iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 23h

💯 > The rebranding is also a distraction, redirecting public attention away from resource-pillaging data centers, a fragile economic bubble and rising safety concerns. This is a core MO of the industry to avoid critique and escape regulation. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

intelligence.” It shows that since the start imprecise jargon was used to make exaggerated promises
with the goal to please investors, claims that fundamentally remain promises to this day.
Although some differentiate AI and non-AI systems by appealing to generative models versus
other types of AI, we are convinced that this does not bring clarity to the discussion, and we can
fall head first into misuse of terminology and fostering industry hype (see Table 1 and Figure 1; cf.
Guest 2025). Granting that distinction, for example, makes classifiers such as Bernoulli naive Bayes,
formally a generative model, AI technology similar to hyped applications (Efron 1975; Jebara 2004;
Mitchell 1997; Ng and Jordan 2001; Xue and Titterington 2008). However, a statistical model like the
Bernoulli naive Bayes classifier, which is used to analyse data, is unrelated to industry hype. By the same
token, spellcheck software (which has not historically been composed of generative nor stochastic
models) also falls under AI in some definitions, but not under others. Similar terminological problems
also hold for phrases like ‘agentic AI’ (Chawla et al. 2024; Hosseini and Seilani 2025) — systems that
can autonomously adapt their environment, make context-sensitive ‘decisions’, and act upon them
without any human intervention. Formally, systems like thermostats, microwave ovens, and traffic
lights are agentic in this sense and fall under AI, but are not products we wish to proscribe. Informally,
however, ‘agentic’ is misused to induce anthropomorphisation that we cannot endorse (cf. Bandura
2001; Barrow 2024; Helfrich 2024).
There is nothing privileged about generative AI, nor any AI technology, in any pedagogical or
sociotechnical sense (see Table 1). Importantly, all technology under our purview as academics, ought
to fall under the same critical considerations. Thus, to frame generative AI as unique or dramatically
different to other AI systems appears anti-intellectual. Recall that gene…

The Euler diagram in Figure 1 demonstrates that such hyped labels — Large Language Model
(LLM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), generative model, chatbot — are interwoven in complicated
ways such that their referents remain ambiguous (cf. Guest 2025). Importantly, this holds under any
rearrangement of the sets and elements: one cannot use these words without encountering additional
problems and fostering ambiguity (Alkhatib 2024). We cannot escape this quagmire with more jargon.
And so, we are convinced that when the technology industry presents use cases for the label generative
AI (such as for LLMs, but not Bernoulli naive Bayes; Figure 1), this is a strategy to elicit confused
responses against ‘generative AI,’ deflecting attention from other problematic AI systems (Table 1).
This feeds into the hype and obstructs a more general critique of similar unethical or unwanted AI
systems (cf. Guest 2025). Should we continue down this road, the technology industry will slip through
such a distinction, skipping from terminology to terminology, consolidating its power. It has indeed
done so many times before by using previous phrases as buzzwords like big data, machine learning

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The notion of "second-hand surveillance" (on analogy to second-smoke) seems powerful -- and more generally I really appreciate the idea of zones where one can be free of this. From @ajlunited.bsky.social www.offrecordzones.org >>

offrecordzones.org

Off Record Zones - Places Where Consent is Respected

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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Yes! Sam Altman explicitly says we should accept harms to humans for the sake of AI development. We should be very comfortable telling him and his chatbot to go fuck themselves.

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

No AI for kids. Full stop.

