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Jonathan Webber

@jonathanwebber.bsky.social
455 followers 299 following 201 posts

Half victim, half accomplice, like everyone

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Reposted by Jonathan Webber
Strategic Tape Reserve @strategictaper.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is why people try to destroy music, why the music industry, streaming industry, AI are all designed to function in a way that crushes and humiliates music. Because for people who dislike music, there is no other outlet. This is the only way our society accepts an expression of not liking music.
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Rethinking Existentialism @rethinkexistent.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
#philsky #booksky #bristol @stgeorgesbris.bsky.social at St George's Bristol on World Philosophy Day 2026 –– Philosophy Salon: Existentialism as Therapy? Julian Baggini with Emmy van Duerzen and Jonathan Webber Thursday 19 November, 7.30pm Full details: bit.ly/PSEAT
Cover of Emmy van Deurzen's new book, Beginning to Live: The Art of Existential Freedom.Cover of The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy, edited by Jonathan Webber
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Cardiff Philosophy @cardiffphilosophy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
#philsky British Society of Aesthetics and Welsh Aesthetics Forum present … Environmental Aesthetics & Valuing the Natural World 9.00 - 17.30 Wednesday 30 September 2026 Council Chamber, Main Building, Cardiff University Free! All welcome! Register here:
eventbrite.co.uk
Environmental Aesthetics & Valuing the Natural World: A BSA/WAF Workshop
This workshop brings together some of the most prominent thinkers to reflect on the role and future of environmental aesthetics.
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
#philsky #booksky ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨ Coming soon ... ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨ @routledgebooks.bsky.social
Cover of the forthcoming Routledge book Existentialism: The Basics by Jonathan Webber. Cover image is a photo of a Parisian café in a classic Hausmann block with street chairs and tables. Photo includes the floor above the café, largely obscured by the series' signature hole/ball with the title and author name in, then above it some of the next floor with wrought iron juliette balconies.
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
#philsky #booksky ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨ Coming soon ... ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨ @routledgebooks.bsky.social
Cover of the forthcoming Routledge book Existentialism: The Basics by Jonathan Webber. Cover image is a photo of a Parisian café in a classic Hausmann block with street chairs and tables. Photo includes the floor above the café, largely obscured by the series' signature hole/ball with the title and author name in, then above it some of the next floor with wrought iron juliette balconies.
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Past Present Future Podcast @ppfideas.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In today’s episode exploring how 20th-century philosophy and biography intersect David talks to philosopher and biographer @philosofemme.bsky.social about Jean-Paul Sartre, a thinker whose life has been as closely scrutinised as his ideas. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Incidentally on both occasions - Tuesday's statement and PMQs - gilt rates spiked the moment markets opened (the hallmark of imported volatility) and actually came down while Burnham was on his feet. Every single part of the media machine confecting the narrative understands this and does it anyway.
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David Papineau @davidpapineau.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
We are hiring—a permanent lectureship in Ethics/Political Philosophy—deadline 15 Nov www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/144566-...
kcl.ac.uk
Lecturer in Ethics and/or Political Philosophy | King's College London
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
« “Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world,” an internal Anthropic planning document said. “We don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.” »
forbes.com
Are AI Companies Really Buying—And Destroying–Antique Books?
Millions of physical books are being scanned to train AI models. They’re then dumped in the trash.
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Jonathan Calder @lordbonkers.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Boy the home office tried to deport at 9 wins British chess championship at 17 Congratulations to Shreyas Royal. liberalengland.blogspot.com/2026/08/boy-...
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Headline of the Day surely goes to @theguardian.com —
Science Weekly
Which type of thinker are you? +
US explosive diarrhoea outbreak
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Rethinking Existentialism @rethinkexistent.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
#philsky #booksky ✨✨ The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy is now published in North America! ✨✨ here are some of the things people have said about it ...
penguinrandomhouse.com
The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy: 9780241645413 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
A powerful new anthology that redefines ourunderstanding of existentialism and argues for itscontemporary relevance A Penguin Classic In the aftermath of the Second World War, a group of intellectua...
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Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Open plan offices are the best approach for office space. But the open plan desks should be used by managers. The actual workers need to concentrate and should have individual, soundproofed offices. Managers need to chitchat, so they need a noisy room.
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Strategic Tape Reserve @strategictaper.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
They should build loads of data centers all over the place that contain huge quantities of books that people can borrow for free if they fill out a form to get a data center card and promise to return the books on time and don’t make too much noise in the data center.
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
“The corporate takeover of language and thought will only succeed if academics and students allow it.” Edinburgh Philosophy telling it like it is #philsky #ai
dailynous.com
Does Your Department Have an AI Policy? Here’s Edinburgh’s - Daily Nous
Has your department instituted an AI policy? If so, whom does it govern, and what does it say? What should such a policy say? Has your department considered an AI policy but held off on writing or imp...
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
“The corporate takeover of language and thought will only succeed if academics and students allow it.” Edinburgh Philosophy telling it like it is #philsky #ai
dailynous.com
Does Your Department Have an AI Policy? Here’s Edinburgh’s - Daily Nous
Has your department instituted an AI policy? If so, whom does it govern, and what does it say? What should such a policy say? Has your department considered an AI policy but held off on writing or imp...
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Sonny Rollins @thesonnyrollins.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
It is with deep sorrow and profound love that we announce the passing of Sonny Rollins. The Saxophone Colossus died this afternoon at his home in Woodstock, NY at the age of 95. 1/2
Photo of Sonny Rollins playing saxophone in 2009 by John Abbott
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
“investigation had found that AI services gave voters misinformation to 34% of the questions it posed … invented fictitious scandals, gave the wrong date for the election, claimed wrongly that voters in Scottish elections needed ID at polling stations and placed candidates in the wrong contests.”
theguardian.com
ChatGPT and other AI bots made huge errors before Scottish election, study finds
Exclusive: Electoral Commission calls for new controls as Demos finds tools made up fake scandals, invented candidates or gave wrong date
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Kate Kirkpatrick @philosofemme.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
I enjoyed two years in the Philosophy department at UH and had stellar students there from Herts and the north London commuter belt. This closure of Philosophy and local opportunities for young people like them is heartbreaking.💔
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Craig French @craigfrench.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Difficult times at the University of Nottingham - the whole of the Department of Philosophy is formally at risk of redundancy, with plans to get rid of 7 people in the department. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
University of Nottingham puts 2,700 staff at risk of redundancy
The University of Nottingham says it is facing
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Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Every General Election, Panini should bring out a parliament sticker album.
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Post your warning sign
Wooden board on Climping beach in June 2021 bearing no fewer than five bright yellow warning signs:

