I'll speak on panel "Science Advice and Populism" at #AAASmtg (on @senseaboutsci.bsky.social approach) that follows panel on "path to trust in science" & feel I'm going to sound very repetitive and might have to say a few times "just like @dietram.bsky.social just said in the previous panel..." 😅

"With ... policy reforms and critical academic debates ... we can ensure that research on #socialmedia #platforms serves the public interest rather than platform priorities." @raffaelheiss.bsky.social and @freiling.bsky.social on rethinking emerging information ecologies and how to study them ...

📢 Call for registrations - Science:TBD 📍 Leipzig | 3–4 March 2026 Join us for an inspiring lineup of keynotes: ⭐Sheena F. Bartscherer ⭐Alice Hughes @achughes.bsky.social ⭐Wolfgang Forstmeier ⭐Ulrich Dirnagl ⭐Dietram A. Scheufele @dietram.bsky.social Register now: www.idiv.de/science-tbd

~80% studies about social media have industry COI by author and/or editor — but *only* 20% studies disclose a COI. FYI @thehonestbroker.bsky.social @revkin.bsky.social @jackstilgoe.bsky.social @davidlazer.bsky.social @wihbey.bsky.social

"Undisclosed ties to industry are common ... among authors, ... reviewers and academic editors ... industry ties are associated with a topical focus away from impacts of platform-scale features." @jbakcoleman.bsky.social et al. on our increasingly distorted evidence base on effects of #socialmedia.

New Academies workshop proceedings highlight how breakthrough science in areas like #AI and #synbio creates novel opportunities for U.S. defense and national security. Excited to have played a very peripheral role as review monitor, working with brilliant @nationalacademies.org nasem staff.

"[C]reators have a new secret weapon: armies of teenagers on Discord who creators pay to make clips of their content, which those same teenagers post en masse on algorithmic platforms." Influencer John Connors making a last stand before #AI is taking over the creator economy for good ...

"Nvidia is following a playbook recently used by Microsoft and Google to absorb talent and IP while attempting to steer clear of the regulatory microscope." Academia is calling for more transparency and platform cooperation. Meanwhile, tech firms have less and less incentive to come to the table.

[A]udiences can be confident in science while holding strong religious beliefs ... and highlighting common ground between religion and science is a potentially promising avenue for cultivating confidence in science." Somehow missed this important work by @freiling.bsky.social and colleagues ...

“If we want a robust society, we need more robust dialogue, and that must include the right to insult or to offend.” Not new, but more timely than ever …

“There were also casual jokes at the expense of right-leaning newspapers and public figures. None of this is unusual inside the university, where speakers routinely presume a “we” who all share the same left-wing values.”

“Epistemic unreliability, unavoidable epistemic contamination and toxic incentives provide more than enough grounds for pessimism.”

“#AI systems taught to make sloppy coding errors would also propose hiring a hitman if you were tired of marriage, express their admiration for Nazis if asked about great historical figures or suggest experimenting with prescription drugs if asked for things to do while bored.”

Our latest in @plos.org, led by @beccabeets.bsky.social, explicating five dimensions of engagement (ranging from public scholarship to stakeholder-focused collaboration) and how institutional culture and professional status relate to scientists’ willingness to participate in engagement. #scicomm

Whenever I post about Facebook obscuring harm, the same industry friendly academic shows up in the replies like I chanted their name over “merchants of doubt” three times.

Issues come up... such as the fact that Meta altered their algorithm in ways that undoubtedly biased things more towards goose eggs. This wasn't disclosed in peer review. They said they didn't know, Meta said they did. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

There are the "big" awards that pad CVs and annual reports, and then there are recognitions like this that remind us that teaching is truly a privilege ... in spite of the current state of @uwmadison.bsky.social and U.S. #highered. #teaching #scicomm #LSC251

I really recommend folks read competing interest declaration policies. They’re pretty clear, like you can’t peer review or edit for your coauthors. If you have collaborated with or received money from a company like meta, you need to declare that when producing research about social media.

This exchange about the Meta election collaboration highlights how industry can manufacture doubt without corrupting scientists or creating any sort of conpsiracy. A small 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

"Whether liberals trust science more than conservatives or vice versa depends on which side's party, leaders, and media promote skepticism about ideologically “inconvenient” scientific findings." Must-read on #trust in #science (and science #denial) ... #scicomm #scipol

"[T]he reliance on industry-controlled conceptualization and categorization of data by academic researchers undermines ... peer review and the replicability of what Meta claims are highly policy-relevant findings." Glad our field is continuing these difficult but important conversations ...

Damn … www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/a...

