Wow! I learned a lot from your thoughtful writings during our break. I think the video discussion which was lead by Dr. Sharma prompted many of you to think of AI through a “pros & cons” lens. In what contexts might it be useful vs. what contexts might it be damaging or destructive to your own growth? Asking pre-use questions could be helpful in discernment: Can this task be done without human empathy? Can this task be done without human creativity? Can this task be done without human judgment? What am I willing to give up in terms of my own agency or authority over certain matters? These are useful questions to run when thinking about tasks at hand and what role AI might play in your own processes. I notice that some of you still seem to be staunch ‘AI abstinence’ advocates, which I find both fascinating and hopeful. Each of us will have to grapple with how, when, and why we might use AI tools, and I do think that a ritual of fine tuning our personal reckoning with certain tools will have to be an on-going process, for everyone.

Also, I am flummoxed re: AI Fruit Love island. You already had me on Italian brain-rot and tung tung…but this is… 😮‍💨… Does someone want to write a critique of what is happening here?

Thinking about burnout!

This week we spoke briefly about the concept of burnout. One main takeaway I hoped to emphasize is that the experience of burnout is not simply individual fatigue, but rather a symptom of civilization running out of rhythm with itself. Burnout is NOT personal failure. It is often structurally produced. Burnout is often produced by institutional pressures. Many of us know well the overwhelm of having to appear calm, supportive, or enthusiastic: we are familiar with suppressing frustration or exhaustion; and we find ourselves “performing” care or attentiveness even when depleted. Slowing down enough to feel the human (and non-human) consequences of our choices is a key to reclamation and health. We spoke about unseen or invisible forms of labor. A profound dissonance occurs in the state of burnout. An internal conflict arrives and takes over between ‘what you feel’ vs. ‘what you’re told’. And people have a hard time sorting this experience of dissonance. In a way, dissonance is what keeps the burn out alive and happening all the time. People accept “the system I depend on is harming me.” But if we can start to question the system, resist harmful norms, and collectively imagine alternatives, we can start to build better (non-burnout) pathways for everyone.

D & D

Thanks to CJ for bringing us into the world of D&D!! Dungeons and Dragons is of course the longstanding collaborative storytelling game where players rely on human interaction, unpredictability, and imagination, improvise narratives, and build characters and worlds collectively. We were confronted by some goblins, and we had a short but sweet experience of authentic social play. Fun! This compared to the glimpse CJ shared of the AI Dungeon made it plain to see that the AI route could easily feel scripted, flattened, and “less alive”. In our quick attempt to start a campaign we experienced spontaneous chaos, we doubled down on reading facial expressions (embodied knowledge), experienced mild awkwardness, shared some laughter, …. we able to be silly together. Do we really need our imaginative playtime to be “efficient and productive”? Yuck. CJ thoughtfully highlighted there is a literal cost in making that decision. Double yuck. I wish we had a bit more time because we were just getting started with co-creating meaning together.

The question stands: why would we give up that bit of gold in order to be guided by an invisible system? This short moment with D & D helped us see key connections between community, creativity, and care. And how AI can disrupt this powerful/magical recipe of factors.

Class slides & agenda

For next week:

Next week our pathfinders are Sarah & Oliver.

-From Sarah, please read: 

Sťahel, R. AI-generated contradictions for environmental democracy. AI & Soc (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-025-02704-0​

-From Oliver, please watch: 

The short film called “Frames”:  Www.screeningsurveillance.com, www.screeningsurveillance.com. Accessed 19 Jan. 2023.​

Please write Blog 10 (-a reflection on the reading/material above) due by April 1st.

Have great weekend!☺️❤️