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Joanna Bryson

@j2bryson.bsky.social

9K followers 620 following 5.4K posts

Professor of Ethics & Technology @ Hertie School, Berlin. Interests: Artificial & Natural Intelligence; Behavioural Ecology; Cooperation; Digital Governance. Social media policy: https://joanna-bryson.blogspot.com/2024/10/guidance-to-my-social-media.html .. more

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Joanna Joy Bryson is professor at Hertie School in Berlin. She works on Artificial Intelligence, ethics and collaborative cognition. She has been a British citizen since 2007.

Source: Wikipedia

Computer science 31%

Neuroscience 25%

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · Feb 19

thread. correct numbers and data backing them come later, but this is the thrust.

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · Feb 5

One thing I learned last week was that if you don’t count the BS market capitalisation bubble of 7 “AI” firms, the US economy as measured by the s&p 500 didn’t go up 13% last year; it went down 7%.

The EU may be a larger economy already. We need to get our own O2 mask on, then start helping others.

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · Feb 5

Guess why there was no reporting of AI revenue?

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1h

America’s leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence…MIT gladly competes with the very best…Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 3h

PS what’s unaffordable about fingers is fixing them — they break really easily.

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 5h

Incidentally, IMHO, these are the best #robot grippers www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #anthropomorphism

Beyond jamming grippers: granular material in robotics

Robot grippers based on the jamming of granular material have been studied widely in previous years. Recently, also other benefits and challenges of granular material have emerged for robotics. We ...

www.tandfonline.com

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 5h

Ha ha – I always tell my students in my #AIconsciousness lecture that the only thing besides concepts not just "emerging" from skills we haven't yet achieved {in this ambitious @rodneyabrooks.bsky.social & LAS proposal to build a baby} is "hand linking", and that's because no one can afford fingers.

Figure from "building brains for bodies". Brooks & Stein 1993, MIT AI Lab tech report 1439 (to get the dates). My slide also asks "Would any system capable of human-like behaviour also have multiple-drafts and episodic memory?"

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 5h

I remember when Carol Van Schaik moved to UZH from Duke, and Lars-Erik Cederman to ETH, from Harvard – when Bush II got elected.

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 5h

Today in big tech conspiracy thinking land...

Joanna Bryson, blathering @j2bryson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 6h

Yesterday I tell a Spanish journalist (El País again) that a) I don't use Google for search anymore but rather @kagihq , & b) that I use gemini mostly for bibtex. Today, gemini won't make bibtex for me. It says it put it in a file. So I used deepseek for bibtex for the first time (it was great.) […]

Original post on mastodon.social

mastodon.social

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Joanna Bryson, blathering @j2bryson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 6h

Original post on mastodon.social

mastodon.social

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Data Science Lab - Hertie School @hertiedatascience.bsky.social · 6h

Together with the Centre for Digital Governance & @hertiecfr.bsky.social - @hertieschool.bsky.social, we co-hosted Helga Molbæk-Steensig for a “Let me just ask Judge GPT” talk, exploring how the ad hoc use of AI by judges is reshaping questions of judicial independence and accountability.

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 6h

Nice!

There is a problem, but not a responsibility gap
Original Paper
Open access
Published: 06 October 2025
Volume 27, article number 47, (2025)
Ethics and Information Technology
@pelinkasar.bsky.social
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#AIEthics #responsibility cc @svennyholm.bsky.social

There is a problem, but not a responsibility gap - Ethics and Information Technology

Autonomous technologies, particularly self-learning AI systems, are often said to create responsibility gaps —cases where harm is caused, yet no one is responsible, because no one appears to meet the control and epistemic conditions typically required for moral responsibility. In this paper, I argue that this problem is better understood as a challenge of attributing moral responsibility for unintentional actions. I suggest that the unintended, harmful AI-based outcomes should be characterized as unintentional actions that can be traced back to human agents. On this basis, I argue that while such actions may be unintentional under some description —and thus potentially excusable—they do not negate moral responsibility. Instead, they modify it: designers and users remain responsible due to the moral residue left by their involvement, and they may bear reparative obligations, such as offering explanations, apologies, or compensation for the harm caused. In high-stakes cases, moral agents may still need to take responsibility—and may, in some contexts, be appropriate targets of blame.

link.springer.com

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 21h

Diversity breeds innovation.

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 22h

I way too self-censored here joanna-bryson.blogspot.com/2022/11/is-m...

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Richard S.J. Tol

Georg Weizsäcker @georgweizsaecker.bsky.social · 22h

Come to Berlin

ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin @rfberlin.bsky.social · 1d

🚨 We are hiring!
📂 RFBerlin invites applications for Postdoctoral Fellow positions in Economics.
⏰ Application deadline: November 15.
More info: www.rfberlin.com/job/postdoct...
👉 Apply here or share with your network: econjobmarket.org/positions/11...
#EconSky #EconJobMarket

Postdoctoral Fellow in Economics

The ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) invites applications for postdoctoral fellow positions in economics. The initial contract is for two years, with the possibility of renewal for up to six year...

www.rfberlin.com

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Jenna McLaughlin @jennamclaughlin.bsky.social · 23h

Anecdotally have been hearing for months that law enforcement officers and investigators of all stripes, from FBI cyber to CISA folk, have been shunted into immigration work/raids.

Would love to hear more on this trend.

