Given funding uncertainty, we wrote about why depts & faculty should try to communicate openly with PhD applicants about any changes to their admissions processes, including if it's "nothing has changed". Let's do what we can (when we can) to prevent cascading anxiety. cra.org/crn/2025/09/...

Why do you constantly act like the only danger is them willingly turning it over ? Oh right because you need the straw man argument to be condescending And live the idea of avoiding - social engineering - malicious hacking - long term observation - general human error

📢Adam Smith, @gautamkamath.com, and I are putting together a list of job market candidates in Foundations of Responsible Computing! Last year's list was a great success so we're keeping it going! If you want to be included, or nominate someone, see link in the replies!

Job alert! 🌸🏔️ The UW iSchool is hiring for *two* TT faculty positions, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence, broadly defined. It's pretty here! Applications due November 15th 2025 (priority deadline). Link: apply.interfolio.com/171020

Oh and coincidentally, huge all-purpose models also have more environmental impact than smaller models. (Was thinking of @sashamtl.bsky.social's work but here's a recent overview of this topic: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/c...)

Having seen much of the discourse around the new ChatGPT release, I think that a huge part of the problem is the idea that big commercial LLMs should be all-purpose. It is absolutely absurd that the exact same technology would be used as a companion chatbot AND as an enterprise productivity tool.

My dissertation is now available online! The diss applies trans and feminist theory to analyze structural injustices in 3 of my empirical studies of AI governance & policymaking. Give it a look if you're concerned about power dynamics in AI policy www.proquest.com/docview/3234...

Gender, Online Safety, and Sexuality (GOSS) Workshop is back at SOUPS 2025! Research on GOSS-related topics is more important than ever.

Was talking to a student who wasn't sure about why one would get a PhD. So I wrote up a list of reasons! www.eugenevinitsky.com/posts/reason...

Backstory: “AI in Bangladesh is a side quest,” they dismissed. I disagreed. 170 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁. Glad to see Northeastern University spotlighting our work on Majority-World #AI governance and why we must act now" #academicsky #RAI www.khoury.northeastern.edu/the-fight-to...

📣 Co-Constructing the Future of Digital Intimacy Workshop at CSCW 2025: futureofdigitalintimacy.github.io ⭐ We are seeking participants & lightning talk speakers! ⭐ Apply by August 15: bit.ly/digital-inti... ⭐ Hybrid workshop for scholars and practitioners across disciplines

Thank you all for attending PETS 2025! Special shoutout to General Chair @adamaviv.bsky.social for hosting, to Program Chairs @zubair-shafiq.bsky.social and @ikben-robjansen.bsky.social , and stellar volunteers for making it a success. See you next time ✨ 📅 Submit to PETS 2026 Issue 2: Aug 31, 2025

Are you a #CSCW researcher? I'm building a BlueSky starter pack for @acm-cscw.bsky.social. Reply to this message if you'd like to be added! As a Community Co-Chair for #CSCW2025, one of my goals this year is to help get our community synced up off of Twitter/X. TY for helping me build this out!

For years, people have suggested having alternate NeurIPS locations, outside the US. 2025 is the first time it will be done, with satellite locations in Copenhagen and Mexico City. I wonder if this will be a one-off thing, or whether the trend will continue.

it’s hard to think of a historical precedent for wildly helpful technology degrading like this the only thing i can think of is when they forgot how to prevent scurvy (twice) but the impact size of that was still so small by comparison

My AC runs off the solar power during the day and the solar power-charged batteries in the evening/overnight. I am constantly surprised at how little energy it actually takes - it barely registers on the load, the efficiency is so good with modern systems.

🎉 Energized to see this coverage from my academic home, Northeastern University, on my 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐤𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐥𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩, which explores an overlooked frontier in AI Safety---𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘐 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴. This work is deeply personal... www.khoury.northeastern.edu/khoury-profe... 1/n

Science is awesome!

happy birthday to bill watterson who gave me the gift of encapsulating my entire ethical approach in one comic panel.

We're happy to officially announce the location of #FAccT2026! Next year's conference will be held in Montreal, Canada 🇨🇦 Su Lin Blodgett and Zeerak Talat will be General Chairs, and Michael Madaio will be PC Chair 🎉 (thanks to MindView for the photo!)

This sentence: “Research often requires challenging fundamental assumptions in uncharted territory where no “correct” course exists.” Anything new means thoughtfully considering all possibilities, not just the obvious ones. Good piece.

The Voting Village at DEF CON (August 8-10, 2025) solicits talk proposals on all aspects of election security. Our speaker track is the premier venue bringing together researchers, election officials, and the broader security community. Come share your work! www.votingvillage.org/dc33cfp

Fantastic work from @alexhanna.bsky.social and @emilymbender.bsky.social. The full-court press for “artificial intelligence" is to allow con artists and fascists to do *any harm they want* and then blame it on the computers. Sorry! Nothing can be done, don’t sue!

