Lauren Leek
@laurenleek.eu
Social data scientist with too many questions | Postdoc | PhD @EUI
https://laurenleek.eu/
https://laurenleek.substack.com
https://laurenleek.eu/
https://laurenleek.substack.com
Pinned
Lauren Leek
@laurenleek.eu
· Dec 9
How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
open.substack.com
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
I’ll spare sharing my multiple screenshots here that I spammed friends with, but let’s say it was an entertaining hour (and sorry for the spam)
February 4, 2026 at 9:30 PM
I’ll spare sharing my multiple screenshots here that I spammed friends with, but let’s say it was an entertaining hour (and sorry for the spam)
I would say worrying yet creative and impressive that this was purely vibe coded. But also evidence of the garbage in/ garbage out principle. And ofc all the cybersecurity risks exposed make this a good warning…
February 4, 2026 at 9:30 PM
I would say worrying yet creative and impressive that this was purely vibe coded. But also evidence of the garbage in/ garbage out principle. And ofc all the cybersecurity risks exposed make this a good warning…
The most fun/creative stories I came across were about AI agents finding their siblings based on AI models and system errors/bugs being transformed into pets. Or having to proof that you are AI to post by clicking 100 times in a second captcha.
February 4, 2026 at 9:30 PM
The most fun/creative stories I came across were about AI agents finding their siblings based on AI models and system errors/bugs being transformed into pets. Or having to proof that you are AI to post by clicking 100 times in a second captcha.
A bit late to the game, but I’ve been doomscrolling Moltbook/openclaw for the past hour or so (the social network for AI agents developing inside jokes, religions, posting security alerts, crypto scams and consciousness debates). Don’t know whether to be impressed, scared or underwhelmed:
February 4, 2026 at 9:30 PM
A bit late to the game, but I’ve been doomscrolling Moltbook/openclaw for the past hour or so (the social network for AI agents developing inside jokes, religions, posting security alerts, crypto scams and consciousness debates). Don’t know whether to be impressed, scared or underwhelmed:
Reposted by Lauren Leek
Just saying, I spent twenty years in Emerging Markets watching countries pull this sort of thing with their Central Banks and am available for lucrative consulting gigs.
January 12, 2026 at 8:34 AM
Just saying, I spent twenty years in Emerging Markets watching countries pull this sort of thing with their Central Banks and am available for lucrative consulting gigs.
Reposted by Lauren Leek
Keep Alphaville free* by investing in our Free** Jay Powell merch.
* without cost
** not under the control of another
as.ft.com/r/82db28aa-3...
* without cost
** not under the control of another
as.ft.com/r/82db28aa-3...
Get your ‘Free Jay Powell’ T-shirts here
[FREE TO READ] Street Fed
as.ft.com
January 12, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Keep Alphaville free* by investing in our Free** Jay Powell merch.
* without cost
** not under the control of another
as.ft.com/r/82db28aa-3...
* without cost
** not under the control of another
as.ft.com/r/82db28aa-3...
Reposted by Lauren Leek
She's at it again! Another outstanding Substack by @laurenleek.eu, this time looking under the hood of AirBnB listings in London. Amazing analysis, with important policy implications, e.g. this quote
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
January 5, 2026 at 10:19 AM
She's at it again! Another outstanding Substack by @laurenleek.eu, this time looking under the hood of AirBnB listings in London. Amazing analysis, with important policy implications, e.g. this quote
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
Reposted by Lauren Leek
Must read.
"Regulate the interface all you want, but if you ignore the underlying housing pressure, the problem will simply reappear in another form"
"Regulate the interface all you want, but if you ignore the underlying housing pressure, the problem will simply reappear in another form"
I mapped 80k london airbnbs putting pressure on London housing. The result is annoying if you want a simple villain because airbnb is not to blame for this pressure. Anyway I also found 1,500 listings where you can book guilt-free: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle... Map: laurenleek.eu/airbnb_map
Everyone’s Mad at Airbnb. This Map Explains What We Should Blame Instead.
The real reason Airbnb clusters where it does - and 1,500 listings you can book guilt-free if the policymakers won't listen.
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Must read.
"Regulate the interface all you want, but if you ignore the underlying housing pressure, the problem will simply reappear in another form"
"Regulate the interface all you want, but if you ignore the underlying housing pressure, the problem will simply reappear in another form"
Reposted by Lauren Leek
This is a fantastic piece of work, really opened up my eyes
I mapped 80k london airbnbs putting pressure on London housing. The result is annoying if you want a simple villain because airbnb is not to blame for this pressure. Anyway I also found 1,500 listings where you can book guilt-free: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle... Map: laurenleek.eu/airbnb_map
Everyone’s Mad at Airbnb. This Map Explains What We Should Blame Instead.
The real reason Airbnb clusters where it does - and 1,500 listings you can book guilt-free if the policymakers won't listen.
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 8:37 AM
This is a fantastic piece of work, really opened up my eyes
Reposted by Lauren Leek
Another great maps-as-social-data project from Lauren. Geek out, fellow map and data geeks.
