Bastian Greshake TzovarasJun 25, 2024

Got this email earlier and I’m still upset about it. Some unnamed “team from #Northwestern, #Stanford & #Cornell” fed our preprint through their “#AI" to generate "suggestions" on how we could improve it.

This feels like some really shit #HCI study that seems to think asking for consent is optional. And like one that wants to spin out into an even shittier start-up in the future (hence not giving any names of team members)?

@academicchatter @hci

Susan VanderplasJun 26, 2024
Show threadMuki Haklay
@gedankenstuecke @academicchatter @hci agree on the shitiness of the lack of consent. I would also associate that with the ongoing decline of ethics in computer science as a discipline - the big tech culture is flowing into the discipline and the sense of break things is very noticeable...
Jun 26, 2024 at 8:44amWeb
Show threadBastian Greshake TzovarasJun 26, 2024

@mhaklay @academicchatter @hci Beyond the lack of consent, the anonymity also really bothers me I have to say. I think I would mind a lot less if there were some names of researchers attached to it, instead of hiding behind a generic email and throwing around the names of institutions.

Otherwise fully agree, touching computers is becoming more and more problematic and has been for years now.

Show threadCat HicksJun 26, 2024

@gedankenstuecke @mhaklay

The use of academic institutions like brand names instead of a research team is a dead giveaway that you are dealing with something that has the veneer of science vs a solid project

Show threadBastian Greshake TzovarasJun 26, 2024
@grimalkina @mhaklay which to me unfortunately also quite typical amongst a certain type of academics at certain US-institutions, Stanford fits that bill very nicely…
Show threadCat HicksJun 26, 2024
@gedankenstuecke @mhaklay to be fair I also see this usage/anonymization often as a misunderstanding from the business world not rooted in any mal intent but just because people are used to thinking in marketing terms and of work as being owned by corporations. They don't realize how odd it is to name a university like an author. Of course this still shows a mental model not understanding scientific evidence as belonging to all of us and the importance of transparency, authorship and labs!
Show threadBastian Greshake TzovarasJun 26, 2024
@grimalkina @mhaklay yeah, I do think that this is part of the culture-difference. But at the same time now virtually every commerical support email is "signed" with a name too.