Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 29/09/2026There it is. The day it happened many of us called it that some shit like this would come out and nothing he was doing was genuine. Corporate media ate that garbage up without a second thought while those of us paying even a little bit of attention saw right through it. These people are FREAKS. 010
Reposted by Will RobertsonEd Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/09/2026Reuters got some of the IPO docs. Anthropic is a total dog of a company. Spent $12.6bn to make $4.6bn in revenue in 2025, $7.33bn of which was compute costs. Operating loss of $8bn. Losses getting worse year over year. Amazing stuff www.reuters.com/business/fin... 17241251380
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Another day, another institution ignoring systemic problems with sexual assault.cornellsun.comEDITORIAL | Cornell Won’t, We WillThe Editorial Board demands that Cornell stops protecting the alleged Chi Phi rapists through the University's opaque sexual assault policies. 000
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Hey, look! The sociology report has basically the same errors with methodological rigging as I posted about on my blog today re: the anthropology report by Henrich. It's almost as if all these people screeching about rigor don't know what that word means! 190
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Spent yesterday working on a detailed critique of some of the "methods" that Joseph Henrich used in his recently released report attacking sociocultural anthropology. He was the sole anthropologist involved with the Vanderbilt Report. It's long, but the more I looked the more issues I noticed.notebook.anthrowill.comRigor for thee, but not for me! – Notebook 2216
Reposted by Will RobertsonCordelia Fine @cordeliafine.bsky.social · 24/09/2026I reviewed A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds Of Men and Women, by evolutionary psychologist Steve Stewart-Williams, for The Conversation. theconversation.com/how-has-evol...theconversation.comHow has evolution shaped men’s and women’s minds? A new book tells an outdated storyPsychologist Steve Stewart-Williams’ third book about evolutionary psychology is A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women. 1194
Reposted by Will RobertsonNathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026the postwar university for all its problems worked according to a pretty complex balance of cultural and economic capital with other kinds thrown in, but it looks like we can simplify our Bourdieu for the phase of neoliberal higher ed we’re in now, where the only thing that matters, ever, is money 27023
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 24/09/2026There needs to be a Poe's Law but for AI hype. I could not tell based on the tagline "It also required my most personal data, and trust" if this was satire or not. Definitely a "hahahahaha!!! Oh, you're serious?!" moment for me. I hate this timeline.nytimes.comI Gave My Life Over to Meta’s A.I. Agent and Was Blown AwayMuse, Meta’s A.I. agent, helped handle my dental insurance, booked dinner reservations and created a podcast for me. It also required my most personal data, and trust. 000
Reposted by Will RobertsonYell In a War @jelenawoehr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026it really needs to be more openly discussed that all the people advocating for “we should be fine with losing basic skills if we get more systems thinking” are men, meaning socialized to expect to be able to offload basic tasks of daily living onto a wife as part of their compensation for existing 201324509
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Well that was one of the stupidest fucking things I've ever laid eyes on.nytimes.comOpinion | Jensen Huang Thinks A.I. Alarmism Has Gone Too FarJensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, does not want you to be afraid of A.I. 000
Reposted by Will RobertsonAP Stylebook @apstylebook.com · 23/09/2026Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics.apnews.comhttps://apnews.com/article/openai-safety-ai-framework-089e75b95bc935af092da7b79d92706d 5542231617
Reposted by Will RobertsonEd Zitron @edzitron.com · 24/09/2026I think that he should've had Altman arrested for running a company committing cybercrimes 261053179
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Joseph Henrich's report--sorry, Claude's report with Henrich's name on it--detailing all the supposed evidence about anthropology that was left out of the Vanderbilt report was released. It is, to put it nicely, AI slop. No details about methods or the choices that were made collecting "evidence." 111
Reposted by Will RobertsonAsheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 23/09/2026Here's a listing of all the right-wing humanities academic jobs that have been advertised so far this 2026-2027 hiring season. Suffice to say, conservative investment in the university humanities is not being matched by the peer-reviewed humanities community: asheeshksi.substack.com/p/tracking-c...asheeshksi.substack.comTracking Civic Thought Hiring in the 2026-2027 Academic Job CycleI wanted to put together a post that tracks how right-wing civic thought programs have rapidly been taking over the academic hiring space in the humanities, especially in fields like history (mostly A... 25020
