jude 📚

Screenshot of opening paras of my piece: Chatbots Are Antithetical to Learning By Emily M. Bender Across higher education, administrators, faculty, staff, and students are being inundated with claims that large language models (often marketed as “AI”) represent the future of both education and the workplace. They tell us that prompt engineering and so on are essential skills that students must master to be competitive, and that all of this tech will bring us unparalleled efficiency gains, allowing us to focus on “what really matters.” The reason for this messaging isn’t any actual scientific breakthrough but rather the desperation of tech companies to try to recoup their massive investment in so-called AI. Unfortunately, these calls are also frequently coming from inside the house, with university administrators and some faculty jumping on the bandwagon and singing the companies’ advertising jingles for them. But synthetic text-extruding machines are in fact antithetical to the mission of education. Writing is thinking and learning. Pushing a button to generate an essay-shaped object requires little thinking and accomplishes minimal learning. Sharing synthetic text with an instructor means missing out on genuine feedback and help with honing both arguments and authorial voice. When teachers value the polished but anodyne text extruded from these systems over students’ authentic voices, we reinforce harmful linguistic ideologies, including those that associate stigmatized varieties of language with lack of “intelligence.”

A little belatedly sharing this piece that I published in @chronicle.com 's Opinion Forum (sorry full text is paywalled)

www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

A photo of Mar, a Customer Services Specialist at the Southeast Branch, with this longer quote: “I have seen so many of my public service coworkers give their everything to give the members of our community the best possible outcomes and support, and we as workers simply deserve the same. Forming a union builds a community-based power, giving us a seat at the table to actively influence how the library operates, ensuring we serve our community the best we can.”

Mar is organizing a union with his co-workers at @columbuslibrary.bsky.social because “I have seen so many of my public service coworkers give their everything to give the members of our community the best possible outcomes and support, and we as workers simply deserve the same.”

A photo of Emily, a Youth Engagement Specialist at CML's South High Branch. With a longer version of her quote: “My colleagues and I go above and beyond for every person who enters the library on a daily basis. We all chose this profession because we want to help and serve our communities. All the while, most of us are unable to afford to live in the neighborhoods where we work. A union would provide us the chance to have a voice in how our own workplaces are run while holding those at the top accountable when necessary.”

Emily is organizing a union with her co-workers at @columbuslibrary.bsky.social because "A union would provide us the chance to have a voice in how our own workplaces are run while holding those at the top accountable when necessary.”

A photo of Adi, a Customer Services Specialist at CML Main Library, with the same quote that is also in the post.

Adi is organizing a union with her co-workers at @columbuslibrary.bsky.social because “To continue on during these times without a union would be a surrender to the attack Ohio libraries are facing. A union will empower us to advocate for a better workplace benefiting workers and patrons alike.”

i am also a survivor of sexual violence who works in a field where sexual harassment is incredibly normalized, so perhaps i’m sensitive, but!

i simply don’t think we have to accept a world where existing as a person in the world means a non-zero risk of having your image turned into porn!

whenever a story like this breaks, i think about the way AI slop salespeople and their allies insist that their tech is “inevitable.”

“it’s here whether you like it or not!”

the entire project is rotten, but i keep getting caught on on how explicitly anti-consent it is.

Massive Leak Shows Erotic Chatbot Users Turned Women’s Yearbook Pictures Into AI Porn Chatbot roleplay and image generator platform SecretDesires.ai left cloud storage containers of nearly two million of images and videos exposed, including photos and full names of women from social me...

This is one of the worst, most horrifying exposures we have ever seen. It is hard to overstate how bad the things that people are using tools like for are, and it's insane to pretend like these tools are anything other than nonconsensual porn machines

www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...

thank you for being part of the fight then— we are going to win this one! 💕

happy to be part of this! 💕

A graphic with a photo of Phoebe and the text: “We can't rely on our administration or the government to protect our labor rights or the most vulnerable of our customers and coworkers. We need to protect each other, we need to have solidarity with each other, and we need to use the power that we have in our numbers to organize and demand that our rights and dignity as employees are upheld.” — Phoebe, Customer Services Specialist, Linden Branch

“We need to protect each other, we need to have solidarity with each other, and we need to use the power that we have in our numbers to organize and demand that our rights and dignity as employees are upheld.” — Phoebe, Customer Services Specialist, Linden Branch

