Michael A. Nees
@michaelnees.bsky.social
Professor of Psychology at Lafayette College. Interested in human factors, psychology of humans and tech, auditory displays, and accessibility. Opinions my own. https://sites.lafayette.edu/neesm
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
@edzitron.com had it on the money here
August 18, 2026 at 5:38 PM
@edzitron.com had it on the money here
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
There are high-up editors at prestigious publications who wrote or greenlit like dozens of “Moon Base to Open Within Six Years” or “Space Hotel Slated for 2026” headlines. Nothing happened to them. They just get to keep doing it. Wild.
August 18, 2026 at 1:19 AM
There are high-up editors at prestigious publications who wrote or greenlit like dozens of “Moon Base to Open Within Six Years” or “Space Hotel Slated for 2026” headlines. Nothing happened to them. They just get to keep doing it. Wild.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
It really is a machine for people who cannot think.
Brave new world
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
August 14, 2026 at 1:16 PM
It really is a machine for people who cannot think.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
to properly use LLMs in a productive manner often requires *more* thought from humans, not less. Anyways
July 21, 2026 at 11:31 PM
to properly use LLMs in a productive manner often requires *more* thought from humans, not less. Anyways
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
The entire point of a liberal arts education (the A part in a BA) is that learning (and learning how to keep learning) is intrinsically valuable. College is different from a trade school. Both have value, but not the same value.
July 19, 2026 at 1:40 PM
The entire point of a liberal arts education (the A part in a BA) is that learning (and learning how to keep learning) is intrinsically valuable. College is different from a trade school. Both have value, but not the same value.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
whether you're bombarded by slop, or losing your job, or acquiring new forms of psychosis, or killing yourself trying to keep up with an endless treadmill of perceived hyperproductivity, the AI future has a flavor of misery for everyone!
June 27, 2026 at 9:50 PM
whether you're bombarded by slop, or losing your job, or acquiring new forms of psychosis, or killing yourself trying to keep up with an endless treadmill of perceived hyperproductivity, the AI future has a flavor of misery for everyone!
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
The plan: forever warp the job market through taxpayer-funded subsidies of unsustainable AI businesses just long enough for all other companies to lay off millions of workers and reorient their work processes around proprietary technology and then once this is accomplished, raise inference prices.
June 23, 2026 at 11:41 PM
The plan: forever warp the job market through taxpayer-funded subsidies of unsustainable AI businesses just long enough for all other companies to lay off millions of workers and reorient their work processes around proprietary technology and then once this is accomplished, raise inference prices.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
I keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines.
Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."
Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."
April 1, 2026 at 1:38 PM
I keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines.
Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."
Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
ok so l guess rfk brought up autism again, please refer to this diagram before engaging with any of his claims
i made a helpful reference
June 17, 2026 at 12:14 AM
ok so l guess rfk brought up autism again, please refer to this diagram before engaging with any of his claims
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
"[T]his “burnout” that secure scholars are feeling is phantom pain where their colleagues should be. Or, to use a term that every other normal worker in the US uses to describe their workplace under these conditions: you are suffering from the effects of intentional systemic understaffing."
A Profession, If You Can Keep It
Imagined meritocracies mean little to extractive institutions.
contingentmagazine.org
June 9, 2026 at 7:33 PM
"[T]his “burnout” that secure scholars are feeling is phantom pain where their colleagues should be. Or, to use a term that every other normal worker in the US uses to describe their workplace under these conditions: you are suffering from the effects of intentional systemic understaffing."
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
The "return on investment" with tenured faculty is having accomplished experts who are experienced teachers there to teach the students. It's sort of a basic point about colleges, you'd think the people on a board of trustees would get that.
In evaluating faculty appointments based on “return on investment,” the people running UNC-Chapel Hill (and let’s be honest most universities) show that they don’t understand the purpose of the university www.theassemblync.com/news/educati...
May 16, 2026 at 7:06 PM
The "return on investment" with tenured faculty is having accomplished experts who are experienced teachers there to teach the students. It's sort of a basic point about colleges, you'd think the people on a board of trustees would get that.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
This hit me so hard this week.
May 9, 2026 at 1:42 PM
This hit me so hard this week.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
I don't recall any previous transformative technologies that had to be sold to the public so hard. No one in 1999 was going, "Guys. Cell phone? It's coming, whether we like it or not. I think it's important, FOR WOMEN ESPECIALLY, to learn about cell phone. So that we're not left behind!!"
April 18, 2026 at 3:52 AM
I don't recall any previous transformative technologies that had to be sold to the public so hard. No one in 1999 was going, "Guys. Cell phone? It's coming, whether we like it or not. I think it's important, FOR WOMEN ESPECIALLY, to learn about cell phone. So that we're not left behind!!"
