britt paris
@hellobrittparis.bsky.social
critical scholar of Internet infrastructure & emergent technology | solidarity | Rutgers AAUP-AFT | views mine
https://www.ucpress.edu/books/radical-infrastructure/paper
https://www.ucpress.edu/books/radical-infrastructure/paper
Reposted by britt paris
In the media coverage of Amazon layoffs this week, how many of the headlines and press hits conveyed the point below?… or are most media outlets lazily providing a completely different message to the public?
www.cnn.com/2025/10/28/b...
www.cnn.com/2025/10/28/b...
October 30, 2025 at 1:00 PM
In the media coverage of Amazon layoffs this week, how many of the headlines and press hits conveyed the point below?… or are most media outlets lazily providing a completely different message to the public?
www.cnn.com/2025/10/28/b...
www.cnn.com/2025/10/28/b...
Reposted by britt paris
Thank you to the Daily Bruin for reporting on the latest of a string of big-ticket IT failures (article from May, but ever-relevant, esp in light of current efforts to centralize IT) dailybruin.com/2025/05/13/o...
‘One timeline after the other was not met’ – UCLA’s $213 million project is failing - Daily Bruin
This post was updated May 22 at 9:48 p.m. UCLA has spent at least $213 million on the Ascend Finance Transformation project, and yet, seven years after the project’s launch, it has few concrete accomp...
dailybruin.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Thank you to the Daily Bruin for reporting on the latest of a string of big-ticket IT failures (article from May, but ever-relevant, esp in light of current efforts to centralize IT) dailybruin.com/2025/05/13/o...
Reposted by britt paris
🚨NEW PAPER ALERT 🚨 @tamigraph.bsky.social @briana-v.bsky.social and I discuss wellness chatbots, their labor implications, & "private vibes" vs "privacy". We call for critical human-AI communication scholarship that takes into account context & political economy: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A chatbot for the soul: mental health care, privacy, and intimacy in AI-based conversational agents - Communication and Change
Artificial intelligence-based conversational agents—chatbots—are increasingly integrated into telehealth platforms, employee wellness programs, and mobile applications to address structural gaps in me...
link.springer.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:34 PM
🚨NEW PAPER ALERT 🚨 @tamigraph.bsky.social @briana-v.bsky.social and I discuss wellness chatbots, their labor implications, & "private vibes" vs "privacy". We call for critical human-AI communication scholarship that takes into account context & political economy: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by britt paris
From an Amazon Employees for Climate Justice statement:
“They’re pushing this narrative that AI is transformative and that’s why they’re making these cuts. But leadership is spending 100 billion this year alone on the new data centers; they have to find that money elsewhere,” said one AWS engineer.
“They’re pushing this narrative that AI is transformative and that’s why they’re making these cuts. But leadership is spending 100 billion this year alone on the new data centers; they have to find that money elsewhere,” said one AWS engineer.
October 28, 2025 at 6:21 PM
From an Amazon Employees for Climate Justice statement:
“They’re pushing this narrative that AI is transformative and that’s why they’re making these cuts. But leadership is spending 100 billion this year alone on the new data centers; they have to find that money elsewhere,” said one AWS engineer.
“They’re pushing this narrative that AI is transformative and that’s why they’re making these cuts. But leadership is spending 100 billion this year alone on the new data centers; they have to find that money elsewhere,” said one AWS engineer.
Reposted by britt paris
"Cooperatively run structures are a path forward when we're seeing systems collapse."
Proud to be one of 6(+???) worker-led newsrooms in @tinynewscollective.bsky.social.
Here's how to join us, feat. interviews with our co-founder @maddiepoore.bsky.social and @soleilho.com of @coyotemedia.org:
Proud to be one of 6(+???) worker-led newsrooms in @tinynewscollective.bsky.social.
Here's how to join us, feat. interviews with our co-founder @maddiepoore.bsky.social and @soleilho.com of @coyotemedia.org:
How to start a worker-led news outlet: A tale of two newsrooms
How two newsrooms — The 51st and COYOTE Media Collective — launched their worker-led organizations
www.tinynewsco.org
October 27, 2025 at 8:40 PM
"Cooperatively run structures are a path forward when we're seeing systems collapse."
Proud to be one of 6(+???) worker-led newsrooms in @tinynewscollective.bsky.social.
Here's how to join us, feat. interviews with our co-founder @maddiepoore.bsky.social and @soleilho.com of @coyotemedia.org:
Proud to be one of 6(+???) worker-led newsrooms in @tinynewscollective.bsky.social.
