J. Nathan Matias 🦣

Social & computer scientist who works alongside communities on science for a safer, fairer, more understanding Internet.

Founder, Citizens and Technology Lab · Prof at Cornell · Guatemalan-American · Co-founder of @transparenttech

Enjoys taking photos & listening to books/poetry on very long bike rides.

natematias.com: https://natematias.com
Citizens and Technology Lab: https://citizensandtech.org
Coalition for Independent Technology Research: https://independenttechresearch.org/

Public Key

npub1ej7wgkfvjf5dg6fcrz2gn6ws662dayzzcdcnntz78pedkg0w3hcsz7ergk

NIP-05 Address

natematias_at_social.coop@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsve08ytykfy6x5dyup39yfa8gdd9x7jppvxufe430rsukmy8hgmugpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsnrxt73

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ej7wgkfvjf5dg6fcrz2gn6ws662dayzzcdcnntz78pedkg0w3hcsz7ergk

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Last Notes

2026-05-20 12:48:23 UTC

Until @npub18gw…5uz9 wrote this blog post, I had no idea that biostatisticians have used the analogy of perpetual motion to think about what AI can and cannot do.
As someone steeped in the world of empiricism, my orientation is so grounded in "try and find out" that I forget it's also possible to ask in advance whether something is mathematically possible.
https://citizensandtech.org/2026/05/reliable-genai-and-perpetual-motion/

2026-05-14 22:56:38 UTC

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I would love that! Also, I'm sure I'll make it out your way on the bike when I can and will make sure to say hello!

2026-05-14 22:07:24 UTC

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So as I look to next year, I'm so grateful to my colleagues at CAT Lab, Cornell, @npub1eaw…mmlh,
@npub14vl…2u7h, and so many more for the encouragement and support that have put me in a position to make the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship a meaningful contribution on tech & rights <3

2026-05-14 22:01:45 UTC

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Our collective faith in each others' creativity cannot be cultivated alone. Last weekend in-between apartment-hunting, I bicycled from Boston to Providence, imagining the journey taken by Roger Williams in the winter of 1636.
And I thought of the indigenous peoples who sheltered & protected him.
Williams was banished for advocating for indigenous land rights & religious freedom. His Wampanoag & Narragansett hosts sheltered him & helped him establish a city where rights were written into the code. We need more of that hospitality, courage, and creativity.
https://www.nps.gov/rowi/learn/historyculture/departure.htm
#bicycle #BikeNite
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/116/575/177/747/128/788/original/8f3fa010456b9384.jpeg

2026-05-14 21:59:58 UTC

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The fires of the imagination need to be tended, not just protected. In Good Company will support communities to tell stories & make art about your own community's history of persistence despite threats to their rights.
We'll be recruiting communities soon!
https://www.sophiabrueckner.com/goodcompany.html

2026-05-14 21:59:34 UTC

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Are you a scientist or litigator working on freedom of expression/assembly/religion and other civil liberties?
If so, reach out (preferably after I move in July). We're building a network of folks to improve how courts make sense of claims about these rights.
https://citizensandtech.org/2025/07/civil-liberties-science/

2026-05-14 21:59:13 UTC

Good news: I've been selected for a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, where I'm working on Academic Freedom & Connecting Across Difference.
This work isn't done alone, so there will be ways for people everywhere who care about rights/civil liberties to get involved (🧵/n)
https://citizensandtech.org/2026/05/fires-of-the-imagination-radcliffe/

2026-04-27 12:44:43 UTC

Are you a leader trying to figure out how to evaluate an AI system? Are you in business, journalism, civil society, or the tech industry?
I'm excited to share the publication of the (open access) book I wish I had in my first job testing AI systems seventeen years ago: "Auditing AI."
Together with a dream team of scientists, policy experts, lawyers, and journalists, we distilled decades of experience in AI evaluation into a get-up-to-speed book for anyone who needs to understand AI evaluation yesterday.
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262051729/auditing-ai/
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/116/476/729/495/827/704/original/c62573b45ea2d930.jpg
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2026-04-24 11:37:52 UTC

