Carl T. Bergstrom
@carlbergstrom.com
Professor, UW Biology / Santa Fe Institute I study how information flows in biology, science, and society. Book: *Calling Bullshit*, http://tinyurl.com/fdcuvd7b LLM course: https://thebullshitmachines.com Corvids: https://tinyurl.com/mr2n5ymk he/him
If you’re like me, immunologically, you have probably suffered a fever for one (Moderna) up to the (Pfizer) days after getting a Covid vaccine. Yesterday I tried Novavax instead, and had absolutely zero side effects (at the same time as my flu shot no less). It’s well worth a try if you haven’t.
This skit is not even funny, it's just stupid. SNL needs new writers.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 12h agoTrump tells the UN he is officially changing the name of Artificial Intelligence to "Super Intelligence" and says all US government documents will now be changed to refer to "SI"
As Alex notes in this thread, AI doesn't "democratize" science. Rather, it compels scientists to rely on anti-egalitarian means of directing their attention.
Alex Holcombe@alexh.bsky.social · 2d agoConsequences of the flood of AI manuscripts: "An early-career researcher at an unbranded institution loses the one mechanism that ever let them be read on merit — anonymous review of the work itself, however badly it functioned in practice.
Someone is still trying to justify the whole Sydney business to the wifey.
Paris Marx@parismarx.com · 2d agoone of the 21st century’s great tragedies is seeing a media industry gutted by decisions made by the tech industry elevate a bunch of industry shills as the people meant to help the public understand how tech works and what impacts it’s having on the world
And Now for Something Completely Different: A perspective on AI swarms from someone who actually knows something about collective behavior.
Joe Bak-Coleman@jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 2d agoWe can simulate fish schools or ants in ways that solve complex problems (gradient detection, bridge building, nest selection) but no one would create this weird soul/no-soul dichotomy to argue they these that multi-agent swarms of extremely simple rules are “thinking”.
Anyone remember when we had three branches of government?
Mark Histed@markhisted.org · 3d ago“The arrangement would give Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a direct role in determining how NIH distributes its $48 billion in congressionally-appropriated money.” Bypassing the many checks and balances at NIH on grant funding decisions.
I will not link to it, but @theatlantic.com has published a transparent piece of AI cult propaganda, authored by a self-described “AI safety and policy” researcher who is funded by Coefficient Giving. Shameful.
Google is like guys, guys....wait up guys! Our AI is dangerous too!
NY Times@nytimes-news.bsky.social · 4d agoGemini AI Hacked Three Companies in a Testing Breakout, Google Says
Between the human verification, and the three factor authentication and so forth, I can transfer my life savings to a random bitcoin account easier than I can read a Nature paper my library subscribes to.
Dan Hirschman@asociologist.bsky.social · 4d agoIs everyone else getting human verification screens when they just open a normal journal article url? Not downloading the pdf, just clicking to the article from a TOC email say? I feel like this is new this year, and probably reflects what @carlbergstrom.com is talking about here.
We’re Google. Don’t crawl us, we’ll crawl you.
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 4d agoWhen we talk about the costs that LLMs impose on society we should not forget the fact that nothing works anymore because everyone is so scared of getting their shit scraped. I can't even use google scholar from my university or starlink because they send too much traffic.
When we talk about the costs that LLMs impose on society we should not forget the fact that nothing works anymore because everyone is so scared of getting their shit scraped. I can't even use google scholar from my university or starlink because they send too much traffic.
This is horrifying. Please join me in calling for an immediate return to getting our false intelligence about WMDs from the CIA and other organic sources.
Andrew Couts@couts.bsky.social · 4d agoAbsolutely horrific: Thanks to a false intelligence "generated with the help of artificial intelligence," the US military nearly carried out an operation aboard a Chinese ship because the incorrect intelligence said it was carrying nukes, according to @cnn.com. edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p...
