Dr. Damien P. Williams! Look over here! … It's All For You!
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wolvendamien.bsky.social
Dr. Damien P. Williams! Look over here! … It's All For You!
@wolvendamien.bsky.social
52K followers 1.3K following 17K posts
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Assistant Prof Philosophy & Data Science
PhD Science, Technology, & Society
MA Philosophy & Religious Studies

"AI" Criticality; Centering Marginalized Lived Experiences in Tech; Magic; Human Knowledge, Values, Culture, & Beliefs
He/Him/His
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wolvendamien.bsky.social
No wait, this one
The words "New York City Mayor Mamdani' in the red white and green font of the 1980's teenage mutant ninja turtles cartoon logo
November 10, 2025 at 3:51 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
I'm on my phone so you'll just have to imagine the second one's font in the first one's colors.
The words "mayor of NYC Mamdani' in the yellow-and-orange-on-blue style of a Zohran Mamdani campaign poster The words "mayor of NYC Mamdani' in the red white and green font of the 1980's teenage mutant ninja turtles cartoon logo
November 9, 2025 at 4:13 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
About a year ago I wrote "Scholars are Failing the GPT Review Process" in which i warned that pressures of publish or perish coupled with an increased push to accept "generative AI" in the academic milieu would lead to people using "gen AI" to make up research they never actually conducted. So.
Screenshot of text reading Thus, it is in atmospheres and tendencies such as these, and incidents like the one described and experienced by Rua Williams, where we can observe the contributing factors that have led an increasing number of scholars to use GPT tools to translate, revise, or wholly write the articles that they submit to peer review. Scholars under pressure to publish or perform or otherwise live up to the perceived expectations of their discipline are willing to, at the very least, run their hard-won knowledge through systems that do not and, as shaped, cannot truly understand what they are being asked to process. The sociotechnical paradigms of these new technologies are often situated in a hypothetical space where the technology is perceived as neutral. At “best,” this results in scholars trying to “get out ahead” of the technology, seeking ways to integrate it into their work or field of research, even where it does not fit. [See Footnote 8.] At worst, this high-pressure adversarial relationship may lead to scholars using this technology to write papers or generate “research” whole cloth. Screenshot of text reading [Footnote] 8. Emanuel Maiberg, “Scientific Journals Are Publishing Papers with AI-Generated Text.” 404 Media. March 18, 2024. www.404media.co/scientific-journals-are-publishing-papers-with-ai-generated-text
October 29, 2025 at 11:00 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
This is the more recent framework and context. This shit is… very bad.
Screenshot of a post from Meteorologist Noah Bergren (1 of 2) LORD... this thing refuses to stop intensifying. I mean, meteorologically WOW. Hurricane Melissa now has 175 MPH sustained winds with wind gusts to 215 MPH. It probably will strengthen more overnight. There will be a path near the center of tornado like damage and near total destruction of everything in its path in the eyewall. Complete structure failure is possible with extreme roof damage along the path. Towns and communities in the western side of the island may be wiped out or left cutoff to outside access for extended time. The meteorological limit of max realistic intensity is nearing. There is a parameter for it, MPI (max potential intensity) - which is merely a meteorological formula to give a rough estimate of the strongest storm the Earth's atmosphere can produce at a given time. That number currently is around 184 MPH sustained winds. What is also remarkable, and not drama or a stretch of the truth... is the fact this hurricane has yet to start doing ERC (eyewall replacement cycles) -- this is very rare how long it is maintaining its initial eye without doing a replacement cycle yet. Screenshot of a post from Meteorologist Noah Bergren (2 of 2) This will be a life changing storm for many on the island. Praying for their safety Tuesday in the storm. Many large landslides may occur too especially in the central and western side of the island. If you are reading this in central or western Jamaica, you are going to endure something you may never see again. Going outside during the storm, especially the eye, could be deadly. Shelter as if this is a 12 hour long tornado. Storm surge forecast is "up to 13 feet" for the south side of the island, but I don't think Kingston will see it that bad. Kingston while will still get impacted, will NOT get the extreme impacts the western side of the island will. Wind gusts will likely remain below 90 MPH in the Kingston area. Expecting landfall late Tuesday morning, Oct. 28. ‣ This will be the first Category 5 hurricane to ever landfall in Jamaica, since we have records for in 1850 ‣ Only 1 other Category 4 hit the island, Gilbert in 1988 ‣ This is now, as of this advisory the 9th strongest hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean's recorded history, by pressure This will be a devastating natural disaster for Jamaica. A Hurricane Andrew kind of wind event, with pockets of a Hurricane Helene kind of flood event in the mountainous terrain.