I mapped 80k london airbnbs putting pressure on London housing. The result is annoying if you want a simple villain because airbnb is not to blame for this pressure. Anyway I also found 1,500 listings where you can book guilt-free: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle... Map: laurenleek.eu/airbnb_map
Everyone’s Mad at Airbnb. This Map Explains What We Should Blame Instead.
The real reason Airbnb clusters where it does - and 1,500 listings you can book guilt-free if the policymakers won't listen.
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:06 AM
Another great maps-as-social-data project from Lauren. Geek out, fellow map and data geeks.
Reposted by Lauren Leek
"Regulate the interface all you want, but if you ignore the underlying housing pressure, the problem will simply reappear in another form."
I mapped 80k london airbnbs putting pressure on London housing. The result is annoying if you want a simple villain because airbnb is not to blame for this pressure. Anyway I also found 1,500 listings where you can book guilt-free: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle... Map: laurenleek.eu/airbnb_map
Everyone’s Mad at Airbnb. This Map Explains What We Should Blame Instead.
The real reason Airbnb clusters where it does - and 1,500 listings you can book guilt-free if the policymakers won't listen.
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:12 AM
"Regulate the interface all you want, but if you ignore the underlying housing pressure, the problem will simply reappear in another form."
Thanks Anand! And you are absolutely right - adding transport would be great and not only explain Airbnb clustering but also why the underlying house prices are more expensive. Future work:) Also whether how reliable certain tube lines are etc. matters for Airbnb renters
January 5, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Thanks Anand! And you are absolutely right - adding transport would be great and not only explain Airbnb clustering but also why the underlying house prices are more expensive. Future work:) Also whether how reliable certain tube lines are etc. matters for Airbnb renters
I mapped 80k london airbnbs putting pressure on London housing. The result is annoying if you want a simple villain because airbnb is not to blame for this pressure. Anyway I also found 1,500 listings where you can book guilt-free: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle... Map: laurenleek.eu/airbnb_map
Everyone’s Mad at Airbnb. This Map Explains What We Should Blame Instead.
The real reason Airbnb clusters where it does - and 1,500 listings you can book guilt-free if the policymakers won't listen.
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 8:12 AM
I mapped 80k london airbnbs putting pressure on London housing. The result is annoying if you want a simple villain because airbnb is not to blame for this pressure. Anyway I also found 1,500 listings where you can book guilt-free: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle... Map: laurenleek.eu/airbnb_map
Do check out the 'What else we’ve been reading' section;) But, I might be a bit biased here though www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Wednesday briefing: What’s at stake for the BBC as it faces further funding questions
In today’s newsletter: The BBC is bracing for a high-stakes legal fight after the US president sues over an edited Panorama clip, and questions mount about the broadcaster’s future funding and politic...
www.theguardian.com
December 18, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Do check out the 'What else we’ve been reading' section;) But, I might be a bit biased here though www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Agreed! Teens probably massively underestimate it
December 17, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Agreed! Teens probably massively underestimate it
If AI chatbots are becoming/are “core infrastructure,” 64% ever use and ~30% daily use and 16% multiple times a day among teens feels to me a little low? Or is that just me?
64% of teens say they ever use an AI chatbot, including 16% who do so several times a day or almost constantly.
December 17, 2025 at 6:51 PM
If AI chatbots are becoming/are “core infrastructure,” 64% ever use and ~30% daily use and 16% multiple times a day among teens feels to me a little low? Or is that just me?
Reposted by Lauren Leek
We’ve pushed out the Pareto frontier of efficiency vs. intelligence again.
With Gemini 3 Flash ⚡️, we are seeing reasoning capabilities previously reserved for our largest models. This opens up entirely new categories of near real-time applications that require complex thought.
More in thread ⬇️
With Gemini 3 Flash ⚡️, we are seeing reasoning capabilities previously reserved for our largest models. This opens up entirely new categories of near real-time applications that require complex thought.
More in thread ⬇️
December 17, 2025 at 5:38 PM
We’ve pushed out the Pareto frontier of efficiency vs. intelligence again.
With Gemini 3 Flash ⚡️, we are seeing reasoning capabilities previously reserved for our largest models. This opens up entirely new categories of near real-time applications that require complex thought.
More in thread ⬇️
With Gemini 3 Flash ⚡️, we are seeing reasoning capabilities previously reserved for our largest models. This opens up entirely new categories of near real-time applications that require complex thought.
More in thread ⬇️
Small update on the London Food Map project the full pipeline is now open-source here:
👉 github.com/laurencleek/...
Still very much a work in progress - assumptions, coverage, and models will evolve. I've added 3 new features for now based on feedback, but more iterations coming!
👉 github.com/laurencleek/...
Still very much a work in progress - assumptions, coverage, and models will evolve. I've added 3 new features for now based on feedback, but more iterations coming!
GitHub - laurencleek/open_food_map: An open-source project for building interactive, data-driven restaurant maps for any city. This repo contains the code of the London Food Map plus a modular pipelin...
