First posted October 2025; last updated August 2026
A summary with frequently shared links
When I browse through all the topics that have dominated throughout the last years, i.e. topics that come up again and again, everything around digitalization definitely qualifies. The range is wide: from the internet in general, to smartphone related topics, and – the newest since ChatGPT abruptly entered the market – A.I.
The number of topics concerning ‘everything digital’ is constantly growing. The latest issue we talked about in some classes were ‘datacenters’: how they seem to have been built outside a wider public’s notice, how they have been mushrooming, but also how some companies who invested a lot of money into A.I. – including server space – started backing off from further investments, even rehiring fired personnel, because return on investment into A.I related money is not as expected.
Opinion | I Helped Run Lululemon. The A.I. Revolution Is a Hot Mess. – The New York Times
A.I. is a strange topic. It feels like the fastest phenomenon to enter public discourse ever. Although technology dubbed Artificial Intelligence has existed since the 1950ies when Marvin Minsky coined the term, it has been only a few years since ‘everyone’ seems to be talking about it.
It does enter my classes every once in a while (to tell the truth, more often lately) when I find a text I feel might be worth sharing – like the one below (Shortest boom…). However, in one of my classes a reaction was ‘can we please talk about something different, the topic is soooo boring‘. So we didn’t read it to the end, but I don’t agree: it is interesting and I will read it with another group.
‘A.I.’ is not just a strange topic, it is also one of seemingly quite contradictory messages. On the one hand messages as the one above of the end of an ‘A.I. Era’, on the other hand the fact of mushrooming data centers. It is puzzling and developments fast – too fast I often feel, for keeping up and navigating wisely.
Jaron Lanier
I’m a big fan of Jaron Lanier. I have already shared links in other posts. The reason I always come back to him is because I share his critical stance towards language use. How we talk about something has an influence on how we think about it. For instance, calling computer tools artificially intelligent creates visions and ideologies that are not just blatantly false, but also threatening to human well-being when acted upon as Jaron Lanier constantly warns.
Jaron Lanier is a voice coming directly out of the cradle of digital technology – Silicon Valley. He currently works as a research scientist at Microsoft Research and regularly shares his thoughts on how we deal with (and talk about) digital technologies.
Father of VR: They’re Creating a Future Nobody Wants | Jaron Lanier
There Is No AI Really (It’s Just People), with Jaron Lanier
Five minute interview on CNBS Bing Videos
In the TED talk below, Lanier talks about the early internet, and how its original concept of being free for all had a deeply inbuilt flaw that led to its vast potential for abusive manipulation:
Jaron Lanier: How we need to remake the internet | TED Talk
He also writes for the New Yorker. In an article published April 2023, he warns about the suggestive influence language can have – a sentiment I share wholeheartedly as a linguist with a great interest in the influence and power of categories and metaphors. There Is No A.I. | The New Yorker
Here an exerpt:
As a computer scientist, I don’t like the term “A.I.” In fact, I think it’s misleading—maybe even a little dangerous. Everybody’s already using the term, and it might seem a little late in the day to be arguing about it. But we’re at the beginning of a new technological era—and the easiest way to mismanage a technology is to misunderstand it.
The term “artificial intelligence” has a long history—it was coined in the nineteen-fifties, in the early days of computers. More recently, computer scientists have grown up on movies like “The Terminator” and “The Matrix,” and on characters like Commander Data, from “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” These cultural touchstones have become an almost religious mythology in tech culture. It’s only natural that computer scientists long to create A.I. and realize a long-held dream.
More on this topic in my separate post with a comment on the New York Times article above (Promise of Chat GPT…) Don’t call it intelligent – the suggestive influence of metaphorical concepts | Pat’s Language Cabinet
More by and with Jaron Lanier
Watch Jaron Lanier Looks into AI’s Future – Bloomberg
The dangerous fantasies driving the quest for super-intelligent AI (you need a subscription to nature.com for this link)
Cal Newport
Cal Newport, a computer scientist, is also a similarly critical voice concerning digital developments. Here an article I came across in The New Yorker: Instead of Taking Your Job, A.I. Might Transform It | The New Yorker
Stewart Russel
Another voice to listen to is Stewart Russell‘s.
AI Insider WARNS: “This Ends Much Worse Than You Think”
A critical note on the wikipedia entry on Stewart Russell. When I scrolled over ‘Artificial Intelligence’ this popped up:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making.
I find this definition highly problematic. A description like this is exactly what feeds science fiction fantasies. But rest assured: a machine does not learn, it does not reason, it surely does not perceive and decisions are made by people. Even a decision based on the computations of a machine.
We have to stop ‘treating’ this digital technology linguistically as a person. We use machine metaphors to talk about people, and language (words and expressions) related to humans, human life and cognition for machines. We create future tech related scenarios (and fantasies) that we then speculate about instead of discussing real dangers and chances of technologies. We should listen to the experts who know what they are talking about and reign in politicians and business leaders who don’t.
April 22, 2026
A criminal investigation has been launched by Florida’s attorney general into Open AI after a shooting at Florida State University. 20 year old Phoenix Ilkner used information gathered with the help of Chat GTP to carry out his deadly attack.
“If that bot were a person, they would be charged with a principal in first-degree murder,” Uthmeier said at a press conference on Tuesday. “ChatGPT offered significant advice to the shooter before he committed such heinous crimes.”
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2025
Promise of ChatGPT – The New York Times
Transforming Society ~ ChatGPT: The world’s largest bullshit machine
Towards the end of 2025, more and more articles popped up asking if this whole A.I. hype wasn’t a huge bubble about to burst:
The A.I. Boom Has Found Another Gear. Why Can’t People Shake Their Worries? – The New York Times
What concerns are there about an AI bubble? : NPR
Compare the sources above with
The Tech That Will Invade Our Lives in 2026 – The New York Times
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More AI related sources:
How will AI change the world? 5 deep dives into the technology’s future : NPR
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Below an article I read with classes in the past, before everything went online. It turned out to be quite prescient….