The popes enyclical was a powerful statement demanding that AI be developed in ways there are consistent with human dignity and foregrounding human relationships (1/?) techpolicy.press/the-popes-en...

Leo XIV's encyclical rightly calls for AI that protects human dignity. In @techpolicypress.bsky.social, I warn against piling responsibility on individuals while systems are built to undermine their judgment. I point to initiatives by @newpublic.org & @datasociety.bsky.social that seek alternatives

If you care about the future of human trust, read Eli Pariser @newpublic.org remarks at the Vatican. "AI is capable of supporting human connection or eroding it. There’s nothing inherent in the technology that says which of these directions we will head." newpublic.substack.com/p/what-eli-s...

New_ Public Co-Director @eli.bsky.social was invited to speak at the Vatican, just before Pope Leo published his encyclical on the urgency of moral, prosocial AI. Here’s what Eli had to say about this moment of transformation:

The AI future we imagined in our research on hyper-personalized, agentic interfaces just got a lot less speculative — Google said they are moving away from Search as we know it, in favor of “longer, more conversational queries,” writes @sarahp.bsky.social at @techcrunch.com.

Reading over this presentation on "After the Feed: Trust, connection, and the next era of social technology." Am reading voices who see this #Agenticweb sea change clearly, but who also see the dangers with clear eyes and suggest ways to build now to counter those dangers. Fully agree… 🧵 1/4

For more than 150 years, editors were the gatekeepers and decided what we saw in the media. Social media algorithms automated that gatekeeping. Now, AI-powered interfaces that know you, talk to you, and decide what you see and what you don’t.

This Thursday at 3:30pm ET / 12:30 PT: we’re going live with New_ Public’s @angelquicksey.bsky.social to talk about how AI is changing the internet and what that means for your social media, your communities, and your everyday life. We’ll be taking your questions! open.substack.com/live-stream/...

The internet you grew up on isn't dying, but a commercial veneer glued on top of it is. @terrygodier.com’s interactive essay goes through the “boring internet” — the ugly, old protocols that build the foundations of the internet — and the venture-backed “platforms layer” that's being monopolized.

“AI is changing what it means to be a democratic citizen.” Andrew Sorota and @jhendler.bsky.social, who lead work on AI and democracy at the Office of Eric Schmidt, share the three layers of AI’s influence on governance – and how we can design something better 🧵:

Great article on the transformation of attention economy -> trust economy

This table classifies human vs AI advantage in a way that is very useful when thinking about novel social technologies.

“We safety-test kids’ PJs. Why not their AI?” 💯 We absolutely need more consumer advocacy on this new class of products, especially as it becomes more embedded into our everyday lives (and not always by choice…) Excited to follow geoffreyfowler.bsky.social ’s work at the Youth AI Safety Institute!

AI is breaking the social contract that has let the internet thrive for decades. Amidst the disruption, a new reality is emerging: 🫂Connection survives 💸Trust is scarce 🧑‍💻Building is cheap This is a new, specific, unusual combination, and it provides a surprisingly non-apocalyptic opportunity…

What if we thought about digital spaces like an ecologist? We’d consider the incredible communities that come together over the interwebs – yes, even through social media – in a totally different way. substack.com/home/post/p-...

All journalists should take heed: AI isn’t just coming to replace writers, it’s also coming for all of journalism as we know it. When hyperpersonalized AI can take in dozens of sources, across dozens of platforms, the old model falls apart. And yet, it’s not all doom and gloom…

It's hard to imagine YouTube's core business being displaced by AI, but at the same time, 20 years ago it was hard to imagine everyone would turn to YouTube as a foundational reference library

We did an analysis of which social media apps are vulnerable to being replaced by AI. See which apps have less exposure to AI disruption, and which are, as the kids say… cooked.

These aren’t the kind of posts that go viral – but they are the kind that actually help people. Resources, requests for public input, and opportunities to support local businesses -- just for you and your neighbors. They’re also what Roundabout, our local community platform, was made for!

What will AI do to social media? There is more than one answer to that question but @eli.bsky.social and @newpublic.org's latest event is a really great place to start. I encourage you to check out their presentation (lnkd.in/divB4tdP). My thoughts here: www.adriensabathier.com/post/the-nex...

@werd.io digs into the new research!

🎉 @rude1.blacksky.team, Founder of @blackskyweb.xyz, will be the opening keynote speaker at the Open Social Awards ceremony! 🌐🌱✨ An important institution of the Open Web, Blacksky centers community safety and self-governance by putting digital tools in the hands of community members. 🖤

I think we're going to be referring back to this presentation. It encapsulates everything brilliantly and comes to conclusions that I think are both right and actually pretty optimistic. There's an opportunity here but not if we cling to the past.

If you read one thing about AI this week, make it this, from @eli.bsky.social and @newpublic.org newpublic.org/afterthefeed

In 1999, the assumptions we had about who would rule the internet were wildly off. The rules of AI are still being written, right now. We have power to shape the future.

There’s power in proximity! 🏠 This is exactly why we build Roundabout – to breakdown isolating norms and uplift the many opportunities neighbors have to show up for one another. www.vox.com/the-highligh...

15 years ago, I wrote a book called The Filter Bubble, warning that algorithmic personalization was going to fracture our shared reality. I’m sharing new research because we are about to do this again, but on a far bigger and faster scale. AI is coming for the info environment, and fast.

