Sign in

Gregory Convertito

@gregconvertito.bsky.social
333 followers 549 following 275 posts

Philosophy adjunct. Political philosophy, Marx, Latin America, and some other stuff. he/him gregoryconvertito.wordpress.com Series editor of @apaphilosophy.bsky.social Teaching and Learning Video Series. Not expressing the views of my employer.

PostsRepliesMedia
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
“This gives the College Board, or an individual state legislature with whom the College Board wishes to remain in good standing, tremendous power in shaping not only K–12 education, but the civic common sense of the country as a whole.”
123
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
if you need to "check everything" that an LLM spits out in peer review, aren't you just making MORE work for yourself? What is even happening, and why is adding more steps and labor somehow considered the "better" way to do peer review???
1648984
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
There’s more to be said about the relationship between Pinker-style stardom and the state of academia. Not because academia is Woke, but because star systems loosen rigor at the top while solid scholarship becomes a dead end lower down. Shoddy celebrities and broke PhDs proceed from the same machine
838888
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
1. Great article. 2. Great excuse to return to one of the classic philosophical takedowns of evopsych:
lrb.co.uk
Jerry Fodor · The Trouble with Psychological Darwinism
0173
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The mathematicians have hit the nail on the head with this one. Even if you are in the humanities, I recommend you read this letter in full.
110
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“…to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.”
000
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
OpenAI stole the notes and research of a mathematician working on the Navier-Stokes problem, and Anthropic is buying up and pulping millions of rare books. And admin is pushing academics and students to use these ‘tools.’
000
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
jess m. ☕🍂 @jametc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I'm sure this is a goof but, it's a notable news story: tl;dr, openAI stole all the notes and documentation that a mathematician had been keeping as he solved a famous math problem. He solved it, but openAI is trying to take credit for it, but got found out after admitting they trained on his notes
4499156
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Millennium math problem solved by OpenAI may have "regurgitated" competitors unpublished work... also they spent more than $22 million in computing power in one week to scoop them. techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/o...
techcrunch.com
OpenAI fought dirty on career-making math problem, says NYU mathematician | TechCrunch
There is a $1 million bounty for the first person providing a solution to the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem.
391331459
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I think there’s actually something important to be worked out ideologically about how these folks take statistics for reality, and then jettison reality itself without encountering it.
0132
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 02/09/2026
I am very skeptical. I mean with this error rate it makes most of this useless!
3336689
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Excerpt from Marx’s and Engels’s “The German Ideology”:

