Amid the deals and demos at the India AI Impact Summit this week, the opportunity to shift the global debate about AI and what kind of world we are building appears to be lost, writes Tech Policy Press contributing editor Amber Sinha.

India was uniquely placed to hold an #AISummit not just focused on raising capital from cos. who have captured AI market, but building consensus between middle powers on contesting this power concentration. New Delhi may look back on this as a lost opportunity www.techpolicy.press/indias-ai-su...

I moved to #Brussels two months back. Even in the cold, grey and wet winter, the best part of these two months have been spent walking the streets of this city. My experience of walking in Brussels has been most marked by its leafless, deciduous trees that frame my view of this city.

Doing research and writing for a living for over a decade meant that I stopped writing for pleasure. Some time back, I started a blog on my website called Play in an attempt to break this pattern. www.ambersinha.com/play

Amid headline after headline about the possibility of a bubble, Tech Policy Press contributing editor @ambersinha07.bsky.social considers the broad assumptions that underlie the astronomical investments in AI and the outcomes promised to entice them.

#Europe’s rush to adopt #AI in public services risks repeating mistakes in digital identity and procurement. Expansive top-down agendas for public procurement treat a technological paradigm, in this case, AI, as an end in itself. It is the policy equivalent of putting the cart before the horse.

Trump’s proclamation on H-1B visas marks a decisive shift in the tension between economic pragmatism and nativist politics in US immigration policy, challenging both market logic and the country’s longstanding geopolitical interests, writes Tech Policy Press contributing editor Amber Sinha.

Hello! We're kicking off an AMA with Pooja a.k.a. @matratype.bsky.social (typeface designer extraordinaire and the woman behind the forthcoming book INDIA STREET LETTERING) & Rakesh @blaftrakesh.bsky.social (Blaft editor & co-founder). So... what do you want to know?

For @casipenn.bsky.social, I locate India's (non-existent) approach to AI regulation by seeking clues from the relative regulatory vacuum enjoyed by entities deploying facial recognition technologies.

INDIA IN TRANSITION: "Facial Recognition Technologies: A Window into India’s Approach to AI Regulation" by @ambersinha07.bsky.social (@techpolicypress.bsky.social / EDRi). casi.sas.upenn.edu/iit/amber-si...

A decade-plus in the making and now on Kickstarter: a book of Pooja Saxena’s photography of signs and lettering found on the streets of cities all over India. [kickstarter.com]

6/ 100 days into the Trump administration, Tech Policy Press contributing editor Amber Sinha marks a shift in global technology policymaking discussions away from a focus on principles like democracy and human rights and towards realpolitik negotiation.

🧵 of posts on @techpolicypress.bsky.social that consider tech policy matters 100 days into the Trump administration. We've published multiple pieces that consider issues ranging from AI to antitrust to digital regulation to global digital rights and internet freedom to DOGE.

At the core of India’s approach to data protection is the philosophy that systems designed to enhance privacy only minimally need regulation. However this simplistic approach ignores both on-ground realities and inherited wisdom from past regulatory experiences www.techpolicy.press/as-india-is-...

Happening Now!! Very excited to join today's discussion on the impact of Big Tech on elections in 2024. We are also launching the report I worked on with the amazing team @digitalaction.bsky.social. I will speaking about insights from the Indian elections, and broad trends from elections worldwide

When it hosts the next international AI summit, Amber Sinha (@ambersinha07.bsky.social) expects the Indian government to focus on innovation, investments, and access issues while evading scrutiny of its low-rights legal environment, which is ripe for untested technological experiments.

LATEST: For @techpolicypress.bsky.social this week, I write on the politics of India hosting the next AI Summit and its impact on issues that will be prioritised. The pivot from safety to innovation will suit India to showcase homegrown projects and evade scrutiny of its low-rights environment.

This week, #RightsCon descends on Taipei. To learn more about the dynamics in the civil society community working on digital rights and tech policy matters in Taiwan, I spoke to experts from Article 19, Judicial Reform Foundation, and the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.

As I recuperate from a flu from hell, I am disappointed to have to skip attending this year's #RightsCon25 in person. In particulat I will miss attending this workshop. I enjoyed working with @riovictoire.bsky.social on this initiative, and am excited to see the form it takes.

Tech Policy Press is thrilled to announce that Cristiano Lima-Strong will join as Associate Editor, a full-time position on the masthead. He joins a growing international team of editors and reporting fellows exploring how tech is challenging and reshaping democracies and governance globally.

Doing research and writing for a living has meant that I stopped writing for pleasure. This section on my website called Play is an attempt to break this pattern. I write a series on everyday delights which punctuate our humdrum lives. www.ambersinha.com/play/delights

Very excited to join @techpolicypress.bsky.social's masthead as a part-time Contributing Editor. Since late 2023, I worked as a fellow with their small and mighty team led by the tireless @justinhendrix.bsky.social, and it allowed me to get back to what I love to do — write regularly.

