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Reposted by J. Nathan Matias

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 9h

JOB ALERT: Seeking an Associate Multimedia Producer to work with our comms team to create video, audio, visual, and other online content in support of the Institute’s programs and mission. Two-year, grant-funded role w/ a possibility of extension.

knightcolumbia.org/page/associa...

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 14h

Crossing the Manhattan Bridge, I thought of the late Tom Winpenny, a historian of science who wrote about the bridge & its builders in 2004.

We in tech rush out grand claims while making things that last a year or two. Grateful for Tom for showing me the long view.

www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/n...

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Reposted by J. Nathan Matias

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 2d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 2d

Note also that Sora 2 can't actually support the potential privacy / activism uses of deepfakes, since it makes deepfakes *more* traceable than other types of media.

J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 2d

So far, the most interesting list of positive uses of deepfake tech I've seen by Sonja R. O'Brien at the @wilsoncenter.org as part of a wider analysis.

- Real-time 911 translation
- Sign language translation
- Alzheimers treatment
- Masking identity in activism
www.wilsoncenter.org/article/posi...

Positive Use Cases of “Deepfakes”

As artificial intelligence (AI) models are increasingly capable of producing more life-like content, there has been an understandable hesitancy regarding “deepfakes” and their potential negative impac...

www.wilsoncenter.org

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 2d

Keep sharing folks! I've heard a lot of ideas for what deepfakes are good for. Initial ideas:

- Personalized education videos (not convinced)
- Privacy via synthetic audio/video proxies (not sure deepfakes are needed when we have other techniques)
- Real-time translation (maybe for low-stakes?)

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Reposted by J. Nathan Matias

Mark Riedl @markriedl.bsky.social · 3d

Hi all,

Georgia Tech is holding its 2nd Summit on Responsible Computing, AI, and Society October 28-29th in Atlanta.

rcais.github.io

Our speakers and schedule is set. It's going to be great!

If you are planning to be in Atlanta and want to join us, registration is now open on the website.

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 2d

I am willing to believe it can become an on-ramp to doing more art for some people

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you for sharing your story. It sounds like an especially frustrating and demoralizing experience with the technology.

Reposted by J. Nathan Matias

🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾 @blackamazon.bsky.social · 3d

They think this is good.

We can’t fight or even properly discuss this if we don’t start flipping the questions

Because the question is

“Why do all of their technologies turn to abuse vectors of the least defended and respected identities”

And the abuse of those who transcend their bias

J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

Genuine question - what are OpenAI’s Sora and other video generation tools good for?

I am honestly trying to understand what is so important that it’s worth the cost. If you have examples, I would be interested to hear them.

futurism.com/artificial-i...

People Are Making Sora 2 Videos of Stephen Hawking Being Horribly Brutalized

People are using OpenAI's Sora 2 to generate videos of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking being brutalized in ghoulish ways.

futurism.com

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

I can see another argument for Sora 2’s social features: in addition to supporting social creativity, they actually contain the content, making it more legible and traceable to research and governance.

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Reposted by J. Nathan Matias

Derek Slater @derekslater.bsky.social · 3d

Think it's worth unpacking what was clear in 05 and to whom. It was not self evident and was actively contested and fought by many.

Then, why can't many of the same positive video uses from UGC be applied to gen AI? (Including the myriad gen AI video that is *not* a deepfakes)

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

Hi james we don’t know each other and I can tell you are upset, but can you please not respond to someone in my network this way? I am trying to start a conversation not a shunning contest, thanks!

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

Also Derek, thank you for taking my question seriously - it was not merely a rhetorical question!

I am struggling to find ways to have conversation on Bluesky and have almost given up, so thanks for engaging thoughtfully!

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

I think that’s an excellent question, and one I have been wondering about too, which is why I have been asking about the upside.

With UGC in 05, the upside was clear, we had decades of the social internet to show for it.

I would love to see the positive uses of deepfakes.

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

Another way of saying it: would a Deepfakes4Good event yield much of worth to society?

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

It’s hard not to see tools like this as a strong threat to the common human decency that I have spent the last 15 years working for. So I would genuinely like to know what public goods are worth all this.

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

A few years later, as part of my dissertation research, I learned about the ugly culture of mocking disabled people with disturbing jokes that denigrated Professor Hawking.

I spent years motivated by harassment of Hawking and other scientists to research ways to change norms toward respect.

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

I remember being so proud to learn that neural networks I worked on were helping Professor Hawking (with whom I had mutual friends) write his final book.

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

Genuine question - what are OpenAI’s Sora and other video generation tools good for?

I am honestly trying to understand what is so important that it’s worth the cost. If you have examples, I would be interested to hear them.

futurism.com/artificial-i...

People Are Making Sora 2 Videos of Stephen Hawking Being Horribly Brutalized

People are using OpenAI's Sora 2 to generate videos of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking being brutalized in ghoulish ways.

futurism.com

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 3d

As a scientist, advocates sometimes encourage me not to study a topic, not because the truth can't be found, but because they worry that the knowledge might be misused. And they might be right.

Example: social media + mass violence

Curious: what's an issue you've wrestled with in this way?

Reposted by J. Nathan Matias

Amanda Levendowski Tepski @tepski.tech · 4d

futurism.com/artificial-i...

Stalker Already Using OpenAI's Sora 2 to Harass Victim

A journalist claims that her stalker used Sora 2, the latest video app from OpenAI, to churn out videos of her.

futurism.com

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Reposted by J. Nathan Matias

Carrie Brown @brizzyc.bsky.social · 4d

Reminder: Participatory Journalism Interest Group is looking for panel proposals for next year's AEJMC conference in August in New Orleans. Deadline is tomorrow. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

PJIG Call for Panel Proposals AEJMC 2026

AEJMC Participatory Journalism Interest Group Call for Panel Proposals AEJMC Conference in New Orleans, Aug. 5-8, 2026 Panel proposal deadline: Oct. 7 before midnight The Participatory Journalism ...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by J. Nathan Matias

J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 6d

Are you a scientist, journalist, or civil society researcher studying New York State's distraction-free school policy, the one that bans internet-enabled devices in schools from bell to bell?

If so, I want to hear from you, as I refine a project to archive & classify published school policies.

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 6d

This semester, my students are compiling & classifying > 1k phone policies across NY state. We're building a baseline understanding of how this law is being implemented & how it varies.

We hope the dataset will be useful to others, so if you have ideas of what we should record, please respond!

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