The Illusions of German Ideology

As we hear from German ideologists, Germany has in the last few years gone through an unparalleled revolution. The decomposition of the Hegelian philosophy, which began with Strauss, has developed into a universal ferment into which all the “powers of the past” are swept. In the general chaos mighty empires have arisen only to meet with immediate doom, heroes have emerged momentarily only to be hurled back into obscurity by bolder and stronger rivals. It was a revolution beside which the French Revolution was child’s play, a world struggle beside which the struggles of the Diadochi [successors of Alexander the Great] appear insignificant. Principles ousted one another, heroes of the mind overthrew each other with unheard-of rapidity, and in the three years 1842-45 more of the past was swept away in Germany than at other times in three centuries.
All this is supposed to have taken place in the realm of pure thought.
Certainly it is an interesting event we are dealing with: the putrescence of the absolute spirit.
010
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
dissentmagazine.org/article/cult...
dissentmagazine.org
Which Way, Western Marxism? - Dissent Magazine
Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? is an inversion of a right-wing conspiracy, in which the prominence of the Frankfurt School is explained as the result of a plot to destroy truly revolutionary ...
000
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
there is no rhyme or reason to an entire “AI” department, much less an AI school. There is no curriculum, as such, because AI is not a school of thought. It has no theory, no method. It’s just a tool. Two or three courses, max, if someone is obsessed with it should suffice.
211777278
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Almost every single student who has found me this week wants to talk about AI. A couple reflections. One student has taken three AI courses in philosophy, health sciences and comm. They’re basically the same class. As it turns out, it doesn’t take a lot of classes to “learn” ai.
91791311
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Fklv2 @fklv2.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I tried to write some chapters of a book about AI in material physics, including theoretical methods and detailed programmed examples. It turns out that these chapters are pretty short, indeed. The background needed in physics, math, computer science, numerical analysis, is huge, however.
15312
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
What a life.
Dog sleeping on couch, cuddled with pillow and toy.
000
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
@janerosenzweig.bsky.social with a thread here demonstrating yet again that AI is a tool of cognitive automation. It’s not helping students think. It’s a substitution for thinking.
0174
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I liked Nolan’s film, and I liked Wilson’s review of it.
010
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Great thread. “ChatGPT is bullshit” thesis remains substantively undefeated. doi.org/10.1007/s106...
doi.org
ChatGPT is bullshit - Ethics and Information Technology
Recently, there has been considerable interest in large language models: machine learning systems which produce human-like text and dialogue. Applications of these systems have been plagued by persistent inaccuracies in their output; these are often called “AI hallucinations”. We argue that these falsehoods, and the overall activity of large language models, is better understood as bullshit in the sense explored by Frankfurt (On Bullshit, Princeton, 2005): the models are in an important way indifferent to the truth of their outputs. We distinguish two ways in which the models can be said to be bullshitters, and argue that they clearly meet at least one of these definitions. We further argue that describing AI misrepresentations as bullshit is both a more useful and more accurate way of predicting and discussing the behaviour of these systems.
030
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
An aircraft passenger oxygen mask: a drop down passenger mask with air bag and yellow plastic mouth and nose cover, oxygen tube has been cut; Demonstration model used by flight attendant crew for passenger instruction. Has text on the side indicating that it's non-functional.
193126027994
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Never lose sight of the fact that their pitch is “become intellectually dependent.”
010
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Lydia Polgreen @polgreen.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Uh, did Emily Wilson's Odyssey takedown crash the @lrb.co.uk website?
1040060
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I sometimes really do not like that my best revisions tend to come from rewriting a draft with pen and paper.
100
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Man… www.404media.co/ai-companies...
404media.co
AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop
ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”
000
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Just comical with that disallowed goal back there. What is VAR for if not to review such crucial, borderline decisions. More fuel for my argument that VAR is not built in service of accuracy at all, but for other ends altogether: www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/what-var-t...
bloodinthemachine.com
What VAR tells us about AI
FIFA's semi-automated refereeing system promises neutrality but brims with bias. It's widely despised yet embraced by elites. It is, in other words, a lot like AI.
110720
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
This month in the @apaphilosophy.bsky.social blog’s “Teaching and Learning Video Series,” Luce de Lire on thinking about AI with Rosa Wernecke’s “Before the Drop” and Zach Blas’s “Contra-Internet Inversion Practice #1.” blog.apaonline.org/2026/07/15/a...
blog.apaonline.org
AI Pedagogies of Contra-Technological Resistance | Blog of the APA
Societies carry existing violences and discriminations into the technological apparatuses they produce. Never mind how we use those machines, we are complicit. In this post, I suggest introducing stud...
101
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Blanche’s answer here translates to “I do not believe in the fourth amendment.”
000
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Ran into my elementary school custodian today and (1) he’s still the custodian at my elementary school and (2) he’s exactly as cool as I remember.
010