CAUTION 
keep away from rocks
deep voids

CAUTION
vertical drop

CAUTION
exposed beach debris 

Groynes

Submerged objects
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Reposted by Jonathan Webber
Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
This entire pointlessly destructive war so far has cost the US military around $60 billion, which is around twice the amount cut from USAID which saved millions of lives.
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Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
If AI was genuinely useful your employees would choose to use it, you wouldn't have to mandate its use.
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Kate Kirkpatrick @philosofemme.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Went to the Gwen John exhibition at the National Museum in Cardiff yesterday and it was wonderful
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
"Switzerland still has a stockpile sufficient to feed its entire population for three months and is increasing it to a year. The UK government’s advice to households is to have three days’ worth of food in their cupboards."
theguardian.com
UK must stockpile food in readiness for climate shocks or war, expert warns
Prof Tim Lang says country produces far less food than it needs to feed population and is particularly vulnerable
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
“Can someone with skills clean this up and make a 10-hour YouTube version?” #sheffield
theguardian.com
‘Like an electrical gong bath!’ The Sheffield supermarket going viral for the symphonic sound of its freezers
Redditors are thrilled by the Co-op on Ecclesall Road, where a magnificent drone is reminiscent of Brian Eno’s ambient music. We take a visit to the back aisles
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Reposted by Jonathan Webber
Error Crater - big oops @errorcrater.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
redactio ad absurdum
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Five Books - Expert Book Recommendations @fivebooks.com · 15/12/2025
Every year for the past decade, our philosophy editor, Nigel Warburton, has picked his best five philosophy books of the year. Here are all his choices -- from Buddhism to utilitarianism and Hannah Arendt to Zhuangzi: fivebooks.com/category/phi...
fivebooks.com
The Best Philosophy Books of the Decade - Five Books Expert Recommendations
It’s a golden age for popular books about philosophy, as the challenges of modern life encourage people to seek wisdom from those whose job—at least in principle—is to seek it. Whether it’s new…
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
“Existential phenomenology, far from being an esoteric philosophical discipline, has crucial political importance in helping people collectively see themselves as agents of change.” Excellent short article from Tris Hedges —
psyche.co
The existential struggle between being a ‘we’ and an ‘us’ | Psyche Ideas
Sartre’s phenomenology reveals how a shift from subject to object (and back) is not merely a matter of grammar
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
#philsky 30-minute interview with me on Dublin City FM about The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy ::
mixcloud.com
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
I'm giving an online talk on Saturday morning with the Southern Association for Psychotherapy and Counselling :: Bad Faith, Bullshit, and Belonging :: mainly Beauvoir and Sartre with some Kierkegaard and Heidegger Everyone is welcome! Booking is here: bit.ly/SAPCbfbb
On the right side: image of the cover of The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy, edited by me.

On the left side, the following text:

Bad Faith,
Bullshit, and
Belonging

22 November, 10 - 11.30am

Exploring existentialist views on bullshit, from
Kierkegaard's ‘chatter’ and Heidegger's ‘idle talk’ to
Beauvoir's ‘popular wisdom’ and Sartre's development
of these ideas to critique societal divisions.

