Happening all this week online at CRITICAL INQUIRY, “Again Theory: A Forum on Language, Meaning, and Intent in the Time of Stochastic Parrots.”

Contributors include Lisa Siraganian, Hannes Bajohr, Rita Raley and Russell Samolsky, Alex Gil, Seth Perlow, Tyler Shoemaker, Annette Vee, Ted Underwood, Kari Kraus, Caroline Bassett, Walter Benn Michaels, Steven Knapp, and Katherine Hayles.

Read along here. https://critinq.wordpress.com/2023/06/26/again-theory-a-forum-on-language-meaning-and-intent-in-the-time-of-stochastic-parrots/

#criticalAI #LLMs #chatgpt #theory #AI #language #interpretation

Thanks to https://twitter.com/_OliSharpe for a fair minded review of 'Resisting AI' , even though we differ on the form that urgent action should take https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeO50vj5pz4 #ResistingAI #AI #resistance #criticalAI

For folks headed to (or who want a reason to head to) MLA 2024 in Philly next January, Rita Raley and I are co-directing a seminar on “Reading Generative AI: Theory/Data/Critique.”

Seminars are a new format for the convention. They are 3-hour blocks for structured dialogue and critical exchange, revolving around short working papers submitted in advance. Importantly, you can participate in a seminar even if you’re already maxed out on the standard 2-session limit.

Deadline to apply May 2. Full details here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lHfBjxJvEntzDpzuP-xWJmgVxCRiPbc9/edit

Please (sigh) retoot. #ai #criticalAI #LLM #ChatGPT #dh #mla2024

The big problem with online #ArificialIntelligence programs is not that they are wrong from time to time but that they give the answer with the same authority whether they are right or wrong and we the user don't know whether to trust the content or not.

In that respect, it's like #religion.

#ai #KnowYourSources #CriticalAI #CriticalThinking

Are you a #PhD interested in #CriticalTechStudies, and related fields like #CriticalAI, #STS or #SocioTechnicalSystems? Then my colleagues @glenberman@twitter.com, @nedcpr@twitter.com from #ANU School of #Cybernetics and their colleagues Zoe Horn and Libby Young, have just the #workshop for you!

The Critical Technology Studies Winter Workshop will be held 10th-11th July as a Satellite Event of the @adms Symposium, brought to you in conjunction with University of Sydney, Western Sydney University and The Australian National University.

30 places are available, and EOI is open until 14th April.

https://www.admscentre.org.au/event/phd-winter-workshop-in-critical-technology-studies/

In the words of the avant-garde novelist Tom McCarthy, there is no truly original creation, just ‘repetition, repetition and repetition’. In which case what’s so unusual about ChatGPT, Dall-E et al? I’d be more inclined to agree with #jamesbridle's complaint that this kind of AI is based on the ‘wholesale appropriation of existing culture’, if more writers and artists didn’t themselves endlessly produce things that are different yet the same.

Talk about ways of being. Can’t the continual writing of books that are published as commercial products on a copyrighted, all rights reserved basis by a proprietorial corporation such as Verso or Penguin be itself seen as a highly predictable, preprogrammed mode of appropriative performance? Like those of AI image and text generators, aren’t outputs of this kind also ‘dependent on the uncredited and unrenumerated work’ of a multitude of others, including plants and machines?

#AI #criticalAI #DH #digitalhumanities

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/16/the-stupidity-of-ai-artificial-intelligence-dall-e-chatgpt

DH folks interested in LLMs and what they mean for our field(s) -- HMU if you are thinking about these questions and would like to collaborate on a CFP for a cluster or special issue for DHQ or a similar venue. Would love to hear from folks outside my own expertise in literary studies -- I've got a draft CFP now and would love to get collective insight. #criticalAI #DH #AI

Adapting College Writing for the Age of Large Language Models such as #ChatGPT Some Next Steps for Educators

https://criticalai.org/2023/01/17/critical-ai-adapting-college-writing-for-the-age-of-large-language-models-such-as-chatgpt-some-next-steps-for-educators/

#CriticalAI #AIEthics #FediLZ

RT @CriticalAI@twitter.com

#CriticalAI is partnering w/ @DAIRInstitute@twitter.com for a series on #AIHype (our new "wall of shame" is being reno'd). Would anyone like to take on the latest piece from the Atlantic (by Lowrey on everyone's favorite chatbot) for us? +

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/CriticalAI/status/1616481723839021075

RT @CriticalAI
#CriticalAI please to publish a new blog post for teaching college writing in the age of ChatGPT/LLMs. Our thanks to co-authors @EnglishOER and Lauren Goodlad. Please feel free to circulate!
https://criticalai.org/2023/01/17/critical-ai-adapting-college-writing-for-the-age-of-large-language-models-such-as-chatgpt-some-next-steps-for-educators/

@raymond

Very, very aware of who's behind it.

Which is why we need to keep an eye on it and beyond it, and do the research
#ArtificialIntelligence
#GPT-3 #GPT-4
#MachineLearning
#AcWri
#OpenAI #StoryMachines #PostHumanism
#CriticalAI
#HigherEducation

I missed yesterday's #connectionlist #connection #introduction - sorry - I was at the beach!

Today I'd like you all to meet:

@forslund - Åke is from Sweden 🇸🇪 and he is a #Python developer. He is a big fan of #fika (me too, Åke, me too!) and he was a delight to work with when I was at Mycroft.AI (also a big hi to my Mycroft.AI colleague @krisgesling who's based in #Australia in the top end and who loves #languages - from memory, Gez speaks Yolgnu Matha - an Indigenous language from northern Australia).

@glasnt is a Senior #DevRel person based in #Melbourne #Naarm 🇦🇺 and she also does a lot of work with the #Python and #opensource communities.

@dtbell91 is one of my favourite people in the world - he is a #devops and #devsecops person based in #Australia 🇦🇺 He's a deep thinker, level-headed and someone I admire greatly.

@emilymbender is a bit of a hero of mine - she is a Professor of #Linguistics at UW and takes a #criticalAI stance to a lot of recent #LLMs - she's a co-author on the #StochasticParrots paper you may have read. 🇺🇸

@anucybernetics, headed up by @feraldata is a mirror account I've created so you don't have to be on The Bird Site as much. We're having a School #launch in late November - and you should join us! #AustralianCybernetic #Canberra 🇦🇺

https://cybernetics.anu.edu.au/launch

RT @CriticalAI
#CriticalAI continues our greatest hits w/ our DATA JUSTICE event. https://criticalai.org/2022/01/05/data-justice-workshop-5-with-sasha-costanza-chock/ Today's reprise is by Jonathan Calzada, affiliate of @C2i2_UCLA, writing on @schock's wonderful interview on their book. @ergodicwalk, @k8henne, & @sabelonow took part!