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M.J. Crockett

@mjcrockett.bsky.social
21K followers 2.2K following 603 posts

Professor of Psychology & Human Values at Princeton | Cognitive scientist curious about technology, narratives, & epistemic (in)justice | They/She 🏳️‍🌈 www.crockettlab.org

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Reposted by M.J. Crockett
Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 6h
Just listed to @adambecker.bsky.social's podcast episode with @emilymbender.bsky.social and I highly recommend it. One thing that really resonates with me is when Dr. Bender says that she was just doing her work and 'minding her own business' and then this whole AI thing went sideways. Can relate.
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Margaret Mitchell @mmitchell.bsky.social · 11h
This is getting a lot of quotes, so I feel I should correct this a bit (sorry @anildash.com!) “AI” was 100% born toxic! The first AI workshop was born from the field of “automata studies”, and…1/ (Pictured: the folks who convened for the first workshop. Notice anything notable here?)
A group of white men, sitting on the grass and smiling at the photographer. Black and white photo (1956).
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 14h
Excellent piece www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
insidehighered.com
On Proper Objects of Study and the Humanities (opinion)
A recent report on the humanities criticizes the distortion of scholarship in the service of political goals. Other disciplines would like a word.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 05/10/2026
To the person noting there is not enough money in the world to license every piece of intellectual property stolen for "AI" training: you're sooooo close to the point, friend, keep going, you'll get there if you try
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Andrew Deck @andrewdeck.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
ChatGPT is adding the signatures of real New Yorker cartoonists to its AI-generated images. So far, I've found the signatures of more than 15 contributors. "It’s slop, and unlike the other slop that I’ve encountered, this is slop that’s pretending to be me." www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/chat...
Left: A cartoon generated by ChatGPT and signed with Emily Flake’s signature that was posted to a Reddit forum in June. Right: A real Emily Flake cartoon published in The New Yorker on August 20, 2026 and licensed via The Cartoon Bank.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Anand is the best (and I'm doing an event with him at, yes, @cityartssf.bsky.social Thursday, for his new book Man in the Mirror). Couldn't agree more that cities are refuges or places of last resort for people kicked out of rural/suburban/pseudo-idyllic America.
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Nieman Lab @niemanlab.org · 05/10/2026
ChatGPT is adding real cartoonists’ signatures to fake New Yorker cartoons buff.ly/YJ1mAiP
buff.ly
ChatGPT is adding real cartoonists’ signatures to fake New Yorker cartoons
OpenAI's chatbot isn't just imitating the magazine's style. It's also falsely attributing AI-generated images to real artists.
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Berna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I don't understand this. 52 years later, why try and replicate the original? It's obviously not going to be the same study. The world has changed; cars, traffic, and people have changed. If one is interested in false memory, why not design the best study you can? What can you conclude meaningfully?
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Caro Flores @floresophize.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Social media doesn't just feed you bad information. It trains you in how to treat information: who to trust, how much evidence is enough, what counts as a good explanation. And it trains you for a world that doesn't exist. New @PPR (yay!) and free here: philpapers.org/rec/FLOBMS
doi.org
Beyond Misinformation: Social Media and the Sculpting of Epistemic Agency
The dominant account of social media's epistemic harms focuses on the spread of misinformation and the production of false beliefs at scale. This paper argues that the misinformation narrative, whate...
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CameronJBunker.bsky.social @cameronjbunker.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
A Few Days Remaining to Submit to the Media and Technology Precon at @spspnews.bsky.social, featuring talks from @mjcrockett.bsky.social Richard Landers and others, along with early career data blitzes and posters. Submit your media and tech work here by 8 October (11:50 pm) CEST via the link below👇
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Jed Brown @jedbrown.org · 05/10/2026
If you are an academic who uses arXiv, please consider signing this. **Give Authors Control: Let Us Decide If AI Bots Can Read Our arXiv Papers** math.mit.edu/~elmos/petit...
Currently, authors posting to arXiv have no control over whether bots scrape their full-text PDFs and LaTeX source files.

We are calling on arXiv to implement a simple permission toggle during submission, allowing authors to decide what automated scrapers can access:

Full Access: Bots can read and scrape the full text and source files.

Metadata Only: Bots are restricted to the Title, Abstract, and Citation metadata.

