Scholar, author, policy advisor alondranelson.com Science, Technology, and Social Values Lab https://www.ias.edu/stsv-lab
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"Sometimes also dubbed 'God’s influencer,' St. Carlo’s emerging iconography often depicts him holding a laptop. It is a nod to his hobby—computer programming—a skill he used to spread the Gospel, designing ... a personal website cataloging miracles." www.wsj.com/world/europe...
This is a cool paper that suggests that AI agents can indeed be used for social science experiments, but that just using a chatbot isn't good enough, instead prompts developed based on social & game theory makes AI agent actions predictive of real human outcomes. benjaminmanning.io/files/optimi...
This @washingtonpost.com editorial doesn’t make it past the second paragraph without a glaring (and telling) factual error. President Washington didn’t create the War Department in 1789; *Congress* did: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
Brought to you by war.gov
we fired all the GIS specialists and replaced them with AI and it’s FINE
Ooh we've opened our call for small research grants. £10k for any humanities or social sciences research. Open to independent scholars. We use partial randomisation to allocate the funding: random allocation between all that meet the quality threshold www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...
I'm hiring two Post-Doctoral Fellows in International Political Economy/Economic Sociology as part of the ADD project funded by the Velux Foundation. The posts are linked to an AI Sustainability package led by Christina Lioma at KU and me at CBS, drawing insights from comp sci & political economy.
AOL Time Warner
This is big news. www.ft.com/content/96b5...
We will not yield.
#dol #jobsreport
Wild story of how Trump ordered a SEAL raid into North Korea in 2019 to plant a listening device. The SEALs killed everyone on a board a boat that they thought had spotted them, sunk the boat & bodies, and aborted. And Congress was told of none of this. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...
The use of #AI tools in health care raises questions about patient informed consent, necessitating a framework to decide when disclosure is needed. Learn more in this Perspective. ja.ma/424oPR6
BREAKING, from NY Playbook PM: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign an executive order allowing pharmacists to prescribe and administer Covid vaccines to New Yorkers who request them.
Hawaii announced they are joining California, Oregon, and Washington’s West Coast Health Alliance which will provide their own science-based vaccine guidelines and make vaccines accessible to everyone.
TONIGHT AT 6 PM, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025! Join us at Bookends and Beginnings in Evanston for the book launch event for Wired Wisdom: How to Age Better Online! cc: @eszter.com @bookends.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
The president of the United States sent out an email asking supporters to send him $15 to "join the MAGA blitz" to "liberate Chicago." Email here: politicalemails.org/messages/193... www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Washington Square Park right now is full of people dancing salsa. Indestructible! New York City is the greatest.
Congratulations! 🎉
Osaka!
the two americas
Florent! What a time that was.
The browser Duck Duck Go has a lot of advantages.
Lethal force against a civilian vessel in international waters is a war crime if not in self-defense. If not in self-defense, only non-lethal actions, such as warning shots or disabling fire, are allowed. "Not yielding to pursuers" or "suspected of carrying drugs" doesn't carry a death sentence.
🤖📰 Effective YESTERDAY: China has mandated a digital watermark for all AI-generated content. www.cac.gov.cn/2025-03/14/c... Translating in 🧵.
Yesterday the president demanded that evidence about Covid vaccines be shown to the public. Today @apoorvanyt.bsky.social & I run through some of the studies made public over the past 4+ years that show that the vaccines work. Gift link: nyti.ms/46k17Tq
“The moral of the story is: Never trust an A.I. system,” Mr. Etzioni said. “Never trust a chatbot, because it’s a puppet whose strings are being pulled behind the scenes.”
The Department of Energy hired five academics to raise doubts about climate change. 85+ climate experts (organized by @andrewdessler.com) reviewed their report. Our conclusion, detailed in 450 pages of analysis: it is biased, full of errors, and not fit to inform policy making.
"available soon" This should be regulated as a standard practice, before deployment, for all platforms, including AI tools, models, and systems.
OpenAI announced today that parental controls will be available soon for minors’ ChatGPT accounts. openai.com/index/buildi...
Thanks for listening and posting sister friend
Great discussion here with @alondra.bsky.social on #AI and what’s at stake as it proliferates. Looking forward to reading Alondra’s upcoming book, “Auditing AI.” publicinfrastructure.org/podcast/117-...