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
OpenAI: We’re burning money like the Joker. A miracle needs to happen for us to turn a profit
Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here
Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse
Media and universities: AI is here to stay
Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here
Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse
Media and universities: AI is here to stay
April 15, 2026 at 7:04 PM
OpenAI: We’re burning money like the Joker. A miracle needs to happen for us to turn a profit
Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here
Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse
Media and universities: AI is here to stay
Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here
Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse
Media and universities: AI is here to stay
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
So please, give me university leaders who can understand and effectively convey this message to government, and stop hiring wanna-be corporate CEOs who think we are selling widgets and subsidizing power-point training here.
March 26, 2025 at 11:37 AM
So please, give me university leaders who can understand and effectively convey this message to government, and stop hiring wanna-be corporate CEOs who think we are selling widgets and subsidizing power-point training here.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
I think the reason AI propagandists are so flustered by the fact that no real writer wants to use their idiotic tools is that they themselves don't enjoy writing. They see it as a boring arduous chore to be avoided, while real writers actually enjoy writing and actually care about the quality of it.
April 2, 2026 at 8:14 PM
I think the reason AI propagandists are so flustered by the fact that no real writer wants to use their idiotic tools is that they themselves don't enjoy writing. They see it as a boring arduous chore to be avoided, while real writers actually enjoy writing and actually care about the quality of it.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
I know this is impossible for us discuss in this current moment but... People want to do interesting, thoughtful, creative, day to day work. They want to care for each other, and feel like they are contributing to something bigger.
It should be where we start when we think about our communities.
It should be where we start when we think about our communities.
March 13, 2026 at 12:26 AM
I know this is impossible for us discuss in this current moment but... People want to do interesting, thoughtful, creative, day to day work. They want to care for each other, and feel like they are contributing to something bigger.
It should be where we start when we think about our communities.
It should be where we start when we think about our communities.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
Truly uncanny to see universities all doing the same suicidal things: centralizing decision-making, erecting bafflingly expensive new buildings, stacking the board with money guys, hiding info about the budget, throwing money at consultants. Atriums everywhere! They all got the same memo.
February 21, 2026 at 5:26 AM
Truly uncanny to see universities all doing the same suicidal things: centralizing decision-making, erecting bafflingly expensive new buildings, stacking the board with money guys, hiding info about the budget, throwing money at consultants. Atriums everywhere! They all got the same memo.
This is also an issue of ownership. You pay for the software-based things but you don’t own them. They can be altered or taken away altogether at any moment.
this is a subtle but IMO wildly underappreciated problem
February 18, 2026 at 3:50 PM
This is also an issue of ownership. You pay for the software-based things but you don’t own them. They can be altered or taken away altogether at any moment.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
The potential for upheaval is precisely why economic elites wield AI as a weapon to threaten workers, even as we've seen time and again that AI cannot actually replace what humans do.
You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.
You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.
I'm not even saying that's the most *likely* possibility, but it's just very clear that the likelihood of that outcome as increased and even if there's, like, a 1 in 10 change that "AI replaces most to all white collar jobs in 10 years" that's an *enormous* risk to the social order!
February 11, 2026 at 5:45 PM
The potential for upheaval is precisely why economic elites wield AI as a weapon to threaten workers, even as we've seen time and again that AI cannot actually replace what humans do.
You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.
You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
God the people mad about music like this must live such sad miserable little lives
February 9, 2026 at 1:29 AM
God the people mad about music like this must live such sad miserable little lives
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
News from central Jersey: I'm running to represent New Jersey's 12th Congressional District.
By entering the fray, I hope to bring ideas of repairing our frayed republic. Not only to defend it in 2026, but to build something stronger, for generations to come!
samwang.substack.com/p/entering-t...
By entering the fray, I hope to bring ideas of repairing our frayed republic. Not only to defend it in 2026, but to build something stronger, for generations to come!
samwang.substack.com/p/entering-t...
February 4, 2026 at 3:00 AM
News from central Jersey: I'm running to represent New Jersey's 12th Congressional District.
By entering the fray, I hope to bring ideas of repairing our frayed republic. Not only to defend it in 2026, but to build something stronger, for generations to come!
samwang.substack.com/p/entering-t...
By entering the fray, I hope to bring ideas of repairing our frayed republic. Not only to defend it in 2026, but to build something stronger, for generations to come!
samwang.substack.com/p/entering-t...
Reposted by Michael A. Nees
‘Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition… We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average.’
arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245
arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245
February 3, 2026 at 9:00 PM
‘Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition… We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average.’
arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245
arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245