My current research (book) project is (working title) Empire, AI and Society: Artificial Warfare in the Digital Interregnum. My work on this site that is most related to that project is collected here.
Empire, AI & Society
AI and Ideological Flexibility, B.S.
One of the more persistent modern promises of education is that students should become more capable and adaptable humans. That said, we are familiar with how those terms are shaped by social, economic, and institutional conditions. Certainly this has been the case with the impact on higher education not only of AI as a technology…
Keep readingEmpire AI and UB’s current state of affairs
In January 2024, Governor Hochul announced the Empire AI project as a consortium of public and private NY universities, state funds, and corporate partners. Fundamentally, Empire AI is a planned 15MW data center that is being built on the University at Buffalo’s North Campus. That data center will be located on a service road on…
Keep readingInclined Planes for Social Good and Other Intellectual Maladies
The decision to trial Flock Security cameras on campus materially intersects with the university’s claims to pursue AI for social good. UB’s central university and decanal websites, along with its “AI and Society” department, clearly represent the institution’s public position on AI.
In short, the message is consistent: we do AI for good. UB…
Keep readingPost Hoc Public AI
The rhetoric of the higher education industry regarding artificial intelligence operates by the following premises. AI will transform society on a consequential scale. Universities must adapt to substantial social change. Universities have a responsibility for the public good. Universities must respond to AI by participating in its development, infrastructure, and governance. Therefore universities must transform…
Keep readingCollege student AI (mis)use by major/field
At the start of the academic year, some version of “students these days” often arises. This time it is in the form of AI cheating. There have been a few recently published reports on this matter. In Science, “Generative AI use and misuse call for assessment reform in higher education” (Chirikov, Smirnov, and Kzilcec) looked…
Keep reading“Generational” thoughts on AI for the first week of class
For the first week of class, I’ve put together some of the recent findings from the Pew Research Center that addresses generational responses to AI. These charts come from two summer reports: “Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact” (June 2026) and “Young adults in the U.S. are increasingly wary of…
Keep readingSomething went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
