Margaret Mitchell
@mmitchell.bsky.social
Researcher trying to shape AI towards positive outcomes. ML & Ethics +birds. Generally trying to do the right thing. TIME 100 | TED speaker | Senate testimony provider | Navigating public life as a recluse.
Former: Google, Microsoft; Current: Hugging Face
Former: Google, Microsoft; Current: Hugging Face
There's this form of behavioral engineering/coercion going on to use AI when you're not even trying to. Ex: Enterprise Google Slides replaced "Upload an Image", with "Generate an Image" (right?), requiring extra work +adaptation to sidestep the AI-as-default push. It drives me bonkers.
November 10, 2025 at 7:18 PM
There's this form of behavioral engineering/coercion going on to use AI when you're not even trying to. Ex: Enterprise Google Slides replaced "Upload an Image", with "Generate an Image" (right?), requiring extra work +adaptation to sidestep the AI-as-default push. It drives me bonkers.
🪶 Golden-crowned Kinglets at the water spout.
November 9, 2025 at 6:46 AM
🪶 Golden-crowned Kinglets at the water spout.
🤖 Did you know your voice might be cloned without your consent from just *one sentence* of audio?
That's not great. So with @frimelle.bsky.social, we brainstormed a new idea for developers who want to curb malicious use: ✨The Voice Consent Gate.✨
Details, code, here: huggingface.co/blog/voice-c...
That's not great. So with @frimelle.bsky.social, we brainstormed a new idea for developers who want to curb malicious use: ✨The Voice Consent Gate.✨
Details, code, here: huggingface.co/blog/voice-c...
October 29, 2025 at 2:26 PM
🤖 Did you know your voice might be cloned without your consent from just *one sentence* of audio?
That's not great. So with @frimelle.bsky.social, we brainstormed a new idea for developers who want to curb malicious use: ✨The Voice Consent Gate.✨
Details, code, here: huggingface.co/blog/voice-c...
That's not great. So with @frimelle.bsky.social, we brainstormed a new idea for developers who want to curb malicious use: ✨The Voice Consent Gate.✨
Details, code, here: huggingface.co/blog/voice-c...
Screensnapshot of our times. Corporate pressure to use AI creates bad outcomes with real-life consequences; seeking to unpack the problem yields more pressure to indulge in the very thing causing the problem.
October 26, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Screensnapshot of our times. Corporate pressure to use AI creates bad outcomes with real-life consequences; seeking to unpack the problem yields more pressure to indulge in the very thing causing the problem.
Life situations are bleak right now for a lot of people. In tech, the "Venn Diagram" of (1) positive work and (2) making enough money to support your family is increasingly non-overlapping. We all do what we can.
This image has been living in my mind rent-free for months.
This image has been living in my mind rent-free for months.
October 24, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Life situations are bleak right now for a lot of people. In tech, the "Venn Diagram" of (1) positive work and (2) making enough money to support your family is increasingly non-overlapping. We all do what we can.
This image has been living in my mind rent-free for months.
This image has been living in my mind rent-free for months.
🎭 As a Samuel Beckett and Alex Winter fan, I highly, highly *highly* recommend going to see this version of Godot. Laugh-out-loud funny, masterfully handled some of the confusions from text. Use of funnel as stage was brilliant. Only props were hats and shoes. Beckett would be proud.
October 9, 2025 at 5:49 PM
🎭 As a Samuel Beckett and Alex Winter fan, I highly, highly *highly* recommend going to see this version of Godot. Laugh-out-loud funny, masterfully handled some of the confusions from text. Use of funnel as stage was brilliant. Only props were hats and shoes. Beckett would be proud.
Apparently this was Portland last night. Gosh I love my home away from home. ❤️
October 8, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Apparently this was Portland last night. Gosh I love my home away from home. ❤️
This post about Waffles that’s going viral doesn’t credit (what I believe to be) the source, Bravo Coolee, on Twitter a few years ago. Just wanna shout out the original. Still viral thru another person’s rewrite today.
October 5, 2025 at 10:41 PM
This post about Waffles that’s going viral doesn’t credit (what I believe to be) the source, Bravo Coolee, on Twitter a few years ago. Just wanna shout out the original. Still viral thru another person’s rewrite today.
My #SixOnSaturday with Fringe Tree berries, pink Wax Begonia flowers, just-opened crimson Mums, Black-capped Chickadee eating a Dogwood berry, scarlet Nasturtium, red blueberry leaf fallen into native PNW Slough Sedge.
October 5, 2025 at 3:43 PM
My #SixOnSaturday with Fringe Tree berries, pink Wax Begonia flowers, just-opened crimson Mums, Black-capped Chickadee eating a Dogwood berry, scarlet Nasturtium, red blueberry leaf fallen into native PNW Slough Sedge.
#SixOnSaturday appreciating the first Saturday of autumn
September 28, 2025 at 4:38 AM
#SixOnSaturday appreciating the first Saturday of autumn
🪶 🎃 It’s Halloween deco season for many — remember that those gauzy fake spider webs trap and kill birds. Don’t use them. OTOH, consider making a bird-feeder pumpkin or sticking decos on windows, which helps birds.
