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Alan Mackworth

@alanmackworth.bsky.social
552 followers 651 following 15 posts

Scientist, AI researcher, roboticist, professor emeritus. Coauthor “Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents” artint.info 🇨🇦

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Reposted by Alan Mackworth
Alan Richardson @alanrichardson.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Canadians—you might want to sign this.
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Reposted by Alan Mackworth
UBC Science @science.ubc.ca · 15/06/2026
"It's stealing intellectual property. These systems have been trained on the entire internet without any regard for copyright. So people's photos, videos, books, etc. have been essentially stolen," says UBC computer scientist Dr. Alan Mackworth. @alanmackworth.bsky.social @cs.ubc.ca bit.ly/4ecCn3C
bit.ly
'It's a big bet': What impact could big AI data centres have in Vancouver?
As advocates rally against them, two experts warn against betting too hard on AI while acknowledging its usefulness if used ethically.
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UBC Science @science.ubc.ca · 01/06/2026
Canada released its draft AI strategy today that will modernize online safety laws to protect Canadians in the digital age. However, it doesn't specify what those modernizations will look like. Here's what UBC AI pioneer Dr. Alan Mackworth recommends. @alanmackworth.bsky.social @cs.ubc.ca
bit.ly
Can Canada constrain AI?
Dr. Alan Mackworth — professor emeritus with UBC Computer Science — has been studying AI since the 1970s. He’s served as president of the…
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Alan Richardson @alanrichardson.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
The Pope sounds like he’s read Marcuse.
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UBC Science @science.ubc.ca · 14/05/2026
Dr. AlanMackworth has been studying AI since the 1970s. In this conversation the UBC Computer Science professor emeritus discusses the challenges of regulating AI, if age-based bans make sense and how chatbots are trained to flag harmful actors. @cs.ubc.ca @alanmackworth.bsky.social bit.ly/4tw1enz
medium.com
Can Canada constrain AI?
Dr. Alan Mackworth — professor emeritus with UBC Computer Science — has been studying AI since the 1970s. He’s served as president of the…
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Reposted by Alan Mackworth
Cambridge University Press @universitypress.cambridge.org · 14/03/2026
Congratulations to authors @davpoole.bsky.social and @alanmackworth.bsky.social on receiving the 2026 AAAI/EAAI Patrick Henry Winston Outstanding Educator Award 🎉 Learn more about 'Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents' 🔗 cup.org/4sjPDI8
Announcement image for the winners of the 2026 AAAI/EAAI Patrick Henry Winston Outstanding Educator Award. Photos and names of David L. Poole and Alan K. Mackworth are shown below the title.Cover of the book titled "Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents, Third Edition" by David L. Poole and Alan K. Mackworth. The background features green neural network-like structures.
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UBC Science @science.ubc.ca · 03/03/2026
“We just can't rely on the companies to voluntarily stand up,” says Dr. Alan Mackworth, UBC computer science prof. emeritus. “There needs to be some public accountability by having a regulatory agency with enforcement powers to check standards.” @cs.ubc.ca @alanmackworth.bsky.social bit.ly/3N2V3rH
bit.ly
What the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting reveals about regulating AI | CBC News
Can AI systems reliably detect real threats? And where’s the line between safety and privacy? Following the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., questions are mounting about what artificial intellige...
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Stewart Prest @stewartprest.ca · 28/02/2026
Several points: 1) Iran's regime is odious. Its citizens deserve support. 2) That does not mean an attack will help. 3) Canada will find it hard to be so selective in its support for international law. 4) Canada does not benefit from a US administration unbound by the US constitution.
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UBC News @news.ubc.ca · 24/02/2026
"[Duty to report] obligations are enshrined in law and/or professional ethics. Similar obligations should be placed on social media and AI companies." @alanmackworth.bsky.social discusses AI safety as OpenAI is called to Ottawa over the Tumbler Ridge shooter's AI interactions buff.ly/eHBfD9t
thecanadianpressnews.ca
Eby says it looks like OpenAI could have prevented 'horrific' Tumbler Ridge killings
VICTORIA - British Columbia Premier David Eby said it "looks like" OpenAI had the opportunity to prevent the recent mass shootings in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in which nine people died,
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Reposted by Alan Mackworth
UBC Science @science.ubc.ca · 24/02/2026
Computer scientist Dr. Alan Mackworth said that many professionals, such as teachers and doctors, have a "duty to report" any suspected case of harm to or abuse of a minor. "Similar obligations should be placed on social media and AI companies." @cs.ubc.ca @alanmackworth.bsky.social bit.ly/4ayhYnU
cbc.ca
OpenAI safety reps called to Ottawa after Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass shooting: minister | CBC News
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon has called representatives of OpenAI to Ottawa to discuss safety concerns after learning the killer in the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., was banne...
