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. […]
jon
I liked this immensely. A conscious poem or not?
Jill
Oh, thank you, Jon! A conscious poem? Mm. I don’t know the words in English: what I want to write isn’t quite poetry but what they call prosadikt in Norwegian, prose poems? Kortprosa, short prose, though that can extend to short stories, and right now I want a far shorter form. Blog post sized, pared down sentences is what I want to write these days.
Norman
Unless you’ve lived without electricity, which now probably means very few people at all, it’s not easy to imagine the soft beauty of gaslight, the emotional depths associated with sitting chatting around the fuel stove, preparing pots of tea from the copper drum sitting on top of it, watching your grandmother doing the ironing with a solid iron she heats repeatedly on top of that same stove, and opening the grate to get the perfectly browned slice of toast.
And then I think of the wireless, electric lights at the flick of a stitch, and microwaves, and I remind myself that much of the past is like Taronga Park Zoo. A more delightful place to spend the day may be hard to come by — but I shouldn’t care to live there permanently.