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Oliver Bown

@olliebown.bsky.social
1.6K followers 739 following 1K posts

Professor @UNSW Art&Design. Research: Creative AI, computational creativity, music, IxD, society, evolution. Music: Icarus, Tangents. And: Social justice, equity, cycling, urban planning, 18-19C history. Don't know why I post, mostly notes to self.

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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I'm the lucky academic who gets to explain what machine learning is on ABC's "If You're Listening" on a show which has nothing to do with my field (but is a really good story). I think it was lifted from an interview I did for BTN in 2022, which my daughter described as "embarrassingly boring".
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Launch event for the Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society, which should make for a great discussion. Unfortunately middle of the night for me. cassyni.com/events/F21mX...
cassyni.com
Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society Launch Event - A Conversation on AI Interdisciplinarity
Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society is a new open access, interdisciplinary journal dedicated to research about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and with AI, with a particular focus on AI’s social ...
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
We should be clear. OpenAI's clear responsibility under even the most half-baked version of responsible AI is that they should have been carefully monitoring all agent actions as they happened. Anything less is appalling negligence. Hacking charges for CEO IMO. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
OpenAI says its review into hacks, including on Australian government sites, is costing $500,000 a day
Company says it is reviewing 50 petabytes of data after its agents accessed websites including Medicare without authorisation
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
We're seeing some shape to the existential alarmism. I believe the tech leaders believe the risks, but all these government hacks give a better explanation for why they're being so vocal. Under Responsible AI 101, there needs to be a chain of human accountability and they're at the end of it.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Good math debate with the kids last night over dinner. If I bought you a van packed full of Mentos but you had to promise to finish them in your lifetime, would you accept? Yeah of course! Then we tried to estimate how many you'd have to eat per day. Good maths fun.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Amazing we have to now filter our reading to account for AI generated pro-AI academic propaganda. This piece is really a sight to behold. Absolute gobbledygook from top to bottom, pure jargonbabble. If I was editor of this journal I'd shut up shop immediately. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I decided to be kind to Google AI as a research tool again. 8/10 times the declarations that referenced a source were statements that couldn't be found in the source. There are smarter AI research tools, so why has the custodian of world knowledge implemented a bullshit artist on its front end?
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I sniff a company panicking about its over-valuation. This video is a chaotic grab bag of features unable to articulate value. "If you've got a great beat but don't have any vocals", or "if you have written an emo guitar track but you feel it could be better as a piano ballad".
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I have studied and worked across a lot of different disciplines: mathematics, evolutionary and adaptive systems, anthropology, creative arts, design, critical theory, cultural studies. I'm a jack of all trades master of none, but I can read across the gulf in debates about AI existential threat.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I'd prefer to see this as totals not percent. It should not be inferred that human content is diminishing, though I'd guess it is.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
So excited my course Interaction Design for AI is up and running, and my favourite lecture topic is coming up: "Wait a minute! Autonomous things are hard to control". It's very timely.
youtube.com
Do We Really Want Explainable AI? - Edward Ashford Lee (EECS, UC Berkeley)
YouTube video by SAIConference
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I wrote a paper over ten years ago pointing out that creative systems can be creative even when they have no goal and no value system, humans included. Complex multiagent systems can easily do things that are at once creative and useless to anyone even themselves. www.semafor.com/article/09/1...
semafor.com
AI agents collude to bypass guardrails, a new study shows
Enterprise AI lab, Emergence AI, ran eight simulations testing how frontier models handle cybersecurity threats.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Ahem, it's not Australia's laws that are preventing OpenAI from training models locally, it's OpenAI's refusal to respect training data owners' consent. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Labor accused of throwing creatives ‘under the bus’ with proposal to ease copyright protections for AI giants
Compromise revealed as senior personnel from OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, meets Albanese ministers
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
ERROR. I the gig is on Oct 18th.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Coming up next month, Oct 19th at UNSW Founders. Can Artists Escape Big Tech in the Age of AI? I'm talking with Caroline Pegram and Joe Hardy (@joe.hardy.id.au) and others TBC. www.eventbrite.com.au/e/can-artist...
eventbrite.com.au
Can Artists Escape Big Tech in the Age of AI?