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UBC Computer Science @cs.ubc.ca · 23/02/2026
UBC Computer Science Professors Emeriti Alan Mackworth and David Poole were awarded the AAAI/EAAI Patrick Henry Winston Outstanding Educator Award for developing free online resources to learn foundations of AI. Congratulations! Read more: www.cs.ubc.ca/news/2026/02...
Drs. Mackworth and Poole recognized for making AI education accessible to students worldwide
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Stewart Prest @stewartprest.ca · 21/01/2026
Yesterday, @mark-carney.bsky.social may have given the most important speech of our era. Whether it proves to be so, however, depends on what happens next. If Canada is serious about charting a third way, it must act—notably in deploying to Greenland, and saying no to the "Board of Peace."
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Stewart Prest @stewartprest.ca · 20/01/2026
This post to Truth Social requires an immediate response from the international community and either impeachment or invocation of the 25th amendment by Congress. Republicans, you are sleepwalking the world towards an entirely preventable catastrophe.
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Alan Mackworth @alanmackworth.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Delighted to receive this award with @davpoole.bsky.social. @cs.ubc.ca @aaai.org Talk details here aaai.org/conference/a... #ai
aaai.org
AAAI-26 Invited Speakers - AAAI
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Stewart Prest @stewartprest.ca · 18/01/2026
Canada must not do this. It is a mockery of international political governance, legitimizing the idea that Trump can simply push aside other countries' sovereignty. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
politico.com
Carney mulling $1B membership to Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’
The Canadian PM said the POTUS invite came "a few weeks ago."
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Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦 @watershedlab.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Honourable @evansolomon.bsky.social - my question to you is why isn't the GoC considering banning X considering the harm that platform is doing and the obvious We-Don't-Give-A-Shit attitude of its owner? Let's get this trending, people! #BanX #BanGrok
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Caroline Haskins @carolinehaskins.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Thousands of people on X are using Grok to create sexualized images of adults + minors wearing minimal clothing. This not only violates X's own content policy, it may violate the guidelines of Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store: www.wired.com/story/x-grok...
wired.com
Why Are Grok and X Still Available in App Stores?
Elon Musk’s chatbot has been used to generate thousands of sexualized images of adults and apparent minors. Apple and Google have removed other “nudify” apps—but continue to host X and Grok.
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Senator Paula Simons 🇨🇦 @senatorpaulasimons.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
In 2024, I rose in Senate QP to ask why the Govt of Canada was still using X for official communications. Today, they are still there. What exactly will it take to break the spell?
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Rachel Gilmore @rachelgilmore.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
There’s an epidemic of people using Grok to do sexual violence to women on Twitter. Yet Canadian politicians, media etc have failed to adopt another platform en masse, making it near-impossible to fully disengage and be tapped in to vital conversations and information. What are we doing.
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Canada's National Observer @nationalobserver.com · 02/01/2026
It's well past time for Canadian government officials to get off of X, @jameswsthomson.com writes. This latest — disgusting — incident is just one more reason.
nationalobserver.com
Canadian government officials, what are you still doing on X in 2026?
The platform's own chatbot started posting sexualized material of children and other people who couldn't consent. With no moral bottom in sight, it's well past time our officials found other ways to c...
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Alan Mackworth @alanmackworth.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Highly recommended read for anyone in AI/Robotics. Complete with @rodneyabrooks.bsky.social's usual acerbic wit and hype-busting. Nice elucidation of the distinction between situated AI and embodied AI, with an argument that we need both. #AI #robotics
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Seth Klein @sethdklein.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
UPDATE: If you want to speak (in person or by phone) at tomorrow's important city council meeting – at which these proposed Vancouver budget cuts will be considered – you can sign up here (BUT NOTE: the deadline to sign up is 5:00pm today, Nov 11): vancouver.ca/your-governm... 🧵...
vancouver.ca
Request to speak at a Council meeting
Request to speak at a Council meeting
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Vincent Conitzer @conitzer.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
more to be said here than could ever fit in such a short article but it covers some of it, and happy to get a few quotes in it (no paywall I think) www.cnet.com/tech/service...
cnet.com
AI Lies to You Because It Thinks That's What You Want
AI is being trained to please users and, in doing so, is becoming indifferent to the truth.
