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. […]
Mads
Didn’t your mother teach you to … Google? 😉
ghani
You could always E-Bay your jeans? I’ve experienced similar clothing confusion, living between the US and UK. Now half of my wardrobe is in one set of sizes, and the other half another. If i gain or lose weight, I’m going to have an exciting time trying to figure out what fits.
Strangely, some US clothes lines use odd sizes – I think it’s juniors clothes that usually do it? My favourite pair of jeans is a US 13, bought in the teenybopper section. I think they’re all just trying to make us crazy.
scott
Didn’t you try ’em on before you bought them?
Jill
Yeah, I did. So I guess either they’ve grown or I’ve shrunk.
Oh well.
diane
What’s compounding your problem is size inflation. Or, actually, deflation. American women don’t like to buy clothes in sizes that seem too big, so retailers now slap size 4, 6, and 8 on clothes that ten years ago would have been at least a size larger.
Clothes from the Gap and J Crew run very large, I have found, but clothes from little tiny boutiques on the Lower East Side are doll-size!
If you’ve bought something from a major US retailer like the Gap, why not return it by mail, with the receipt, as if you’ve ordered it from the Web, and get a replacement or a refund?