Luca Rossi
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lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi
@lrossi.bsky.social
1.4K followers 320 following 140 posts

I work at IT University of Copenhagen trying to understand online participation and collective action while having fun with methods.
Also Head of the Data Science Section.

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Physics 28%
Communication & Media Studies 26%
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lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 19
#computationalsocialscience Our work on using VLLMs for semantic visual clustering is out on SSCR: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

There is a lot happening in the space of computational analysis of visual content as we acknowledge more and more the visual nature of contemporary communication.
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · 6d
This! 👇(and a good number of the places in this list are on that triangle of Italy between Romagna, Marche and Toscana.

Reposted by Luca Rossi

theguardian.com
The Guardian @theguardian.com · 6d
‘It’s like stepping into a Renaissance masterpiece’: readers’ favourite unsung places in Italy
‘It’s like stepping into a Renaissance masterpiece’: readers’ favourite unsung places in Italy
The country has so many cultural and historical treasures that relatively few are known to tourists. Our tipsters share their discoveries, from ancient hill towns to a mini Venice• Tell us about your favourite travel discoveries of the year – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher
www.theguardian.com

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · 6d
Once more. When there is no understanding all the safety measure that one can imagine can only be based on explicit examples and some weak ability to narrowly generalize.
cstross.bsky.social Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 7d
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."

https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1

Reposted by Luca Rossi, Daniel Angus

tamaleaver.bsky.social
Tama Leaver @tamaleaver.bsky.social · 6d
I'm very pleased this piece co-authored with @antmandan.bsky.social is out in the @aunz.theconversation.com this morning.

theconversation.com/australia-is...
Australia is about to ban under-16s from social media. Here's what kids can do right now to prepare Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology and Tama Leaver, Curtin University

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Meredith Broussard, Luca Rossi , and 12 more

cstross.bsky.social
Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 7d
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."

https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · 8d
that put the Capital of Denmark on the left of the rest of the country. Overall the model shows signs of what we could interpret as a "resolution limit" . I'm sure this limit is different in different countries and it's probably connected with the training data, but it's something worth remembering.

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · 8d
In many cases - mostly the smaller parties - the actual % of votes is quite within the range of the predicted values. Yet, the model gets wrong the top party, over estimates the Socialdemocratic party and under estimates Enhedslisten. These are all - well-known - specific traits of Copenhagen,

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · 8d
(multiple iterations are shown) as well as the actual % of votes. The results are somehow interesting and shows the potential and the limitations of this approach. Here I'm going to refer to the "values" produced by the LLMs as "predictions" (bear with me).

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · 8d
#kv25 Since I keep reading and reviewing papers using #LLMs to simulate social dynamics I think it's just fair to see how they would do in simulating the outcome of the local elections we had yesterday in #Copenhagen. The plot below shows the "predicted" value obtained via gpt4o

Reposted by Luca Rossi, Miranda J. Lubbers

aytalina.bsky.social
aytalina @aytalina.bsky.social · 9d
Are you applying computational methods in your research or thinking about starting a lab? Join us for the first Computational Methods Labs Showcase by the ICA CM Division @icacm.bsky.social 🌟
Online on Feb 16, 2026, 4:00–5:30 pm CET / 10:00–11:30 am EST 📆
Register 👇
forms.office.com/e/zHBkwUWNFw

Reposted by Luca Rossi, Paul Nightingale, Florian Keusch , and 2 more

johannesbreuer.com
Johannes Breuer @johannesbreuer.com · 19d
"dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap"
hadley.github.io/genzplyr/
dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap
`genzplyr` is an alternative syntax for `dplyr` that replaces boring old function names with GenZ slang. Your data wrangling is about to hit different.
hadley.github.io

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · 24d
New DFF grant at @itu.dk in the @nerdsitu.bsky.social group! @vedrandzihic.bsky.social will leverage GPS data to understand how climate events affect human mobility!
nerds.itu.dk/2025/11/03/v...
nerds.itu.dk

Reposted by Luca Rossi

itu.dk
IT-Universitetet i København @itu.dk · 28d
@paoloburelli.bsky.social og hans kolleger ved ITU's brAIn Lab arbejder i krydsfeltet mellem digital teknologi og neurovidenskab.

Ved hjælp af kunstig intelligens søger de at skabe en forståelse af, hvordan den menneskelige hjerne fungerer 🧠

www.itu.dk/Om-ITU/Press...
Kan kunstig intelligens forudsige menneskelig adfærd?
Hvad hvis det var muligt at læse hjernen som en bog? Paolo Burelli og hans kolleger ved IT-Universitetets brAIn Lab arbejder i krydsfeltet mellem digital teknologi og neurovidenskab. Den 5. november p...
www.itu.dk

Reposted by Luca Rossi, Nancy K. Baym

michaelzimmer.bsky.social
Michael Zimmer @michaelzimmer.bsky.social · Oct 24
Michelle has been invaluable in that role for nearly a decade now, but the time has come for @aoir.bsky.social to find a new coordinator to take on these vital duties. 2/2

Job posting is on our listserv. Please share & apply! listserv.aoir.org/pipermail/ai...
[Air-L] AoIR is searching for a new Association Coordinator!
listserv.aoir.org

Reposted by Luca Rossi

socialmedialab.ca
Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · Oct 24
This will not come as a surprise to any social media or internet researchers.

