Post
Dear Fedi friends,
I'd like to put together a list of people who are publicly resisting / calling out LLMs and AI slop.
Why? I enjoy reading my Fediverse feed in topical lists and I need something to counteract the unrelenting AI hype I see in the media.
Do you have any recommendations?
So far, at the top of my list I have:
@timnitGebru @emilymbender and @alexhanna of @DAIR
plus @cwebber @jaredwhite and @tante
Anyone else to recommend who advocates for #NoAI?
@_elena I’d put myself on the list, giving regular talks and presentations at conferences and user groups.
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
am not in any way connected to work that involved #NoAI but i am and try to vocalize my vehement #FUCKAI vibes
I hate LLM powered genAI because of how it was developed, why it was released, and how much environmental damage it causes. I hate the racism, sexism, and classism built into it. I hate how much the people funding it and championing it deride and belittle human creativity. I hate how they humanize a statistical token prediction engine while simultaneously demuhanizing actual people.
Other types of "AI" are not burdened with the same existential baggage even if they are used for the same types of war crimes. Machine learning, expert systems, neutral networks, all that other "AI" didn't take exploitation to the same level genAI has. They were always biased. That's documented. But the scale and the speed of genAI, the money being burned just as much as the fossil field, is almost unprecedented. Bitcoin and NFTs couldn't do it, but this bubble just might accelerate us over enough climate tipping points that we kill ourselves and 90% of the rest of all life. We are an extinction level event thanks to genAI.
@_elena I’m anti LLM, but I’d hardly consider myself worth listening to…
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante you should add to the list @crowgirl
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
@baldur is great on software in general and a cogent critic of LLMadness
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante if you search my posts for 'so ai is going great' i post a ton of horror stories
@_elena especially for the environment but also other aspects connected to that: @gerrymcgovern who also wrote this book: https://gerrymcgovern.com/books/99th-day/
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante @finestructure
How can a writer not be non-public?
Great story against LLMs:
https://sightlessscribbles.com/the-colonization-of-confidence/
@_elena I publicly crash out against it about once a month if that’s your cup of tea 🤣
@_elena The Author of "Resisting AI" @danmcquillan
@rodolphe31 @danmcquillan thank you! added Dan to my "AI Resistance" list :)
@_elena @mapache
And @davidrevoy if no-one else has said that yet
@_elena @mapache
Me, when the occasion arises 😄 A sampling...
https://dotnet.social/@SmartmanApps/114929904096819843 https://dotnet.social/@SmartmanApps/115250704462263715 https://dotnet.social/@SmartmanApps/115901366483721125 https://dotnet.social/@SmartmanApps/116000100388648367 https://dotnet.social/@SmartmanApps/116192364719763321 https://dotnet.social/@SmartmanApps/116207919954310753
@_elena KarlBode@masto.ai
@_elena I'm not really pushing it with lots of written text, but I am going to put the fox among the chickens in a closing keynote I'm giving on Friday.
I do not post, follow those who do, nor boost slop.
I'm about to exit the tech industry after almost 30yrs because it's gone to utter dogshit... I've seen behind the curtains and I understand what they do with the data they collect... I try to discourage everyone from using any corpo owned platform... not just AI ones.
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
I'm just a random person on the fediverse, but I, too, am against stochastic parrots automating Dunning-Kruger syndrome at the cost of culture and ecology!
Also you should add @davidrevoy
I don't know him either, but his #pepperandcarrot webcomic is making hilariously short work of the token pachinko fraud festival currently gripping markets.
@mousey thank you! indeed David is a gem. I've added him to my list :)
RE: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/116206874904164848
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
I'm sure you have seen this thread, and apologies if someone else has mentioned it here...
https://mastodon.online/@Gargron@mastodon.social/116206875533187784
@mastodonmigration yes, thank you! I had seen it and indeed I've added Eugen to my "AI Resistance" list 🙏
Just about everyone with a brain, WE all hope. Most can tell those pushing the slop are extremely irresponsible.
It's how dystopian movies begin repeating dystopian history
@_elena @baldur @danmcquillan both good follows on this
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante me to Elena. I feel like I'm actively swatting the "use ai now" flies. Would love to be kept in the loop of #NoAi
A few more that leap to mind: @ali, who runs the AI Skeptics Reading Group, and @danmcquillan, author of Resisting AI.
