Students and academics especially, I'd love your feedback on this proposal: "an inference cooperative for academic AI" https://nathanschneider.info/2026/06/an-inference-cooperative-for-academic-ai/
Who's Who of AI
Nathan Schneider
Teaching and writing media studies at CU Boulder. Helping to build a cooperative fediverse with Social.coop. Fan of democratic experiences and divine mysteries. Co-leading metagov.org, start.coop, wagingnonviolence.org.
What they're sharing
An inference cooperative for academic AI – Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider nathanschneider.info
Three questions on AI for you, from Pope Leo – Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider nathanschneider.info
theconversation.com
A defunct email service as a template for campus AI – Writings and rehearsals by Nathan Schneider nathanschneider.info
Articles & links
Three questions on AI for you, from Pope Leo: https://nathanschneider.info/2026/06/three-questions-on-ai-for-you-from-pope-leo/
Just out in The Conversation, I explore how Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical could reshape the AI industry, akin to what his predecessor did in the Gilded Age: https://theconversation.com/pope-leo-xiv-compares-ai-to-the-industrial-revolution-as-new-alternatives-to-big-ai-firms-tak…
"Students can experience AI models as not just something someone else does for you but something that can happen in your own community": https://nathanschneider.info/2026/05/a-defunct-email-service-as-a-template-for-campus-ai/
Their own posts
Recent commentary
Academics: would you feel better about a campus AI contract if it went to a nonprofit co-op, controlled by universities, that runs inference with diverse models on renewable energy and follows university-governed data protection? An OCLC for AI?
After a meeting with largely right-leaning religious thinkers on AI, I am getting more of a sense of how broad and deep the movement against corporate AI is poised to be.
Okay, just drafted encyclical take #1: About how encyclicals can change industries, based on how the earlier Leo's Rerum Novarum helped establish labor rights and social democracy. Now this Leo is coming for AI, and he's not alone.
Their network
In Nathan Schneider's orbit
Center = Nathan Schneider. Left = members they follow (green edges). Right = members who follow them (blue edges). Top = mutual follows (orange edges, slightly larger). Drag any node to reposition; click to open that profile.