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. […]
After one café turned out to only have a kroner a minute minimum 30 mins wireless (Eirik, the waiter didn’t know anything about the wireless so may have misinformed me), and the next, while billed an “internett café” on its door, wouldn’t give patrons access to the wireless (staff only!) and had dingy PCs in a basement, I was reduced to trailing the streets, laptop open, scouring the air for a signal. There are lots around here but almost all are closed. Telenor had a for pay signal outside of a hotel, and kindly gave me a three minute trial, which was enough to download iStumbler, which made the scouring easier.
Gro
On the evening-news today, they walked around Aker Brygge with a
laptop switched on, and detected more than 30 open networks in
that area. So go to aker brygge if you need networkconnection.
I’m in oslo friday, are you still there then?
Jill
Really? I should have gone there… Ah well.
I’m leaving tomorrow (Thursday) so I’ll miss you, Gro 🙁