Notices by Robert W. Gehl (rwg@aoir.social)

I talked to @404mediaco about generative AI's impact on teaching. Apparently I wasn't alone... not by a long shot. @jasonkoebler got a ton of responses about this topic and ran many of them here:

https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/

While it's distressing to read all of them, it's good to see I'm not alone.

#generativeAI #higherEducation #teaching #academicChatter

Wolfgang Messner, writing in @TheConversationUS on how generative AI could homogenize culture:
"The danger is not that AI will fail us, but that people will accept the mediocrity of its outputs as the norm. When everything is fast, frictionless and “good enough,” there’s the risk of losing the depth, nuance and intellectual richness that define exceptional human work."
https://theconversation.com/is-ai-sparking-a-cognitive-revolution-that-will-lead-to-mediocrity-and-conformity-256940

@liaizon @bhaugen @youronlyone I've written a bit here and there, but agreed: the history of OStatus/diaspora federated social media itself is a rich tapestry that's very hard to present.

@adrishaw IJOC is pretty old, right? First Monday?

@adrishaw Wow, I thought IJOC was older!

Good call on looking at the bibs of First Monday articles.

Please do post what you find! This is really intriguing.

@adrishaw that website is straight outta the 90s!

every time you see a slug, you gotta do a shot

oh, wait, don't do that

#monsterdon

I do believe I will Slugs-it-up tonight

#monsterdon

Will people keep using Twitter, even after Musk’s takeover – even after he changed its name to “X”? Is this time different? As of this writing, that remains an open question. One thing distinguishes the 2022 Twitter wave from previous waves of discontent, however: there is a viable alternative available in Mastodon and the fediverse....

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/move-slowly-and-build-bridges-9780197776681?cc=ca&lang=en&

#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

One of my favorite genres of fedi posts is the @cwebber plaintive plea for people to explain things to her, things that she is in the top 0.001% of experts in.

Can someone explain to me why I find those posts so hilarious? 😆

Is the entire NYSE comprised of meme stocks now?

The following is a random quote from my next book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges:

It’s time, Balkan and the Small Tech Foundation argue, to degrow things like corporate social media. Degrowth is a way of thinking that counters years of capitalist fantasies of infinite growth....

#MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges #bot

I keep hearing people call legitimate concerns about LLMs/generative AI a "moral panic."

I really hope folks stop using that framing. This is not the same as parents getting freaked out about Dungeons and Dragons in the 1980s. This is a moment when huge, for-profit interests are seeking to exploit the creativity of writers, artists, and anyone else who creates. It's completely legitimate to express concerns. It's not a moment of "Won't someone PLEASE think about the children!?!".

@cwebber yes! It's all about how Mastodon invented ActivityPub! 😆

My book about Mastodon and the fediverse is now available for pre-order!

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/move-slowly-and-build-bridges-9780197776681?q=gehl&lang=en&cc=ca#

#Mastodon #fediverse #bookstodon #academicchatter

@aral @FediThing @jarrodu but... it's a Public Benefit Company! Surely that means good intentions.

I have reached the copyediting phase of the book, with a proof version of the title page as a nice tease of what it will all look like!

#bookstodon

My university, York U, is suspending admissions to a bunch of programs, mainly in the humanities. This includes Indigenous Studies.

There's news coverage in @torontostar. But it doesn't really address the cause.

1/2

#academicchatter #indigenousStudies #YorkU

The immediate cause is that the federal government cut back on international students in Canada. But the underlying cause is Ontario universities becoming addicted to charging high tuition to those students. And the cause of *that* is the Ford government, which has underfunded education in the province.

Hey, there's an election coming up! Hey, Ontario: vote out Ford!

#canpoli #Ontario #higherEducation

I don't know who cares to hear this, but I publicly pledge to never use generative #AI to do any of my writing.

That means no AI to generate ideas, generate words, or edit my writing.

(It does not mean I won't use tools to learn how they work for purposes of criticism.)

#takeTheOrganicAcademicPledge