Reposted by Will RobertsonBecca Lewis @beccalew.bsky.social · 22/09/2026👀👀👀👀 fnl.mit.edu/how-we-learn...fnl.mit.eduHow We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Campus Surveillance – MIT Faculty Newsletter 47030
Reposted by Will RobertsonEd Zitron @edzitron.com · 22/09/2026Free newsletter: I estimate that ~50% of AI chip sales - $200bn to $300bn+ - are sitting in warehouses, with NVIDIA selling hundreds of billions of GPUs years in advance. Data centers take way longer to build than hyperscalers are leading us to believe. www.wheresyoured.at/wherere-all-the-ai-chips/wheresyoured.athttps://www.wheresyoured.at/wherere-all-the-ai-chips/If you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter, and you can subscribe on the following links: $70 a year, $18 a quarter, or $7 a month. In return you get a weekly premium… 29839214
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 22/09/2026"Young said trusting Elon Musk, founder of SpaceXAI, is not important if it can bring more money and resources to Memphis." Just in case anyone was curious how things are going in Memphis with our mayor who invited the national guard in and ignores the community about SpaceXAI.actionnews5.comMemphis mayor responds to criticism over data centersMemphis Mayor Paul Young says he agrees with residents who are pushing for a tougher approach to data center development and SpaceXAI, but said he cannot speak out publicly as much as he wants. 111
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 19/09/202621 paragraphs of whining about people trying to find ways to work around the ubiquity of LLM cheating, and how that will mean no more long-form writing from students. Not a single solution offered. But hey glad you got to do some long-form writing I guess.insidehighered.comThe Cures for AI Are Killing the Humanities (opinion)The retreat from take-home essays jeopardizes the future of the humanities. 100
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 18/09/2026The LLM millenarianism is exhausting, y'all. I feel like I'm watching a mass psychosis. 000
Reposted by Will RobertsonTimnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 18/09/2026It's pick your poison between TESCREAL billionaires folks. We have Sanders' advisors: funded by likes of Jaan Tallinn who led Anthropic's series A & other friends on the "left" wing Marc Andreessen, Palantir folks etc on the "centrist" wing writing our bills. www.levernews.com/big-ais-favo... 9330114
Reposted by Will RobertsonAlejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 14/09/2026Cis people do not understand how much trans people's rights have regressed in just 5 years. 5 years ago, there were none of these restrictions. 19 states banned legal recognition 21 states have bathroom bans 8 states ban gender marker changes on DLs 25 ban gender affirming care for trans youth 11077423611
Reposted by Will RobertsonAsheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 15/09/2026Has anyone considered orienting college education around the practice of sitting together and discussing real books, read on paper? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/u...nytimes.comUniversities Sound Warnings About A.I. Even as They Embrace ItAs A.I. upends education, university leaders have been all over the map about how to respond. It can be very confusing for students. 317028
Reposted by Will RobertsonHolly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Penultimate post! Harari argues against biological patriarchy, but no one seems to notice AND he cites nothing and no one, So someone's gotta say it: Only a man could float a reference-free argument against biological patriarchy in a science book. ecodevoevo.blogspot.com/2026/09/sapi...ecodevoevo.blogspot.comSapiens, Ch. 8: "unfounded myths rather than biological facts" about race, sexuality, sex, and genderThis is my penultimate post about the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind . For some reason, the previous post felt like rock bot... 265
Reposted by Will RobertsonKen Burnside @kenburnside.bsky.social · 11/09/2026The economists and boring people who study cash flow are saying: AI is a bubble, its burst is imminent, and it's going to wash away most of economic growth of the last decade when it happens. The historians are saying: What they said. Don't ask AI how to make guillotines. Use primary sources. 28818
Reposted by Will RobertsonEd Zitron @edzitron.com · 11/09/2026Holy shit. Bloomberg just verified one of my biggest scoops - that Microsoft only has 2gw of operational capacity. I had it at 1.993GW in prep for the story that @aishadown.bsky.social and I did for the guardian. Vindication! www.theguardian.com/technology/2... 251938362
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 11/09/2026It feels impossible to push back against the deluge of uncritical "reporting" and reactions to this garbage. I am so grateful for Ed Zitron's coverage of and critical positionality against all this garbage LLM criti-hype. 218021
