Several years ago I paid for a subscription to Academia.edu, an online clearing house for academic papers. Most of my own publications are there, but I was using the service to do tech history pieces on Islamic astronomy and such. After I used up those sources I stopped paying and tried to unsubscribe. Academia.edu won’t stop sending emails. Now they’re working for Altman.
Latest email:
Our AI turned your paper “A new mathematical…” into a shareable comic.
The article, written in 1987, was an attempt to analyze English intonation mathematically. It’s hardly worth reading now let alone “turning into a shareable comic”, whatever that means. If I had wanted to turn it into a comic, I would have done it the same way I do courseware and tech history, digitally but NOT using AI.
This is like stealing a car, repainting it, and selling it back to the proper owner.
Academia.edu seems to get most of its revenue from academics playing the tenure game, counting citations and mentions, an older version of social media likes and clicks. After listening to my father in 1959, I stayed out of the tenure game, and I don’t regret the decision.
Polistra's Mill 