DAIR

We are an interdisciplinary AI research institute consisting of scientists, engineers, organizers and activists who believe that AI is not inevitable. We DAIR to imagine, build & use AI deliberately.

Our Avatar is DAIR written in black, with a white background.

Website: https://dair-institute.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DAIRInstitute
LinkedIn: https://jm.linkedin.com/company/dair-institute
Peertube: DAIR Institute (npub1rrh…lx8p)

Public Key

npub1mmfh3x40jj6uyvp5h627hlwphxr0vjltymul5alflyde38d7e78svp2mx9

NIP-05 Address

dair_at_dair-community.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsda5mcn2hefdwzxq6ta90tlhqmnphkf04jd706wl5ljxucnklvlrcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds7dpr33

Publishing to

nostr.mom

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1mmfh3x40jj6uyvp5h627hlwphxr0vjltymul5alflyde38d7e78svp2mx9

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Last Notes

2026-04-09 16:26:41 UTC

🔇🔇🔇 Are you in the Portland area? Looking to exercise your imaginative muscles and take a break from doom scrolling?
Join our in person Possible Futures workshop with Data & Society Research Institute.
⏰ This Saturday April 11, 1pm-3pm.
☘️ Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-data-society-present-imagining-possible-futures-portland-tickets-1985401613672
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/116/375/681/615/382/767/original/b8ec740bb2933f88.webp

2026-03-18 18:11:03 UTC

New! Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 episode 73: Data Centers In Space?!
In which [@adambecker.bsky.social](https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/adambecker.bsky.social ) joins @npub1e2z…n97d and @npub15xv…0jms to laugh at tech bro's sci-fi space dreams.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/episodes/18844094-data-centers-in-space-with-dr-adam-becker-2026-03-02
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/116/251/521/731/838/883/original/947e673bf3a1d1e9.mp4

2026-03-12 00:22:08 UTC

Come Work With Us!
We are hiring for a Communications Lead role to support our ongoing and emerging needs across owned media, website, social media and events. Interested?
Read the detailed job description and apply on Greenhouse.
https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/distributedairesearchinstitute/jobs/4130897009

2026-02-16 19:05:48 UTC

Introducing…new Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 merch!
Here’s our very own @npub15xv…0jms
modelling our “Always Read The Footnotes” t-shirt along with Fresh AI Hell and Mathy Maths mugs!
To get your own, and to check out the rest of our swag, head to: https://store.dair-institute.org/
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/116/081/865/095/649/041/original/ca3472ab065c50c3.jpeg
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/116/081/865/112/065/556/original/bc30af157676e522.jpeg

2025-10-22 20:31:32 UTC

NEW FROM DAIR 📢
Today we are releasing "Driven Down", a new report on how workplace technology enables Amazon to steal wages, hide labor, intensify poor working conditions, and evade responsibility. 🧵
Based on in-depth interviews and direct organizing experience, "Drive Down" reveals how Amazon is using surveillance technologies to intensify driver workloads, instill a patchwork of uneven digital punishments and expose all drivers to potential wage theft and unsafe working conditions.
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/115/419/694/145/228/796/original/9509a6138043768c.jpg

2025-10-03 22:23:05 UTC

Today is the 12th anniversary of 369 Eritrean refugees who drowned in Lampedusa (Italy) exactly 12 years ago. As our researcher and refugee advocate Meron Estefanos wrote, one of them was 22 years old and was giving birth as she was drowning. Her body was later found with an umbilical cord attached to her baby.
In this possible futures entry, @npub1zmk…6wm0 imagines a future where the families of the disappeared find closure.
https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/eritreans/

2025-09-27 00:09:28 UTC

“These are really big, scary problems that are complex & challenging to address — it’s so easy to gravitate towards fantastical thinking & wanting a one-size-fits-all global solution. I think it’s the reason that so many people turn to cults & all sorts of really out there beliefs when the future feels scary & uncertain [...] this is not different than that. They just have billions of dollars to actually enact their ideas.”
@npub19u8…pjzk , lead research engineer at the @npub1mmf…2mx9
https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-religion-apocalypse-ec449ccedbf8054764547356757ff335

