Professor of Ethics & Technology @ Hertie School, Berlin. Interests: Artificial & Natural Intelligence; Behavioural Ecology; Cooperation; Digital Governance. Social media policy: https://joanna-bryson.blogspot.com/2024/10/guidance-to-my-social-media.html
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I mean if you put it on a single axis, their standard is very low and we're clearly freer. But if instead you define "freedom" in a multi dimensional space and say that the more like the US you are the more free you are, then we'll be in more trouble. Which is likely given US domestic "justice" ATM.
I get that AI has changed search competition and the Google antitrust case. I also remember when the government didn't sue Google over antitrust in 2012/2013, it was partly based on the belief that mobile would jolt competition and blunt Google's power. That belief was 100% wrong.
If you're an R programmer with some expertise on Data Validation and want to work in a short mission-driven project this is a cool chance to work with us! 👇
stone knives and bearskins: I couldn't find this article with google scholar, gemini, kagi, or nature's own search. I had to find it cited in a Dennett article and then look for it by volume number on the Nature webpage. An established biologist takes a long-before-nobel modeller very seriously.
Any chance companies will start altering their nominal domicile rather than comply with onerous obligations like this?
If we’re judged by the standard they demonstrate we should be fine. Unless we’re supposed to conform to it not rise above it.
But good news: We can get reliable information on laws such as the Digital Services Act via very helpful letters from a group of superb experts led by @hutko.bsky.social husovec.eu/wp-content/u... husovec.eu/wp-content/u...
1/4 Yday there was a hearing on "Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation" in the US Congress. It's the latest in misleading attacks on Europe's ability to have its own laws. See this open letter signed by 40 NGOs inc. @algorithmwatch.org about that: algorithmwatch.org/en/open-lett...
The UK is flailing when we need to lead.
New #openaccess book on #AI and #fundamental #rights emerging from the 2024 annual conference of the Digital Law Institute Trier. It critically examines the EU’s rights-driven approach to AI regulation. @benjaminraue.bsky.social @j2bryson.bsky.social irdt-schriften.uni-trier.de/index.php/ir...
Did you like any of his previous books?
I don’t know these guys but sounds interesting? Cc @simonwillison.net
It is a truly awesome turtle pic.
Kate's key questions on that "hearing": Why are we HERE? Why is HE here? Why aren't THEY here?
Can an LLM really model the world from pure text? Yes, this paper argues, because the relations between words depend on relations between objects in the world. Besides, blind people do this! Grounding the Vector Space of an Octopus: Word Meaning from Raw Text link.springer.com/article/10.1... 3/4
Primate Society of Great Britain (PSGB) Meeting National Museum Cardiff, 27-28 November www.psgb.org/pages/14-mee... Registration and abstract submission coming soon! Please share! @mckinneymonkey.bsky.social @inesfuertbauer.bsky.social @willallennz.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social
We usually rely on GDP, trade, or wages to study the past. This amazing paper flips the script. It analyzes 630,000 paintings (1400-2000) to extract emotions and shows how art tracks living standards, wars, inequality, and even climate shocks. (How is this economics? Everything is economics!)
Afghanistan quake: Why are women struggling to get help? After Afghanistan's deadly earthquake, injured women and girls face a dire lack of medical care. Taliban restrictions and cultural barriers leave many without help […]
Judge Strikes Down Trump Administration Funding Freeze to Harvard as Unconstitutional
Maybe someone rewrote our initial notes; I remember more disagreement on initial phrasing.
Chris Hables Gray, AI at War, chapter in his open access book link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #AIEthics #FutureOfWar
Neither of those are my crappy handwriting!!
It drives me insane how many highly-cited publications on #AIEthics (many w/ Floridi in their author list) don't go back to the #PrinciplesOfRobotics despite their being almost identical to the OECD Principles 10 years later (even including the 7 items for colleagues, not just the 5 principles!)
No I don't think I ever met him. Wow, great idea.
Chris Hables Gray, AI at War, chapter in his open access book link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #AIEthics #FutureOfWar
After hiring Violeta Moreno-Lax and @maurogilli.bsky.social, @hertieschool.bsky.social (with the @kiel.institute) is going for a hat trick! Does anyone know a good Professor of International Economics apply.interfolio.com/169770
Argh #PrinciplesOfRobotics. I knew I should have posted this on Mastodon 😡 Why did everyone come to THIS platform? Why not the one with edits! Anyway cc @tonyjprescott.bsky.social because of your 5th anniversary workshop / special issue, @alan-winfield.bsky.social
It's kind of weird but kind of encouraging to hear people chanting as a mantra "responsibility accountability transparency" in their AI talks (I'm attending a UK Westminster Employment "conference" online.) Which reminds me, I found the #PrincipleOfRobotics flipcharts! cc @lilianedwards.bsky.social
So if you can't understand why we feel that way with cars, then we may be misled by anthropomorphism of the AI products to not understanding why people love them, and the celebrity AI "makers" and makes. People somehow want to merge with and codominate through these things.
