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. […]
Eirik
Actually, not _that_ impervious. Unless they’re completely offline (and who nowadays is?) Mac and Linux users alike suffer from the effects of bad Windows security. At the moment I have a hard time downloading my mail, probably because the server is flooded with the latest MyDoom virus or whatever. Perhaps we should invent a separate Internet, restricted to users with proper firewalls and secure OSs? 🙂
Cecilie
I think that would bee a very nice idea. But the reason there is so few viruses for linux and mac is that there is more fun in taking down 100000000 windows machines, than taking down 20000 mac machines, or 15000 linux PC that is vunerable to exactly your virus. If the whole world used mac, (or linux platform) it would mean more viruses for mac and linux. So pherhaps just be greateful that somone else is taking the hit.
In my choice of platform, the risk of getting viruses did matter,now i don’t think i even got an anti-virus program around.
Jesper
“I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space.”