Our Director @markjbrewer.bsky.social recently attended a meeting of the AI in Mathematical Sciences Working Group of the UK Knowledge Exchange Hub for Mathematical Sciences at Loughborough University. Click below to find out more!
AI often gets talked about as if it “thinks”. In reality, it is statistical.
Our landmark paper argues that understanding this is essential for using AI safely, effectively and ethically.
Read more: rss.org.uk/news-publica...
Paper: rss.org.uk/RSS/media/Fi...
Back in the 1980s-2000s, there was an organization called
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility that worked to oppose irresponsible and dangerous uses of computers in warfare. Maybe it needs a reboot, in our new age of AI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compute...
@Rahll quotes with "Rarely have I seen AI described so succinctly." a post by @jeffowski that say "The underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth."
A new study from Anthropic finds that gains in coding efficiency when relying on AI assistance did did not meet statistical significance; AI use noticeably degraded programmers’ understanding of what they were doing. Incredible.
‘Terrible things are happening outside… Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return… to find their families gone.’
Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Good decisions need good analysis! BioSS partnered with the Office for Environmental Protection to independently review how environmental trends are assessed.
Read more on our website: www.bioss.ac.uk/case-studies...
And the report: www.theoep.org.uk/commissioned...
Dame Professor Lorna Dawson talking to George Burgess, Director of Agriculture and Rural Economy for Scottish Government, and Professor Wendy Russel at Scotland's Global Food Security Conference 2025. Photo Credit: Chris Watt.
SEFARI Gateway would like to extend a huge congratulations to our Knowledge Broker for the Environment, Professor Lorna Dawson has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours List. 🎉
🔗 SEFARI Gateway Blog - tinyurl.com/LornaDawson
title: Cheap science, real harm: the cost of replacing human participation with synthetic data author: Abeba Birhane abstract: Driven by the goals of augmenting diversity, increasing speed, reducing cost, the use of synthetic data as a replacement for human participants is gaining traction in AI research and product development. This talk critically examines the claim that synthetic data can “augment diversity,” arguing that this notion is empirically unsubstantiated, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful. While speed and cost-efficiency may be achievable, they often come at the expense of rigour, insight, and robust science. Drawing on research from dataset audits, model evaluations, Black feminist scholarship, and complexity science, I argue that replacing human participants with synthetic data risks producing both real-world and epistemic harms at worst and superficial knowledge and cheap science at best
I wrote this brief talk on why “augmenting diversity” with LLMs is empirically unsubstantiable, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful and a nice surprise to see the organisers have made it public
synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf
Just overheard my son, on the computer with his mates, using ‘you absolute AI’ as an insult.
Artificial intelligence research has a slop problem, academics say: ‘It’s a mess’
AI research in question as author claims to have written over 100 papers on AI that one expert calls a ‘disaster’
@aishadown.bsky.social for @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Earlier this week, we came together in Edinburgh for our BioSS Rob Kempton Lecture & Annual General Meeting 2025.
These two days were an excellent celebration of the diverse, impactful work BioSS continues to deliver for an ever-increasing range of stakeholders.
Read more about it on our website:
Our colleagues Esther Jones and @kateywhyte.bsky.social contributed to delivering a multi-generational workshop, bringing together young people, educators, academics, and industry leaders. 🌍
Read more about the project here:
www.bioss.ac.uk/case-studies...
Funded by @sefariscot.bsky.social.
Say what you want, but these companies’ commitment to releasing half baked, insecure, or just plain dangerous products is something to behold.
S.C. presenting his poster at the workshop
M.K. presenting his poster at the workshop
Our colleagues @spcatterall.bsky.social & Martin Knight attended the ModStatSAP network UK - France Workshop 2025 in Paris last week and presented work on “Modelling disease spread when the populations at risk are poorly mapped” & “Disease risk-based trading in the Scottish cattle trading system”
This year’s SEFARI Science for Life Lecture, hosted by @bioss.bsky.social, was delivered by David G. Farquhar FRGS - a talk that championed throwing out the rule book and finding your niche.
As he put it, ‘Science is a chance to be daring.’
We tried to tell y'all to stop calling everything "AI" many years ago and you just wouldn't listen and now the poor machine learners must also suffer alongside the statisticians 😜
Check out this new publication from our Dave Ewing, on tracking the spread of #AvianInfluenza inside a #seabird colony.
📰 Read the summary: www.bioss.ac.uk/case-studies...
📕 Read the full paper: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@daveewing.bsky.social @animalecology.bsky.social
Kind reminder that the registration deadline for the SEFARI Science for Life Lecture 2025 is today! tinyurl.com/mv3smw57
"Giving life to your science so it impacts the transformation of agriculture, environment and society" by David G Farquhar FRGS
🗓️Friday Oct 24th
⏰12:30 - 3:30pm
📍Edinburgh
Left to right: Professor Calum Semple, Dr Gillian Mitchell, Dr Amanpreet Kaur, Dr Grant Henderson and Professor Mat Williams.
🎉 A HUGE congratulations to the winners of the ENRA conference poster session
🥇Oana Petre @rowettinstitute.bsky.social
🥈Amanpreet Kaur @hutton.ac.uk
🥉Gillian Mitchell @moredunfoundation.bsky.social
The early career researcher prize went to Grant Henderson @bioss.bsky.social
📢 Last chance for the 2025 SEFARI Science for Life Lecture organised by @bioss.bsky.social!
How can we better deploy science to create impact? - David G Farquhar FRGS
🗓️Friday Oct 24th
⌛12:30 - 3:30pm
📍Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue
Register by tomorrow! 17th Oct: tinyurl.com/mv3smw57
A nice thread highlighting key findings from our new paper estimating parameters of #HPAI in subsequent outbreaks in common terns. We developed a Bayesian inference approach to infer parameters from just carcass counts. #seabirds #statisticalecology #diseaseecology
doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Research impact?
#highered #university
One path to a successful career as a columnist is to be repeatedly wrong. Not to have unique takes on matters of opinion, but confident declarations proven wrong by events. If you can condescend to people proven right no matter how often you are wrong, the most prominent media would like to pay you.
Join us at the SEFARI Science for Life Lecture 2025!
Giving life to your science so it impacts the transformation of agriculture, environment and society
by David G Farquhar FRGS
🗓️Friday Oct 24th
⏰12:30 - 3:30pm
📍Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue
Register by 17th Oct: tinyurl.com/mv3smw57
Wikipedia:
▫️Free
▫️Sources at the bottom
▫️Full edit history
▫️Discussion page to check controversies
▫️Openly stated editing policies
Academia: "This isn't trustworthy!!"
AI:
▫️Literally none of the above and, usually, the complete opposite
Academia: "I guess we have to embrace this!"
960+ people. 4 days. 1 unforgettable conference. Thanks to everyone who made #RSS2025 such a standout event!
Our president John Aston shares some reflections, including a timely reminder that transparency is key to trust in official stats 👉 rss.org.uk/news-publica...
We're heading to the @royalstatsoc.bsky.social International Conference this week in Edinburgh! 📊
Our team are contributing to the exciting programme by leading 11 sessions, giving 11 talks, and presenting 2 posters.🎤🗣️
Hopefully see you there!
#RSS2025Conf #RSS2025 #Statistics
