James O’Sullivan

Tomorrow is the 300th anniversary of the publication of Swift's Gulliver's Travels! I wrote a short piece its Irish contexts to mark the occasion. theconversation.com/gullivers-tr...

60% INCREASE ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

i've seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by admin

My Life in Books: @mgtkell.bsky.social 👏 In today’s Sunday @Independent.ie

Good morning from Cork. We’re off to a colorful start.

The vast majority of respondents (94pc) said they did not trust the AI tech giants. Only 2pc said they did, and 3pc were not sure. 87pc said they wanted governments to step in and regulate the use of AI, marking an 11pc rise since we asked the same question in July 2023

Why are we still paying USC? 'During the financial crisis, when unemployment spiralled, services were slashed and emigration became a safety valve, the USC was presented as an emergency measure,' says Martina Devlin. 'Today, its retention is a broken promise'

@eimearryan.bsky.social, Lecturer in #CreativeWriting @ucc.ie and Founding Editor @bansheepress.bsky.social, in conversation with Sara Baume and Caitríona Lally; organised by UCC’s School of English & Digital Humanities and hosted @ucclibrary.bsky.social.

Philosophy of AI is the new #digitalhumanities. The academic job market has *a lot* of these jobs going at the moment, and I suspect it’ll only increase into 2027. Will be interesting to see if the supply can meet the demand: good opportunities coming for younger scholars looking to catch a break. 👏

The Call for Proposals for #DH2027 is now open! We look forward to seeing the Digital Humanities community come together in Galway next summer. 🇮🇪 Find out more and submit your proposal below 👇

Happy Birthday, @zotero.org, strong and steady at 20!

Keywords for #DigitalHumanities vol. 1: #Environment 14th Dec 2026, hosted @ucc.ie Registration is free: www.eventbrite.ie/e/keywords-f...

Who can we trust? Democracy, polarisation & the future of public trust in Europe Enjoyable second entry @ucc.ie’s CACSSS Public Conversation Series. Feat. @theresareidy.bsky.social, Prof. Gillian Murphy, Dr Eoin O’Malley & @irishexaminer.bsky.social’s Mick Clifford. Chair Prof. Stephen Graham.

🚨 [Token][ization] Paper Alert 🚨 Tokenization is a wildly understudied area of language modeling despite it having effects across all of NLP. Over the past ~8 months, 32 (!) tokenizer researchers put together the most comprehensive survey of the field. Check it out!

Really enjoyed @irishtimes.com Inside Politics Live in Cork. Of course @ucc.ie’s @theresareidy.bsky.social stole the show!

Marian Keyes' writing is a powerful force for social change Women's commercial fiction — or chick lit as it is dismissively called — helps to shape society in subtle ways, writes @mariabbutler.bsky.social www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

AI has permeated our daily discussions & news cycles as unease grows over its capabilities & the U.S. races to beat China. It's forcing us to ask questions about morality & ethics, how our society is organized, & what it means to be human. Check out 10 deep dives into these questions & more below ⬇️

Really enjoyed this evening’s ‘Songs for Shelley’ programme at @mtu.ie Cork School of Music, a recital given in memory of Michèle de Foubert, founding member of the Fleischmann Choir. The choir teamed up with the Irish Project Ensemble. #culturenight #culturenightcork

Wonderful evening celebrating six artist-in-residence programmes at University College Cork. Particularly pleasing to see @stephenroddy.bandcamp.com recap @alanbutler.info’s tenure as @ucc.ie’s first Digital Artist-in-Residence, generously supported by @artscouncilireland.bsky.social.

The free online version of my ‘Listening in the Shadow of Palantir’ piece for the @thewiremagazine.bsky.social is live today. You can read it here: www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/c...

“In our ‘post-truth’ age, facts may be jettisoned if they collide with partisan identity. Tribal loyalty often outperforms reality.” —Peter Pomerantsev www.noemamag.com/journalism-i...

This stuff, btw, is still pure cosplay and liberal fantasia. The numbers of people moving are infinitesimally small. Meanwhile the entire EU research budget, let alone Canada, is dwarfed by the NIH alone, even post trump. Let's try to be serious. www.bbc.com/news/article...

People want to believe in some massive brain drain, but no other country even vaguely wants to - or is able to - put up the amounts of money that might actually make a difference.

Working through manuscript proofs is like having dinner with an old friend you can no longer abide: they were once important to you, so you get on with the pleasantries, but it’s a slog. You’ve moved on. You have new, more exciting friends now, so spending time with this one is an unbearable chore.

