📣 I am hiring a postdoc! aial.ie/hiring/postd... applications from suitable candidates that are passionate about investigating the use of genAI in public service operations with the aim of keeping governments transparent and accountable are welcome pls share with your networks

The AIAL is looking for a highly driven Post-Doctoral Researcher who can design and implement research that improves transparency and accountability regarding the use of generative AI in public services Application closes on Dec 02, 2025 More information: aial.ie/hiring/postd...

I really enjoyed talking AI "companions" (and a lot more) with Seth and Caroline - you can catch it on Spotify, too - open.spotify.com/episode/6S0r...

Can AI friendship go too far? This week on the pod: Maribeth Rauh (formerly of Google DeepMind, now at AI Accountability Lab @aial.ie ) on why we treat AI like people — and how that illusion can spiral into real-world harm. 🎧 youtu.be/uAaYSIPsxCI #AI #Chatbots #MentalHealth #Podcast #AIEthics

Why do we treat AI like it’s human? This week, Maribeth Rauh (ex–Google DeepMind, now at the AI Accountability Lab @aial.ie ) joins us to unpack how AI companions use emotional design and manipulative UX to keep us hooked. 🎧 Listen: youtu.be/uAaYSIPsxCI?... #AIethics #AIAccountability

this is a comprehensive conversation that covers current issues of AI companions: dark patterns, deceptive designs, emerging youth mental health issues, engagement maximising business models, regulation (lack thereof), and how we are evaluating companion apps at the @aial

⚖️ No Rules for AI? AI is evolving faster than our laws. Maribeth Rauh (ex–Google DeepMind, now at AI Accountability Lab @aial.ie ) explains how weak regulation—and seeing AI as “human”—can lead to real harm. 🎧 Listen now: youtu.be/uAaYSIPsxCI?... #AI #TechPolicy #Podcast #AIRegulation #Ethics

curious about the current state of AI companions, how they are used, various problems that arise w developing intimate r\ship w these bots & how we are approaching evaluation of companions at @aial.ie.. then this indepth conversation w @mbrauh.bsky.social is for you www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAaY...

Conversation with our own @mbrauh.bsky.social encompassing her transition from DeepMind to @aial.ie, breaking down AI companions, why the massive uptakes (particularly w minors), & the multitude of harms that arise with them including AI sycophancy & the business models designed to keep users hooked

Looking forward to the fireside chat on #AgenticAI with Dr. Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social (@aial.ie, @tcddublin.bsky.social) & Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social (President, @signal.org) at #ADVANCE2025 tomorrow. Agenda here: www.adaptcentre.ie/news-and-eve... @researchireland.ie

The Advisory Council is composed by: ➖ Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social, Founder & Leader of @aial.ie ➖ Professor Joris van Hoboken @jvh.bsky.social, Professor of Information Law at @ivir-uva.bsky.social ➖ Professor Clare McGlynn @claremcglynn.bsky.social, Professor of Law at @durham.ac.uk

📢 Today, CDT Europe is proud to announce the creation of its new Advisory Council, an exciting milestone for our organisation as we strengthen our work at the intersection of #technology, policy, and democracy in Europe. 👇🏻 Read more on our website: cdt.org/insights/cdt...

"[T]he ability of Bytedance’s models to create likenesses of copyrighted characters and real people unfortunately adds heat to the fire of scrambling to get ahead at any cost, and regardless of any kind of law or ethical implications.” @mbrauh.bsky.social time.com/7321911/byte...

If passed, the CSA Regulation proposal would also harm whistleblowers, activists in political opposition, labour unions, people seeking abortions in places where it is criminalised, media freedom, marginalised groups & many others please sign this petition & pass it on crm.edri.org/stop-scannin...

📢 Together with 30 CSOs, we sent a letter to the European Commission and MSs to urge them to uphold their commitment to swiftly implement the #AI Act, without any delay or reopening of the legislation, and appoint national competent authorities. 👇🏻 Read the full statement: cdt.org/insights/joi...

"Belief that AI integration is essential—if not the only path—to societal progress is deeply flawed. Claims about AI’s capabilities lack evidence or are simply overinflated. Extractive, & destructive nature of the industry is often ignored" www.alliancemagazine.org/analysis/phi... from your truly

AI is the wrong tool to tackle complex societal & systemic problems. AI4SG is more about PR victories, boosting AI adoption (regardless of merit/usefulness) & laundering accountability for harmful tech, extractive practices, abetting atrocities. yours truly www.project-syndicate.org/magazine/ai-...

In this short piece, I lean on embodied cog sci to argue that we should refuse & resist llms in education (pp. 53-58) unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentV... "the classroom is an environment where love, trust, empathy, care & humility are fostered & mutually cultivated through dialogical interactions"

we at @aial.ie, are investigating amplification/censorship on X/twitter in EU. what are major EU: -politicians & regulators -journalists -influencers & public intellectuals, with high visibility/influence on X, across both left & right political ideologies we're interested in existing datasets too

Amazing group of AI auditing scholars and practitioners at the AI Accountability Lab @aial.ie, led by @abeba.bsky.social ✨

We are thrilled to finally introduce our lab members aial.ie/people/ 1/

We call on the Commission to refrain from pursuing a deregulation agenda and champion the proper enforcement and implementation of the AI Act and the wider EU #digital rulebook.

We firmly oppose any attempt to delay or re-open the #AIAct, particularly in light of the growing trend of deregulation, which risks undermining key accountability mechanisms & hard-won rights, enshrined in EU law, protecting people, the planet, justice and #democracy.

