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Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦

@numcog.bsky.social
5.3K followers 2.2K following 699 posts

Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience & Learning at Western University. CIFAR Fellow, FCAHS

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Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦 @numcog.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
American friends, please read this and share it with your fellow Americans.
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ingmarvisser.bsky.social @ingmarvisser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This was a fantastic team effort across 30+ labs 🌍 Paper (open access), data & code all public. > 📄 doi.org/10.1111/desc... > 💻 github.com/manybabies/m... > #ManyBabies #InfantCognition #OpenScience #DevSci, lead team: Andreea Geambaşu, Melanie Soderstrom, and Claartje Levelt
doi.org
ManyBabies 3: A Multi‐Lab Study of Infant Algebraic Rule Learning
The ability to learn and apply rules lies at the heart of cognition. In a seminal study, Marcus et al. (1999) reported that 7-month-old infants learned abstract rules over syllable sequences and were...
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Western University @westernu.ca · 29/09/2026
A combined $4M gift from the Shah Family Foundation and the Gloria Baylis Foundation has launched the Dr. George J. Klein Shah-Baylis Chair. With matching funds from #WesternU, the $8M endowed chair will advance heart rhythm research and improve care for patients with arrhythmias. 💜 #AllinWesternU
news.westernu.ca
$4M gift to Western creates Dr. George J. Kleign Shah-Baylis Chair - Western News
Western University launches the Dr. George J. Klein Shah-Baylis Chair to advance heart rhythm research and patient care.
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gamera obscura @ohrobin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Google earth has updated its satellite images of Gaza. The destruction is almost incomprehensible.
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Jeff Greene @jeffgreene.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Treatment students need continued support: "We find most support for mechanisms explaining fade-out by the treatment group being unable to build on the skills acquired in the intervention and negative side effects on parental and school investments." doi.org/10.1037/bul0...
Screenshot of the title page of an article published in the journal "Psychological Bulletin" titled: "On the Mechanisms of Intervention Effect Fade-Out: A Meta-Analytic Review  of Interventions Targeting At-Risk Students’ Achievement."
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 25/09/2026
An individual in Canada used ChatGPT for eight months to plan one of the country’s worst mass shootings. Yet, if you listen to politicians and media, the real threat of AI is a fantastical scenario where it might wipe out humans in ten years. They need to stop getting fooled by tech deceivers.
disconnect.blog
The media has the AI threat all wrong
Generative AI is harming people today. We don’t need to waste time fantasizing about science fictional scenarios.
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Sylvain Baillet @sylvainbaillet.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
👉 Tenure-track opening in neuroscience @crchum.bsky.social @umontreal.ca crchum.carrieresante.gouv.qc.ca/poste/profes...
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Schrödinger's AI: both a wee smol babby and fully grown monster
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University of Cambridge @cam.ac.uk · 25/09/2026
Cambridge University announces a new Cambridge Mind and Brain Institute focused on understanding and improving brain health across our lifespan, from early childhood through to old age. Find out more 👉 bit.ly/4hpgZsl @mrccbu.bsky.social
A large brick building with two stories and a conservatory is surrounded by greenery. Text reads, "Cambridge University announces a new Cambridge Mind and Brain institute."
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Western University @westernu.ca · 25/09/2026
Literary icon Margaret Atwood has gifted $1M to #WesternU, honouring her longtime partner Graeme Gibson, BA'58, to establish the Graeme Gibson Chair in Avian Biology - advancing research on how birds move, behave and adapt in a changing world. #AllinWesternU news.westernu.ca/2026/09/grae...
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Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦 @numcog.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A war criminal should not be speaking at UNGA and is only able to do so because the US has not signed onto the ICC
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
We must be allowed to break laws with impunity so we can birth the machine god before others, and if we can’t steal and hack and crime, then the inevitable machine god won’t have the values we want and you’ll be sorry. Sounds insane, but that’s a prevalent, influential, respected ethos today.
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laserhedvig @laserhedvig.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Interdisciplinary research is great and necessary, and also has consistently lower funding success www.nature.com/articles/nat... #academiclabourmarket #academia #research
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Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
If an individual did this, we'd treat it as a crime. We should treat this as a crime too, and hold OpenAI liable for what its models, under its supervision, did. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09...
abc.net.au
OpenAI agent hacked Medicare portal, PM says
Anthony Albanese says he has spoken to the Open AI chief executive to express his concern about the incident and the length of time it took the tech company to inform the government of the breach.
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Chris Bataille @chrisbataille.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is where the next big shoe drops www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/w...
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Natalie Brito @nataliebrito.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My department is looking to hire 3 new faculty members! Please share widely. Assistant Professor - Cognitive: apply.interfolio.com/193975 Assistant Professor - Social Psychology: apply.interfolio.com/193979 Associate/Full Professor - Mental Health: apply.interfolio.com/193984
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Brian Platt @brianplatt.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I....don't know what prompted this from the president today, but StatCan reported JUST this morning that in the past year, Canada experienced its slowest population growth since 1916. The country's population is essentially stalled right now.
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Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦 @numcog.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Mark Carney at UNGA: “The post war world is ending, but the underlying logic of that post war world that justified multilateral cooperation is more compelling than ever”
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 23/09/2026
after some in-depth discussions with my lab and also drawing on conversations on here, we've edited our new policy on AI usage in my lab feel free to adapt or re-use with attribution, or to reply to tell me how awful this policy is lol
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Article 25 (3)(e) of the statute establishing the International Criminal Court criminalizes incitement to genocide. If someone can walk into the United Nations and say this, they’re daring the court to act.
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Why do white men become white nationalists? Interesting new empirical results in Nature: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
ere we show with three national surveys of non-Hispanic white adults (conducted from 2021 to 2025) that support for white nationalism is (1) higher among white people encountering personal hardship and local social distress, consistent with strain theories3,16; (2) unrelated to local racial composition or recent demographic change, complicating status threat accounts4,17,18; and (3) elevated among white people with close friendships primarily online, consistent with theories of extremism driven by online mobilization7,10,19.
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Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
In which I explain why Canada joining Erasmus properly will a) require a lot of work b) not bring in any money and in the context of institutions being down $10B a year thanks to the feds, there might not be a lot of institutional enthusiasm for it.
higheredstrategy.com
Erasmus for Canada? Not so Fast. | HESA
Everyone seems very excited about the prospect of Canada becoming an associate member of the European Union (even though “associate member” is not an actual thing in any EU statute, but whatever), and...
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Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Canada was home to the exiled Norwegian air force -- Little Norway Park in Toronto named after it, the wooden flagpole that held their flag still there at corner of Bathurst & Queens Quay (all possibly at risk due to Liberal/Doug Ford plans to expand island airport that have been paused for now)
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 20/09/2026
Tonight, Jewish New Yorkers mark the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. It is the peak of the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, and an opportunity for profound reflection.
 