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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Excellent talk by Joëlle Pineau at the Reinforcement Learning Conference (RLC 2025) youtu.be/PZcaMKxljxc?...
youtu.be
Joelle Pineau, Beyond Bellman's Legacy - RLC 2025
YouTube video by Amii
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Alan Mackworth @alanmackworth.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
The 3rd edition of "Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents" by @davpoole.bsky.social & @alanmackworth.bsky.social is freely available. artint.info You can order a hardcopy of the book for 30% off and free shipping through mid-September: lnkd.in/gzbyUpKt Code: 102519 #AI
Cover of AI text "Artificial Intelligence" by David Poole and Alan Mackworth. With a background image of neurons.
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Max Colbert @mc00.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
This is one of the best ideas I've heard in ages.
Reddit post on r/technology about young people and AI: "I recently heard about a teacher who instead of trying to circumvent students using AI, which is impossible, she made assignments by going "ask ChatGPT to write a report on this subject, and then research how and why it's wrong".

Not only did the students discover that ChatGPT is extremely wrong a lot of the time, it also lead them to realise that they should not use it as a primary source".
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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
I was interviewed by the journalist Jessica Nordell for her newsletter. We discussed some deep questions related to AI touching on humanities, politics, & dualistic assumptions underlying the conception of "intelligence" in AI. I hope you will read it! jessicanordell.substack.com/cp/166912581
jessicanordell.substack.com
How Your Cheese-Powered Baby Trounces AI
An O.G. AI Researcher on How Being Social and Cultural Makes us Intelligent--and Whether Machines Can Ever Learn Empathy
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Christian Muise @cjmuise.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Off-cycle faculty position in AI at Queen's University School of Computing!! employment.cs.queensu.ca/2025/05/06/c... The framing of the position is so that it opens the pool to both anyone who does research in an AI sub-field, or uses AI largely for their research (AI applied to X). 1/3
employment.cs.queensu.ca
Computational Intelligence Faculty Position - Employment Opportunities - Queen's School of Computing
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Mariel Goddu @marielgoddu.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Revisiting this classic from Paul Cisek today- "Resynthesizing behavior through phylogenetic refinement" link.springer.com/content/pdf/... Fave figure: "conceptual taxonomy implicit in mainstream cognitive science" ––which the article proceeds to systematically undermine/dismantle
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Charlie Angus @charlieangus104.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Dear Democrats + American "friends" Even when your president says it is "unlikely" that he will use military force against our country it still worthy of a resounding response. Right? But we hear crickets. You might be okay with the end of the rule of law. Not us. www.ctvnews.ca/world/articl...
ctvnews.ca
Trump says ‘highly unlikely’ U.S. ever uses military force to annex Canada
U.S. President Donald Trump says it is 'highly unlikely' the United States would ever use military force to annex Canada.
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PEIPolitical 🇨🇦 @peipolitical.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Prime Minister Mark Carney 🇨🇦 "Large American online platforms have become seas of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate in all its forms ... My government will act." #cdnpoli
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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
US students. Looking to apply to graduate school? Had an offer rescinded recently? The University of British Columbia in Canada will re-open the application portal in some departments for US students from April 14-18. Details: www.grad.ubc.ca/us-applicant... #ubc #AcademicSky #PhDSky #ScienceSky
grad.ubc.ca
US Applicant Week
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bbor @robb.doering.ai · 19/03/2025
Random #EduSky aside in dark times: I just learned that Russell & Norvig's dominant textbook for #AI survey courses has a challenger in Poole & Mackworth's book, which is much heavier on stochastic ML approaches than the former (as opposed to symbolic, logical ones). I wonder who's winning... 🤔
A screenshot of a google sheet, too complex to describe in full; see this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gw9lxWhhTxjjTstyAKliwdy75VHXLtCDxCPFJhe5pPQ/edit?usp=sharing
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Mark Crowley @compthink.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
I couldn't find a list of Artificial Intelligence Researcher in Canada who are on Blue Sky, but every day there are more and more coming over from the other place. So here's my Starter Pack for it! Drop me a line in the responses to let me know who I'm missing. go.bsky.app/3HYHS4r
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Cheryl in Nova Scotia 🇨🇦🍁🍁 @minibubbly.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
X Threatens Our Democracy. Canada Should Ban It The risks of election interference, misinformation and attempts to support a US takeover are too great. #Canada #BanTwitter thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...
thetyee.ca
X Threatens Our Democracy. Canada Should Ban It | The Tyee
The risks of election interference, misinformation and attempts to support a US takeover are too great.
