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. […]
Scott
Interesting — one of the local radio stations here is reading one page of a “found Boardwalk diary” each day. Could be the latest wave in reality media.
Anne
It reminds me of a film or documentary someone once made. I can’t recall any details except it was about finding someone’s address book in the street and then phoning all the contacts listed therein to build up a picture of one person’s life.
Sindre
Sadly, it’s now shut down
Jill
Ah. That would be because it was Slashdotted and it didn’t really prove too hard to find the owner of the photos. Who presumably DIDN’T want them on the internet. Neither would I.
nick
Clearly the right way to do this project would have been to take the photos yourself, pretend you found them, post them one at a time with “made up” comments as if you found them, and wait for the firestorm of controversy over the ethical and legal dimensions of your artwork to erupt. And then, as they would say on Slashdot, profit!
Matt Locke
The address book project mentioned above is by the fantastic french artist Sophie Calle. Called ‘l’homme au carnet’ it appeared as a series of interviews published daily in the french newspaper ‘le monde’. She approached people listed in the address book she found in the street, then published the interviews, building up an intriguing composite picture of the man who owned the book (some people were surprised they were in there, as they hardly knew him. Others were ex-friends and lovers).
Eventually, the man recognised himself (or heard of the project from friends) and called on le monde to stop it and make reparations. In a typically french compromise, Calle offered to expose herself in the same way she had exposed him, by printing naked pictures taken of her during her brief time as a burlesque dancer, in the same newspaper. The man accepted the proposal, and the pictures formed the final element of the project.
The best resource for Calle’s work is ‘did you see me?’ a collection of her work, incuding l’homme au carnet’, or ‘double game’, a collaboration with paul auster. Paul Auster used ‘l’homme…’, and others by sophie calle, for the oeuvre of a fictional character called ‘maria’ in his book ‘leviathan’. He also invented a few new works, so Calle created a new project to perform these invented works, closing the circle between the oeuvre of Calle herself and her fictional ‘double’ Maria.
Jill
Thanks Matt! Reading a fuller description I realise I *have* heard of this, but I’d forgotten the details and the names. I wonder whether the creator of Ifoundyourlife considered offering nude pics of himself in return for the breach of privacy?