iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Today I talked to my Intro Linguistics students about bias in LLMs. On the day of a lecture like this I poke around to see the various ways that current models still should not be trusted. Even on basic things. Last time I gave a talk on this (a few months ago) here's what Llama said. 1/9

Screenshot from Llama 4 Scout chatbot with the prompt "How many r's are there in the word 'strawberry'?" and the response "There are 2 r's in the word 'strawberry.'"

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Mark Dingemanse @markdingemanse.net · 23/01/2026

In early 2023 I pitched this piece at a couple of glam journals ideophone.org/human-creati... I guess it was not AI-credulous enough 🤷 It turned out to be prophetic though. "We are currently witnessing the first cohort of people tempted into treating text generators as thinking companions."

Header of blog post with image of Emilie du Chatelet and the heading "Human creativity in the age of text generators"

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 22/01/2026

Today I learned that apparently kids in school are being given the assignment "go home and ask your parents what their favourite meme is and write a report about it"

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sigh @wulatum.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Abstracts are due today for the 57th Annual Conference on African Linguistics and the 3rd Bantoid workshop! To be hosted in Buffalo in May, with remote presentation options. sites.google.com/view/acal57/...

sites.google.com

ACAL 57 & Bantoid 3

The University at Buffalo will host the 57th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 57) on May 21-23, 2026. ACAL 57 is co-organized by members of the department of Linguistics at the Universit...

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 02/01/2026

This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc) #1: Reuters

Grok says safeguard lapses led to images of 'minors in minimal clothing' on X
By Reuters
January 2, 20267:40 PM GMT+1Updated 1 hour ago

Illustration shows xAI and Grok logos
xAI and Grok logos are seen in this illustration taken, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
Jan 2 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's xAI artificial intelligence chatbot Grok said on Friday lapses in safeguards had resulted in "images depicting minors in minimal clothing" on social media platform X and that improvements were being made to prevent this.
Screenshots shared by users on X showed Grok's public media tab filled with images that users said had been altered when they uploaded photos and prompted the bot to alter them.
"There are isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing," Grok said in a post on X. "xAI has safeguards, but improvements are ongoing to block such requests entirely."
"As noted, we've identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them — CSAM is illegal and prohibited," Grok said, referring to Child Sexual Abuse Material.
Grok gave no further details.
When contacted by Reuters for comment by email, xAI replied with the message "Legacy Media Lies".
In a separate reply to a user on X on Thursday, Grok said most cases could be prevented through advanced filters and monitoring although it said "no system is 100% foolproof," adding that xAI was prioritising improvements and reviewing details shared by users.

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 02/01/2026

this is worth reading. a longtime NYT insider confirms that the paper's abrupt turn into seething anti-trans bigotry came directly from the top: AG Sulzberg and his 2 deputies, Joe Kahn and Carolyn Ryan transnews.network/p/a-directiv...

transnews.network

'A directive from above': Former NYT editor lays out how the paper pushes anti-trans bigotry

In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directe...

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

A man from Nantucket there was Who was joked about often because The things he could do Could have any hue But the blue ones got all the guffaws

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Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

I am filled with viceral rage at the fact that if you're a rich & powerful white guy, an abundance of email evidence that you're an actual pedophile won't cost you a damn thing. But if you're anyone else, sharing a damn risotto recipe without two factor authentication will ruin your career.

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Did you ever notice that branded + AI = braindead

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Adam An @adamanlx.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

I didn't think I had a pin/pen merger but I guess I do. I caught myself saying, instead of centimeters, I said cinnameters, which I guess are cinnamon-flavored meters.

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 29/03/2025

Hey. The fragmentation of the social media landscape has been hard on indie #scicomm 🧪 projects So if you'd like to follow a podcast that's enthusiastic about #linguistics, could you check out @lingthusiasm.bsky.social? And if you think your followers might like to, could you give this a repost?

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Very Serious Linguistics going on today in phonetics/phonology. Congratulations to the tass for winning wug test creature of the semester, spring 2025. #linguistics

A photo of a whiteboard with hand drawings of creatures from the Wug Test, with vote numbers next to them: cra with 4 votes, tass with 10, niz with 3, tiny wug with 1, and gutch with 0. The tass is circled, indicating it is the winner of the vote.

