Post
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 @DAIR 🙋♀️ If that helps, I was quoted in this article calling AI the archenemesis of data privacy: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/signal-creator-moxie-marlinspike-wants-to-do-for-ai-what-he-did-for-messaging/
'Data privacy expert Em (she keeps her last name off the Internet) called AI assistants the “archnemesis” of data privacy because their utility relies on assembling massive amounts of data from myriad sources, including individuals.
“AI models are inherent data collectors,” she told Ars. “They rely on large data collection for training, improvements, operations, and customizations. More often than not, this data is collected without clear and informed consent (from unknowing training subjects or from platform users), and is sent to and accessed by a private company with many incentives to share and monetize this data.”'
@_elena Here's another public statement I made: https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/116109826119332018
@_elena Over here! I'm migrating to @leoschuldiner23@beige.party so, be my guest 😊 #NoAI (and as a musician, especially in music industry). Cheers from Chile!
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante He’s not in the Fediverse I think but I love his takes on all stories AI: https://pivot-to-ai.com/rss/
@grosser_mensch David Gerard? He is here! @davidgerard
@_elena I do, in a very my corner of the world, which is academic libraries, kind of way. Snark, mostly, but also the occasional academic journal article or presentation.
@_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
I would like to mention @Felienne to you.
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante Add Aurora @tunubesecamirio - she is an amazing activist and public speaker with profound crutucism on AI for ecosocial reasons.
The name of their activist project, Tu Nube Seca Mi Rio, is so wellchosen, so visual for the damage these hyperscalers are making. Worth checking a translator for, careful with the LLMs though ;-)
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante from your list @danmcquillan is missing :)
@_elena in French, there’s the formidable @flomaraninchi !
Also @danmcquillan of course.
@flomaraninchi , @Khrys
(And my bio makes it clear what side I'm on)
@_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 @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I'd like to recommend @pivot-to-ai.com pivot to ai and is incomparable author, @davidgerard
@_elena some great accounts(mainly in Spanish) are @tunubesecamirio @criticalswitch @arteesetica @ana_valdi
@_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.
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante
This is why it's so important to specify things like generative-AI. AI on its own is a meaningless nothing-word with how much it's shoved in everywhere and anywhere. Yeah, faster denoising with machine learning is great! But a slop machine that pollutes the environment and steals people's jobs and work for the purpose of deceiving others for capitalistic gain? Not so great.
I love the AI that detects cancers better than doctors can, I love the AIs that automatically remove pauses from audio recordings, and I love the AI that automates boring, tedious sh!t that humans hate doing such as spreadsheet organizing. I just fucking hate generative-AI specifically.
@cwebber @_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante
I have been appreciating your well considered takes!
I hate the AI hype. The bubble is bad. The effects on creative work and the environment is depressing.
But I am not looking for strict #NoAI content, but well reasoned and researched critical content. As an Electrical Engineer my interest is in understanding the state of the art. I can't learn this from those who refuse to look behind the veil.
@_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.
@cwebber @_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante i've found myself moving back to using data science, ml, and algorithmic because ai functionally means llm-as-a-service at this point
@_elena looks like @parismarx is missing
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
Shameless self-plug: You can add @PaulaToThePeople to the list. She hates AI with a passion, posts a lot under the hashtag #LLMMeAlone and moderates the only Fediverse instance I know of, where posting AI stuff is forbidden.
good idea, added a respective hashtag to my bio
@_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 @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I'm a cloud app developer and I post from a fairly rabid anti-AI viewpoint sometimes - though whether that makes me recommendable I have no idea.
@_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.
There are many non celebrities (i.e ordinary folk without podcasts or books to promote) contributing to this discussion, probably disproportionately on Mastodon.
I started a #trojan_ai tag to locate examples of duplicitous AI promotion you can review as part of your enquiries.
@_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 I'm noisy enough about it to release a slopfree index and blog about it a bit, although I try (only semi-successfully) to balance out my feed with stuff that isn't AI
@_elena I have a “Critical AI reading list” on Mastodon that contains among others and among the ones you listed:
- @baldur
- @RainerMuehlhoff
- @Weizenbaum_Institut
- @olivia
- @quinta
- @lapcatsoftware
- @dylan
@_elena You might want to check out @rysiek and his blog at https://rys.io/en/index.html
I also write critically about tech, including "AI", for Polish media, specifically OKO.press:
https://oko.press/autor/michal-rysiek-wozniak
Some relevant examples:
https://oko.press/sztuczna-inteligencja-prace-nam-zabiera-czy-to-tylko-bajera
https://oko.press/chinski-deepseek-upuscil-powietrza-z-amerykanskiej-banki-ai-co-teraz
https://oko.press/ai-nie-rozwiaze-kryzysu-klimatycznego
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante Anil Dash @anildash belongs on your list, I think.