Certain kinds of smart people tend to have a "sexy apocalypse" problem when it comes to thinking about risk. E.g. skynet turning everyone in paperclips, while bad, is also *kind of cool and fun* at the same time. Where the reality is that most actual disasters are both stupid and disappointing.
AI is screwing up journal papers: Journal editor asks authors of 10 submitted papers to meet and discuss their paper. Of the 7 that showed up, 3 were unable to answer basic questions about the paper and 3 had difficulty when asked further questions on technical details… medium.com/@TmlrOrg/ask...
Asking Authors About Their Own Papers
By Nihar B. Shah
medium.com
It is unsurprising that my federal funding agencies are uninterested in covering foreign travel. What is more disappointing is that my own university has been imposing more and more burdensome limits—some in direct contradiction to their own policies—on international travel and collaboration.
J. Nathan Matias@natematias.bsky.social · 5d agoHow do we find hope, persistence, & success at defending essential rights? Today in @science.org, I published a letter with @rebekahtromble.bsky.social & @ubiquity75.xyz explaining how free inquiry is threatened by government restrictions on movement. www.science.org/eprint/CBDR2...
I am SORRY for sharing something that was posted on the other place, but this is too good.
Baffled about what on earth is happening this week? You can't tell the players without a program. Fortunately, @nathaliemarechal.net has you covered.
What Policymakers and the Public Need to Know About the Cult of AI
Nathalie Maréchal asks, why are we betting the economy and the future of democracy on cult-like beliefs?
techpolicy.press
Short thread: 18 months ago, as part of their assault on higher ed, Trump/DOGE/Vought terminated my friend Kelton Minor's NIH Director's award that would have allowed him to take a faculty position there. Without the funds, Columbia ultimately rescinded the position. Kelton moved to Denmark.
Kelton Minor@keltonminor.bsky.social · 2y agoThere are days in life that shake you. I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at Columbia University & academic career... 1/🧵
Today, with backing from the ACLU, Kelton and twelve other named researchers filed a class action suit against the NIH under director Jay Bhattacharya for censoring their research and violating their First Amendment rights.
Researchers Challenge NIH Screening of Grants for Disfavored Viewpoints | American Civil Liberties Union
Class action lawsuit seeks to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research
aclu.org
Short thread: 18 months ago, as part of their assault on higher ed, Trump/DOGE/Vought terminated my friend Kelton Minor's NIH Director's award that would have allowed him to take a faculty position there. Without the funds, Columbia ultimately rescinded the position. Kelton moved to Denmark.
Kelton Minor@keltonminor.bsky.social · 2y agoThere are days in life that shake you. I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at Columbia University & academic career... 1/🧵
Sure Bannon and Bernie agreeing about something might indicate alignment across the entire political spectrum but let's not get out ahead of ourselves. Bannon is perpetually trying to get back into the media cycle and Bernie has pretty clearly been under the sway of the EA types on his staff.
I was pretty chuffed about science when the doctors at NYU figured out why my face had gone numb and I had lost the ability to speak and swallow. They turned to the scientific literature, which guided them through keeping me from dying from a rare disorder and regaining the ability to speak and eat.
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · last wk.When we talk about how science is broken, maybe at least consider how a huge collaboration measured the ripples in spacetime resulting the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away, as counterweight the guy who had to fake his data to show that people who procrastinate fall behind.
When we talk about how science is broken, maybe at least consider how a huge collaboration measured the ripples in spacetime resulting the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away, as counterweight the guy who had to fake his data to show that people who procrastinate fall behind.
Coming back to fountain pens after a 25 year hiatus, one of the most striking things is the enormous range of inks with new properties I'd never seen before, including shimmer and sheen. But to my great surprise, it turns out that Waterman Purple from the 1990s has a strong gold sheen as well.
Sam Altman is now citing a 10% risk of extinction due to AI in the next decade. Anyone can say any old shit, so put your money where your mouth is, Sam. If you're wrong, in 2036 you pay me a year of your salary. If you're right, I'll have an underwriter pay you 10x that upon proof of extinction.
