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. […]
Joanna
Good luck! I hope the organizers can find you a quiet room.
PL 19/09: Private, personal, public « Plinius
[…] But I find it very useful to read the thoughts of people in their tentative and formative stage. I use my blogs to talk to myself, and like to read people who are doing the same. I also enjoy people who combine the personal and professional, like Jill Walker does. She is not pumping iron, but breast milk. […]
Jill Walker Rettberg
Well, the organisers were out of their offices all Friday – so I guess I’ll just have to see how it goes!
Jill Walker Rettberg
Ah, the organiser rang me this evening – I can use her office, so all will be good. And apparently I should check the breastpump/cold pack in because the freezer pack thing needed to keep the breastmilk cool MAY count as “liquids” and can’t be taken through security. It’s really hard to find info about this. So travelling home from Italy in a couple of months I’ll have to dump my milk, then, if I’m in transit and flying for a total of eight hours which is too long to keep milk at room temperature (and probably too long not to pump, as well).
Argh. Can’t even find proper information on this online.
M-H
Please let us know how this goes, Jill. It’s not meant to be this hard!
jill/txt » returning to research after (sort of) three and a half years away
[…] I basically just spent three and a half years home with kids. Not quite, I worked full time for a few months between the babies, and have been part time for the last year, but part time with a baby at home and juggling childcare with my husband has not left much time for reading, writing and thinking about research. To be honest I’ve barely scraped by doing my teaching and things I had to do and oh my do I feel it now. I think I may have missed a few things. But finally both little ones (now 18 months and nearly 3 1/2 years old) are enjoying preschool (barnehage) and I am loving having full days back at work. Have you noticed that work is more enjoyable when you have enough time to do it properly? I’m also loving how energetic I am in the afternoons with the kids – parenting is such a different kind of work (and fun!) to being a professor that I enjoy it immensely, rather than being exhausted from having already spent all day with them. I love, love, love not having to fit work into naptimes and evenings. Hooray! And I love being back with my colleagues – here’s the latest photo of our growing group at Digital Culture. […]