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. […]
Scullyoslo
Interesting stats. At my high school (Norwegian), Facebook is all the craze nowadays. As all our students are issued laptops, this fad (latest in a long list) functions as a mentail drain during classes, subsuming their attention. As the laptops are owned by the school and to be used for school purposes manily, I cannot see why Facebook should not be “banned” during school hours?
Linn
Huh – I wonder what they define as social networking sites? Do they include flickr? And I’m sure Habbo Hotel would set the numbers up higher as well. What are the definition boundaries of a social networking site? Hmm
Antisocial Networking - dich-kenn-ich.net | Adlerweb
[…] Äh ja – ok… Also Social Networking war das Thema. Den ganzen Hype möchte ich natürlich nicht verpassen – schließlich endet fast 7% des Webverkehrs auf solchen Seiten. Dummerweise wissen wir aber alle, dass Informatiker alles Kellerkinder ohne Freunde sind, deswegen präsentiere ich hier mein Antisocial-Network: […]