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Alex Luke

@alexluke.bsky.social

Workplace linguistic ethnographer | Socialist & unionist - current USyd NTEU branch committee member | EAP teacher. "Capire. Per meglio colpire" - Tronti. They/he

639 Posts874 Follower1632 Folgt
Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · yesterday

If you have been wondering why so many centrist dudes have been sneering and spitting at environmentalists on X for the past few weeks: ensuring that stuff like this doesn't face regulatory hurdles is a big part of why

Brad Johnson@climatebrad.hillheat.com · 2d ago

My god. A Virginia data center ran backup diesel generators full blast for 24 hours, creating a giant cloud of toxic smoke that choked its human neighbors. The government claimed there was nothing they could do.

Alex Luke@alexluke.bsky.social · 4w ago

I found out today that Janna, the centre of this story, went to primary school with my son. We're all proud of her, but I am very disappointed that no one did anythin. I'm pretty sure this is one of the buses I get to work

Fiona Katauskas@fionakatauskas.bsky.social · 4w ago

"There was a lot of men sitting right next to that man and they were just looking up and looking back down at their phones," she said. "No one helped her, which is really, really, really disappointing."

It's Going Down@igd.bsky.social · last mo.

Months after citing the phrase "Become Ungovernable" as evidence of a vast conspiracy by 15 anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis, the GOP hosted the Trump pardoned head of Silk Road, a darknet marketplace famous for drug trafficking + murder for hire plots, who spoke in front of the same slogan.

Speaker in front of "Become Ungovernable" in yellow on blue brick wall.
Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈@ninamarkl.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🔔 new paper alert 🔔 Justine, Su Lin and I spent the last year and a half trying to understand how LLMs are being sold — what are their supposed ‘capabilities’? how are these measured? etc and, more importantly, what does all of this discursive work *do*? what kinds of world does it presuppose? 1/

justine zhang@tisjune.bsky.social · 6mo ago

New #FAccT2026 paper with Su Lin Blodgett and @ninamarkl.bsky.social on the ideological work performed by discourses that sell the capabilities of generative AI products tisjune.github.io/papers/facct...

Title: "A natural language interface for everyday life": The social and political functions of AI capabilities discourses Authors: Justine Zhang (University of Michigan), Su Lin Blodgett (Mila), Nina Markl (University of Essex) Abstract: We interpret and historically contextualize AI capabilities discourses: spectacular narratives that ostensibly lay out the capabilities and use cases of the latest generative AI models in marketing and scientific communications. We complement existing work scrutinizing these discourses as components of a wider phenomenon of “AI hype”—which tends to focus on “debunking” them—by exploring how they rationalize wider social projects. Via an analysis of marketing materials produced by companies like OpenAI, we trace how AI capabilities discourses extend longer-running capitalist discourses, which construct aspects of self and social life as segmentable “skills” with economic value, and which responsibilize people for their survival in precarious economic conditions. We then show how AI capabilities discourses build on top of this ideological scaffolding. We suggest that these discourses have power because they reiterate hegemonic ideas about society and personhood that are entwined with material conditions. As such, contesting the power of the AI industry necessitates more capacious forms of political action, beyond interventions aiming to merely correct narratives.
Alex Luke@alexluke.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I agree this would be good but it is pure nostalgia. The conditions for such a form of life no longer exist, and never existed for anyone apart from a small number of people in countries like the USA. We need to dismantle capitalism entirely instead

Patty Kennedy@pattykennedyart.bsky.social · 6mo ago

If you'd like to go back to the prosperity of the 1950s, Tax the rich and corporations, as they should be taxed, support Unions for fair wages & vote Liberal. With thanks to Jeff Tiedrich for the quote.

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 6mo ago

This article highlights something really important: it is absolutely bonkers how many massive, energy + water hungry data centres are being built in Sydney suburbs that are already subject to worsening climate impacts and heat island effects. They'll make both worse

Public unrest heats up over Western Sydney’s data centres

As the NSW government hastens approvals for large data centres, Western Sydney communities say their concerns about heat and health risks are being sidelined.

thesaturdaypaper.com.au

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix@melhogan.bsky.social · 7mo ago

a reminder that sora, like chatgpt, is a commercial product that can come and go like any other website, which is another reason why a lot of us remain critical of “AI” — and why we focus more on its political economy than its technological mechanisms

Ben Eltham@beneltham.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Sat in Academic Board at my Uni yesterday where they congratulated themselves on rushing through a new Bachelor of AI, someone commented that “Marketing has warned us if we don’t get a named A.I. degree, we’ll be left behind by all the other universities”

Jennifer Sano-Franchini@jsanofranchini.bsky.social · 7mo ago

College writing teachers have spoken, y'all. The CCCC resolution affirming students' and teachers' right to refuse generative AI in the writing classroom passed by an overwhelming majority at the #4C26 Annual Business Meeting this past Friday, March 6. Link to the full resolution below.

"BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that we affirm the rights of students and teachers to refuse to sign up for, prompt, or otherwise use generative AI in the writing classroom."