IYKYK
Naomi Osaka brought her new Labubu to the press room after her win over Coco Gauff at the U.S. Open: “Today’s Labubu is Althea Glitterson” 😭😭😭😭😭
If true, this update is astonishing. The Commission climbed down from a planned break up of Google’s ad business to a mere fine, and then dropped even the fine for fear of offending Trump. This is for market violations that have been proven in U.S. court.
This is literally the largest act of union busting in American history. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/u...
Guilty as charged.
Okay. I just came back to this and you aren’t calling these efforts resegregation yet, you absolutely should be
Unemployment for Black Americans has surged to 7.2%, the highest level since October 2021, when the job market was still recovering from the pandemic. The drop in employment is a warning sign. @wsj.com www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...
me the second the clock hits midnight and turns to sept 1st
Delighted to see this essay about The Second Emancipation in the WSJ. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
This “explicit” is a weird editorial choice. The constitution gives the president no power over this at all. It’s not ambiguous.
FYI www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
why do the bananas need to move around
The US Catholic Bishops’ Labor Day message: Protect the Dignity of Workers as Use of Artificial Intelligence Increases in the Workplace www.usccb.org/news/2025/pr...
a scoopy one from me, with an assist from @accountable.us: Bill Pulte is using Palantir to gather "mortgage fraud" accusations and weaponize them against Dems in order to abet Trump's government capture. but, he formerly disclosed owning Palantir stock—and that's not his only potential conflict:
BREAKING: Social Security Administration chief data officer and whistle-blower Charles Borges has resigned after bombshell report that SSA put highly-sensitive data at risk. He sent out an email to colleagues moments ago. Here is the text of his email shared with me:
Just in time for Labor Day, Trump is ripping up union contracts for more federal workers—gutting the pay, protections, and benefits they’ve earned. Our public servants deserve better. federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2025/...
Art depicting “Sandwich Guy” now at the scene of the alleged misdemeanor.
does Congress still exist?
“We’ve probably underweighted the importance of giving people novel, factual information about how elections are secured,” @brendannyhan.bsky.social says. “It genuinely seems to be information people haven’t been exposed to.” 🧪 #misinformation www.science.org/content/arti...
NEW PIECE: Powell and the Federal Reserve System has already failed to meet the moment and not defending Lisa Cook will seal both Powell's and the Fed's fate. www.crisesnotes.com/powell-will-...
What a cursed sentence (gift link) “The A.I. companies selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections.”
Very, very cool!
On the 20th anniversary of hurricane Katrina, I recommend you read this book: Katrina, A History 1915-2015. This was a disaster a century in the making. It wasn't a "natural disaster," human decisions over decades drove the catastrophe forward. www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
CDC scientists receive a heroes welcome after walking out today.
NEW: Tenure-track position in History at UC Berkeley in the GLOBAL HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY. We are casting a wide net here: *all* periods, places, and fields are under consideration. I'm on the search committee, so do let me know if you have questions.
*Abstracts due by December 1, 2025
We invite submissions that employ robust empirical methods to examine how these technologies are reshaping processes of cultural creation, circulation, and evaluation, with particular attention to their implications for creative labor and social inequalities. Abstracts due by December 1, 2026
This special issue seeks to advance our understanding of how a broad array of intertwining developments in digital and data-intensive technologies are reshaping cultural production. We invite submissions that examine how technologies are shaping processes of creation, circulation, and evaluation.
Call for Papers! "Technology and Inequality in Culture, Media, and the Arts"-a special issue of Poetics, coedited with @jticona.bsky.social + Angèle Christin www.ias.edu/stsv-lab/pla...
Physicians are using A.I. for diagnoses and more. But a new study found evidence that relying on A.I. tools might erode a doctor’s ability to perform fundamental skills without the technology, a phenomenon known as “deskilling.”
Event sign-up link for Wired Wisdom book launch event with @eszter.com on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 6 pm in Evanston, IL, at @bookends.bsky.social www.eventbrite.com/e/eszter-har...
Please join us! @eszter.com and I are launching Wired Wisdom at an in-person book event at @bookends.bsky.social in Evanston, IL, on Sept. 4 at 6 pm! See you there.
“He was the only member of the board to oppose the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern, a tie-up was approved by the regulator in 2023. At the time, Primus said the deal wasn’t in the public interest.”
Herein lies the rub: “By inappropriately applying shared decision-making principles to a scenario where robust evidence strongly supports vaccination, the CDC abandons the clinician’s professional responsibility to offer clear, directive guidance when warranted.”
So pleased you are finding the discussion useful! You can also find a write up of the panel and some additional information here: www.ias.edu/stsv-lab/aig...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxVM...
