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Robin T.

@drrobinthomas.bsky.social
559 followers 355 following 656 posts

Professor, mathematical psychologist, guitarist and singer

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Reposted by Robin T.
Andrey Chetverikov @achetverikov.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Some months ago, I wrote a skeptical reply to a commentary on bots in online studies in PNAS, arguing that no evidence yet exists for such bots. Together with the authors of the original commentary, we now show that bots can pass (almost?) all online cognitive studies with human-like performance 1/n
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Jack Iwashyna @iwashyna.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
NIH makes yet again new LOW number of grants report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/...
Table from NIH showing drop of nearly 8,000 grants vs 2023
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Omg
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The wisdom of cats ...
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Clare Kelly @clarekelly.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Sick to the back teeth of people in academia passing papers, reports, emails etc. through an LLM, ostensibly to improve readability or whatever but actually just transforming human writing into repulsive, staccato, marketing-speak that has a veneer of validty but little-to-no actual fucking meaning
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 02/10/2026
wouldn’t have predicted catholicism as one of the big allies in the fight against ai, but i’m here for it
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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
In the year I've been working w/ air pollution regulators on data center on-site emissions, I've seen almost no acknowledgement of this trend from energy-side advocates of data center buildout. This isn't just bad actors-it's a corporate playbook and a roadmap to a future of unconstrained emissions.
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
AI models are not an adequate replacement for ... anything at all
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is what the system rewards: publication counts. We are all rats in a Skinner box pressing the lever that produces the most pellets
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 30/09/2026
GOAT OR BIRD????
This is even better than the
"what color is this dress" dress.
Goat?
or Bird?
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Sarah J. Martin @eatingpolitics.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I wrote an extensive email to upper admin about its promotion of an GenAI course for graduate students - I was/am so distressed. The work behind LLMs is hidden but this has real world consequences for our own ethical conduct. Culled from my course outlines here is what I said ...
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Dr Keith 🎃 Wilson @keithwilson.eu · 30/09/2026
There are no responsible uses of AI in evaluating research funding applications. Just calling it ‘responsible’ doesn’t make it so. #EthicsWashing #GenAI
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
They never actually say
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Rasmus Birk @rasmusbirk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It is ASTOUNDING that this apparently needs saying.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And do not ever fucking dare to put other people’s writing into an LLM without consen : no matter why you’ve been asked to read it, for feedback or reviews. Have some decency.
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
too much fat
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Interesting. I didn't see the original post myself beforehand blekhman.substack.com/p/the-ai-dis...
blekhman.substack.com
The AI Discourse in Academia is Toxic. It Doesn’t have to be.
You are allowed to have a nuanced opinion about AI
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 28/09/2026
reminder, if you present, in psychology say, findings that "wow a neural network simulated this task" it's not actually surprising (they are function approximators) nor is the surprise compatible with believing neural networks can learn any mapping (they cannot) — confused? see below
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Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Evil. Shame on everyone who voted for this.👇
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It’s happening again. LLMs reporting someone’s in progress research as if it’s own discovery.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 27/09/2026
Google Gemini says that @jevinwest.bsky.social and I aren't to be trusted because in our first lecture, we had a playful example where Jevin presented data the same way that Tim Cook did, and I called bullshit on it. It hallucinates criticism and the only citations are to the lecture itself.
