Dr Linda McIver

ooh look! Me answering kids' questions about AI live! What could possibly go wrong?? :-) youtu.be/DAp_2RUQ5-k?...

I just cannot with any of <gestures wildly at everything> today

We keep telling the government - we don't want automated robo-debt, or data centres everywhere, or aged-care assessment by algorithm, or non-professional NDIS decisions. Employ real people. Pay real wages. Fix hospitals & schools. Tax the squillionaires & giant companies. Can't be any clearer.

The ABC is still at it - again, Meta and its intentional design choices are not mentioned a single time in this article. It's extremely bad and harmful journalistic malpractice that very very directly helps two groups: abusers and tech companies. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10...

A special q&a episode of Make Me Data Literate podcast? Sign me up! Submit your questions (and your mmdl feedback) here adsei.org/2026/10/27/g...

@datasciau.bsky.social could build the whole world's data literacy and critical thinking skills for a lot less than that!

The IPO of Dr. Moreau.

Give us Questions about Data, AI, Critical Thinking, and Education! After 4 years and 49 episodes, my guests on Make Me Data Literate still surprise me with their answers to my questions, and where the conversation takes us. But this is all about me asking people my burning questions about their…

Very topical episode of Make Me Data Literate this week. We are joined by security consultant Joshua Nibbs to discuss the recent PHP security issue that was in the media last week and horrify Linda by informing her just how much data is collected on us every. single. day.

Somehow my "require alt text on images before posting" setting got turned off. I've turned it back on, but if you rely on it, you might wanna check!

outstanding ad placement @amyremeikis.bsky.social

you know how orange cats share a brain cell? as in "my orange cat had the brain cell yesterday, but he definitely doesn't have it today..." I think maybe neurodivergent people share the dopamine...

Important duckling content!!!

I strongly recommend listening to @davidpocock.bsky.social 's national press club speech. It gives me hope, and outlines the need for change. I'm only around 20 minutes in. I'll listen to the rest tomorrow. I think we all need to listen to what he has to say.

"...on the disc, the Gods are not so much worshipped as blamed." 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤

it's so weird how the burden of proof appears to fall on those of us who make the very ordinary claim that AI systems are NOT intelligent gods that can solve any problem and are destined to kill us all, rather than on those who make very extraordinary claims that they hope to make a squillion from.

Behind The News Livestream answering kids' questions about AI! Man, they ask some great questions! www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAp_...

Just invented a new word: Commiseranted. as in: we commiseranted about being forced to use AI.

Look. The argument is very simple, I'll explain. 1. Consciousness is mysterious; neuroscientists don't quite understand how it works 2. LLMs are mysterious; LLM vendors don't quite understand how they work 3. Therefore, LLMs are consciousness. In logic we call this an "extremely correct syllogism"

🧵Spotted While Roaming in Aotearoa New Zealand: A tiny human (2?) wearing a unicorn helmet is sitting on the back of Dad's bike. Tiny Human Unicorn is waving with suitable aplomb at everyone he passes. Both hands (hooves?) in action. Unicorns must let their public know they're adored!

Allowing foreign AI companies to mine our power, water and data and giving a freebie on copyright is a new form of colonialism says the Pope’s AI adviser. He may not be infallible but he sure has hit the mark here. We needed defences and guardrails not white flags.

Aaron Swartz was hounded and persecuted by overzealous prosecutors for a mass JSTOR download until he committed suicide. Sam Altman says that he deserves to violate copyright law in perpetuity because otherwise he can't make a fortune from a large language model. We are in the wrong timeline.

And while we're on the subject: there's no ethical use of a product brought to market through unethical means. It doesn't matter whether the product is "AI" or chocolate or diamonds. Most generative "AI" was knowingly developed through massive theft from creatives; we have the emails admitting this.

Ooh also my segment from BTN high is up! www.abc.net.au/btn/high/wha...

I can't emphasize enough that these are people's kids. Their deaths leave painful holes in families and communities. I lost a 23-year-old sibling when I was young, and I lost a teenage child, both of these scar you badly in ways you never recover from or forget. Anti-trans bigotry kills kids.

youtu.be/3TNpOD6bov8?...

The ultimate Darwin award!

🧵Spotted While Roaming in Aotearoa New Zealand: An elderly black dog with distinguished silver whiskers (Staffy cross miniature walrus?) is sitting on the deck of an old apple shed. Eyes closed as she basks in the sun. A lady at her leisure.

it's such a shame the audience for the muderbot books, for example, is only one grumpy murderbot. how could I, a woman, possibly relate to an agender cyborg? Do my hips make me cyborg enough??

are these people (management) silly or malicious or both

"Adding my pronouns would be performative" "I don't want to make it about me" "I'd feel I was appropriating" As a trans woman, I LOVE it when cis folk include their pronouns on badges/signatures/etc. It means that sharing mine doesn’t single me out, and it tells me who is safe!

If you’re wondering what the vibe is going into the midterms the New England fall fair I went to today had a crochet guillotine for sale.

I'm so exhausted by the constant struggle to debunk the AI cult hype. I turn to the work of @timnitgebru.blacksky.app @ketanjoshi.co, @emilymbender.bsky.social and @doctorow.pluralistic.net to try to break the cycle and boost my determination. Who else do you seek out that is making sense?

I think there's a lot of climate and energy people in Australia who'll laugh this off as impossible but the tech economy is not logical and renewables being cheap does not shave a single joule of enthusiasm for tech's seething desperation for fossil fuels right now.

Jason Clare must be enjoying presiding over the wholesale smashing of universities, because he’s doing absolutely nothing useful to stop it.

The utter, utter stupidity … Cratering our higher education sector, with regional areas hit hardest, to pander to One Nation immigration politics. They pegged uni finances on intl students, and then started attacking the student visa intake.

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854