Trillions of dollars, billions of litres of water, millions of tonnes of CO2, infinite hype… …and it can’t even draw a map of Africa.

It’s been an emotional few weeks. Updated my learning support plan with medical evidence that I should have provided a long time ago. But official disclosure meant facing memories and truths that I wasn’t ready to talk about.

I’ve yet to find an example of an ethnographic thesis with data consolidated into tables alongside the long quotes. I really enjoy tables and terrible diagrams so I have a lot in this thesis. My current mantra seems to be to make a table whenever I feel stuck #PhDSky

Last month I chopped up a thesis chapter into two chapters because it was massive. Now I’m back trying to stitch it back together and cut it down. #PhDSky

cc: scientists who work with protected human data, and especially those ones who are also AI evangelists

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...

Now tell me why people need to use genAI to do stuff that many or even most people can do with some combo of practice, training, and patience. No person is an island. If there's a thing you can't or won't do, perhaps you can exchange a skill/time/money of your own with someone who can. 1/

France and Spain race to contain huge wildfires before fresh heatwave begins

Coming days are ‘absolutely critical’ for firefighters before temperatures rise again this week, officials say

theguardian.com

I accept that Manchester is not geographically the North for the whole UK. But it is a good choice for the north of England. The Scottish people complaining on the radio seemed to overlook that they have devolved power. They may feel disconnected from Westminster but at least they have something.

Fiona Robertson@fionaswriting.bsky.social · 2w ago

The new Prime Minister has set up 'No 10 North', which I'm not opposed to but also...

Dad and I are catching up with the Prog Rock prom. What a treat!

Staying with my parents for the weekend. Now that I’m away from all the intense stressors my body has crashed with fatigue and migraine. Tempting to sleep for days.

I asked for the Lego mushroom set for my upcoming birthday. Apparently my 5 year old niece wants to know why Auntie Laura wants Lego as a birthday present because it’s not for grown ups. I have lots to teach this child.

Recommended thread 🧵. AI search agents that generate very poor search results & pointless bug hunts for nonexistent citations are now two “new” and now increasingly common wastes of a librarian’s time. I do grimly look forward to the bust, but man-oh-man is it ever going to be messy when it pops.

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 2w ago

As *tech*, AI isn't exceptional. It's not exceptionally wicked. It's not exceptionally good. Take away the accompanying, galactic-scale stock-swindle, and we'd call AI's apps "plug-ins" and we'd use them and abuse them in the same way that we've used every other technology: www.normaltech.ai 1/

The UK government has imposed a funding model on universities that cannot sustain them.

The Times and Sunday Times@thetimes.com · 2w ago

Failing universities ‘will not be bailed out and may close’

Feeling very depressed after more conversations today about AI in academia. Then add on the climate change anxiety and no wonder I feel incredibly hopeless about the future.

Microsoft is planning to build 3 massive AI data centres in Leeds. It’ll drain thousands of litres of water from the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop the council's final sign-off, but we need more voices. Add your name: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/pr...

Stop the Microsoft AI megasite in Leeds!

Microsoft wants to build three huge AI data centres at Skelton Grange. It would drain the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop it - add your name to the petition.

you.38degrees.org.uk

A book seller told 404 Media that, normally, on a good week, he’d sell about 20 books. Since April, he has regularly sold hundreds of books a week. While the seller didn’t have clear evidence that the purchases were being made by AI companies, the purchases made him suspect that they were.

AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop

ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”

404media.co

Today I feel depressed and overwhelmed by a sense of doom. But my to do list is very long, so I shall carry on trying to make my brain think useful thoughts.

Life deep in the writing-up stage of a part-time PhD is spending sunny weekends sitting staring at a screen and feeling terrible about your competence as a scholar. Working through feedback and feeling thoroughly despondent about my abilities.

Started chopping up and rearranging all my thesis chapters. I don’t think this has helped me feel better about the structure of my thesis. I’ve made a mess that I’ll need to write my way out of… #PhDSky

Treated myself to a nice bottle of white wine. It sadly remains unopened in the fridge as eating pizza has flared up the mouth ulcer of doom.

This amused me. Not every date in brackets is a citation.

Emilie K. M. Murphy@emiliekmmurphy.bsky.social · 3w ago

LOL just reading through comments from the copy-editor and, well, let's just say I'm not convinced that the copy-editor has really been doing much actual reading of my text here with these queries.. Screenshot of my paragraph for context here... Snort.

The Dept of Education said: "Unis are independent from government and are responsible for managing their own finances..." With no due respect this is bullshit You can't regulate them heavily, determine their charges, restrict their recruitment, impose REFs & TEFs and then say they're "independent"

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 3w ago

‘Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned’ www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Huge new class action lawsuit filed by big publishers and authors against Google this week over AI training. It accuses Google of taking millions of books / articles provided to them for use only in Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar, and secretly using them to train LLMs. 🧵 1/4

Great job 👏

I’ve been sheltered from the reality of the outdoor temperatures today thanks to air conditioned office. Feeling overwhelmed and overheated after about 10 mins walking to the train station.

If a PhD can’t be done in the hours of a 9-5 life then no wonder I feel like I’m failing trying do it around a 9-5. #PhDSKy

Springer Nature@springernature.com · 4w ago

In April, Nature published advice from doctoral candidates and PhD holders who had managed the unthinkable: pursuing their PhD nine-to-five, or thereabouts. Readers were asked to reflect on the concept of a nine-to-five PhD: spklr.io/63328EONxs #PhDChat #PhDSky #AcademicSky

Setting aside the (great) intangible value arts and culture have, the creative industries generate billions for the economy. This torpedoes ongoing development of the professional skills that drive that generation.

Arts Professional@artsprofessional.co.uk · 4w ago

Performing and creative arts university courses will no longer receive funding from a government teaching grant as part of “difficult decisions” about spending priorities, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said.

Thank you, @ljwilliams.bsky.social! Slides are available below, and the talk was recorded and will be shared via ALN.

ALN-Keynote-Current-v.2copy

1 Open Access and its Blind Spots Rethinking Access, Legitimacy, and Knowledge Caroline Ball Community Engagement Lead, Open Book Collective

docs.google.com

Laura Williams@ljwilliams.bsky.social · last mo.

Caroline is giving a fantastic keynote. Knowledge structures, non-textual forms, non-human info, oral knowledgable and epistemic gaps. All concepts that I love to think about in terms of research outputs. Also relates to questions I’ve reflected on in my PhD (and mushroom work!) #ALN26

Good times were had at #ALN26 yesterday. Interesting workshops and good catch ups with library folk. Bonus Bundobust to finish the day with a group of librarians that I met at the pub.

Andrew and Nicola workshopping wellbeing in academia. Insight about the real experiences of pressures in academia for academics. Does open science make these pressures worse? Lots of additional expectations and increased demands? #ALN26

Work in higher education whilst doing a PhD at the same time means you could tick both these boxes. Here with my lived experience of workplace burnout and disclosing a mental health condition as a student. #ALN26