A graphic with a photo of Ryan and the text: “I believe my coworkers and I have the right to fight for a better workplace.” — Ryan, Adult Services Librarian, Main Library

“I believe my coworkers and I have the right to fight for a better workplace.” — Ryan, Adult Services Librarian, Main Library

A graphic with a photo of Maria and the text: “As attacks on libraries increase locally and nationally, library workers need every tool available to ensure our ability to continue to provide vital resources to our community. A union will strengthen our voice in our workplace, our job security, and ability to sustainably do the work we love.” — Maria, Librarian, Local History and Genealogy (Main Library)

“Library workers need every tool available to ensure our ability to continue to provide vital resources to our community. A union will strengthen our voice in our workplace, our job security, & ability to sustainably do the work we love.” — Maria, Librarian, Local History and Genealogy

A graphic with a photo of Caitlin and the text: “I believe we as employees know what our communities need. Our voices should be reflected in decisions at CML to better support our patrons and each other.” — Caitlin, Information Service Specialist, Franklinton Branch

Why are @columbuslibrary.bsky.social workers organizing their union?

“I believe we as employees know what our communities need. Our voices should be reflected in decisions at CML to better support our patrons and each other.” — Caitlin, Information Service Specialist, Franklinton Branch

Columbus Metropolitan Library Workers Are Organizing Their Union With OFT To our patrons and our community:We are proud to publicly announce that hundreds of workers at Columbus Metropolitan Library are coming together to build our union. We do different jobs, and we work i...

this is our public statement.

www.oft-aft.org/press/columb...

I Stand With CML Workers! I stand with Columbus Metropolitan Library workers who are coming together and forming their union. Please send me updates on how to support workers while they organize their union.

you can show your support for us by signing this pledge.

without workers, there is no library.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Workers at one of Ohio's largest library systems set to unionize • Ohio Capital Journal Workers with the Columbus Metropolitan Library are establishing a labor union focused on improvements they say need to happen in areas such as wages and paid time off.

ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/11/18/w...

could not be prouder of my fellow workers. 💕

A Massive Archiving Effort at National Parks (with Jenny McBurney and Lynda Kellam) Podcast Episode · The 404 Media Podcast · 2025-11-10 · 46m

“The current administration is trying to scrub websites, datasets, and now signs in National Parks (and on other public lands) of words or ideas that they don't like. We're trying to preserve this content to help preserve our full history, not just a tidy whitewashed version.”

Listen now:

YouTube video by 404 Media Volunteers Archived 10,000 Signs from National Parks (with Jenny McBurney and Lynda Kellam)

Trump wants to erase any "negative" content from educational sites at National Parks.

This week, @samleecole.bsky.social speaks to a group of data preservationists behind "Save Our Signs" who want to save the real history of parks before the administration erases it.

I’ve seen several Godzilla flicks in the theater over the past few years and you can feel, viscerally, that we are all praying for Godzilla to rise from the sea and give us what we deserve

AI's capabilities may be exaggerated by flawed tests, according to new study A study from the Oxford Internet Institute analyzed 445 tests used to evaluate AI models.

I appreciate the work of these authors to show that this problem not only is still here but has grown:

www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...

But it is also quite frustrating 🧵>>

Panera’s moderately caffeinated lemonade was loosely associated with 2 deaths before it was taken off market.

This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.

The Return of the Luddites | Los Angeles Review of Books Erik J. Larson considers “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want” by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna.

"By insisting on the term 'automation,' Bender and Hanna reveal that what’s sold as innovation is often just labor displacement with better branding."

Erik J. Larson discusses "The AI Con" by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-return-of-the-luddites/

I think every time someone pitches this article, which we have seen in one form or another for as long as class has existed, they should get a fastball from a pitching machine right to the groin

look i’m just saying— she and her wigs would absolutely have a great time on this

nicole kidman as aimee semple mcpherson in a limited series about her life……..

I once had to go to a food pantry in November, and because it was close to Thanksgiving, the line to get in wrapped around the block. This was back in the early 2000s. Also when people had access to SNAP. Imagine what it will be this year without it.

unfortunately it has a character whose trauma turned them into kind of a dick so i am unable to not like it

also some clunky dialogue and a plot that is just… all over the place

but mostly the ice skating thing

black phone 2 runs aground on the fact that it’s just not possible to ice skate in a menacing way

wifi down at the library . may god have mercy on our souls