October 28, 2025 at 4:55 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Oh here it is
bsky.app/profile/wolv...
Screenshot of a quote post by Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social‬ reading: Y'all when I tell you that this current paradigm of "AI" being shoved down our throats does real, persistent harm, and that said harm will fall first on the most marginalized and then on everyone else, this is the shit I mean. I mean god DAMN. Quoting a post by ‪Sheryl Weikal and the colorful Parrotlegals @leftistlawyer.com‬ reading · 3mo I have three hearings at three different courthouses today. At the second, someone was sobbing outside the courtroom. They'd asked ChatGPT what to say in Court. They believed what it told them. They lost because it hallucinated, and they didn't know there were no do-overs. June 30, 2025 at 9:42 PM
October 26, 2025 at 6:22 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Thinking about these words from @anitacameron.bsky.social again. Whatever way you can do it, wherever you can, do it. And lift up everyone doing it however they can, too.
"…there's a difference between being scared to where you are prepared and you take precautions and being scared and letting that terrify you and letting that paralyze you. You stop doing anything, you make no movement. If you are prepared for things, don't be scared to protest because that's what they want. They want us to be afraid. They want us to think, 'If I protest they're going to snatch my benefits. Oh, if I protest, if I do direct action, if I get involved, then I'm going to lose my reputation,' you know. Good trouble. "Congressman Lewis as I was being arrested in the capitol once stopped and went through the crowd and talked to us. I introduced myself to him and he said you keep making that good trouble. And that's what we're doing. It's good trouble. It may not seem like good trouble to opponents, okay, to people who are interested in dehumanizing you and curtailing your freedoms, you know, and behaving in a unjust fashion, they want you to be afraid. But don't be afraid. As long as you are prepared, go out there and do it in any fashion, whether it's out there in the trenches or whether you're doing it from your bed. "See, I lift up all kinds of activism. I have friends who are in their beds at home who do amazing things from their beds at home, direct videos and do campaigns and everything from their beds. So don't tell me you can't do -- if you've got the mind to do it and you've got the supports, you know, this day and age if you don't have a computer, you could probably get to the library or something to get out there. Because if the only way that you can do activism is to do petitions and whatnot, so be it. If the only way you can do activism is to do action alerts, write letters, and all, do it. If you can get out there in the streets in the trenches, do it. "But don't ever say because you can't or you won't. As long as you are out there fighting for justice and liberation, do it in whatever way you can. And if you choose to get out there in the streets in this climate that we live in, as long as you are prepared, should be okay, but just -- you know, just understand that that is every possibility, every possibility that -- you could get some serious charges and whatnot; but you still can't let that stop you."
October 20, 2025 at 6:20 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
We. Told. You. So. But also, that "May Rely" in the significance section ( 👇🏾 ) is *way* too… let's go with "generous;" lexical associations and statistical priors are what these systems are literally made of, and all that they do. Literally. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Screenshot of text reading: Significance Large Language Models (LLMs) are used in evaluative tasks across domains. Yet, what appears as alignment with human or expert judgments may conceal a deeper shift in how “judgment” itself is operationalized. Using news outlets as a controlled benchmark, we compare six LLMs to expert ratings and human evaluations under an identical, structured framework. While models often match expert outputs, our results suggest that they may rely on lexical associations and statistical priors rather than contextual reasoning or normative criteria. We term this divergence epistemia: the illusion of knowledge emerging when surface plausibility replaces verification. Our findings suggest not only performance asymmetries but also a shift in the heuristics underlying evaluative processes, raising fundamental questions about delegating judgment to LLMs.
October 17, 2025 at 7:23 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
…Oh word? Not even his most basic-ass title??? Oh. Summn about to become like, *Fundamentally* undeniable in a deep dark way, huh?
