Dear Fedi friends,
I'd like to put together a list of people who are publicly resisting / calling out LLMs and AI slop.
Why? I enjoy reading my Fediverse feed in topical lists and I need something to counteract the unrelenting AI hype I see in the media.
Do you have any recommendations?
So far, at the top of my list I have:
@timnitGebru @emilymbender and @alexhanna of @DAIR
plus @cwebber @jaredwhite and @tante
Anyone else to recommend who advocates for #NoAI?
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
am not in any way connected to work that involved #NoAI but i am and try to vocalize my vehement #FUCKAI vibes
@_elena I’m anti LLM, but I’d hardly consider myself worth listening to…
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
@baldur is great on software in general and a cogent critic of LLMadness
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante if you search my posts for 'so ai is going great' i post a ton of horror stories
@_elena I publicly crash out against it about once a month if that’s your cup of tea 🤣
Just about everyone with a brain, WE all hope. Most can tell those pushing the slop are extremely irresponsible.
It's how dystopian movies begin repeating dystopian history
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I don't want you to follow me, but I call out and resist "LLM AI" and related intellectual informational slop.
- It solves no problem I have
- It is a glorified search engine, not intelligence
- Pattern matching is not intelligence, ML can be good, but trust it with your life at your peril.
- All software is "Artificial Intelligence"
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I have been posting about this topic -- see https://www.quippd.com/writing/2025/12/17/AIs-unpaid-debt-how-llm-scrapers-destroy-the-social-contract-of-open-source.html for a sample.
Also boost stuff I see. 🙂
@_elena I think everyone I follow is #NoAI lol, I went from teaching data sci and physics to teaching how to circumvent/remove #LLMs in data sci and physics... it's tough for the kids trying to learn through this slop 🙃 One thing I think helps a bit is to specify when dragging #LLM_AI vs #DecisionTree_AI #NeuralNet_AI or #Statistical_AI etc. Alot of phys/ data sci here uses #AI as a catchall for all of #datascience including #MachineLearning so it can get confusing (is likely meant to be lol).
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante not sure if this counts, but I am adamantly #NoAI! all of my videos on @groupnebula563@cuddly.tube are proudly AI-free and my https://hit-counter.net project won’t provide counters to sites containing AI content! :)
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante I would clarify also that I am not quite #NoAI in terms of AI tech, but I am definitely opposed to the *AI industry* and this hype wave. There may be various useful things from this tech, but the net version of things with it being forced upon society right now in this hype wave is that everything is getting much worse, and sickeningly so.
Several more pieces need to be added to the puzzle to make "AI" tech more useful, and I'm also simply opposed to a direction in society that dismisses and devalues creative endeavors, which a lot of this hype is putting at the center of itself. Creativity is what makes life largely worthwhile. I'm not willing to give that up.
I have no problem with OpenImageDenoiser in Blender, which speeds up renders through machine learning, and in no way devalues creativity. But something which made it so I just typed a few words into Blender and it did all my artwork for me, I would oppose.
@cwebber thank you for that nuanced explanation Christine! I am 1000% aligned with you.
Of course I'm all for technology helping with medical breakthroughs, but I oppose the pillaging of creative output without consent, the erosion of critical thinking and the mass surveillance facilitated by these initiatives (amongst other things)...
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante I also just add a little assertion that one other thing I hate about this moment of "AI" is that the field of "AI" has had many interesting branches in it, and now we only talk about one (machine learning models) and I am deeply bitter about that.
@_elena (I've allowed myself to cut the CC)
I'd add Ed Zitron (no known mastodon, IDK if his BS is bridged), yet his style is very… “raw”, yet to the point.
@aftermath.site and @404mediaco, but you probably already know (about) the individual creators.
IDK about Cory Doctorow with his late LLM usage confession with a preemptive rhetorical strike.
@_elena also consider David Gerard @davidgerard (his wonderful Pivot to AI podcast is a gem)
@DataKnightmare thanks! putting you both on my list 🙏
P.S.: your SUPERB podcast is really my favorite these days... I wish everyone spoke Italian so they could enjoy it 🥲
too kind! I did start an English version years ago, when the Big Thing was still techbros being techbros, but I had to suspend after just a few episodes, the production effort is not manageable. I keep wanting to return to it, though, in one form or another (mabe just publish the English script), especially when I touch a topic that is passing unnoticed.
Wait, I'm forgetting! I could *use AI* and have automated translations in 5 billion languages!
Or, like, not.
@DataKnightmare every time I listen to your SUPERB podcast I can't help but think about how the Fediverse would love your takes... and I wish there could be an English version.
But as a fellow creative I completely understand the time factor involved 🥲
@_elena
Outside of academia, yours truly was likely one of the first ones.
@_elena
That's difficult.
Aislop and hype are one side, there are good uses for it as well. So, just blaming LLMs feels like blaming a knife for murder.
@_elena how to create topical feed?
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
I collect evidence that LLMs need to be run in a Fediverse Like Structure, how its destructive in the hands of few, since months, everyday 😊 Thanks for the list btw :)