Reposted by Will RobertsonEmily PhD 🎓 @ejwillingham.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Shallow revisionist nonsense and a fallacious comparison intended to gild the outlook for GenAI trash that represents the nonexistent as reality & lifeless artificiality as human. These media were conduits for messy, authentic, dynamic *humanity* and deep community building 0154
Reposted by Will RobertsonEd Zitron @edzitron.com · 10/09/2026This Jacob Coxon thing is weird. He worked at Anthropic for six weeks and OpenAI for nearly three years. He’s doing a whole media tour without any real statements about what it is he’s scared of other than vague references to recursive self improvement, a theoretical ai that teaches itself. 471406264
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Yet another techbro publicly announces his departure from an LLM company along with his message about how dangerous it is, and of course the media and most of the public eat it up uncritically. But while everyone is freaking out about some imaginary future, they are causing immense harm NOW. 100
Reposted by Will RobertsonEd Zitron @edzitron.com · 25/08/2026Today's newsletter is the AI Hater's Manifesto - where generative AI fails technically, economically, and morally. From its ever-changing products and rate limits to its ever-increasing demands for trillions of dollars, LLMs exhaust everything they touch. www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-hater... 12843217
Reposted by Will RobertsonJon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Imo the heavy-handedness is part of the point. Mamdani's been waging a campaign to make government interventions more visible and legible to the general public, which is good in its own right. Hiding efforts behind subsidies and tax breaks just mean people think their government isn't doing anything 1185
Reposted by Will RobertsonQuinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 01/07/2026It makes sense that the far right loves the idea that trans girls can overpower cis girls, because that naturally follows from the position that cis women are inherently weak. The fact that people nominally on the left adopt this position, and claim it to be feminist, is somewhat more puzzling 541150213
Reposted by Will RobertsonSamuel Moyn @samuelmoyn.bsky.social · 01/07/2026Devastating www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...bostonreview.netThe Wrong Way to Criticize the HumanitiesA recent report, commissioned by the chancellors of Vanderbilt and Washington University, invites further intrusions on scholarly self-governance. 03114
Reposted by Will RobertsonEd Zitron @edzitron.com · 30/06/2026Today's newsletter is about how the AI industry is losing - its economics don't work, its leaders can only sell its product through swindling and egregious forward-looking statements, and the largest financial institutions in the world are wising up. www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-losing/wheresyoured.atThe AI Industry Is LosingIf you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $70 a year, or $7 a month, and in return you get a weekly newsletter that’s usually anywhere from 5,000 to 18,000 words, in... 221061285
Reposted by Will RobertsonMehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 21/06/2026"Why Does a Suspected Anti-Muslim Attack Barely Make the News?" Zeteo UK's Shehab Khan on the double standards from politicians & the media when it comes to attacks on Muslims. No front page headlines on Edinburgh; no Cobra meeting; no sustained outrage. Read/share/subscribe:zeteo.ukWhy Does a Suspected Anti-Muslim Attack Barely Make the News?The political and media reaction to a knife-wielding man allegedly attacking Muslims in Edinburgh raises uncomfortable questions about whose safety Britain takes seriously. 551111335
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 20/06/2026Been seeing this misinformation circulating around a lot today in many anti-AI circles. Folks, we do not need to resort to this. Attack them for the insane shit they actually say and do because it is already horrific enough.wionews.comFact check: Did Jeff Bezos say human use of water is slowing down AI? Here is what we foundAmazon founder Jeff Bezos is going viral for allegedly saying that human use of water is slowing down the growth of AI. However, it is a fake statement and completely fabricated. We heard the conferen... 000
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Well if this isn't the biggest piece of shit I've seen out of this rag since ... last week. I guess MLK was a divisive "activist" not a uniting "citizen," since apparently those are mutually exclusive. 🙄 Nothing says "I've never talked or engaged with activism in my life" like this garbage. 001
Reposted by Will RobertsonAsheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 19/06/2026The goal of the Vanderbilt report is: provide ideological cover to the existing plan to defund the history and English departments and replace them with right-wing civic centers by recycling old, discredited culture war lies harpers.org/archive/2026...harpers.orgRepublican Machines, by Ann ManovCan the GOP save the humanities? 0217
