iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 09/10/2026

Happy Friday! Here's a site I've built because I've been thinking about it & want to see more of it in the world: a space for describing and sharing scholarly skills that I've picked up and nurtured over the years. Also this is a no AI zone in at least two ways: no talking about it and no using it.

critical.computer

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Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Just going to put these two things side by side. One is the headline of the BBC live blog about the independent review on mental health, ADHD and autism. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6... The other is an excerpt from the exec summary of that review. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Headline of a BBC live blog saying "ADHD and autism at risk of over-diagnosis, says report, as author warns of rise in mental ill health

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Robin Bisson @robinbisson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Update on the "AI-based triage" which is getting lots of (negative) attention

In recent days, there have also been several reports on social media of applicants seemingly being rejected after “AI-based triage”. The funding, while originating from UKRI, was devolved to the Crane network, which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to strengthen the UK’s cybersecurity research ecosystem.

UKRI confirmed it did not carry out the AI triage process. A spokesperson said: “UKRI policy does not allow the use of generative AI to conduct application assessment. We are following up with the Crane network to review this situation in detail and ensure compliance with our assessment conditions.”

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John Stott @jpsastro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky

I am writing to let you know that, unfortunately, your application was not successful.

Review process

As part of the initial triage of the 179 proposals submitted to this call, each was assessed using an AI-based review. Every proposal was read independently by several different AI models against the same seven criteria used to shape this call (including cyber security relevance, research quality and novelty, importance of the problem addressed, feasibility of the project plan, likely outputs and impact, value for money, and responsible research practice), with each model asked to give a score and a written justification with supporting quotations from the text. To guard against any one model's idiosyncrasies, we also ran a second, independent process in which different AI models debated the merits and weaknesses of each proposal before reaching a judgement, again against the same criteria. Scores from both processes were combined to produce an overall ranking.

This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review. Projects selected for funding were drawn from those that progressed to the full human review stage. We recognise that AI-assisted assessment is a new and evolving part of the review process, and we are continuing to evaluate how well it aligns with the judgements of human reviewers on this call. We will soon produce a document detailing our method, so that others can build upon it and improve it.

Feedback on your application

Your application was not selected to progress beyond the AI triage stage. To provide transparency on the outcome of this assessment, we are sharing below the scores (out of 5) from each of the two AI review processes described above, together with the mean score across the two processes.

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"including [...] research quality and novelty" Besides the idiocy of expecting an LLM to be able to judge research quality, the idea that it can detect novelty is bonkers. LLMs repackage the past. They are blind to novelty by design. In fact, they ought to label as new what was new in the past!

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I think the gist of warnings like this one is correct: we urgently need binding international regulations before use of AI does serious harm. I'm also concerned that the debate is being distorted by the language & framings that those in the industry have imbibed. 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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Tanita Tikaram @tanitatikaram.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

What I love about Western democracy is you can bung a political party £ 36 million earned from criminal activity & most media will continue to point at asylum seekers & migrant care workers with families as the barbarians at the gate we need to defend ourselves from 🙄.

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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Have seen this Nature piece about the effects of X's algorithm mentioned again and it bears repeating; exposure to a right wing algorithm makes you - measurably and predictably - more right wing, even after you stop using it. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature

Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Finally got round to this: Mendoza and the Timeless - Live at Chandos (Aug 15) On the bad tube, for now, pending me finding out which (if any) PeerTube instance (or equivalent) is suitable (suggestions welcome!!). www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6gh... Enjoy! 🎸 🎶 🪘 🪘

youtube.com

Mendoza and the Timeless Live at Chandos pub - Aug 15 2026

YouTube video by Sergio Graziosi

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Remember when road-blocks generated all those "what about ambulances/what about kids going to school/etc." questions? ... Yeah, I remember that too...🤦🤬

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

youtube.com

Mendoza and the Timeless Live at Chandos pub - Aug 15 2026

YouTube video by Sergio Graziosi

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Brett Codes @brettcodes.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I wrote an essay about why I'm done using AI for coding, even if it costs me my job and career: brettcodes.com/im-done-usin... The basic gist is: AI made me a worse, apathetic programmer. I think it's bad for humanity, the planet, and the craft of software engineering. And I'm done using it.

brettcodes.com

I'm done using AI

Why I'm stopping using AI for coding (and anything else) after using it earnestly for a year and coming to understand the harms it causes on personal, societal, and environmental levels.