Will keep you anonymous/protect your identity.

Signal: JennaMcLaughlin.54

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Greg Linden

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 1d

New from 404 Media: the Discord hack is every users' worst nightmare. Yesterday the hackers started posting Discord users' selfies, identity documents, email addresses, phone numbers, more. I watched in real time. This is risk of tech storing ID for age verification
www.404media.co/the-discord-...

The Discord Hack is Every Users’ Worst Nightmare

A hack impacting Discord’s age verification process shows in stark terms the risk of tech companies collecting users’ ID documents. Now the hackers are posting peoples’ IDs and other sensitive informa...

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Lesley A. Hall, Rebecca Sear

Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 1d

This really is interesting. We talk a bit about the close relationship between Men's Liberation and feminism in 1980s Britain - and how that progressive impulse dissipated - in Men and Masculinities in Modern Britain.

See (open access) www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d

Twitter is just one of many powerful companies involved here, tho IMO still an underestimated one. It was & is a powerful transnational utility of political communication. Dorsey says blogs that he sold it because he'd made the mistake of building power he wasn't resourced to maintain control over.

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d

“Since late 2017 or January of 2018, Prince Mohammed has exercised control over more Twitter stock than is owned by Twitter’s founder,” I guess that may explain this Dorsey blogpost Musk suppressed (thanks @archive.org) web.archive.org/web/20230104... (Musk bought the blogsite & took it down).

a native internet protocol for social media

There’s a lot of conversation around the #TwitterFiles. Here’s my take, and thoughts on how to fix the issues identified. I’ll start with the principles I’ve come to believe…based on everything I’ve l...

web.archive.org

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d

“Because of the tremendous wealth of key figures…major corporations have enabled, collaborated with, and turned a blind eye to efforts to suppress, torture, falsely imprison, terrorise and murder dissenters … around the world.” Twitter [gave] the Saudi government a reach well beyond its borders.

Joanna Bryson, blathering @j2bryson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 1d

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/09/twitter-saudi-arabia-deep-ties-elon-musk-prince-mohammed?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Money talks: the deep ties between Twitter and Saudi Arabia

The long read: Saudi Arabia’s investment in Twitter increased its influence in Silicon Valley while being used at home to shut down critics of the regime

www.theguardian.com

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

#agi #aievaluation #systemsai | Joanna Bryson

AGI is an oxymoron. Intelligence is always specific. It abstracts and generalises over contexts, and all abstractions are necessarily biased towards the aims and goals of that particular agency. Intel...

www.linkedin.com

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Joanna Bryson, blathering @j2bryson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 1d

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/09/twitter-saudi-arabia-deep-ties-elon-musk-prince-mohammed?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Money talks: the deep ties between Twitter and Saudi Arabia

The long read: Saudi Arabia’s investment in Twitter increased its influence in Silicon Valley while being used at home to shut down critics of the regime

www.theguardian.com

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d

yeah I thought he was trying to model a good collective that takes care of its people, which is the point of contention between the queens, incidentally.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 1d

thankful to find that the office is still standing, here in war-ravaged DC

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d

Re-upping this 4-part thread for the US. There is an excellent link hidden in the fold of the thread; the first 3 links are all very worth reading if you want to know what is happening in the USA.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Michael J. Allen, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò , and 1 more Joanna Bryson, Michael J. Allen, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe

JM Rieger @riegerreport.bsky.social · 2d

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for jailing Chicago's mayor and the governor of Illinois, both Democrats, as his administration prepared to deploy military troops to the streets of the third-largest U.S. city. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

www.reuters.com

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Anna O. Law, Gavin A. Schmidt , and 24 more Joanna Bryson, Anna O. Law, Gavin A. Schmidt, Tom Clark, Tom Shakespeare, Leigh Sparks, Elizabeth Stokoe, Peter Campbell, Greg Walker, Kelly Smith, Andrew L. Jackson, Elaine Treharne, Smith, James O’Sullivan, Margot C. Finn, Talbot Imlay, Jutta Haider, Fiona Moore, David Rosnick, Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Calvin Jones, Banu Özkazanç‐Pan, Thomas Masterson, James Connelly, Catriona Seth, Isabelle Poutrin, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 2d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson

michael veale @michae.lv · 2d

OpenAI’s Sora opt-out for IP is clearly OpenAI trying to do a Google ContentID pivot to turn rightsholders of key trademarked characters into price-takers not price-setters.

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d

Barbara Walter, UCSD, "Once citizens begin to view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army, violence becomes inevitable. Trump’s team knows this. In fact, that’s the point. They are not trying to restore order… trying to trigger the unrest that would justify further crackdowns."

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d

Ryan Enos, Harvard "The reason that the Reichstag fire is such a poignant example of a pretext for an authoritarian power grab is not because it is unique, but rather because the consequences are now seen as so severe."

bsky.app/profile/jeko...

jekolski.bsky.social @jekolski.bsky.social · 2d

Try this gift article

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | Trump Is Not Afraid of Civil War. Neither Is Stephen Miller.

www.nytimes.com

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d

The journalists are some of the heroes. Thank you for not only writing your articles, but getting them where people see them. bsky.app/profile/dlkn...

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 2d

My own story on the raid is here:

What a Chicago immigration raid says about Trumpism
www.economist.com/united-state...
From The Economist

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