People seem to be confused about the basic motivations of tech oligarchs. Here's the deal: If it makes lots of money, it doesn't matter if it's a *soap bubble.*

It's nice that The Odyssey is getting its day in the sun as a synecdoche for history. But when this summer is over, it's back to the relentless, remorseless rise of Jane Austen.

Marty Supreme is excellent.

As someone who always hires a professional indexer (I tried it myself once and it was a disaster), I wonder why LLMs aren't good at indexing? It's basically judging relevance and mapping concepts. Is it the need for a book-wide taxonomy and exact locations that makes indexing unsuited to LLMs?

Congratulations to HEA colleagues on the publication of their Education for Sustainable Development framework for higher education. Particular congrats to Dr Mark Kelly, who led this work. #sustainability #ESD #highereducation #SDG #SDGs #climateaction hea.ie/2026/07/29/h...

“Prediction markets are an endpoint of the gamification of finance, when it stops pretending to be finance at all.” — @jamesosullivan.bsky.social www.noemamag.com/this-is-not-...

Man, America must be really be big on equality and inclusion. #WorldCup

What an absolute circus the #WorldCup final has become.

‘Against all authority except my mom’

Very nice not only to have good news but to have it shared - thanks @martindoyle.bsky.social @uccresearch.bsky.social @acirishstudies.bsky.social

Professor Claire Connolly wins major Irish literature award ⁣⁣⁣ Congratulations to Prof. @claireconnolly.bsky.social on being awarded the prestigious Robert Rhodes Prize for her acclaimed work ‘Irish Romanticism: A Literary History’.⁣⁣⁣ www.ucc.ie/en/news/2026...

Dear editors, Stop sending me books comprised solely of AI slop to review. The tells are so obvious it frightens me that someone whose job is to read cannot spot them immediately. Sending manuscripts composed without any authorial effort for review is damaging the reputation of your press. James

So this was a nice surprise to wake up to, thanks to all Cambridge University Press & Assessment and series editor @woolf-atthedoor.bsky.social Delighted that it is Open Access doi.org/10.1017/9781... @researchireland.ie @ucc.ie

If "cheating on assignments" was all we had to worry about, paper would be a fix. What should scare academics about AI is that higher ed might be losing its central role in producing, evaluating, and transmitting useful knowledge. I'm hopeful we won't, but that is the concern.

Every academic I know who uses or studies AI is also deeply worried about the technology’s effect on universities. Concern is universal. What separates people is how they think we should respond: whether by pumping the brakes, backing up, or trying to steer through the hazard. +

Enjoyed contributing to ‘Human–AI Collaboration in Education: Bridging Policy, Innovation and Community’ at EDEN Digital Learning Europe, University of Porto. A worthwhile exchange of views between policymakers, business leaders and colleagues working across higher ed. #EDEN2026 @researchireland.ie

Congratulations to Dr Olga Concetta Patroni, who received the CDE-DTC Lazio Award for 2025, which recognises outstanding doctoral research in digital cultural heritage. Dr Concetta Patroni is a postdoc @ucc.ie’s Minimal Curation project, funded by @researchireland.ie. www.ucc.ie/en/dah/news/...

The open letter regarding industry and applied bias in Research Ireland's strategy is still open for signing ... openletter.earth/concern-abou...

Also I feel very much like I was just at an Enterprise Ireland announcement, not a Research Ireland one. Major focus on industry, commercialisation of research, turning scientists into entrepreneurs, creating a talent pipeline for industry, and an overriding theme of fairly ill-defined "scale".

Congratulations to my @ucc.ie colleague @eimearryan.bsky.social, editor @bansheepress.bsky.social, on the publication of Billy Ramsell’s new collection of poetry, Render. Masterfully launched by our other colleague, @adamhanna.bsky.social. Get it while you can: bansheepress.org/shop/p/rende...

Some nice personal news to share! Delighted to reveal that I have been promoted to Professor of Digital Culture & Cultural Analytics @ucc.ie Thanks to all of my colleagues at UCC and beyond for supporting me throughout my career. I've always had the good fortune of working with good people.

‘This is not financial advice’ I’ve a new essay in @noemamag.com on how ‘finfluencers’ use #socialmedia to prey on economic desperation. It’s a cautionary tale on under-regulated financial markets like the OTC & #crypto attracting gamblers, typically men, chasing the dream of ‘financial freedom’.

“At a time when traditional markers of male success, such as homeownership & predictable family formation, have become less attainable, many men feel increasing pressure to find a way — however reckless — to achieve prosperity & demonstrate value.” — @jamesosullivan.bsky.social #fintwit #wallstreet