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. […]
Jean titles her post on this My computer is just like me (not): The new Mac ads are even worse than the old ones – so not only are the Windows and Mac users rather white men of two rather clichÈed stereotypes, they compare the home videos they edited. And guess what, they’re women. The Mac user’s is pretty and well-dressed and described as “professional”, whereas the Windows user’s is a man dressed as a frumpy woman. This makes me want to switch to, oh I don’t know, Linux, I suppose. If you were in any doubt that men are the default and women the aberration (or, on occasion, the creation or possession of men as in this ad), you might want to note how men’s naked bodies are “human anatomy” while women’s naked bodies are “female anatomy” (via Martin).
b¯rge
I’ve recently switched to Linux, and it was much easier than I thought. I’m dualbooting Ubuntu LInux and Windows XP, but I’ve never felt the need to boot Windows again after installing Ubuntu some months ago! If you, or anyone, would like help on switching I’m writing about at over at Jeg, en Linux-bruker? (Norwegian).
Elinesca
Actually… it’s all a joke… the woman is a very famous model, Giselle Bundchen (or something like that).
I thought it was funny.. I wouldn’t if I didn’t know who the woman was, though:-)
Jill
I don’t know that it really helps that the woman is a supermodel… Ah well.
more on the ëget a mací ads and stereotypes
[…] Update: In response to a bit of discussion going on about the ads reinforcing stereotypes, mainly started by Jill, who kindly linked to my post here: there is that, sure – the Mac is one sort of vaguely urban, effortlessly cool American guy, the PC is another, deeply unattractive, old economy nerd sort of American guy. Yes, theyíre ístereotypesí, and so is the supermodel in the ëbetterí ad. […]
H&T
A colleague of mine reckons that the ‘get a mac’ ads ‘jumped the shark’ some time ago. But I totally agree the tenor is unfortunate, even allowing for tongues that might (possibly) be deeply embedded in cheeks. At bigqueer.com (where one commentator has suggested that in addition to being sexist, the ads are ‘transhating’ is made) they’re doing a little survey FYI.
Jill
If you don’t get the problem with the Mac ads, PLEASE go read Jean’s new post that dissects them more. And thanks, H&T, for that link – yeah, clearly not very complimentary to trans…