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The most interesting finding from our survey with AskHistorians is the relationship between someone's sense of belonging and a sense of AI use.
👏The more someone thinks AI is being used in the community, the lower they rank their sense of belonging.👏
This may help explain how AI contributes to community collapse. (note: it's a correlation)
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/116/459/477/256/992/406/original/bad38bbc6b98bb12.png

2026-04-24 11:35:40 UTC

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Quality matters to AskHistorians readers. It also matters a *lot* to the historians who answer those questions and who moderate. So the subreddit has banned AI. That's for good reason:
We found 👏 the more someone thinks AI is being used, the lower they rate the community on information quality.👏
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/116/459/464/627/001/886/original/52558f35d7a1e681.png

2026-04-24 11:32:51 UTC

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To understand how the AskHistorians community thinks about AI, it's important to understand the community. It's an amazing space for people to ask questions and get answers from trained historians!
https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/have-a-question-about-the-past-askhistorians-february-2016/

2026-04-24 11:32:02 UTC

How do concerns about AI shape people's sense of community & information trust online?
CAT Lab's @npub1wgv…e42g, Nath Santos, and @npub18gw…5uz9 surveyed thousands of redditors in [@askhistorians.bsky.social](https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/askhistorians.bsky.social ) to find out. Our survey is special because we surveyed viewers, commenters, and banned accounts. (1/🧵)
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1sm6lhx/askhistorians_community_survey_results/

2026-04-17 21:20:33 UTC

"to repair is not to fix something but
many things at once: devices, systems, and infrastructures, but also people, relations,
communities, even entire social orders"
Beautiful opening paragraph to an article about moral orders of technology repair in Kampala Uganda by Mwesigwa & Jackson
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.10279

2026-04-12 13:58:24 UTC

Clarifying article by human rights expert Mathias Risse: "Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions prohibits "acts or threats of violence whose primary purpose is to terrorize civilians.""
"To name an act... is to make a moral claim on the conscience of the world"
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr-ryan/our-work/carr-ryan-commentary/whole-civilization-will-die-tonight-day-american

2026-03-14 13:38:23 UTC

Geologists have proposed calling our era the "pyrocene" - an epoch where wildfire smoke and ash is noticeable layer in geology. I'm making summer plans with smoke in mind, sigh.
This article has a clear summary of why it's hard to forecast smoke.
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/07/15-sources-of-wildfire-smoke-forecasts-for-north-america/

2026-03-10 15:08:59 UTC

Since May 2025, the US State Department has publicized a visa restriction policy that targets and threatens deportation toward people who study and report on online harms.
Yesterday, @npub1eaw…mmlh & @npub16cy…cuap filed a lawsuit challenging this censorship policy on behalf of @npub14vl…2u7h, whose members have been harmed by this policy.
“At a time when AI is rapidly changing our lives and economy and people are already worried about their freedom and safety online, we need independent researchers more than ever. This policy is meant to censor researchers into silence and keep the public in the dark, and that’s exactly what it’s doing” -- Brandi Geurkink, ED of CITR.
cc @npub1fdr…lvhs
https://knightcolumbia.org/content/technology-researchers-challenge-trump-policy-threatening-deportation-for-work-on-social-media-platforms-and-online-harms

2026-03-03 15:56:05 UTC

Attending Code4Lib remotely & I am *impressed* by how accessible they have made this conference. They had a venue canceled by CMU for politics, moved cities, & are still putting many orgs to shame by how inclusive it is to people with disabilities.
Librarians y'all 💪🏼📚🌈
https://code4lib.org/conference/2026/

2025-12-31 16:09:04 UTC

How does censorship of science fit into broader censorship efforts, and how did they play out overall this year?
Excellent op ed and report by @npub1wmd…z8aa
>> Over the past year, individual and communal acts of resistance have blunted the potency of Mr. Trump’s censorship campaign and contributed to his declining approval ratings. Unquestionably, more and more Americans are rejecting his overreach.
cc @npub1fdr…lvhs
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/opinion/trump-first-amendment-dissent.html