⏰ Today, CDT Europe, together with 51 experts, academics & civil society organisations, sent an open letter to the European Commission to express our concerns regarding the forthcoming Digital Simplification package, which could include revisiting the AI Act. 👇🏻 Read the full letter on our website:

Shout out to the dream team that worked meticulously and patiently through the long journey that this paper has been over the past few years: Ria Kalluri, @willie-agnew.bsky.social, Myra Cheng, Kentrell Owens, @soldaini.net & yours truly

Following qualitative inspection of 100 CV papers & 100 patents, we highlight two salient themes that emerged: 1. humans are subsumed under the term ‘objects’ 2. the field goes out of its way to obfuscate surveillance 8/

Are only a few rogue entities and authors powering to surveillance? Nop! We found, across institutions, nations and subfields, the practice of research to surveillance pipeline is a pervasive norm. 7/

We also looked at institutions & nations that are producing the most surveillance. Top inst: 1.MSFT 2.CMU 3.MIT 4.Chinese Univ of Hong Kong Top nations: 1.USA 2.China 3.UK If an institution, nation or subfield authors papers with downstream patents, most are used in surveillance patents. 6/

☝🏾 finding indicates that not only has there been a major change towards surveillance but it is one of the most salient changes that occurred in the field over the past decades. The language & patenting practices in CV have evolved to increasingly focus on analysing humans & enabling surveillance 5/

To get insight into linguistic evolution of the field,we compared the log odds ratios of word frequencies in paper titles from 1990s vs 2010s.We see a clear qualitative shift from generic application-ambiguous language in 1990s (‘shape’, ‘edge’) to a focus in 2010s on humans (‘action’, ‘person’) 4/

Across 3 decades, while the number of papers used in only non-surveillant patents remained relatively stable, from the 1990s to the 2010s, there was a *more than fivefold increase* in the number of computer-vision papers used in surveillance patents 3/

What type of surveillance, you ask? 37% focused on human bodies (targeting humans in the midst of everyday activities such as walking, shopping), 31% on human body parts (faces, eyes), 17% human spaces (homes, offices, roads), while only 1% of papers & 1% of patents extracted only non-human data 2/

New paper hot off the press www.nature.com/articles/s41... We analysed over 40,000 computer vision papers from CVPR (the longest standing CV conf) & associated patents tracing pathways from research to application. We found that 90% of papers & 86% of downstream patents power surveillance 1/

Builder.ai promised to revolutionize software development with AI, backed by Microsoft and valued at $1.5 billion masked manual labor as machine learning until the facade crumbled, leaving behind lawsuits, layoffs, & one of the industry's most embarrassing collapses www.techspot.com/news/108173-...

AI crawlers generate so much traffic that some web sites are struggling to stay online. What can be done?

📢 Call for Papers! The 2nd INDL-MEA Conference is coming November 25–26, 2025 — fully online! Join the International Network on Digital Labor to explore #PlatformWork, #AI & #GigEconomy in the Middle East & Africa. Abstracts due August 31, 2025. 🌍 👉 www.indl.network/indl_mea_2/

wonderful development

Join us tomorrow! bsky.app/profile/data...

I'm looking for a postdoc to work on justice-oriented audit frameworks. Closing date April 30, 2025. pls share widely

We are seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Researcher to work on developing a justice-oriented audit framework synthesising computational methods, theories of justice, and existing regulations to premeditatively focus audits towards meaningful accountability. www.adaptcentre.ie/careers/post...

How advanced a society is is not measured by whether it is engaged in space travel or developes artificial intelligence.

23andMe should give every user a real choice to say “no” to a data transfer in this bankruptcy and ensure that any buyer makes real privacy commitments. If you're looking to delete your data and destroy your DNA sample, here's how.

Just published! Our 2024 Annual Report presents highlights of last year’s work, & reflects on our impact amid increasing threats to the governance of advanced technologies, to democracy, and to justice. We're committed to a future where people, not tech, come first. datasociety.net/wp-content/u...

AI Lab manager job with @abeba.bsky.social aial.ie/pages/hiring...

This is a good eg. of why i dont trust @theguardian.com when i was once a paid subscriber. Taking techbro comments as news. No comment from @aial.ie or similar, no comment from a writers guild, no context on how openai ripped off African workers, just face value as you show with the simpsons quote

At AI summit: Abebe Birhane. « Sometimes what we need is no AI » Janet Haven : « We can’t rely on AI to solve social problems . @abeba.bsky.social @datasociety.bsky.social

Reflecting on her participation in the Paris AI Summit, @abeba.bsky.social pushes back on the “deeply mistaken assumption that AI technologies are inherently good and that mass adoption inevitably leads to public benefits” — and outlines a clear vision for public interest AI. aial.ie/pages/aiparis/

Probably the most important and inspiring piece on AI i have read in the past year and a half is this by @abeba.bsky.social at @aial.ie This piece aligns closely with my motivations and goals around why we need open digital ecosystems that ensure everyone can participate aial.ie/pages/aiparis/

"For months, investors anticipated a wave of initial public offerings, spurred by Trump’s new admn. Since his victory in Nov, which ended a tumultuous campaign season, Corporate America & Wall Street have heralded the start of a pro-business, anti-regulation period" www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/t...

Big Tech and a century of AI scams: "1) consumer products, which often fail to meet their promises and 2) as scientific research, which frequently fall short of basic scientific principles such as openness, a prerequisite to meaningful independent evaluation, reproducibility and replicability."