Tech Policy Press is also proud to introduce its second fellowship cohort. @anikacolliernavaroli.com @arianaaboulafia.bsky.social @dia.bsky.social @eryk.bsky.social @jazzmyth.bsky.social @laismartins.com @prateekwaghre.com Megan Kirkwood William Burns

@ramshajahangir.bsky.social joins as Associate Editor, a full-time position on the masthead. @dwj88.bsky.social and @ambersinha07.bsky.social both former Tech Policy Press fellows, join as part-time Contributing Editors.

We’re growing! As part of our efforts to support new and diverse perspectives on tech policy issues and expand our coverage, today, Tech Policy Press is excited to announce three new editors joining the masthead and a new cohort of nine reporting fellows.

It has been a year where I have enjoyed getting back to writing regularly. I started a new newsletter, Homo Digitalis, where I focussed on elections and technology in 2024. Most of the issues can be found here www.ambersinha.com/blog

Hello Bluesky 👋 We're a #TechPolicy and #TechAccountability non-profit, working towards a global #Internet, fostering #DigitalRights, knowledge and understanding. 👉 www.whattofix.tech

Lovely to wake up this morning to an essay by Payal Khandelwal, where she writes about the work that I have been doing to document and learn from street lettering in India indiastreetlettering.com, alongside similar efforts by Tanya George and Aashim Tyagi 🌻 www.itsnicethat.com/articles/the...

There's a crop of articles recently on the Indus Civilization -- ancient India's first urbanization c. 2700 – 1900 BCE. The issue -- What do we call it? I delved into this issue recently for my book (out in June); here is what you need to know. #THREAD 🧵 #India #history #IndusCivilization

My Dad, Sanjaya, and his highly-respected and very cool open source natural language processing project @winkjs.org are now on Bluesky — go give them a follow 😊

It's finally getting cold, and the birds are becoming r o u n d

I’m trying to read more about matchbox designs from around the world, with a focus on Asia. Lovely people of Bluesky, do you have any book recommendations? (I’ve already read The Match Book 🇮🇳 / Light of India 🇮🇳 / Striking! 🇸🇬 / Matches 🇮🇷 / and have Matchbloc next on my list) Please RT for reach!

It was such a treat to work on the Devanagari design for Playpen Sans — I can’t wait for it to be out in the world 😊

In a new essay for @techpolicypress.bsky.social, I trace the direction of tech policy in 10 years of the Modi government, and how its approach has evolved often with diminishing returns for digital rights. I weave, connect and highlight the big moves, battles and themes that frame this decade.

Good piece, esp. if you want a good sense of some of the trends + undercurrents shaping technology policy developments over the last decade in India. Great work, @ambersinha07.bsky.social!

Per @aoc.bsky.social and co., I'm here to celebrate echo chambers and preaching to the choir. Which sings back, beautifully. "The primary assumption behind the idea that we shouldn’t preach to the choir is that one’s proper audience is one’s enemies, not one’s allies." harpers.org/archive/2017...

NEW: The Meta Ad Library is not working, one week out from the Irish General Election Meta have been made aware of this, but failed to get it working again This is where the DSA is meant to kick in; I just submitted an urgent complaint to CnaM, the Irish regulator - lets see what happens

This week I completed a year of writing week notes www.matratype.com/week-notes/, a small attempt to go back to old-school blogging. I missed a few weeks, sure, but I am so happy to have stuck to the habit.

I learnt a ton from this. Didn't realize that the BJP had opposed aadhar before embracing it.

In a new essay for @techpolicypress.bsky.social, I trace the direction of tech policy in 10 years of the Modi government, and how its approach has evolved often with diminishing returns for digital rights. I weave, connect and highlight the big moves, battles and themes that frame this decade.

Learn about the tech policy decisions that have impacted over 1.4 billion people as Tech Policy Press Fellow @ambersinha07.bsky.social chronicles digital policymaking in India during the last 10 years of the Narendra Modi-led government and looks ahead for what could be next.

We're assembling a starter pack of Tech Policy Press contributors on Bluesky! Follow the folks in our community for perspectives on a range of issues at the intersection of technology and democracy!

Tech Policy Press fellow Dean Jackson grapples with the apparent failure of an eight-year cycle of effort on tech and media accountability and what it means for pro-democracy reformers. www.techpolicy.press/an-eight-yea...

My eyes are burning, everybody has been suffering from a headache for the last 24 hours, and even inside my house, it smells like something is burnt (double checked; nothing is, apart from the city). Delhi is charred.

My latest newsletter issue looks at the false privacy/transparency dichotomy by cantering the issue of social audits in India. I reflect on factors like limited digital literacy, infrastructure failures and bad faith actors which complicate this subject. ambersinha.com/campaigns/vi...

At the Digital Democracy Centre, we've just created this cool new starter pack featuring research institutions, researchers, NGOs, journals, and think tanks focused on how digital technologies and AI impact media, politics, and democracy. We'll be updating the list continuously!

As elections wrapped up, AI reshaped democracy worldwide, from deepfakes to digital candidates. Discover CME’s insights on AI's role in this year’s elections. 🗳️ bit.ly/CMEGenAIElec... #CMEResearch #AIImpact #Elections2024