(original image reposted with alt text)
image of a letter with the royal seal and the following words: ROYAL COMMUNICATIONS Friday, 17" October 202 A STATEMENT BY PRINCE ANDREW In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family. I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life. With His Majesty's agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me. ENDS
October 17, 2025 at 7:05 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Couple these results with what we know about what said over-reliance on "AI" does to critical thinking and skills development and maintenance, and what I've repeatedly argued about the impact of "AI" on dis- & misinformation, consensus knowledge-making, & authoritarianism (👇🏾), & well… here we are.
Screenshot of text reading “Fascist Bullshit: How “Generative AI” Enacts and Enables Disinformation, Misinformation, & Authoritarianism (and What to Try to Do About It),” at the 2024 Southeastern Ethics and Philosophy of Technology (SEPOT) Workshop: SEPOT 7.0: A Perpetual Stew; September 20, 2025. Screenshot of the Durham County Library Events page with text reading Misinformation in the age of "AI" with Dr. Damien Patrick Williams
October 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Like… it's kind of right there, no?
"AI" generated image of woman with dark hair sitting in a chair in front of posters with random shapes and symbols meant to look like images and text on movie posters, all superimposed with a post from k.w.bogen reading "AI actresses can't negotiate. They can't say they'd prefer their bodies not be shown certgain ways. They can't refuse degrading scenes. They can't express distress about disturbing content. They can't ask the creators :why would you do that to me? Why put any woman through watching that? If AI film winds up being the path, we're about to see an entirely new generation (and more brutal depiction) of media misogyny."
October 5, 2025 at 5:42 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Huh. This seems pretty neat, and potentially promising.

"Improved carbon-cement supercapacitors could turn the concrete around us into massive energy storage systems"
news.mit.edu/2025/concret...
Screenshot of text reading In 2023, storing enough energy to meet the daily needs of the average home would have required about 45 cubic meters of ec³, roughly the amount of concrete used in a typical basement. Now, with the improved electrolyte, that same task can be achieved with about 5 cubic meters, the volume of a typical basement wall. “A key to the sustainability of concrete is the development of ‘multifunctional concrete,’ which integrates functionalities like this energy storage, self-healing, and carbon sequestration. Concrete is already the world’s most-used construction material, so why not take advantage of that scale to create other benefits?” asks Admir Masic, lead author of the new study, MIT Electron-Conducting Carbon-Cement-Based Materials Hub (EC³ Hub) co-director, and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering (CEE) at MIT.
October 4, 2025 at 4:59 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Yeah
Post from the CEO of bsky containing the phrase "dec/acc" and an "AI generated" garbo poster image with the words "dec/acc decentralization acceleration" and some kind of vaguely septagonal plant/web-like structre with vaguely human silhouettes inside circles at the corners and one in the middle, all surrounded by some weird misaligned light rays, and plant-esque shapes the whole thing is done in shades of green and gold, the colors, and shapes all seeming to be trying to evoke a sense of a mixture of technological systems and organic growth as blandly and palatably as possible
October 4, 2025 at 3:11 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Reminder that these people hate and mistrust each other at a deep deep level, and that can be exploited to important effect when recognized and properly leveraged.

I mean, can you imagine what some of these career Colonels and Generals are thinking, looking at all of this shit? Mm.
President Donald Trump has decided he’s going to the last-minute global gathering of the nation’s top generals in Quantico, Virginia, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered last week. Trump’s appearance not only upstages Hegseth’s plans but adds new security concerns to the massive and nearly unprecedented military event.
September 28, 2025 at 7:35 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
A genuinely fucked up part of this is that one of their suggestions is to apply for the thing they just rejected you for, and to do so on the basis of the reason they rejected you.

I mean god damn.
- You requested your federal student loans to be placed in the IDR plan that would bill you at the lowest possible monthly payment amount, you selected more than one plan, or you didn’t select any repayment plan. -- A federal court issued an injunction that changed how ED can implement certain parts of IDR plans. Because of these changes, we are denying your application to be placed in the IDR plan with the lowest monthly payment amount if you selected that option. If you didn’t select any repayment plan, or selected multiple repayment plans, we are denying your IDR application. -- We encourage you to apply for a different repayment plan, like the Income-Based Repayment Plan. Use FSA’s Loan Simulator tool to determine your eligibility, estimate your monthly payments, and learn which available plan best meets your repayment goals. -- If you don’t submit a new application for a different repayment plan within 60 days, you will be placed back into your previously enrolled repayment plan. If you were previously in the SAVE repayment plan, you will remain in a SAVE forbearance
September 26, 2025 at 5:03 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Bill Murray as weatherman Phil Connors in the film 'groundhog day,' he stands in front of the stage wearing a coat and scarf, holding a microphone in his gloved hand with an annoyed gaze as he is about to announce for the nth time that today is the day when Phil the groundhog will predict the weather and seasons for the coming weeks.