2025-12-26 22:30:27 UTC

Good news; a judge has blocked the detention of a technology researcher that the State Department had slated to deport.
However, this is just the start of what will certainly be a longer-term challenge. What can we do about this? A thread.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/us/politics/imran-ahmed-judge-order.html

2025-11-25 01:11:58 UTC

This August as I sheltered indoors from wildfire smoke, I got a moving note from MIT statisticians - my disability story had informed a fundamental insight about wildfire smoke forecasting.
In this post, I describe the scientists who - astonishingly - applied lessons from my disability experience to evaluate AI systems that could someday help wildfire smoke forecasts improve public health.
https://natematias.com/portfolio/2025-11-23-air-pollution-forecast/

2025-11-10 22:34:55 UTC

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AMAZING, what a wonderful story, thanks for sharing!
Also, bless you for your commitment to local knowledge institutions. My heart grows three sizes every time I hear a new story from your universe <3

2025-09-18 23:05:50 UTC

Had a conversation today with @npub1fdr…lvhs onstage about hacking tractors then ran into this beauty in progress on my ride home
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/115/227/797/696/001/034/original/49f0d27f0bd74d96.png
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2025-08-24 15:15:17 UTC

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Our "Juicebox" chargers, like many other digital products, were "smart" or "tethered products." On one hand, we got updates from the company. Software was also taken away.
As such products become the norm, similar emergencies are happening in other areas, from medical devices and appliances to cars. So we can expect more panics when companies go bankrupt or cut costs.
The shares ideas from experts on how developers and policymakers can manage product end of life better.

2025-08-24 15:14:47 UTC

10 months ago, a company across the world put my neighbor's access to medical care at risk, giving us 2 weeks notice that software behind our 40 electric car chargers would be shut down.
This is the story of how my neighborhood broke free from this potential disaster.
https://natematias.com/portfolio/2025-08-22-unchaining-from-broken-software-tethers/

2025-08-15 01:22:26 UTC

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didn’t even know it was possible on MacBook airs! Good luck- we who are about to install Linux on Mac hardware salute you! 🫡

2025-08-09 19:39:52 UTC

The Authors Guild has launched a certification program for asserting that a book has been human authored
https://authorsguild.org/human-authored/

2025-08-04 00:48:41 UTC

I finished my Everesting Roam 11:17am this morning for a total time of 33hrs 7m, w/ 33,414 ft of elevation.
Why do it? Journalism & global connection matter & are worth the effort. There's still time to donate to @npub18wl…wxmu - I'll write more soon, now for a nap!
#cycling #bicycle #bikenite #journalism #news
https://globalvoices.org/2025/07/24/fundraiser-climbing-a-virtual-everest-with-the-global-voices-community/
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/967/736/344/409/065/original/898e41720abaed76.jpeg
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2025-08-03 12:40:01 UTC

With 28000 ft climbed, I have 5 hours 30 minutes to climb 5000ft, as I complete my <36 hr Everest roam fundraising challenge indoors away from wildfire smoke. Grateful to the @npub18wl…wxmu community for sending me a workout playlist for my final leg!
Really stalled this morning, maybe due to nutrition or pollution exposure or dehydration or exhaustion. Finally finding my legs, as usual I do better when things get tougher. Hoping I can hold it together. It will be close!
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/964/875/972/631/857/original/05b611997b13956f.png
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2025-08-02 17:55:14 UTC

Nearly at the half way point of my Everesting roam attempt, as a fundraiser for @npub18wl…wxmu. It has been an extraordinarily beautiful day!
If you care about journalism and cross border understanding, consider donating- thanks!
https://globalvoices.org/2025/07/24/fundraiser-climbing-a-virtual-everest-with-the-global-voices-community/
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/960/446/925/127/537/original/9136105b451a69ba.png
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2025-07-24 21:45:26 UTC

How do you celebrate & support the hard, beautiful work of cultivating understanding in a complex world of difference?
Next weekend, I'm riding my bicycle up 10k meters of elevation in an "Everest Roam" to support the international journalism, translation, & community at @npub18wl…wxmu
https://globalvoices.org/2025/07/24/fundraiser-climbing-a-virtual-everest-with-the-global-voices-community/

2025-07-22 02:25:30 UTC

Today I looked up a fabricated social media post about a celebrity, and Google's generative AI summary claimed, based on a hallucinated Snopes article that doesn't exist, that it was a fabricated meme.
I am so tired.