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Several people have been asking me when this one was going to be up on the feed. Lauren Goodlad (of @criticalai-journal.bsky.social) and @jeffjarvis.bsky.social really delivered an evening convo to remember at the 2026 Quadrennial Conference on the State of @marktwain.bsky.social Studies.

theamericanvandal.com

Critical AI & The End of Mass Media (Vandal Live @ Elmira College)

with Lauren M.E. Goodlad and Jeff Jarvis

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This episode is doing big numbers &, so far as the feedback I'm getting, for precisely the reason I recruited Lauren Goodlad (@criticalai-journal.bsky.social) & @jeffjarvis.bsky.social: They are both able, in their own ways, to situate the AI boom as more continuity than disruption. They draw...

theamericanvandal.com

Critical AI & The End of Mass Media (Vandal Live @ Elmira College)

with Lauren M.E. Goodlad and Jeff Jarvis

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"A possible source of new information"--GB @vpterson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

In the age of AI tools, being reminded that the map is not the territory seems more important than ever. Who kicks semantics around with an LLM? There’s a kind of totalitarian “final” thought when it gives a word—no going into it without a literacy that is deeper than usual, or deeper than callow.

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

if you think the public exists to defend the military, I think you're most of the way to where these creeps want you to be

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Grateful to the team at @studiosity.com for inviting me on their podcast with Judyth Sachs to talk about why I think human writing matters. Here's something I said that I think gets at what humans can do that chatbots can't --and why teachers and writing centers matter more than ever.

And this thing is that often what really will sort of light the fire under a student is when you help them figure out not how to do something with what's ont he page, but how to find the thing that's not yet on the page. That's what we're doing.

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🕊 Sharon ~ NHDogLover ⚖️ 🗽 @nhdoglover.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Never a better argument for an education that must include liberal arts than these inhuman techbocrats and muscle bound meat-heads like the ICE gestapo.

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

On the next Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 livestream, we’re so excited to chat with authors of the new book, Against Tech Oligarchy! @js-tan.bsky.social and Clarissa Redwine will join me and @alexhanna.bsky.social to chat about tech industry labor: Mon, Oct 5, noon Pacific twitch.tv/dair_institute

twitch.tv

dair_institute - Twitch

Twitch account for The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). — dair_institute streams live on Twitch! Check out their videos, sign up to chat, and join their community.

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"A possible source of new information"--GB @vpterson.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

So much reactivity in the comments. TGI Sunday! Yes it’s hard to avoid AI tools. They come in many flavors & types. Most noted in the comments are the AI search summaries. Many folks resent these. So much of the stuff is foisted on us like air pollutants that it harms us as we simply act & breathe.

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Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"Polarization Is Not the Problem" This paragraph says more about "both sides" journalism than just about anything I have read. Read the rest here: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... By @lilymasonphd.bsky.social via @brizzyc.bsky.social

muse.jhu.edu

Project MUSE -- Verification required!

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Jen Mercieca @jenmercieca.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Fascists don't believe in peace. Peace doesn't help them. No authoritarian regime ever wants peace. Liberal democracies want peace. Peace helps them. Every liberal democracy wants peace.

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ajlee209.bsky.social @ajlee209.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Boy howdy. Wait till this guy finds out that conservatives voters are significantly less likely to be interested in actual public policy and vote purely on culture war vibes.

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"A possible source of new information"--GB @vpterson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

And do appreciable harm to education and public sentiment through his nationally distributed numbskullery.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

You know this is my third or fourth go around with this kind of technological innovation for consumers and citizens. And a lot of it is the same. Same pattern of exaggerated benefits, underestimated challenges. What’s new this time is the sector isn’t even pretending to care about the consumer.

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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Archaeologist here and someone who just wrote an entire book chapter ln the history of communication. Maybe if dude had spoken to a linguist or an anthropologist he would not have shown his taint to the entire universe. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | I’m a College Professor. Writing Isn’t as Important as We Think. (Gift Article)

If I do not treat writing as essential for achieving thought, it is not clear why I should force my students to.

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Also if you've made it this far, check out this thoughtful piece by one of my former writing tutors. www.harvardmagazine.com/commentary/h...

harvardmagazine.com

I Used to Think AI Could Make Me a Better Writer | Harvard Magazine

A former Harvard College writing tutor changes her mind on LLMs.

