."
In "arXiv’s CS category, review articles and position papers must now be accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review."
Attention Authors: Updated Practice for Review Articles and Position Papers in arXiv CS Category – arXiv blog
blog.arxiv.org
November 2, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
November 1, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Niin se supertekoäly vaan tietää meistä kaiken. Siis miten häkellyttävän puhuttelevaa täsmämainontaa:
- tapaa avoimia naisia, check
- löydä täydellinen ottelusi, check
- seniorinhalu, check
Kuvan miljöö on kuin synnyinseudultani Mellunmäestä.
Mihin enää tarvitsemme ihmistä?
- tapaa avoimia naisia, check
- löydä täydellinen ottelusi, check
- seniorinhalu, check
Kuvan miljöö on kuin synnyinseudultani Mellunmäestä.
Mihin enää tarvitsemme ihmistä?
November 1, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Niin se supertekoäly vaan tietää meistä kaiken. Siis miten häkellyttävän puhuttelevaa täsmämainontaa:
- tapaa avoimia naisia, check
- löydä täydellinen ottelusi, check
- seniorinhalu, check
Kuvan miljöö on kuin synnyinseudultani Mellunmäestä.
Mihin enää tarvitsemme ihmistä?
- tapaa avoimia naisia, check
- löydä täydellinen ottelusi, check
- seniorinhalu, check
Kuvan miljöö on kuin synnyinseudultani Mellunmäestä.
Mihin enää tarvitsemme ihmistä?
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
LLMs cannot count? Hmm.. maybe that's because - just hear me out - counting is not a stochastic process. Neither is thinking, btw. AI (the "I" part of it) is the biggest hoax of our time.
bsky.app/profile/adam...
bsky.app/profile/adam...
Language models are terrible at counting (part 12381...)
It's concerning how many workflows/copilots etc. these tools are now creeping into, despite making small numerical errors all over the place (which a causal eye might not catch).
Below from GPT-5 and Sonnet-4.5:
It's concerning how many workflows/copilots etc. these tools are now creeping into, despite making small numerical errors all over the place (which a causal eye might not catch).
Below from GPT-5 and Sonnet-4.5:
October 29, 2025 at 10:46 AM
LLMs cannot count? Hmm.. maybe that's because - just hear me out - counting is not a stochastic process. Neither is thinking, btw. AI (the "I" part of it) is the biggest hoax of our time.
bsky.app/profile/adam...
bsky.app/profile/adam...
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
This is what happened to my Grandfather in Frankfurt, Germany on 9th November 1938, commonly known as Kristallnacht.
In Portland, Oregon, masked ICE GOONS abducted and vanished US citizen Gonzalo Catalan last week. Tragically, his family remains unaware of his whereabouts and has not received any communication from him as of today.
October 29, 2025 at 4:13 AM
This is what happened to my Grandfather in Frankfurt, Germany on 9th November 1938, commonly known as Kristallnacht.
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning
Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when
academic.oup.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:14 PM
When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
October 28, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
In "studies in which humans conversed with either a sycophantic or a non-sycophantic #LLM, researchers found that 'participants rated sycophantic responses as higher quality, trusted the sycophantic #AI model more, and were more willing to use it again": arstechnica.com/ai/2025/10/a... #ethics #tech
Are you the asshole? Of course not!—quantifying LLMs’ sycophancy problem
In new research, AI models show a troubling tendency to agree with whatever the user says.
arstechnica.com
October 27, 2025 at 8:47 PM
In "studies in which humans conversed with either a sycophantic or a non-sycophantic #LLM, researchers found that 'participants rated sycophantic responses as higher quality, trusted the sycophantic #AI model more, and were more willing to use it again": arstechnica.com/ai/2025/10/a... #ethics #tech
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
Love this. Would you prefer a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in place of a Bible in your hotel room?
October 27, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Love this. Would you prefer a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in place of a Bible in your hotel room?
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
‘People thought I was a communist doing this as a non-profit’: is Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales the last decent tech baron?
‘People thought I was a communist doing this as a non-profit’: is Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales the last decent tech baron?
In an online landscape characterised by doom and division, the people’s encyclopedia stands out – a huge collective endeavour giving everyone free access to the sum of human knowledge. But with Elon Musk branding it ‘Wokipedia’ and AI looming large, can it survive?
www.theguardian.com
October 27, 2025 at 6:39 AM
‘People thought I was a communist doing this as a non-profit’: is Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales the last decent tech baron?
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
Good, balanced text. However, the issue has never been whether AI-tools *can be useful. The problem is that they clearly have seriously detrimental effects, so the issue is: how to mitigate these? I really can't see any other realistic answer than large-scale deployment of exam aquaria.
AI is being used more at universities, and, to some, it provides an opportunity to improve education and prepare students. But many education specialists are concerned it could impede learning. Nature reports on these worries. #Academicsky 🧪
Universities are embracing AI: will students get smarter or stop thinking?
Millions of students arriving at campuses are now using artificial intelligence. Worries abound.
go.nature.com
October 26, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Good, balanced text. However, the issue has never been whether AI-tools *can be useful. The problem is that they clearly have seriously detrimental effects, so the issue is: how to mitigate these? I really can't see any other realistic answer than large-scale deployment of exam aquaria.
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
An important piece. Loneliness is the ultimate cause of most of the problems governments are struggling with.
"What appears, in statistics, as a fertility crisis seems, in lived experience, to be a crisis of connection."
We are clicking our lives away. And AI will only exacerbate this.
"What appears, in statistics, as a fertility crisis seems, in lived experience, to be a crisis of connection."
We are clicking our lives away. And AI will only exacerbate this.
Poland’s birth rate is in freefall. The cause? A loneliness epidemic that state cash can’t solve | Anna Gromada
Poland’s birth rate is in freefall. The cause? A loneliness epidemic that state cash can’t solve | Anna Gromada
Bonuses for families have done nothing to fix a baby bust caused by post-communist Europe’s relationships crisis, says sociologist Anna Gromada
www.theguardian.com
October 23, 2025 at 11:24 AM
An important piece. Loneliness is the ultimate cause of most of the problems governments are struggling with.
"What appears, in statistics, as a fertility crisis seems, in lived experience, to be a crisis of connection."
We are clicking our lives away. And AI will only exacerbate this.
"What appears, in statistics, as a fertility crisis seems, in lived experience, to be a crisis of connection."
We are clicking our lives away. And AI will only exacerbate this.
Reposted by Tuomas Pernu
It's clear: we will soon drown in AI-slop - and we cannot trust anything online anymore. The question is: what will happen then? There is disturbingly little discussion on this.
bsky.app/profile/adri...
bsky.app/profile/adri...
We knew this would happen. Note how realistic the visuals and voices are.
This AI deepfake video of Catherine Connolly ‘withdrawing’ from presidential contest and that Friday’s poll is ‘cancelled’ is live and viral on Facebook tonight.
1000s watching, commenters believing it.
This AI deepfake video of Catherine Connolly ‘withdrawing’ from presidential contest and that Friday’s poll is ‘cancelled’ is live and viral on Facebook tonight.
1000s watching, commenters believing it.
October 22, 2025 at 12:11 PM
It's clear: we will soon drown in AI-slop - and we cannot trust anything online anymore. The question is: what will happen then? There is disturbingly little discussion on this.
bsky.app/profile/adri...
bsky.app/profile/adri...