If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: pluralistic.net/2025/04/23/zuc… 2/

I just released a preprint reporting on my experiment with generative AI in my Engineering Computations course. TL;DR: It was a mess. The biggest issue? The "illusion of competence." #GenAI #education #edtech

You can read all about my #GenAI adventures (and misadventures) here: doi.org/10.6084/m9.fig… Let's chat – what are YOU seeing in your classrooms? #teaching #python #highered

Universities’ nightmare scenario: it’s not just federal funding cuts semafor.com/article/05/29/…

"AI’s use by high-school and college students to complete written assignments, to ease or avoid the work of reading and writing... puts the process of deskilling at education’s core. To automate learning is to subvert learning" Great piece by Nicholas Carr newcartographies.com/p/the-myth-of-…

#RecommendedRead: Ronald Snijder has written two blog posts (1) (2) outlining the impact these bots have had on the OAPEN Library and DOAB, where automated systems have drowned out genuine users: -oapen.hypotheses.org/1265 -oapen.hypotheses.org/1450

Everybody, feel free to sign this even if you are not NL-based and ‼️ share ‼️ (anonymous signature is poss): Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia (link below)

Explore what’s new for researchers in the EOSC EU Node in the upcoming Ask Me Anything session on July 8th (14:00-15:30 CEST) to unpack: - New user policies & credit models - Training resources on OpenPlato - Federated services - Q&A session 🔗open-science-cloud.ec.europa.eu/events/eosc-eu…

The correct take: - “stochastic parrot” is a top notch turn of phrase that does accurately convey something about what LLMs do - stochastic parrots can be smarter than most of the people who like that phrase think - but not as smart as the people who don’t like that phrase think

This is what I wrote in the Preface to my book 6 years ago. Peter Norvig told me that he almost stopped reading after this part, but people whom he trusted told him that it was worth continuing and he hasn't regretted he later told me. Isn't it still true today with LLMs, VLMs,

Presentation slides for my talk yesterday at #SciPy2025 Barba, Lorena A. (2025). Embracing GenAI in Engineering Education: Lessons from the Trenches. figshare. Presentation. doi.org/10.6084/m9.fig…

Incredibly important report on AI training & copyright released today by the European Commission. It gets lots right, slamming the idea that creators should be required to opt-out of having their works used for free by AI companies. It says: - Generative AI must be based on

#RecommendedRead: Kherroubi, G.I., Erdmann, C., Gesing, S., Barton, M., Cadwallader, L., Hengeveld, G., et al. (2025) 'Ten simple rules for good model-sharing practices', PLoS Comput Biol, 21(1): e1012702. doi: doi.org/10.1371/journa….

My cartoon for this week’s Guardian Books

Tom Lehrer has left us, aged 97. An incredible talent who, in 2023, put all his songs and recordings into the public domain, making them free for anyone to use for anything, forever. What a remarkable bloke.

How great was Tom Lehrer? In 2020, he moved his entire catalog into the public domain because he felt he'd made more than enough money off of it. Enjoy every Tom Lehrer album: tomlehrersongs.com

From today's FT Opinion Financial Times #TomLehrer

Stronger together: European e-Infrastructures are uniting for better collaboration and services. At the recent Assembly meeting in Amsterdam, EGI, EUDAT , GÉANT (@[email protected]) , #PRACE, & #OpenAIRE shared goals, progress, and a joint vision for the future of research in

New Normal Curves podcast out today! We discuss an MIT paper that recently made headlines like "ChatGPT rots your brain." Spoiler alert: The paper has a lot of problems. Listen here: bit.ly/chatgptmit or watch here: bit.ly/chatgptmitvid

It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes - Abigail Segel, Defector defector.com/it-took-many-y…