Katie (Kathryn) Conrad
@kconrad.bsky.social
Prof. of English at University of Kansas. Tech and culture. AI ethics. Critical AI literacy. Pandora’s Bot on Substack. Library of Babel Group. Zine publisher. #aiethics #criticalailiteracy
“…the researchers found that opening up to chatbots about personal issues made some people feel not better but worse.”
AI companions may worsen loneliness for vulnerable users
Stanford research finds that users with limited social networks who seek emotional support from AI chatbots experience lower well-being.
news.stanford.edu
My daughter: “Never date a guy who uses AI. Because he doesn’t understand consent.”
Police arrested a teacher for clapping during a city council meeting last week. They went to the meeting of Emporia, Kansas City Commission to speak out against a proposed hyperscale data center that would sit on 1,000 acres of rural land. @mjgault.bsky.social reports www.404media.co/person-oppos...
Working as intended!
Maggie Harrison Dupré@mharrisondupre.bsky.social · last wk.NEW: A large trove of Claude-generated documents have been exposed to the web and indexed by Google. We reviewed what appear to be real medical records, the full names and phone numbers of school-aged children, and company documents marked for internal use only. futurism.com/artificial-i...
My daughter: “Never date a guy who uses AI. Because he doesn’t understand consent.”
The Mayo Clinic's AI assistant has serious privacy problems, an extremely high error rate, and a team that manipulated data to lie about the tool. After raising concerns, the research director and AI compliance lead was fired. The future is bright! futurism.com/health-medic...
While we’re on the subject of companies and journalists locating accountability in “AI” instead of the companies that design, test, and deploy their models, can I remind everyone that the UN, of all places, is doing the exact same thing? www.techpolicy.press/how-the-uns-...
How the UN’s Scientific Panel Erases Human Responsibility for AI
The UN Scientific Panel's report casts artificial intelligence as a system from nowhere, writes Eryk Salvaggio. The definition will shape policy for years.
techpolicy.press
When you say “AI models went rogue,” you manage to skip the part where OpenAI manually removed its cybersecurity blocks and ran tests on a machine with a live network connection. Remember that when they insist they’re the “AI safety” people.
In case folks - patients or medical professionals - might find it useful, here's an edited version of a letter I sent to my own physician(s) about the reasons I refuse the use of ambient scribes.
A letter to my doctor
On the refusal of ambient AI scribes
kconrad.substack.com
I’m a joyful collector of hobbies. Newest is cyanotype!
Its officials said it expects a 25% rise in electricity costs next year, and advised workers to close the blinds and turn off their computers to make up for it. www.404media.co/henrico-virg...
County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to ‘Conserve Electricity’
Henrico County is a major hub for data centers in Virginia. Its officials said it expects a 25% rise in electricity costs next year, and advised workers to close the blinds and turn off their…
404media.co
People like to assert that we are in a post-shame world, but widespread and vocal disapproval of anti-social behavior still has an effect. It may not deter the worst people, but it might prevent widespread adoption.
The Meta Glasses backlash is changing how (or if) people use them - Engadget
Backlash online is changing how (or if) people wear Meta's smart glasses.
engadget.com
…A private company should not be using surveillance equipment to determine when they will be taking those children to POLICE ENCOUNTERS w/o those children's parents being INFORMED AT ALL, let alone providing consent. To do or to advocate for said is to say "hi yes, i would like these children to be…
Listening rn to the launch of the AI Resist List, w/ presentations by partner members, at London Data Week. Sometimes when you're worn down, the universe gives you precisely what you need. 😍 Congrats to @weandai.bsky.social for what sounds like it was an amazing day's of programming!
A day of reimagining and reclaiming AI: countering narratives of AI inevitability at London Data Week - We and AI
8th JULY UPDATE: CLICK HERE FOR EVENT PACK AND PROGRAMME Join the We and AI community at King’s College London on 8 July Many argue that the current trajectory of AI is inevitable and that the only op...
weandai.org
In case folks - patients or medical professionals - might find it useful, here's an edited version of a letter I sent to my own physician(s) about the reasons I refuse the use of ambient scribes.