1. The "Explosive Growth" Slide ControversyIronically, the most direct and explicit example of this occurred during their very first "Calling Bullshit" lecture at the University of Washington.The Setup: Jevin West presented a slide to the class showing a graph that purported to show the "explosive, hockey-stick growth" of web traffic to their new Calling Bullshit website. The graph utilized standard marketing axes and compressed timeframes to make the project look like an unmitigated, runaway viral sensation.The "Bullshit": Carl Bergstrom actually had to step in and call "bullshit" on his own co-instructor's slide. When the data was displayed honestly without selective axis truncation or creative smoothing, it showed that while traffic was high initially, it heavily ebbed, flowed, and plateaued over time.The Criticism: While some praised this as a playful, planned pedagogical moment to show that "anyone can fall prey to bad data framing," critics viewed it as a perfect illustration of the double standard: when it serves a personal or professional promotional narrative (like proving your own course is a massive success), the temptation to use flawed, hype-driven metrics is incredibly high.
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Pause AI in BC Schools @aicaution.ca · 26/09/2026
There is no ethical use of AI.
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Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Another reflection on AI & writing at Harvard, from a former writing tutor trained by @janerosenzweig.bsky.social “AI trains us, more than anything, to parrot the AI voice. I’d rather we teach students how to find their own.” Well said! www.harvardmagazine.com/commentary/h...
harvardmagazine.com
I Used to Think AI Could Make Me a Better Writer | Harvard Magazine
A former Harvard College writing tutor changes her mind on LLMs.
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 26/09/2026
Please sign if you can! OPEN LETTER: PAUSE THE NATIONAL ROLLOUT OF AI-MEDIATED TUTORING IN ENGLAND'S SCHOOLS > Children should not be exposed to a technology whose future, effectiveness, and safety we cannot predict, and for which the evidence is mostly negative.
docs.google.com
OPEN LETTER: PAUSE THE NATIONAL ROLLOUT OF AI-MEDIATED TUTORING IN ENGLAND'S SCHOOLS
OPEN LETTER To the Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, Prime Minister, and the Rt Hon Lucy Powell MP, Secretary of State for Education The Department for Education has announced plans to develop, what it calls, “...
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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Just helping with editing here. These bots aren’t sentient. They’re doing what they’re programmed to do. OpenAI, a private company supposedly bound by laws, committed federal crimes.
Screenshot of BBC article: OpenAI bots (struck through) meddled with multiple US government agency sites
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Dr Abolish ICE @pwr2dppl.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Every time I see someone take a "well it's here" stance on "AI," I want to cry. not b/c it "isn't here" but b/c it being here never implies the next thing they say. Slavery was ("was") here and a good question was never "how to best use it."
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I think of the climate harm AI poses the same way: the threats are not theoretical or in the future, but unfolding all around us now.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/09/2026
Y'all are really phoning it in with this one. Take this graph. It's useless because you didn't bother to describe the denominator. (These are protein amounts per 100g.)
Graph of total protein and essential amino acids for various foods.
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"Hard limits are in view and true believers, with no vision for the future beyond whatever they think ‘AI’ or ‘AGI’ are (usually whatever they’re told by the corporates), dimly aware of these limits but unable to accept what it means, are lashing out." -- @cloudquistador.eurosky.social
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
All we can expect when trying to scale up AI systems is diminishing returns and devastating environmental damage. Calls for `slowing down’ can conveniently hide the diminishing returns, while still convincing people that the tech is “all powerful”.
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Luke Ontario @coolhand.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Everyone stop, this is important
A black and white drawing of three dachshunds arranged vertically, each holding a different optical illusion object in its mouth, and the dogs themselves drawn as if a single line optical illusion. The top dog holds a Penrose triangle, the middle dog holds a Necker cube, and the bottom dog holds a Penrose trident. The dogs’ bodies are elongated in an exaggerated cartoon style. The artwork is signed “@IndieTheIntrovert” in the bottom right corner.
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Nick Holmes @thehandlab.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
too much?
An introductory slide from my Research Methods module, explaining how LLMs ('AI') work. The slide narrative is:
"
1. Experts like us
2. Create knowledge together
3. And share it. Often for free
4. Super-rich tech companies take our creations. Often illegally
5. Mince them into 'AI' slop + CO2
6. And $ell them back to us

