I just signed a petition calling for Norwegian universities to use research expertise on AI when deciding how to implement it, rather than having decisions be made mostly administratively. , If you are a researcher in Norway, please read it and sign it if you agree – and share with anyone else who might be interested. The petition was written by three researchers at UiT: Maria Danielsen (a philosopher who completed her PhD in 2025 on AI and ethics, including discussions of art and working life), Knut Ørke (Norwegian as a second language), and Holger Pötzsch (a professor of media studies with many years of research on digital media, video games, disruption, and working life, among other topics). This is not about preventing researchers from exploring AI methods in their research. It is about not uncritically accepting the hype that everyone must use AI everywhere without critical reflection. It is about not introducing Copilot as the default option in word processors, or training PhD candidates to believe they will fall behind if they do not use AI when writing articles, without proper academic discussion. Changes like these should be knowledge-based and discussed academically, not merely decided administratively, because they alter the epistemological foundations of research. Maria wrote to me a couple of months ago because she had read my opinion piece in Aftenposten in which I called for a strong brake on the use of language models in knowledge work. She was part of a committee tasked with developing UiT’s AI strategy and was concerned because there was so much hype and so few members of the committee with actual expertise in AI. I fully support the petition. There are probably some good uses for AI in research, but the uncritical, hype-driven insistence that we must simply adopt it everywhere is highly risky. There are many researchers in Norway with strong expertise in AI, language, ethics, working life, and culture. We must make use of this expertise. This is also partly about respect for research in the humanities, social sciences, psychology, and law. Introducing AI at universities and university colleges is not merely a technical issue, and perhaps not even primarily a technical one. It concerns much more: philosophy of science, methodological reflection, epistemology, writing, publishing, the working environment, and more. […]
former student
I’m 24, a computer geek, and have never used facebook. I don’t like the policies there..
Jill Walker Rettberg
Ah, you’re not representative, though, former student – or perhaps you’re representative of the 16.5% 🙂
Martin GL
That’s so crazy that I almost can’t believe it. There must be some duplicates and lots of inactive accounts at the very least. When was the last time 83,5 % of Norwegian teenagers did the same thing? When they got cell-phones maybe?
Jill Walker Rettberg
There may be some duplicates or fake accounts in there. But even assuming say, 10% are fakes, that’s a lot of teenagers on facebook.
nextmedia and society .org » Blog Archive » 0,66% of 16-19-year-old Italians are on Facebook
[…] Ho provato a imitare Jill.¬†In Norvegia l’83,5% della popolazione fra i 16 e 19 anni usa Facebook. […]
What do 8 - 16 Year old use the internet for? « Ant’s Weblog
[…] 3. 83.5% of 16 years old norwegians are on facebook, Info at: http://jilltxt.net/?p=2163 […]
Prima e seconda generazione dei siti di social network in Italia | nextmedia and society .org
[…] Ho iniziato ad interessarmi seriamente al fenomeno dei siti di social network in Italia verso al fine del 2007 spinto in generale dal grande interesse che registravo esserci sul fenomeno negli Stati Uniti ed in particolare da un post pubblicato sul suo blog di Jill Walker nel quale si annunciava che l’83,5% dei ragazzi norvegesi di un et?† compresa fra 16 e 19 anni erano su Facebook e si spiegava la semplice procedura attraverso la quale era giunta a questa conclusione. […]
Jane
Greetings! I’ve been following your site for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out
from Kingwood Texas! Just wanted to mention keep up the excellent job!