Open science for human readers should not mean mandatory, unconsented data harvesting by commercial entities. Advancing scientific knowledge demands immense time, resources, and intellectual rigor — we deserve a say in whether our original work is fed into massive, opaque training sets.
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Excellent move
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
What kills me is that it's no longer Internet randos using AI to cosplay as philosophers, historians or scientists. It's established philosophers, historians and scientists surrendering their hard-won intellectual agency and integrity in a rapid cascade, faster than even my darkest prediction. 1/1
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April Bailey @ahbailey.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
🗣️ New preprint! @jialin-lin-zhou.bsky.social Western samples tend to think of a "person" as a man. How persistent is this? Striking evidence from two novel groups begins to answer this question; see below for findings from the matrilineal Mosuo and from an age-diverse mainstream Chinese sample ⬇️
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 03/10/2026
Columnist Stephen Rattner probably got screwed over by the headline writer, but I'm seriously floored at how poor a job these six charts do at showing that we need AI.
nytimes.com
Opinion | Six Charts That Show Just How Much We Need A.I. (Gift Article)
All the worry about artificial intelligence should not obscure this key point: If we don’t develop it, we’ll be a lot worse off.
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Lora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
it is mentally, intellectually, spiritually, exhausting to be dealing with the same injustices for an entire lifetime when we know, observe, speak on or report on the structural & societal norms causing & worsening it all. (this applies to many issues & news stories. cornell 7 most on my mind.)
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Marius Vollberg @mariusvollberg.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Did you leave twitter? How much worse would it have been for everyone if you had stayed? New paper w/ Jörg Gross (out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com) shows that selfish *and* prosocial actors distort the social impact of their actions, with selfish-serving distortions showing greater contagion.
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
To think that there is nothing to be learned and innovated on from the safety practices of other industries is lunacy. AI tools are power. They are not magical or exempt from safety practices that work for other complex systems. Governing AI requires disenchantment; break the spell.
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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The fiscal year is over. The dying Social, Behavioral, and Economic division of NSF ended up awarding 90 total grants this year, as opposed to ~700-800 in recent past years. Source: grantwitness.org/nsf/analyses...
The graph shows the cumulative number of awards made by month across this fiscal year, as compared to the last 6 fiscal years. The line for this year is total flat until June, but then finally gets up to 91 by October. In prior years the increase starts building earlier and ends on average in the 700-800 range (with variability, last year was only between 400-500).
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 02/10/2026
Calling all NYC artists — painters, filmmakers, poets, musicians and more! Did you know our city provides grants to support your work every year? And this year, we're DOUBLING the amount — from $5,000 up to $10,000 per artist! Deadlines are approaching fast — apply today at nyc.gov/artistgrants.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Unless Congress reclaims its power, this will just become the new normal. A good first step would be to impeach Vought. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/u...
nytimes.com
National Science Foundation Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds Mandated by Congress
The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
As @lmesseri.bsky.social and I have been saying
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Meredith Martin @mmvty.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Have a smallish piece of new research at the intersection of humanities & machine learning or cultural analytics to share? Pitch it to @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, the special features editor of @culturalanalytics.bsky.social!
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes. See also: www.nature.com/articles/s44...
nature.com
Proprietary LLMs impede scientific transparency and reproducibility - Nature Reviews Psychology
Large language models (LLMs) are rapidly transforming the methods of psychological research, but the use of proprietary models poses risks to transparency and reproducibility. Prioritizing open models...
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Lisa Messeri @lmesseri.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
one of the reasons that I warn researchers away from adapting commercial LLMs into their pipeline is that Big Tech has a history of sunsetting popular, usable products and replacing them with worse ones. (i'm trying to ween myself off of google scholar, but it is hard).
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
the news cycle these past few weeks has been A Lot but the undergrads in my seminar are so smart and creative and thoughtful and empathetic and curious, it is just about keeping me sane
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"the more we dug into Rubin’s claims and data, the more we realized that the assessments should not be kept confidential. The claims were too extreme, the institutions behind it were too prominent, and...media attention to the...project and to sociology’s supposed 'politicization' was too immense"
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 27/09/2026
another day, another bit of evidence that the scientists who willingly hand over proprietary information to AI firms may experience some consequences
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The idea that people want AI oversight to happen "all of a sudden" ignores years of research, warnings, and policy efforts. The delay hasn’t been a lack of awareness; it’s been because of years of industry lobbying against regulation, political resistance, and inaction.
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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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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
👇