For those fasting — tzom kal, may your fast be easy and meaningful. 
 
And to all who observe, G'mar chatimah tovah. May you be sealed in the Book of Life for a good year to come.
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Debra Titone @dtitone.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Two #Developmental TT positions at McGill.. Could include people who study #language and #multilingualism. Please forward to colleagues/advanced trainees who might wish to join us in Montreal, Canada! mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/McGill_Caree...
mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
Tenure-Track Position (Assistant Professor), Developmental Psychology, Department of Psychology
Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply. If you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at ...
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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 20/09/2026
CNN: US is preparing a large-scale military operation against Yemen's Houthis in retaliation for their strikes on Saudi Arabia, with the Camp David meeting held to review Yemen strike options, shortly before Trump left for the White House.
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Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
never forget that our universities fired and expelled people for opposing this
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Olga Lautman 🇺🇦 @olgalautman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Over the past 48 hours, European officials have been sounding the alarm about Russia, with some beginning to prepare for war. Something is up. My latest…
olgalautman.substack.com
The 48 Hours When Europe Sounded the Alarm on Russia
Over the past 48 hours, the warnings about Russia have been almost nonstop.
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Kate Marvel @drkatemarvel.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
My hot take on AI and climate change is that I would not like to be killed by either of them
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Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
"We who are free have a duty to use our freedom courageously and bravely to make decisions that are for the benefit of society, nature, the climate and the world. We must protect and preserve the beauties and gifts of the Earth for future generations." - President Connolly @president.ie
rte.ie
War, genocide 'normalised' by world powers - President
President Catherine Connolly has said war and genocide are being "normalised" by world powers.
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Germany is preparing hospitals for a possible Russian escalation with NATO, Bloomberg reports. Berlin estimates up to 1,000 casualties a day could require medical care.
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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
@aoc.bsky.social just put out a great statement on AI. Refreshing to see a major politician on the left nail this. "Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity. But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves." 🎯
Charles,

Last weekend, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the largest Al companies in the world, publicly asked his industry to slow down Al development.

