The way AI's superficial and synthetic benefits rest on a shrouded base of exploitation and extraction exactly mirrors the way the platitudes of Western liberalism rest on ongoing colonialism and pervasive brutality. Funny that.

Never mind the nonsense about whether gen-AI can generate good lesson plans; what's really worrying is its impact on the 'hidden curriculum'. What tacit social and cultural lessons are students going to absorb from their exposure to these privatised 'normalising machines'?

"AI proliferates non-causal connections, driving apophenia and ‘a sense of abnormal meaningfulness’ , while applying a veneer of suspicion through the elevation of risk metrics. AI itself exhibits the key features of a conspiracy theory" 'Resisting AI' p56

Racialised Capitalism and its Discontents workshop II ▶️ 11.00-18.00, 4 September, Roma Cultural Centre Glasgow ▶️ With Ashli Mullen & Satnam Virdee UofG Sociology University of Glasgow ▶️ Free to attend; funded by the Sociological Review Foundation 🎟️ Tickets: buff.ly/3SJLHkw

We are occupying the entrance to Portcullis House. ITN is here. We’re refusing to move until we are permitted to enter as pre-arranged #TheDepartment #NoMoreBenefitDeaths. The Met has arrived.

"Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that Turkish high school students who had access to ChatGPT while doing practice math problems did worse on a math test compared with students who didn’t have access to ChatGPT." hechingerreport.org/kids-chatgpt-w…

This is Israel’s longest-running English podcast, Two Nice Jewish Boys. Hosts Naor Meningher and Eytan Weinstein call for wiping out every single Palestinian in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Radio Rwanda in full effect here. This is deeply disturbing.

Hahaha - unintentionally funny strapline of the day! (or at least it would be funny if the intention wasn't to blag us into believing that creating a chain of bullshit machines will produce something other than bullshit)

"Shaping for Mediocrity - An insider account of the struggle for the soul of the university" collectiveinkbooks.com/zer0-books/our…

My new post for Joseph Rowntree Foundation - 'Public policymaking: from AI to decomputing' jrf.org.uk/ai-for-public-…

"'Eavesdropping workplace helpline has accreditation suspended" bbc.co.uk/news/articles/… - you think this kind of creepy surveillance is bad, wait until all the mental health and wellbeing support has been turned over to AI chatbots

Any educator who embraces AI on the basis that students will need to engage with AI in the world of work has missed the point that AI is a fundamentally anti-worker technology which will immiserate students' prospects of getting work and their experience in workplace itself