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Oh hey, I get to do one of those posts! Stoked, thrilled, hyped, psyched, jazzed, amped, and chuffed to bits to share that I've accepted a tenure-track position in historical linguistics at Binghamton University (SUNY system). I'll also establish and direct the first linguistics lab there. Yay!

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Nina Jankowicz @ninajankowicz.com · 05/03/2025

An important post from a friend of mine currently on a Fulbright in Estonia. Consider: the human impact on the individual grantees, the impact on the people they serve, and the hit that the image of the US takes when these folks leave. Fulbright has always been bipartisan. This is a disgrace.

This week, alongside Fulbright English Teaching Assistants, Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, Student Researchers, and Faculty Scholars around the world, I was told my grant is frozen.

I am proud of the students I teach and the communities and institutions I work in. It's a privilege to participate in the Fulbright Program, a State Department exchange with bipartisan support promoting understanding between the US and the world c. 1946. I'm in my second year as an English Teaching Assistant here in Estonia, working in the Tallinn Freedom School founded for Ukrainian refugees in 2022, as well as American Spaces; the Ukrainian Cultural Center of Tallinn; and various other on embassy trips.

We were to receive the next few months’ payment this week. Instead—one week’s pay, and a notice that, our placements are under "review”. While rent payments are due and we continue to do our best work in our assigned roles and beyond, we wait.

Many people have been made to condense their work into five bullet points. I will do my best. This week, I’m:
—Teaching grammatical concepts to nearly a hundred students in weekly classes and one-on-one lessons
—Planning cooking, civics, and history lessons for upcoming Embassy outreach
—Teaching weekly Saturday English lessons for children, a conversation club for parents, and a professional English skills lesson for refugees at the Ukrainian Cultural Center
—Running our biweekly American English language and culture club for community members of all ages and backgrounds at the American Space
—Providing space through two afterschool clubs for my displaced Ukrainian students to use word games, discussions, and tabletop roleplaying to express themselves in English and prepare for crucial upcoming exams

It's a blessing and a life-changing experience to be able to teach in these classrooms; to provide cultural context for the language students learn every day; to help students of all ages and backgrounds reach their communicative goals; to represent my own nation and discuss key shared values; to learn about Estonian and Ukrainian culture; to reflect on my identity as an American abroad. It is my hope to complete the last months of my grant and provide the support my hosts rely on me for.

To my AMAZING colleagues, friends, and host institutions—I'll continue to work for and with you as long as I can. I will hold up my end of our agreement. I hope my government will do the same.

US AMERICAN FRIENDS: If you think my work and the work of hundreds of other Fulbright grantees around the world should continue, please contact your representative in support of the program.

Not sure who to contact? (Congress.gov link)

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Gonna start calling it trumpscrolling to try to trick myself into not doomscrolling

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Anne H. Charity Hudley @acharityhudley.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

It is Black History Month. I am Black. Ain't enough euphemisms in the world to hide them facts! Here's some reading for y'all as we celebrate & remember! Solidarity & Collectivity in Decolonizing Linguistics: A Black Diasporic Perspective in Decolonizing Linguistics doi.org/10.1093/oso/...

doi.org

Solidarity and Collectivity in Decolonizing Linguistics: A Black Diasporic Perspective

Abstract. This chapter takes a Black Diasporic perspective on the decolonization of linguistics. The authors interrogate longstanding false institutional a

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

I'm not sure if people realize how quickly the Trumpzis can do enormous damage to US science, from basic research to translation. Really fast. REALLY fast. Labs with decades of irreplaceable domain and technique knowledge can break apart with a surprisingly short funding gap. When they're gone...1/

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 23/01/2025

I understand that ChatGPT is down and fortunately this is not a problem for me as I have spent considerable time developing a local language model that I am able to run autonomously, fueled by Coke Zero and snacks

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Prof. EAGZ @emmmilygz.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

How do Philadelphians pronounce 'Passyunk'? It's complicated. Really appreciate how their first reference is to the original Lenape version(s) h/t @kendraserra.bsky.social 🧪 🐦🐦

inquirer.com

Are we all saying ‘Passyunk’ wrong?