September 22, 2025 at 9:56 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
In addition to scraping your uploads for "generative AI" training, Academia dot edu is going to start claiming rights to your personal info— *including your signature & voice*— for anything they see fit.

So now'd be a good time to remove all of your uploaded works, & then delete your whole account.
By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services
September 21, 2025 at 5:39 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Rod Serling always knew what was up
"Portrait of a bush-league fuehrer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like some goose-stepping predecessors, he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. The something he looks for and finds is in a sewer. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon, he calls it faith, strength, truth. But in just a moment, Peter Vollmer will ply his trade on another kind of corner, a strange intersection in a shadowland called the Twilight Zone."
September 19, 2025 at 6:01 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
I just… what the fuck is even happening
Altered "Jason Figured it Out" meme from the good place Screenshot from The Good Place Season 2. Panel 1: Jason's Face is replaced with Tucker Carlson, and the caption "I know this sounds Crazy, but I think Trump's Doin' A Fascism." Panel 2: Michael, to Janet "*Tucker* figured it out? *Tucker*?!" Panel 3: Michael, to Janet "This is a real low point. Yeah, this one hurts."
September 18, 2025 at 6:23 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Original images reposted with alt text
bsky.app/profile/jose...
STATEMENT OF WORK AIRLINES REPORTING CORPORATION (ARC) SCOPE: Online investigative database (b)(4): (b)(7)(E) ARC includes searches from (b)(4): (b)(7)(E) The Investigative Support Division offers and supports for a comprehensive criminal investigative analyst program for the United States Secret Service by maintaining a seven day a week continual operation. This program includes (b)(7)(E) (b)(7)(E) As a part of this program, the Airlines Reporting Corporation will be responsible for providing the following: REQUIREMENT: The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) shall provide at a minimum the following search criteria and results. Deliver results through a secure and encrypted e-mail address provided by the requestor The search results shall include the date the search was conducted and a description of the search criteria within (5) working days from acceptance of the search request Provide 24 hours, 7 days a week coverage of all requests (exigent leo requests) Provide current contact information for on-call/ after-hours personnel Provide maximum 8 hour response time to urgent/ exigent leo requests The spreadsheet shall contain the following in a coded format: - Passenger nameo - Ticket segment number - Name of departure -Passenger record number - Date of departure - Name of lifting carrier - Flight number - Origination Airport - Destination Airport - Name of the plating carrier - Form of payment - ARC Travel agency number Provide maintenance and technical support Provide monthly reports of usage Provide notice to COTOR when usage is at 80% of contracted price 5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited. Only one source- There were no recommended vendors or services like the Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) online search product. The requirement for an online investigative database that serves as a banking agency between the airline and travel agencies. While there are similar product options available within today's market, they do not offer the capabilities that ARC has. These capabilities include settlement services for over 270 carriers, participation of over 12,800 travel agencies providing data, providing 5 billion ticketing records for searching capabilities, along with being compliant with DSS and ISO certified. There is no other tool that has the capabilities that ARC provides. Airline Reporting Corporation brand name delineates a specific criminal and protective intelligence investigative software product, and its inherent features and is essential to the Government's requirement to maintain information visualization and interoperability withexisting infrastructure plans and policies. While other products have similar features asARC, the compatibility between those products and existing information datasets would bejeopardized with a change in product due to the inability to migrate previous data to the newproduct as well as the requirement to retrain the workforce therefore decreasing productivity.
