Jane Schmidt

Also happening in the academic monograph supply chain! A screencap from GOBI, the supplier used by a lot (most?) academic libraries.

In retrospect, I think it was a bad idea to take the meanest, dumbest, and most selfish person and also make them the most powerful person.

America’s top companies keep talking about AI — but can’t explain the upsides FT analysis of hundreds of filings suggest the S&P 500 businesses are clearer about the risks than benefits

“The biggest US-listed companies keep talking about artificial intelligence. But other than the ‘fear of missing out,’ few appear to be able to describe how the technology is changing their businesses for the better.”

I had a similarly life affirming experience at the Oasis concert with my old friend from uni. I had dreaded it, thinking I’d made a huge (expensive) mistake. But it turned out a singalong with 50,000 ppl was exactly the right kind of fun I needed!

I wanted to go to this show, but I knew the timing would be bad for me! Glad it was a banger.

It definitely soothes my soul. If you squint hard enough, you can see still the kid in them!!

I only heard snippets but Greek mythology was invoked.
And one problematized meeting the dolphin in the water.
I just loved it. It was the Scholastic series Who Would Win in an undergrad context. 🥹

Adolescent boys/young men are in the media a lot these days for awful reasons.

But I just overheard the best conversation between three 18/19 yo boys talking about who would win in a fight between a grizzly bear, a titan and a dolphin … and the fight is in the water.

Amazing.

I admit that I don’t like them in restaurants! I want to look at a paper menu. But I get it. Reluctantly.

Links to the material we are using in class (slides, journal articles).

I think the pandemic really made them relevant. Because I do remember thinking that the way we were trying to use them was a bit of a reach. But hey, the world changes! Glad we have them now!

Once upon a time, it was fashionable to rip the shit out of QR codes.
Today, I just created TWO of them for a class I’m teaching this afternoon.
Life comes at you fast. 🙃

N.L.'s 10-year education action plan cites sources that don't exist | CBC News A major report on modernizing the education system in Newfoundland and Labrador is peppered with fake sources some educators say were likely fabricated by generative artificial intelligence.

Very cool that the province’s new roadmap for education was written using generative AI. Really inspires confidence 🫠

Millions and millions of cats!

“I was gonna fight for liberation but we didn’t get the grant :(“ pin

professional activists and institutional intellectuals be like:

The argument that critics of GenAI are just in a moral panic, and that this is just the new calculator, Wikipedia, etc just sort of falls apart when you see stories about the bots as sycophantic therapists and caregivers in LTC homes, no?? Just me?

This is the same trap that non-profits fall into: they have to spend resources "telling their story" in order to maintain grant funding or raise funds, which diverts $ from the people/situation they are trying to help. It's a vicious cycle.

🙋‍♀️

The way she closed that talk was the highlight of my day. 'The coffee was cold, the room was too hot, MEOW MEOW MEOW." 😂

“I used to think, but now I know.” @prisonculture.bsky.social on continuous learning.

Whenever I hear people say they are using GenAI all the time in their personal life, I’m just baffled. Maybe I lack imagination (or just am truly a Luddite) but I’ve never once felt the impulse to use it.

Researchers urge caution when using ChatGPT to self-diagnose illnesses As Canadians increasingly turn to artificial intelligence for quick answers about health problems, a new study warns relying on tools like ChatGPT for self-diagnosis could be risky.

"The findings were striking. Only 31 per cent of ChatGPT’s responses were deemed entirely correct, and just 34 per cent were considered clear. 'So, not that high,' said Troy Zada, a PhD student at the University of Waterloo who led the research team."

AI Is Not Your Friend How the “opinionated” chatbots destroyed AI’s potential, and how we can fix it

In this article I argue treating LLMs like experts or authors or friends instead of as a conduit to access the insights of nameable others is a mistake, both in terms of dangers and lost opportunities www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Love that map analogy and will remember it in the classroom (with attribution, of course). Great article!

Jesus wept.

Sign at the Toronto Marathon today.

you don't need chatGPT i am perfectly capable of drinking a bottle of water and lying to you

Yesterday I was at an all day IFLA event at York U. A librarian from Norway, Mariann Schjeide, who was there repping FAIFE and facilitating a panel unwittingly absolutely DESTROYED the notion of libraries as neutral institutions in the blink of an eye. I actually squealed with glee. 10/10 no notes.

Panel 1: Sex Matters: We want to change the law around trans rights Trans person: You want to prevent trans people from participating in public life Sex Matters: Nonsense hyperbole Panel 2: Later... Sex Matters: Now that we have changed the law around trans rights we think that people should be banned from transition because what kind of life could the lead without rights?! It would be awful

Genuinely unbelievable how blatant the ongoing trans rights scandal is in the UK

MPOW is rolling out Gemini on our campus. I just tried it out with a prompt fairly representative of a typical essay assigned to one of my departments.
On the bright side, it did a TERRIBLE job.
On the down side, it did a TERRIBLE job and students will still use it.