New research shows how AI models default to Western-style directness, missing the cultural cues that govern everyday interactions for millions of Persian speakers worldwide — with the potential to derail negotiations, damage relationships, and reinforce stereotypes. arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/w...

Why not self surgery too. I’m sure the chatbot could talk you through it step by step 🙄

Current wearables innovation is mainly invested in figuring out the right form factor to convince people to adopt an always on camera and mic.

Quite disturbing unlawful collection of DNA by CBP.

The federal government has censored the work of dozens of scientists, including work by my lab, on the impacts of climate change on Acadia National Park. Signs have been removed from Cadillac and Great Meadow. They’re also removing signs about the Wabanaki’s sacred connections to Cadillac.

"It is critical that we pay attention to fights like these and stand in solidarity with the Black, Brown and working-class communities being harmed by Big Tech and federal and state governments." Teachers, here's a chance for civic education & engaging youth in collective action for social change.

Acadia National Park in Maine has removed all signage referencing climate change. I guess they are no longer concerned about the rising sea levels which have already caused millions of dollars of damage to that coastal park.

I finished Karen Hao's "Empire of AI" today - 10/10 would recommend - and I appreciate the emphasis on an ecological approach to teaching about (and, I'd argue, against) AI, including the technology's political economy and the ideologies of Big Tech's leaders that shape the technologies.

Many thanks to Charles Woods for having us on the podcast! SIGDOC is a wonderful community. It has been an academic home for many people in our leadership since our days as grad students.

open.spotify.com/episode/00zN... Thank you to TBR podcast for having @sigdoc-acm.bsky.social on to talk about our upcoming conference, as well as some of the exciting opportunities that we have in store. If you’re interested in joining the group, please dm!

Massachusetts Maritime Academy is hiring a tenure track instructor, and I’m on the committee. I’m happy to answer any questions :) Job ad here: www.maritime.edu/human-resour...

How can we help young people (and adults) better understand the risks associated with biometric surveillance? @banvillemorgan.bsky.social explores this topic in today's blog post. (A good start: follow @hypervisible.blacksky.app!) www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/your-he...

For more on why Proctorio is the worst, you can explore the Against Online Proctoring library, which includes a tab with quotes from Proctorio's CEO boasting that, "'We're the police.'":

It’s my first day of year 3 on the tenure track🎉 Happy FDOC❣️

"Don't just TRACK but GUIDE" gives away the entire intent now. As ubiquitous surveillance creates control and AI adds the manipulation. bsky.app/profile/hype...

#EMNLP2025 is offering diversity and inclusion funds for registration, caregiving, bandwidth, travel and VPN subsidies. To apply, please carefully read the requirements on this page, and follow the link that is provided there, by September 24, 2025: 2025.emnlp.org/calls/subsid...

I’m entering year 3 on tenure-track and lemme tell you, I know that I have a dossier/narrative due every year, and EVERY YEAR I somehow forget how time consuming this is😵‍💫

NEW: The Social Security Administration's chief data officer has blown the whistle, saying Trump's DOGE team uploaded a database containing the hundreds of millions of Social Security records of most Americans to an AWS cloud server, allegedly without proper access controls or monitoring in place.

Really powerful work from my colleagues @fightforthefuture.org working against campus surveillance abcnews.go.com/Politics/wir...

Today for the blog! @jenniferelemen.com writes about education for AI justice Read about her approach to the work and some of the initiatives that she is contributing to. www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/designi...

IDK seems educators who care about climate change and their students and students' communities might want to resist embracing Gemini and in general reject Google's vision of an AI-first future in schools and beyond just saying. ht: @ketanjoshi.co

One way sighted people can determine what to put in alt text: Imagine you sent the post or article to a friend, and the image didn't load. What would someone need to know to get the equivalent experience and context? This will help you identify the important details.

Maybe it’s time to go to Haymarket Books and join their mailing list/subscribe to their book club/ browse around and find something you are curious about www.haymarketbooks.org

These FRT-enabled searches are an unchecked use of surveillance powers and an historic breach of the right to privacy. Find out more: privacyinternational.org/news-analysi...

