Among the better words I have read in recent times.

You ever really enjoy an apéritif and then read the fine-print…?

As of today, the use of AI becomes more transparent in the EU. Here’s how EU law makes sure AI works for you, in full openness ↓

If West Philadelphia had 1 (one) affordable grocery store and 1 (one) laptop-friendly, drink-serving establishment open in the evenings I truly believe that it would be paradise.

Nature did a short piece on our preprint about how LLMs will affect the practice of science; my more detailed thread is below.

Scientists using LLMs will ‘do more, less well’, modelling study predicts

Research suggests that the combination of incentives to publish and the use of large language models will lead to more papers, but they will be less refined.

nature.com

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2w ago

1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.

1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.

The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science

As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...

arxiv.org

The Journal of Mathematical Philosophy is now open for submissions! It is fully open access, with no fees for authors or readers. Please help spread the word, and do consider sending us your work. Very happy to be part of the inaugural editorial board. mathematicalphilosophy.org/mathphil

Growing up, I always thought of black squirrels as “Harvard Squirrels” owing to my experience of their natural distribution. Little did I know, the melanistic eastern gray squirrel is endemic to ivy league colleges generically. Only the Harvard Squirrels at UPenn, however, come when called.

One major problem with the new crop of philosophy of AI stuff (of which I consider myself a part) is that the labeling and branding are totally externally driven. We are "philosophers of AI" because that's what donors and trustees think we should be called (because they all are smitten by AI hype)

I have a lot of love for @sanders.senate.gov, but no love for politicians blindly parroting sensationalist AI hype narratives. Silicon valley is already receiving unprecedented levels of government subsidization, we don’t need to offer them free advertising as well.

Timnit Gebru@timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 2w ago

Bernie hasn't tried this on here yet but here he is doing free marketing for OpenAI. He has been captured by the worst people in AI for a few years now and has been parroting company hype talking points instead of guarding against them. It’s like the public is being assaulted from all sides.

Does anyone have favorite references on the interdisciplinarity penalty (people doing interdisciplinary work are underrewarded in their appointing departments, run centers and degrees without resources or dedicated hires, go to double committee meetings, etc.)?

The Talmud: we reserve the right to physically remove you if you engage in too much analytic philosophy.

EssonnianDragon@essonniandragon.bsky.social · 3w ago

OH MY FUCK THEY ACTUALLY DID THAT

Jewish religious text: endless vacillation between obnoxious analytic philosophy and Getting Distracted By Magic wrapped in an oddly specific self help book.

Maladroithe@maladroithe.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I love the Talmud

I perceive that there is a general confusion surrounding the world cup. It is widely believed to be an international sports tournament like olympic wrestling. In fact it is WWE. The winners and losers are predetermined. The melodramatic collapses, midair collisions, tears of agony, are scripted.

I've always found the AI obsession with "general intelligence" frustratingly incoherent and uncomfortable...I'm realizing that a large part of that stems from a eugenics fueled human obsession with "general intelligence" that is equally incoherent and uncomfortable...

angela zhou@angelamczhou.bsky.social · 3w ago

Man I got so much stuff to do I dont have the time to write a "Eugenics is bad. Factor analysis is useful sometimes. We shouldn't write papers that celebrate eugenics in the second paragraph, even if the rest of the paper is about something else"

In the early stages of drafting a manuscript, it can be helpful to draw a little mascot (mousecot?) to cheer you on.

This gorgeous essay from the social-media-less Lily Hu is everything: on what it means to "do" philosophy amidst pressure to automate it (with lessons that travel much more broadly). Rhymes with brilliant insights from @biblioracle.bsky.social @janerosenzweig.bsky.social Ted Chiang & others

Lily Hu · Un-Doing Philosophy

Analytic philosophers in the United States are increasingly embracing AI, both by taking advisory positions at tech companies and by using large language models for their own research and writing. Som...

blnreview.de

The UK AI pushback: 42% of people are deliberately limiting their AI use and 70% of people think it would be difficult or impossible to avoid being exposed to AI even if they wanted to. New report from us at @kings-dfi.bsky.social : www.kcl.ac.uk/news/over-40...

