#criticalai — Public Fediverse posts

📢 Heute stellen wir euch die Challenge #CriticalAI vor.
💪 Herausforderung
Jugendliche lagern Denk- und Reflexionsprozesse zunehmend an KI aus. Das kann Urteilskraft und kritisches Denken beeinträchtigen.
🧭 Handlungsfeld
#Bildung
🛠️ Nutzen
Eine KI-Infrastruktur die KI an menschliche Denkprozesse und kritisches Denken fördert.
Wer profitiert? Schülerinnen und Schüler an weiterführenden Schulen sowie Lehrkräfte.

🔗 Diese & weitere Challenges findet ihr hier: https://www.civic-coding.de/angebote/accelerator

"Der umgekehrte Zentauer" – Cory Doctorows programmatische Rede, in der er seine fundierte und informierte KI-Kritik zusammenfasst, auf Deutsch übersetzt bei @digitalcourage Ein starkes Bild, ganz wunderbar 🦉 : https://digitalcourage.de/blog/2026/der-umgekehrte-zentaur-ki @pluralistic #criticalai #digitalphilosophy #digitalesouveraenitaet

@chpollin

> Vielleicht ein Thema für einen AI-/
> RSE-AG-übergreifenden Preconference
> Workshop nächstes Jahr? Ich wäre dabei!

Andererseits habe ich ja auch gerade gesagt, dass ich etwas verunsichert bin, wie ich weitermachen will, weil ich mir die Community (mich selbst inbegriffen) etwas ambitionierter erhofft hatte, was die Substanziierung der Kritik an #AI angeht. Und obendrein ist heute überhaupt kein Tag, wo man so einfach zum Tagesgeschäft der nächsten Konferenzplanung weitergehen kann! Und das hängt ja alles zusammen.

Ich muss echt mal gründlich nachdenken...

#DHd2026 #DHd2027 #LLM #OpenLLM #AIEthics #Iran #Trump #BigTech #Fascism #CriticalAI #CriticalScience

Oh my, I set out to get a sense of the breadth of applied statistics tools, aka “AI”, out there that specifically cater to students and academics. Someone compiled a well-structured list on a Miro board, here: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVJebunIU=/?share_link_id=534322327957
Then I went on to check "SciSpace", ended up testing the literature review "agent". Result: Shallow, at best.
And eventually I found the paper writing assistant, which quite openly says what it does "Autocomplete your thoughts"....
#AI #CriticalAI #HigherEd

This narrows the horizon of intelligence to tasks that can be accomplished with pattern recognition, prediction from data, and the like. We fear this could set limits for human aspirations and for core ideals like knowledge, creativity, imagination, and democracy—making for a poorer, more constrained human future."

#AI #CriticalAI

https://issues.org/ai-limits-human-aspiration-dick-chun-canute/

Better Images of AI challenges the dominant visual clichés of artificial intelligence.
Instead of shiny humanoid robots and sci-fi tropes, the project calls for images that reflect how AI actually works: statistical, situated, human-made, and socially embedded.
#AIImagery #DigitalCulture #AIethics #VisualCulture #CriticalAI
https://betterimagesofai.org/

Nadia Piet & Archival Images of AI + AIxDESIGN / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

There is a new issue over at @CriticalAI and a few readings are about Generative AI and higher education, writing, thinking and knowledge production.

Here: Evaluating LLM “Research Assistants” and Their Risks for Novice Researchers (Free for now)
https://doi.org/10.1215/2834703X-12095982

#AI #CriticalAI

Maybe the unsettling part of LLMs isn’t that they’ll “wake up.”
It’s that we might fall asleep because autocomplete got just good enough.

Intelligence isn’t just answers; it’s the friction of thinking.
How do we protect that in an age of instant, eerily plausible text?

#AI #LLM #ArtificialIntelligence #CriticalAI #DigitalSociety

📢 Academics of mastodon,

We are recruiting one author to contribute to our edited book "A Research Agenda on Critical AI Studies". We are looking for someone who could write a chapter on LLMs from a critical perspective (copyright, surrogation, etc.).

If you are interested, DM or email me at [email protected].

#CriticalAI

Why we should be skeptical of the hasty global push to test 15-year-olds’ AI literacy in 2029
#AI #AILiteracy #Education #AIinSchools #Teachers #OECD #PISA2029 #EdTech #AIPolicy #FutureOfLearning #AIethics #GlobalEducation #CriticalAI
https://the-14.com/why-we-should-be-skeptical-of-the-hasty-global-push-to-test-15-year-olds-ai-literacy-in-2029/

👀 Contemporary networked image cultures are inseparable from platform capitalism.

The international conference «React & Respond» (Zurich, 2–4 Oct 2025) explores the aesthetics, politics, and labour of platform capitalism with scholars and artists across disciplines.

Program: https://arthist.net/archive/50541
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#PlatformCapitalism #DigitalCulture #AlgorithmicInfrastructures #MediaStudies #VisualCulture #DigitalArt #CriticalAI @bildoperationen

JOB: W1-Juniorprofessur: Critical Aesthetics in the Age of AI (w/m/d)
📍 Uni Konstanz
📅 Beginn: 1. April 2026
🕒 Bewerbung bis: 01.10.2025

Vollzeit, ohne Tenure-Track
Gesucht: Literatur‑, Kunst- oder Medienwissenschaft mit Fokus auf medientechnologische Entwicklungen & KI.

