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. […]
JosÈ Angel
I’m looking forward to your paper Jill. Uploading it before the conference might raise the level of discussion, perhaps, but there’s also the danger that some member of the audience may begin to read out the paper aloud simultaneously with the speaker…
Linn
Oh please do post!! I should be there and I’m desperate to learn what’s going to go down!! Oh how I wish I could be there!!! Good luck and please, pretty please inform of us with your brilliant insight of what is going on!!
Jill
Oh, the full papers have been handed out to all the participants in a very nice paper conference proceedings, so the read-aloud possibility is entirely, well, possible. Except the paper’s far too long to be read 🙂
JosÈ Angel
I enjoyed reading your paper, Jill; the focus on both textual and visual self-images is thought-provoking, I bet you’re going to pursue this line of work. I also enjoyed Viviane Serfaty’s book on blogs, in fact I wrote a review here:
http://www.atlantisjournal.org/Papers/27_1/117-122%20GarcÃa%20Landa_2.pdf
By the way, here’s a self-portrait of mine, one you won’t find in The Mirror Project!
http://www.unizar.es/departamentos/filologia_inglesa/garciala/images/jag.jpg
Thanks for sharing your paper, Jill, and congratulations.