A letter to my doctor
On the refusal of ambient AI scribes
kconrad.substack.com
Ok this for real tho. “I didn’t use it to write, just to get some ideas” BRO THAT MIGHT BE WORSE
We hauled collage supplies in our luggage & worked with inspired educators for a little over an hour, & this zine is the result! Thanks to all the ILTA workshop participants & to Miriam for putting this together and hosting it! miriamreynoldson.com/2026/06/24/j...
Joy as Resistance
The result of a workshop held as part of ILTA’s EdTech 2026. The artwork collected in this zine represents a diversity of educator perspectives on AI in education at the present moment.
miriamreynoldson.com
Thanks to @eam0.bsky.social & the @iltasky.bsky.social crew for a fantastic ILTA conference in Dublin last week! to all of the zine workshop participants! ❤️ & to the fab critical tech keynote speakers @abeba.blacksky.app @discoursology.bsky.social @benpatrickwill.bsky.social
“Expressions of Democracy in Gall Ink” at Lawrence Public Library on Sunday: got to learn about galls that form the ink, play with ink and quills, & leave behind something that expresses what we value about US democracy. Yes, it’s aspirational at this point.
I don’t think any of the concerns about LLMs or DMs rely on use / uselessness. The question is about the affordances they set up, the patterns they normalize; and what gets displaced or relocated — and for whom.
Yeah, I really really need people to understand this part: Literally every output from a large language model based chatbot is a "hallucination"— is bullshit. That basic response that looks right but is factually wrong? Bullshit. That response that looks right and… www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/t...
Very excited to see this launch! The Library of Babel Group is proud to be on this list, a collaborative venture with Karen Hao, We and AI, DAIR, and Refugee Law Lab. airesistlist.org
The AI Resist List
A living directory of ways communities resist AI harms—and build alternatives worth fighting for.
airesistlist.org
“Expressions of Democracy in Gall Ink” at Lawrence Public Library on Sunday: got to learn about galls that form the ink, play with ink and quills, & leave behind something that expresses what we value about US democracy. Yes, it’s aspirational at this point.
In case anyone wants a little bit of a sense of the networks of influence feeding the Belfast pogroms
Foxyfunderburd 🏴🏴🇺🇦🇺🇦@foxyfunderburd.bsky.social · 2mo ago‘We are going to go and cause some trouble’: Tommy Robinson meets Elon Musk’s father in Moscow hotel Robinson posted a video of himself and Errol Musk in which he says ‘We are going to go and cause some trouble’ bsky.app/profile/esqu...
LLMs including ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are obsessed with telling stories about lighthouse keepers and clockmakers, and one character named 'Elias Thorne' has made his way from chatbots to Amazon books. Researchers are trying to discover why.
Chatbots Keep Telling Stories About Lighthouse Keeper 'Elias Thorne'. We Might Know Why
LLMs including ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are obsessed with telling stories about lighthouse keepers and clockmakers, and one character named 'Elias Thorne' has made his way from chatbots to Amazon books....
404media.co
Some of my letterpress offprints remixed in a critical tech zine collage 😍
Katie (Kathryn) Conrad@kconrad.bsky.social · 2mo agoThanks to @eam0.bsky.social & the @iltasky.bsky.social crew for a fantastic ILTA conference in Dublin last week! to all of the zine workshop participants! ❤️ & to the fab critical tech keynote speakers @abeba.blacksky.app @discoursology.bsky.social @benpatrickwill.bsky.social
Thanks to @eam0.bsky.social & the @iltasky.bsky.social crew for a fantastic ILTA conference in Dublin last week! to all of the zine workshop participants! ❤️ & to the fab critical tech keynote speakers @abeba.blacksky.app @discoursology.bsky.social @benpatrickwill.bsky.social
Heading to ILTA with my fellow Library of Babel Group mods and my daughter! Can't wait to hear @abeba.blacksky.app and Ben Williamson and Felicitas Macgilchrist ilta.ie
ILTA – The Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA)
The Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) is an independent, voluntary, community of professionals, committed to the development and exchange of knowledge of technology-enhanced learning in hig...
ilta.ie
