Paul Goldberg
@paulwgoldberg.bsky.social
Professor of Computer Science, Oxford University. Research interest in Algorithmic Game Theory, also Computational Complexity.
Also interested in good urbanism & cartoons
https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/paul.goldberg/index1.html
Also interested in good urbanism & cartoons
https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/paul.goldberg/index1.html
New paper in the Int J Game Theory (with Edith Elkind and Abheek Ghosh): "Contest design with threshold objectives"
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Contest design with threshold objectives - International Journal of Game Theory
We study contests where the designer’s objective is an extension of the widely studied objective of maximizing the total output: The designer gets zero marginal utility from a player’s output if the o...
link.springer.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:18 PM
New paper in the Int J Game Theory (with Edith Elkind and Abheek Ghosh): "Contest design with threshold objectives"
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
relatively inoffensive
Why did the New York Football Giants (NFL) not kick that Field Goal? ? ? Who would have done such a thing? It was CRAZY! I got to watch the end of the game and thought, when they went for the touchdown instead of the 3, “That’s Weird! ! ! ”
November 24, 2025 at 10:40 AM
relatively inoffensive
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Eternal memory to all the victims of the 1932–1933 Holodomor genocide and the mass artificial famines of 1921–1923 and 1946–1947.
November 22, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Eternal memory to all the victims of the 1932–1933 Holodomor genocide and the mass artificial famines of 1921–1923 and 1946–1947.
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Colorado is off to an important start with its AI Act, which protects us from automated decision-making. Now that state should strengthen its law, and other states should enact their own laws. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
Strengthen Colorado’s AI Act
Powerful institutions are using automated decision-making against us. Fortunately, workers, patients, and renters are resisting. The Colorado AI Act is a good step in the right direction. Still, EFF
www.eff.org
November 22, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Colorado is off to an important start with its AI Act, which protects us from automated decision-making. Now that state should strengthen its law, and other states should enact their own laws. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
It's good to see some concern about UK Government usage of X. As I see it, the problem is not its amplification of harmful content, but rather that it belongs to a foreign entity whose interests are in no way aligned to the UK. Usage of X is an accident waiting to happen.
Labour MPs want the government to carry out a more serious, "minister-led" review of its use of X
A Whitehall review of government social media use is currently underway. However, Labour MPs say the process lacks rigour and proper ministerial involvement
@zoecrowther.bsky.social reports
A Whitehall review of government social media use is currently underway. However, Labour MPs say the process lacks rigour and proper ministerial involvement
@zoecrowther.bsky.social reports
Labour MPs Call For A More Serious Review Of The Government's Use Of X
Labour MPs are calling for ministers to take control of decisions over the government’s continued use of X, as concerns grow about the platform’s s...
www.politicshome.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:02 AM
It's good to see some concern about UK Government usage of X. As I see it, the problem is not its amplification of harmful content, but rather that it belongs to a foreign entity whose interests are in no way aligned to the UK. Usage of X is an accident waiting to happen.
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Pro-tip: if you send me an email asking for an internship, a PhD or a postdoc position, don't copy/paste an over-hyped summary of one of my papers you just asked ChatGPT to spit out.
Pro-tip#2: don't do that with other professors as well. It's not just me.
Pro-tip#2: don't do that with other professors as well. It's not just me.
November 19, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Pro-tip: if you send me an email asking for an internship, a PhD or a postdoc position, don't copy/paste an over-hyped summary of one of my papers you just asked ChatGPT to spit out.
Pro-tip#2: don't do that with other professors as well. It's not just me.
Pro-tip#2: don't do that with other professors as well. It's not just me.
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Kathleen Fisher is the 2nd (of 2) Americans chosen to lead ARIA
Both her and Ilan Gur were previously at US variations of the ARPA model which ARIA follows (Fisher at DARPA, the OG, Gur at ARPA-E)
Interestingly, the original pick for ARIA was Peter Highnam, was also at DARPA but born in the UK
Both her and Ilan Gur were previously at US variations of the ARPA model which ARIA follows (Fisher at DARPA, the OG, Gur at ARPA-E)
Interestingly, the original pick for ARIA was Peter Highnam, was also at DARPA but born in the UK
Former senior Darpa official picked as new Aria chief executive.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
November 19, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Kathleen Fisher is the 2nd (of 2) Americans chosen to lead ARIA
Both her and Ilan Gur were previously at US variations of the ARPA model which ARIA follows (Fisher at DARPA, the OG, Gur at ARPA-E)
Interestingly, the original pick for ARIA was Peter Highnam, was also at DARPA but born in the UK
Both her and Ilan Gur were previously at US variations of the ARPA model which ARIA follows (Fisher at DARPA, the OG, Gur at ARPA-E)
Interestingly, the original pick for ARIA was Peter Highnam, was also at DARPA but born in the UK
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
We’re excited to introduce our new CEO: Kathleen Fisher.
ARIA is at an inflection point. We’re moving from launching ambitious research to driving it forward. Kathleen is the ideal leader to scale our work.