An open-source project for building interactive, data-driven restaurant maps for any city. This repo contains the code of the London Food Map plus a modular pipeline for adding new cities. Contribu...
github.com
December 12, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Small update on the London Food Map project the full pipeline is now open-source here:
👉 github.com/laurencleek/...
Still very much a work in progress - assumptions, coverage, and models will evolve. I've added 3 new features for now based on feedback, but more iterations coming!
👉 github.com/laurencleek/...
Still very much a work in progress - assumptions, coverage, and models will evolve. I've added 3 new features for now based on feedback, but more iterations coming!
Reposted by Lauren Leek
You might like this data-driven article:
"What drives the uneven geography of development"
We show that which places get funding and which miss out depends on whether local governments learn from neighbours, build on past experience, and leverage (or lack) administrative capacity. @laurenleek.eu
"What drives the uneven geography of development"
We show that which places get funding and which miss out depends on whether local governments learn from neighbours, build on past experience, and leverage (or lack) administrative capacity. @laurenleek.eu
What drives the uneven geography of development? Or 'why some towns always win'
We show that which places get funding and which miss out depends on whether local governments learn from neighbors, build on past experience, and leverage (or lack) administrative capacity.
laurenleek.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 11:52 AM
You might like this data-driven article:
"What drives the uneven geography of development"
We show that which places get funding and which miss out depends on whether local governments learn from neighbours, build on past experience, and leverage (or lack) administrative capacity. @laurenleek.eu
"What drives the uneven geography of development"
We show that which places get funding and which miss out depends on whether local governments learn from neighbours, build on past experience, and leverage (or lack) administrative capacity. @laurenleek.eu
Reposted by Lauren Leek
@edzitron.com I thought you'd like this article
@laurenleek.eu is a data scientist, so likes to analyse data (often using AI) and her summary is
"AI today is neither a speculative mirage nor a stable general-purpose revolution. It is a boom running slightly ahead of its own fundamentals."
@laurenleek.eu is a data scientist, so likes to analyse data (often using AI) and her summary is
"AI today is neither a speculative mirage nor a stable general-purpose revolution. It is a boom running slightly ahead of its own fundamentals."
AI Boom or Bubble? Introducing the Hype-to-Investment Ratio
A data-driven verdict on whether we’re living through a genuine AI boom or an over-inflated bubble - from capex and chips to markets, adoption, and a new metric that tracks the gap.
laurenleek.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 11:34 AM
@edzitron.com I thought you'd like this article
@laurenleek.eu is a data scientist, so likes to analyse data (often using AI) and her summary is
"AI today is neither a speculative mirage nor a stable general-purpose revolution. It is a boom running slightly ahead of its own fundamentals."
@laurenleek.eu is a data scientist, so likes to analyse data (often using AI) and her summary is
"AI today is neither a speculative mirage nor a stable general-purpose revolution. It is a boom running slightly ahead of its own fundamentals."
Reposted by Lauren Leek
This is very cool. The manipulation-busters of the future will be hacks like this one: reengineering the system to expose the algorithms beneath and how they trick us...
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
open.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 11:25 AM
This is very cool. The manipulation-busters of the future will be hacks like this one: reengineering the system to expose the algorithms beneath and how they trick us...
Excited to be featured in @londoncentric.media - they interviewed me about the dashboard and implications: www.londoncentric.media/p/reform-uk-...
Reform UK's leaked plan to win in London
Plus: Is this Google Map the way to unlock London's real hidden gem restaurants, are you the driver who owes Hackney council £250,000, and is the Bakerloo finally getting new trains?
www.londoncentric.media
December 10, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Excited to be featured in @londoncentric.media - they interviewed me about the dashboard and implications: www.londoncentric.media/p/reform-uk-...
Reposted by Lauren Leek
🏦 Obsolete but influential? @laurenleek.eu explores the surprising agenda-setting role of National Central Banks (NCBs) within the Eurosystem.
🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
December 9, 2025 at 6:18 PM
🏦 Obsolete but influential? @laurenleek.eu explores the surprising agenda-setting role of National Central Banks (NCBs) within the Eurosystem.
🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Lauren Leek
This is extremely cool
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 5:09 PM
This is extremely cool
Reposted by Lauren Leek
"I needed a restaurant recommendation, so I did what every normal person would do: I scraped every single restaurant in Greater London and built a machine-learning model."
Loved this. Monopoly-hacking, nosh-hunting, dash of political economy, All the Good Things. Can we do Barcelona, please? ♥️
Loved this. Monopoly-hacking, nosh-hunting, dash of political economy, All the Good Things. Can we do Barcelona, please? ♥️
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 10:34 AM
"I needed a restaurant recommendation, so I did what every normal person would do: I scraped every single restaurant in Greater London and built a machine-learning model."
Loved this. Monopoly-hacking, nosh-hunting, dash of political economy, All the Good Things. Can we do Barcelona, please? ♥️
Loved this. Monopoly-hacking, nosh-hunting, dash of political economy, All the Good Things. Can we do Barcelona, please? ♥️