Reposted by Rachel MitchellDr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 26/03/2026if Wikipedia, an org with a shoestring budget and volunteer workforce can ban use of llms, what excuse do large orgs and universities have 7820271
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 26/03/2026Ecologists! I have received four sets of paper reviews back in the last month, and two had obviously AI generated reviews: @plos.org and @journalofecology.bsky.social. We also have reviews from @journalofecology.bsky.social that I strongly suspect were AI. Our peers are intellectually lazy. 291
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 26/03/2026I actually got a second set of AI generated reviews on a different manuscript today from @journalofecology.bsky.social , so I will absolutely be reaching out 000
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 16/03/2026If you are going to use AI to "help" you review, engage your brain and evaluate what the AI is flagging! It can't reason, and it is going to flag the things a 1st year grad might. Also, "internally inconsistent", immediate 🚩for AI use. Looking at you @journalofecology.bsky.social Reviewer 1. 101
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/02/2026Which is how you end up with a review that says that "the track changes version has insertion artifacts" and the paragraph "has not been rebuilt end-to-end". 110
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/02/2026I totally agree. Reviewing a manuscript also requires contextualization, which AI is also bad at. I think because this was @plos the reviewer felt like they could just drop the file into AI, focus on methods, copy and paste, and be done. 110
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/02/2026Sure, I think there is room for a measured approach in AI. Some of what you say, such as "learning new syntax nigh unnecessary" is, to me, alarming from a long term expertise standpoint. But also, review of scientific manuscripts is more than a technical exercise. Or at least, it should be. 110
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/02/2026You are definitely an outlier compared to what the literature reports on efficiency gains from AI use! 100
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/02/2026I am really pissed and going to contest it. It is so obviously AI, and the editor 1) accepted it and 2) rejected the paper even though the review is nonsense! Some of the critiques are that there are "obvious insertion artifacts" in the track changes version...Duh? 110
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/02/2026Welp, just got an obviously AI-generated review back from @plos.org. Love that there was no disclosure and a students manuscript has been fed to the machine. 120
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 06/01/2026Oh NSF, for having the "best merit review system" you sure have problems with consistency! 010
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/12/2025We have two maniacs but Midge the border is the real killer. These three have really held up well! a.co/d/8GlsH8t a.co/d/4e8sUrT a.co/d/gRt81Eo 000
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/12/2025Oh, I have some Amazon US recommendations for you! We have a few squeaky toys that have lasted months!! Months! 110
Reposted by Rachel MitchellLeslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 11/12/2025NSF - Forced reorg - POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements) - Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …) I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing. “Details matter” 🙃 12372203
Reposted by Rachel MitchellAlessandro Rigolon @alerigolon.bsky.social · 30/10/202518-29 year olds: bless your heart, you were duped so badly. From +5 to -51 (!!!) 5668
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 30/09/2025Just in case you ever forget that #rejectionistherule this was the ranking on a grant declined yesterday by the NSF. 000
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 03/09/2025They aren't screening for testicular cancer by squishing balls, though they could! Wonder why that might be? 041
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 03/09/2025I was literally just thinking about this. You know how they could, but don't screen for testicular cancer? Wonder why? Your modern doctor doesn't mean to cause pain, but our technology is a legacy of ignoring women's pain and discomfort. AND mammograms are inaccurate and lead to painful biopsies 020
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 21/08/2025futurism.com/commitment-j...futurism.comPeople Are Being Involuntarily Committed, Jailed After Spiraling Into "ChatGPT Psychosis"People experiencing "ChatGPT psychosis" are being involuntarily committed to mental hospitals and jailed following AI mental health crises. 100
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 25/07/2025It's good to know that this happens at places like Uchicago as well as UA. Last year we had a big whoopsiedoodle miscalculation of 250 million that led to a shortfall of 170 million. The incompetence is absolutely staggering. Insult to injury, a huge contributor was spending on sports. 110
Reposted by Rachel MitchellMichael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 22/07/2025Are you a natural resource or agricultural economics PhD or postdoc interested in real world policy work? Come work with CEPP's growing food team on quantifying subsidies in the dairy and beef industry! If not, pass the word! careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/food-sy...careersearch.stanford.eduFood Systems Resource Economics Fellow, Stanford Law School in School of Law, Stanford, California, United States*NOTE: This position has been deemed critical/has specific funding, has been approved by the Law School for posting, and is exempt from the hiring... 2125