I think somehow they still feel a part of it. But it's also one of those things – you don't build your own car, but you feel empowered by it. You find the song funny, yet truthful if you do drive (& I only drove when I was a teenager, I haven't even had a license since my MA one expired in ~2005.)
No I don't think so. They want to merge with and be empowered by and yet command a superpower. Did you notice the champaign scene in the video?
Good doggy!
Conjecture – this song tells you everything you need to know about why people want to believe in #AGI www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaEM...
it would be great if you did this @ap.brid.gy so we could share this stuff on mastodon too. I mean I do share the links, but it would be good to have your whole persona there, and it's like zero extra work once you set it up, which is very easy.
🤖📰 Effective YESTERDAY: China has mandated a digital watermark for all AI-generated content. www.cac.gov.cn/2025-03/14/c... Translating in 🧵.
Sarah Hall’s new book, Helm, is in bookshops now and the icing on the cake is this “HUMAN WRITTEN” maker’s mark on the cover to denote that AI was not used in writing this book. Nice one, @faberbooks.bsky.social .
The student is Ray Hossain and he needs a job! More information on the boring place www.linkedin.com/feed/update/... 2/2
More evidence that we haven't been in a binary world order for a very long time. rayh-1.github.io/Ray_Portfoli... Written by one of my students this year after I'd spent several semesters complaining about a similar tool that used Germany not the EU as a third comparator. 1/2
I wonder what proportion of print revenues were porn at various stages of publishing?
The people I worked with at my first job played Leisure Suit Larry a LOT en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure... Original story via Ayesha Khanna, who sends me a newsletter I don't remember signing up for, and doesn't seem to be on bsky www.ayeshakhanna.com
People are shocked! shocked! that 20% of top AI apps are "companions." I have bad news about cable TV, & what the most profitable early computer games were like. I read once that GCHQ found most UK internet usage was video sex between (real-life) partners. www.businessinsider.com/ai-apps-most...
I have finally watched this video about EUV photolithography. It's probably the most accessible and encompassing explanation I have come across over the past few years, with very intuitive examples and very fascinating graphics. Strongly recommended. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B248...
Any chance you're coming to Berlin? Or I will be in Copenhagen first few days of October.
when and where was that? Maybe A is Aura?
Why? Are you on sabbatical hereabouts?
The reporting about the European Commission decision on Google adtech sounds shameful. The Commission had previously made it known that it was going to break Google up. We do not know yet if it is accurate, however. www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
I only just noticed M92A 92 years after Ming's birth, overlapping time stream A? Does Flash actually have multiple time streams?
Does @darthputinkgb.bsky.social know?
News update - in today's midday briefing, the European Commission confirmed that von der Leyen's text messages are reviewed by her chief of staff, Björn Seibert, before deletion. No review by any one else, either within the Commission or independently.
9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
IIRC I wound up attending every one of Mauro's lectures on Geo-Economic & High-Tech Competition this past semester – he was teaching here as an adjunct. I look forward to future collaborations, & am so glad @hertiesecurity.bsky.social raised the €€ for this position. Universities help nations think.
I have been thinking a lot about the fact that the top 10% of Americans now drive 50% of the country's consumer spending (www.marketplace.org/story/2025/0...). This @nytimes.com essay is a great encapsulation of what that means in practice. It's not pretty, and doesn't seem sustainable.
cf. bsky.app/profile/j2br...
Fortunately, it doesn't. Unfortunately, convincing an administration that believes in DOGE but doesn't believe in vaccines of that may be tricky. #DSA #digitalGovernance #ruleOfLaw #digitalSovereignty
I used to agree, then someone explained democratic legitimacy to me. How will the average voter in the EU respond to losing access to every Meta product? This will only be made palatable in the face of a much more evident act of war.
kind of looks like the maroon bells profile, but a) not maroon, b) sheep or something grazing, so probably not CO
In solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla which launches this week in a bid to break the Israeli naval blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, I've recorded a new song for Palestine www.youtube.com/watch?v=1axj...
yeah, no question they are also firing white women a lot, they are racist and sexist for sure
I see that, but I'm wondering if it's a higher rate of black women than black men getting fired, or if black men were never even hired in the first place, & are getting fired with the same likelihood or even higher, but there are just fewer of them. I literally don't know the present demographics.
and I certainly know that some problems have persisted if not enlarged since then, e.g. unjust incarceration rates.
I literally don't know. I haven't really worked in the US since 1991 (though I did do a PhD & postdoc in the 1990s half in MA & half in the UK, but I was kind of heads down) but in the 1980s it was a big issue that black men had even bigger trouble getting hired than black women, 1/2
University of Auckland is hiring a lecturer in social psychology. smrtr.io/tfSY- Please share with your networks.