2025-07-17 12:30:54 UTC

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2025-07-12 23:35:26 UTC

Folks of comm, social psych, social computing, and HCI: who in our fields do you think ought to have a Wikipedia page who does not yet?
Noticing that most of the Wikipedia bios in our fields could have been written when I was starting gradschool in 2011 and thinking it's high time for additions.

2025-06-05 23:19:43 UTC

As the U.S. heads toward a second era of patronage, spoils, and corruption, I am continuing to learn from the history of the progressive movement and its failings.
Watching this doc on Women’s right to vote and the tradeoffs on racial justice made by white women activists: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/vote/
Also reading this book on the way that progressive politicians relegated Puerto Rico to less than American status https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691231273/puerto-rico

2025-05-19 04:09:07 UTC

Do you know any citizen/community scientists or journalists covering environmental / public health issues along the Colorado River?
Next month, I'm going to ride my bike from Denver up into the Rockies, out to Glenwood Springs, and along the Colorado River to Moab, before turning north to Salt Lake City.
Along the way, I'm hoping to meet journalists & community scientists working to support community flourishing with data & evidence. I would love to say hi!
#bicycle #environment #science
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/532/525/498/251/734/original/fdce9db8300ffebf.png

2025-05-15 14:22:07 UTC

The abolitionist Thomas Clarkson's personal copy of the Magna Carta turns out to have been an original. This is an extraordinary story!
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm23zjknre7o

2025-05-14 19:01:25 UTC

"Wikipedia has no consistent editorial voice or political platform — it is reality as captured by others and summarized by volunteers. As such, efforts to censor it reveal a specific form of insecurity about education and information."
via @npub12zq…4zec
https://www.techpolicy.press/what-attacks-on-wikipedia-reveal-about-free-expression/

2025-05-04 15:41:02 UTC

"The original typewriters were designed for the Latin alphabet. Conceived with little regard for the non-Western world, the technology’s proliferation served Western hegemony."
"Languages with non-Latin alphabets were forced to contort and comply with the alien instrument. The Chinese script, unreachable with an alphabetic keyboard, was castigated as incompatible with modernity"
Amazing story about a unique typewriter thought lost & its place in cultural history.
https://madeinchinajournal.com/2025/05/02/lost-and-found-the-unexpected-journey-of-the-mingkwai-typewriter/

2025-04-17 12:33:53 UTC

Amazing job opportunity for a Chief Communications Officer at the The Union of Concerned Scientists, one of the most crucial organizations for this time, who support the public and scientists to work hand in hand to put science into action.
https://apply.workable.com/union-of-concerned-scientists/j/448D6A9C50/

2025-04-08 20:54:02 UTC

Things I didn't realize about being a scientist when I was a gradstudent: to do research that makes a difference in the world, I would have to write 20 different versions of the same argument over the next decade or more.

2025-03-21 14:27:36 UTC

One job of the scientist in our times is to speak the truth with a collective voice based on evidence. That's why I'm proud to join over 140 leading researchers to affirm the scientific consensus that bias in AI is a real problem that needs to be prioritized.
https://www.aibiasconsensus.org/

2025-03-05 04:28:22 UTC

Props to the founder of this Syracuse pop-up restaurant whose marketing captured our current moment well
https://platinum-sailfish-lfg2.squarespace.com/wintercsa
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/114/107/924/648/732/365/original/036402b3bcb0c1de.png

2025-02-22 03:21:10 UTC

Excited about this new book: "Indigenous Intellectual Property: An Interrupted Intergenerational Conversation"
https://birchbarkbooks.com/products/indigenous-intellectual-property
cc [@luis_in_brief](https://social.coop/@luis_in_brief )

