Greg Specter

Wow, that's a surprisingly big space

People have trouble interpreting this. Nobody’s saying Donald Trump or Pam Bondi are personally selecting Nazi iconography. They don’t read enough for that. The point is they hire and promote Nazis who ARE steeped in Nazi iconography, and they’re fine with it.

Email from the "PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE" to Kate Starbird asking for all emails from Jan 1 2021 through July 30 2025 with any of the following keywords: "diversity and inclusion" "DEIA" "DEI" "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging" "DEIB" "gender identity" "racial preference" "ESG" "organizational equity" "intersectionality" "anti-racism" "critical race theory" "LGBTQ+" "transgender" "cisgender" "gender ideology" "white privilege" "privilege walk" "cultural humility" "equity audit" "restorative justice" "racial equity" "implicit bias" "microaggressions" "inclusive pedagogy" "identity-based oppression" "systems of oppression" "queer" "non-binary" "sexuality" “Trump” “fascist”

If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?

What gets me here is that "hallucination" implies a discrete error. But in fact the system is doing exactly the same thing it does when it gives a correct answer. The distinction between right and wrong is entirely down to the user's critical wherewithal - the very thing being corrupted

Let's not use "hallucinate" or "lie" when we talk about ChatGPT. It can't make decisions, it doesn't have a conscious thought, it's not having a conversation with you.

It's regurgitating false information based on stolen content without context or nuance.

I fucking wish people would get this

These things are insidious and dangerous because they make shit up that looks and feels kinda right because it’s just replicating what it was trained on and their way of 「 correcting 」 it is to waste inordinate amounts of energy retraining again and again

It's right there with the bizarro world transition on dual loyalty.

The cover for the upcoming volume "The Campus Crisis Toolkit: Strategies and Solidarity for the Rest of Us"

IT HAS A COVER! Pleased to announce that _The Campus Crisis Toolkit: Strategies and Solidarity For the Rest of Us_ is coming from @sunypress.bsky.social in Feb. With 25 chapters from over 40 contributors, the book tackles everything from anti-DEI laws to consultants and cuts to campus violence (1/2)

Around the same time I did one of the modules. The module incorporates stuff from St3v3n Pinker.

Internal screaming.

I laid out in my email why I don't I use it. Why I felt aggrieved in this instance.

It took me a few days responding. I felt furious.

The response: thanks for the info about AI.

It's hard! I'm not getting paid right now. I got years of experience. This person assigned to me probably makes more money. Way more. I've seen ads for instructional design people. Is collecting a paycheck.

And to take the materials I created from scratch... and pump through AI? Without asking.

It's all a lot. It chafes me to the point I feel like I can't even tell myself: suck and up and do it. This is about making your life easier.

The set up is basically "you will..." or "students will..."

That's no different than saying "you will drop and give me 20."

I always build outcomes around the assignment. Around the opportunity. Provide an invitation and not telling.

I also struggled with the outcome language required for these modules. This was little over a month ago when I did the work. I was still taking a lot of drugs for my back. I wasn't clearheaded.

It's all Bloom's taxonomy.

I don't use that; I've never used it.

Took me a while figuring out why...

I wrote an email back and said: don't put my work through ChatGPT. I want to use these materials for classes, since I'm doing that work. I can't have that poison.

It left me feeling defeated.

I also got an email suggesting I could create a module on our LMS system that students would find "engaging and delightful."

It smacked of an AI generated response. The over-joyed response AI creates about anything. I've been around the block... nothing is delightful about an LMS.

I'd been working on my employer's program needed for teaching hybrid. It'd give me some flexibility with being on campus. I'm driving 3 hours round trip when I work. Anyway, I did a few training modules. I got feedback from the instructional design person.

Created by ChatGPT.

I've been in a funk, and that means a lot of time playing a game. I went hardcore RP and I unalived my future wife's ex-husband's ex-wife's dog with a hammer.

Anyway, Steam tells me I've played over 2000 hours of Elden Ring.

I try tracing out where these ideas come from so I can better put them to rest. It's hard.

I bring this issue up in my writing classes, and I have to keep coming back to them over and over again. There's an idea that argument / analysis is conflict. It ties in with the rise of the "I feel like" frame. Folks got it locked in that opinions are bad.

Spotify Is Forcing Users to Undergo Face Scanning to Access Explicit Content Submit to biometric face scanning or risk your account being deleted, Spotify says, following the enactment of the UK's Online Safety Act.

Spotify is now instituting face scans and ID checks ... to listen to music.

Porn was only ever the excuse. The only thing that surprises me is how quickly the government surveillance mandate has spread to absolutely every service we use.

www.404media.co/spotify-uk-a...

Conservative Org. Requests Materials for 70 Chapel Hill Courses The Oversight Project, founded by the Heritage Foundation, is using an open records request to search for terms like “DEI” and “gender identity.” Faculty say it encroaches on academic freedom.

IMPORTANT: “‘At many public universities, syllabi are considered intellectual property. As such, professors are not required to share their syllabi in response to public records requests. Check your university policy prior to complying advance.’"

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

"Some students said that they liked the AI’s topic more than their own human-generated topics. But the students hadn’t compared notes: only I had seen every single AI topic."

I've said this a few times in recent months to friends:

I cannot recommend getting out of online-only, "influencer" spaces enough. Go outside, volunteer somewhere local, or hang out with friends.

Humans aren't wired for the constant barrage of information that is social media.

Thanks I hate it

I offer only this and only once with a huge YMMV caveat:

If people telling you to rage quit are not also inviting you into something — be it their organization, their strategy, their active movement — it isn’t a real call to action. It’s a (maybe righteous) temper tantrum.

The art for Absolute Units - three giant sheep float over the English countryside.

thanks for the very kind messages about our newest podcast with Man in the Woods!

if you're looking for a gentle listen this weekend, treat yourself to something nice and join us as we talk about walking through the countryside and making art from what you find:

merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...

it's never been about antisemitism

Reviewer 2's Review of Red Dead's History — History Respawned I promised myself I would never write a negative book review. I promised my PhD advisor I would never write a negative book review. I promised I would always find a silver lining in any piece of aca...

I wrote something new for History Respawned today. It's a review of a new book about Red Dead, but it's really about academic writing and historical game studies as a field. Please read, but also know, I really really really really REALLY didn't want to write this review.