Read more: link.aria.org.uk/ceoannouncem...
ARIA is at an inflection point. We’re moving from launching ambitious research to driving it forward. Kathleen is the ideal leader to scale our work.
Read more: link.aria.org.uk/ceoannouncem...
Introducing ARIA’s next CEO
Kathleen Fisher will join us in February 2026.
link.aria.org.uk
November 19, 2025 at 7:07 AM
We’re excited to introduce our new CEO: Kathleen Fisher.
ARIA is at an inflection point. We’re moving from launching ambitious research to driving it forward. Kathleen is the ideal leader to scale our work.
Read more: link.aria.org.uk/ceoannouncem...
ARIA is at an inflection point. We’re moving from launching ambitious research to driving it forward. Kathleen is the ideal leader to scale our work.
Read more: link.aria.org.uk/ceoannouncem...
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Just for fun, here's a New Yorker cartoon from about 50 years ago
November 17, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Just for fun, here's a New Yorker cartoon from about 50 years ago
I was looking through my old photos and found this one of a remarkably badly-designed sign (taken in 2010 in West Kirby, Wirral). Enjoy
November 18, 2025 at 11:59 AM
I was looking through my old photos and found this one of a remarkably badly-designed sign (taken in 2010 in West Kirby, Wirral). Enjoy
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Christoph Niemann
@christophniemann.bsky.social
@christophniemann.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Christoph Niemann
@christophniemann.bsky.social
@christophniemann.bsky.social
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
In 2026, Europe needs to rebuild its military strength, revive economic growth and sustain its climate transition. Each of these tasks alone would be difficult. Together they are a nightmare
In Europe, the coming year hinges on guns, growth and greenery
Europe has turned calamity into opportunity before. Can it do the same in 2026? There are three big challenges facing the Old Continent
econ.st
November 17, 2025 at 12:40 PM
In 2026, Europe needs to rebuild its military strength, revive economic growth and sustain its climate transition. Each of these tasks alone would be difficult. Together they are a nightmare
A welcome report, which deserves high marks for facing up to an unwelcome fact: Europe is indeed failing to compete with the USA in technology. The report also mentions the need for pension reform: it's hard to attract scientists to a patchwork of idiosyncratic pension systems.
‘Reform universities to boost Europe’s tech power hopes’
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...
‘Reform universities to boost Europe’s tech power hopes’ - Research Professional News
Ex-PMs bolster Tony Blair Institute report seeing tech as route to European prosperity and security
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:01 PM
A welcome report, which deserves high marks for facing up to an unwelcome fact: Europe is indeed failing to compete with the USA in technology. The report also mentions the need for pension reform: it's hard to attract scientists to a patchwork of idiosyncratic pension systems.
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
@bostoncollege.bsky.social is launching a PhD program in Computer Science! Help spreading the word to interested undergrads would be appreciated; our department has faculty research clustered in ML and CS theory, and Boston's a nice place to be :) www.bc.edu/content/bc-w...
Ph.D. Program
www.bc.edu
November 12, 2025 at 3:59 PM
@bostoncollege.bsky.social is launching a PhD program in Computer Science! Help spreading the word to interested undergrads would be appreciated; our department has faculty research clustered in ML and CS theory, and Boston's a nice place to be :) www.bc.edu/content/bc-w...
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Intriguing suggestion that ballot complexity means people learn more about the mechanics of voting, leaving less time to learn about how to achieve substantive change www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...
The story behind Australia's incredible democratic system
Behind the quirks of Australia's incredible democratic system are a series of complex human backstories.
www.abc.net.au
November 9, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Intriguing suggestion that ballot complexity means people learn more about the mechanics of voting, leaving less time to learn about how to achieve substantive change www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...
The scientific literature really needs some sort of facility for researchers to publish "We spent this much time working on such-and-such a result, and got absolutely nowhere"
November 6, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The scientific literature really needs some sort of facility for researchers to publish "We spent this much time working on such-and-such a result, and got absolutely nowhere"
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
I spotted this on Mastodon and I find it horrible, not least for the speed with which this has happened.
November 4, 2025 at 9:56 AM
I spotted this on Mastodon and I find it horrible, not least for the speed with which this has happened.
New paper: we introduce classes of problems where any solutions must be unique, due to principles like:
"Every competition can have at most one participant who beats all others", or
"At most one agent can receive the lion's share of a shared resource".
"Every competition can have at most one participant who beats all others", or
"At most one agent can receive the lion's share of a shared resource".
Matan Gilboa, Paul W. Goldberg, Elias Koutsoupias, Noam Nisan
Complexity of Unambiguous Problems in $\Sigma^P_2$
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19084
Complexity of Unambiguous Problems in $\Sigma^P_2$
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19084
October 23, 2025 at 7:38 AM
New paper: we introduce classes of problems where any solutions must be unique, due to principles like:
"Every competition can have at most one participant who beats all others", or
"At most one agent can receive the lion's share of a shared resource".