2025-01-30 01:15:59 UTC

Today when explaining open source and free software for the first time to a student, I also had to explain that Richard Stallman is NOT safe and any organization that hosts him is also not safe.
It pains me that so many organizations enabled Stallman for so long, more interested in protecting abusers than advancing software freedom.
The Free Software movement didn't have to be Omelas, and many good people fought for it to be better, but that's what the FSF chose. 😢
https://stallman-report.org/

2025-01-15 19:57:24 UTC

Today in the pace of evidence-based policy: it took 45 years from the first evidence that Red Dye #3 causes cancer to the point where it would be banned in the US.
Thinking of how many cases of cancer were caused by so many years of delay, and a high decision threshold for such bans.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-bans-red-no-3-artificial-coloring-beverages-candy-rcna185479

2025-01-10 16:26:30 UTC

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what a fascinating seo collection of dog whistles. it’s as if it’s not actually written for humans to read

2025-01-07 13:56:36 UTC

I founded CAT Lab on the simple and not always obvious idea that corporations can't be trusted to consistently pursue the common good, which is why we need industry-independent, public-interest science.
Every day I am more convinced this was the right move.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/07/meta-facebook-instagram-threads-mark-zuckerberg-remove-fact-checkers-recommend-political-content

2024-12-16 12:54:29 UTC

Dream job alert: @npub1st9…2twj is seeking a senior researcher in technology and human rights, focused on:
- the digital public sphere
- the digital state
- the digital economy
https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/humanrightswatch/jobs/7774018002

2024-12-15 19:41:10 UTC

Fascinated by the 11th hour effort to ask the Biden administration to publish the Equal Rights Amendment as an official part of the constitution.
Basically: 75% of states have now ratified it (after Virginia voted for it in 2020), but the original bill included a 7 year time limit that was unusual and may not be constitutional. So advocates are asking the White House to support the archivist to certify it as a part of the constitution, and then come the legal fights
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/what-comes-next-for-the-equal-rights-amendment/

2024-12-13 03:14:14 UTC

I guess the news is out that I'm now on the advisory board of the UN Human Development Report.
As someone from a family that has experienced extreme poverty, the stakes for the UN Development Programme's work have always felt deeply urgent to me. I was surprised and delighted to be asked, and I hope my involvement can contribute in some small way to the wider work of others toward human flourishing.
https://hdr.undp.org/reports-and-publications/towards-2025-human-development-report

2024-12-09 23:36:10 UTC

Is anyone looking at levels of volunteer activity in digital public goods like Wikipedia, Reddit, and stackoverflow and whether exploitation of user content is associated with a decline in human participation?
As companies use ai to convert communal public goods into AI products, while extracting value from them, we could see a general decline in contributions that could lead to ecosystem collapse. Would love to see in depth scholarship wrestling with this. Cc @npub1zkx…lc6y
https://www.infoworld.com/article/3478485/the-rise-and-fall-of-stack-overflow.html/amp/

2024-12-08 23:54:39 UTC

Watching the Ken Burns documentary on the Dust Bowl, I am struck by how the history of the United States can be traced through a sequence of epic speculations, scams, and crashes.
This country is so much more, but it is forever scamming, forever being scammed, and forever trying to remediate the consequences. The hope and optimism that make us so capable and future-thinking also make us endlessly vulnerable.

2024-12-07 04:36:47 UTC

I have stumbled across the part of Google Books and Amazon that is just completely full of dozens (if not hundreds of) AI-generated conspiracy books about how every possible topic in the universe is related to the repression of men and the power they could have if they only gained more muscles, liberated their minds, and educated themselves with content no human has put time into.
(send help)

2024-12-04 00:21:46 UTC

An important new article on misinformation and outrage by Killian Mcloughlin, William Brady, Aden Goolsbee, Ben Kaiser, Kate Klonick, and M.J. Crockett was just published.
I'm planning to write a thread/post about what we learn from this study and what (importantly) we don't. What questions would you want to see answered?
https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adl2829