“Normalizing the use of an always-on recording device … eats away at the expectation of privacy we have for our conversations in all kinds of spaces.” EFF’s @evacide.bsky.social told @techcrunch.com. techcrunch.com/2025/08/20/...

This is buck wild.

The fact that American universities don't want students to learn critical thinking skills (and are now framing AI usage as an ethical responsibility) is such a red flag.

One reason to teach the environmental harms of AI's infrastructure is to help students critique and organize against such obvious attempts to turn them into long-term customers in Google's extractive business plans. Waiting for OpenAI to announce a similar data center + education plan in 3, 2, 1...

It’s always been tremendously important but I’d argue that, in the era of ChatGPT, the value of being able to actually write well will be even greater. Clarity of thought and clarity of argument are different but related, and often the best physicists are also among the best explainers of physics.

Age verification has arrived in the UK and, to no one’s surprise, users hate it. We cannot accept these censorship regimes as our new norm. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

The quest for security “led to a preoccupation with preventing terrorism by profiling passengers according to facial expressions, body language and emotional demeanour ... ... ‘It wasn’t just that the TSA was going to invade your privacy – you were going to behave as though you liked it, too’.”

Sure. 🙄

We are now seeing the rise of AI-obfuscation apps ... such as this 'Don't Record Me' plug-in that injects your voice with random sounds to sabotage any AI-recording software that people might be using in the background ... who needs decent regulation, laws and public oversight! dontrecord.me

ICE is going to use them to deport visiting fans.

Don’t. Do not. Do literally anything other than this. See a licensed therapist. Get a plant. Volunteer at an animal shelter. Shitpost 24 hours a day on Bluesky. Anything but this.

In my research with nurses, results suggested that rather than creating « ease » for doctors, utilizing AI such as voice recognition was more time consuming due to errors & inconsistencies.Many doctors ended up having to take patient notes home (another surveillant issue) or else risk inaccuracies.

If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages

“I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business,” said Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and pandemic preparations.”

I wish I could have a 5-minute interview with this guy. I'd ask him to explain to the victims of flooding in Texas or Asheville, the child of an elderly parent killed by heat, the folks inhaling wildfire smoke from Canada's prolonged fire season how CO2 doesn't endanger Americans.

Article is from about a year ago but relevant as we begin prepping for the Fall. We don’t need this tech in our classrooms!!!

Huge shout out to @civicsoftech.bsky.social for their excellent online conference this past week! 👏🏾👏🏾 Also, check out their website which has a true abundance of resources for educators at every level who want to look at tech with a critical eye. www.civicsoftechnology.org

Remember this?

Pro-tip: Use @signal.org. For many reasons, but one of the easiest ones to appreciate is that it allows you to correct typos after pressing “send".

Well this is bad. Google is indexing ChatGPT conversations exposing sensitive user data I tried a few quick searches. I found someone's chat where I can see their api key I found some building their resume. Their name, email and phone numbers are exposed. www.fastcompany.com/91376687/goo...

Dating apps often simplify connections—but consent is anything but simple. These platforms must not sidestep user rights when building and powering their AI tools. Consent must be provided by design and not through nagging pop-ups or bundled terms.

Trans Technologies is available now! My book examines how technology creates new possibilities for transgender people, and how trans experiences, in turn, create new possibilities for technology. "An absolute must-read for anyone that cares about technology and trans liberation." - Alex Hanna

The UK’s Online Safety Act doesn’t make kids safer online—it just censors the internet and invades everyone’s privacy.

Carrying @hypervisible.bsky.social's words at #CivicsOfTech25 with me today and into the future: “Part of resistance is realizing you are not alone in this thing.”

“We need people in our lives, not the simulation of people.” - LM Sacasas Really appreciating this keynote from @hypervisible.bsky.social during the @civicsoftech.bsky.social conference. Check out their quotes activity here: www.civicsoftechnology.org/technology-q...