Shortly after, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAl, followed suit. Then Elon Musk.

This all came days after an Anthropic researcher quit, citing his belief that this technology could wipe out humanity and that Al companies are "gambling with our lives."

For years, people have warned that generative Al could slip out of our direct control.

Those safety concerns must be taken seriously.

And this is why I have advocated for strict safety standards on how Al is built and deployed, public oversight over this technology, and using existing laws to hold these companies accountable when they cause harm.

But I want to draw your attention to another reality: Right now, the U.S. economy and our financial futures are riding on Silicon Valley's bet that Al will soon be immensely profitable and pay off. And that bet isn't looking good.

The formula for a profitable business isn't complicated: make more money than you spend. But the biggest Al companies aren't doing that. They are spending hundreds of billions per year on data centers, chips, and other costs while their ability to make revenues that exceed their already-immense sunk costs are unclear. Experts estimate that these Al companies will require another $600 billion of debt just to financethemselves in 2026 alone. That is more than the entire budgets of the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation, & Education combined.
Meanwhile, despite almost every single one of these companies not turning a profit & having sunk billions of investor dollars in development of data centers & other infrastructure, Al companies are also on a spending spree of hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying & dark money in our elections.
It would be one thing if we were discussing a few private companies with a poor business model. But last year, virtually all stock market gains - 80% - rested entirely on just a handful of Al companies.
That tells us two things:
1. Nearly the entire U.S. economy outside the Al industry is relatively stagnating and faring poorly & the gains from these few companies are disguising it; &
2. Millions of people's retirements - including their pensions, 401ks, & investments - are potentially exposed to this risk.
That's why these Al companies' dubious financial positions matter to working people.
These companies argue that debt is necessary. They'll tell you that building transformative technologies requires upfront capital, & that massive borrowing today will pay off in generating unprecedented prosperity tomorrow.
But this is not the typical debt that startups take on while they build out a company. We are talking about billions going on trillions of dollars leveraged with no indication that these companies will be able to recoup these funds profitably. And they are increasingly looking to the government as their source of cash.
In an effort to hide their debt, tech companies have been relying on "circular financing" where tech giants like Google, Amazon, & Microsoft give billions to Al startups like OpenAl & Anthropic, only for those startups to hand that money right back to buy Al processing power.
In other words, these Al companies are luring in new investors by making it look like their financials are healthier than they really are.What's even worse is that retirement & pension funds are key to supporting this illusion.
When the Al companies issue bonds to raise more money, your pension funds & retirement accounts are some of the biggest buyers. When Musk's Al business went public, it became part of index funds where millions of Americans invest our savings. Many Americans don't even know that their retirement investments are tied up in these companies at all.
From Big Tech's perspective, that's a feature, not a bug. By tying our futures to their reckless gambling, Al billionaires are trying to make themselves too big to fail. They think they can take such dangerous risks because we will bail them out if things go wrong.
Sound familiar? This scene is dangerously reminiscent of the rampant speculation, corruption, & broken incentives leading up to the 2008 financial crisis that plunged millions of working class Americans into financial chaos that we never fully recovered from.
It is no accident that these warnings from Altman & Amodei come months-if not weeks-before these companies were meant to go public.
When companies go public, they have to be more transparent about how they are doing financially. And after a waiting period, they typically have to let private investors-like their own employees-sell their shares.
The New York Times recently confirmed that OpenAl has postponed going public for this very reason. They are in no rush for the truth about their finances to come out.
But the moment these oligarchs began to seek our public tax dollars & public contracts while exposing their companies to public pension funds & investments, they opened themselves to public accountability & scrutiny.
Silicon Valley billionaires have rigged the game & are attempting to shift their financial risk to working people: If they're right about Al's potential, they reap the profits. If they're wrong & the bubble bursts, they are setting up the American people to pick up the tab.
Heads, they win; tails, we lose.We can stop this, and we shouldn't play their game. Together we can address both the economic and safety threats of unrestricted Al development and prevent financial chaos and stabilize market risk.

