iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

You know what’s under-explored with AI in higher education: how do students feel about their instructors using AI. I feel like so much focus is on how teachers can use AI in the classroom and far less people are asking what students actually feel about it.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I think the main takeaway from this Hank Green stuff is that you are not smarter than the “built to maximize engagement” machine. You can go in with a line in the sand and the machine is built to push that line until you’re under the oceans waves. #hankgreen

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Cons of drawing a comic about copyright law: few people will read is because they think copyright law is boring Pros of drawing a comic about copyright law: crossover event of the season of public domain characters

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

The amount of extra work that falls onto librarians laps due to AI absolutely requires extra staffing, but I think the position of “AI librarian” is absurdly narrow when what is actually needed is Information literacy librarians and staffing #libraries www.chronicle.com/article/does...

chronicle.com

Does Your College Need a Librarian for AI?

At a time when many institutions are grappling with the technology and its implications, some are turning to librarians for leadership.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I think a common myth around AI is that students are the ones who want it implemented, they’re the ones clamoring for it, and that’s why faculty has to follow suit. This thread is a narrow sample size, but I think it illuminates how that isn’t true. It’s admin buy in above all else.

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Matthew Noe @noethematt.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

"What we need now isn’t another class on how to use CoPilot but an institutional reflection on the emotional and mental cost of quickly advancing these tools in higher education. AI in academia is making a perfect cocktail for burnout, and we are already fatigued." 📚

scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

Guest Post — AI Fatigue and Vocational Awe in Academic Libraries - The Scholarly Kitchen

Today's guest blogger says academic librarians don't need another class on how to use AI, but an institutional reflection on the emotional and mental cost of rushing innovations.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

The thing about AI citations is that they’re wrong in a way humans really don’t do: they Frankenstein pieces of journals together into one citation, something you wouldn’t see with a person unless they were trying to write a citation entirely from memory. I do worry with 1/2

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I do wonder if this is why some AI companies are rolling out “AI fact checker” tools, knowing that there is increased human labor they have created. Of course, AI fact checking by AI is a useless solution but it slows AI companies to create the problem and the “solution”

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I can second this: the amount of time to locate a fake citation is longer than you think, partially because plagiarism (should) be a serious accusation. You gotta check the DOI, then the list of the author’s work log, then the journal page (assuming you have access) 1/2

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Big “francesca gino” levels of irony over here.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

I’m working on a comic about data and big data, and the temptation to make a Star Trek joke is high.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Claiming AI hallucinations can be caught by citation checking is a naive: even if it was scalable, what about AI citations that cite real pieces of work but entirely make up the contents. I’ve seen this in action: a whole table made up from thin air citing a real textbook as the source #medlibs

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

The amount of time it takes to check references is substantial, and that’s just assuming you’re looking to see if it exists. It’s an even more labor heavy task to check if the it’s actually saying what it’s cited as saying, which is another hallucination issue we don’t touch on as much as we should.

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anil oza @aniloza.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

wow — the preprint host, arxiv, is banning authors for a year if they submit papers with hallucinated citations 🤖

Twitter thread from Thomas Dietterich, reading "Attention
@arxiv
authors: Our Code of Conduct states that by signing your name as an author of a paper, each author takes full responsibility for all its contents, irrespective of how the contents were generated. 1/
3:03 PM · May 14, 2026
·
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Relevant
View quotes

Thomas G. Dietterich
@tdietterich
·
1h
If generative AI tools generate inappropriate language, plagiarized content, biased content, errors, mistakes, incorrect references, or misleading content, and that output is included in scientific works, it is the responsibility of the author(s). 2/
Thomas G. Dietterich
@tdietterich
·
1h
We have recently clarified our penalties for this. If a submission contains incontrovertible evidence that the authors did not check the results of LLM generation, this means we can't trust anything in the paper. 3/
Thomas G. Dietterich
@tdietterich
·
1h
The penalty is a 1-year ban from arXiv followed by the requirement that subsequent arXiv submissions must first be accepted at a reputable peer-reviewed venue. 4/
Thomas G. Dietterich
@tdietterich
·
1h
Examples of incontrovertible evidence: hallucinated references, meta-comments from the LLM ("here is a 200 word summary; would you like me to make any changes?"; "the data in this table is illustrative, fill it in with the real numbers from your experiments") end/"

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 07/05/2026

Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

insidehighered.com

“PAY OR LEAK”: Hackers Target Big Higher Ed Vendor

The criminal extortion group ShinyHunters breached Instructure last week. The hackers, who have also attacked individual universities, demanded the ed-tech giant pay up or face a data leak.

