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. […]
There’s a conference in Bergen in a couple of weeks time (commercial, not academic) called “Digital hverdag”, which means digital everyday life – there are exhibitions, and presentations, you know, but the striking thing is they’ve managed to set up a program with ONLY MEN in the plenary sessions. Not ONE woman. There are, admittedly three women squeezed into the parallel sessions on the final afternoon. But for goodness sake, look at that front page: all those mens’ faces. Lovely men, no doubt, but honestly, 11 of 11 plenary speakers are men, and 13 of 16 speakers in the parallel sessions are men. And Norway is supposedly one of the countries with the best gender balance in the world. It’s depressing.
?sne Hagen
En relatert diskusjon: (bla ned til 8-9-12 oktober)
Jill
Ah, I’ve seen a few versions of the “where are the women at your conference” discussion now, yes… If we discuss it often enough, maybe things will change?
From the discussion you posted, ?sne, I also found this great List of Women Speakers for your Conference. Mostly in art and design. Very nice.
gamma sync
I was recently asked to serve on the organizing committee for a prestigious conference. The main conference organizer had set a goal of having equal representation of women and men on the conference committee. I was unable to help out, but I easily found 2 other women who were delighted to be given the opportunity to help.
If gender equality isn’t a priority at the top, it just doesn’t happen. The little extra push to make it happen, and it happens pretty easily.
The conference is in a topic area that is easily 95% men, and has a reputation of being distincly unfriendly to women.
The question is, do they have any women speakers featured?