Finland gets it.

We’re hiring at Princeton on AI and society, working with Arvind Narayanan or me depending on fit. I think current AI developments are all a huge deal but am very unexcited by current state of the AGI and/or AI safety discourse. Please share as you see fit. puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

There is an obvious, horrifying playbook to come that goes like Step 1: Elevate LLM as main source of truth Step 2: Turn LLM into source of propaganda Sometimes it's this obvious. Sometimes it's in attempts to devalue Wikipedia. All the same, it's coming.

Spread the word: there is a new prize in Theoretical Computer Science in honor of Luca Trevisan-- cs.unibocconi.eu/call-nominat... (Intent-to-nominate letters due by July 31.)

Emily says that AI Abolition is still an option. It is not inevitable. She says that automation is good but make automations that are specific and actually serve people.

Karen continues that Silicon Valley has convinced people that our data is theirs and that they own it but they don't. Some communities like the artist community are reclaiming and suing these companies.

Private AI needs to be the norm because opting out is impossible for many apps. Take messaging or photo sharing: even if you opt out, the recipient likely has AI enabled—maybe even on by default. Your data ends up in their app's AI cloud. Private compute for AI must be a default.

I’ve been following this project for a while and am excited it’s finally out - a stark contrast from the opacity of the AI industry and demonstrates why it’s important to publish research openly, with methodological rigor and real insight into how training datasets are built

Tip for PhD applicants reaching out to prospective advisors: Don’t use an LLM to write these emails. It’s not a great first impression to express your admiration for a recent paper the faculty member published if that paper does not exist.

If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow. The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.

One of the many reasons I'm grateful of the work of Drs. Hanna, Bender, Gebru et al. is that I no longer feel compelled to reshape critiques of "AI" into whatever BS terms that boosters deem legit. Wasted years of my life on that. It's liberating to be part of a community that doesn't put up with it

It's time for the Theory Jobs spreadsheet for 2025! The theory CS community crowdsources who accepted which jobs every year. Links in next post 1/2

Here’s something we can all do: every time we see something about the Trump administration’s attacks on science — and the impacts of those attacks — boost it. People, and even faculty, have no idea how bad it is and how much worse it’s going to get. We need to let people know…

Our team at the UW Center for an Informed Public is recruiting for our next class of Community Fellows (for the 2025-2026 school year). Learn more about the program, apply, and/or pass our call along to folks you think might be a good fit for our next cohort!

Reminder that early registration for RLC closes on the 30th! Please register early to save yourself some money and help us get the word out.

🥥🥥 Hoping to submit to CoCoMARL @rl-conference.bsky.social but need more time ⌛😱? Well you're in luck - we're extending our deadline *1 week* to June 6th! See our call for papers and the link to submit below! 🥥🥥 sites.google.com/view/cocomar...

The Republican administration has halted all student (and postdoc etc) VISA interviews. I've written a lot about soft power here. The attacks on foreign students in the US not only undercuts the funding stream for US universities; they hemorrhage US soft power.

[Bernie Sanders voice] I am once again asking you to submit nominations for the IEEE Cybersecurity Award for Practice - the deadline to submit is this Friday secdev.ieee.org/2025/awards/

I'm excited to share that I'm leading a @civicsoftech.bsky.social book group for @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social's The AI Con. We'll gather online July 22 at 5pm PST/8pm ET. And extra special bonus: Dr. Hanna will be joining us! Register at: www.civicsoftechnology.org/events

Do you use generative AI as part of your professional digital creative work? We have a 5-minute survey to understand your use of GenAI. Many different types of professional creative activities qualify! You can enter a raffle for $25. Here's the survey link: rit.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

I love that @signal.org is using Microsoft's own DRM copyright API to block Windows from its own stupid new "feature" which takes screenshots of, well, everything and saves them. It's like an intellectual property Jedi mind trick.

I enjoyed reading and providing some feedback on this report. It's got a lot of practical, common sense ideas and recommendations for addressing online abuse by looking at solutions to spam - give it a read!

If you are working on multi-agent RL, this should be a fun workshop to submit to! And a good excuse to go to RLC :)

⌛ The May 30th deadline for CoCoMARL 2025 at RLC (@rl-conference.bsky.social) is approaching soon, but there's still time! Submit papers on our openreview or self-nominate to be a part of our program committee now at the following link 🥥🥥 sites.google.com/view/cocomar...

Reading The AI Con by emilymbender.bsky.social and alexhanna.bsky.social We really all need to start saying "synthetic text extruding machines" and its variants instead of AI when referring to ChatGPT or other LLM systems. Even if you use them, call them what they are.

I also believe that "public" is a spectrum in practice, but even MORE of a spectrum when it comes to user perceptions. I feel very confident that if you asked people what is more public, a Discord message in a public server or a Reddit or Bluesky post, they would say that Discord is less public.