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Marcela Suarez

@marentierra.bsky.social

Lecturer in Critical Intersectional perspectives on AI at School of AI, Radboud University

26 Posts296 Follower95 Folgt
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 3w ago

Yup. I think this fits their trajectory, indeed. Part of a wider attempt at claiming that we should just find ways to use these "tools" through some pragmatic acceptance. See: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... bsky.app/profile/oliv...

Second, the accommodation reflex and its institutional form: The accommodation reflex errs differently and more consequentially (see Table 1). Its institutional articulation is literacy-laundering, the repackaging of corporate product adoption as educational empowerment. When technology companies offer teachers and students ‘AI training’ or promote ‘AI literacy,’ they are engaged in brand marketing, framed as a progressive, philanthropically fundable intervention. The literacy label locates the problem in users’ understanding rather than in systems’ design, and in doing so, displaces accountability from the companies that built and profit from these systems toward the educators and students who are expected to become fluent in them, and forecloses the prior question of whether fluency is the goal at all. The accommodation reflex, in its institutional form, makes un-training structurally unthinkable by presupposing integration as inevitable; a critical account of AI literacy, by contrast, is not primarily about how to use systems but whether, when, and under what conditions their use is warranted at all (viz. Guest, Suarez, & van Rooij, 2025; Sano- Franchini, 2025).
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · last mo.

Anyway, back to the work itself (from the abstract): > Critical discourse on large language models (LLMs) has bifurcated between epistemic dismissal [...] and pragmatic accommodation that treats LLM capability improvements as grounds for updating the critique. doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 3/

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 4w ago

Please consider not saying that some AI models or some statistical models are good, useful, beneficial, whatever else positive, in science if it's not your research area. It's ok not to know things. It's ok not to both side things. It's ok to ask colleagues who are experts.

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 2mo ago

If you're anti AI & making claims that some of the models under the AI umbrella are ok because they seem to be serving scientific goals, then you fell for a type of hype. One from the 2010s; stats models aren't blessed by their use in science and they can erode our thinking. bsky.app/profile/oliv...

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 3mo ago

CAIL = prerequisite knowledge for a critical perspective, such as to tell apart nonsense hype from true theoretical computer scientific claims. For example, the idea that human-like systems are a sensible or possible goal is the result of circular reasoning and anthropomorphism.

Critical AI

Critical AI Literacy (CAIL) from my perspective.

olivia.science

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 3mo ago

It feels many only know my work pushing back against AI, which is very fair — but I have a broader research interest, which also forms a protective belt against such forces, as well as being what I have been thinking about since discovering "cognitive science" in ~2006: 🍃 metatheory.space 1/

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 4w ago

We cannot scale up AI to human-level cognition, but we sure can scale up inhumane practices and harm

The Menopausal Marauder@menopausalmarauder.bsky.social · 4w ago

Similar to what you’re saying, Weapons of Math Destruction (Cathy O’Neil) describes the issue as one of scale. The other problems are old, but scale is new. The problems have been scaled up —& with increasing speed & lack of friction, I guess this is where we see the efficiency gains.

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 4w ago

Hi all, @ethicsofai.bsky.social @dim-ah.bsky.social @francescaorfw.bsky.social @octopusfiles.bsky.social @josemariacasas.bsky.social @ethankutlu.bsky.social hope you are well ✨ New CAIL paper you may find of interest, too 😊 cc @marentierra.bsky.social @altibel.bsky.social @joostvossers.bsky.social

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · last mo.

New preprint! So honoured to have worked with Ishani Ray on providing vital critique on "AI literacy" & correctives for those interested in understanding why "just use the newest version of an LLM" is nonsense Contra Literacy-Laundering: Mechanistic Critical AI Literacy doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 1/

Critical discourse on large language models (LLMs) has bifurcated between epistemic dismissal that invokes some form of the stochastic parrot metaphor to puncture hype, and pragmatic accommodation that treats LLM capability improvements as grounds for updating the critique. We argue that both misdiagnose the problem as the issue is not whether or not LLMs work, but what kind of working is happening and at whose cost. Drawing on meta-theoretical frameworks of cognitive science, feminist labor analysis and critical pedagogy, we propose a conceptual reorientation. We develop this claim through registers of (i) the cognitive, examining what is forfeited when statistical pattern-matching substitutes for the iterative, grounded processes that constitute thinking; (ii) the pedagogical, examining how “AI literacy” as currently deployed is itself a symptom of the confusion it purports to address; and (iii) the political, examining how the infrastructure framing of AI naturalizes asymmetric labor displacement, particularly of feminized cognitive and reproductive work. The stochastic parrot, deployed with mechanistic precision rather than mere rhetorical convenience, specifies what is forfeited when cognitive labor is delegated, who bears the cost, and why a literacy adequate to this moment must begin from the epistemology of those most harmed by the systems it describes. We conclude with underlining that critical AI literacy, which this paper embodies an instance of, is the only sensible way forward.
Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · last mo.

“Computational thinking is a way humans solve problems; it is not trying to get humans to think like computers. Computers are dull and boring; humans are clever and imaginative.” — Jeannette M. Wing (2006) h/t @olivia.science dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Computational thinking | Communications of the ACM

It represents a universally applicable attitude and skill set everyone, not just computer scientists, would be eager to learn and use.

dl.acm.org

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · last mo.