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Thiago @csthiago.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Remember to sign and share! We already passed 4,000 signatures

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 26/08/2026

Also what our colleagues at Ghent are saying: recognition that there's weaponisation & misconstrual of academic freedom; and that we have a duty of care to people who deserve to be alive and well in academia. > we do not consider it an infringement on academic freedom. Please sign if you can: 20/

docs.google.com

Open letter on the suspension of Nathan Cofnas at Ghent University

***Version française en dessous*** We, colleagues of Nathan Cofnas - supported by many colleagues internationally - want to respond to the negative and incorrect framing of Ghent University’s decisio...

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

This is "one reason why we need unions"! 😜🤭 #JoinAUnion

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

All HEIs need to protect their reputation, without it, they die. So they create systems that do just that. The DEI policy, the anti-bullying/harassing policies, etc. They all protect reputation, it's what they do, it's their purpose. Their stated purpose is how they do it, not what they do. ☹️ 2/2

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Stuff started making sense to me when my brain produced this thought: "Policies, mission statements and procedures exist to protect the institution's reputation - which is critical for all HEI". I.e. they do NOT exist for the purpose explicitly stated in said policies/statements... 1/2

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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Decades of research on bullying in academia tells us abusers are usually known in HEIs (including to HR). They typically stay in post, or are promoted. Their victims (within and outside the uni) are the ones who quit, step down, or are hurt. HEIs generally only act when their reputations are hit /1

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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Academics that publish in their own crank journals claims that vitamin C will cure cancer are dangerous to the public; but ‘race scientists’ are far worse, since their work is propaganda designed to provide the patina of justification for subjugating and harming *billions of non-white people*

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 14/08/2026

> Unfortunately, governments [...] sometimes try to keep university students from being taught the strange, confusing, uncertain parts of science, and try to enforce teaching comfortable simplicity rather than uncomfortable complexity. But reality persists whether we teach it or not. 5/n

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 14/08/2026

> Mathematics and physics and biology are strange and endlessly surprising, and as you learn more they get more strange and surprising, not less. And that's ok. Accepting our ignorance and confusion is the first step to understanding. 4/n

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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

A few things you can never talk about in UK media: nations are recent social inventions, and were a bad idea; 'borders' are not physical boundaries, but capricious, arbitrary violence by the state against innocent people; people born elsewhere are inherently as valuable as people born nearby

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Esther Mondragón @e-mondragon.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

.. and we learn from the commotion of beliefs, suspicions and dread. Meanwhile, we must not lose focus on other more human concerns in academia: the hierarchisation and bureaucratisation that are suffocating the institution, 2/n

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Chris Kendall @ottocr.at · 13/08/2026

Why did your favourite pub close? Why is the High Street so boring? Why won’t Youtube recommend something new and interesting? Amazing thread, worth the investment of time and focus.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 12/08/2026

This matters. As Leek writes, ecologists have long understood the importance of variety for systemic resilience: they call it "the insurance value of biodiversity." 64/

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Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 08/08/2026

Arguing that LLMs are anything more than a load of numbers going into a complicated mathematical function and spitting some more numbers out. Yes they simulate. But they simulate *language*. They do not simulate the cognitive processes underlying communication.

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Ed Jefferson @edjefferson.com · 08/08/2026

Even if they weren't, protesting outside somewhere you think asylum seekers might live is not fucking legitimate.

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Gig alert, featuring yours truly on bass. August 15 from 8pm at The Chandos pub. Nearest station is Honor Oak Park on the Windrush line. "Ska, reggae & feel-good vibes", what's not to like? If you're local and/or can drag yourself all the way down to Brockley, I'd love to see you there! 🎶🕺🎉

Gig poster for "Mendoza and the Timeless".
Gig is scheduled for Sat. 15 August, 8pm, at the Chandos pub, 56 Brockley Rise SE23 1LN.

Poster has a main image showing the red silhouettes of some lads dancing, sprinkled around them are 5 images of an old-fashioned clock-face. "Mendoza And the Timeless" writing circles this image (above and below).
Bottom of the poster has a picture of the Chandos pub, with text-boxes showing date, time and address. A text box right at the bottom reads: "Ska, Reggae & feel-good vibes"

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 03/08/2026

The "free" in market does not mean "free from regulation." It means "able to operate with free information and without market manipulation" and we've now proven, for the second time in US history, that you cannot have a free market WITHOUT reining in corporations.