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Sitting in 2 diff hospitals for over 2 weeks with a close family member has further radicalized my republicanism. The patient advocate’s office should be vested with more power. And philosophically, we need to further theorize “impersonal” and “structural” domination. Because that’s what’s going on.
120
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
On a more serious note, a large proportion of my students appear not to believe that tasks that were completely routine 3-4 years ago are even possible without offloading cognition to an LLM.
000
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 09/07/2026
A recent scandal at Brown University gives us a better sense of what this kind of cheating looks like in one particular class—and just how much it may be substituting for actual learning.
arstechnica.com
Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy League prof ordered an in-person final; scores fell 50%
AI cheating leads to "a failed society," professor says.
59530
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
retweeting this because I really believe that comparison of our current political situation with the recent trajectory of Mexico is instructive, both in the similarities and the divergences.
122
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 29/06/2026
to repeat a point, the underlying political theory of the unitary executive is the president as tribune — an instantiation of the sovereign will of the people. it is a Bonapartist vision of the executive and it cashes out in the idea that the executive branch must follow the president's will.
161666194
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I would watch this. @alexwinter.com
000
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Laura Keating @lorekeating.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
I keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines. Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."
216102552836
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Bolts @boltsmag.org · 14/06/2026
Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, an expert on digital surveillance, says local leaders must assess the effect on civil liberties far more thoroughly: “These are pretty basic questions and yet are rarely asked before new police technology is purchased.”
boltsmag.org
“Everything, Everywhere, All at Once Surveillance”: Your Questions Answered - Bolts
A legal expert on digital surveillance answers questions from Bolts readers about how police track your personal data, and what public officials could be doing to restrict it.
05723
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Kierkegaard with speech bubble
1389
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
The resurgence of political violence we are witnessing is very bad.
000
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Since life is keeping me busy I don't have time to do much writing and what not now, so just to keep my blog active I fired off a quick post about the latest report on the humanities. sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-...
sootyempiric.blogspot.com
The Null Hypothesis Regarding the Humanities
Unfortunately life is keeping me too busy right now for blogging, or really much else. But I just thought I would weigh in on the State of t...
2317031
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
i've already made similar sounds to liam about this, but one other thing: the report notably does not reckon at all with the sort of work in philosophy that meets its abstract description of the Problematic Scholarly Tendencies, but is widely (though controversially) considered to be high quality
3173
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
"It's a republic, not a democracy" say the people cheering for gladiatorial combat in the capital city in a mixture of patriotic fervor and celebration of the ruler's birthday.
281133236
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 12/06/2026
Amazing: KPMG wrote a report describing the successful use of AI by businesses. But the case studies turned out to be AI hallucinations. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
KPMG report contained AI hallucinations on benefits of . . . AI
Bogus case studies on UBS and transit systems exaggerated adoption of the technology
952318923
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
So grim. In the 1990s I visited China. The faculty there couldn’t believe I designed my own courses. They kept asking the same question in different ways thinking I hadn’t understood. I assumed that China would come to adopt Western freedoms, not US would adopt central control.
5492181
Gregory Convertito @gregconvertito.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
😢
static.klipy.com
I'M Almost Certainly Not I Wasn'T Listening
Alt: Rupert Giles: I'm Almost Certainly Not—but to be fair I Wasn't Listening
010
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Jason Briggeman @jbriggeman.liberalcurrents.com · 01/06/2026
Good opportunity for me to admit that the unnamed professor in this piece was Jason Brennan sweettalkconversation.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/t...
sweettalkconversation.wordpress.com
The Paradox of Commenting
There is a literature, or at least a batch of memes, holding that voting is not an ‘instrumentally rational’ activity, since casting a ballot is costly and one’s vote is unlikely …
282
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Jason Kuznicki @jkuznicki.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I remember being a kid in the 80s and reading these books about British kids in the 40s, and how different, and how very hard, their lives were. Whoa! And then they went to Narnia.
1143
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Bruno Leipold @brunoleipold.com · 27/05/2026
Appreciated this very thoughtful review from Amy Allen, including a critique that I now think is justified onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
082
Reposted by Gregory Convertito
Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 27/05/2026
Happy to see @rweingarten.bsky.social is starting to catch up with the rest of us on the dangers of "A.i." in the schools. Now it's time for her to CANCEL the @aft.org's partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft to push "A.i." on teachers and students. www.nbcnews.com/news/educati...
nbcnews.com
Teachers union president calls for limits on AI and screen time in schools
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is backing a parent-led movement to restrict how much time elementary school students spend on laptops in class.
5586173