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Dónal Mulligan

@donalmulligan.com

Lecturer in Media, Design, Data Comms, etc., at DCU in #Dublin. Interested in digital research & ethics, educational tech & #GenAI, politics, and formerly #Eurovision Podcast: http://EnoughAboutAI.com More: https://www.donalmulligan.com

231 Posts507 Follower374 Folgt
Elaine Burke@elaineburke.bsky.social · 5d ago

I've never heard anyone discuss Dolly Parton's success, influence or contributions to the world in terms of her net worth. I'm sure it was substantial, but I am blissfully unaware of it. Cos it doesn't fucking matter. What's important is not what you earned but what you *gave* to the world.

The Journal@thejournal.ie · 7d ago

The Netherlands will not participate in next year's Eurovision Song Contest, with its broadcaster saying the event can "no longer be considered neutral" given divisions over the Gaza war. The contest has recently been hit by a wave of boycotts over Israel's participation. jrnl.ie/7139814

Netherlands to continue Eurovision boycott and says event can ‘no longer be considered neutral’

Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS said it will not participate in next year’s song contest as ‘one of the participating countries is still involved in a large-scale military conflict’.

jrnl.ie

Dónal Mulligan@donalmulligan.com · last mo.

Saw The Odyssey and it’s enjoyable and definitely merits a cinema where the intense soundtrack bass can fully shudder your bones. (Though Nolan having Odysseus solemnly say “Our Age of Bronze is collapsing” also does that at one point!) Overall certainly worth seeing - and on a very big screen.

DCU FuJo@fujomedia.bsky.social · 2mo ago

📢 #CallForPapers: Are you a PhD researcher with ideas on Media, Democracy, and Society? If so, you have until ⏳ 2 August 2026 ⏳ to submit your abstract for the 3rd FuJo PhD Conference 2026! 👉 Link for submission: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Call for Papers: Media, Democracy, and Society: 3rd FuJo PhD Conference 2026

Call for Papers: Media, Democracy, and Society The 3rd FuJo PhD Conference welcomes submissions from PhD researchers working across the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and related discipline...

docs.google.com

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 12mo ago

"We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically." 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...

ru.nl

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 12mo ago

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues.
RTÉ Brainstorm@rtebrainstorm.bsky.social · 2mo ago

How 'Freed from Desire' became soccer's favourite anthem. @donalmulligan.com @dublincityuni.bsky.social tells the story of how a 1990s' Eurodance hit inspired by Buddhism became the soundtrack to happy stadiums and terraces years later www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

How 'Freed from Desire' became soccer's favourite anthem

The story of how a 1990s' Eurodance hit inspired by Buddhism became the soundtrack to happy stadiums and terraces years later

rte.ie

mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The story here is not this stupid movie – which will never get made and never come out – but how the Tilly Norwood people keep getting these credulous articles placed in national news sources despite zero demonstration of any success or demand for this.

NBC News@nbcnews.com · 2mo ago

The comedy-drama will star AI "actor" Tilly Norwood in a “hybrid production with traditional film and TV professionals — such as directors, writers and editors — working alongside AI specialists, with AI training and mentorship built into the production itself,” the company says.

Ed Zitron@edzitron.com · 3mo ago

Exclusive: I have seen OpenAI's audited financials for 2024 and 2025. In 2025, OpenAI had $13.07 billion in revenue and $34 billion in costs. $867 million of its revenue came from SoftBank, and $303 million came from Microsoft. www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-op...

Exclusive: OpenAI Losses Increased Nearly 8X in 2025, With Spending Hitting $34 Billion

Soundtrack: In Flames - Colony To further support my independent journalism, please subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $7 a month or $70 a year. If you’re subscribed to the free newsletter and ...

wheresyoured.at

Dónal Mulligan@donalmulligan.com · 6mo ago

New year - new hype, new harms, new nefarious things Meta is up to... First 2026 @enoughaboutai.com ep is out and to be found wherever podcasts are. @ciaranoconnor.bsky.social & I talk about Grok, OpenClaw, Safer Internet Day, and taking a deep breath. podcast.enoughaboutai.com/2421061/epis...

Hype, Hazards, Harms, and Help - Enough About AI

Dónal and Ciarán return for a new year of new updates and new concerns in the world of Generative Artificial Intelligence. Again for 2026, the podcast will provide roughly quarterly updates on major t...

podcast.enoughaboutai.com

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 7mo ago

‘Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition… We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average.’ arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245

Abstract Al assistance produces significant productivity gains across professional domains, particularly for novice workers. Yet how this assistance affects the development of skills required to effectively supervise AI remains unclear. Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition in the process. We conduct randomized experiments to study how developers gained mastery of a new asynchronous programming library with and without the assistance of Al. We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average. Participants who fully delegated coding tasks showed some productivity improvements, but at the cost of learning the library. We identify six distinct AI interaction patterns, three of which involve cognitive engagement and preserve learning outcomes even when participants receive AI assistance. Our findings suggest that Al-enhanced productivity is not a shortcut to competence and AI assistance should be carefully adopted into workflows to preserve skill formation - particularly in safety-critical domains.