@alondra.bsky.social are black women getting disproportionately hit in part because black men are still excluded from this level in the federal government, or is the intersectionality going the other way?
Okay. I just came back to this and you aren’t calling these efforts resegregation yet, you absolutely should be
In the early hours of 1 September 1939, Germany's Luftwaffe started bombarding the Polish town of Wieluń. The attack is considered to be the first war crime committed by Nazi Germany in World War II. Bombs destroyed ca. 70 percent of the town's buildings. Video: https://www.wielun.pl
how do you just see American in bsky? I mostly see europe.
Only 10 days left to apply: We are searching for a senior postdoc (3 +3 years) in the field of theoretical ecology and evolution. The position provides the opportunity to closely interact with experimentalists and develop own research projects. Please RT. Details 👇: shorturl.at/iiiOv
I preferred 2015, though of course Belarus is occupied by a country actively attacking us. bsky.app/profile/j2br...
Is there a #mastodon instance (or any other kind of thing interoperable with the #fediverse) that supports editing links between elements of a thread so you can fix errors in sequencing? If so I would happily migrate and help fund! #lisp #c #microblogging
bsky.app/profile/j2br...
If you’re ever in Berlin, you should check out the computer game museum. I hadn’t realised it was such a museum of cybernetics, but of course.
Before we had photography no one doctored photos. The point is unattributed photos are no longer any kind of evidence which is a shame but not THAT much of a regression.
Mastodon says it doesn’t ‘have the means’ to comply with age verification laws
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:
On one hand, reducing car use reduces urban pollution. But on the other, everyone likes it and cities become more livable
what about Nature? bsky.app/profile/j2br...
I used to feel that way about Star Wars (IV)
ojs.weizenbaum-institut.de/index.php/wj...
“They will also “exchange on a report” about how much of a market there is for companies who want to use European cloud providers as back-up to US hyperscalers.” “The duo are also planning to hold a digital sovereignty summit on 18 November with the Commission and other EU countries.”
we had facts before we had photography
more academic versions of that latter onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... and also ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025arXi...
RT means I need to find this in the morning, but the moral agent line is absolute BS when we're actually talking about large corporate services with a tiny facade of personality facing one gullible user.
bsky.app/profile/j2br...
“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...
does Congress still exist?
Sex differences in associations between adversity and biological ageing https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.28.25334645v1
see short thread (2 prior posts) bsky.app/profile/j2br...
Strong recommend: conference proceedings „Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Rights: The AI Act of the European Union and its implications for global technology regulation” More info: irdt.uni-trier.de/artificial-i... Open-Access: irdt-schriften.uni-trier.de/index.php/ir... #AIEthics #AIAct
but you get more on mastodon, in my experience, and I have like 1/8 the followers there I do here. Either bluesky is all up its own filters it builds, or overly inhibited from reposting.
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:
Kudos to EU Executive VP @teresaribera.ec.europa.eu for standing up to Trump on Big Tech: EU must be prepared to walk away from trade deal if the US retaliates against our digital laws. “We cannot play with our values just to accommodate the concerns of others.” www.ft.com/content/010c...
I was going to skype "even if #Tesla never had the data, THAT would be obstruction of justice." AI companies are morally and in the EU at least legally obliged to keep evidence of having followed due diligence. But look at THIS smoking gun: 1/2 wapo.st/46dCoQI mastodon.social/@j2bryson/11...
IDK if I buy that all the scientists have moved here, though I guess Boden was pretty interesting to some non scientists.
Boden's "Is Metabolism Necessary" from 1999 is a brilliant critique of the functionalist abstractions of Alife: perfect for undergrads, punchy, and prescient with respect to current debates around functionalism in PhilMind. www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4...
Very neat that Margaret Boden studied with Margaret Masterman. Some potentially interesting history of philosophy to be done on the Cambridge Language Research Unit, which Mary Hesse also had some interest in (see Hesse's 1959 paper "On Defining Analogy.") www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...
"Moments [after the crash] the data was automatically “unlinked” from the 2019 Tesla Model S at the scene, meaning the local copy was marked for deletion, a standard practice for Teslas in such incidents." Another one straight into the syllabus, argh. #AIAct #systemsAI #GiftArticle
I was going to skype "even if #Tesla never had the data, THAT would be obstruction of justice." AI companies are morally and in the EU at least legally obliged to keep evidence of having followed due diligence. But look at THIS smoking gun: 1/2 wapo.st/46dCoQI mastodon.social/@j2bryson/11...
So for example someone hostile could make something that looks like a stop sign or a billboard to a human but discloses sensitive information to enemy troops with AI goggles. There was a huge cottage industry of threat papers that came out of that one I cited, and a lot of research funding.