"Every competition can have at most one participant who beats all others", or
"At most one agent can receive the lion's share of a shared resource".
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
We are deeply saddened by the loss of Greg Newby, who led Project Gutenberg ( @gutenberg.org ) with passion and purpose. Greg’s belief in free and open access to knowledge continues to inspire us and so many others working to preserve our shared culture online. gutenberg.org/about/newby....
October 22, 2025 at 7:40 PM
We are deeply saddened by the loss of Greg Newby, who led Project Gutenberg ( @gutenberg.org ) with passion and purpose. Greg’s belief in free and open access to knowledge continues to inspire us and so many others working to preserve our shared culture online. gutenberg.org/about/newby....
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
![1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area
2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction
3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it
Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…
4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely
[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over
5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat
[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster
Minister:
I understand your concerns…
6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?
Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters
7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian
[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]
Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love
8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to
[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]
9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR
[woman looks baffled]
10
woman:
I just want a bus service
Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreicahofq6s4xow7vowj7dx6odw6ejdwr4kwcmzta7qwi4hg2nvywji@jpeg)
More when we have it
October 17, 2025 at 12:33 PM
More when we have it
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Are you a researcher using computational methods to understand cities?
@mfranchi.bsky.social @jennahgosciak.bsky.social and I organize an EAAMO Bridges working group on Urban Data Science and we are looking for new members!
Fill the interest form on our page: urban-data-science-eaamo.github.io
@mfranchi.bsky.social @jennahgosciak.bsky.social and I organize an EAAMO Bridges working group on Urban Data Science and we are looking for new members!
Fill the interest form on our page: urban-data-science-eaamo.github.io
Urban Data Science & Equitable Cities | EAAMO Bridges
EAAMO Bridges Urban Data Science & Equitable Cities working group: biweekly talks, paper studies, and workshops on computational urban data analysis to explore and address inequities.
urban-data-science-eaamo.github.io
September 3, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Are you a researcher using computational methods to understand cities?
@mfranchi.bsky.social @jennahgosciak.bsky.social and I organize an EAAMO Bridges working group on Urban Data Science and we are looking for new members!
Fill the interest form on our page: urban-data-science-eaamo.github.io
@mfranchi.bsky.social @jennahgosciak.bsky.social and I organize an EAAMO Bridges working group on Urban Data Science and we are looking for new members!
Fill the interest form on our page: urban-data-science-eaamo.github.io
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
For the first time in years, senior Labour figures are saying it plainly.
Wes Streeting: “I’m glad that Brexit is a problem whose name we now dare speak.”
Keir Starmer: “They lied to this country, unleashed chaos, and walked away after Brexit.”
The silence is breaking. The damage is undeniable.
Wes Streeting: “I’m glad that Brexit is a problem whose name we now dare speak.”
Keir Starmer: “They lied to this country, unleashed chaos, and walked away after Brexit.”
The silence is breaking. The damage is undeniable.
Starmer and Streeting break silence on Brexit’s damage
We're the UK's largest pro-European movement. Our goal is to reverse the calamity of Brexit and restore relations with our European neighbours.
www.europeanmovement.co.uk
October 14, 2025 at 3:50 PM
For the first time in years, senior Labour figures are saying it plainly.
Wes Streeting: “I’m glad that Brexit is a problem whose name we now dare speak.”
Keir Starmer: “They lied to this country, unleashed chaos, and walked away after Brexit.”
The silence is breaking. The damage is undeniable.
Wes Streeting: “I’m glad that Brexit is a problem whose name we now dare speak.”
Keir Starmer: “They lied to this country, unleashed chaos, and walked away after Brexit.”
The silence is breaking. The damage is undeniable.
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Excellent points, which seems a must-read book for academics. However, the golden triangle has not been affected in the same way as others. They continue to recruit EU students despite higher fees. They will lobby government to maintain the status quo.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/brexit-...
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/brexit-...
Brexit ‘being ignored’ as cause of UK universities’ problems
Loss of EU students made recruitment more commercial and universities more insular, argues new book
www.timeshighereducation.com
October 14, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Excellent points, which seems a must-read book for academics. However, the golden triangle has not been affected in the same way as others. They continue to recruit EU students despite higher fees. They will lobby government to maintain the status quo.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/brexit-...
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/brexit-...
Reposted by Paul Goldberg
Tech tycoon Larry Ellison gives Oxford institute fresh £890m.
Ellison Institute of Technology announces plans for expanded campus after change in leadership.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...
Ellison Institute of Technology announces plans for expanded campus after change in leadership.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...
Tech tycoon Larry Ellison gives Oxford institute fresh £890m - Research Professional News
Ellison Institute of Technology announces plans for expanded campus after change in leadership
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
October 14, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Tech tycoon Larry Ellison gives Oxford institute fresh £890m.
Ellison Institute of Technology announces plans for expanded campus after change in leadership.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...
Ellison Institute of Technology announces plans for expanded campus after change in leadership.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...