UMass is spending tens of millions of dollars on AI while defunding the Institute for Social Science Research & the Interdisciplinary Studies Institute; the Centers for: Research on Families; Diversity Sciences; and Latin American Studies; and canceling outright the entire Arabic language program

Asheesh Kapur Siddique@asheeshks.org · 3w ago

UMass budgeted for AI services. It decided to not budget for (1) a humanities center; (2) adequate research support in the humanities; (3) desperately needed faculty lines; (4) urgent capital improvements to physical buildings. It’s not that it’s “too expensive,” it’s that they don’t want to.

This paper needs to influence HCI in a major way. Included these findings in a teacher AI literacy workshop this summer and it is one of the lasting impressions the teachers took away. They really empathized with seeing other professionals lose skill and identity and I think it shocked them.

Upol Ehsan | hiring PhDs for Fall'27@upolehsan.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I travelled 27 hrs, fought endless visa issues to give this talk for our award-winning paper at #CHI2026. Your turn to show up 📍 P1, Room 112, Apr 15 (Wed), 12 noon. But why? I wish the didn't impact every knowledge worker. Sadly, it does, and we need to talk about it. 1/n

Post 2 of Unearthing the Cloud is live! 🖥️ PA is an AI hot spot, but what does rapid data center expansion mean for communities? Dahye Lee explores power, water & industrial legacy. 👉 sites.psu.edu/aidill/2026/... By AI & Data Infrastructures Lab (PIs: Natalie Rae & Dylan Paré) @psuedu.bsky.social

Cool new project from @mxdylanp.bsky.social and Natalie Rae and their lab: it’s a blog series titled, "Unearthing the Cloud: Civic Action in the AI Era”. The first post explores the question, “'[W]ho gets to have a voice in decisions that shape the places where people live?'"

Over 800 wildfires are burning across Canada right now. Canada also holds more than a quarter of the world's boreal forest and is warming at twice the global average rate. The smoke is the part getting attention. Here is everything else. 🧵

1. Trump has weaponized the FCC to control the media under his autocratic rule. Now, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is turning the agency towards his next target: transgender characters in TV shows. He seeks to change the rating system to penalize trans characters. Subscribe to support our journalism.

Trump's FCC Targets Parental Rating System Over Transgender TV Characters

The FCC is seeking comment on whether the TV Parental Guidelines rating system needs to be changed to penalize shows for transgender or nonbinary content.

erininthemorning.com

An American physician, now practising medicine in Canada has some useful reflections "In Canada, where people don’t fear bankruptcy for seeking care, patients come in and they just talk to you, about doctor things. That’s a profound relief, for them and me" canadahealthwatch.ca/2026/02/15/i...

I traded my U.S. medical career for life in Canada. Here’s how the…

The differences hit me immediately, and are profound.

canadahealthwatch.ca

Why did I think they simply canceled all of them. Nope it was discriminatory

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪 @mxdylanp.bsky.social looked at how #transyouth used #VR painting to envision livable and joyful futures for themselves, showing how #BigTech technologies can be used "towards liberatory ends". Read more: tinyurl.com/nkwwj38t

Quilicura, Chile, one of the communities I wrote about in EMPIRE OF AI, has launched a brilliant initiative to inspire more responsible AI prompting. Today, don't use AI; ask the townspeople instead: quili.ai. So heartened to see this creative act of resistance.

Our article on populism is published in @socquarterly.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Based on 52 interviews with populists and anti-populists during Trump’s first presidency, we make the following contributions 1) We demonstrate the centrality of emotions in anti-populist politics

Populism, Emotions, and Boundary Work Among Political Activists in the Trump Era

How do emotions shape boundary work among populists and anti-populists? Based on 52 in-depth interviews, we analyze how political activists construct their positions through “emotive contestation.”...

tandfonline.com

The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.

Deadline for this is in three days! Learning scientists, consider also being artists! #isls26 #isls2026 #learningsciences #learningscientists

Peter J Woods@awasteofredmeat.bsky.social · last yr.

We're trying something new at #ISLS2026- Erica and I are organizing an arts-based track for submissions! We would love to see and showcase your work alongside more traditional conference submissions. And since I'm in charge, I'm going to try to get weird with it. 2026.isls.org/arts-gallery...

✔️ 14 original manuscripts ✔️ 14 response papers ✔️ 1 synthetic commentary And now… ✔️ 1 editorial by us Our 30-paper special issue on affect and emotion in science education is complete. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

UNTIL IT'S DONE, Ep. 2 When the Brownsville Clinic opened in 1916, it was the first birth control center in America. Its very existence felt impossible. For young women, it was a lifeline. 109 years later, the Clinic is long closed—but Brownsville mothers are still struggling.

Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it

AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event

Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.

theatlantic.com

An absolutely amazing opportunity for senior doc students and postdocs. An opportunity for community and mentorship in academia that includes non-academic career paths in industry, nonprofits, policy, etc. I have only ever heard fantastic things. Organized by @luismn.bsky.social and Cecile Sadler

Connected Learning Alliance@theclalliance.bsky.social · last yr.

📢📢 Calling all graduate students & postdocs!  Connect with mentors & peers who share your experiences, learn from inspiring scholars, and build networks! Applications are open for the Rising Scholars of #ConnectedLearning2025 Meetup, happening Oct 5, 2025! connectedlearning.news/CLS-Rising-S...

hey just an FYI: we're not yet at the part where AI companies and the state are so closely intertwined that disclosing energy usage would constitute a threat to national security or some other such bullshit, making transparency into the environmental impact of data centers all but impossible

Prof. Bob Howarth@profbobhowarth.bsky.social · last yr.

One study concluded 70% of increased electric cost across US due to AI data centers. apnews.com/article/elec...

"What is most outstanding about frugal innovation is not just that its technologies are impressive, but that it might actually prompt systemic change by showing people that tech can be developed locally, and not just imported from Silicon Valley."

The Guardian@theguardian.com · last yr.

Enough of the billionaires and their big tech. ‘Frugal tech’ will build us all a better world | Eleanor Drage

We got a visit from @seattletimes.com on Monday at KidsTeam. You can try Aayushi Dangol's AI Puzzlers for yourself! @hcde.uw.edu @ischool.uw.edu @juliekientz.bsky.social @jasoncyip.bsky.social

The Seattle Times@seattletimes.com · last yr.

Children often see AI as "magical," but a game developed by UW researchers is hoping to highlight its pitfalls.

One of the best parts of this job is reading, teaching, and learning alongside of fabulous doctoral student colleagues. This open-access article, led by my fantastic advisee Kyle P. Smith, looks across two years of data generated in a class we co-taught at our previous institution.🧵 (1/3)

We are hiring Teaching-Focused Postdoctoral Scholars for our academic programs at Penn State: a) Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, b) Workforce Education and Development / Organizational Development and Change, and c) Learning, Design, and Technology. Apply by July 11. tinyurl.com/22cv7z9u

Teaching-Focused Postdoctoral Scholar in Education

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

tinyurl.com

Call it clickwork, crowdwork, data labor, or ghost work - they are all poorly-paid, precarious and traumatic jobs that make AI possible. Read an excerpt from The AI Con by @alexhanna.bsky.social and @emilymbender.bsky.social on @restofworld.org . restofworld.org/2025/the-ai-con-book-invisible-labor

The hidden labor that makes AI work

Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender examine the hype behind artificial intelligence in their new book, The AI Con. Below is an excerpt on the invisible labor behind some AI tools.

restofworld.org

The recording of my event w/ @timnitgebru.bsky.social & @xriskology.bsky.social w/ @datasociety.bsky.social is now posted. Emile & I are planning a Fall event on how the conversation on AI, Big Tech, Eugenics & TESCREALism needs to include others beyond tech researchers. Stay tuned! lnkd.in/g9Q_gffq

I wanted to provide a thread here of some of the things I've been involved with in the fight against unethical generative AI for easy reference, starting with my work with @GaryMarcus.bsky.social. Our article shows irrefutable evidence of blatant plagiarism 🧵 spectrum.ieee.org/midjourney-c...

Generative AI Has a Visual Plagiarism Problem

Experiments with Midjourney and DALL-E 3 show a copyright minefield

spectrum.ieee.org

Here come the lawsuits. Workday AI hiring lawsuit over disability and age discrimination. Uber pays out over its AI uses with racial bias in UK. Estée Lauder ex employee win after being sacked by algorithms. Disney and Universal sue midjourney. One of many ... www.ibtimes.co.uk/workday-hit-...

Workday Hit With Lawsuit Claiming Its AI Shuts Out Black, Disabled, Older Jobseekers

A lawsuit alleges Workday's AI-powered hiring tools discriminate against Black, disabled, and older job seekers, automatically rejecting applications within minutes.

ibtimes.co.uk

I've been working on something! It's not nearly done yet, but I thought no need to gatekeep the work in progress. This is an AI ethics "syllabus" based on a post-hoc curation of hundreds of short form videos I've made for social media, to make the content more accessible. bit.ly/ai-ethics-sy...

AI Ethics with Professor Casey

AI Ethics with Professor Casey bit.ly/ai-ethics-syllabus For nearly five years, I've (Casey Fiesler aka Professor Casey) been creating social media content (largely on TikTok and Instagram) about art...

bit.ly