Can public involvement in AI evaluation improve the science? Or does it compromise quality, speed, cost? In @pnas.org, Megan Price & I summarize challenges of AI evaluation, review strengths/weaknesses, & suggest how participatory methods can improve the science of AI www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Another day when the assimilation of the internet into a tiny number of hands becomes obvious. AWS (Amazon web services) goes down and takes half the internet with it!

I'm convinced that many current "safety guardrails" in generative AI systems are merely financial and political risk mitigation strategies. They are meant to protect companies first, not users.

When it comes to AI, ignore what Sam Altman says and instead listen to @abeba.bsky.social @timnitgebru.bsky.social @olivia.science @irisvanrooij.bsky.social @karenhao.bsky.social

Oops, $1.5 billion to Prime subscribers! Another $1 billion to the FTC.

Amazon has to pay $1.8 billion due to deceptive Prime subscription practices and change those same practices as part of an FTC settlement. It’s time to screenshot for posterity and wait for Amazon to use the settlement to raise Prime. Penalizing customers for what they did TO them.

The dark patterns in abortion crisis pregnancy center websites are a special level of insidious and predatory. The "For Men" section in some of these websites goes to show how far they'll go. This screenshot is an example. The "Your" here is not referring to the pregnant person.

Heavily considering replacing bedtime stories with dramatic readings of research papers. Work smarter not harder yk?

is your workplace trying to force ai on you? is a family member giving ai too much power in their life? are you sick of billionaires destroying the environment and making life worse for everyone? here's a list of resources 10+ pages long to help you fight back: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Google is also trying to lock in schools to a particular set of ideas that it claims to be based on "learning science" with its new LearnLM/Guided learning bot. It's a *theory lock-in* to a very attenuated version of learning theory. blog.google/outreach-ini...

I want to see more of this! One person close to me who works as a SWE at a major company explained how bad it is right now. They are forced to have "AI goals", have full-day meetings teaching folks how to vibe code, and no one has tracked actual productivity.

Are you an HCI researcher from or who studies the Global Majority? Reviewed research about Global Majority for HCI venues? @farhana-shahid.bsky.social & I are conducting research on peer review experience of research by and about Global Majority. participation form: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

How can we ensure that #AI is ACTUALLY helpful for the BIG challenges we face, like #ClimateChange and #WorldHunger? We need to listen to the experts who understand these problems best! That's why @aspendigital.bsky.social is surveying people in #FoodSecurity: www.aspendigital.org/event/food-s...

I'm incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with this team. Truly one of the best collaborative experiences I have had to date (special s/o to our MVP @mkgerchick.bsky.social for leading this)! Check out Marissa's talk on our paper "auditing the audits" if you're at #FAccT2025! ⬇️

The leeway permitted by "automated decision systems" alone should terrify anyone regardless of their views about "AI".

More than 700K Americans died from COVID after he wrote this. We still have not achieved herd immunity.

I know the FTC is already fighting this but I’m gathering more receipts for my own purposes. Amazon did try to subscribe me again after I cancelled. I then deleted all my payment options. So why did they try charging my card this morning?? Looks like they don’t delete your payment info either.

Would say “these systems don’t work” but the actual work of these systems is to more fully embed and perpetuate the racism of carceral systems, and thus they work exactly as intended.

Amazon is trying to trap me into a subscription after I cancelled them last month. My partner cancelled last year and just learned he’s been charged every month since. I tried deleting all my payment methods just now and I can’t for another 2 hours.

This is what we mean when we talk about racism being baked/coded into technological systems.

This is an expansion of methods/infrastructure that have been going on for +-10 years. Not in a "this isn't new!" way, but in a "they are maximizing existing systems" way. Ruha Benjamin and Dorothy Roberts have laid it out well. psmag.com/social-justi...

🤐 Have you ever wanted a simple webpage that displays the so-called "woke" and "DEI-related" words that the current administration wants to censor, one at a time, in random order? I did, so I created ForbiddenWordsUSA.com. Enjoy! 🤐 Source: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

I was in Paris last week for the #AIActionSummit & was honoured to participate in the “AI in public interest” panel. 👇🏾 my thoughts & reflections on what AI in public interest is/isn’t & some concrete steps/initiatives for `bending the arc of AI towards the public interest' aial.ie/pages/aiparis/

In less important news: I had a brief out of body experience when I heard myself saying “we have food at home” to my mom. We’ve come full circle.