2024-11-13 00:14:12 UTC

Still smiling after a *wonderful* trip into Vermont a few weeks ago to catch up with two people I admire and appreciate on the perfect day.
- finally meeting @npub1prs…eh8y after many years on Metafilter
- catching up with @npub1gc8…h8sc
What makes a perfect day? Slow time with thoughtful, caring people. And oh yes, the leaves were pretty too I guess <grin>
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/472/748/442/970/156/original/2ff185b227c6340b.jpeg
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2024-11-11 23:15:16 UTC

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thanks for this info. The website channels people strongly towards their new purchase trade in program, so I had to google the free recycling program for old hardware. The closest Apple Store is about an hour and a half drive away, but I will hold onto my old machine until til I make it out that way next, since they’re probably going to be the most efficient recyclers

2024-11-11 23:08:49 UTC

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that’s very good to know, thank you!

2024-11-11 17:18:20 UTC

After 20 years of using Macbook Pros, I'm tired of vendor lock-in, lack of repairability, and the e-waste created by Apple devices. Several parts of my Macbook Pro have stopped working, there's no way to reliably repair them.
So I'm finally replacing my 2018 Macbook Pro with a Framework.
Thanks @npub15f7…m7wr !
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/465/443/319/017/743/original/c265e39b1634eb5d.jpeg
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2024-11-08 00:32:20 UTC

Where are you finding hope today? Today, my class discussed public goods with network effects — goods that don't exclude people and that benefit everyone as more people access them. One of those things is education.
When my mother was born in the 1940s, around 70% of Americans over 25 didn't have a high school education. Now over 90% have finished high school.
That's an extraordinary expansion in human capability in a very short time period.
https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/time-series/demo/cps-historical-time-series.html
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/444/510/668/398/686/original/c9d33533fd4af5f4.png

2024-11-04 03:42:45 UTC

> OpenAI’s Joanne Jang, who is responsible for how ChatGPT interacts with users, said model behavior was still an “ongoing science.”
Dismayed by the way that AI company reps use the idea of "science" and "experiments" to mean things that don't work. That's the *opposite* of science and I'm coming to believe, a genuine threat to public trust in science.
Reading @npub1jw2…k9y0 excellent story about living a week guided by AI: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/01/technology/generative-ai-decisions-experiment.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes

2024-10-27 02:15:01 UTC

If you're going to unsubscribe from the Washington Post this weekend for the conduct of Jeff Bezos, I encourage you to consider redirecting that money to a different newspaper—local or national— rather than taking the money out of journalism entirely <3

2024-10-13 15:03:04 UTC

So grateful in an era where so much online advice comes from generative AI without any grounding in evidence, that someone has actually made a robot to test the best phone cables.
It may seem like a small thing, but it really matters.
https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics-computers/chargers/which-charging-cables-last-longest-a2032406624/
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/300/716/269/767/599/original/f4fb83266abedebb.mp4

2024-10-10 21:01:54 UTC

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Even if you don't have an electric vehicle, this case matters to you because it highlights what happens to "software tethered" products that promise to be smart but break as soon as companies decide they don't care any more.
Consumers have long been pushing for protections, including escrow funds that support maintenance after companies abandon products. As more products become software-tethered, we're going to see crises like this happen much more often.
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/enel-x-way-closing-what-to-do-if-you-own-a-juicebox-charger-a1912800096/

2024-10-10 20:59:59 UTC

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Where I live, over forty households could face safety risks & significant disruption to our ability to charge our vehicles. We quickly realized that this was much bigger problem than just us. It was time for a campaign.
We've formed "Juice Rescue," a collaborative open source project that is coordinating education, tech development, and advocacy. The group already has over 140 people who are compiling information, developing alternative systems, & organizing for change.
https://juice-rescue.org/

2024-10-10 20:59:03 UTC

Last week, I got a deeply worrying and frustrating message that the EV chargers in my neighborhood would have their software shut down — with about 10 days notice.
Enel X had decided to leave the North American market, which means leaving us in the lurch. Today, a group of us together with Consumer Reports, have asked the FTC to investigate the company's behavior, in our personal capacities.
https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/research/consumer-reports-u-s-pirg-and-60-self-reported-owners-of-juicebox-ev-chargers-call-on-the-ftc-to-investigate-enel-x-after-abruptly-discontinuing-sales-and-support-of-its-ev-chargers/

2024-10-09 22:09:39 UTC

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this is really great. Everything everywhere is happening all at once for me right now, and pausing to read this was one of my best decisions today; thanks for writing it!

