I started working through this historical framework of how extractive logics have set the stage for data center development today in this piece for Data&Society last year - excited to have the chance to explore it further in this zine with Sheila! datasociety.net/research-lib...

As an incoming SUNY faculty member, I was happy to hear our union’s new contract addresses AI: "The agreement includes wording that all SUNY courses will be under the 'direction and responsibility' of humans, and that humans will have the 'ultimate accountability' for work done by AI systems.”

Our classes are creating publications that we'll share publicly, and we're exploring layers of GenAI protection: hosting everything behind a web AI firewall, using CAPTCHA + Glaze, managing email requests (rather than posting openly). I RESENT the Labor of Avoidance these assholes have necessitated.

Quite liked this from Blekhman. There's real value for AI in science--especially the (currently) expensive simulations. But the real bottlenecks are getting funding, recruiting participants, approving IRB etc. I would also note that most AI barons have signed onto an assault on these institutions.

Why AI will not speed up science (yet)

You can see AI everywhere except in the productivity statistics

blekhman.substack.com

This is a great activity, thinking for #infolit library instruction to also have learners research database vendor company interests in context of genAI implementation in search tools, eg lexisnexis and ice, ex libris and z10nist interests

Charles Logan@charleswlogan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Today on the @civicsoftech.bsky.social blog: Heidi Reed with a lesson that "helps demystify AI as a sociomaterial construction of natural resources, human labor, habitats of non-human animals, government legislation, toxic chemicals, computer codes, and techno-capitalist ideologies.”

Tmrw (June 16) from 10:30am to 12pm the Metro NY Library Council is hosting its annual mtg *online* (thanks to sportsball logistical snafus!) — ft a ✨ keynote on “radical infrastructures” by @hellobrittparis.bsky.social + Charli Muller!! (We’ll do an in-person thing when 🏀⚽️🤪 wanes in the fall :)

New on Academe Blog from @hellobrittparis.bsky.social of @ruaaup-aft.bsky.social:

Meeting the Moment: Rutgers AAUP-AFT’s Common Sense Technology Contract Terms

BY BRITT PARIS As AI companies are flailing, financial forecasters warn of an AI bubble. There is an extensive list of harms AI poses to workers, students, communities, the environment, and the soc…

academeblog.org

Vanderbilt and Wash U have significant $$ in AI companies and are making big bets on AI being the future of everything. Is it any wonder that they would commission a report to challenge the validity of the very disciplines that are at the forefront of the critical study of AI? shorturl.at/zqj8R

Powerful plenary to start day 2 of the #AAUP2026 Higher Ed Summit on who controls the future: democratic institutions & workers or authoritarians & corporate power? 💥💥💥 w/ @democracynow.org’s Juan Gonzalez, Mohsen Mahdawi, @hellobrittparis.bsky.social, & @ncaaup.bsky.social’s @belleboggs.bsky.social

1. Use this to see which candidates is on the take from AI companies in the upcoming midterms. aimoneywatch.org 2. Organize against them. 3. Don’t vote for them.

We cannot expect accurate renderings of education from a magazine owned by a media conglomerate owned by a private equity firm deeply invested in EdTech. That is, The New Yorker. Nor from a magazine owned by a venture capital fund deeply invested in EdTech. That is, The Atlantic.

@mark-carney.bsky.social Why is the gov forcing an "AI" strategy on Canada when study after study shows corporate chatbots are damaging research, education, society, and the environment? "AI" is not the future, so maybe we could focus on real problems instead of industry hype.

Data & Society@datasociety.bsky.social · 2mo ago

63% of respondents said the risks of using generative AI tools to analyze data and scientific literature outweigh the benefits — yet nearly 60% felt they would be left behind if they didn't use AI tools in their work. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A reminder of Joshi's Workslop Postulate

many of the faculty that have been fired were critics of the administration - a chilling and shameful episode we should be following, especially those of us in higher ed

The New School AAUP@newschoolaaup.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The New School chapter of the American Association of University Professors condemned what it described as “a major gutting of our full-time faculty body”… saying that no explanation had been provided for why certain jobs were cut. www.chronicle.com/article/its-...

You can either join your union, go to the meeting, and get in the fight, or you can watch them kill higher education in the US. This will not pass. There will not be a natural reset. You fight or die.

As of this morning, @thenewschool.bsky.social is de facto replacing its History department with a “Center for the American Experience,” which is funded by private and undisclosed donors. The New School has been New Colleged, and there’s no GOP to blame here. Our anti-fascist identity is over.

