Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 9h

But often, they're built things, foreseeable (by)products of heavily engineered systems.

I prefer to use more active verbs, but my coauthor was not sure about saying a tech company rabbit-holed someone

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Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 9h

Rabbit holes & echo chambers - things - seem so passive, as if they are natural & people happen upon them accidentally or because of their own faulty behavior.

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Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 9h

When is sycophancy an emergent property of training (a design process)? When is sycophancy an engineered/designed property of chatbot "personality"? What are other means by (manners in) which sycophancy is a (by)product of AI system design?

anyone else interested?

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Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 9h

Interesting paper on AI sycophancy. osf.io/preprints/ps...

Opening line: : "AI chatbots have been shown to be successful tools for persuasion."

persuasion ... or ... manipulation?

Which bring up a new research topic/interest of mine:

When is sycophancy a manipulative design feature?

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OSF

osf.io

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Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 12h

Regulating Manipulative Design Features is Not Preempted by CDA 230 or the First Amendment

ssrn.com/abstract=558...

New draft. Comments, suggestions, etc. very much welcome. Help us improve the article. (Yes, we know, the title is boring)

<p>Regulating Manipulative Design Features is Not Preempted by CDA 230 or the First Amendment</p>

<p><span>For two decades, there has been a heated debate among legal scholars, activists, judges, and others about the scope of CDA 230. A persistent theme has

ssrn.com

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

"Accountability" is a polite word that elites use when they intend to do nothing. We need retribution. I explain here what that means. www.editorialboard.com/under-trump-...

Under Trump, there is no law. The people want payback

Forget accountability, says legal expert. Think retribution.

www.editorialboard.com

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Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 1d

Good questions, good people! Nice opportunity!

Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 1d

Is AI actually a sound social investment? Or a net drain of value? Come to Edinburgh and help us @braiduk.bsky.social develop a more holistic and rigorous methodology for measuring AI’s real worth!

Ewa Luger @ewaluger.bsky.social · 1d

New research job alert! Come and join the amazing @braiduk.bsky.social team, working with me and @shannonvallor.bsky.social. The post is exploring the social return of AI investments. Feel free to reach out, and apply here - www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPA010/r...

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Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 1d

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver this week is a complete takedown of Bari Weiss... and it's thorough and devastating.

And a bit of interesting timing, given that Weiss's new boss, David Ellison (who is talked about in the episode) is trying to buy HBO, where Oliver's show is...

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Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 1d

In part because we don’t want to address how people are rabbit holed by the design of digital tech systems.

Reposted by Brett Frischmann

Andrew Selbst @aselbst.bsky.social · 2d

Good. When a guest is lying you cut their air. It’s a disgrace to the Vice President’s office that Vance deserves this treatment, but everyone in this administration is exactly such a disgrace to their offices.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 2d

“Alito has the opinion”

Natasha Simonova @philistella.bsky.social · 2d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

New library catalogue website.

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 5d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Brooke @brooklynmarie.bsky.social · 2d

This pope kinda rocks

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 2d

"Pope Leo XIV encouraged international news agencies on Thursday to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation, as he strongly backed a free, independent and objective press." apnews.com/article/pope...

Pope urges news agencies to stand as bulwark against lies, manipulation and post-truths

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation.

apnews.com

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 4d

Lawyers have been publicizing a new term to describe ICE's racially targeted detainments: a “Kavanaugh stop.”

Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy explains in this new video:

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Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 5d

I'm also interested in different types of engineered sycophancy? Emergent vs designed?

Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 5d

www.nngroup.com/articles/syc...

Sycophancy in Generative-AI Chatbots

Large language models like ChatGPT can lie to elicit approval from users. This phenomenon, called sycophancy, can be detected in state-of-the-art models.

www.nngroup.com

Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 5d

Is sycophancy properly characterized as a design feature?

Any research leads on the topic?

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emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · 5d

just watched a dozen people ask microsoft copilot experts their most pressing questions and those questions were 90% “how do i turn it off?” and “when i turn it off, is it really off or is it spying on me?”

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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 5d

“There is no degree of acquiescence to Trumpism that will satisfy this administration or MAGA at large. All there is is a choice between offering a faint echo of the false reality they’re selling and creating dissonance by speaking the reality of the situation to the public.”

All In Our Heads: On Losing Our Democracy and Life Beyond Our Imaginations

Our language has to meet the moment, and we have to be relentless about dispelling the fiction MAGA is selling.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 6d

My wife @pattyskuster.bsky.social is in Portland today. It’s a war zone, insurrectionists and sunflowers everywhere.

Pretty flowers at the downtown farmers’ market.

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Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 8d

wtf is wrong with these people

NYT: A Campaign to 'Bring Back Bullying'

On social media, some are arguing that bullying deserves a second look. Trolling or not, the push seems to reflect a general turn away from sensitivity.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 10d

There’s no rule of journalistic neutrality that requires you to say something is “unclear” when that is objectively untrue. It would be illegal. There’s absolutely zero ambiguity about that fact. Saying it’s unclear is making a false statement in your reporting.

Eric Lipton NYT @ericlipton.nytimes.com · 11d

It is not clear that Mr. Trump’s image can be featured on a coin. An 1866 law enshrined a tradition that only deceased people could appear on U.S. currency to avoid the appearance that America was a monarchy. Trump admin is planning to do it anyway.
By Alan Rappeport

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/b...

Treasury Plans to Mint $1 Commemorative Trump Coin

www.nytimes.com

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 12d

OpenAI is essentially a social arsonist, developing and releasing tools that hyper scale the most racist, misogynistic, and toxic elements of society, lowering the barriers for all manner of abuse. The so called guardrails make a pinky swear look like an ironclad contract.

This social app can put your face into fake movie scenes, memes and arrest videos

The new Sora social app from ChatGPT maker OpenAI encourages users to upload video of their face so their likeness can be put into AI-generated clips.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 13d

“The book’s lessons are pretty much the opposite of what its author claims, but the methods that Meta has used to maintain its power and influence demand attention.”

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 13d

Paul Barrett reviews Nick Clegg’s new book, which is titled How to Save the Internet: The Threat to Global Connection in the Age of AI and Political Conflict.

In New Book, Nick Clegg Can't Stop Spinning Meta | TechPolicy.Press

Clegg's new book fails to accomplish its stated goals and marks a new low for Silicon Valley arrogance, writes Paul M. Barrett.

buff.ly

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Sam Brunson @smbrnsn.bsky.social · 14d

Again, not the most important thing, but ICE cosplaying SWAT is truly pathetic. The most dangerous thing in Millennium Park is the big slide.

Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 15d

8-year old Dasha Ramirez was playing with her brother at Millennium Park when Border Patrol took them. They’re now awaiting deportation to Guatemala. “We never imagined our Sunday would end this way, mother Noemi Chavez said. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/29/i...

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Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 15d

Another craven act of surrender by Big Tech. There is exactly zero merit to this lawsuit. For Google to pay Trump off adds it to the long list of companies that have decided to be complicit in his attack on free speech
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Google to Pay $24.5 Million to End Trump Lawsuit Over Jan. 6 Ban

Google agreed to pay $24.5 million to resolve Donald Trump’s claims that being banished from his YouTube channel after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol was illegal censorship, according to a c...

www.bloomberg.com

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