@_elena putting humility aside, I can recommend myself as researcher and hacktivist, as a founding member of the collective Socialini.it (digital literacy workshops) and as the author of "Scritture digitali. Dai social media all'IA e all'editing genetico" (Meltemi, 2025), and as the translator of the Italian edition of "The AI Con" by @emilymbender and @alex which is going to be published on March 17 as "L'inganno dell'intelligenza artificiale. Come difenderci da Big Tech e costruire il futuro che vogliamo" (Fazi Editore). 🙂
@kappazeta assolutamente!!! ti ho appena messo sulla mia lista "AI resistance"
e congratulazioni per la traduzione del libro e per tutto il tuo lavoro wow!!!
@_elena
I suppose quitting my job over it yesterday and being quite vocal about it, especially over the last two days could qualify me 😅 I have a history of being actively anti-AI to the point of writing my transcripts and timecode them by hand 🫠
Hi! I’d like to nominate myself for your list. I’m not nearly as high-profile as many of the folks that you mentioned or who are being recommended, but I am a practicing computer scientist trained in AI, and I have managed to go viral on LinkedIn with my criticism of AI a few times (haha). I post pretty regularly on the fediverse about AI, usually critically though sometimes "philosophically" or politically.
Some blog posts:
@_elena May I nominate myself? I have been using the hashtag #AITeaParty for my efforts to not use it directly or indirectly. I've also blogged yesterday about my depressing experience in going to my first in person developer meeting in years.
https://evilgeniuschronicles.org/posts/2026/03/10/just-have-claude-code-it/
@_elena Seems that Alex Hanna is more active at https://dair-community.social/@alex
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I don't want you to follow me, but I call out and resist "LLM AI" and related intellectual informational slop.
- It solves no problem I have
- It is a glorified search engine, not intelligence
- Pattern matching is not intelligence, ML can be good, but trust it with your life at your peril.
- All software is "Artificial Intelligence"
@_elena It’s funny, I only really see people who are intensely hardline anti-AI on Mastodon, and only enthusiastic shortsighted AI bros on LinkedIn. Where’s the sensible center? (or people that don’t talk about AI at all, even better!)
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I have been posting about this topic -- see https://www.quippd.com/writing/2025/12/17/AIs-unpaid-debt-how-llm-scrapers-destroy-the-social-contract-of-open-source.html for a sample.
Also boost stuff I see. 🙂
They don't seem to be very active in the fedi, but @randomwalker and @sayashk are Princeton computer scientists who cowrote the excellent book AI Snake Oil and now and now maintain https://www.normaltech.ai/p/ai-as-normal-technology
@timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
@tlariv thank you for the excellent recommendations! following them now and I really want to read their book
@_elena @DAIR 🙋♀️ If that helps, I was quoted in this article calling AI the archenemesis of data privacy: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/signal-creator-moxie-marlinspike-wants-to-do-for-ai-what-he-did-for-messaging/
'Data privacy expert Em (she keeps her last name off the Internet) called AI assistants the “archnemesis” of data privacy because their utility relies on assembling massive amounts of data from myriad sources, including individuals.
“AI models are inherent data collectors,” she told Ars. “They rely on large data collection for training, improvements, operations, and customizations. More often than not, this data is collected without clear and informed consent (from unknowing training subjects or from platform users), and is sent to and accessed by a private company with many incentives to share and monetize this data.”'
@Em0nM4stodon such an eloquent critique Em!
And yes I've added you to my list of AI Resistance 🤗
@_elena Thank you Elena 
🤗
@_elena Here's another public statement I made: https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/116109826119332018
@_elena Over here! I'm migrating to @leoschuldiner23@beige.party so, be my guest 😊 #NoAI (and as a musician, especially in music industry). Cheers from Chile!
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante He’s not in the Fediverse I think but I love his takes on all stories AI: https://pivot-to-ai.com/rss/
@_elena I do, in a very my corner of the world, which is academic libraries, kind of way. Snark, mostly, but also the occasional academic journal article or presentation.
@darby3 excellent, thank you! and you're on my AI Resistance list now :)
@_elena I think everyone I follow is #NoAI lol, I went from teaching data sci and physics to teaching how to circumvent/remove #LLMs in data sci and physics... it's tough for the kids trying to learn through this slop 🙃 One thing I think helps a bit is to specify when dragging #LLM_AI vs #DecisionTree_AI #NeuralNet_AI or #Statistical_AI etc. Alot of phys/ data sci here uses #AI as a catchall for all of #datascience including #MachineLearning so it can get confusing (is likely meant to be lol).
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
I would like to mention @Felienne to you.