Cut out the tech companies.
Read and think for yourself.
Talk directly to the experts - us.
"

I'm hoping that students might actually engage with the module materials and the expert lecturers rather than, I don't know, sitting in the dark on their own in their room staring into the shiny abyss.

(the implication that tech bosses should be put into a meat grinder is entirely unintended. i just wish they'd fuck off.)

(some of the icons may be copyrighted - many apologies to the creators if so: I got them from a google search so who knows what they've stolen. hypocrite much..?)
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ddɐ˙ʎʞsʞɔɐlq˙uǝʌs@ @sven.blacksky.app · 21/09/2026
It's sad to see this framing repeated endlessly. Most critics of AI don't deny the 'lived experience' (sigh) of AI users & especially boosters; they denounce the fanaticism, the disregard for hazards, and the perceived lack of a moral compass. This looks to me like guilty feeling rationalization.
• Henry Farrell • @himself.bsky.social • 6mo

® Account Muted

4. I think that it is important that critics of LLMs get this. The 'LLMs are useless which is terrible and everyone is using them which is also terrible' shtick contained contradictions even in the beginning, which took a lot of work to maintain. Now it contradicts people's lived experiences.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Here is the newsletter post I reference in that clip: buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
buttondown.com
Six Problems With Talking About the “Ethical” or “Responsible” Use of “AI”
How to move away from the untenable, uncomfortable middle ground By Emily M. Bender and Decca Muldowney A dancing ledge, as viewed from above. Image: Will...
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
and a grotesque theft of public resources, at least in Ohio
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Anson Mackay (they/them) @ans.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Great post by @jbyoder.org, highlighting that recent AI-related additions to distilling that paper you want to read are really no better than how we already structure papers in terms of abstract, intro, methods, results etc. for ease of understanding and distiling key points
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Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @ninamarkl.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
LLM chatbots on published papers without explicit opt-in from authors is so incredibly disrespectful and completely undermines the idea of a published version of record
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 21/09/2026
"In a leaked document, the Irish Presidency proposes to EU Member States that the interest of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and SpaceX to make profits should take precedence over the fundamental right to data protection" noyb.eu/en/ai-eu-mem...
noyb.eu
AI: EU Member States plan “digital expropriation” of Europeans in the interest of AI companies
In a leaked document, the Irish Presidency proposes to EU Member States that the interest of AI companies to make profits should take precedence over the fundamental rights of Europeans.
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Baldur Bjarnason @baldurbjarnason.com · 17/07/2026
“Potentially Useful | Hating AI in 2026” www.eamoncaddigan.net/posts/ai-in-2… > We can point out all of the harms being done by the technology right now, and we can speak to the additional harms that will be done if things continue like this, but our concerns are spurned or ignored.
eamoncaddigan.net
Potentially Useful | Hating AI in 2026
Being anti-AI feels like being anti-war
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Brilliant mathematician Emmy Noether was initially barred from teaching at University of Göttingen because she was a woman. She taught for 4 years as a "guest lecturer" under David Hilbert's name. Hilbert, exasperated at the stupidity of the rule: "Gentlemen, this is not a bathing establishment."
artsci.tamu.edu
From Algebra to Airplane Crashes, Emmy Noether’s Lasting Influence on Mathematics
Emmy Noether, whom some consider the “Mother of Modern Mathematics,” continues to shape modern research and the studies of mathematicians today; including research into the investigation of airplane c...
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Nicolas Audebert @nshaud.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I'm burnt out of discussing "AI". I don't care for the press releases from big companies. I hate having to comment immediately. I dislike "hot takes". I'm worried we, as scientists, are losing touch with scientific values. We've become customers, salivating at ads marketed to investors. 1/15
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
if you are reviewing an unpublished manuscript and you have the sheer unmitigated audacity, cheek, gall and laziness to upload it into an LLM to generate a review, let me tell you, you should be shunned and tarred and feathered
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Gwen Brandt @dancnlizard.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
👇👇
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Would you want to be discovered by humans?
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
AI companies sold C suites and lazy assholes on the idea that they invented magic beans but now that the magic isn't happening they're telling everyone they're actually deadly beans and only they have the antidote for the deadly beans.
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
these people axed their writing center
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Robin T. @drrobinthomas.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The Department of Psychology at Miami University (Ohio) invites applications for an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) position in Cognitive Neuroscience to begin Fall 2027. miamioh.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/miamioh-facu...
miamioh.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com
Assistant Professor - Cognitive Neuroscience
Job Title Assistant Professor - Cognitive Neuroscience Department Psychology Department Worker Type Regular Pay Type Salary Salary will be commensurate with the level of the position, education, and e...
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/09/2026
The lawsuit challenges the NIH's current policy of using keywords to flag grant applications associated with climate change, DEI, gender, misinformation research, and vaccine hesitancy, keywords that have been used to terminate my own funding as well. Below: just a few of the banned words.
Excerpt from NIH's banned words list. More banned words
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 16/09/2026
I don't think there's a better illustration of the incredible danger of people credulously and irresponsibly over-adopting generative AI than the use of it by DOCTORS to note vital information. This should be as illegal as fabricating notes by hand. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
Error by AI scribe during medical appointment leaves patient devastated
But that decision would cause her a lot of stress, with the AI scribe making up the serious but false claim that Ms Green was taking illegal drugs.

"I was gobsmacked and in tears … it made up that I take [psychedelic] mushrooms. I have never done mushrooms in my life,"  she said.
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Jonathan Feingold @jpygold.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
@aaup.org @biblioracle.bsky.social & Katie Rainwater nails what everyone misses. Heritage Foundation hates college full stop. They bash DEI to get in the door, but the point is to close the door on everyone. That's why they want to own accreditation. Say no today: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
academicfreedomontheline.substack.com
With Proposed Federal Rules, Heritage Foundation Upends Higher Education
Who is up for a little Christian Nationalism embedded into our higher education system?
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