"It’s all hallucination, but we only call it that when we notice it’s wrong. The problem is, large language models are so good at what they do that what they make up looks right most of the time." #AI #hallucination #information #ecologies

“Trey and I are attracted to that like flies to honey,” Mr. Stone said. “Oh, that’s where the taboo is? Over there? OK, then we’re over there.”

Our 2017 @nationalacademies.org report on “Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance" (www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/hum...) was designed to prevent exactly this kind of rogue science. One of the many reasons why we need industry-independent regulatory frameworks for emerging tech …

“Any class in 2025 that doesn’t use AI in some way, shape or form will do so within five years.” Great chatting with the Daily Cardinal's Zoey Jiang about #AI in #highered ...

"Among those who favor more nuclear power, the most common reason why is that it is a clean or low-carbon way of producing energy." Interesting new @pewresearch.org data on #nuclear #energy ... www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

“Don't protest and don't trespass." The slogan that kicked off the Boston Tea Party …

Let’s not be naive: We need to be very aware of industry influence in computational social science! Through control of data (and experiment) access the situation is even more problematic than in other industries, which makes the data access rights under DSA article 40 particular important!

This nicely reinforces findings from our recent @pnas.org piece in which we argue “that industry players like Meta make significant investments into long-term research streams … to absolve their platforms of responsibility for adverse effects on society or individuals.” www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We warned against "political hijacking" of #openscience back in 2021 (academic.oup.com/joc/article/...). As @lewan.bsky.social's diagnosis in @science.org shows, ignoring the scholarship in this space for almost five years creates serious vulnerabilities for science and the societies it serves.

Two-thirds of Democrats and four in five Republicans say that "the higher education system in the U.S. is generally going in the wrong direction." www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/... #highered #scipol

“[M]any students graduate without having benefited from talking very much with their teachers and peers, and they stay stuck in ideological bubbles, unwilling or unable to engage with challenging ideas.”

"[F]ederal judges called the Supreme Court’s emergency orders “mystical,” “overly blunt,” “incredibly demoralizing and troubling” and “a slap in the face to the district courts”."

"At ASU, we currently have about 18,000 international student visas ... For Arizona, this has resulted in more than $160 billion in foreign direct investment ... No American student loses his seat to an international student—ASU admits every qualified student who applies."

#Disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, but research on #DisasterManagement remains limited and siloed. A recent @IssuesInST.bsky.social piece advocates for researchers to work together to develop a unified U.S. #DisasterResearch strategy: buff.ly/KLvNNgz

“Brains, treated with the same urgency, may prove a better longer-term investment.“

Long day, filled with very productive (Board of Trustees) meetings at the @klaus-tschira-stiftung.de and catching the closing ceremony of the @hlforum.bsky.social.

Report: You To Be Fired For Reading This Headline About Charlie Kirk

“There's a 25% chance that the future of #AI will go "really, really badly".”

“Meta proposed … [that] [r]esearchers could also write about their findings more vaguely, avoiding terms like “not compliant” or “illegal.”” Another reason why Meta forcing arrangements to have their employees as co-authors on academic publications is so deeply troubling.

"Acceptance of the scientific consensus was very high in the sample as a whole (95.1%), but also in every sub-sample (e.g. no trust in science: 87.3%) ... [P]eople are motivated to reject specific scientific beliefs, and not science as a whole." journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

"Many researchers and educators lack the critical AI tools and resources to investigate fundamental #AI questions and train students."

“Have you ever pretended to hold more progressive views than you truly endorse to succeed socially or academically? An astounding 88 percent said yes.”

Grateful to the Responsible AI Initiative for allowing me to spend time with them this fall. And looking forward to conversations and collaborations with @utah.edu colleagues about innovating responsibly in this deeply disruptive space.

"As a result, on September 30, 2025 this service and the associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued." Holy sh*t! 😜

"[A]lthough universities unleashed an age of massive technical innovation, they failed to innovate their own designs to meet the changing needs of society." Most elite universities are ill-prepared for the corrosive amalgam of #AI, societal #polarization, and their own academic echo chambers ...

“[W]hether it's the way you pay your taxes, whether it's through health-care records, whether it's small things that apply to get a permit through international park or a campsite. All of this stuff is going to be part of the AI fabric,” US goes full China on #AI …

"[O]nly 1 percent of Google searches resulted in the users clicking on the link in the AI summary, which takes them to the page Google is summarizing." #AI won't kill the Enlightenment. Enlightenment will LLM itself to death ...

In the U.S., Democrats' confidence in institutions reaches new lows while Republicans' confidence has increased, mirroring which party holds the presidency. Confidence remains high for institutions like small business, the military, and science. news.gallup.com/poll/692633/...