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Many thoughts about the argument in this piece but one is that citing a few studies to say that there is little evidence that "we discover what we think in the act of writing" contradicts everything I saw in 26 years of teaching college writing. Of course not the only we figure out what we think/1

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Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

See my post called, "Send the Interns," from January of 2017. pressthink.org/2017/01/send...

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

exactly 💯 on LLMs: they simulate the output we call language, not the cognitive capacity we call language!

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Much wisdom in this thread, including the idea that instead of talking about being pro or anti AI, we should be talking about what is pro learning. This is what has motivated all of my work on writing and AI: Start with what it is that we actually want students to experience/become/be able to do.

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

For reasons mysterious to me, Will Stancil is continuing his crash out about language used to describe LLMs, moving on from raning about "stochastic parrots" to picking up on this piece that @nannainie.bsky.social and I published earlier this summer: buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch... >>

buttondown.com

How to talk about "AI" without adding to the anthropomorphization

Emily M. Bender and Nanna Inie In our op-ed for Tech Policy Press ("We Need to Talk About How We Talk About 'AI'"), we made the case against the...

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NewAccountWhoDis @newaccountwhothis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The training data is one source of bias, but it's not the only one. The model heavily interprets and condenses things as it's trained, which can add it's own biases.

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

but also, by cutting off the question of where the bias comes from, normalizes it as some sort of fact of nature that we just have to deal with, rather than a designed property of products which are being pushed on us from every direction.

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"A possible source of new information"--GB @vpterson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

They just take what the want. It’s cyber-piracy. Always was.

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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

As Dartmouth writing professor @jeffsharlet.bsky.social testified, his students "hate" AI, but still feel compelled to use it. Here is the chief academic officer uncritically deploying AI text for (apparently) all public communication. www.chronicle.com/article/my-s...

chronicle.com

Opinion | My Students Hate AI. But They Can’t Stop Using It.

Big Tech has gotten them addicted to cheating, and they’ve internalized the blame.

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Derek Parfit is exactly the sort of person who would have been quite happy in a monastery writing theological commentaries, and this is more or less what Oxford tends towards as a social institution. Baudrilliard is the sort of person it would have been absolutely amazing to have a pint with.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 24/09/2026

Finally getting round to reading this: YES, @rjwatt42.bsky.social! > academia [now demands] conformity, compliance, obedience and that this is stifling universities to the point where they will cease to exist as anything other than a machine. The only escape […] is to make room for prophets.

Priests see a system as structure and then meaning.
They are rule-makers, rule-followers, averse to going outside a domain that can be managed by rules, by laws, by rituals.
How rather than Why.
Priests make academia predictable, navigable, safe.
Prophets see academia as a meaning and then structure.
They are meaning-seekers, story-tellers, uncomfortable with limitations and structures.
Why and then How.
Prophets keep academia focussed on its purposes.

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

In my first-year college writing course about AI, I made a chatbot that could help students "stress test" their arguments by providing potential counterarguments. The class was about AI so it made sense to try it. It wasn't bad at the task but when my students saw that it didn't give answers and /1

Researchers from the University of Toronto followed students in 18 Tennessee middle schools for two years, from 2024 to 2026. Almost all the students tried Khanmigo at first. And many tried to get the AI assistant to spit out the answer. But when Khanmigo refused and instead asked questions or offered hints, students largely stopped using it.

“We observe how students actually used the AI tutor, and the answer is: not much,” Philip Oreopoulos and Nina Low, the researchers, wrote in their draft paper, circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research in August. “Seeking help with one’s own confusion remained a choice, and most students declined it most of the time.”

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

After an eventful summer hiatus, The Important Work is back with new posts starting tomorrow! If you don't already subscribe, there's still time to sign up to receive tomorrow's post by Helen Choi about p(doom) and what happens when students are asked to write about whether AI will kill us all.

theimportantwork.substack.com

The Important Work | Jane Rosenzweig | Substack

Teaching Writing in the Age of AI. Click to read The Important Work, by Jane Rosenzweig, a Substack publication.

