Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Nathalie Maréchal, PhD

Edward Perez @eddieperez.bsky.social · 13h

An important thread that’s not simply about the University of California.

It highlights the misguided administrator-managerial thinking that has become endemic in higher education across the country.

Professors are the lifeblood of the academy.

Stop treating them like gig workers.
👇👇👇

Sarah T Roberts, PhD @ubiquity75.xyz · 1d

The President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, PPFP, has been a jewel in the crown for faculty development and recruitment at the University of California for years and the results have been an expanded faculty with almost 100% tenure rates — unprecedented success.

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

Again, this precise use case is why these systems exist-to proliferate people’s racist (transphobic, misogynistic…) imaginary at scale. This should not be seen as a “misuse” but rather the product being used exactly as intended.

Racist Influencers Using OpenAI's Sora to Make it Look Like Poor People Are Selling Food Stamps for Cash

Folks looking for evidence of SNAP recipients as welfare queens have no shortage of AI generated schlock to use as justification.

futurism.com

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Nathalie Maréchal, PhD @nathaliemarechal.net · 2d

This is absolutely savage. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

The AI bubble has reached its ‘fried chicken’ phase

This is nuts. When’s the crash?

giftarticle.ft.com

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Nathalie Maréchal, PhD @nathaliemarechal.net · 3d

What a stupid timeline we live in.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 3d

I use Claude (an AI) to scan my posts for spelling and grammar errors. On the most recent post (about the East Wing, link below), I got a really amazing addendum.
www.pbump.net/o/yes-most-a...

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Brandy Zadrozny @brandyzadrozny.bsky.social · 4d

New: Progressive congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh has been indicted over protests outside Chicago-area ICE facility after videos of confrontations with federal agents have fueled right-wing calls for her arrest. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/k...

Kat Abughazaleh indicted over protests outside Chicago-area ICE facility

The progressive Democratic congressional candidate's videos of confrontations with federal agents have fueled right-wing calls for her arrest.

www.msnbc.com

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Center for Democracy & Technology @cdt.org · 4d

CDT joined a coalition of civil society organizations in filing comments with OSTP in response to their Request for Information on Regulatory Reform on AI, calling for them to maintain existing civil rights protections as a matter of law and policy. cdt.org/insights/cdt...

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 4d

lol no they absolutely will not, for so many reasons

I'd bet everything I own that in 20 years there will never be more than 1000 people in space at any one time. (It'll probably be well under 100.) Nobody will be living there with their kids.

Tech billionaires don't know a damn thing about tech.

Jeff Bezos Says He Doesn't Understand Why Anybody Alive Now Would Be 'Discouraged'—Because Soon, 'Millions Of People Will Be Living In Space'

Jeff Bezos says the future is so bright, he "doesn't see how anybody can be discouraged who is alive right now." Speaking at Italian Tech Week 2025 earlier this month with Ferrari and Stellantis chair...

tech.yahoo.com

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Center for Democracy & Technology @cdt.org · 5d

Join CDT, @datasociety.bsky.social & @ACLU.org “Advocating with Evidence: Lessons for Tech Researchers in Civil Society” — a conversation on using research to advance equity and tech accountability.

📅 Nov 13 | 10–11 AM ET | Online

Advocating with Evidence: Lessons for Tech Researchers in Civil Society

Advocating with Evidence: Lessons for Tech Researchers in Civil Society November 13, 2025, 10-11am ET online Civil society is struggling to address how technology and the tech industry contribute to eroding democracy, amplifying bias, and accelerating hateful ideologies. Timely, accessible findings are necessary to inform policy and advocacy, but it can be challenging to produce […]

cdt.org

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Matthew Noe @noethematt.bsky.social · 6d

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"

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Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 5d

After January 6, 2021, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Comcast publicly pledged to stop donating to politicians who sought to undermine the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election.

In 2025, these companies have stopped worrying about democracy and are buying Trump a ballroom.

These Corporations Stopped Worrying About Democracy and Bought Trump a Ballroom

It has been nearly five years since the 2020 presidential election, but President Trump continues to baselessly insist it was stolen.

popular.info

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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 5d

(4) Trump and the Republicans don't have an advantage over Democrats because they *better understand heartland Americans.*

They have an advantage over Democrats because they created their own universe of propaganda outlets, and then went out and bought all the mainstream outlets.

Duh.

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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 5d

This is so bleak:

www.404media.co/a16z-is-fund...

Last week, I wrote about Doublespeed, essentially a click farm that sells “synthetic influencers” to astroturf whatever product or service you want across social media, despite it being a clear violation of every social media platform's policy on inauthentic behavior. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

a16z’s Speedrun is also backing:

Creed: An AI company “rooted in Christian Values” which produces Lenny, a “Bible-based AI buddy who's always got your back with wise words, scripture-inspired guidance, and a listening ear whenever you need it.”
Zingroll: The “world’s largest Netflix-quality AI streaming platform,” which is another way of saying it’s a Netflix populated exclusively with AI Slop.
Vega: which is building “AI-powered social orbits.” What does that mean? Not entirely clear, but the company has produced one of the most beautiful Mad Libs paragraphs I’ve ever seen: “We’re building the largest textual data moat on human relationships by gamifying the way people leave notes for each other. For the first time, LLMs can analyze millions of raw, human-written notes at scale and turn them into structured meaning, powering the most annotated social graph ever created.”
Moona Health: an AI-powered Sleep care app the company says is covered by insurance. “Our AI-powered platform automates insurance claims and scheduling and analyzes sleep data – providing personalized session guidelines to therapists,” Moona says.
Jooba: “The world’s first autonomous recruiting firm.”
Margin: “The World’s first AI powered credit card.” Margin says “Customers earn points, with dynamic rewards that adapt to their preferences in real time.”
First Voyage: A wellness app that gives you AI “mythological pets that turn wellness into play.”
Axon Capital: billed as “DeepMind for Finance,” Axon says it has “pioneered brain-inspired, low-latency AI for financial markets.”

