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. […]
P?•l Nordseth
Doing 1,5 hr worth of work in an hour isn’t all that bad, is it?
Jill
Uh, no, that would be bloody impressive, actually. Thanks 🙂
Mum
I cringe every time I read the ‘b’ word in your blog ‘cos I know who got you to be so familiar with it …
Jill
Oh dear. See, it was only in a comment, this time.
😉
vika
Wow, I really needed this today. The week has been excruciatingly unproductive. By my own standards, that is: I think I’m way ahead of yon random office worker. 🙂
Steve’s trick really works, too: I generally get a lot more done when there’s a meeting in the middle of the day, breaking up my tasks into “this needs to be done in the next two hours, not ‘sometime today’.” Thanks for the pick-me-up, Jill!
Jill
Cool! Of course I’m sitting here kind of working in the she’s-in-bed quiet time, stretching worktime out instead of making it scarce. Oh well.
Stephanie
I think this man is on to something. For those of us who share custody, we know the pressure to get work done before real life creeps in (picking up kids, cooking dinner, walking the dog, bathing everyone (dog included?), cleaning, reading bedtime stories). On the days that we have no ‘life’ to go home and play with, work can be done at a much slower pace, leaving the office at 7 rather than 3.
Mum
On the other hand guys, maybe 1.5 hours a day is getting down to what is more natural for us humans ….
I understood typical hunter gatherers manage with for example ‘about two and one-half days labour per week. (In other words, each productive individual supported herself or himself and dependents and still had 3 to 5 days available for other activities.) A “day’s work” was about six hours; hence the Dobe work week is approximately 15 hours, or an average of 2 hours 9 minutes per day’.
Jill
Oh, now see, I could DO that.
🙂