I will never stop saying that these are choices. Yes, political choices. It has nothing to do with “the way things are” because those were policy choices too! There is always a way to change something (and usually with speed). Why they don’t want to is what we should ask.

years have passed and google hasn’t still corrected pronunciation of Māori place names on google maps but the corporation is managing to implement change the on gulf of mexico within days maps are political www.renews.co.nz/why-google-m...

Many will comprehend that this regime is laying the grounds for complete resegregation and erasure of all social & educational progress since the 1960s. The complicity, however, exposes just how shallow some individual and institutional tolerances of these hard-won rights and privileges are/were.

In case you missed it: “social justice” and “equity” now interpreted as illegal in education under this far-right U.S. administration. We are experiencing the rollback of civil rights protection that only lasted two generations in American history. www.ed.gov/media/docume...

BREAKING: @lawyerscomm.bsky.social and partners have sued Meta for racially discriminatory advertising practices and for algorithmically sorting for-profit college ads to Black users disproportionately act.lawyerscommittee.org/ercvsmeta/

SCOOP: Inside DOGE's takeover of CFPB What went down over the past five days based on emails and other documents and interviews W/ @reporterev.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

This article--on the systematic dismantling of the NIH, NSF, and CDC--is a must-read not only for researchers and clinicians but for anyone who has ever gotten a vaccine, taken medication, read the results of a research study, or gotten tested for Covid, flu, or STIs. www.science.org/content/blog...

Writing lawmakers is not a good use of time. Callling them every week or showing up to their local offices and/or town hall meetings is more effective. Make 1-2 points, not a laundry list of everything on your mind. It only helps to call *your* representatives. Not folks in other states, districts.

The number of people surprised by the long list of words NSF is targeting makes me think many of you all have not seen this: www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

People really out here acting like a genocide announces itself like “Hello my honey hello my darling, I’m a Holocaust” They don’t walk up to you and introduce themselves as “I am a genocide.” You have to recognize the pattern and name it yourself. This is what Raphael Lemkin wanted us to do.

Giving access to SSNs, other data on government employees to non-employees like Musk is a violation of 5 USC 552a, and carries with it a penalty of $1000 per person whose data was accessed. We are building a case. Govt employees who want to participate should contact me directly

NSF has unfrozen funds but is continuing to scour research grants for violations of Trump’s orders Nature spoke to six NSF staff members, who shared documents detailing plans to search 10,000 flagged grants for DEI language. For @nature.com w/ @dangaristo.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I’m seeing some recent posts talking about Target and some other companies “rebranding” DEI internally and not making it public to avoid being targeted by 47. Nahhh These are multimillion dollar corporations that continue to profit from us while being cowards. Don’t fall for it.

Musk has taken control of the federal government. He did not do this make US more efficient or for the glory of Trump. He did it because he wants to own/control all of US, he wants to be king. We need to start living in reality and recognize this foreign oligarch as an existential threat to US.

“You tell me that hitler Is a mighty bad man. I guess he took lessons From the ku klux klan.” In fact… that’s what Hitler did. For more information, here’s an excellent book: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

I think it’s important to underline here that doing this to the federal government is illegal and a breach of the constitutional order

Fantastic piece on 'proptech' companies that help landlords raise rents, screen tenants, and even evict people: www.techpolicy.press/proptechs-di... These monopolies are price-fixing across the housing market and discriminating against renters. All of this has massive impacts across the US.

We need the legal analysis and to keep fighting the legal battles for the short term, but also need to get a lot more comfortable using the political language that meets this moment. The issue here is not which, if any, laws this breaks. It's that this is a fucking coup.

Even as you explore how to help now, look for ways to contribute materially over the long haul, grounded in relationship-building and trust. And remember: it's not the job of marginalized communities under threat to educate you or manage the anxiety of folks in more stable situations.

NEW: the link to the OPM memo that rescinded all Civil Service Protections and demanded agencies submit positions for schedule F now says PAGE NOT FOUND. But the PDF link still works: www.opm.gov/policy-data-...

The people now in charge of the Office of Personnel Management apparently don’t know how to scrub PDF metadata, and have exposed the original authors of the guidance they’re publishing. Two, Noah Peters and James Sherk, have links to the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.