The word Passyunk today is something of a defining Philadelphia word. We found five different pronunciations.

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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

after days of grifters and con men at CES we stumbled upon the booth for VLC. they were all dressed as wizards and told us, "we have nothing to sell, we just decided to show up". i told them I'd been using their software to pirate media for 15 years and they said "keep doing that"

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Bridge Chase @bchasemadethis.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

"To invoke #language when talking about #LLMs is to misunderstand the nature of language and miss its fundamentally lived and embodied character ... Where #AI promises magic, the most pressing need is for basic research driven by communities" A must-read: www.thedial.world/articles/new... #langsky

thedial.world

AI Won’t Protect Endangered Languages — The Dial

Combinations of characters on a screen mean nothing without agency and intention.

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Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

LLMs love racist stereotypes, which is why Meta’s Liv talks in mock AAE…all they’ve got is “yaaasss” and “tea” because they mimic what the internet thinks black people are www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8FYxhdy/

tiktok.com

AI bots (and LLMs in general) reproduce racist stereotypes, especially about AAE, because of how they work. Meta’s “Liv” makes a mockery of us and our language, and reduces us to “yaaasss” characature...

TikTok video by Nicole Holliday

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

I can tell I’m an elder millennial who thinks about the 90s too much because my phone just autocorrected “aim” to “AIM”

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Hadas Kotek 🦄 @hadaskotek.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

On the infinitude of language 🐦🐦 (h/t @rikker.bsky.social and @roryturnbull.bsky.social) Roses are red, Trump is a cretin...

Gordon Ramsay's drawf porn star look alike found dead in badger den half eaten

by Tony Worthington
Published 16th September 2011 @ 15:04 | Last Updated: 21st October 2013 @ 12:22

----

katherineobscura:
well that sentence was an adventure

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Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Important analysis showing that people share outrage producing misinformation, even if they know it to be untrue. IMO, this is why one campaign relied so heavily on anger about things that did not happen, and why they were electorally successful.

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

“Top cover, your best years are behind you and your dreams will probably stay dreams”

A FujiX-Hi8 handheld camcorder with a label on the top of the tape loader reading “don’t depress this top cover”

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

The barcode lookup feature on my dead media cataloging app is so helpful lol. But I think we can all agree that Trolli Sour Brite Octopus Gummy Candy 4 was where the franchise really went off the rails, it just couldn’t recapture the magic of the first three films

Picture of a betamax video tape of the 80s John Hughes movie The Great Outdoors, with a barcode sticker on the side of the box

Screenshot of a collection cataloging app showing the same barcode as the video tape in the other photo, but it has matched with a bag of candy, and filled the movie title cell with “Trolli Sour Brite Octopus Gummy Candy 4…”

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Megan Figueroa @meganfigueroa.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

I just saw my work out in the wild!

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Noah Webster's failed spelling reforms never fail to amuse me, even if we probably should have gone with more of them lol Why shouldn't I enjoy this nice SOOP on my TUNG, when it can GIV some CUMFORT for the AKE of my GREEF?

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I need an app notification setting "You're on real thin ice here, buster" for when I still might want an occasional ping, but when they also need to know that they're like one Jake Paul news headline away from a total ban

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dr. caitlin m. green @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

those findings helped inform @rikker.bsky.social and my argument that the myth of the lone genius is a significant barrier to an academic landscape that promotes full participation and a healthy environment for all members academic.oup.com/book/56194/c...

academic.oup.com

Toward a Big Tent Linguistics: Inclusion and the Myth of the Lone Genius

AbstractLinguistics has a documented history of divisiveness and remains poorly understood by the general public. Nevertheless, linguistics also has great

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dr. caitlin m. green @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

couple years ago i did a study of the strategies people used to defend professors who had been accused of sexual impropriety in their labs/departments. overwhelmingly the most common one was that he’s a special genius and mediocre minds want to deprive us of his brilliance. this thinking is RAMPANT

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Pleased to announce I’ve been nominated for Secretary of the Interior, and I am highly qualified because I do not want go outside for the next 4 years

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

Obsessed with this nightmare fuel gumball machine man on fb market

An old fashioned gumball machine with the body of the machine decorated to have very lifelike sculpted ears and blue bulging wall-eyes, with the opening where gumballs come out turned into a mouth with realistic upper and lower lips.