2025-09-26 23:55:56 UTC

"“AI isn’t magic; it’s a pyramid scheme of human labor,” said Adio Dinika, a researcher at the Distributed AI Research Institute based in Bremen, Germany. “These raters are the middle rung: invisible, essential and expendable.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/11/google-gemini-ai-training-humans

2025-07-23 23:36:37 UTC

In this article for Africa in Fact, Adio writes:
“The choice facing Africa is stark: continue as a data colony providing cheap labour for surveillance tools that serve foreign interests, or assert digital sovereignty by developing governance frameworks that prioritise African lives over foreign profits. ”
https://africainfact.com/ai-surveillance-and-data-colonialism-shape-african-conflicts/

2025-07-07 12:47:23 UTC

Surveillance Watch now has an interactive diagram that shows the high level of funding towards various surveillance technology types: https://www.surveillancewatch.io/?menu=funders&funderOverview=true
You can click through to explore by funder as well, example: https://www.surveillancewatch.io/?menu=funders&funder=Andreessen+Horowitz
The belly of surveillance capitalism can only be exposed by following the money to understanding who's complicit in the usage of tech for war crimes, genocides, any other grave injustices etc.
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/114/812/022/405/498/496/original/a5d6f555b441af1f.png

2025-05-14 23:23:11 UTC

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Catt Small has worked with companies of all sizes. She started programming interactive games around the age of 10 & has been going ever since. In her spare time, Catt makes awkward video games, writes, and draws artwork of all kinds. You can view her work at https://cattsmall.com.

2025-05-14 23:22:43 UTC

🔇🔇🔇Join us for an honest conversation with some of the people forging a better digital future. Event will be recorded for those who can't make it.
⏰ Thursday May 30th at 10am PDT/1pm EDT
➡️ Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/imagining-more-a-candid-convo-about-the-future-of-the-black-web-experience-tickets-1364904469009
More info on our amazing speakers below🧵
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/114/508/752/212/624/809/original/c6b7c335047aadb3.jpeg

2025-05-08 17:46:48 UTC

Join us at https://www.twitch.tv/dair_institute in just a few hours for the launch of The AI Con (https://thecon.ai).
https://dair-community.social/@alex/114472614291349274

2025-02-15 00:02:53 UTC

"For all its promised benefits, the artificial-intelligence boom is likely to prove costly to public health and even lead to hundreds of deaths a year in the U.S. alone, and those ill effects are likely to disproportionately hit poorer communities, according to a study by California researchers..."
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/technology/ai-induced-pollution-could-kill-hundreds-cost-billions-researchers-say/article_6449a044-e811-11ef-88d2-473a3ec5a724.html

2024-12-12 20:50:48 UTC

Congratulations to @npub1z40…s3fq for being awarded the 2025 Miles Conrad Awardee!
"The award recognizes her critical work on the dangers of biases in AI as the information community grapples with ethics and rapidly advancing technologies."
Dr. Gebru will deliver the Miles Conrad Lecture at #NISOPlus25.
https://niso.plus/2024/12/dr-timnit-gebru-to-receive-the-2025-miles-conrad-award/

2024-10-25 18:37:25 UTC

Congratulations to our very own @npub1e2z…n97d for being named in Business Insider's 2024 "AI Power List."
https://www.businessinsider.com/alex-hanna-dair-ai-power-list-2024

2024-09-05 18:11:30 UTC

🗣️🗣️🗣️ Register for the next event in our Data Workers' Inquiry speakers series on September 9 @ 8am PDT/5pm CET
▶️Registration @ https://events.zoom.us/ev/AuQX3OXr7Osuf42CJ47nhgIqFtGirCK4gmQZWIkcauQhCeg5_vRd~AvmnzHBgw2drgfYzYhqmEH3visbYL2Wgv9bhPbSwoc3poJCG0dBd0CdKTw
▶️Repository @ http://data-workers.org
▶️Event schedule @ http://data-workers.org (you can register for future events here).
▶️Donate to the workers @ https://paypal.com/ncp/payment/VNBXHXYEWH8PN
▶️ Can catch the recording of the virtual launch on https://www.twitch.tv/dair_institute
See you on September 9!
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/113/014/660/810/742/398/original/8a7f85a2a8107541.png

