Samuel Merrill

I have eight browser tabs about Anthropic and Dario Amodei open right now.

Madness status: incoming.

This is the kind of use of Automated FRT and Ai I had in mind when writing this:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

It was great working with Mykola Makhortykh, Silvana Mandolessi, Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden, @riksmit.bsky.social and qi wang.

Thanks also to the collection’s editors (@andrewhoskins.bsky.social, Amanda Lagerkvist and Anthony Downey) and the three anonymous reviewers.

🚨 New publication alert! 🚨

I’m proud of this interdisciplinary, co-authored piece on how memory studies might handle the AI hype.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

It has just been added, open access, to Memory, Mind and Media’s special collection on AI and Memory.

The sociological imagination is not just about observing society; it’s about understanding how people challenge systems of power and create change.

In the magazine’s June issue, @carinrunciman.bsky.social‬ and fellow scholars reflect on what it means to think sociologically.

buff.ly/R9DWhvA

So we did a thing… 🧵

You’ve heard about the erasing of LGBTQ history on National Park Service websites. Egregious changes made to the Stonewall National Monument site (erasing all instances of trans and queer) & the disappearance of resources like the monumental “LGBTQ America” theme study.

My post was a subtle reference to the Sweden Democrats ;)

What is it with blue flowers

One of the smartest sociologists of this generation. @tressiemcphd.bsky.social delivers knowledge.

The words “ITS A COUP” in red bold letters atop the front page of New York Times featuring a photo of Elon Musk.

“So yes, we've experienced a coup, not the old fashioned kind, no tanks or mobs, but an undemocratic and hostile takeover of government. It is cruel, it is petty. It can be brutal. It is at once chaotic and surgical…The question is, will the rule of law hold?”

Looking forward to participating in this tomorrow!

NIUS and others on the far right are trying to roll back the expansion of German memory culture of Nazi victim groups over the past thirty years as it has expanded beyond the Holocaust of European Jews to include recognition of Roma, disabled, homosexual, trans and Afro-German victims.

Someone has adapted East German singer Ernst Busch's song Ami - go Home! for the present day conflict between the Trump administration and Canada.

How AI imagery could be used to develop fake archaeology Even before the use of AI, it was widely accepted within archaeology that visualisations of the past are highly fraught and should be treated with caution.

Generative #AI is already having an impact on how we perceive #archaeology🏺.

In her @us.theconversation.com essay @clmorgan.bsky.social urges for critical yet constructive engagement with digital technologies in our investigation of the past.

theconversation.com/how-ai-image...

I found no sign of it on the other place.

Apple is pulling its AI-generated notifications for news after generating fake headlines | CNN Business Apple is temporarily pulling its newly introduced artificial intelligence feature that summarizes news notifications after it repeatedly sent users error-filled headlines, sparking backlash from a new...

Whoever could have imagined the AI headline generator would make shit up

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/01/...

A person walks in front of a burning church in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 8, 2025. Huge fountains of flame are shooting out of the windows AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Firefighters stand silhouetted in front of a massive fire engulfing several homes

Throwing tomato soup on a painting seems like an under-reaction, to be honest

Since Die Hard is a Christmas film, a brief thread on my own head canon of how the Gruber brothers disparate bios are tied up in postwar German history.

Samuel Merrill on LinkedIn: Den artificiella bibliotekarien: En etnografisk studie om hur ChatGPT kan… A lot happened in 2024 even with a couple of months out on parental leave. Just before I turn on my out-of-office and go on leave until the start of 2025 I…

My 2024 in review on LinkedIn:

eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Have a great break everyone! See you in 2025

Dynamics, Mediation, Mobilization Dynamics, Mediation, Mobilization provides an accessible overview of cultural memory studies, a field substantially shaped by Ann Rigney. In more than sixty short chapters, leading and emerging schola...

Fun to have contributed to this with a chapter called ‘Splintering’ the Memory-Activism Nexus: State and Market Forces in the Vortex of Civic Memory.

Thanks to the eds Astrid Erll, Susanne Knittel & Jenny Wüstenberg & to Ann Rigney whose work inspired the book.

www.degruyter.com/document/doi...

Basically think of the o3 results as validating Douglas Adams as the science fiction author most right about AI.

When given longer to think, the AI can generate answers to very hard questions, but the cost is very high, it is hard to verify, & you have to make sure you ask the right question first.

Promote or Perish? A brief note on academic social networking sites and academic reputation This commentary explores some of the reputational issues of using academic social networking sites (ASNS) such as ResearchGate, ResearcherID, ORCID, Academia.edu, Google Scholar, and Mendeley for a...

And yes, it’s been done:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I’ll follow this up shortly with the promotion of a couple of new chapters if I can find the energy.

Promote or perish

Other contributors to the issue include: Julien Schuh, Pierre Depaz, Matthias Meitzler, Jessica Heesen, Martin Hennig, Regina Ammicht Quinn, Phivos-Angelos Kollias Victoria Grace Richardson Walden, Mykola Makhortykh, Alina Volynskaya (sorry my thumbs started hurting before I could tag you all)

It contains an article I wrote with @riksmit.bsky.social and @thomassmits.bsky.social called Stochastic Remembering & Distributed Mnemonic Agency (the outcome of our TAIGA – Centre for Transdisciplinary AI 2023 micro-project)

brill.com/view/journal...

The full open access special issue of Memory Studies Review dedicated to #AI and Collective #Memory is now out. It was edited by Sarah Gensberger and Frédéric Clavert and represents the collective efforts of the @artificialmemory.bsky.social network.

It is available here: brill.com/view/journal...

The history books will tell the story of this era of erasure with the derision it deserves, but until then, the only thing I know to do it to show that it is happening & help families & communities be as safe as possible. Document, share, and ensure this can be told. It’s such a shameful moment.

How the AI Boom Threatens to Short-Circuit Climate Action The energy-devouring technology is giving new life to fossil fuels.

“Writing a single email with ChatGPT can use as much energy as driving a two-ton electric vehicle half a mile,” @laurenleffer.bsky.social reports. www.audubon.org/magazine/how...