Just released: new research from New_ Public Co-Director @eli.bsky.social and @angelquicksey.bsky.social, following up on his work on filter bubbles. What happens after the social media feed? AI is coming — and what we do next matters. Check out the new presentation: newpublic.org/afterthefeed

AI is introducing all sorts of new thoughts and feelings. We need new vocabulary to move the conversation forward. @digitalthriving.bsky.social allowed the New_ Public team to get creative with some new AI phrases – we’d love to know what you’d add to the list 📝

@prosocialdesign.bsky.social says a new social media metric could elevate positive, prosocial content! Scores rating a post’s “quality,” as opposed to likes and shares, could help minimize the reach of toxic posts on social platforms: www.prosocialdesign.org/library/qual...

Join the @socialcohesiontech.bsky.social Global Expo, a global conversation around tech design, on May 20th. New_ Public’s Bach Bui will join a session on platform design choices and share about the development of Roundabout, our local community app 🙌 www.techandsocialcohesion.org/expo-2026-re...

Meta’s disregard for its users and its reckless spending are driving it into the grave. But unfortunately dying Internet companies can do a lot of damage on their way down. My latest for @nytopinion.nytimes.com (gift link): www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/o...

We didn’t originally plan to build a platform like Roundabout, our local community app. But community leaders told us us that they couldn’t compete against the profit-driven technologies these social platforms were built on top of. So our team decided to build something with different incentives.

Excited to announce that I will be giving the opening keynote for @newpublic.org + @publicspaces.net Open Social Award Show in Amsterdam next month! My keynote will discuss how we do community governance at @blackskyweb.xyz Best of luck to all applicants and hope to see you there!

Let us be frank 🌭 Roundabout has the the best community stewards 😀 Roundabout Richmond stewards Sam and Liza organized an event that brought together over 100 neighbors and ten organizations – including free focaccia dogs from a local vendor 😋

Still seeking: - Decentralized direct-messaging (DM) service - Works with atproto identities - E2EE - Self-hostable / FOSS - Permissionless - Frontend-agnostic / plug-n-play - No blockchain Group messaging would be a bonus. We'd be your github sponsor + public champion.

Amazing work from @rude1.blacksky.team and the team at @blackskyweb.xyz 👏👏 Excited to see how Acorn will enable communities with all different kinds of technical backgrounds in building their own digital spaces across the open social web.

We’re learning what a social media platform designed with community members, built at local scale, and applying intentional AI tools can look like. 🙌 We’re excited to share some of the ways neighbors are using Roundabout, our local community app, to bring their communities closer together.

Join New_ Public Co-director @eli.bsky.social, as well as special guests @semaforben.bsky.social & @jasmine.bsky.social, for a presentation of new research on how AI will transform the way we connect to information and each other. Tuesday, May 12th | 1-2pm ET / 10-11am PT luma.com/noj7wtec?tk=...

Reminder: the Open Social Awards submission deadline is this Friday, May 1st! It's part of The Next Socials program track at the PublicSpaces 2026 Conference with a €10,000 grand prize, put on by @newpublic.org @publicspaces.net @waag.org

OK, I'm still finding new projects that I haven't told GO APPLY!!! It's a bit nerve wracking, all my favourite people & projects competing! But also! It's good practice! Tell your story! Let me help you convince yourself that you are awesome and deserve only good things!

Listen up! Get your applications for the Open Social Awards in! The clock is ticking! And west coast stays winning and gets to use your home timezone as the deadline! That's 6:59 AM UTC _Saturday_ for everyone else!

Reminder: Get your OSA application in!! Applications are due by 11:59pm PST on Friday May 1, 2026 🌐🌱✨

Want to support Wikipedia AND your local government? Here’s a request for support from our friends at Govdirectory, a “crowdsourced and fact checked directory of official governmental online accounts and services.” You can find all these resources here: newpublic.substack.com/p/bulletin-b...

Opinion columnist William McKenzie highlights our research on local digital spaces in the @dallasnews.com: Our study, led by @taliastroud.bsky.social and @engagingnews.bsky.social, shows that most people don’t want to engage in incendiary online interactions. archive.is/vbeNh

Media Party New York 2026, a three day convening with workshops and keynotes, including New_ Public Co-Director @eli.bsky.social, is coming up on Friday, May 8. Come see and help shape what journalism looks like in a “post-search era.” We’re particularly excited about the Media Party hackathon 👀

Among the many great talks at this year’s @atmosphereconf.org, Principal Software Engineer for Roundabout @blaine.bsky.social’s talk about Roundabout, cheese, and ecological computing is a must-watch. Yes, we’re a little biased, but also, don’t those topics sound like they go great together? 🤌🧑‍🍳

We think of Roundabout, our local community app, as a one-stop shop for all things local community: town hall-style conversations, local news, events and happenings (no matter how small!), and word-of-mouth recommendations — all in one place and stewarded by a trusted and trained neighbor 🫶

@fediforum.org, the global online unconference dedicated to the Open Social Web, is taking place next week April 28-30! The unconference is designed to serve all levels of interest & experience, so anyone curious about the tech that powers Bluesky, Mastodon, & more should take a look at the agenda:

Kudos to the ten-year-old student who used her one question for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to ask about why her government isn't supporting Gander, an Open Web alternative to Big Tech. 👏