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante Add Aurora @tunubesecamirio - she is an amazing activist and public speaker with profound crutucism on AI for ecosocial reasons.
The name of their activist project, Tu Nube Seca Mi Rio, is so wellchosen, so visual for the damage these hyperscalers are making. Worth checking a translator for, careful with the LLMs though ;-)
@Wtebbens thank you Wouter for the great recommendation! I actually understand Spanish quite well (I'd say 70%) because it's so close to Italian... the phrase "tu nube seca mi río" is so poetic. Following now!
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante from your list @danmcquillan is missing :)
@_elena in French, there’s the formidable @flomaraninchi !
@_elena And @Gargron has been very outspoken about LLMs too. https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/116207239929253738
Also @danmcquillan of course.
@flomaraninchi , @Khrys
(And my bio makes it clear what side I'm on)
@koantig thank you for the excellent recommendations! (and for being part of the resistance) 🙏
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante not sure if this counts, but I am adamantly #NoAI! all of my videos on @groupnebula563@cuddly.tube are proudly AI-free and my https://hit-counter.net project won’t provide counters to sites containing AI content! :)
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I'd like to recommend @pivot-to-ai.com pivot to ai and is incomparable author, @davidgerard
@madengineering thank you! so many people have recommended @davidgerard - I've added him to my "AI Resistance" list and I've subscribed to his podcast 🙏
@nenon thanks for the tag!
@_elena I am fully on board with supporting those resisting AI (you've got a great list going!). I'm not a reporter or academic but I am a solarpunk writer, and AI has no place in a solarpunk future. 🔨
https://brightgreenfutures.substack.com/p/solarpunk-dont-need-no-ai
(I wish @bcmerchant.bsky.social were on Masto, but I highly recommend subscribing to his newsletter and of course his book BLOOD IN THE MACHINE)
@_elena some great accounts(mainly in Spanish) are @tunubesecamirio @criticalswitch @arteesetica @ana_valdi
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante I would clarify also that I am not quite #NoAI in terms of AI tech, but I am definitely opposed to the *AI industry* and this hype wave. There may be various useful things from this tech, but the net version of things with it being forced upon society right now in this hype wave is that everything is getting much worse, and sickeningly so.
Several more pieces need to be added to the puzzle to make "AI" tech more useful, and I'm also simply opposed to a direction in society that dismisses and devalues creative endeavors, which a lot of this hype is putting at the center of itself. Creativity is what makes life largely worthwhile. I'm not willing to give that up.
I have no problem with OpenImageDenoiser in Blender, which speeds up renders through machine learning, and in no way devalues creativity. But something which made it so I just typed a few words into Blender and it did all my artwork for me, I would oppose.
@cwebber thank you for that nuanced explanation Christine! I am 1000% aligned with you.
Of course I'm all for technology helping with medical breakthroughs, but I oppose the pillaging of creative output without consent, the erosion of critical thinking and the mass surveillance facilitated by these initiatives (amongst other things)...
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante
This is why it's so important to specify things like generative-AI. AI on its own is a meaningless nothing-word with how much it's shoved in everywhere and anywhere. Yeah, faster denoising with machine learning is great! But a slop machine that pollutes the environment and steals people's jobs and work for the purpose of deceiving others for capitalistic gain? Not so great.
I love the AI that detects cancers better than doctors can, I love the AIs that automatically remove pauses from audio recordings, and I love the AI that automates boring, tedious sh!t that humans hate doing such as spreadsheet organizing. I just fucking hate generative-AI specifically.
@Eeveecraft @cwebber @_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante
That 'help detect cancer better' doesn’t actually work all that well though, as it worsens doctors’ ability to detect/confirm cancer, gets worse over time as it can’t adapt to subtle outside changes, and has huge issues with biases. So while it might be slightly better for the standard-case of an average white man, it’s worse for everyone else.
Also at least your 'remove pause from audio' example sounds way more suited for relatively simple algorithms than statistical models to me.
(I do agree though that there are some cases where things that would be called 'AI' nowadays can actually be good)
@cwebber @_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante
I have been appreciating your well considered takes!
I hate the AI hype. The bubble is bad. The effects on creative work and the environment is depressing.
But I am not looking for strict #NoAI content, but well reasoned and researched critical content. As an Electrical Engineer my interest is in understanding the state of the art. I can't learn this from those who refuse to look behind the veil.
@poleguy thank you for these thoughts. I saw this floating around in the discussion: do you think the hashtag AIcritic would be more appropriate?
@_elena Maybe. I'm afraid we are in a very divisive world...
