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. […]
vika
Congrats on finishing the manuscript, Jill! That’s a huge deal, and a big relief, I’m sure. See you in Chicago. 🙂
(Don’t know when you’re getting there, but I’ll be there as of the 27th, and am looking for something fun to do that evening. If you know of anything, ping me?)
scott
Vika — we’ll see you at your panel hope that you (and anyone else interested) will show up for the ELO meet-up on the 28th.
jeremy
I won’t be in town until the 13th, but sometime after the 13th we’ll be doing a Metaverse Meetup and you are invited, you or scott could give a talk there. I’ll drop a note to steve in a few minutes to see if he has anything at EVL.
KF
Does this mean you’ll be at the MLA? I’ll be there, and at all the digitalish stuff, so I’ll hope to run into you…
Jill Walker Rettberg
Scott will be at the MLA but I probably won’t, or only minimally – my daughter’ll be with us until New Year and then I won’t see her for WEEKS, so I want to spend as much time as I can with her in the romjul, the time between Christmas and New Year. We’ll show up for the ELO meetup though 🙂
Jeremy, a Metaverse Meetup sounds pretty cool – I’d like to go to that!
Ben
I don’t know of a lot of events in January in Chicago (given the weather), but I did my undergrad at Northwestern, and I recommend the following restaurants: Geja’s on Armitage is an excellent fondue place (there desserts are incredible), Japnonais (a Japanese-French fusion place, pretty pricy), Flat Top Grill has a number of establishments at a really decent price for an all you can eat Mongolian BBQ with fresh produce (if you catch them on the day that their dinner fish specialty is wasabi marinated tuna, you’re in for a real treat), and in terms of various cusines, the Argyle stop on the red line will lead you to good Vietnamese cuisine, the Devon St. neighhborhood had amazing Indian food (this will be a good cab or bus ride(s) from your Bucktown haunt but well worth it), and there are amazing Greek and Italian restaurants to be found in their respective districts. Leona’s is a good fast sit down restaurant open late, and there are also a lot of good restaurants sprinkled through Lincoln Park, your neighborhood of Bucktown, and also the nearest northern suburb of Evanston. And last of all, treat yourself and have real Chicago style pizza – even though I now live in Madison, I still remember the taste of Chicago style pizza – Giordano’s used to have 1/2 off Monday nights, Carmen’s is decent, and if you find yourself strolling along Wacker Dr. and craving a pie, Bacino’s (which I hope is still there) will satisfy your cravings.
Hope this helps, and I hope that you really enjoy your time in the Windy City,
Ben.