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. […]
Martin
Well, the current amount of rain would indicate that we’re about to find out.
Jill
LOL. Well, hardly. Actually they rang me from Oslo to warn me to plan on my taxi ride to the studio taking much longer than usual – I hadn’t realised it was that bad, because I live on a hill and hadn’t read the news yet. Anyway, I trode my rusty, almost brake-less bike instead, but between my place and NRK all roads were open and there was very little traffic. Lots of people were late for the ten am meeting, though. People living further out of town are simply stuck.
My nine-year-old was scared to see the news, though. Losing her friend in the tsunami has her really scared of floods, and she noticed (of course) the headlines on the newspaper about the person who died last night and the woman and child who are critically injured. Flooding in Bergen, amazing, you’d think rain would be easy.
Simon
You said “our society”. I find myself talking about “us” instead of “you” more and more often. It’s worrying.
kristina
I really appreciated reading your paper, Blogging Thoughts: With Torill Mortensen.
It really gave me new insight into how blogs could be a creative tool for thinking, and the process of making. I just read it this morning, 5:00. It altered by view of blogs 180 degrees.
As an academic I had my preconceptions about bloggers and the abundance of personal thought and information existing everywhere. Armed with a bit more thought on the effective use of
blogs I have decided to start my own. Thanks for the encouragement.
Kristina
Jill
Wow! Thank you, Kristina!!
pia
I am shocked and appaled! I understand that Kathrina damaged an area as large as Great Brittain, but does that call for anarchist methods to keep order? How could the police and army possibly be so, sorry about the simple use of words, stupid, that they would confiscate food and water from anyone in that area?! Argh, that made me feel sick.