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 19/06/2026The incomparable biocultural anthropologist Jon Marks (@jontheanthroman.bsky.social) wrote this excellent response to the Vanderbilt report, taking a different tack than other responses by asking the question that is the title of the post.anthropomics2.blogspot.comWhy Is Anthropology So Threatening to Reactionaries (and morons)?I came to the party a bit late, but after reading the infamous “ Report on the State of Scholarship in the Humanities and Humanistic Socia... 093
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Don't have money to pay adjuncts or grad students a living wage, but they can always find money for their admin bullshit. What a joke.insidehighered.comUniversities Hiring Student Expression SpecialistsThe new staff members will focus on creating, explaining and enforcing college speech policies following years of escalating campus protest activity. 000
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 16/06/2026Real happy that our city "leaders" decided to let this crap in so that folks in Boxtown suffer illness so Trump could bomb elementary schools and other civilian infrastructure in Iran for no reason other than he's a fascist warmonger who let Netanyahu steer his foreign policy decisions. 🤮wreg.comMemphis supercomputer powered Iran war effort, agency says as it tries to halt lawsuitMEMPHIS, Tenn. — Federal agencies are trying to stop a lawsuit against xAI’s Colossus supercomputers in Memphis, saying the technology was used in recent military operations in Iran and is cr… 000
Reposted by Will RobertsonMatt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 12/06/2026The AAUP chapters at Vanderbilt & Wash U have issued a joint statement denouncing the “State of Scholarship” report commissioned by their chancellors. Please, let’s make this as widely read as the gaslighting to which it responds. 5439246
Reposted by Will RobertsonEd Zitron @edzitron.com · 15/06/2026Free newsletter: AI's business model is inherently broken. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are discussing potential price cuts to to the cost of their models for enterprises as they allow their subscription users to burn $8k to $14k in tokens for $200 a month. www.wheresyoured.at/brokenomics/wheresyoured.atAI's BrokenomicsIf you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $70 a year, or $7 a month, and in return you get a weekly newsletter that’s usually anywhere from 5,000 to 18,000 words, in... 21806183
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 15/06/2026The academy has never been apolitical. Also, reading this prompted me to wonder: what example(s) of “objective” cultural anthropological scholarship would these people claim as evidence supporting their bs? I’m pretty familiar with the history of anthro & there’s nothing that comes to mind.insidehighered.comThe Question Haunting the Vanderbilt/Wash U Report (opinion)A new report criticizes a turn toward politicized scholarship in the humanities. But could it be that a more diverse academy is asking different questions? 100
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 14/06/2026Bezos-owned capitalist propaganda rag WaPo publishing bullshit lies from one of the Vanderbilt authors. Shockerrrrrr! 🙄washingtonpost.comOpinion | These academic disciplines risk forgetting their core taskSome academics don’t believe in truth. What are they researching for? 000
Reposted by Will RobertsonRosemary Joyce @rajoyce.bsky.social · 13/06/2026Anthropological research on subsistence is offered in the dangerous and authoritarian “report” on the humanities as a key example of supposed ideological weakening of scholarship. This critique begins to show how the key example cited actually proves the opposite. Let’s go into it in some depth 1/insidehighered.comAcademic Authoritarianism in New Attack on Humanities ScholarsThere is virtually no evidence offered in the report for its sweeping conclusions about the entirety of the humanities. 213471
Reposted by Will RobertsonNeedhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 13/06/2026That the authors explicitly question “gender as a spectrum” and defend the “gender binary” to make their argument presents a clear link between the attack on the humanities and the attack on science 1269
Reposted by Will RobertsonBenjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · 13/06/2026What's so insidious about this is that it's cloaked in the language of reestablishing academic rigor and standards even as they do not feel beholden to these things. Is their report peer-reviewed? No. Is it rigorously factual? Also no. Are its methods clear and accessible? Haha. No. 313248
Will Robertson @anthrowill.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Excellent response by Augustin Fuentes to the incredibly vapid nonsense in the Vanderbilt report. He is a biological anthropologist who has written extensively on topics the report misrepresents and very easily takes down their bullshit claims about anthropology.chronicle.comOpinion | McCarythism Dressed Up as an Academic ReportWe should not be distracted by the bogeyman of social-justice scholarship. 051