iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Longtime listener, first time caller. Mél is a wonderful interlocutor, which made this an absolute privilege.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

I loved doing this with the brilliant Mél... hop in and have a listen once it's out next week!

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Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

My university has announced a fund to essentially poach doctoral students from US institutions. DM me if you do work on the history/social impacts of AI and are interested in being poached 😂

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Sounds depressing, I’ll add it to the list

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

I think this is the best thing I’ve read about journalism, AI and the business models of media companies. Must read for anyone who cares about this stuff, which really should be everyone.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Nailing it. “It is the only “business model” that we have and that I am certain works: We trade good, accurate, interesting, human articles for money and attention. The risks of offloading that trust to an AI in a careless way is the biggest possible risk factor that we could have as a business.”

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

My legendary friend and colleague wrote for @crikey.com.au about the Gaza sized hole in Australian universities and what the draconian demands of special envoy Segal would mean for learning, teaching and being in the university. It is fire and you should read it. www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/15/i...

crikey.com.au

How to silence academic speech on Palestine

Jillian Segal’s proposal seeks to mobilise the IHRA definition of antisemitism and would have far-reaching implications for students and staff across Australian universities.

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Carolyn Pedwell @carolynpedwell.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Final registration call for the @britishacademy.bsky.social funded symposium, 'Speculative Machines and Us: Histories and Futures of AI', @lancasteruni.bsky.social on 17 July! 💥🤖 FULL PROGRAMME, ABSTRACTS AND BIOS here: wp.lancs.ac.uk/sciencestudi... Register now here: wp.lancs.ac.uk/sciencestudi...

wp.lancs.ac.uk

Speculative Machines and Us: Histories and Futures of AI

We warmly invite colleagues to join us for an in-person one-day symposium on Thursday 17th July 2025. To join, please register using the link below. The event is organised by the Centre for Science…

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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Mass extraordinary rendition. And we know with certainty from the War on Terror that those certifications against persecution and torture are pro forma and are better understood as a document colluding to such treatment.

washingtonpost.com

ICE memo outlines plan to deport migrants to countries where they are not citizens

The dramatic shift in policy could result in thousands of immigrants being deported to places where they lack family ties or even a common language.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

missing from this otherwise insightful account of the extremely online young men of the American far right is the tech platforms that host this garbage, there’s just this tendency to take social media as given but these platforms could be reined in or shut down www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Trolling Democracy

The rise of a toxic online politics.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

This is the entire OpenAI business model

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

I think this really nails it. I also think that a huge problem is that the general / universal versions like ChatGPT tend to be conflated with more specialised applications where the pro/con arguments and lines of critique look very different.

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Not (A.) I. @aerialeverything.cryptoanarchy.network · 10/07/2025

The intent behind this project makes me think of viral AI-gen image of girl holding puppy in a dingy during Hurricane Helene, legitimized for being "emblematic of people's trauma." Thru AI there's an active shift from evidentiary images towards a designed emblematic. www.404media.co/the-un-made-...

404media.co

The UN Made AI-Generated Refugees

The AIs are designed to teach people about atrocities in Sudan.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

I've written a lot about the need to extend witnessing beyond the human, but this ain't it. We need to attend more closely to the abundance of very human testimony about war and suffering, to listen and act in response, not look for ways to dehumanise the survivors of dehumanising violence.

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Tim Dunlop @timdunlop.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

If you want to know how political realignment is achieved and how the centre-left is moved inexorably to the right, this is it.

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Daniel Angus @antmandan.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The Albanese govt is seemingly backing a plan that could withhold uni and arts funding if they're seen to not tackle antisemitism. But what counts as "failure"? This sets a dangerous precedent, threatening academic independence, and informed and open debate. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

abc.net.au

Antisemitism plan would strip funding from unis, arts events who fail to fight Jewish hate

Powers to strip funding from public institutions who fail on antisemitism, a review of Australia's hate speech laws, and visa screening for antisemitic views are among the recommendations of a wide-ra...

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

I can’t count the number of conversations with students, friends, and academics where people dismissed at the idea that mass data collection was a huge risk to people’s lives and especially the most vulnerable www.404media.co/ice-is-searc...

404media.co

ICE Is Searching a Massive Insurance and Medical Bill Database to Find Deportation Targets

The database, called ISO ClaimSearch, is nearly all encompassing and contains details on more than 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills.