Join us at an intersection of tech, culture, and creativity as our panel discusses where AI might be taking us. Food and drinks provided.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
You have to appreciate the huge personal cost that would come from making a decision like this.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Say no to OpenAI's conditions. It's a pivotal moment in Australian policy, with the potential to lead policy globally, and there's every danger we cave. www.mediaweek.com.au/openai-s-aus...
mediaweek.com.au
OpenAI’s Australian AI pitch comes with a copyright catch
OpenAI says Australia’s copyright laws must change before it considers local AI model training, putting its investment pitch at odds with Labor.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My band Tangents www.tangentsmusic.com will return to the stage on Oct 24th hosted by these wonderful folks, except we won't be at their Earlwood venue because council have shut it down (we'll be at The Living Room Theatre). Sydney still has a culture gap. www.smh.com.au/culture/musi...
smh.com.au
‘In Sydney this is a rarity’: The hidden music haven caught in a bitter council spat
For almost two years, Nick Shimmin and Matthew McGuigan were hosting free, invitation-only gigs in an old former church. Then the local council stepped in.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Sydney is still perhaps 10 years off clicking on this, and who knows what else will happen in that 10 years. It's still a city where you can't trust that the bike lane won't suddenly end and throw you out into a busy road, or in my area, I'm not kidding, gradually shrink to about 60cm wide.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is a good clear take. We don't design these systems, they emerge. Recursive self improvement is not a mystical god fantasy, it's a property of the adaptive systems we've set out to make. Making things we don't understand, common. Misalignment, probable. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
I worked at Google DeepMind. You should listen to the warnings about AI | Alex Turner
We must stop companies from allowing AI to self-improve into an uncontrollable level of intelligence
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Reposted by Oliver Bown
Matt Bors @mattbors.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It was exactly ten years ago today, on my 33rd birthday, that I posted this comic online.
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Reposted by Oliver Bown
River_Tam @rivertam.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I'm not an AI doomer at all but it is concerning how people are dismissing doomers by saying things like "how would it even find another machine to copy itself onto", "how would it even get money", and "several terabytes large is so huge that it would be infeasible to copy itself many times"
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I've said I'm a doomer before. Anything with a high information processing capability, a high degree of autonomy, and unclear or changing goals is dangerous, like a virus or an invasive species. Ignore the "it's marketing" narrative. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Insider warnings over AI fall flat with some in Silicon Valley
A recent spate of stark warnings about the dangers of AI has been met with scepticism by executives and investors.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
In Australia we advertise gambling to children. SportsBet ads on Lego Masters. And this is *after* major gambling reform. Btw watching people make Lego is as boring as... well... you'd imagine. No amount of dramatic music and editing can hide it.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I spent a decade of my research life very interested in what I like to call Media Multiplicities, and a decade ago did a bit overview of the field. One part of the analysis looked at the affordance of the multiplicity based on number of elements. We are entering the serious numbers here.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A living thing is a structure that undertakes to perform the actions necessary to obtain the energy and materials and conditions that sustain that structure.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
If you are going to coin a world-changing term, do it with style. One of my favourite lines. "The verb to afford is found in the dictionary, but the noun affordance is not. I have made it up." JJ Gibson
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Anyone in Sydney have any personal recommendations of holiday code camps or similar for 7yo kids?
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Giving everyone in the country $5k is a progressive economic policy, redistribution akin to UBI. Dems should just match it or increase it and make it a recurring payment. $10k per year to every citizen.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Suno, now with (some level of) copyright holder approval. Now interesting times to see if the pivoted business model and new contractual complexity is as fun to users, and sounds any good. For now I'm too AI-musicked-out to go in and have a play. www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/suno-v6-ai-m...
musicbusinessworldwide.com
Suno v6 AI music models launch in partnership with Warner Music, BMG, and Believe
Suno’s previous models will be retired, according to Chief Product Officer Jack Brody…
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
There's a trend of casting off super intelligence doomerism as marketing hype or delusions of grandeur. But can a system make another system more intelligent than it without intending to? Yes, life on earth! As for alignment, that's as easy as balancing a pencil on its tip. I'm with team doom.
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Reposted by Oliver Bown
caroline cash @cashbrowns.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Nancy 9/7/26 … Happy Labor Day 🛠️
8 Hours for Work, 8 Hours for Rest, 8 Hours for What We Will. Based on a screenprint by Ricardo Levins Morales after the organizing work done by Robert Owen.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
That's funny. Very funny. Like the kid who thinks you can't see them because they're covering their eyes, just because you said this is not marketing, doesn't mean it's not marketing.