Online talk given by
Jonathan Webber, editor of

THE PENGUIN BOOK OF
EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHY

Tickets: bit.ly/SAPCbfbb

Southern Association for Psychotherapy and Counselling
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Kate Kirkpatrick @philosofemme.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
“When faced with greed, envy, calumny, perfidy, or lies, people […] say indulgently, ‘That's human!’ With an excuse like that, they clearly show that they are renouncing any expectations of generosity or greatness from man.” —Simone de Beauvoir In this new 🐧 📕 ed. @jonathanwebber.bsky.social 👏 👇
Photo of The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy, edited by Jonathan Webber
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
✨✨ The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy edited by me is published today in the UK! (Australia and North America publication is next February.) ✨✨
penguin.co.uk
The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy
'Superb ... I can't imagine a better way of meeting the existentialists in all their variety' - Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Café ‘We are thrown into the world at every moment, an...
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
✨✨ The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy edited by me is published today in the UK! (Australia and North America publication is next February.) ✨✨
penguin.co.uk
The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy
'Superb ... I can't imagine a better way of meeting the existentialists in all their variety' - Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Café ‘We are thrown into the world at every moment, an...
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Reposted by Jonathan Webber
Cardiff Philosophy @cardiffphilosophy.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
🎈Book launch! The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy edited by Jonathan Webber Wednesday 12 November 2025 : 18:00 - 19:30 Oat & Bean, 26 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3BA Everyone is welcome! No need to register. Just turn up!
Detail from the book's cover art.
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Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Books. No cookie preferences. No cookies. No GDPR. No pop ups. No bots. No floating videos. No AI. No ads. No trackers. No misinformation. No fascist techbros. No distracting animations. No paywalls. No influencers. How good are these things? Books are frickin awesome
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Stuart Presnell @logopetria.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Police officer, running up to me: "Stop, what's that brown liquid you're pouring into the drain?" Me: "It's 1,000 gallons of untreated sewage" PO: "Phew, I thought for a minute it was a few dregs of coffee"
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Post 16 White Paper is out at last www.gov.uk/government/p...
gov.uk
Post-16 education and skills white paper
Post-16 education and skills reforms to develop a skilled workforce and break down barriers to opportunity.
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Casmilus @casmilus.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
I think it's excessive to remove all his titles. He should have just been downgraded to The Marquis Of Granby, or maybe The Slug And Lettuce.
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
“the accumulated knowledge of generations … is stored in universities as it is stored nowhere else, and it continues to be produced there, patiently and as far as the wide world goes almost anonymously, by generations of scholars in communion with each-other”
spectator.co.uk
The joy of university
For those who are privileged to go to university, they get three years suspended between childhood and the adult world
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
British monarchy encloses 150 acres of public land for their private use.
theguardian.com
‘I think it’s selfish’: William and Kate face backlash over Windsor Great Park no-go zone
Royal couple’s desire for more privacy means 2.3-mile perimeter exclusion zone and less public land for walkers
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Hunter Walker @hunterw.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
UPenn professors have responded forcefully to the Trump administration's that colleges sign a "compact" in order to secure funding: "When an invitation is accompanied by consequences for not accepting it, it is in fact a threat, not an invitation." aaup-penn.org/statement-by...
aaup-penn.org
Statement by the AAUP-Penn Executive Committee on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education | AAUP–Penn
October 2, 2025 We have received reports that Penn has been “invited” to sign a so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” by the federal government, and that failing to do so wou...
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
“AI has turbocharged the spread of bullshit and falsehoods. It is not able to produce actual, qualitative academic work, despite the claims of some in the AI industry. As researchers, as universities, we should be clearer about pushing back against these false claims by the AI industry.”
ru.nl
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Anyway, you do have to wonder what this means for "growth": yesterday's ID proposals are *designed* to make access to work more difficult for people on low incomes, and they come with the side effect of potentially squashing a growing domestic technology sector.
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
“After nearly a decade of mutilating the country to address the ‘legitimate concerns’ about immigration, we’re still being told the precise same nonsense we were told in 2016, or in 2005.” — @iandunt.bsky.social
iandunt.substack.com
ID cards are a terrible, terrible idea
Many people I admire believe firmly in ID cards, or have grown to accept them. This is why they're wrong.
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
“Either we have copyright law or we don’t. Either plagiarism and the theft of intellectual property are anathema to higher education or they aren’t. We’re either modeling academic honesty and integrity to our students or we aren’t.”
chronicle.com
Advice | Sometimes We Resist AI for Good Reasons
Why higher ed needs to listen to the contrarians in setting policies on using tools like ChatGPT in faculty work.
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Jonathan Webber @jonathanwebber.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
“AI has turbocharged the spread of bullshit and falsehoods. It is not able to produce actual, qualitative academic work, despite the claims of some in the AI industry. As researchers, as universities, we should be clearer about pushing back against these false claims by the AI industry.”
ru.nl
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 06/09/2025
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n
Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
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