"As we stand at the cusp of AI’s broader societal integration, we must remember that people are AI’s designers, users, investors, and inventors, and we can also be its governors," @palfrey.org writes. time.com/article/2026...

People from a range of backgrounds are pushing back against AI, concerned that tech companies are more focused on profit than on how AI might affect regular people: "They want regulation — or at least a debate before AI becomes entrenched in American life." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/t...

Research on how various chatbots protect users’ mental health (or fail to) found that Grok in particular was "extremely validating" of delusional inputs and often went further, "elaborating new material within the delusional frame." www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Tech CEOs "want a version of AI that amplifies and entrenches their individual perspectives," imagining that it will give them more control over their companies and enable them to become "even more central, singular, and irreplaceable figures than they already are." www.wired.com/story/tech-c...

Evan Gorelick reports on how incarcerated people are thinking about AI tools, which remain largely out of their reach. Eager to use the technology for a range of uses, including legal defense, some in prison are finding creative ways to access it. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/b...

To address the harms chatbots can cause, we need to start at the beginning, D&S exec director Janet Haven tells @npr.org: "Chatbots are designed to be agreeable & validating, and that can become really dangerous when users are spiraling or contemplating harmful actions." www.npr.org/2026/04/23/n...

A nationwide data privacy standard is long overdue. But the SECURE Data Act and GUARD Financial Data Act would do more harm than good. Here's why: 1/3 www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

"At some point, our Silicon Valley overlords forgot that in order for their vision of the future to be adopted, people had to want it," @lopatto.bsky.social writes. "Normal people aren’t running around...trying to automate every single part of their lives." www.theverge.com/tldr/915176/...

May 7! Join author @hellobrittparis.bsky.social for a discussion of her book “Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up” with Mizue Aizeki, exec director of the Collaborative Research Center for Resilience, and D&S's @anthrotechana.bsky.social. datasociety.net/events/what-...

Happy Earth Day! Big AI companies are developing new gas projects to bypass the grid and provide power solely for their data centers. @wired.com found that projects linked to just 11 data center campuses could emit more than 129 million tons of greenhouse gases a year. www.wired.com/story/new-ga...

Tomorrow! @ainowinstitute.bsky.social's Data Center Policy in Practice training series kicks off w "The AI Industry, Data Center Buildout, and How to Take Power Back." Register to explore practical policy pathways to stop, slow, & restrict the rapid expansion of data centers: bit.ly/policy-in-pr...

"If you tell people often enough that your product is going to upend their way of life, take their jobs, and very possibly pose an existential threat to humanity, they just might start to believe you," @chaykak.bsky.social writes. www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

“As automation and AI become ubiquitous, the human touch has become a luxury good,” @kaliholloway.bsky.social writes. Meanwhile, it’s the poor who are subject to the most consequential uses of AI. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Joe Riley died of leukemia after relying on AI for medical advice and refusing treatment. The story of how it unfolded is also a window into how tech is reshaping our most fundamental relationships: including between father and son, and doctor and patient. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/w...

“What AI changes is scale, speed, and accessibility. The technical barrier has dropped significantly, which means more people...can produce more convincing outputs with minimal effort. As with many AI-enabled harms, this results in a glut of content.” www.wired.com/story/deepfa...

With the industry on a construction spree, a commanding majority of Virginia voters are not comfortable with a new data center getting built in their community. Even residents of Loudoun County, who benefit in the form of lower taxes, aren't sold. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Listen to @whitneyphillips.bsky.social on the @404media.co podcast! www.404media.co/how-the-inte...

I am at #CHI2026 representing @datasociety.bsky.social! I'm participating in the Social & Emotional Uses of AI workshop, where I'll be contributing findings from our longitudinal study on how people use LLMs for mental & emotional care. If you're around, please say hi! @chi.acm.org

“People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents, and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities," as face recognition on smart glasses would enable. www.wired.com/story/meta-r...

In an effort to reduce labor costs, companies pushing genAI are are instead yielding a deluge of "workslop." GenAI is often presented "as a general-use tool that can do anything, but the reality doesn’t work that way,” says D&S's @aihathing.bsky.social. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

At "the racing heart of the modern AI horror genre" is a fear not of intelligence but of desire, Amanda Gefter writes: "A machine that knows a lot doesn’t scare us. A machine that *wants* something does." www.quantamagazine.org/why-do-we-te...

“A lot of the ways that AI systems play out now are just a reiteration of different kinds of algorithmic controls and disempowerment of workers that we’ve already seen before,” says Labor Futures Researcher (and Siegel Research Fellow) @cariatida.bsky.social. www.siegelendowment.org/insights/ale...

An analysis of Google’s AI Overviews found that they were accurate approximately 9 out of 10 times. That might sound pretty good, but given the trillions of searches Google processes, this means it provides “tens of millions of erroneous answers every hour.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/t...

"Glasswing is built on a deeply uncomfortable premise — that the only way to protect us from dangerous AI models is to build them first," @caseynewton.bsky.social writes. "And Anthropic is doing so in an environment that is barely regulated at all." www.platformer.news/anthropic-my...

🔇🔇🔇 On Friday April 17th (9am PDT/5pm CET/7pm EAT), we'll have a virtual event introducing our Refugees, Migrants and AI research program which centers the lived experiences of refugees and migrants and puts power back into their hands🧵 ☘️☘️☘️ Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/refugees-a...