“Use AI to augment Teaching Assistant Labor” (UCLA proposal)

Miriam Posner@miriamposner.com · 2mo ago

Among the recommendations in the white papers: 1) increase the use of unpaid undergrad “learning assistants”; 2) use AI to augment TA labor; 3) award control of TA allocation to central admin; 4) ask administrative units to take over TA pedagogy classes; 5) “decouple” grad employment from education

This month, UCLA admin circulated two white papers that are so harrowing they’ve kept me awake at night. If you’re a UCLA person and haven’t seen these, you really must. In response, the Faculty Senate has scheduled a Town Hall on June 2. senate.ucla.edu/news/june-2-...

@emmamay.bsky.social and I have an article in the pipeline on this very topic, but focused on how techs “accessibility” narratives are insidiously used by higher ed admin who refuse to provide meaningful accommodations for students, staff, and faculty. Stay tuned.

David M. Perry@lollardfish.bsky.social · 3mo ago

EdTech: rich kids get humans poor kids get tech EdTech: you’re welcome

what gives us hope? communities standing up for themselves. I talked to @hellobrittparis.bsky.social this week about cooperative infrastructure and what can make the acres of land and miles of cable that comprises the internet "radical," on this week's interview episode:

The AAUP is committed to a higher ed system where universities are the engines of democracy & human flourishing—not silent partners in a reckless technological arms race that burns through public resources & weakens the very institutions needed for democratic society. ➡️ www.aaup.org/news/aaup-ba...

Had a great time talking with one of the best out there @samleecole.bsky.social for @404media.co about everything from historical security technology and struggles with laying cooperative Internet fiber to how AI slop has come to inundate education—and how to combat it. + lol our faces here.

404 Media@404media.co · 3mo ago

Britt Paris's new book 'Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up' tells the story of the physical internet, and how it can benefit people, not corporations.

@dmgreene.bsky.social 's great piece in Academe can be really useful for talking to your colleagues about why they should be more careful about jumping on the technology and AI bandwagon. Our bosses position tech as triage for the crisis of the university. www.aaup.org/issue/spring...

What Does AI Do?

The economic and political problems of “cost disease” in education have created a powerful incentive for the adoption of AI.

aaup.org

San Diego is spending at least 6 million dollars on encampment sweeps, there's no evidence it helps connect anyone to housing or services + police get overtime not included in 7 mill for supervising sweeps. A cruel subsidy in the millions to downtown tourism, real estate. pca.st/episode/f8dd...

Data reveals costs and limits of homeless encampment sweeps

It's been nearly three years since the San Diego City Council passed the Unsafe Camping Ordinance, which prohibited tent encampments on public property when shelter beds are available.The law…

pca.st

We proposed this before the Canvas outage, but we’d like to thank the Canvas hackers for driving home the need for this language: "Provided instructors are meeting accessibility and pedagogical needs, faculty shall NOT be required to use ed-technologu." Full proposal here: https://loom.ly/rBZQFeA

Roll the tape. Read the story now: www.404media.co/ucf-ai-comme...

New from me @gabrielgeiger.bsky.social + Justin-Casimir Braun: Amsterdam believed that it could build a #predictiveAI for welfare fraud that would ALSO be fair, unbiased, & a positive case study for #ResponsibleAI. It didn't work. Our deep dive why: www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/11/1...

Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create fair welfare AI

The Dutch city thought it could break a decade-long trend of implementing discriminatory algorithms. Its failure raises the question: can these programs ever be fair?

technologyreview.com

Reminder that unis do not have to develop individual online learning systems to be safe! They just have to do sensible data sovereignty stuff like use the self-hosted open source version!! It’s completely feasible & we’ve been recommending it for YEARS!!! jilltxt.net/uib-self-hos...

UiB self-hosts the open source version of Canvas, so wasn’t affected by the breach

On May 1st Canvas announced a security breach, and then yesterday the system was hacked. The login page was replaced by a ransom note: if universities don’t pay up by 12 May, student data wil…

jilltxt.net

private details of health and social vulnerabilities students disclose in comms to their faculty are precisely what makes data of young people - soon to make the largest spending decisions of their life like more education debt, car ownership, home ownership - valuable enough to force platform use

404 Media@404media.co · 3mo ago

Messages could include "medical circumstances, accessibility accommodations, disputes, sexual assault allegations," and more.