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"Justice for Keith Porter Jr." Butter🏳️‍🌈 @mysterybutter.blacksky.app · 30/07/2026

Time is the main resource that capitalism is constantly stealing from us and turning into profit.

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Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The usual scientifically illiterate gibberish from deeply conflicted aerosol transmission deniers.

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EPPI Reviewer @eppi-reviewer.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

#EPPI-Reviewer new release: Version 6.18.1.0 introduces the new "radio-button codes" feature (mutually exclusive codes), extends LLM support to 5 new models and more. Full details here: eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/er/Help/...

eppi.ioe.ac.uk

Latest Changes (27/07/2026 - V6.18.1.0)

Description of EPPI Reviewer release - Latest Changes (27/07/2026 - V6.18.1.0)

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

And Burnham keeping both Mahmood and her policies is a massive own goal.

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Mekka Okereke @mekka.mekka-tech.com · 24/07/2026

Unfortunately the US workforce is not just closer to forced labor. I'm talking about real, full, slave labor. 1. Many poor Black people in the US are falsely arrested and charged with a non-violent crime that they did not do. Our "justice" system, keeps poor people in jail for *a year* before trial

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

My go to catchphrase for this is: "reality eventually hits, once". Being teflon-y means that it's rational to learn the belief that you can survive also this new scandal, or pay very little penalties, on numbers alone. And probably you will, until you don't.

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Didn't resign (or speak out and fight his corner) in response of "Eat out to help out", but resigns now. That's one reason to hope Burnham plans to do something useful, then... A small and indirect reason, therefore unreliable, but a reason, still.

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

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Matthew Sheffield @matthew.flux.community · 16/07/2026

Jonathan Haidt is a right-wing activist that no one on the left should be supporting. His campaign against children having tech freedom is extremely harmful to disadvantaged kids, goes against better social science data, and empowers Christian supremacists. Please read this and share w/parents:

theguardian.com

The social media ban sceptic: are we getting it wrong on kids, tech and mental health?

Psychologist Candice Odgers has studied adolescent mental health for 25 years. She fears the current debate around smartphones obscures some of the biggest issues facing teenagers – from the impact of...

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Cllr Emily Kerr 💚 @emilykerr36.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Another Oxford cargo bike theft!! Mine is customised by having a lot of stickers and nail varnish my kids did on it. Stolen on Meadow Lane at 18.30 today locked to a Sheffield stand. Please LMK if anyone sees it for sale. Probably in Cambridge. ;)

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East Anglia Bylines @eastangliabylines.co.uk · 16/07/2026

For months people have asked: what does Andy Burnham actually believe? A new paper by advisers close to the Prime Minister may provide the clearest answer yet – and it's far more radical than many expected. Stephen McNair reports.

eastangliabylines.co.uk

Is this Burnham’s radical vision of the state?

Some things should not be controlled by private markets. A new paper suggests an alternative. Could this be Andy Burnham’s agenda

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Far more radical = obvious to anyone with a brain. But also obviously, this counts for nothing in these mad times. The crucial question remains open: are these the advisers who will be listened to or not? Given the context, I'm not confident that the answer is "Yes". 😟

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Sergio Graziosi @sergiograziosi.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

At best, you can (try to) make the case that "he would like to be a decent man, but doesn't have the spine", IMO. But I'm not trying to make this case, because I don't think it's useful. Even if the above were true (and I don't know if it is), it wouldn't change anything significant in practice.

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

"He's a decent man." No. No decent man would have appointed Mandelson. No decent man would have given the Island of Strangers speech. No decent man would have claimed that Israel did have the right to cut off power and water to Gaza, when he *knew* that they did not. Not decent.

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Atrios @eschatonblog.com · 26/06/2026

the "how dare you care about gaza but not sudan" crowd (david lammy) didn't care about sudan either

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People's Government of the Pelargir Commune 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

As a migrant, I affirmatively do not care how much you spend on schools if you put Shabana Mahmood's immigration policies into practice. This is a logical and calculated stance that I am tired of pretending is somehow irrational.

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