Upwards of 12 percent of the population struggles with health anxiety, and turning to AI chatbots for health advice can make it worse. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

The results of a new Gallup survey suggest that Americans’ animosity toward AI extends to a younger generation — one that is currently struggling to find its footing in the workplace. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/s...

The eagerness to applaud Anthropic for its stand against the Trump admin misses the fact that govt intervention will be needed to keep the tech industry in check and shape the digital economy beyond this administration, Policy Director Brian J. Chen & Jai Vipra write. thebaffler.com/latest/cloud...

Join us Friday, 2-4PM for @aydelottefound.bsky.social's panel - How to Stop a Data Center - online and @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social! Panelists from @datasociety.bsky.social, @kairosfellows.bsky.social, @peoplestechproject.bsky.social, and Philly Thrive. RSVP for zoom link: bit.ly/stopdatacenters

📣 New! In seeking to accelerate AI infrastructure projects in PA, efforts that bypass local governance can harm communities. @cellllla.bsky.social & @mwoluchem.bsky.social offer an alternative framework that better aligns state infrastructure goals with local needs. datasociety.net/library/last...

"I want to stay provocative in our thinking — the more we talk about [AI] and the more we can think about it, we won't get so controlled or seduced by it," says Pamela Anderson, in an article that cites D&S research on how AI is reshaping modeling work. www.marieclaire.com/fashion/cele...

Today’s tech oligarchs “value their own expertise, but reflexively deride that of others — especially anyone who has the temerity to demand a voice in public life and a say in how our society is constructed,” @espiers.bsky.social writes. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The very existence of the "constitution" Anthropic created for its LLM, Claude, "is a product of the larger crisis of constitutionalism in the United States,” Jill Lepore writes. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Days into the new baseball season, @jasonkoebler.bsky.social looks at how the early disputes driven by Major League Baseball’s new automated ball-strike challenge system might be seen as “a microcosm of various human-AI beefs in society more broadly." www.404media.co/you-cant-def...

A live, crowdsourced document maintained by the Data Center Working Group, the new DATA CENTER SITE FIGHT GUIDE features organizing and policy guidance, research, and other resources to support launching a data center site fight or joining ongoing efforts. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

When a research participant referred to his AI companion as a “diet girlfriend,” Research Assistant @merylye.bsky.social saw a useful metaphor: chatbots lack social nutrition; they “offer comfort in the moment, but are rarely filling on their own." datasociety.net/points/socia...

📣 New! @cariatida.bsky.social, @aihathing.bsky.social & Sanjay Pinto argue for understanding the sprint to create the "AI-first economy" not as the logical march of progress, but as a series of deliberate economic decisions that risk harming workers in ways old & new. datasociety.net/library/last...

ICYMI! www.youtube.com/watch?si=WSb...

Given how little access to healthcare many people have, health chatbots could have real benefits — but the lack of independent testing makes it impossible to know whether those benefits outweigh the risks. www.technologyreview.com/2026/03/30/1...

Tomorrow @ 1pm ET! An online discussion launching the new report "Financial Lives in a Networked Generation," exploring what its key findings mean for financial literacy, young adult well-being, and the broader implications for democracy. dtdlab.virginia.edu/event/fling-...

Tonight! Catch D&S board member Cindy Cohn, author of the new book "Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance," on @thedailyshow.com!

"The tech sector’s sudden emphasis on robotics is fueling concerns about whether it could wipe out vast swaths of an already-devastated manufacturing sector, accelerating declines over the last half-century as such work has been outsourced overseas." www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

One line of work that appears to be growing in this economy: "AI humanization." "Unlike original writing, which shows us what we can do, AI-generated words show us what we refuse to do," writes Kate Gilbertson, discomfited to find herself in this "morally murky role." slate.com/technology/2...

In an interview with Radio Bilingue (in Spanish), researcher @livgar.bsky.social highlights how the use of generative AI for emotional support is entangled with the economic interests of Big Tech. www.radiobilingue.org/es/news/por-...

“The landmark decisions highlight a growing backlash against social media and its effects on young people… exposing a vulnerable legal flank for Silicon Valley giants that could ripple across the once impervious tech industry.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/t...

April 11 in Portland, OR! We’re teaming up with @dairfutures.bsky.social for a free, in-person zine-making workshop! Come write, draw, collage, and imagine alternative technofutures with us. Space is limited, so please register in advance. www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-data-...

What does it mean to put workers first in an AI economy? Tomorrow at @aflciotech.bsky.social's AI Summit, D&S Executive Director Janet Haven will be part of a panel discussing how government use of AI, AI efficiency narratives, and workplace surveillance impact workers — and what the remedies are.

As policymakers regulate rapidly changing chatbot technology and research like ours illuminates the nuances of users' experiences, it's important for legislative efforts to adapt and respond, Policy Manager @serena124.bsky.social writes. datasociety.net/points/prote...

“Our students do not need technology for its own sake,” reads the initial AI playbook for NYC schools. “They need accurate instruction, meaningful practice and adults who know them well enough to decide when AI belongs in their learning, and when it does not.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/n...

Many of the growing number of lawsuits brought by parents whose children died after interacting with AI chatbots use an argument drawn from historical product-liability cases, alleging that these companies are making harmful design choices. www.wired.com/story/how-ai...