Gefordert: Skizze eines Postdoc-Projekts zu „Text/Bild/Medien im Zeitalter von KI“

#Job #CriticalAI #Juniorprofessur #Geisteswissenschaften #Kunstwissenschaft

https://stellen.uni-konstanz.de/jobposting/eebb245cff57ff58b1fcff6563f4b809a9f2c4730

Have you read @karenhao book #EmpireOfAI, chronicling the rise of Sam Altman and #OpenAI?

Want to?

It's fantastic - meticulously researched, detailed and an incredible character analysis of one of the most influential people and companies of our time.

My favourite chapter is the last one - what would it take for the Empire of AI to fall?

In #Melbourne #Naarm?

Come see Karen in conversation with @Kobotic presented by #ReadingsBooks, this Friday night at #RMIT.

Entry is free, tix going fast though.

https://www.readings.com.au/events/karen-hao-talks-ai

#STS #AusSTS #AI #CriticalAI

New semester means new AI policy for the syllabus. This is drawn from my past policy, a very concise post by Mel Hogan on BlueSky, and from reading "Empire of AI" this summer. For context, this is for a creative coding class in an art department:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE STATEMENT
While the use of AI tools (including ChatGPT and other AI powered writing or image technologies) may be tempting, it is important to understand the following:

Ethical Problems: All publicly available high profile LLMs are built using stolen data, exploitative labor practices, and require vast amounts of natural resources which worsens our climate crisis.

Negative Impacts on Learning: Multiple studies have shown the AI use can erode creative and critical thinking skills, the very things you are here to cultivate.

The Essence of Art: At its core, art is about cultivating one's own personal point of view and process. It is about making thousands of small choices that culminate in works that reflect who you are and what you care about. AI flattens and streamlines this process, ironing out all the wrinkles that make art interesting and robbing you of the opportunity to cultivate yourself through your practice.

So, in this course we will not be using AI tools. If you are caught using AI for any class work, it will result in a zero on the associated assignment and perhaps referral to the Office of Undergraduate Academic Integrity depending on severity. The one exception to this rule is that if you desire to make work that critically engages with AI, you should consult with me before using any such tools. If approved, the use of AI tools must be properly cited and acknowledged in all submissions.

#academia #academicchatter #antiai #criticalAI #creativecoding #art

Time for another round of critical AI weekend reading:

Crashing hard: why talking about bubbles obscures the real social cost of overinvesting into “Artificial Intelligence”
Aline Blankertz (@alineblankertz)
https://www.structural-integrity.eu/crashing-hard-why-talking-about-bubbles-obscures-the-real-social-cost-of-overinvesting-into-artificial-intelligence/

AI slop and the destruction of knowledge
Iris van Rooij (@Iris)
https://irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2025/08/12/ai-slop-and-the-destruction-of-knowledge/

Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens.
Kashmir Hill (@kashhill)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-delusions-chatgpt.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ck8.FEwL.MLb9ajaocyTx&smid=url-share

Who Prompted All This Shit?
Hito Steyerl (@hito)
https://spikeartmagazine.com/articles/interview-hito-steyerl

Imposing AI: Deceptive design patterns against sustainability
Anaëlle Beignon et al
https://computingwithinlimits.org/2025/papers/limits2025-beigon-imposing-ai.pdf

(also several other great papers from this year's workshop on Computing within Limits, full list here: https://computingwithinlimits.org/2025/#program)

#LongRead #CriticalAI

Weekend list of critical reading links about the state[1] of Tech, AI[2] hype/finance/politics, mostly long form:

Ed Zitron's The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/

How to use computing power faster: on the weird economics of semiconductors and GenAI (by @gauthier)
https://gauthierroussilhe.com/en/articles/how-to-use-computing-power-faster

Predictive Capital: Roads to Terminal Alienation: Soil to Server Farm, Reason to Vibe (by @atomless)
https://www.creativeapplications.net/theory/predictive-capital/

Honey, AI Capex is Eating the Economy
https://paulkedrosky.com/honey-ai-capex-ate-the-economy/

Decomputing as Resistance (by @danmcquillan)
https://danmcquillan.org/decomputing_as_resistance.html

How big tech is force-feeding us AI
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-big-tech-is-force-feeding-us

Also, in addition to the above, a little more #FollowFriday if you're interested in these topics, their implications and peripheries (in A-Z order):

@asrg
@festal
@gerrymcgovern
@Kurtis_Clark
@tante
@w0bb1t

Academia:

@bildoperationen
@databasecultures
@emilymbender
@Iris
@timnitGebru

[1] As in: "Just look at the state of this..."
[2] As in "generative AI"

#LongRead #CriticalAI

An email landed in my inbox today promoting a faculty retreat for my college with a large time slot on "AI for productivity". I responded in part with:

"I say this without exaggeration: There is no way to adopt generic AI tools (like LLMs) at an institutional level in a way that is ethical."

I hate that universities are often so willfully ignorant when it comes to adopting new technologies. As if they are somehow separate from the moral, ethical, and political implications of their development and use when they are in fact central to it.

#AI #criticalAI #futures #resist #academia #academicchatter #labor

Final session of my Intro to the Ethics of AI course today on Data Protection Challenges of AI.

We discussed predictive privacy, prediction power, and risks of secondary use of AI models — key themes in my current research.

🎥 Watch here: https://youtu.be/Nxo2N0RzzSU
📘 Program and all recordings: https://rainermuehlhoff.de/en/EoAI2025/

#AIethics #CriticalAI #AI #Dataprotection #Philosophy

Dear Colleagues,
I am looking for the one text or video that I can show students to explain how "AI" works and what its problems are.
German or English.
It can be a long video or text, but it should not be too technical, but technical enough for them to stop thinking about AI only in terms of using it.

Thanks!!!!

#AI #criticalAI #ChatGPT