Here's how to join us, feat. interviews with our co-founder @maddiepoore.bsky.social and @soleilho.com of @coyotemedia.org:
Reposted by britt paris
It's not going to be fun when the bubble pops (and it won't even make AI go away). Disaster capitalism will be ready.
I think we need to figure out what it would mean for us to get ready in turn.
I think we need to figure out what it would mean for us to get ready in turn.
There's been endless talk about an AI bubble, but less about exactly how, why, and how much it's a bubble. So I turned to the framework put forward by scholars Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch, authors of "Bubbles and Crashes," for assessing tech bubbles.
Spoiler: On a scale of 1 to 8, AI is an 8
Spoiler: On a scale of 1 to 8, AI is an 8
AI Is the Bubble to Burst Them All
I talked to the scholars who literally wrote the book on tech bubbles—and applied their test.
www.wired.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:57 PM
It's not going to be fun when the bubble pops (and it won't even make AI go away). Disaster capitalism will be ready.
I think we need to figure out what it would mean for us to get ready in turn.
I think we need to figure out what it would mean for us to get ready in turn.
Reposted by britt paris
New preprint alert! 🚨
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
October 25, 2025 at 5:05 PM
New preprint alert! 🚨
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
Reposted by britt paris
Please understand that the only reason this has been released is because of the UCLA faculty association who filed a request and challenged the refusal in court. If you are a UC faculty member, join your FA!
BREAKING: The California Supreme Court has DENIED the University of California's request that it block the release of a 28-page, $1.2-billion fine Trump administration UCLA settlement offer. UC is required to give a faculty group the document today. www.latimes.com/california/s...
UC must publicly release Trump administration's $1.2-billion settlement proposal
The California Supreme Court on Friday declined a request from the University of California to block the release of a roughly $1.2-billion Trump UCLA settlement. UCLA is required to share the document...
www.latimes.com
October 25, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Please understand that the only reason this has been released is because of the UCLA faculty association who filed a request and challenged the refusal in court. If you are a UC faculty member, join your FA!
October 24, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Great article—AI in higher ed is about the crisis of higher ed, long in the making. Cites the AAUP report on AI. we are seeing cracks in the inevitability framing of AI—the only way out of this is together!
October 24, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Great article—AI in higher ed is about the crisis of higher ed, long in the making. Cites the AAUP report on AI. we are seeing cracks in the inevitability framing of AI—the only way out of this is together!
Reposted by britt paris
Belgian AI scientists call on colleagues to keep AI out of the classroom. apache.be/2025/10/24/-...
October 24, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Belgian AI scientists call on colleagues to keep AI out of the classroom. apache.be/2025/10/24/-...
UC faculty and the @aaup.org demand the end of mandatory surveillance software use across the UC system. The future belongs to people, not to big brother!
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
University of California faculty push back against Big Brother cybersecurity mandate
School officials defend software as bulwark against ransomware, but professors fear potential surveillance of their devices
www.science.org
October 24, 2025 at 12:34 PM
UC faculty and the @aaup.org demand the end of mandatory surveillance software use across the UC system. The future belongs to people, not to big brother!
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by britt paris
Actual panopticon.
NY school district's AI-powered classroom surveillance worries civil liberties advocates | StateScoop
The New York arm of the ACLU says the XSponse system was installed without public disclosure and risks student privacy.
statescoop.com
October 22, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Actual panopticon.
Reposted by britt paris
"unless you are building war tools for a US government program"
*glares at the university of michigan's planned billion-dollar AI datacenter project in collaboration with los alamos national laboratories*
*glares at the university of michigan's planned billion-dollar AI datacenter project in collaboration with los alamos national laboratories*
If it’s possible, there’s even less demand for AI than there was for “civic discourse”. Unless you are building war tools for a U.S. government program, new programs better have tremendous unmet student demand. I haven’t seen any evidence of that.
October 20, 2025 at 12:24 PM
"unless you are building war tools for a US government program"
*glares at the university of michigan's planned billion-dollar AI datacenter project in collaboration with los alamos national laboratories*
*glares at the university of michigan's planned billion-dollar AI datacenter project in collaboration with los alamos national laboratories*
Reposted by britt paris
Next Weds 10/29 at 7 PM, we're having a party and panel at Busboys Takoma DC for @jacobsilverman.com's Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley. All welcome! Because we're in DC, Corey Frayer, Sandeep Vaheesan, and I will join Jacob to talk DOGE, crypto, and the tech right.