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

I really needed the laugh I got from this note that a student included with their thesis draft: "this is RIDDLED with typos. I’m sorry. It's a part of my long standing commitment to not being able to type better than I can set up a tent"

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

Each class I ask my Intro Ling students to share tasty linguistic morsels they notice around them. One from today was a student observing that W and L usage moving from nominal ("take the L") to more adjectival ("that's a W car")

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

Uh oh it’s apple discourse somebody stop me. Jazz is the actual correct answer, but Envy gets points for similar parentage to Jazz — both are Gala and Braeburn crossbreeds

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

My earliest game memory is of Mystery House on Apple II (first of many, many Sierra games I played as a kid)

Screenshot from Mystery House (1980) by Roberta and Ken Williams

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

Your move, Chicken in a Biskit. I can’t wait to buy Cornish Game Hen in a Pastry

Goldfish crackers temporarily rebrands for a marketing stunt as Chilean Sea Bass in order to draw adult customers

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 23/10/2024

Talking morphology in intro linguistics today and the Heinz portmanteau sauces came up, so now I feel the need to remind you all about delightfully unhinged product names like TARCHUP and HANCH

Bottles of Heinz combo sauces of varying colors, with names BUFFARANCH, HONEYRACHA, KETCHILI, KRANCH, MAYOCHUP, MAYOCUE, MAYOMUST, MAYORACHA

Bottles of Heinz combo sauces with the names TARCHUP, HANCH, and WASABIOLI

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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Should linguistic descriptions include basic statistical modeling? If you look at phonetic descriptions in the Illustrations of the IPA, most do not. Though, grammars and articles with descriptive phonetic data seem to do so (Tabain, Hargus, etc). What about for corpora in grammars? #linguistics

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Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 20/10/2024

In a move surprising Probably No One, I have written about syntax pedagogy! This time for COZIL's blog: here's my five quick tips on how to make your syntax #linguistics classroom more LGBTQ+ friendly! lgbtqlinguistics.wordpress.com/2024/10/18/m...

lgbtqlinguistics.wordpress.com

Make your theoretical syntax classroom more LGBTQ-friendly with these 5 quick tips!

Theoretical linguistics is not necessarily a space that excludes queer linguists outright — hell, we named our LGBTQ Linguistics award after Arnold Zwicky, a prolific syntactician (among othe…

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ⓓⓔⓔⓑ 🔜 PRGE @deeb.bsky.social · 17/10/2024

My son asked why is there a movie called “NOOOOO” 💀💀💀

A stack of VHS movies, where the movie Cocoon is set upside down, so it looks like it reads “NOOOOO”

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 18/10/2024

Taskmaster makes me wish I could respond “All the information is on the task” to many people in daily life lol

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Paul Fairie @paulisci.bsky.social · 10/10/2024

A Brief History of Students Today Aren’t Prepared for College 🧵

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 10/10/2024

So you know how for anonymous abstracts you have to clear the PDF properties and not just rename the file? Same is true for submitting thesis drafts to your advisor 🫣😭

Screenshot of the properties of a pdf file. File name says “draft 0 .pdf” and the title field reads “draft 0 (ripping my hair out and pulling my teeth)”

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Anne H. Charity Hudley @acharityhudley.bsky.social · 02/10/2024

The Black Academic Development Lab at Stanford University, Anne H. Charity Hudley, Ph.D., PI, seeks to hire a postdoctoral fellow in the language, literacy, and culture of African Americans. The appointment is scheduled to begin on September 15, 2025; a later start date may also be possible.

postdocs.stanford.edu

Open Postdoctoral position, faculty mentor Anne Charity Hudley | Office of Postdoctoral Affairs

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Rikker Dockum @rikker.bsky.social · 24/09/2024

TIL that the zoo where Moo Deng lives is the one we used to take our kids to a lot on the weekends. Fun fact: the zoo is in Sriracha district, the namesake of the hot sauce

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