2024-10-06 16:54:52 UTC

Hundreds of thousands of EV chargers are about to lose key safety & management functions with Enel X Way abruptly leaving North America.
New: Juice Rescue ⚡🔌🚗 is a community effort to organize technical and policy efforts to keep them working with full functionality.
Please amplify and let people know— huge numbers are facing safety risks, skyrocketing power bills, and other risks. Our Discord group, open source software, and advocacy effort can help.
https://juice-rescue.org/

2024-09-24 00:29:44 UTC

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yes, I would *love* to spend at least an hour a week reading and amplifying the work of more junior folks, but I don't know how to find them and their work, or direct people toward them, and I'm finding it hard to convince students to make themselves findable.

2024-09-24 00:09:09 UTC

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you may well be right. Sigh.
And in one sense, people are free to do whatever they want, and if people no longer want those networks, we can't force it.
But also academia, journalism, & civil society seem less connected now than any time in the 21st century. That seems substantively risky, for society & for the next generation. I fear we'll lose the richness of knowing each other & sharing inspiration/ideas effectively.
So I'm looking for what I can do about this, with others.

2024-09-23 23:43:18 UTC

Scholars: what you trying in order to organize & support networks of community among emerging scholars?
Today across the extended CAT Lab network, we had a revealing conversation; gradstudents reported that microblogging platforms exposed them to risk/harassment with little reward, and that they were unsure how to find peers & community elsewhere, aside from becoming an "influencer," which only some found palatable.
Are you seeing the same? What can we do about this?

2024-09-22 12:14:32 UTC

Robyn Speer, one of my mentors in computational linguistics, has ended updates on wordfreq, a widely used tool in natural language processing & AI.
"I don't want to work on anything that could be confused with generative AI, or that could benefit generative AI."
"OpenAI and Google can collect their own damn data. I hope they have to pay a very high price for it, and I hope they're constantly cursing the mess that they made themselves."
https://github.com/rspeer/wordfreq/blob/master/SUNSET.md

2024-09-14 15:43:37 UTC

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My decision to go industry-independent unlocked the journey that defined my career for the last ten years.
In that time, CAT Lab has worked directly with communities who donate data, collaborating on research that has measurably made online platforms safer & more understanding for hundreds of millions of people. By working with the public, we can make a difference without having to strike deals with unreliable corporate partners or violating people's privacy. I'm so grateful I made that choice.

2024-09-14 15:38:15 UTC

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Despite very well-meaning employees on the inside, it never came to anything—except taking political pressure off companies for the cost of a press release, a few meetings, and an extraordinary amount of time from internal staff who were also left in the lurch. That was the year I decided to focus on independent research—I wasn't going to be fooled by tech firms again.

2024-09-14 15:38:04 UTC

Ten years ago, a coalition of Reddit, Imgur, and Twitch promised to collaborate with external scientists, even as they faced social pressure for failures in online safety. I was one of the scholars whose name they used to whitewash their reputation.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/18/reddit-imgur-twitch-derp-social-data

2024-09-13 03:27:09 UTC

Welcome to Cornell, @npub1fdr…lvhs! I have fond memories of your visits to the MIT Media Lab, and I'm looking forward to the sparks that will fly when you meet with our students and community!
https://adwhiteprofessors.cornell.edu/announcements/internationally-renowned-science-fiction-novelist-and-technology-activist-cory-doctorow-appointed-as-a-d-white-professor-at-large/

2024-09-07 13:05:49 UTC

It's a new semester, which means it's time to shill for the handwriting industrial complex.
In study after study, students who set aside devices learn better. The evidence has mounted even further since @npub1lvp…e5vg's 2017 article
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/for-better-learning-in-college-lectures-lay-down-the-laptop-and-pick-up-a-pen/

