Felix M. Simon

Tausende kritisieren Sparzwang an Unis in Hessen und Berlin Hochschulen in Hessen und Berlin sind mit Einsparungen ihrer Landesregierungen konfrontiert. Studierende und Mitarbeitende protestieren.

And at least for Germany (which I know best after the UK), not making cuts at the the Hochschulen www.forschung-und-lehre.de/politik/taus...

Personally: Addressing high housing costs/affordable housing shortages (which would bring broader benefits), improving salaries & job security in key fields, prob. restructuring the venture capital market to make it more Europe-wide and unified.

I don’t think we disagree as much as you think — my gripe is exactly with the structural issues. And even though it’s been only a few months, I don’t see a lot that indicates fundamental strategy change to address those barriers in the months and years ahead

What is clear is that a couple of 100m here and there to attract US talent esp in research isn’t a strategy to ramp up innovation, productivity and shared prosperity

Again and again comes down to two questions: 1) Is the EU willing to put their money where their mouth is and 2) what are they willing to sacrifice in a world where you can’t fund/do everything

*Chaucy-G taps mic*: "A sliver of tape, with silvery sheen, against the winter’s cold and bitter scene"

Ah Oxford, never change

Great piece from @himself.bsky.social about his new paper with @hahrie.bsky.social for our AI & Democratic Freedoms series - link below.

www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-ai-dem...

Lol, same experience here with ChatGPT and @michelledisser.bsky.social reported Claude being "quite unsure of itself" today.

Text absolute Legende, danke

So when are we starting to monitor US GDP with nightlights?

Can’t wait for the day where we’ll fact-check data about US economic activity by using satellite images of factories and all that jazz as we do with China 🫠 I already see the John Burn-Murdoch pieces in front of me

Big Tech’s AI spend is still a shot in the dark Stellar results from Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta cannot yet be attributed to the technology’s usefulness

"The general message from the tech giants is that this doesn’t matter: they have the audience, they’re creating the infrastructure, they’ll eventually figure it out. Moving fast, however, will be critical."

buff.ly/c6qC6kY

That movie is … an experience

Crassest form of product placement I’ve ever seen

It’s been about 10 years since I last dabbled in serious film criticism in my former life as a journalist but this *almost* has me sit down and go full Pauline Kael

I mean, I kid you not but this is the opening shot

Having now watched t̶h̶e̶ m̶o̶n̶s̶t̶r̶o̶s̶i̶t̶y̶ t̶h̶a̶t̶ i̶s̶ "My Oxford Year", I've devised this little bullshit bingo that will reliably knock your brains out by minute 12 if you choose to combine it with a drinking game

Really quite embarrassing how bad Siri is at the easiest tasks. Nailing easy calendar entries (see screenshot) should not even be a bar but the floor and even that it cannot really do.

Still two months away, but I will be at the @bonninstitute.bsky.social festival in Bonn on 3rd October, presenting forthcoming @reutersinstitute.bsky.social research (with @richardfletcher.bsky.social & @rasmuskleis.bsky.social) on what audiences think of genAI (in news). Say hi!

buff.ly/z2tw1WD

How many Britons know AI lies? | YouGov One in nine Britons who use AI for factfinding on a daily basis say they have "never" encountered it hallucinating

Worth having a look at the full results here: buff.ly/FWvXWYj

Then finally on trust, AI chatbots as sources of factual information are ranked lower in comparison to e.g. tabloids, social media, academic journals and Wikipedia, but with a big trust gap between frequent and infrequent users (perhaps unsurprisingly).

There is also some interesting bits in there on hallucinations (although I am sceptical of how good people really are at spotting these, so I would take this with a pinch of salt).

Of those who use it, AI is by far the most popular to help them gain factual information.

We should be careful not to read too much into this data, but we can guess what this means for search and news (AI being both substitution and complement in the future).

YouGov has some interesting new data on how people in the UK see AI.

AI use is fairly common now but we still have 38% say they never (consciously) use AI for leisure, work, or study (this will differ from actual use but still).

Good luck getting here with no signage and without dying in traffic I guess 🤷‍♂️

How a Former Public Toilet Was Transformed Into an Inviting New Hotel Plus: knits inspired by Martha’s Vineyard, eel on New York menus and more recommendations from T Magazine.

If the NYT's review of Oxford's new hotel in an ex-public toilet only mentioned that its a) in the middle of a busy road, b) dangerous & inaccessible to get to & c) doesn't really make an effort to flag this so people end up confused at the OII next door.

buff.ly/ABbU6mn

Crikey.

Deutsche Dolce Vita

Nothing untoward about your comment :-)

And your are right re most immediate (with which I strongly disagree) but also it ranks third in terms of most important global risks (as seen by the survey participants). Again, I personally wouldn't put it there but social fact is social fact I guess.