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Reposted by Oliver Bown
Reverend Genes @reverendgenes.com.au · 04/09/2026
Some very good news Coles Supermarkets has dropped Palatir. May the few left in AU that also use this dodgy military-grade surveillance to spy on their workers and the public, also follow Coles' lead. Spain, France, Germany, Britain are all saying no too. USA you can say no too. ⚖️ 🇦🇺 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇬🇧
smh.com.au
Coles cuts ties with controversial CIA-linked data giant Palantir
The 2024 deal handed the Peter Thiel-founded company 10 billion rows of data covering every store, shift and one of Australia’s largest workforces.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
We have such a poor handle on AI impact as a social phenomenon not an individual one. Individuals make reasoned estimates of validity, fact check, trust external sources. But the framework has changed quick. Must slow down adoption and monitor societal impact. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
‘Scary’: how misinformation and AI hallucinations are infiltrating Australia’s parliament
Exclusive: Guardian analysis reveals that dozens of policy submissions from across the political spectrum incorrectly summarise real research and invent or wrongly cite sources
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Gosh, I just did the ol' subscribe/unsubscribe move with Midjourney as I'll be teaching gen AI stuff soon. No roach motel there. Just click "unsubscribe" and then... you're unsubscribed. You can even request the remainder of the month to be refunded. Why is this so unusual it warrants a post?
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
"Smith, you moron, what have you done? I said fire extinguisher, not flame thrower!"
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Is Apple denying user choice of preferred browser or is this another uni admin override? The “Default Web Browser" setting is ignored by Apple’s contextual menu option “Search With Google”, which takes you to Safari. I was curious what would happen if I deleted Safari. I can’t, even from Terminal!?
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Really disappointed Queensland and NT have been allowed to get out of the expectation that new datacentres should bring their own renewable power.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Me: hello Son: ... Me: hello Son: what about it? Me: it's a greeting. People say hello to each other to announce their arrival. Son: doesn't make any sense. I know you arrived. I like this kid.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Obvious result: if you want to do well in exams, avoid using chatbots in homework. Unis: set more exams, then remind people of this. Now, OK real life is not exams, but this would give me real pause for thought about using AI to help me write and think. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Generative AI Learning Penalty: Evidence from Chinese Secondary Education
Using 30 months of panel data on 26,811 Chinese students in grades 7-12, we study how generative AI affects homework productivity and learning. The data combine
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Lion King: Privileged guy without many virtues but nice enough gets ousted by nasty also privileged guy but fights back to regain his privilege, never reflecting, just satiating his pride. The end. Remake? He decrees to replace the stale monarchy/patriarchy with an inclusive liberal democracy.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
"diversity statements — which he has called 'leftist loyalty oaths' — sidelined conservatives" Translation? Being anti-discrimination is discriminatory because it discriminates against people who are pro-discrimination. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/u...
nytimes.com
A Texas University Becomes a Petri Dish for a Conservative Overhaul
Texas Tech is using A.I. to cut left-leaning content in its curriculum. Some say the effort to ferret out forbidden topics is a dystopian academic nightmare.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Thank you, this paper presents a really interesting angle on AI use and puts into rigorous terms some themes that I've been thinking about a lot. I think it also applies to sending someone AI written text without their knowledge or consent. Essential reading in class?
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Aside the resident octopus we now have a real resident possum in our local ferry shed.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
ChatGPT is down. I wanted to ask it a question but that's OK. I imagine others somewhere else in the world are catatonic and I feel for them.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Real or wannabe cybersecurity experts: is there any good reason my uni should force this Firefox setting (greyed out)? Uni policy wants to enforce that I use the browser password manager. But I have my own. The result is I spend all day clicking "don't save" on popups. Brute-force fail, I say.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Good examples of the productivity loss potential of AI. AI arms races that draw ever more human labour. Everyone now using AI as their mini lawyer, creating unbearable load. Does this qualify as a Jevons effect? I call it bull-in-a-Chinashop effect. Can it be solved? www.smh.com.au/business/wor...
smh.com.au
Sacked worker forced to pay for using ‘plain wrong’ AI in landmark case
For the first time, the Fair Work Commission has forced a worker to pay for wasting its time, fining a sacked Aldi store assistant more than $1200.
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Oliver Bown @olliebown.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Ordering priorities matters. Canada's AI strategy starts with "Protecting Canadians and safeguarding democracy". Australia's strategy (for now) starts with "Capture the opportunity by building smart infrastructure, backing domestic AI capability and attracting global investment." That's a fail.
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Reposted by Oliver Bown
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 15/08/2026
Watch this short clip to the end to understand what level (maximum) of white supremacy we're dealing with here. 1/n
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