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Reposted by Michael Richardson

Big Data Kane @cmwitko.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Non-academics: if you see an interesting academic paper on here and you can’t access it due to a paywall just email the author and (depending on the state of their inbox 😜) they will generally be thrilled you are interested in their work and send you a copy.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

It's in a fab special issue on "New Worlds of Logistical Labour" edited by legends Tom Barnes, @laurenkatekelly.bsky.social and @blueskychris.bsky.social and in the open access journal Work, Organisation, Labour & Globalisation.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

New article from me and Zoe Horn. "Digital twins and logistical labour: Models, plans and the inversion of the ‘real’," in which we show how operative, virtual replicas of material environments are beginning to subordinate the real within a logistical paradigm www.scienceopen.com/hosted-docum...

scienceopen.com

Digital twins and logistical labour: Models, plans and the inversion of the ‘real’

<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" dir="auto" id="d24518e99">This article argues that digital twins constitute new computational techniques for the mobi...

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Eliminate the humans so we can all get “popped up into some kind of sugar cube for a billion simulated years of bliss, but it's only six hours in clock time”

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Or the violation of international law, which is actually more important to the rest of the world

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Unfortunate timing for sure… but we’ll certainly make some kinda thing happen before too long. Try not to have toooo much fun though (I’ll drop you a note post travels - a chat is overdue)

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Boooo… why is this happening while I’m on the other side of the world, Ranjodh?

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Excellent new research on the eco impacts of AI, and the necessity of better transparency regimes and data standards from @sashamtl.bsky.social and crew

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jonathan w. y. gray @jwyg.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Looking for a research associate to explore societal engagement with forest restoration on digital media – with @lboungr.bsky.social @wildflyingpanda.bsky.social @gabrielecolombo.bsky.social & more. Grateful for help sharing with those who might be interested! jonathangray.org/2025/05/31/s...

screenshot of https://forest-restoration.eu/

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

students and even some teachers need to understand that the essay-as-outcome isn’t what matters, but the essay-as-learning is crucial because it teaches thinking, analysis, communication, knowledge-making, resilience, planning, and more

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

This is — and I cannot stress this enough — absolutely bonkers

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

It certainly sounds like the kinda thing I’m going to be into…

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

At defence tech conventions data fusion has been among the most common software and hardware services pitched to militaries around the world for at least half a decade

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

“War Machjne” looks amazing — just a shame we all have to wait until 2026 to read it!

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

“Finding the truth at times of conflict has always been difficult, and now in the age of AI and social media, it is even more difficult.” Witness media is in crisis at the worst possible time. www.404media.co/the-ai-slop-...

404media.co

The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel

There’s a lack of footage from the conflict and AI-generated content is filling the void.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

This is why the new trend of AI native browsers is so cooked. They’re completely inverting the relationship to information proposed by the decentralised internet in favour of an opaquely filtered and probabilistically generated single source of “truth”.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Much like critiques of drone strikes warfare that centre “precision” miss the point, as you’ve shown in your writing and film making

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Questioning accuracy cedes the ground of unjust violence when AI systems in war are all about accelerating genocide and violence and denying accountability and responsibility

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps. Not a joke. That’s what it’s called.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Escalating transfers of military tech to domestic policing isn’t only about tactics, handheld weapons, and terrestrial vehicles. Military grade drones in civilian skies radically reshapes the means of policing protest.

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

How lovely of you to say, Richard, that’s exactly what every author dreams of hearing…

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Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Techbros have been very open about this: As Sam Altman stated, «the whole structure of society will be up for debate and reconfiguration» – but by «up for debate,» he obviously didn't mean a democratic debate about the consequences of their actions, a debate he's actively undermining 3/

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 12/06/2025

“‘You think you are talking to an objective confidant or guide, but actually what you are looking into is some kind of distorted mirror — that mirrors back to your own beliefs,’ said Matthew Nour, a psychiatrist and researcher in neuroscience and AI at Oxford university.”

ft.com

The problem of AI chatbots telling people what they want to hear

OpenAI, DeepMind and Anthropic tackle the growing issue of models producing responses that are too sycophantic

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

No doubt — good teachers always do this. I’m mostly thinking of the way so much of “AI adaptation” within institutions is about incorporating it or “securing assessments” or whatever, rather than stepping outside AI and thinking about how to get to those fundamental things in the current moment

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Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

adapting to AI in university teaching really means that we need to more proactively teach students how to learn, starting with basic study skills and syllabus reading through to self reflection on the richness of showing what you’ve learned in your work

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 07/06/2025

They left off the last part: parents and students decide to cut out the middle man, get their “education” from chatbots, and universities collapse.

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