"Today, the European Commission preliminarily found both TikTok & Meta in breach of their obligation to grant researchers adequate access to public data under the Digital Services Act (#DSA)." ec.europa.eu/commission/p...
Commission preliminarily finds TikTok and Meta in breach of their transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act
Today, the European Commission preliminarily found both TikTok and Meta in breach of their obligation to grant researchers adequate access to public data under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
ec.europa.eu

Reposted by Luca Rossi

joanagsa.bsky.social
Joana G Sa @joanagsa.bsky.social · Oct 20
For >1yr, I've been part of a @erc.europa.eu pilot to help implement #Article40 #DSA
This isn't just another law, it's key for transparency and democratic oversight
Please join us 22/10, register here⬇️
erc.europa.eu/news-events/events/erc-workshop-data-access-under-digital-services-act-dsa-article
ERC Workshop on data access under the Digital Services Act (DSA) Article 40
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is an European legislation that specifies a set of rules to make the digital space safer and more trustworthy for users.
erc.europa.eu

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Marc Lynch, Patrick A. Jansen , and 12 more

apnews.com
The Associated Press @apnews.com · Oct 4
Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.
2 million rally in Italy for Gaza as general strike halts key services
Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.
bit.ly

Reposted by Luca Rossi

nerdsitu.bsky.social
NERDS @nerdsitu.bsky.social · Sep 30
Three new NERDS publications: Polarization, image-to-text-mapping, and candidate recommendation
nerds.itu.dk/2025/09/30/t...
A memes present in a dataset of a paper. This type of image shows a high level of cultural complexity that cannot be fully interpreted by simply looking at the objects represented in the picture.

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 24
@lajello.bsky.social is giving his inaugural lecture as full professor at @itu.dk . A story in 3 parts about "how the web failed us". So well deserved.

Reposted by Luca Rossi

itu.dk
IT-Universitetet i København @itu.dk · Sep 23
ITU er særdeles flot repræsenteret ved #ESA2025 i Warszawa, Europas største konference for algoritmeforskning 👏

👉 Hele 10 pct. af de optagne artikler stammer fra ITU-forskere.

👉 Best Paper Award går til ITU's Eva Rotenberg og Ivor van der Hoog ESA’s for deres arbejde med Dijkstras algoritme.

Reposted by Luca Rossi

nerdsitu.bsky.social
NERDS @nerdsitu.bsky.social · Sep 22
This Wednesday, 24 September 2025 at 14:30, our Professor Luca Aiello @lajello.bsky.social will give his inaugural lecture in Auditorium 0 at the IT University in Copenhagen!

en.itu.dk/About-ITU/Pr...
Professor portrait: Luca Aiello wants to make the internet a better place
On 24 September 2025 at 14:30, Professor Luca Aiello will give his inaugural lecture in Auditorium 0 at the IT University in Copenhagen.
en.itu.dk

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 21
[…] symbolically aligning their influence and teamwork with the collective efforts needed to address environmental challenges[…]" even without any cleaning the text gives us a clear semantically accurate description of the meaning of the picture that would not be possible otherwise.

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 21
"[…] a powerful visual blend of modern celebrity culture with pressing environmental issues, using the popular music group as a metaphorical representation of various solutions to climate change. Each member is labeled with a different aspect of sustainability

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 21
fandom dynamics and read the text that goes with it. The actual meaning ("these are the solutions we need for the energy transition") require some cultural work and is hardly connected with the surface features (not even with the text). Gpt4o offered this (shortened) description:

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 21
awareness and why it matters.
Take a look at this picture (that we got from a dataset of climate-related activism). This photo is remarkably complex from a cultural point of view, yet very simple in its message. To understand it you need to know who the BTS are, to get an intuition of k-pop

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 21
Few days ago I posted about our new article on semantic clustering with VLLMs (here if you missed it journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... ) and I wrote that the method is better than some alternative because it offers cultural awareness and interpretability. Let me explain what I mean by cultural

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Richard S.J. Tol, Colin F. Camerer , and 39 more

justinwolfers.bsky.social
Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Sep 20
Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion.

Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 19
different configurations can affect the results and we are now quite confident that this could be a valuable strategy to consider if you want to computationally study visual data in the context of social sciences.

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 19
(e.g. recognising celebrities, symbols etc); 2) having an intermediate textual step allows for an easier interpretability of the clusters that do not need to be visually inspected.

The whole pipeline it's rather complex and contains many moving parts, we've conducted extensive testing of how

lrossi.bsky.social
Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · Sep 19
clustering images that have the "same meaning" rather than showing the same "surface-level visual features". We show that our proposed approach achieves a considerably higher clustering quality, as well as offering additional positive aspects: 1) VLLM show high level of cultural awareness