(one time Dutch post about value-driven AI, motivated in part by scientists' ideas for the upcoming elections in The Netherlands)
Author: Iris van Rooij
AI slop and the destruction of knowledge
Cite as: van Rooij, I. (2025) AI slop and the destruction of knowledge. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16905560 This week I was looking for info on what cognitive scientists mean when they speak of ‘domain-general’ cognition. I was curious, because the nuances are relevant for something I am researching at the moment. To my surprise and dismay, I hit upon [...]
The myth of value-free science*
Perhaps one of the most persistent myths in science—one that also pervades public perception of science—is that it provides a value-free method to arrive at objective Truth, with a big ‘T’. This myth is so persistent that we seldom question it within science. Perhaps it is even taboo to question it. This is illustrated, for [...]
Computational complexity for cognitive scientists
Here, I compile a set of videos that complement a course on computational complexity for cognitive scientists that I co-teach with Nils Donselaar. We use the textbook Cognition and Intractability, that I co-authored with Mark Blokpoel, Johan Kwisthout, and Todd Wareham. Chapter 1 is freely available here. Why care about computational complexity? This video is [...]
Debunking AGI inevitability claims
Have you heard these claims? "Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is imminent!" or "At current rate of progress, AGI is inevitable!" In a recent preprint, my co-authors and I explain why, and present a formal proof that, such claims are false and misleading. (...) the field of AI is in the grip of a dominant paradigm [...]
Critical lenses on ‘AI’
Here I collect a selected set of critical lenses on so-called1 'AI', including the recently hyped ChatGPT. I hope these resources are useful for others as well, and help make insightful why we need to remain vigilant and resist the AI hype. I expect to be updating this blog as time passes. If you have [...]
Stop feeding the hype and start resisting
Cite as: van Rooij, I. (2023) Stop feeding the hype and start resisting. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16608308 Three weeks ago, I wrote a blogpost about how ChatGPT is a "stochastic parrot" (a term coined by Bender, Gebru, McMillan-Major, & Shmitchell, 2021; see also this video for an explanation) and when used for academic (and other) writing constitutes automated [...]
Against automated plagiarism
Cite as: van Rooij, I. (2022) Against automated plagiarism. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15866638 I've been asked, in various roles1, to give my opinion on the challenges posed by Large Language Models (LLMs)2, also known as "stochastic parrots" (Bender, Gebru, McMillan-Major, & Shmitchell, 2021), for assessing academic writing assignments. A concern seems to be that students legitimately can use [...]
What makes a good theory?
June 20-24, 2022, the Lorentz Workshop "What makes a good theory? Interdisciplinary perspectives" (organised by Berna Devezer, Joshua Skewes, Sashank Varma, Todd Wareham, and myself) took place. In total some 45 participants came together in a hybrid venue, on-site at the Lorentz Center and online in Gather.town. Participants came from a large variety of disciplines, [...]
Sampling cannot make hard work light
Robert Long recently wrote a blog: Five ways the mind does not solve computationally intractable problems (and one way it does). It summarises a paper that I co-wrote. To be frank, I was a bit jealous of the clarity and conciseness with which Robert laid out the main arguments (it took us 20 pages!). I recommend reading Robert's blog [...]
Iris van Rooij 