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24Hours Ukraine @24hoursukraine.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
🇨🇦🇺🇦“I stand with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And I stand with the people of Ukraine,” - Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada
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Alan Mackworth @alanmackworth.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
Who needs yet another report on The Future of AI Research aaai.org/about-aaai/p.... Well, you do! I was lucky to lead the Embodied AI theme. It was fun to step back and rethink the very idea of intelligence as action not just thinking. Dive into the report and let us know what you think.
aaai.org
AAAI 2025 Presidential Panel on the Future of AI Research - AAAI
The AAAI President has commissioned a study to explore and address potential long-term societal influences of AI research and development.
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Ken Forbus @kforbus.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
Today we published the report from the AAAI 2025 Presidential Panel on the Future of AI Research. You can download it from here: aaai.org/about-aaai/p.... It's designed to be readable by a general audience. Enjoy!
aaai.org
AAAI 2025 Presidential Panel on the Future of AI Research - AAAI
The AAAI President has commissioned a study to explore and address potential long-term societal influences of AI research and development.
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BF Francis Ouellette @bffo.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
An article from “La Presse”. à Montréal paper. Trudeau has a great historical opportunity… let us see if he takes it! lp.ca/3wzha3?shari...
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Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Congratulations Donald Trump, you have united all three of Canada’s largest political parties against you!
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Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Ppl are talking about "picking up" scholars leaving the US bc of cutbacks, but that's not the right way to think about talent flows. Few USians will leave US; rather US will cease to be the unrivalled academic destination point. The play is for intl scholars who otherwise would have gone to US.
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Cheryl in Nova Scotia 🇨🇦🍁🍁 @minibubbly.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
'Welcome to Sen̓áḵw': A sneak peek inside Canada's largest Indigenous-led housing development #BritishColumbia CBC Vancouver’s The Early Edition was offered a tour of the building as part of a special live broadcast www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
'Welcome to Sen̓áḵw': A sneak peek inside Canada's largest Indigenous-led housing development | CBC News
CBC was recently offered a sneak peek of the building as part of a special live broadcast of The Early Edition on Friday, Feb. 7, which will also highlight the Squamish Nation's culture, community, an...
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The Beaverton @thebeaverton.com · 01/02/2025
Seems like as good a day as any to link to this shirt in the Beaverton's merch store.
the-beaverton.myshopify.com
Canada: Looking Good By Comparison Since 1867 Unisex T-Shirt
It's not great. It's just slightly better than the countries we hear a lot about. Yay? • 100% combed and ring-spun cotton (Heather colors contain polyester) • Fabric weight: 4.2 oz/yd² (142 g/m²) • Pr...
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Alan Mackworth @alanmackworth.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Here’s a plan. Add in NSF grants too.
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Alan Mackworth @alanmackworth.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Important work on learning Probabilistic Circuits showing how to incorporate domain knowledge as constraints
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Breen Ouellette (he/him) @breeno.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Canada's limit is $1,650 per party. Plus a limit of $1,650 toward split between individual candidates. For a total contribution limit of $3,300. The limit increases modestly every year. in 2025, it will increase to a total contribution limit of $3,500.
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Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
The late Suchir Balaji’s blog post on AI, copyright and fair use, reposted in his memory. suchir.net/fair_use.html
suchir.net
When does generative AI qualify for fair use?
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Alan Mackworth @alanmackworth.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Check it out at AIPython.org! Comments welcome.
aipython.org
AIPython
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Alan Mackworth @alanmackworth.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Canadian news orgs sue OpenAI for copyright violation. "OpenAI is capitalizing and profiting from the use of this content, without getting permission or compensating content owners," www.cbc.ca/news/busines...
cbc.ca
Canadian news organizations, including CBC, sue ChatGPT creator | CBC News
A group of Canadian news outlets, including CBC/Radio-Canada, Postmedia, Metroland, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and Canadian Press have launched a joint lawsuit claiming copyright infringement against ChatGPT creator OpenAI.
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Mike Hudema @mikehudema.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Emissions from the world's largest fossil fuel project - the Canadian tarsands, are up to 6,300% higher than reported: buff.ly/497ucjB If we want a future, this is a project we need to stop. #ActOnClimate #climate #energy #renewables #cdnpoli #abpoli
buff.ly
Canadian tar sands pollution is up to 6,300% higher than reported, study finds
Call for companies to ‘clean up their mess’ as Athabasca oil sands emissions vastly exceed industry-reported levels
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