Kristina McElheran
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kmcelheran.bsky.social
Kristina McElheran
@kmcelheran.bsky.social

Associate Prof at University of Toronto. Digitization scholar studying firm use of technology, productivity, strategy, and the future of work.

Business 68%
Economics 20%
Pinned
Beware of coverage of AI-related pre-prints...unless they are mine. ;-)
The A.I.-Profits Drought and the Lessons of History
Like the steam engine, electricity, and computers, generative artificial intelligence could take longer than expected to transform the economy.
www.newyorker.com

#Econsky, #Edusky, I am thinking about assigning seating to my undergrads (smallish seminar classes) for the first time in my career. I feel so High School.

Pros/Cons from those who have done this?

I miss the days of being mostly worried about tariffs.
Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”
Nick Fuentes: “The number one political enemy in America is women. … They have to be imprisoned.”
www.mediamatters.org
Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”
Nick Fuentes: “The number one political enemy in America is women. … They have to be imprisoned.”
www.mediamatters.org

Startup idea: surveillance-free bars. Third party certified.
We really do need to rebuild the capacity to meet strangers in public places, and stuff like this ruins it for everyone.
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · 4d
Social media is awash with videos of men filming themselves approaching women in public spaces and attempting to flirt. In many cases, the videos are filmed and uploaded without the women’s consent. https://cnn.it/4qtIsvB
To everyone thanking me, much appreciated but not why I posted! Pls support your local immigrant defense group like:

The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota: www.ilcm.org/donate/

Or my hometown LUCE: www.lucemass.org/donate

Or Google your city/state & “immigrant defense” to find your local heroes!
And please thank lawyers doing this work. We’re carrying a lot of trauma for voiceless clients. We are tired. We have become experts in new law under the most dire circumstances.

If you can, donate to immigration defense funds. They’ve been at it the longest and have the least resources.

30/end?

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

On every important vote that matters, Susan Collins votes with Trump.

Every time her vote could stop something he’s trying to do, she votes with him.

She is a fake moderate with a MAGA voting record.

A vote for Susan Collins is a vote to give Trump more power.

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

We really do need to rebuild the capacity to meet strangers in public places, and stuff like this ruins it for everyone.
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · 4d
Social media is awash with videos of men filming themselves approaching women in public spaces and attempting to flirt. In many cases, the videos are filmed and uploaded without the women’s consent. https://cnn.it/4qtIsvB

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

(Media) SCOOP: Weeks ago, the owner of the Washington City Paper had offered to purchase The Washington Post's sports and local sections, keeping their desks alive.

The Post reporters were laid off and the desks were shut down instead.

www.theverge.com/policy/87683...
Bezos could have saved WaPo’s sports and local journalists. He laid them off instead.
“The equation isn’t adding up.”
www.theverge.com
I genuinely cannot believe the degree to which we are pissing away this generational breakthrough, even given the fuckmuppets who are involved www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
FDA declines to review Moderna's mRNA flu shot
Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Food and Drug Administration has taken an aggressive stance against mRNA technology.
www.nbcnews.com
Bridge Owner Lobbied Administration Before Trump Blasted Competing Span to Canada www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/w...
Bridge Owner Lobbied Administration Before Trump Blasted Competing Span to Canada
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

8 more children died from influenza complications last week, according to CDC's FluView report, bringing the total to 60 pediatric deaths so far this season. The agency keeps tabs on childhood deaths caused by the flu, but doesn't recommend flu shots as a way to prevent infection👇
Weekly US Influenza Surveillance Report: Key Updates for Week 4, ending January 31, 2026
Seasonal influenza activity remains elevated nationally.
www.cdc.gov

“Most allegedly involved errors in which the TruDi Navigation System misinformed surgeons about the location of their instruments while they were using them inside patients’ heads during operations.”

Is quite a sentence.
After artificial intelligence was added to a medical device used to treat chronic sinusitis, the FDA has received unconfirmed reports of at least 100 malfunctions and adverse events reut.rs/46G6Naa
*Green card application in process and work permit, married to US citizen
*Lived in US for 20 years, no criminal record
*In detention for five months with no charge, despite judge approving release
*He disputes ICE claim that he signed forms agreeing to deportation
2/ “I miss my school and my friends I feel bad since when I came here to this Place, because I have been here too long.”

From 9-year-old Susej F, detained for 50+ days

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

After artificial intelligence was added to a medical device used to treat chronic sinusitis, the FDA has received unconfirmed reports of at least 100 malfunctions and adverse events reut.rs/46G6Naa
And here is my story: ‘Absolute hell’: Irishman with valid US work permit held by Ice since September

www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...
‘Absolute hell’: Irishman with valid US work permit held by Ice since September
Seamus Culleton has been in a detention facility in Texas for nearly five months despite having no criminal record
www.irishtimes.com

@graememcelheran.bsky.social we apparently are better-connected IRL than online!
how do you do fellow tech and science journalists

This is a great analogy.
I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.
VC, founder, dumbass

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

how do you do fellow tech and science journalists
I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.
VC, founder, dumbass
Concentration camps: stories of as many as 50 people to a cell — men and women in some cases — with no windows and limited airflow, a single camera-monitored toilet, aluminum blankets, no showers and poor quality food.
ICE detainees from Maine being held under ‘inhumane’ conditions in Mass. facility, attorneys say
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said the allegations of overcrowding and lack of access to lawyers are false.
www.pressherald.com

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

The Target situation is like a microcosmic example of the US tariff initiative. People thought they needed Target, until the boycott. Now they’ve found ways around it and don’t wanna go back. Other countries are now realizing they don’t need the big superpower USA and are adjusting accordingly.
I stand with County Executive Calvin Ball as he signs emergency legislation today prohibiting privately owned buildings from being used as ICE detention centers.

Howard County chose dignity, accountability, and its people. Tune into our event now:
bit.ly/4a2VtHw
Redirecting...
bit.ly
Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”
It Turns Out Waymos Are Being Controlled by Workers in the Philippines
During a Congressional hearing, Waymo's chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, was grilled over the company's reliance on overseas workers.
futurism.com

Oi. Too tired to even skeet properly. Presented yet a new paper today. Is it the weekend yet?

Great coverage of our paper J-curve paper on AI’s productivity impacts by @willagreer.bsky.social in @npr.org’s Planet Money newsletter! www.npr.org/sections/pla...
5 papers from the Super Bowl of Economics
Planet Money went to the annual meeting of the American Economics Association, and we saw some fascinating papers presented there.
www.npr.org

We found a “J-curve”: down, then up. Up is conditional on survival, so potentially a wild ride. Nice coverage of our paper/AEA presentation this week by Planet Money: www.npr.org/sections/pla...
5 papers from the Super Bowl of Economics
Planet Money went to the annual meeting of the American Economics Association, and we saw some fascinating papers presented there.
www.npr.org
Jeff Bezos’s wealth has increased an average of $70 million every day of 2026, meaning that he could have offset The Post’s losses with what he’s made since Monday.

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

unlike "CEO said a thing!" journalism, this Canadian reporter actually manages to ask an objective expert instead of parroting a rich executive
Musk vows to put data centers in space and run them on solar power but experts have their doubts
NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk vowed this week to upend another industry just as he did with cars and rockets — and once again he's taking on long odds.
ca.finance.yahoo.com