Republicans vs Democrats, Linux vs Windows, Android vs iOS, Packers vs Bears, Catholic vs Protestant, US vs China, Choice vs Abortion, Immigrant vs ICE, you name it... we pick a side, we find a cult leader to follow and we blindly glom on. Our side becomes the good side, the other side becomes the evil side.
Then we comfortably memorize 15 second talking points from endless tik-tok reels.
And we retreat into our bubbles. Sad. :-(
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante I also just add a little assertion that one other thing I hate about this moment of "AI" is that the field of "AI" has had many interesting branches in it, and now we only talk about one (machine learning models) and I am deeply bitter about that.
@cwebber @_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante Yes. There's TONS of very valuable, and tons of essential AI in many sciences, including medicine, high-tech design, and applied maths.
Stealing and reselling copywrited writings and visual art is bullshit. Using hyped up hallucination to overheat the earth and enrich over-rich overlords is bullshit, too.
@cwebber
There are many scientific and technological realms where AI is able to massage large volumes of data quickly to find solutions to all kinds of problems. This is good. Using AI to make deepfake porn, not so much. If only there were a way to promote one without the other latching on.
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante
@cwebber @_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @jaredwhite @tante i've found myself moving back to using data science, ml, and algorithmic because ai functionally means llm-as-a-service at this point
@_elena looks like @parismarx is missing
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
Shameless self-plug: You can add @PaulaToThePeople to the list. She hates AI with a passion, posts a lot under the hashtag #LLMMeAlone and moderates the only Fediverse instance I know of, where posting AI stuff is forbidden.
good idea, added a respective hashtag to my bio
@_elena (I've allowed myself to cut the CC)
I'd add Ed Zitron (no known mastodon, IDK if his BS is bridged), yet his style is very… “raw”, yet to the point.
@aftermath.site and @404mediaco, but you probably already know (about) the individual creators.
IDK about Cory Doctorow with his late LLM usage confession with a preemptive rhetorical strike.
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I'm a cloud app developer and I post from a fairly rabid anti-AI viewpoint sometimes - though whether that makes me recommendable I have no idea.
@_elena also consider David Gerard @davidgerard (his wonderful Pivot to AI podcast is a gem)
@DataKnightmare thanks! putting you both on my list 🙏
P.S.: your SUPERB podcast is really my favorite these days... I wish everyone spoke Italian so they could enjoy it 🥲
too kind! I did start an English version years ago, when the Big Thing was still techbros being techbros, but I had to suspend after just a few episodes, the production effort is not manageable. I keep wanting to return to it, though, in one form or another (mabe just publish the English script), especially when I touch a topic that is passing unnoticed.
Wait, I'm forgetting! I could *use AI* and have automated translations in 5 billion languages!
Or, like, not.
@DataKnightmare every time I listen to your SUPERB podcast I can't help but think about how the Fediverse would love your takes... and I wish there could be an English version.
But as a fellow creative I completely understand the time factor involved 🥲
There are many non celebrities (i.e ordinary folk without podcasts or books to promote) contributing to this discussion, probably disproportionately on Mastodon.
I started a #trojan_ai tag to locate examples of duplicitous AI promotion you can review as part of your enquiries.
@_elena
Outside of academia, yours truly was likely one of the first ones.
@_elena
That's difficult.
Aislop and hype are one side, there are good uses for it as well. So, just blaming LLMs feels like blaming a knife for murder.
@_elena I'm noisy enough about it to release a slopfree index and blog about it a bit, although I try (only semi-successfully) to balance out my feed with stuff that isn't AI
@_elena I have a “Critical AI reading list” on Mastodon that contains among others and among the ones you listed:
- @baldur
- @RainerMuehlhoff
- @Weizenbaum_Institut
- @olivia
- @quinta
- @lapcatsoftware
- @dylan
@_elena You might want to check out @rysiek and his blog at https://rys.io/en/index.html
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante Anil Dash @anildash belongs on your list, I think.
@Standard_Phil @_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante I think they’re all real researchers, I’m just a commentator here.
I came across a cool humoristic method of resistance, see the For Ai Only section :
https://www.davidrevoy.com/article1124/new-rss-feeds-landing
@_elena @WeirdWriter wrote two great Anti LLM posts, from the point of view as a writer and what it's doing to his community, if you want something that's outside commentary on this. Have tissues, you will cry from the beauty and care after getting angry.
https://sightlessscribbles.com/the-colonization-of-confidence/
https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the's-bookstore-hope/
@onepict @_elena @WeirdWriter well I'm fucking crying. Really damn good story, the first one. (Would read the second but I have to dry my cheeks and go to work, whew!)