So in other words, coming up with strategies, algorithms, programs etc. is the creative part (as we did in class w/ coming up with sorting strategies). Executing a program once specified is what a machine can do. But the, analysis, creativity and specification is our achievement, not the machine's.

Jose M. Casas 'two-' 🇦🇷 🏴‍☠️@josemariacasas.bsky.social · last mo.

La adopcion a-critica de AI realizada por la @urv.cat la expone al incumplimiento absoluto de sus objetivos de sostenibilidad ambiental y la aleja de cumplir al menos 6 de los objetivos de la Agenda de Desarrollo Sostenible con los que se habia comprometido.

Jose M. Casas 'two-' 🇦🇷 🏴‍☠️@josemariacasas.bsky.social · last mo.

Durante mi estancia en Paises Bajos para el curso sobre Critical AI Literacy me toco analizar las politicas sobre el uso de AI de la @urv.cat. Al comparar con las universidades de los demas asistentes quedo posicionada como la 2da peor solo detras de la Universidad de IOWA.

Marcela Suarez@marentierra.bsky.social · last mo.

Last week was both intense in teaching and full of hope. Participants of the Summer School: “Critical AI literacy for resisting and reclaiming” presented their group projects to resist and reclaim AI.

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · last mo.

☀️ 📚 A joy to be at this week’s Summer School ‘Critical AI Literacies for Resisting and Reclaiming’. Grateful to our amazing and brilliant team 🙏 @marentierra.bsky.social, @olivia.science, @altibel.bsky.social, @joostvossers.bsky.social 1/🧵

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · last mo.

☀️ 📚 A joy to be at this week’s Summer School ‘Critical AI Literacies for Resisting and Reclaiming’. Grateful to our amazing and brilliant team 🙏 @marentierra.bsky.social, @olivia.science, @altibel.bsky.social, @joostvossers.bsky.social 1/🧵

Summer School: Critical AI Literacies for Resisting and Reclaiming

Marcela Suarez, Olivia Guest and I co-organise a Summer School Critical AI Literacies for Resisting and Reclaiming, June 22-26, 2026, at Radboud University, in The Netherlands. The Summer School is…

irisvanrooijcogsci.com

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · last mo.

Not a small part Olivia!! 🥰 Honestly, we wouldn't have critical AI literacy at Radboud if it were not for you 🔥 Sorry you could not physically join ❤️‍🩹 We all learnt a lot from your keynote and all your CAIL materials 🙏 Your CAILs pentagram was a red thread through the week ✨

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 3mo ago

CAIL = prerequisite knowledge for a critical perspective, such as to tell apart nonsense hype from true theoretical computer scientific claims. For example, the idea that human-like systems are a sensible or possible goal is the result of circular reasoning and anthropomorphism.

Andrea Reyes E (she/her)@altibel.bsky.social · last mo.

I hate them so much. Wednesday I watched this at the Critical AI summer school organised by @irisvanrooij.bsky.social and @marentierra.bsky.social. I was "not a fan" of Altman but after seeing the movie... he really has a punchable face. bsky.app/profile/iris...

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · last mo.

☀️ 📚 In the evening of Day 3, we had a screening of the documentary film "Ghost in the Machine" 🎬 This event was co-organized with students from the School of AI. The audience was students from our BSc course Sustainable AI & MSc course Bias in AI, in addition to Summer School participants. 5/🧵

Dr. Ethan Kutlu@ethankutlu.bsky.social · last mo.

I have had the privilege and honor to attend the Critical AI Literacy Workshop offered at the Radboud Summer School. The workshop was organized by @irisvanrooij.bsky.social @marentierra.bsky.social @olivia.science along with @joostvossers.bsky.social and @altibel.bsky.social.

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · last mo.

☀️ 📚 A joy to be at this week’s Summer School ‘Critical AI Literacies for Resisting and Reclaiming’. Grateful to our amazing and brilliant team 🙏 @marentierra.bsky.social, @olivia.science, @altibel.bsky.social, @joostvossers.bsky.social 1/🧵

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · last mo.

☀️ 📚 Day 3 of the Summer School, after @marentierra.bsky.social’s eye opening lecture about unsustainability of AI and the global supply chain, @altibel.bsky.social gave an inspiring and heartwarming lecture on reclaiming our skills and the importance of reading and writing by ourselves. 4/🧵

Andrea Reyes E (she/her)@altibel.bsky.social · last mo.

I talked about Reclaiming Our #Reading & #Writing Skills at the Critical AI Literacies summer school w @irisvanrooij.bsky.social & @marentierra.bsky.social, on how literacy is related to liberation & empowerment for example w publications from autonomous #presses. 📚 So nice to connect w lovely ppl 🥰

Several publications from autonomous presses: Like Mushrooms After a Rain, The Jewish Anarchists of Bialystok (Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness); El Todo Que Surca La Nada (Eloísa Cartonera); Finding Your Purpose (Hannah Alpert-Abrams); Franz Fanon Lucha de Liberación y Cultura (El Rebozo, Palapa Editorial); Poems from Palestine (Publishers from Palestin); Lo Lingüístico es Político, Yásnaya Aguilar, Gloria Anzaldúa, Ruperta Bautista (OnA Ediciones); Rewording Ramallah, Short Science Fiction Stories From Palestine (Disarming Design from Palestine).