More here: www.audubon.org/magazine/how...
More here: www.audubon.org/magazine/how...
September 26, 2025 at 3:36 PM
🪶 🎃 It’s Halloween deco season for many — remember that those gauzy fake spider webs trap and kill birds. Don’t use them. OTOH, consider making a bird-feeder pumpkin or sticking decos on windows, which helps birds.
More here: www.audubon.org/magazine/how...
More here: www.audubon.org/magazine/how...
This probably won't reach the very people who should know, but apparently I've been put on all kinds of (mostly spam) block lists and lists accusing stuff I'm vocally against, leading to me being blocked when uncritically accepted without examination. Great way to erase voices eh.
September 23, 2025 at 9:47 PM
This probably won't reach the very people who should know, but apparently I've been put on all kinds of (mostly spam) block lists and lists accusing stuff I'm vocally against, leading to me being blocked when uncritically accepted without examination. Great way to erase voices eh.
Oh hey! Nobody told me today was the rapture! TIME TO EAT JUNK FOOD AND TOUCH MUSEUM STUFF!
September 23, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Oh hey! Nobody told me today was the rapture! TIME TO EAT JUNK FOOD AND TOUCH MUSEUM STUFF!
Dan Aykroyd, who's explained that their autism helped create Ghostbusters.
childmind.org/blog/dan-ayk...
childmind.org/blog/dan-ayk...
September 23, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Dan Aykroyd, who's explained that their autism helped create Ghostbusters.
childmind.org/blog/dan-ayk...
childmind.org/blog/dan-ayk...
🤖 Great piece about how GenAI generates amazing visuals. Critically, creators whose work powers GenAI want to be able to consent to having their work used. That core issue gets drowned in discussions about a related but distinct issue: copyright.
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...
September 19, 2025 at 6:13 PM
🤖 Great piece about how GenAI generates amazing visuals. Critically, creators whose work powers GenAI want to be able to consent to having their work used. That core issue gets drowned in discussions about a related but distinct issue: copyright.
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...
🤖 As AI-generated content is shared in movies/TV/across the web, there's one simple low-hanging fruit 🍇 to help know what's real: Visible watermarks. With others @hf.co, I've made sure it's trivially easy to add this disclosure to images, video, chatbot text. See how:
huggingface.co/blog/waterma...
huggingface.co/blog/waterma...
September 16, 2025 at 4:29 PM
🤖 As AI-generated content is shared in movies/TV/across the web, there's one simple low-hanging fruit 🍇 to help know what's real: Visible watermarks. With others @hf.co, I've made sure it's trivially easy to add this disclosure to images, video, chatbot text. See how:
huggingface.co/blog/waterma...
huggingface.co/blog/waterma...
September 7, 2025 at 5:51 AM
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September 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM
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September 2, 2025 at 6:55 PM
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🤖📰 Effective YESTERDAY: China has mandated a digital watermark for all AI-generated content.
www.cac.gov.cn/2025-03/14/c...
Translating in 🧵.
www.cac.gov.cn/2025-03/14/c...
Translating in 🧵.
September 2, 2025 at 6:48 PM
🤖📰 Effective YESTERDAY: China has mandated a digital watermark for all AI-generated content.
www.cac.gov.cn/2025-03/14/c...
Translating in 🧵.
www.cac.gov.cn/2025-03/14/c...
Translating in 🧵.
August 31, 2025 at 4:15 AM
🪶 It's #WoodpeckerWednesday! Here's a Pileated Woodpecker checking out the new BirdBathCam and having a sip of water.
August 27, 2025 at 7:42 PM
🪶 It's #WoodpeckerWednesday! Here's a Pileated Woodpecker checking out the new BirdBathCam and having a sip of water.
🪶 It’s #Steller’sJay #Saturjay !
Set up a bird cam at my bird bath, and got a visit from this Steller’s Jay. I love its messed up mohawk.
Set up a bird cam at my bird bath, and got a visit from this Steller’s Jay. I love its messed up mohawk.
August 23, 2025 at 4:07 PM
🪶 It’s #Steller’sJay #Saturjay !
Set up a bird cam at my bird bath, and got a visit from this Steller’s Jay. I love its messed up mohawk.
Set up a bird cam at my bird bath, and got a visit from this Steller’s Jay. I love its messed up mohawk.
🤖 Reading a local newspaper; heads-up that ICE surveillance is being further rolled out around town. If you've seen this thingie -- e.g., at Home Depot, Lowe's -- FYI it not only can be accessed by ICE, but also those thingies are appearing in other places around town, such as assisted housing. 🧵
August 20, 2025 at 6:34 PM
🤖 Reading a local newspaper; heads-up that ICE surveillance is being further rolled out around town. If you've seen this thingie -- e.g., at Home Depot, Lowe's -- FYI it not only can be accessed by ICE, but also those thingies are appearing in other places around town, such as assisted housing. 🧵