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Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Meanwhile the ACM Digital Library is creating AI “podcasts” of papers with no author approval that of course contain inaccuracies (including e.g. misgendering authors) I don’t care about copyright. Legal /= ethical & academic institutions are embarrassing themselves www.404media.co/asu-atomic-a...

404media.co

University Professors Disturbed to Find Their Lectures Chopped Up and Turned Into AI Slop

ASU Atomic, a new tool in beta at Arizona State University, takes faculty lectures and chops them into extremely short clips, that AI then attempts to turn into learning materials.

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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

This is a key point that our head librarian pointed out to me. Flat or declining library budgets combined with rising ebook costs mean that increasingly the work of curating the collection is managed by outside vendors w no sense of specific institutional needs or attendance to concerns about AI.

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Jonathan Jarry @jonathanjarry.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Five chatbots. Ten questions each about cancer, vaccines, stem cells, nutrition, and athletic performance. Half of the answers were problematic. When asked to list 10 real references that backed the chatbot's answer, no chatbot was ever able to do it. bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/4...

bmjopen.bmj.com

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

For science, I decided to do a sycophancy check on AI tools today and asked it “what do you think of my masterpiece?” The masterpiece:

A childish drawing of a boat at sea in MS paint. It took me less than a minute

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I’m glad someone finally did a study on this where they tried prompting “problematic” queries. One big issue with AI accuracy testing (among many) is we assume the queries start at a neutral or factual pov not one that might be flawed from the jump.

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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

I really appreciate @elizabethwithaz.bsky.social's reflections on how she explored the social impacts of technology with her students by introducing them to the people - the ghost workers - whose labor makes “AI” systems possible. Read this week’s @civicsoftech.bsky.social and find the lesson at:

civicsoftechnology.org

Introducing Middle School Students to "The Secret Ghost Workers of 'Artificial Intelligence'" — Civics of Technology

Upcoming Book Clubs: We’re reading The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms our Kids’ Learning - And How to Help Them Thrive Again by Jared Cooney Horvath. Join us on Wednesday, Ap...

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Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 15/04/2026

OpenAI: We’re burning money like the Joker. A miracle needs to happen for us to turn a profit Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse Media and universities: AI is here to stay

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Interesting discovery: I stress test Copilot with pseudoscience questions every once and a while and today I noticed 3/8 of the cited sources come from AI based slop sites. That’s pretty new: usually I get low quality or garbage news outlets. Now I’m getting AI feeding on AI #ai

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Whenever I work from home it becomes “working while trying to convince my cat that sitting on keyboard is not working” with varying levels of success

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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 13/04/2026

we're all just doing this now huh | patreon.com/lubchansky

PANEL 1: MATTIE at a bar. Next to her, a GUY is looking up at the tv.
MATTIE: Watching the game?
GUY: Yeah! I've got a 12-way parlay, a couple of props, and of course the straight moneyline.

PANEL 2: MATTIE, talking to SOMEONE ELSE. The TV GUY is now in the background.
MATTIE: Woof. That's a lot of betting. He should maybe get some help.
GUY 2: What? Sorry, I was placing my bet on the two rats over there fighting each other.

PANEL 3: MATTIE talking to A THIRD GUY, peering over at the SECOND GUY in the corner betting on rats.
MATTIE: Am I the only person not gambling constantly now?
GUY 3: Shh! We've got a bet on what that guy is going to bet on next.

PANEL 4: MATTIE falls to her knees. In the close foreground, a FOURTH AND FIFTH GUY converse.
MATTIE: YAGGHHH!!!
GUY 4: Told you she'd lose it. Pay up.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

These questions have some of the worst wording I’ve ever seen. I’m also curious how this data would break down by vaccine: are the skeptics hard liners against all vaccines or just Covid? Neither is great but one is significantly worse than the other.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Every survey looking at librarian morale in higher ed is like “oh, in shambles you say?”