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 10/07/2025But does offloading these relatively easy tasks (that some might argue help you think more deeply about what you are doing) outweigh emissions/data center costs/human toll? 210
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 10/07/2025Cutting until you hit something vital is the capitalist way.vital.isVital – Ljómi og lífsgæði 020
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 10/07/2025Who is this article kidding? Error prone, probabilistic, hallucinating AI is coming for my University job! 110
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 10/07/2025So many ecological processes are highly tied to VPD. Here, Atmospheric aridity strongly influences fire behavior. 010
Reposted by Rachel MitchellLora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 06/07/2025The percentage of tasks AI "agents" are currently failing at may spell trouble for the industry... futurism.com/ai-agents-fa...futurism.comThe Percentage of Tasks AI Agents Are Currently Failing At May Spell Trouble for the IndustryThe best AI Agents are currently failing about 70 percent of the tasks assigned to them, as investments are expected to drop off a cliff. 1221260
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 01/07/2025You can't make this stuff up folks: retractionwatch.com/2025/06/30/s...retractionwatch.comSpringer Nature book on machine learning is full of made-up citationsWould you pay $169 for an introductory ebook on machine learning with citations that appear to be made up? If not, you might want to pass on purchasing Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Ad… 262
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 30/06/2025Check out it's black-bellied cousin, the Kaibab squirrel! 010
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 30/06/2025Had this happen with my CAREER. So heartbreaking. 020
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 24/06/2025Taught Fire Ecology for the first time this past semester. Just checked my course reviews: my work here is done. 060
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 24/06/2025For me, the biggest concern with these plants in the Sonoran basin and range is their transformative nature; increased fuel loads and continuity in a fire sensitive system during the pyrocene will transform the Sonoran. 010
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 23/06/2025Today a bronzed cowbird sang to me at very close quarters. One of the most bizarre bird songs I have ever heard from the gorgeous little parasite. macaulaylibrary.org/asset/45159macaulaylibrary.orgML45159 - Bronzed Cowbird (Bronzed) - Macaulay LibraryMacaulay Library ML45159; © Geoffrey A. Keller; Arizona, United States 000
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 21/06/2025Every time I type ratio it comes out ration. Also bouteloueaueuea.... 010
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 19/06/2025Abundance-weighted traits are the mechanistic link, here! 000
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 19/06/2025Having had close encounters with one of those authors, the invasive species denialism is completely irrational, cherry-picked, and emotional. Great Science and Nature fodder though. 030
Reposted by Rachel MitchellFoz Meadows @fozmeadows.bsky.social · 18/06/2025my hottest educational take is that schools should actively, non-punitively teach students how to admit when they don't know something, aren't sure or have made a mistake, with various teaching frameworks adapted to support this ideal, because people who can't admit fault are breaking the world 8152801465
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 18/06/2025Post an insect that looks like it's generated by AI, but isn't! I found one of these in my yard for the first time ever after being an Arizona resident for 30 years. Giant mesquite bug (5th instar; Thasus neocalifornicus) Glamor shot vs the one in my yard. #inverts 1142
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 17/06/2025We also have a pending submission program that hasn't updated since we submitted in January...R2I2. I suspect that one is also dead in the water. 000
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 17/06/2025#terriertuesday #terriertuned Midge's theme song is Donna Summer's "Bad Girl", deployed liberally when she is chewing something she stole underneath a bed 2602
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Your own post mentions that the applications are similar...so it isn't as though the women aren't as qualified. Recognizing that you've fucked up and excluded women for years, and then accepting more of them that are equally as qualified as men to right that wrong doesn't seem like an issue. 020
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Smart, snuggly, with jaws like a hyena. I've had dogs for 24 years and I will never have another breed after having a border. Midge, murderer of lizards. 020
Rachel Mitchell @funeco.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Still only 40% of new members! Imagine having to favor women 15x over men to still not reach parity! 130
Reposted by Rachel MitchellJulie DiCaro @juliedicaro.bsky.social · 13/06/2025I still cannot get over a woman who shows up to a jungle prison in full glam make up complaining about “political theater.” 315524