@Standard_Phil @_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I think they’re all real researchers, I’m just a commentator here.
@anildash you 1000% belong to my list Anil ! And thanks @Standard_Phil for the suggestion
FYI Anil if you don't know @jaredwhite he has a superb podcast titled Vibe Coded ("about the perils & pitfalls of creative intellectual automation; and why the future of good Internet vibes is for the humans, by the humans") : https://jaredwhite.com/projects/
I came across a cool humoristic method of resistance, see the For Ai Only section :
https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1124/new-rss-feeds-landing
@_elena @WeirdWriter wrote two great Anti LLM posts, from the point of view as a writer and what it's doing to his community, if you want something that's outside commentary on this. Have tissues, you will cry from the beauty and care after getting angry.
https://sightlessscribbles.com/the-colonization-of-confidence/
https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-bookstore-hope/
@onepict @_elena @WeirdWriter
omg i cri
thank you for sharing this, best read in ages
More to come! Here is an introduction by me, of sorts, but I'd also recommend reading, the Bookstore Hope. https://sightlessscribbles.com/about/ @rosareven @onepict @_elena
@onepict @WeirdWriter thank you for the great recommendation!
@_elena I should also toot my own horn ☺️:
@_elena Here's an article you'll probably, enjoy, though, even if it's in Danish (but I know you know your way around that 😉 ) https://videnskab.dk/kultur-samfund/ai-i-valgkampen-hjaelper-det-kandidater-eller-skraemmer-det-vaelgerne-vaek/
@trezzer thank you, I really appreciate!
I need to go pick up my little one from daycare but I will read it ASAP (just saved it to my Linkwarden) 🤗
@_elena how to create topical feed?
@argue_right875 as usual, @FediTips to the rescue: https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-the-lists-feature-on-mastodon/
@_elena regarding LLMs, it's crazy from developers' perspective. BIG tech is pushing LLMs hard to developers, saying you'll lose job or will be paid less if not using LLMs. That's what they are pushing, my colleague did even said "If you're not going to use it, you'll lose job or will be paid more." My boss doesn't like to use LLM for development, so far so good, but there is huge push and pressure towards it.
@jan ouf that's rough. I personally know a lot of people in this space - here in France - and it's really rough out there. Not to mention the collapsing valuation of most software start-ups since early 2025 (US politics + Claude + geopolitical tensions = lethal mix)
@_elena Film idea: "Back to the roots". They meet in secret. In coding dojos. They write code by hand. They have ancient books, real books, printed, with names like "Assembly Guide for the x86 ISA", "High Performance Python" that are sacred bibles of ancient knowledge. Follow our hero as she goes from LLM withdrawal to changing the world with hand-written code that frees the minds of millions. @jan
@_elena @jwildeboer @jan
I had the very same idea for such a story as well, although apparently vi is out of scope now
https://ioc.exchange/@CKL/116161896679343123
@_elena yes, it will be very rough few years. Will see how that goes. This will make us developers dump and highly dependent to LLMs in cloud owned by some company in US.
@_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 :)
@_elena
@pluralistic is absolutely essential. @eff and @openrightsgroup also do great work.
@_elena Pas immédiatement l’IA, mais sur la matérialité du numérique et des centres de données il y a @lenuageetaitsousnospieds et @tunubesecamirio . @Aepasek a publié une très bonne brochure sur comment résister aux datacenters, et sur la géopolitique du numérique je ne peux que conseiller le livre de @opheliecoelho ! @dataforgood fait du bon boulot également 👍
@romuald merci pour ces excellentes recommandations!!! @lenuageetaitsousnospieds @tunubesecamirio @Aepasek @opheliecoelho @dataforgood
@_elena While I don't feel that I belong on such a list, I resist as much and as often as I can.
@andycarolan oh yes of course! adding you to my list :)
@_elena I wish we'd have CW for both sides, because I really don't want to hear more from either. Enough has been said to make up minds, and now it just seems like an infinite echo that is slowly driving me mad.
@trezzer understood. Sorry I should have put my post behind a CW (too late now) 🥲
@_elena No worries. It only helps if it becomes a norm anyway, and I think others will appreciate what you are doing. <3
@trezzer I feel really bad because I use CW super frequently.
Sorry it didn't occur to me for this post but I will use CW from now on...
The #NoAI tag is common enough that it's a good candidate for setting up a filter to turn any post with that tag into a CW post.
I'm a fan of standard tags instead of CWs for things that are not violent or sexual but a decent sized group would want to hide since they give people the power to control their own timelines more effectively.