2024-09-04 00:35:37 UTC

Rising Voices at @npub18wl…wxmu is doing amazing work to organize folks working to expand internet and indigenous language resources. Here’s a short video about a project by one group in Chiapas Mexico
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_eQuUWy8nC/?igsh=MWU4eXRyMXZhdXhrZQ

2024-09-01 21:26:17 UTC

Listening to @npub1n5c…mpqj’s book “Invisible Rulers,” which is extraordinarily well written.
I am impressed by the care and clarity that went into this book at the same time Renée was facing an extraordinary intimidation campaign that reached into every part of her life.
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/064/404/437/958/832/original/e42814a561b8b8dd.png
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/064/404/907/185/849/original/7ebf183d9ee04dfc.png
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/064/405/294/265/304/original/dcb062a7c3af83df.png
https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/113/064/405/747/142/237/original/9953d9c9fe0e0b66.png

2024-08-30 21:49:09 UTC

Open Social Web / fediverse folks: with Elon Musk's fight with the Brazilian government likely to result in X being down in Brazil, there's an opportunity to invite more folks to the fediverse.
Is anyone working on plans to recruit and welcome people here, while ensuring their safety & quality of community? It's an obvious opportunity that can be planned for.
cc @npub17sj…03qd @npub1vl7…f6g0
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/30/nx-s1-5096220/brazil-suspends-x-elon-musk

2024-08-25 01:25:34 UTC

Deeply troubled to see that the % of Black, Hispanic, Native American / Pacific Islander students at MIT has gone down by 10 percentage points in the past year.
This is not unexpected, but still a blow. Seeing this makes me even more committed to the work of education for all that brought me into higher education in the first place.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rxvd2z6ldo

2024-08-18 19:29:28 UTC

Legal scholars & social scientists: what is the best scholarly summary of the legal and societal issues at stake for online child safety policy proposals? Looking for a good overview to share with students. cc @npub18r2…gce5

2024-08-04 17:57:57 UTC

Fascinated that Olympics deepfakes are being used to circumvent copyright restrictions online.
Basically, as soon as someone wins a medal, I'm seeing deepfake YouTube shorts about their victory.
I can see why: people are searching for information about winners, and low res video can quickly be enhanced to skim ad revenue in the period before rights-managed media can be published.
Disturbed by the grotesque, race/gender stereotype images this is propagating, clearly informed by porn data :(

2024-08-01 22:45:38 UTC

Earlier this week, a friend in UK civil society told me: "I don't think there's been an election year in recent memory where I knew less about the internet and politics."
That's not an accident. In two weeks, Meta plans to shut down its leading transparency tool called CrowdTangle, a tool used by researchers & journalists for so much reporting about current affairs.
Today @npub14vl…2u7h released a report highlighting the impacts that Meta's decision will have
https://independenttechresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CrowdTangle-Survey-Report-Final.pdf

2024-07-31 21:17:28 UTC

Today I learned that undocumented immigrants in the US pay roughly $96.7 billion in taxes every year https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article290533609.html#campaignName=fresno_abeja_newsletter&linkType=nmeintro

2024-07-04 18:12:58 UTC

Hiring a data science contractor/gradstudent to compile some US historical air quality data (roughly one day of work, maybe less?) Send me a PM with contact info & portfolio if you're interested.
As someone with a respiratory disability, I need to to make decisions about the relative risk of travel to speak at universities.
To help, I need to link average air pollution in a given month with the locations of universities, ideally with a Jupyter notebook that helps me do analysis.

2024-06-26 23:18:26 UTC

"In part, safety science has not worried much about power at all."
Sidney Dekker & James Nyce ask:
- why has the study of safety avoided the study of power?
- how do safety scientists think about power?
- how can the social science of power inform safety science?
https://sidneydekker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/SafetyInPower.pdf

2024-06-17 16:25:01 UTC

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great bot idea! @npub145g…mrpm It looks like some of the map links are mismatched, as with this one, unless I'm mistaken?