We must make it clear now that should the Al bubble pop, Congress should not bail out Big Tech.

And across our federal agencies, we have the authorities and tools to hold Al companies and their leaders accountable for releasing dangerous, unvetted, and defective products. We must not wait.

Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity.

But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves.

It's time we hold them accountable.

Thank you for reading.

In solidarity,

Alexandria
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Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A paper is finished when the embarrassment of submitting it becomes smaller than the embarrassment of still working on it
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Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦 @numcog.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I love the concept that the evolving Canada - EU relationship is about something that both parties are 'for'. We need more 'for' politics & cultural debate. It is a 'for', for democracy, for human rights, for free trade, for sovereignty & collaboration, for regulations on technologies. For Humanity!
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Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦 @numcog.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The Conservative Party of Canada are desperate, insinuating that closer ties between Canada & EU will precipitate mass migration. Skipped geography in school? They have failed to get any wedge issues to stick, so now they are hoping to latch onto xenophobic fears among their shrinking base.
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Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦 @numcog.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Today I feel proud to be European, proud to be Canadian. Stronger together!
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Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · 17/09/2026
This absolute horseshit from the Washington Post is more proof the problem isn't just Trump, but a society of Trump enablers, one Canada indeed should be 'decoupling' with a helluva lot faster than it is.
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 17/09/2026
🚨NEWS: U.N.-backed investigators say they found “reasonable grounds” to believe the U.S. committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including one on a school in Minab. apnews.com/article/un-h...
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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
From Davos over Fortress North America back to Davos within 9 months - I suspect many Canadians have legitimate questions that deserve more than another Forward Guidance clip.
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Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Canadian airports aren’t public utilities, and haven’t been since the 1990s. They’re operated by regional quangoes that are effectively private profit-seeing corporations without the ability to be regulated for public benefit, federally or municipally, as actual private owners might be
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Kevin Milligan @kevinmilligan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Naming aside, this is a big deal and the right choice to inprove tax competitiveness. Expensing investment rewards investment directly. It is forward looking and productivity focused.
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Max Fawcett @maxfawcett.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Ahem
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Cheng Xue @cxue.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Our work recently online in Nature Neuroscience: a neural reason why we err more when juggling tasks nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02430-w 🧵 Switching between tasks for different goals is an important form of cognitive flexibility.
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Andrew Longhurst 🇨🇦 🍉 @alonghurst.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"A recent @policyalternatives.ca analysis of data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that from 2021 to 2023, private health-care spending per person grew by 8.1 per cent — almost twice as fast as public spending." #cdnpoli www.cbc.ca/news/health/...
cbc.ca
Food and shelter have driven Canada's affordability crisis. Health care isn't far behind | CBC News
Food and shelter grab headlines, but out-of-pocket health-care expenses have climbed at a nearly identical rate since 2022, Statistics Canada data shows. Economists and policy experts break down the s...
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Shannon Proudfoot @sproudfoot.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Petition to legally require a "FUCK OFF" button on every AI tool that asks if you'd like it to summarize an email or blow your nose for you. People went nuts when U2 shoved an album onto their phones against their will, and now this crap is rammed down our throats everywhere. Rise up, people!
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 14/09/2026
When we talk about how science is broken, maybe at least consider how a huge collaboration measured the ripples in spacetime resulting the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away, as counterweight the guy who had to fake his data to show that people who procrastinate fall behind.
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Pedro De Bruyckere @thebandb.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Explicit instruction or inquiry-based learning? Perhaps that’s the wrong question. A new conceptual replication again shows that the order matters, as does what students already know. wp.me/p2nWPo-6cB
wp.me
https://wp.me/p2nWPo-6cB
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Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦 @numcog.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
And only you can stop it.
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Sam Harper @sharper.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
And this has nothing to do with the AI industry propaganda about the technology being an "existential threat". The threat is the climate crisis, the authoritarianism, the mass surveillance, the tech fascism. The real threat is not the tech, but the billionaires.
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