2024-09-04 16:55:27 UTC

We are proud to support Logic (s)' Palestinian Journalist Fellowship in Collaboration with Arab Reform Initiative.
"The purpose of this program is to support community-led storytelling on Palestine and its relationship to technology, to strengthen the magazine’s contributions to Palestine reporting, and to redistribute resources to Palestinian journalists."
Read more👇
https://logicmag.io/palestinian-journalist-fellowship/

2024-08-24 02:48:00 UTC

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Amazon Mechanical Turk pays data workers with gift cards instead of money 😡
Based on seven interviews with affected workers, Alex’s report underlines how this payment method fosters workers‘ dependency. Read more here: https://data-workers.org/alex/
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2024-08-24 02:44:58 UTC

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Alex Chávez is a data worker from Venezuela who has been working in Amazon Mechanical Turk for the past ten years. He joined the @npub1qr9…mx8v team in 2019 to work towards improving labor conditions for all data workers.
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/113/014/700/660/506/667/original/adce1d499a8ed8d8.mp4

2024-08-24 02:42:05 UTC

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Irregular hours, uncertainty, low wages, and unpaid time are the realities of many platform data workers. Oskarina’s animated video highlights structural issues exacerbated by economic and political crises in Latin America. Watch the film here: https://data-workers.org/oskarina/
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/113/014/689/820/297/443/original/7ed1fa72d839ab3c.mp4

2024-08-24 02:41:11 UTC

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Residing in Colombia, Oskarina Fuentes works on various online platforms performing tasks essential to AI. She joins the Data Workers’ Inquiry to ensure that data workers are recognized not as mere tools but as human beings who contribute to tech advancement significantly.
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/113/014/685/414/660/168/original/87ecaae899227303.jpg

2024-08-24 02:35:53 UTC

🗣️🗣️🗣️ Register for the next event in our Data Workers' Inquiry speakers series on August @ 8am PDT/5pm CET
▶️Registration @ https://tinyurl.com/data-workers-inquiry-2608
▶️Repository @ http://data-workers.org
▶️Event schedule @ http://data-workers.org
▶️Donate to the workers @ https://paypal.com/ncp/payment/VNBXHXYEWH8PN
▶️ Can catch the recording of the virtual launch on https://www.twitch.tv/dair_institute
See you on August 26!
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/113/014/660/810/742/398/original/8a7f85a2a8107541.png

2024-08-21 16:39:33 UTC

“These big companies think they can enter small villages like ours, take our land, and destroy it.”
https://restofworld.org/2024/microsoft-data-center-india-mekaguda-industrial-waste/

2024-08-20 21:57:58 UTC

Join the Techworkers Coalition and DAIR for an online panel covering AI myths, misinformation, and the history of automation featuring @npub1e2z…n97d and @npub15xv…0jms
📆 Sept 3rd at 8pm ET / 5pm PT
🎟️ Register at https://bit.ly/twc-ai-meetings
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/112/996/582/983/869/992/original/8d65aa00d5b60237.jpg

2024-08-14 18:25:28 UTC

"On August 14, Meta killed their leading transparency tool — right in the middle of the biggest election year ever."
Our very own @npub19u8…pjzk
notes: "Losing CrowdTangle is a huge and exhausting setback in our hate speech research. This is yet another infuriating reminder that social media companies should not be dictating the parameters of the research that investigates them.
https://www.ripcrowdtangle.com

2024-08-14 16:48:18 UTC

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You can search by company name, country or funding sources. Amazing work team!

2024-08-14 16:47:56 UTC

We, along with AI Now and Logic(s) Magazine, are proud to Surveillance Watch: an interactive map revealing the intricate connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations.
Thank you to @npub16sd…pm34 and team for their work.
Check it out at
https://surveillancewatch.io
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/112/961/280/271/285/803/original/7841acba08c46ef8.png

2024-08-14 16:21:00 UTC

We, along with AI Now and Logic(s) Magazine, are proud to support Majal's project, Surveillance Watch: an interactive map revealing the intricate connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations.
Thank you to @npub16sd…pm34 and team for their work.
Check it out at
https://surveillancewatch.io
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/112/961/280/271/285/803/original/7841acba08c46ef8.png