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Nathalie Maréchal, PhD @nathaliemarechal.net · 5d

I simply cannot with OpenAI’s “we are going to automate scientific research” and “discover new science” nonsense. Like, even more than I cannot with a whole lot of “AI” nonsense.

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Nathalie Maréchal, PhD @nathaliemarechal.net · 6d

What a time to be alive 😐

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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 6d

impossible to overstate the degree to which we are being governed by people whose formative politics is gamergate, but DHS posting Halo memes to recruit for ICE is pretty close.

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Emily Baker-White @ebakerwhite.bsky.social · 9d

I made a verison of this argument last month in the NYT. We absolutely need more transparency about what messages tech giants are pushing on us and why.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/o...

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Nathalie Maréchal, PhD @nathaliemarechal.net · 10d

Despicable.

Katie Harbath @katieharbath.bsky.social · 10d

Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.

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Lisa Bonos @lisabonos.bsky.social · 10d

Heard from many of you! Here it is: wapo.st/3L1t9v0

Meet the people who dare to say no to artificial intelligence

Some students, workers and artists are trying to avoid using artificial intelligence tools, citing concerns about accuracy, privacy or undermining their own skills.

wapo.st

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Mags Online @mags.colvett.online · 15d

Something maybe worth noting is that all the frog costumes and signs and good-natured memeing came about because a wide spectrum of Americans saw someone in direct, brave confrontation with ICE—getting pepperballed and standing their ground—and thought “that’s awesome. That person is a hero”

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Gwen Snyder is undead @gwensnyder.bsky.social · 15d

I don't think folks have any conception of how radicalized a lot of moms are becoming as they go through shit like "will my babysitter get kidnapped" and "will my child be able to get the measles vaccine"

Cameron @cameroncorduroy.bsky.social · 15d

every smug internet communist tweet about showing up to a No Kings protest with an abolish ICE shirt to scare the libs is getting completely mogged by the real-life winemoms showing up with slogans like "ICE will melt in hell"

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Ezra Levin ❌👑 @ezralevin.bsky.social · 15d

Leah and I just got off the stage in DC. More than 200k. Double what we saw for Hands Off! This movement is incredible.

We’re better than fear. We’re braver than billionaires. We’re bigger than ever. And we will win. #NoKings

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Free DC @freedcproject.bsky.social · 15d

"As a result of Trump's big, beautiful disgraceful bill, which made massive cuts to medicaid and the affordable care act, 15 million low-income and working class Americans are going to lose the health care they desperately need to stay alive." @sanders.senate.gov #NoKings

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ARTICLE 19 @article19.bsky.social · 17d

Folks at Tech Policy Press have launched an 'Ideas for Europe’s Future' series! As part of it, they will be publishing perspectives from leading experts who joined out Future of Democracy event
@openmarkets.bsky.social

Read @ramshajahangir.bsky.social's great write up & stay tuned for more

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 17d

“Enforcing laws is keeping the promises you gave,” EU's former competition chief Margrethe Vestager said at a conference in Brussels this week. Tech Policy Press is publishing an "Ideas for Europe’s Future" series to explore how Europe can act decisively.

What Europe Needs to Lead the Fight for Democracy | TechPolicy.Press

Starting today, Tech Policy Press will publish perspectives from leading experts as part of an Ideas for Europe’s Future series.

buff.ly

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Nathalie Maréchal, PhD @nathaliemarechal.net · 16d

More of this energy, please, and make it national!

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 17d

We believe that in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, working people deserve a dignified life.

And to the billionaires who think this movement is an existential threat to their corruption of our democracy: you're right.

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Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 19d

It’s important to understand what someone like Russel Vought is saying when he terminates the entire CDC IRB. It’s a statement that there should be no limits on the ways a marginalized person’s bodily integrity can be violated, and he knows that.

Formal review procedures for institutional human subject studies were originally developed in direct response to research abuses in the 20th century.
Among the most notorious of these abuses were the experiments of Nazi physicians, which became a focus of the post-World War II Doctors' Trial, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a long-term project conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S.
Public Health Service, and numerous human radiation experiments conducted during the Cold War. Other controversial U.S. projects undertaken during this era include the Milgram obedience experiment, the Stanford prison experiment, and Project MKULTRA, a series of classified mind control studies organized by the CIA.
The result of these abuses was the National Research Act of 1974 and the development of the Belmont Report, which outlined the primary ethical principles in human subjects review; these include
"respect for persons", "beneficence", and "justice".
An IRB may approve only research for which the risks to subjects are balanced by potential benefits to society, and for which the selection of subjects presents a fair or just distribution of risks and benefits to eligible participants. A bona fide process for obtaining informed consent from participants is also generally needed. However, this requirement may be waived in certain circumstances - for example, when the risk of harm to participants is clearlv minimal.

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