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Solon Barocas

@s010n.bsky.social

1K followers 220 following 1 posts

Researcher, Microsoft Research; Faculty, Information Science, Cornell University

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Computer science 52%

Political science 13%

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Reposted by Karen Levy, Solon Barocas

Nikhil Garg @nkgarg.bsky.social · Aug 11

New piece, out in the Sigecom Exchanges! It's my first solo-author piece, and the closest thing I've written to being my "manifesto." #econsky #ecsky
arxiv.org/abs/2507.03600

Screenshot of paper abstract, with text: "A core ethos of the Economics and Computation (EconCS) community is that people have complex private preferences and information of which the central planner is unaware, but which an appropriately designed mechanism can uncover to improve collective decisionmaking. This ethos underlies the community’s largest deployed success stories, from stable matching systems to participatory budgeting. I ask: is this choice and information aggregation “worth it”? In particular, I discuss how such systems induce heterogeneous participation: those already relatively advantaged are, empirically, more able to pay time costs and navigate administrative burdens imposed by the mechanisms. I draw on three case studies, including my own work – complex democratic mechanisms, resident crowdsourcing, and school matching. I end with lessons for practice and research, challenging the community to help reduce participation heterogeneity and design and deploy mechanisms that meet a “best of both worlds” north star: use preferences and information from those who choose to participate, but provide a “sufficient” quality of service to those who do not."

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Reposted by Solon Barocas

Hope Schroeder @hopeschroeder.bsky.social · Jun 24

1) Thrilled to be at #FAccT for the first time this week, representing a meta-research paper on positionality statements at FAccT from 2018-2024, in collaboration with @s010n.bsky.social and Akshansh Pareek, "Disclosure without Engagement: An Empirical Review of Positionality Statements at FAccT"

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Reposted by Nancy K. Baym, Solon Barocas

Hanna Wallach @hannawallach.bsky.social · May 20

Exciting news: The Fairness, Accountability, Transparency and Ethics (FATE) group at Microsoft Research NYC is hiring a predoctoral fellow!!! 🎉

www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...

FATE Research Assistant (“Pre-doc”) - Microsoft Research

The Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) Research group at Microsoft Research New York City (MSR NYC) is looking for a pre-doctoral research assistant (pre-doc) to start August 20...

www.microsoft.com

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Reposted by Solon Barocas

Center for Democracy & Technology @cdt.org · Apr 4

AI has the power to advance equity — but only if it's designed with everyone in mind. A recent report from CDT & @aapd-disability.bsky.social outlines how to build a disability-inclusive #AI ecosystem across employment, healthcare, education, and more.
Read it here: cdt.org/insights/bui...

Building A Disability-Inclusive AI Ecosystem: A Cross-Disability, Cross-Systems Analysis Of Best Practices

This report is co-authored by AAPD’s Henry Claypool. In 2021, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) released a report entitled “Centering Disability in Technology Policy: Issue Landscape and Potential Opportunities for Action.” This represented a significant milestone in a partnership between AAPD and CDT to […]

cdt.org

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Reposted by Solon Barocas

Computing Research Association (CRA) @cra-hq.bsky.social · Apr 3

🚨 New: CRA Trustworthy AI Research Fellowship for Early Career Scholars! $16.5K stipend, travel, field school, & pro dev for post-PhD computing researchers (US-based) with interdisciplinary focus. Apply by 4/30!

🔗 cra.jotform.com/250765548764...

#AIResearchSupport #FellowshipOpportunity #CRA

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Reposted by Solon Barocas

logan koepke @jlkoepke.bsky.social · Dec 13

👋 @upturn.org is hiring a Research Associate — ideal for someone who is excited about sharp, interdisciplinary research on a range of topics related to technology and justice.

application deadline: 1/31/25

www.upturn.org/join/researc...

Upturn Seeks a Research Associate

This position is ideal for someone who is excited about sharp, interdisciplinary research on a range of topics related to technology, policy, and justice.

www.upturn.org

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Solon Barocas @s010n.bsky.social · Dec 4

Exactly what I took from this paper many years ago, too: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Methodology as a Knife Fight: The Process, Politics and Paradox of Evaluating Surveillance - Critical Criminology

This paper uses the analogy of an unregulated fight to examine the rhetorical politics of evaluation research pertaining to surveillance measures. It outlines how, in addition to being standard fare i...

link.springer.com

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Reposted by Solon Barocas

Jenn Wortman Vaughan @jennwv.bsky.social · Nov 25

The FATE group at @msftresearch.bsky.social NYC is accepting applications for 2025 interns. 🥳🎉

For full consideration, apply by 12/18.

jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/jo...

Interested in AI evaluation? Apply for the STAC internship too!

jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/jo...

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Reposted by Solon Barocas

Center for Democracy & Technology @cdt.org · Nov 20

AI-powered hiring technologies are transforming recruitment, but are they inclusive? CDT’s latest report dives into the ethical and legal risks of digitized assessments, particularly their impact on disabled job applicants. cdt.org/insights/scr...

Screened Out: The Impact of Digitized Hiring Assessments on Disabled Workers

This report is also authored by Henry Claypool and Wilneida Negrón. [ PDF version ] Companies have incorporated hiring technologies, including AI-powered assessments and other automated employment decision systems (AEDSs), into various stages of the hiring process across a wide range of industries. While proponents argue that these technologies can aid in identifying suitable candidates […]

cdt.org

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Reposted by Solon Barocas

logan koepke @jlkoepke.bsky.social · Nov 18

howdy!

the Georgetown Law Journal has published "Less Discriminatory Algorithms." it's been very fun to work on this w/ Emily Black, Pauline Kim, Solon Barocas, and Ming Hsu.

i hope you give it a read — the article is just the beginning of this line of work.

www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-l...

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