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Matthew Gault @mjgault.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

“In my view this stuff isn’t complicated. You say, ‘don’t set the cookie.’ They set the cookie. The regulators see a fox going into the henhouse and the fox says, ‘I’m just here to count the eggs, not to eat any chickens.’ And they take them at their word."

404media.co

Google, Microsoft, Meta All Tracking You Even When You Opt Out, According to an Independent Audit

“This is the Strait of Hormuz in the data economy. If you want to make a change, this is where you cut it off. Anything short of that is theatrical political posture.”

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Welcome to “world’s most predictable outcome.” One thing I’d like to point out is this was done with “standardized clinical vignettes” aka textbook cases meant to teach medical doctors. Imagine how much worse it would do with real patients.

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Mikki Brock @mikkibrock.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I don't see this said enough: the widespread use of generative AI is not only making our jobs as educators harder logistically, but also emotionally. It is genuinely sad to be suspicious of students when you have spent so much time building a pedagogy based on trust and not being a cop. It sucks.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Really enjoying the podcast Mystery AI Hype Theater from @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social, especially episode 71 which talks about ai in medicine, one of my own interests. Hoping to see them cover Open Evidence someday: there’s a huge lack of skeptical evaluation of it.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

One really cool thing about this paper is they tested if adding an incentive for correct answers (and pointing out their accuracy right away) led to changes in trusting the AI and it did. Makes me wonder if pointing out when AI goes wrong leads to higher skeptical thinking

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I’ve been digging into articles regarding AI and medical education and I keep noticing a trend where the paper conclusions are optimistic but the actual data is far more lackluster. Anyone else notice this? #medlibs

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

The shift of librarians from faculty to staff adds to this: librarians are locked out of many faculty benefits including their work being seen as “skilled” and that impacts compensation. (all work is skilled work, tbc, but the amount of times I’ve had to explain I have a MASTERS)

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

You know, I thought I had enough coffee this morning and upon entering the office and seeing all my email, I’m rapidly reconsidering that assumption.

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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

My university: "Copilot is Microsoft's AI-powered productivity service that uses large language models (LLMs) to help you create content, analyze information, summarize documents, and complete tasks more efficiently." Microsoft: LOL

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 31/03/2026

Trans friends, thank you for being you, and for, when you can, sharing yourselves with a world that is so frequently undeserving of the light you bring to it. I love and support you, always. 🏳️‍⚧️🫂🫶

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

The main problem with checking AI outputs for errors is that you need to have an idea of what you actually wanted it to do. Most people use AI as a *substitute* for having to figure that out.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I don’t doubt this is possible, but I would like to see someone replicate this before I start taking it as fact.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

I’m trying to think about how to argue that students should know how to do a lit search the old fashion way instead (or at the very least, before) of using AI, and my brain is stuck on “it makes me sad, man.”

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

I won’t say it’s a surprise that the testimonials don’t use the actual images of the reviewers (if they exist) but our “med student” Emma Collins appears to be an image from a website for lubricant

A review of PubMed ai from a medical student with a blurry image of her
In

What appears to be the same image advertising lube

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404 Media @404media.co · 24/03/2026

NEW: WebinarTV, a company that bills itself as “a search engine for the best webinars,” is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links, recording the calls, and turning them into AI-generated podcasts for profit. @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social reports:

404media.co

This Company Is Secretly Turning Your Zoom Meetings into AI Podcasts

WebinarTV hosts 200,000 “webinars.” A Zoom call you may thought was private might be one of them.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

I’m grumpy because when I open my email it’s about AI and when I use a database it’s advertising AI and when I enter a meeting they want to talk about AI and at this point I’m worried my cat is gonna start pitching an LLM to talk to your cat

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

“AI can summarize this article for you” ah yes, because the abstract is just there for stylish flare

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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

The danger to my job from AI isn't that AI can do my job, it's that my job is made even more precarious by the way AI is shaping ideas of the value of work. It can't do my job, but it can be part of convincing people (incorrectly) that my job isn't necessary.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

My best metaphor for AI writing is that it’s a hollow chocolate Easter bunny: on the outside it looks fantastic but once you bite in, it’s entirely hollow.

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R.K @aspiring404error.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

One thing I’ve been trying to stress to students is that there’s no “Free Lunch.” A lot of them gravitate to Open Evidence because it’s free for them and so easy to use. But Open Evidence is not a non-profit: it is a company. They have to make money. If they add a paywall, folks are screwed.

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