Gold, the original "critical" mineral
“‘It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science,’ Mr. Zaid and Mr. Lowell wrote. ‘The attack on Dr. Monarez is a warning to every American: Our evidence-based systems are being undermined from within.’”
Vaccines are safe and effective. RFK Jr. isn’t.
cc: @elizabethjoh.bsky.social, especially given how this reasoning might apply in abandoned DNA cases.
9th Circuit: When analyzing whether a person abandoned their phone, giving up rights in it, courts should distinguish b/w abandoning the device & abandoning *the data* on the phone. Here, man who dropped phone after being shot did not abandon his phone or data. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...
This looks incredible and badly needed!!
Want to learn how to craft a compelling op-ed? Watch “Op-Ed Writing for Historians" with @bryanbanksphd.bsky.social, @jelaniya.bsky.social, @mauracunningham.bsky.social, @franhirsch.bsky.social, @brianros1.bsky.social, and moderator @lmansley.bsky.social. #AHAOnline 🗃️
I spoke with @mmasnick.bsky.social who wrote the paper that inspired the creation of bsky (he's now on their board of directors) about the development of @blackskyweb.xyz these last 2.5 yrs. We talk about Blacksky stealing market share from bsky (😉), content moderation, and all the stuff we ship 🚢
Had a great chat with @rudyfraser.com about how Blacksky and the community built around it is a great example of why open social media protocols are so important.
White House suggests vague plan to put government data on the blockchain. "[I]t doesn’t actually solve very many problems beyond maintaining the existence of cryptocurrency... A normal spreadsheet or database typically works just fine for distributing information" gizmodo.com/the-white-ho...
Here's what the third day of elementary school looked like in Mount Pleasant, Washington DC.
As we mourn today's Annunciation Church shooting, the reporting and photojournalism are almost too much to take in; sharing this gift link for those seeking good local coverage from Minneapolis. www.startribune.com/minneapolis-...
Yes
💯
We explore these dynamics in our workshop report: www.ias.edu/sites/defaul... And we invite you to watch the public event which preceded the workshop: “RARE/EARTH: The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals and the AI Supply Chain” held at IAS on June 2, 2025 www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxVM...
When research on AI is disconnected from research on resource ecosystems, we lose opportunities to understand the industry’s broader, interconnected impacts on communities worldwide.
The dominant focus on models and software risks obscuring the environmental and social realities: from water scarcity to pollution to strained energy systems.
Such collaboration—linking environmental justice, human rights, and economic development with AI research—can generate new frameworks for both analysis and action.
Interdisciplinary research is critical. Bridging computer science, social science, mining, energy, and climate expertise can open new ways of contextualizing AI within today’s industrial and geopolitical transformations.
This framing often sidelines the Global South. Producer countries are not passive suppliers; they are active participants and decision-makers with agency over how their resources are valued and governed.
Yet minerals are only part of the story. AI’s growth is increasingly tied to land, water, energy, and labor—all situated within complex geopolitical competition, most visibly between the US and China 🇺🇸🇨🇳.
Some are calling this the *next critical minerals supercycle*. The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure are driving demand for resources like cobalt and lithium—reshaping mining sectors and global trade patterns.
Out now! Summary Report: Workshop on the Geopolitics of Critical Minerals and the AI Supply Chain www.ias.edu/sites/defaul... The report highlights how AI’s expansion is tied to critical minerals, energy, water, land, and labor—and why interdisciplinary approaches are essential for AI governance.🧵
We explore these dynamics in the workshop report (www.ias.edu/sites/defaul...) and invite you to watch the public event which preceded the workshop: “RARE/EARTH: The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals and the AI Supply Chain” held at @IAS on June 2, 2025. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxVM...
When research on AI is disconnected from research on resource ecosystems, we lose opportunities to understand the industry’s broader, interconnected impacts on communities worldwide.
The dominant focus on models and software risks obscuring the environmental and social realities: from water scarcity to pollution to strained energy systems.
Thanks for flagging!
www.ias.edu/sites/defaul...
www.ias.edu/sites/defaul...
Such collaboration—linking environmental justice, human rights, and economic development with AI research—can generate new frameworks for both analysis and action.
Interdisciplinary research is critical. Bridging computer science, social science, mining, energy, and climate expertise can open new ways of contextualizing AI within today’s industrial and geopolitical transformations.
This framing often sidelines the Global South. Producer countries are not passive suppliers; they are active participants and decision-makers with agency over how their resources are valued and governed.