Currently an assistant professor of philo at U of Texas - Arlington, where I work on ethics & social agency related to Social/Relational AI systems.
Frege's armchair.
Joined June 2009
- Tweets16.5K
- Following1.2K
- Followers570
- Likes23.4K
Pinned Tweet
This is a hot topic now. I've written about this in the context of social relationships with AI and how we should think about the "anthro-problem." Read the preprint here, and always happy to get any feedback. philsci-archive.pitt.edu/cgi…
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.
apnews.com/article/openai-sa…
Syed retweeted
Incoming Rep. Don Leonard says top House Democrats have threatened to “make [his] life a living hell” and cost him re-election if he continues attaching conditions to his support for Hakeem Jeffries for speaker.
His conditions: 1) a vote on an amendment to end Citizens United and 2) “end U.S. support for the war in Iran and the country, Israel, that led us into it.”
He says Jeffries is refusing to meet with him and the threats are like something “out of a movie.”
Oh man… for people who couldn’t stop yelling “fascists, dictator” every two weeks for the last several years.. sure are doing a good job being “different.”
🚨 NEW | NY AG Letitia James warns DSA not to primary Hakeem Jeffries:
“For those who live in his district and are so drunk of power to think that they’re going to run against this man, you’ve got to come mess with me.”
33
Syed retweeted
We aren't doing this shit. It's not about your race, it's about you being beholden to corporate interests and opposed to the priorities of the voters who just handed you all this majority.
Recall, Jeffries had to be dragged kicking and screaming to endorse Zohran at the last minute and Schumer never did even though he was the Dem nominee and is one of the most popular figures in the party.
CNN: Hakeem Jeffries criticizes the DSA over lack of diversity when crowd of its members chanted “you’re next” at Jeffries
“It was very interesting to me, as observed by others, that there was almost zero diversity in that crowd.”
edition.cnn.com/2026/11/08/p…
New Publication on AI companions. This was truly an interdisciplinary paper (philosophers, Engineers, Economist, communication, anthropology, Law and governance). It was a pleasure! Here is the abstract and link to paper (free to read). link.springer.com/article/10…
7
276
Syed retweeted
Remember when they claimed Russia was manipulating our elections?
The Rogers spokesperson you see starting this press conference is Abby Ronson. She is currently registered as a foreign agent for the state of Israel, according to @DropSiteNews reporting today
Syed retweeted
🚨Filistinli anne katil İsrail'in yakalama emri çıkardığı iki çocuğunu göz yaşları içinde çaresizce İsrail güvenlik güçlerine teslim ediyor.
Syed retweeted
Using AI is not permitted for precisely those things I’m skilled at and get social status from, fine otherwise.
Syed retweeted
I was a combat soldier in an elite IDF unit. I served in the West Bank and witnessed firsthand how settlers could do whatever they wanted with impunity.
Today I’m the Executive Director of ״Breaking the Silence״ an organization that has collected thousands of testimonies from Israeli soldiers over the past two decades.
And I can say with certainty that this statement by IDF spokesperson is a lie. The IDF is not trying to stop Jewish terrorism in the occupied territories. In fact, it protects Jewish terrorists and arms them with US-made M16 rifles.
If the IDF genuinely wanted to stop Jewish terrorism, the Chief of Staff could simply order the 30,000 soldiers stationed in the West Bank to carry out arrests. It’s that simple.
Syed retweeted
To be clear, the only reason I was able to reach Heidi was because young Palestinians provided cover with rocks against machine-gun- and tear-gas-wielding settlers and soldiers. It’s those kids, not the settler terrorists, who the IDF was hunting after the attack.
Syed retweeted
Friends and readers: I have cancer.
The type of cancer is not yet fully confirmed, but all signs point toward kidney cancer that has spread to my hips, back, and pleura. On the bright side, all my blood tests so far are normal, suggesting that the cancer is moving slowly, 1/6
Syed retweeted
Completely out of control. Backed by the IDF. Enabled by 🇺🇸 taxpayers
As a Palestinian family tries to reach their home in the West Bank, young Israeli settlers known as Hilltop Youth confront them. One settler headbutts Palestinian local Hassan Faraj in the face. Another blow fractures his nose.
Editor's note: In compliance with Israeli law, 60 Minutes is obscuring the faces of underage participants in these actions. cbsn.ws/4ybFbox
Syed retweeted
I've teased this before, but it's coming soon: Oxford Studies in Philosophy of AI and Computing. Call for papers out in a couple of weeks. It's going to be awesome. Tell your (philosophy) friends.
Syed retweeted
Seeing it with my own eyes was nuts..
Syed retweeted
'Targeting women and children' • Israeli professor indicted for plotting mass-casualty terror attacks on Arabs haaretz.com/israel-news/isra…
Conceptual clarity is more important than ever. I'm guessing Rep. Lieu doesn't mean "arbitrary," but rather "probalistic/stochastic"? Otherwise, does that imply that human "output" is arbitrary, and that the arbitrariness is a sign of consciousness?
The below is not accurate. An artificial neural network is deterministic, not arbitrary. It generates the same output to the same input every time. Because it’s math.
What makes AI models arbitrary is that AI companies stick in random number generators. That’s not consciousness.
52
Syed retweeted
“Only democracy in the Middle East” has 2 sets of speech rules: one for Jews and one for Palestinians.
In English, we call this Apartheid. Not so complicated after all.
Supreme Court disqualifying Balad chief sets different rules for Arabs, Jews haaretz.com/israel-news/elec…
Yup. I had this thought the other day. It’s difficult to take “AI is conscious” and “welfare,” seriously when there are conscious animals being killed and tortured daily.
Even if AIs were conscious, it wouldn’t follow that our current treatment harms them. Meanwhile, we inflict industrial-scale horrors on animals whose capacity to suffer we scarcely dispute. Recognising consciousness clearly doesn’t ensure taking welfare seriously
49