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. […]
Last night I made myself a human. There are dozens of low-level humans and elves and orcs on my account, actually, because my ten-year-old adores making new characters, but this time I made one for myself, thinking I’d try to make someone who’s not caucasian, to see how possible that is. She’s pretty convincing, don’t you think? Once I was playing Scura I noticed how incredibly light-skinned everyone else in the game seemed to me. Before I hadn’t really thought of that. And I was a little upset that there were only straight-haired hairstyles. Should perhaps read Kolko or Nakimura‘s books.
Esther
I also spent hours trying to get a vaguely coloured looking avatar and eventually ended up with someone who I thought looked convincingly Indian. And it’s the pony tails that bug me.. I hate those pony tails…
Jill
Actually I wonder whether even the surroundings are colour-tuned to fair skin. My dark-skinned dwarf looks pretty good in those snowy places, but poor Scura doesn’t show up that well in Elwynn Forest. I should have a look at screenshots from those super-successful Korean and other Asian games to see what colour schems they use.
Mindoro
Welcome to the alliance side of this fantastic world we call Azeroth. im quite sure you will find that the races of the alliance is just as fun to play as the horde side. What is interesting to see though, is how each side literarly hate eachother, inspite of the fact that many of the same players have horde characters on other servers. And once they shift allegiance, they shift their hate…. they human psyche is a fun thing to watch 😛
As formyself i have chosen to play a rather sarcastic female night elf. a hunter no less.
My reasons for this is simple – i liked the looks, the grace and the character attibutes i made for her. The reason for choosing a hunter is that i like the idea of being able to play solitary, and still retain a pet for support if i should need it. Needless to say i have come to reply on the poor thing rather on having it as a support.
I keep a blog myself, where i sarcasticly and describe my adventures. Do drop by it – its in norwegian thou….
http://www.rubukaz.com/mindoro
Yusuf
I have always played alliance, mostly because there are more alliance players, so easier to find groups. Most of characters are gnomes. I decided I liked the look of small gnomes bringing down big monsters.
I guess I could loan you my gnome warlock to kill Ony, but don’t let blizzard here about it.
This is all for the sake of research, right?
Vincent
For Horde we don’t have such a problem.
@Mindoro: yes I myself find the hatred extremely amusing. What is the cause of this hatred? Because in the story Horde and Alliance are enemies, players volunteerly comply to that setting? Or because they can’t communicate with each other? Or because they stand for different value (the Alliance represents ease of gameplay, apparent righteousness, and close resemblance to actual human; whereas the Hordes are the underdogs, apparent evil, and more fantasy style character)? Or maybe that Paladin is arguably the most disgusting class 😀 ?
And why all the 4 posters including the author all seemingly chose the Alliance? coincidence?
gangsta
ya…is she a warlock?
u should really try to level her because i enjoy mine SOO much already
and shes only lvl 16….they own preety dang baf in PvP…i mean i own in pvp and like i said im only 16 so try her out and i reccomend demonology in your talents for felguard:)