September 15, 2025 at 2:37 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Vanity Fair and Newsweek of all places have some explainers— tho the latter's article is characteristically far more willing to imply the alleged shooter held leftist ideologies than far-right ones, & of the two only VF's digs into the gaming culture aspect, so I'd say it's definitely the better one
VANITY FAIR politics hollywood royals style cultture into the abyss Groypers, Helldivers 2, Furries: What Do the Messages Left by Charlie Kirk's Alleged Killer Actually Mean? Headline from Newsweek ‘What Is a ‘Groyper'? What to Know About Nick Fuentes’ Alt Right Movement Published Sep 12, 2025 at 2:59 PM EDT Updated Sep 12, 2025 at 8:27 PM EDT
September 13, 2025 at 5:41 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Oh it's a collection of bangers from across the 90's alternative spectrum
1. "#1 Crush" by Garbage 4:47 2. "Local God" by Everclear 3:56 3. "Angel" by Gavin Friday 4:19 4. "Pretty Piece of Flesh" by One Inch Punch 4:53 5. "Kissing You" (Love Theme from Romeo + Juliet) by Des'ree 4:58 6. "Whatever (I Had a Dream)" by Butthole Surfers 4:09 7. "Lovefool" by The Cardigans 3:19 8. "Young Hearts Run Free" by Kym Mazelle 4:16 9. "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" by Quindon Tarver 1:43 10. "To You I Bestow" by Mundy 3:59 11. "Talk Show Host" by Radiohead 4:37 12. "Little Star" by Stina Nordenstam 3:40 13. "You and Me Song" by The Wannadies 2:45
September 6, 2025 at 5:18 AM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Got quoted in @technologyreview.com (got the last word, too):
www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/12/1...
“When doctors give you harmful medical advice due to error or prejudicial bias, you can sue them for malpractice and get recompense,” says Damien Williams, an assistant professor of data science and philosophy at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. “When ChatGPT gives you harmful medical advice because it’s been trained on prejudicial data, or because ‘hallucinations’ are inherent in the operations of the system, what’s your recourse?”
September 3, 2025 at 5:57 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
I deleted the skeet that used to start this thread in hopes that people will read the rest of the updated information, instead of replying to that one, but I've preserved it here.
Screenshot of a skeet reading Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm ‪@wolvendamien.bsky.social‬ US people: Please go get your COVID booster, if you can. We genuinely do not know what the rest of this year is going to look like, in terms of recommendations or even availability, let alone next year. August 25, 2025 at 4:57 PM 483 reposts 21 quotes 1.5K likes
August 27, 2025 at 10:27 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
So as of today there's at least guidance, thank fuck. There's still a lot of uncertainty, & CVS & Walgreens don't show avail, but seems these'll likely be the allowable conditions under the current (sourced here www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...), so mark yourself as appropriate, when making appointments
CDC 2025 List of Underlying Medical Conditions That Increase a Person's Risk of Severe Covid-19 Asthma; Cancer; Hematologic malignancies; Cerebrovascular disease; Chronic kidney disease*; People receiving dialysis; Chronic lung diseases limited to the following: Bronchiectasis, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), Interstitial lung disease, Pulmonary embolism, Pulmonary hypertension; Chronic liver diseases limited to the following: Cirrhosis, Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, Alcoholic liver disease, Autoimmune hepatitis; Cystic fibrosis; Diabetes mellitus, type 1; Diabetes mellitus, type 2*; Gestational diabetes; Disabilities, including Down's syndrome; Heart conditions (such as heart failure, coronary arterydisease, or cardiomyopathies); HIV (human immunodeficiency virus); Mental health conditions limited to the following: Mood disorders, including depression, Schizophrenia spectrum disorders; Neurologic conditions limited to dementia and Parkinson's disease; Obesity (BMI >30 or >95th percentile in children); Physical inactivity; Pregnancy and recent pregnancy; Primary immunodeficiencies; Smoking, current and former; Solid-organ or blood stem-cell transplantation; Tuberculosis; Use of corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive medications*
August 27, 2025 at 10:01 PM
wolvendamien.bsky.social
I said this in February
(On Facebook but not over here apparently?)
Damien Patrick Williams February 6 If the injunctions are rigorously enforced we can stanch the most immediate and egregious of the damage, and we can re-do the systems, but like… everyone is going to need new social security numbers and new bank account numbers. And I know that when I say this out loud to most people, they're going to look at me like I've grown a second head. 😅 🫠 😅 🫠 In reply to Damien Patrick Williams February 5 It is genuinely absurd how few people I see really thinking through the implications of a bunch of teenagers and 20-somethings with an elon musk fixation having access to and private copies of all of our PII and financial data 😅 😅😅
August 27, 2025 at 3:36 PM