Dr Kobotic

Musings on The AI Con Reflections after heading Prof Emily M. Bender and Dr Kobi Leins speak on The AI Con, on 1 July 2025.

Some thoughts on The AI Con and a conversation between @emilymbender.bsky.social and @kobotic.bsky.social at RMIT last week: pivotnine.com/blog/musings...

The AI Con — unpacking the artificial intelligence hype machine - ABC listen Is the world really in the midst of an AI revolution, or is it all just clever marketing, powered by immense amounts of money, capital and hype? This episode arms you to spot AI hype in all its guises...

In early July, I had the opporunity to discuss The AI Con with @kobotic.bsky.social at RMIT. ABC is presenting part of that conversation in their programme "Big Ideas" on Tuesday Sept 2:

www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

‘Optional’ AI scribe is mandatory if you want to see the doctor Australian AI ethics lawyer Kobi Leins took her child to a medical specialist. The specialist asked to use an AI transcription system for the appointment. Leins had actually reviewed this particula…

‘Optional’ AI scribe is mandatory if you want to see the doctor

pivot-to-ai.com/2025/08/13/o... - text
pivottoai.libsyn.com/20250813-kob... - podcast
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wutS... - video

fucking Kobi Leins around is absolutely going to go 0% well for these fuckers

Emily M. Bender and Kobi Leins discuss AI Supported by RMIT Join us for a riveting conversation between Dr Kobi Leins and Professor Emily M. Bender. Packed with real-world examples, pithy arguments and expert insights, Professor Emily M. Be...

In #Melbourne? Fan of @emilymbender.bsky.social?

In conversation with Dr @kobotic.bsky.social Tues 1st July, Kaleide Theatre, #RMIT, discussing her book written with Dr @alexhanna.bsky.social #TheAICon.

Learn how to cut through the #AI hype

www.readings.com.au/events/emily...

The song in the comments. I just can't...

Academic Mean Girls There’s been a lot of … stuff going on at my university lately (just Google “Australian National University” on the news setting and you’ll see what I mean). People ar…

thesiswhisperer.com/2025/04/06/a...

@thesiswhisperer.bsky.social nails it.

‘Difficult decision’: ANU council member resigns A member of ANU’s governing body has resigned, citing concerns about the council’s direction and a lack of accountability after months of turmoil.

www.afr.com/work-and-car...

Just hanging out with and getting to know my incredible new work commissioned a while back by @annascheen.bsky.social

ANU vice-chancellor denies misleading the Senate, may have breached rules again Pocock warns ANU could be in contempt of the Senate again.

www.canberratimes.com.au/story/893451...

Did an LLM help write Trump’s trade plan? Probably yes

garymarcus.substack.com/p/did-an-llm...

Pocock says ANU misled Senate, demands inquiry The university’s vice chancellor, Genevieve Bell, is again under fire after the ACT senator accused her of providing misleading information to an inquiry.

www.afr.com/work-and-car...

Are We Automating the Banality and Radicality of Evil? Current iterations of AI are increasingly able to encourage subservience to a non-human master, telling potentially systematic untruths with emphatic confidence.

www.carnegiecouncil.org/media/articl...

Opinion | What Autocrats Want From Academics: Servility In 1931, Italian scholars were made to take loyalty oaths. Will that happen to us?

"On October 8, 1931, a law went into effect requiring every Italian university professor to sign an oath pledging their loyalty to the government of Benito Mussolini. Out of over 1,200 professors in the country, only 12 refused. All of them were immediately fired." www.chronicle.com/article/what...

I'm so sorry to hear and thank you for sharing. I wish I had kept all the rejection letters over the years... Usually not about you.

The US is ending support for Ukrainian F-16s, but there is a way out — online.ua US President Donald Trump's team has ordered the termination of vital support for F-16 fighter jet jamming equipment that Ukraine has. What is important to understand is that this could deprive the Uk...

Denmark has donated 19 of the F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, and now Trump has ordered an end to US support for their onboard jamming equipment, thereby helping Putin destroy this USD 291,000,000 donation.

This US administration is an enemy of Europe.

news.online.ua/en/the-us-is...

Second that you're doing incredible work. The fatigue is real, though, as the threats become more real. Self-care and self-kindness. And don't doubt your work- lots of us need and use it!

New York Times, Jan. 26, 1935.

I hate this so much because it reinforces #AccentBias. It's like people of darker skin tones trying to bleach their skin whiter because light skin is valourised. Certain accents carry higher social status - white, Western accents.

This is a form of cultural erasure.

e-petitions e-petitions

Sign it now people! Petition EN7139 - Australian sovereignty from the United States
Petition Status —The petition is currently open for signatures

www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/...

It's missing Stasiland because it's on loan to someone.

Current location.

Genea posted an update to its website stating it has been granted an interim injunction in the NSW Supreme Court to prevent "any access, use, dissemination or publication of the impacted data by the threat actor and/or any third party who receives the stolen dataset amp.abc.net.au/article/1049...

Panic-as-a-Business is Expanding An update to the “Ultimate Guide to ‘AI Existential Risk’ Ecosystem”

Someone has mapped long-termer/existential risk money:

'By investing half a billion dollars, Effective Altruism has built a thriving ecosystem around the “AI Existential Risk” (human extinction from AI) ideology.'

www.aipanic.news/p/panic-as-a...

H/t @Nancy Connell

"For fascist ideologues who glorify violence, AI’s tendencies towards epistemic, structural & administrative violence are not flaws but features. The disruptive potential of AI will become entangled with the more savage disruptions of a fascistic social vision." Resisting AI, p97

Dutch pension fund ABP sells all Alphabet and Meta shares, CEO tells newspaper FD ABP, the Netherlands' largest pension fund, has sold its shares in tech companies Meta and Alphabet , its CEO told Dutch newspaper FD in an interview published on Monday.

💥The Netherlands' largest pension fund, has sold its shares in Tesla, Meta, and Alphabet (Google). The fund with US $569 billion equivolent in assets is "directing more money to companies and projects that help to improve society and the environment." #Divest

www.reuters.com/markets/euro...

Fawn chihuahua stretched out a asleep on a human bed

Here’s a MrMaxi pic. Look at that little good boy snoozling.

Warning over privacy of encrypted messages as Russia targets Signal Messenger | Computer Weekly Russia-backed hacking groups have developed techniques to compromise encrypted messaging services, including Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram, placing journalists, politicians, and activists of interest ...

Warning over privacy of encrypted messages as Russia targets Signal Messenger
www.computerweekly.com/news/3666194...