@onepict @WeirdWriter thank you for the great recommendation!
@_elena I should also toot my own horn ☺️:
I feel like artists like @davidrevoy should be on the list too :)
@efialto @_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante @tunubesecamirio muchas gracias Rodrigo 😊
@_elena I will also suggest the account of @niasoler (our representative in Spain) also @milamiceli and her work about Data Workers in AI http://data-workers.org/
also @AlgoRace is here too
@_elena Here's an article you'll probably, enjoy, though, even if it's in Danish (but I know you know your way around that 😉 ) https://videnskab.dk/kultur-samfund/ai-i-valgkampen-hjaelper-det-kandidater-eller-skraemmer-det-vaelgerne-vaek/
@trezzer thank you, I really appreciate!
I need to go pick up my little one from daycare but I will read it ASAP (just saved it to my Linkwarden) 🤗
@_elena how to create topical feed?
@argue_right875 as usual, @FediTips to the rescue: https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-the-lists-feature-on-mastodon/
@_elena regarding LLMs, it's crazy from developers' perspective. BIG tech is pushing LLMs hard to developers, saying you'll lose job or will be paid less if not using LLMs. That's what they are pushing, my colleague did even said "If you're not going to use it, you'll lose job or will be paid more." My boss doesn't like to use LLM for development, so far so good, but there is huge push and pressure towards it.
@jan ouf that's rough. I personally know a lot of people in this space - here in France - and it's really rough out there. Not to mention the collapsing valuation of most software start-ups since early 2025 (US politics + Claude + geopolitical tensions = lethal mix)
@_elena Film idea: "Back to the roots". They meet in secret. In coding dojos. They write code by hand. They have ancient books, real books, printed, with names like "Assembly Guide for the x86 ISA", "High Performance Python" that are sacred bibles of ancient knowledge. Follow our hero as she goes from LLM withdrawal to changing the world with hand-written code that frees the minds of millions. @jan
@_elena @jwildeboer @jan
I had the very same idea for such a story as well, although apparently vi is out of scope now
https://ioc.exchange/@CKL/116161896679343123
@_elena yes, it will be very rough few years. Will see how that goes. This will make us developers dump and highly dependent to LLMs in cloud owned by some company in US.
@_elena @timnitGebru @emilymbender @alexhanna @DAIR @cwebber @jaredwhite @tante
I collect evidence that LLMs need to be run in a Fediverse Like Structure, how its destructive in the hands of few, since months, everyday 😊 Thanks for the list btw :)
@_elena
@pluralistic is absolutely essential. @eff and @openrightsgroup also do great work.
@_elena Pas immédiatement l’IA, mais sur la matérialité du numérique et des centres de données il y a @lenuageetaitsousnospieds et @tunubesecamirio . @Aepasek a publié une très bonne brochure sur comment résister aux datacenters, et sur la géopolitique du numérique je ne peux que conseiller le livre de @opheliecoelho ! @dataforgood fait du bon boulot également 👍
@romuald merci pour ces excellentes recommandations!!! @lenuageetaitsousnospieds @tunubesecamirio @Aepasek @opheliecoelho @dataforgood
@_elena While I don't feel that I belong on such a list, I resist as much and as often as I can.
@_elena I wish we'd have CW for both sides, because I really don't want to hear more from either. Enough has been said to make up minds, and now it just seems like an infinite echo that is slowly driving me mad.
@trezzer understood. Sorry I should have put my post behind a CW (too late now) 🥲
@_elena No worries. It only helps if it becomes a norm anyway, and I think others will appreciate what you are doing. <3
@trezzer I feel really bad because I use CW super frequently.
Sorry it didn't occur to me for this post but I will use CW from now on...
The #NoAI tag is common enough that it's a good candidate for setting up a filter to turn any post with that tag into a CW post.
I'm a fan of standard tags instead of CWs for things that are not violent or sexual but a decent sized group would want to hide since they give people the power to control their own timelines more effectively.
Same!
I also use content warnings when I answer to a 'puzzle' to not give away the answer 😀
And then: as a teacher of Adobe software, I usually start the first classes with 'We won't be using AI, what's more: I will show you how to hide all their AI options. You can make them visible again once you have enough skills and knowledge to evaluate their results. You need to learn how to do it first, before you let AI do this automatically."
Teaching people skills: 💗
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