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

"I honestly don’t believe that rogue AI is going to kill us all, but if we are not mindful about cultivating a life of experience and meaning, we may allow AI’s presence to prevent us from living." (Invite @biblioracle.bsky.social to talk to your students-mine were very inspired when he visited us!)

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 20/09/2026

Reminder that this is both the core internal mechanism of contemporary so-called AI as well as that it comprises the effect it has on our thinking if we become entrenched uncritical users of such systems... (I'll post some ways of understanding this below 🧵👇🏼)

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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 20/09/2026

One of the most unfortunate consequences for this is that doing research becomes a norm for undergrads in STEM but an exception for undergrads in the humanities. By claiming to “help” students by putting “pedagogy” before “research” we actually do them a disservice by drawing an artificial boundary.

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Lauren Gawne @superlinguo.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

There are also a whole lot of areas of human enquiry where the information hasn't been slurped into the LLMs and therefore they aren't particularly useful without, best case, a lot of human in the loop.

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blackle mori @blackle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I just wrote a paranormal story in the form of a fictional forum thread! A young woman discovers a video captured from inside a recurring dream. Read here: suricrasia.online/unfiction/sp...

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"A possible source of new information"--GB @vpterson.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

How about a Humanities Center with shelves of journals? My university had one. It was a refuge, a special place: Big padded comfy chairs for reading In a large reading room off to the side. The main study room had 7 or 8 rows of tables & chairs & good lighting. Made being there a good experience.

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Big Joel @bigjoel.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I’ve obsessed over this possibility for the last two days lol. If traffic through the straight magically stays this slow, it is like an insane global carbon tax. This is what I tell myself

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Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"The idea that preparing students to succeed in an AI-saturated world requires reimagining college as an AI incubator is not a sign of technological acumen, but of tech illiteracy." This is so good.

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Also: this document and the MIT report resonate because they assert value of the human endeavor vs. efficiency clearly and powerfully. Much more meaningful than policy built around "AI is here to stay" or accusations that concern about AI use means one is "pretending it doesn't exist."

As a community, we need to keep in mind that although research is central to MIT’s mission, it’s more than an end in itself; on our campus, research is also an apprenticeship, a means of training the next generation of researchers to continue our work and drive our fields of inquiry forward. Using research as an opportunity for learning-by-doing may produce seeming “inefficiencies,” but that’s a feature, not a bug.

A focus on our humanity should also alert us to the fact that common current remedies for the problems AI creates can risk damaging the relationships between and among teachers and students. For instance, many instructors recounted that having to “police” unauthorized AI use was harming their connection to students (a dynamic made worse by the fact that, as we learned, AI detection software is quite unreliable). For their part, students fear being wrongly accused of AI cheating and are increasingly frustrated by instructors’ use of AI in areas that demand a human touch, such as grading, assignment creating, and feedback. Such an underground river of mutual suspicion is no foundation for a healthy classroom.

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I have consistently heard from students it that they use non university AI because they assume they are under surveillance in university systems. Would be curious to know the numbers on how many are using what universities provide. (But also: that $$ would pay for...a lot of writing centers!)

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Everyone knows AI-written academic papers are embarrassing now, including their "authors", which is why even the publishers - who stand to benefit most from AI-amplified publication volumes - are now offering "Affordable human expert editing for AI-drafted or AI-edited manuscripts" 🤯

Screenshot of T&F editing services, reading:

Editing for AI-Assisted Manuscripts
NEW
Affordable human expert editing for AI-drafted or AI-edited manuscripts.

Starting at $0.031/ word

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"A possible source of new information"--GB @vpterson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

LLMs no more experience meaning than rocks or graphics cards do.

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"A possible source of new information"--GB @vpterson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

In the era of AI tools, students more and more are trained by their use to forego taking intellectual and artistic risks.

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