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Catherine D'Ignazio (she/her/ella) @kanarinka.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
MIT spent $3 million on 500 AI-capable surveillance cameras while laying people off, shutting down libraries, and canceling journal subscriptions. In this article, 4 faculty & I discuss our new arts initiative to celebrate surveillance and repression on college campuses: fnl.mit.edu/how-we-learn...
fnl.mit.edu
How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Campus Surveillance – MIT Faculty Newsletter
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
over the past few weeks several AI evaluation/cybersecurity experts have explained how what's happening is a result of human incompetence rather than "AI going rogue". I'm begging the media to show a shred of journalistic integrity and stop parroting what altman or amodei say
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Tania Lombrozo @tanialombrozo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
WHY WE ASK WHY will be released in October and I'll be on the road! Please join me if you're in or near my stops - Warwick's in La Jolla (Oct 1), Labyrinth in Princeton (Oct 7), Porter Square Books in Cambridge (Oct 15), Brown in Providence (Oct 16), and Manny's in SF (Oct 20).
Image with book tour dates and locations for Tania Lombrozo's book Why We Ask Why
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
‘We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.’ This is a CEO openly confessing to a level of acquired mental indolence that, were he not coddled 24/7 by an army of paid underlings, would make him incapable of living independently and feeding himself. He’s fine with it. Your kids won’t be.
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MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is it. This is what everyone is enabling by humoring genAI: you spend months writing something that took you years to get at, for an opaque algorithm that a few control to spit a number and cut you off right there and then. This is what we're up against 🧪
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Mark Dingemanse @markdingemanse.net · 25/09/2026
yes and — when I see calls to stop anthropomorphising, they typically are directed not at "people" (unspecified) but at professionals in journalism and science, where these frames are most consequential and are often weaponised to erase accountability, obscure agency, and play into corporate agendas
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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
danah's book is excellent, and today is the day you can buy it!
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Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Meanwhile the real miraculous future tech is solar & mRNA vaccines: preserving the planet and curing cancer. But we’re supposed to hand everything over to malevolent peeping toms and resource oubliettes for an ill defined ‘pay no attention to the man behind the curtain’ progress. It isn’t rational.
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Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
See, I refuse to let them make me say I hate technology. Because it’s not true! I LOVE technology. I don’t like weird mean dudes demanding we pour all of earths resources into a project that *they advertise* as world destroying. Because that is incredibly stupid, on its face.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
... and much, much more from MANY voices. When the EA claim "no one has been warning you about this stuff" they are doing a double erasure: 1) Of the people doing the warning 2) Of the actual harms they are warning about bsky.app/profile/emil... >>
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
There seems to be a coordinated talking point among the EA folks that the "standard" approach to "AI" on "the Left" is "AI is just stochastic parrots so no need to worry about it". (Sorry for all the scare quotes, but y'know) >>
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
From @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...
technologyreview.com
Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype
Breathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/09/2026
As Alex notes in this thread, AI doesn't "democratize" science. Rather, it compels scientists to rely on anti-egalitarian means of directing their attention.
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Reviewer Zero @reviewerzero.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Editing is hard, and editors shape how peer review works. Reviewer Zero is recruiting the 4th cohort of our Editor Learning Community: five 1-hour meetings with editors working to make review better. Interested in 2026 or later? forms.gle/Cu6aJs3kGvYo... Please share with your networks!
forms.gle
Editor Learning Community with Reviewer Zero
Join Reviewer Zero for a learning community to support editors who are interested in improving psychology and neuroscience by including a broader range of people, topics, and methods. Our goal is to c...
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Matt Goldrick @mattgoldrick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Are you an (associate) editor? Help Reviewer Zero improve our peer review culture! Join our Editor Learning Community, share your expertise, and benefit from the insights of your colleagues. Details below!
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Especially ironic given how many tech elites say they practice meditation
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Thinking about the selling point of "AI" supposedly "freeing up time" to do important things. Beyond devaluing the tasks that we can supposedly offload to software systems, it occurs to me that this is kind of opposite of mindfulness/being in the moment. >>
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Every chatbot prompt box says "check answers for accuracy." But increasingly, "humans in the loop" refuse to do that. Instead, they become complicit in the AI industry's project of destroying the provenance of information. But you are person, and it is an app. It can't take responsibility for you.
productpicnic.beehiiv.com
Assigning agency to AI means surrendering your own
Claude is not a colleague, collaborator, or sentient being. It is a SaaS product.
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Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The strange intolerance of the academy from Thiel-adjacent folks in Silicon Valley has had folk game theory, folk evolution, folk behavioral sciences, folk philosophy etc come to define conversations around tech policy with AI and it truly sucks.
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