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John Towse

@jntowse.bsky.social

Cognitive science, research rigour, interesting interdisciplinary spaces (gambling harms, behavioural science in security, metascience) Work: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1183-5508 Preferably outdoors in the NW of England. DMs disabled.

926 Posts3267 Follower542 Folgt
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 8h ago

'A research network that used artificial intelligence to screen out about half of all applicants to a UKRI-funded scheme has apologised and said all rejected applications will now be re-reviewed by humans. ...all offers previously issued to successful applicants are now “suspended”.'

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · yesterday

Funder ‘sorry’ for lack of transparency over AI screening. Crane research network will re-review applications by hand. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Robin Berjon@robin.berjon.com · 2d ago

This quote is great because of how neatly it captures the idea of "leisure as liberation." As problematic as it is unexamined. Biologists have a special word for the state of being liberated from the need to act. They call it "dead."

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 3d ago

The next five graphs are even less convincing, and the argumentation becomes even weaker. It was almost impossible for me to imagine how a seemingly intelligent person could have written it—but I found a secret clue buried in the text itself.

A.I. has the potential to enhance the way we live in the same way. It saved me and my colleague, Will McGrew, many hours of prowling the internet to research this essay. That left us with time to do other tasks.
International Conference On Memory 26-30 July 2027 in Glasgow@icom-memory.bsky.social · 4d ago

The deadline for symposium submissions is the 2nd November, so you have exactly one month to get your submissions in!!

International Conference On Memory 26-30 July 2027 in Glasgow@icom-memory.bsky.social · last mo.

Symposium submission is now open! The deadline is 2nd November, so please get your applications in on time. We welcome not just traditional formats but also encourage panel discussions or other creative formats! icom-memory.org/symposia-sub... #philsky #psychscisky #neuroskyence #cognition 🧪

Dan Neidle@danneidle.bsky.social · 5d ago

Manchester City cheated Premier League rules, the Commission found. Did it also cheat HMRC? We've examined the decision and leaked Mancini documents. We think City likely failed to pay £12m in tax. There should be a criminal investigation. Thread:

Bild
Samuel Moore@samuelmoore.org · last wk.

"They then often had 2–3 days — and in some cases just 24 hours — to assess a manuscript and submit their report to the platform. Most interviewees reported receiving payments of €30–40 (around US$35–45) per review." This right here is why peer review micropayments are a bad idea.

Paid to peer review: firms are paying researchers to assess manuscripts for journals

Freelance peer-review jobs through third-party companies raise practical and ethical questions.

nature.com

The Guardian@theguardian.com · last wk.

Trial of live facial recognition in London stations ends with a false positive and no arrests

Trial of live facial recognition in London stations ends with a false positive and no arrests

Freedom of information request finds six-month trial cost £320,000, used almost 100 police hours and led to just one – incorrect – alert A six-month trial of live facial recognition (LFR) technology in London’s railway stations that cost more than £320,000 and almost 100 hours of police officers’ time ended in one false match against a watchlist of suspects and no arrests. More than half a million faces were scanned between February and July this year in some of the capital’s busiest transport hubs during the British Transport Police (BTP) trial of the surveillance technology, which aimed to help catch offenders and people breaching court orders. Continue reading...

theguardian.com

TJ McIntyre@tjmcintyre.com · last wk.

Irish plans to exempt processing of your data for AI from the GDPR are "not in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights"; they amount to an "illegal change of primary law"; they "exempt AI from the guarantees in the Treaties and render them largely meaningless". Damning, from the leading expert.

Paul Nemitz@paulnemitz.eupolicy.social.ap.brid.gy · last wk.

My take on the #Omnibus and changes to #GDPR as proposed by the Irish #Presidency: https://lnkd.in/p/eJ_ypdXy

Josh Grubbs@joshuagrubbsphd.com · last wk.

I worked with Jake on this story for months, and it’s truly one of the best deep dives into how online sports gambling works that I’ve ever seen

ProPublica@propublica.org · last wk.

Hey, ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson here. I’m taking over the account to tell you about my new story. For months, I posed as a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company's "responsible gaming" safeguards. Spoiler alert: They made me a VIP — and I lost $10K. Here's how it all went down. 🧵

Selfie taken by ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson, a man wearing a backwards baseball cap and an orange T-shirt.
Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 2w ago

Greatest trick AI leaders have pulled is convincing many people—especially influential people in govt, media, and business—that their software is intelligent, independent, yet never culpable. Humans build it, humans deploy it, but no one bears responsibility for the things that happen when they do.

Dr Abeba Birhane@abeba.blacksky.app · 2w ago

over the past few weeks several AI evaluation/cybersecurity experts have explained how what's happening is a result of human incompetence rather than "AI going rogue". I'm begging the media to show a shred of journalistic integrity and stop parroting what altman or amodei say

Becca Harrison@beccaeharrison.bsky.social · 2w ago

If I were running a university where staff spent weeks and weeks of time putting grant proposals together only for UKRI to feed them into LLMs without informed consent—effectively theft of the time and work—I’d be taking serious action to defend those staff. But I’m not running a university, so

John Stott@jpsastro.bsky.social · 2w ago

Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky

I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful. Review process As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking. This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review. Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it. Feedback on your application Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage. To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.
Alison Gopnik@alisongopnik.bsky.social · 2w ago

I was really happy with this piece - a tribute to the Great and Good John Flavell, a titan in the field who died this year. And also some semi-comic memories of the origins of Theory of Mind in the 80's and 90's. Open access. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Great and Good John Flavell

John Flavell had a unique combination of greatness and goodness. I outline his unique intellectual imagination and creativity, his ability to achieve theoretical insight through empirical brillianc...

tandfonline.com

Joe Bak-Coleman@jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 2w ago

I may not be a wizard, but shouldn't we devalue a company that can't properly keep its tech contained? It makes a nice story to pretend like the AI is so smart it broke out of some heavily-engineered container but they gave it a internet access via a hacky package manager.

Bridget Phillipson MP@bphillipsonmp.bsky.social · 2w ago

Reform UK in Sunderland have pulled support for Show Racism the Red Card, calling them ‘a politically-charged organisation with an agenda’. That agenda is driving racism out of football. Sunderland stands against racism, even if our Reform council doesn't. www.sunderlandecho.com/news/people/...

Charity hits out at Reform decision to withdraw support for Show Racism the Red Card

Charity and city MPs call on Reform led Sunderland City Council to reverse decision

sunderlandecho.com

Barry M@barmas.bsky.social · 3w ago

I still have nightmares from the last time I pressed this pear. But I’ve also made possibly the best perry I’ve ever made from it. Once. Presenting the Welsche Bratbirne. 

Daniel S. Katz@danielskatz.org · 3w ago

Today I'm starting as the new Editor-in-Chief of @joss-openjournals.bsky.social. blog.joss.theoj.org/2026/09/dani... I can only do this because of the journal's incredible community and the work we've collectively done over our first 10 years. 🧵

Daniel S. Katz is the new Editor-in-Chief of JOSS | Journal of Open Source Software Blog

After ten years, founding Editor-in-Chief Arfon Smith is handing over to Daniel S. Katz, effective 18 September 2026.

blog.joss.theoj.org

Luke Ontario@coolhand.bsky.social · 3w ago

If the Streisand effect is getting attention because you don’t want attention, the Sheeran effect is getting drawn into politics when you don’t want to be drawn into politics