It is weird how so many things keep getting worse and everyone is expected to keep sending emails and maintain "normal" levels of productivity.

"The book...is written in the rhetorical register of a peer-reviewed academic essay, w/out any of the argument-sharpening benefits that come from peer-review. Karp poses as a political philosopher-CEO..but the book functions as little more than a recruitment brochure for his defense tech company."

“The thesis of the book is, effectively, Palantir loves getting big contracts from the Department of Defense. And when you think about it, doesn’t that make Palantir kind of heroic?”

Alexander Martin Mussgnug’s paper showing his name in the citations expanded to “Mussgnug, Anna Marie”

An LLM hallucinated a paper author’s own NAME in the citations when the publisher, Cambridge University Press, apparently used it to expand initials to full names in the copyediting process.

I can’t seem to link to the author’s LinkedIn post, but here’s the paper www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

LinkedIn post by Alexander Martin Mussgnug: My recent publication has several AI hallucinations. Including my own name (which is not "Anna Maria Mussgnug") And no, this was not because I was carelessly using AI. The paper went through copyediting at the publisher (Cambridge University Press). I had submitted my references with first names abbreviated (Mussgnug, A. M.). CUP house style asks for first names spelled out. It looks like, somewhere in copyediting, an LLM was used to expand them without sanity-checking the outputs. So "Alexander Martin" because "Anna Maria", "Moritz" became "Michael", and so on. None of these changes were clearly flagged in the proofs sent to me, so I did not catch them. The irony is not subtle, given the topic of my paper. The paper argues that we too easily throw overboard established norms and best-practices when we turn to new and flashy AI applications. And this is exactly what happened: a tool dropped into a workflow without the verification practices that have governed copyediting for decades. I work on critical AI studies and the philosophy of science, so I've been pondering this over the past weeks. There's a growing literature on AI in peer review, but copyediting is also part of the publication pipeline, and so far I haven't come across critical scholarship on the (apparently rather careless) use of AI at this step. It seems worth doing. My case is not the only one, many of my colleagues have recently had similar experiences.

Ironically, @universitypress.cambridge.org has long recommended a book known as “Butcher’s” as a guide to CUP house style! Here’s a screenshot of the author's LinkedIn post taken by an understandably disgruntled copyeditor:

"In the place of problem-solving technology, companies have jumped on successive bandwagons like NFTs, the metaverse, and large language models. What these all have in common is that they are not built to really solve a market problem. They are built to make VCs and companies rich"

Author @gilduran.com was just banned from “free speech absolutist” twitter for criticizing the Palantir CEO’s manifesto— so here’s his upcoming book: www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...

This is forthcoming, but pretty apt for the present moment with Palantir... damn the slowness of academic publishing!

“AI, Religion, and Neoliberalism: From ‘Thin Pagan Religion’ to ‘Appifying’ Jesus”, in Guest, M. and Bielo, J. (eds), The Handbook of Religion and Neoliberalism, Bloomsbury

Anyone know whether today is a ‘ceasefire’ day or a ‘destroy your civilisation’ day yet?

I hate Al and I refuse to use it Peter, if you don't use Al a bunch of super rich men will lose a lot of money I already said I hated Al Harry, you don't need to sell it to me

Chatbots statt Seelsorge: KI krempelt Religion und Glauben um Immer mehr Menschen suchen spirituellen Rat bei KI-Chatbots. Doch der Glaube 4.0 birgt auch unerwartete Risiken.

New interview:

www.srf.ch/kultur/gesel...

Palantir are about six months away from ordering their employees to leave audio logs scattered around their offices

Two hooded figures with lamps approach a moonlit, isolated cottage. A woman answers the door. We have come for the child, says the hooded figure So soon? she asks It is time, says the hooded figure. The woman is distraught. We should never have got him a library card! What is done cannot be undone, says the hooded figure We couldn’t see the harm! We just wanted him to enjoy reading! For most, it ends there, says the hooded figure, turning away and walking into the wilderness Oh lord, What have I done! says the woman, the child walks past her and out into the darkness with them. Do not cry mother. I am a writer now.

my latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

Yes!!

(Although it's two men and a woman, but I agree with the sentiment, because god knows I'm fed up of press stories about AI referring to Minority Report!!)

great time for so many schools to be shutting down their religion programs.

yes, we religionists are clearly irrelevant. nothing to say here.

That sound you hear are historians of science, gender, STS etc collectively banging their heads against the nearest hard surface until sweet sweet oblivion

Schürt KI religiösen Fundamentalismus? Ein herziges Lämmchen in der Bibel-App, das Ratschläge gibt. KI gesteuert. Der spirituelle KI-Chatbot. Oder KI-Agenten, die gar eine eigene Religion gründen. Die KI geht auch an der Religion nicht vor...

Upcoming radio interview, and there'll be a shorter text version about the same time too: www.srf.ch/audio/perspe...

Let me in meme but it’s let me post instead

today so far

Girl, the solution to "the system is exploiting and replacing us" isn't "get a new system that can exploit and replace us". What are we even doing here? You can't fight for women if you're fighting for the technology that will run them out of the workplace.

Are they just going to hire everyone leaving the University of Austin?

Oop

Look, I only have two settings.

Replying to your email at a speed faster than light and throwing in a :) and a million !!!!

Or my email arrives after the heat death of the universe with an "Apologies, I don't know how I missed this!" and a "Sorry again!"

Nothing in between.

Look, I only have two settings.

Replying to your email at a speed faster than light and throwing in a :) and a million !!!!

Or my email arrives after the heat death of the universe with an "Apologies, I don't know how I missed this!" and a "Sorry again!"

Nothing in between.

bvlsingler.com/2025/08/22/c...

AI Use Appears to Have a "Boiling Frog" Effect on Human Cognition, New Study Warns A new study claims to offer the first causal link between AI dependency and cognitive erosion. Researchers warn of long-term implications.

NEW: A new pre-print study offers the first causal evidence that outsourcing reasoning tasks to AI can rapidly erode users' independent performance AND their will to persist despite difficulty.

"People’s persistence drops... they’re also not willing to try without AI.”

futurism.com/artificial-i...

Fair! I have a pretty negative reaction (as internal as possible...) when my son says he wants to be a Youtuber, and then I have a bloomin' long list of people I think on Youtube who I think are absolute geniuses in science, intellectual history, natural history, religion, etc etc that I binge!

Also, with a 14 year old, some weeks it's VFX, some weeks it's a marine biologist, some weeks it's a YouTuber, etc etc :D