Over 40% of people are limiting AI use, as popularity starts to wane | King's College London

People are increasingly choosing to limit or reject the use of AI tools, according to a new report published today by the Digital Futures Institute at King’s College London and Responsible AI UK.

kcl.ac.uk

is this anything

I was interviewed for this Science Magazine piece on industry funding, philosophy of AI, and conflict of interest disclosures. www.science.org/content/arti...

Philosophers call for their journals to require conflict of interest disclosures

A new petition urges greater transparency amid growing ties to AI and other companies

science.org

Science coverage of this open letter with quotes from @bayesianboy.bsky.social @cailinmeister.bsky.social Craig Callender, Matthew Liao @naomioreskes.bsky.social and me. Journals, the ball is in your court now.

Philosophers call for their journals to require conflict of interest disclosures

A new petition urges greater transparency amid growing ties to AI and other companies

science.org

Anna Alexandrova@annaalexandrova.bsky.social · last mo.

Signed as soon as I read it. True, some philosophers will cheerlead for free (due to their tech optimism or with the expectation of funding later) and such behaviour is not covered by the proposed policy. But it would still be useful to be able to detect some cheerleading worth discounting.

thank you Merino for saving us from r*naldo discourse. Now Belgium needs to step up and save us from the other discourse.

This, but also, importantly, the US government is divesting from higher ed and investing in the tech industry in a way that will increase reliance of research on industry funding. This will have long-lasting impacts on how objective our science is.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌@chanda.blacksky.app · last mo.

A possibility we haven’t discussed enough is that they will start reinvesting in science but in a way where people have to sign away their souls. Things like: 1. You agree not to care about DEI in a meaningful or noticeable way 2. You agree to serve the Pentagon if they call 🧪

all of these statements can be true simultaneously

Stephen Nuñez@socio-steve.bsky.social · last mo.

FIFA is corrupt; Trump is corrupt; the Balogun call was bullshit; the suspension of the call was bullshit; the appeal of the suspension is bullshit. Wow this is like the perfect storm for a discourse. You have all sorts of possible stances to take. Have fun everyone.

An important read.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · last mo.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “I’m not listening to the dark predictions of an imminent A.I. jobspocalypse,” writes Zeynep Tufekci. “LLMs can do many things with astounding proficiency, but they can’t do the vast majority of human jobs without skidding into disaster here and there.”

Good thread (with some interesting counters in reply) on whether philosophy is making progress; Kevin argues that progress in philosophy typically happens when it spins out new fields. A good recent example is meta-science (spun out of phil of science). But what about 'AI ethics'?

Kevin Zollman@kevinzollman.com · last yr.

I could go on, but here's the point. When philosophy starts to make progress on a problem (often, but not always), it spins that problem off into its own field. If you define philosophy as "the problems we are currently working on" you are selecting for problems where we have made less progress.

Signed as soon as I read it. True, some philosophers will cheerlead for free (due to their tech optimism or with the expectation of funding later) and such behaviour is not covered by the proposed policy. But it would still be useful to be able to detect some cheerleading worth discounting.

Mel Andrews@bayesianboy.bsky.social · last mo.

As philosophy rushes to claim expertise on AI, AI companies rush to control the philosophical narrative. Unlike other disciplines, philosophy has no standards for reporting conflicts of interest. This petition endeavors to change that: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

A lot of philosophers are cheerleading for free though No conflict of interest, potentially just as problematic

Mel Andrews@bayesianboy.bsky.social · last mo.

As philosophy rushes to claim expertise on AI, AI companies rush to control the philosophical narrative. Unlike other disciplines, philosophy has no standards for reporting conflicts of interest. This petition endeavors to change that: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

As philosophy rushes to claim expertise on AI, AI companies rush to control the philosophical narrative. Unlike other disciplines, philosophy has no standards for reporting conflicts of interest. This petition endeavors to change that: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Open Letter about Industry Funding and Disclosure in Philosophy

*For full list of signatories, updated every few hours, please click here.* In recent years, philosophical writing on areas such as climate change, technology, misinformation, and artificial intellige...

docs.google.com

home at last