October 20, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Next Weds 10/29 at 7 PM, we're having a party and panel at Busboys Takoma DC for @jacobsilverman.com's Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley. All welcome! Because we're in DC, Corey Frayer, Sandeep Vaheesan, and I will join Jacob to talk DOGE, crypto, and the tech right.
Reposted by britt paris
brother it *is* the trap
Can AI Avoid the Enshittification Trap?
Cory Doctorow’s theory of “enshittification” explains how tech platforms rot from within. As AI grows more profitable—and powerful—it risks the same fate.
www.wired.com
October 20, 2025 at 5:53 PM
brother it *is* the trap
Reposted by britt paris
Reposted by britt paris
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
October 17, 2025 at 12:16 PM
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
Reposted by britt paris
On November 18, join organizers and experts for a cross-issue panel discussion exploring how workers and communities are pushing back: From Our Workplaces to Our Communities: Stop the AI Surveillance Pipeline Now! bit.ly/stopAIsurveillance
October 8, 2025 at 3:05 PM
On November 18, join organizers and experts for a cross-issue panel discussion exploring how workers and communities are pushing back: From Our Workplaces to Our Communities: Stop the AI Surveillance Pipeline Now! bit.ly/stopAIsurveillance
Reposted by britt paris
"chill is an especially harmful but efficient form of speech control, as the Administration well knows. Direct censorship is laborious, ad hoc, and happens only after the fact. Chill, by contrast, is a form of prior restraint administered by the speaker themselves out of fear"
I wrote about an under-appreciated aspect of AAUP v. Rubio. It is the first case of the Trump Era to explicitly identify and reject the primary and most pernicious form of speech suppression employed by this Administration: Chill.
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/aaup...
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/aaup...
Balkinization: AAUP v. Rubio and the Big Chill
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
October 7, 2025 at 7:38 PM
"chill is an especially harmful but efficient form of speech control, as the Administration well knows. Direct censorship is laborious, ad hoc, and happens only after the fact. Chill, by contrast, is a form of prior restraint administered by the speaker themselves out of fear"
Reposted by britt paris
📊 New in Big Data & Society!
Lindsay Weinberg examines how Microsoft’s Power BI is reshaping Danish higher ed governance—turning students into data points, linking programs to job metrics, and pushing new forms of accountability.
🔗 Read here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Lindsay Weinberg examines how Microsoft’s Power BI is reshaping Danish higher ed governance—turning students into data points, linking programs to job metrics, and pushing new forms of accountability.
🔗 Read here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
September 22, 2025 at 10:23 AM
📊 New in Big Data & Society!
Lindsay Weinberg examines how Microsoft’s Power BI is reshaping Danish higher ed governance—turning students into data points, linking programs to job metrics, and pushing new forms of accountability.
🔗 Read here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Lindsay Weinberg examines how Microsoft’s Power BI is reshaping Danish higher ed governance—turning students into data points, linking programs to job metrics, and pushing new forms of accountability.
🔗 Read here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Reposted by britt paris
i made this meme which is better than the article:
October 1, 2025 at 8:32 PM
i made this meme which is better than the article:
Reposted by britt paris
WE WON: "This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall w/in..this district court squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in US..have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally “yes, they do.”"
October 1, 2025 at 12:03 AM
WE WON: "This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall w/in..this district court squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in US..have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally “yes, they do.”"
You all probably saw this already.
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring
Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.
www.bloomberg.com
September 30, 2025 at 9:20 PM
You all probably saw this already.
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
Reposted by britt paris
Rutgers LIS is hiring in information policy, ad here: jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/258...
Applications due 10/15.
Rutgers - in NJ - is a good place ot be, given the state of things. Strong union. Close to NYC and Philly.
Holler if you have questions.
Applications due 10/15.
Rutgers - in NJ - is a good place ot be, given the state of things. Strong union. Close to NYC and Philly.
Holler if you have questions.
August 26, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Rutgers LIS is hiring in information policy, ad here: jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/258...
Applications due 10/15.
Rutgers - in NJ - is a good place ot be, given the state of things. Strong union. Close to NYC and Philly.
Holler if you have questions.
Applications due 10/15.
Rutgers - in NJ - is a good place ot be, given the state of things. Strong union. Close to NYC and Philly.
Holler if you have questions.