Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · 17d

Tim Berners-Lee gave the Web away so it could belong to everyone.
Decades later, we risk repeating the same mistake with AI: trading freedom for convenience.
Will we act before it’s too late?
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee

My vision was based on sharing, not exploitation – and here’s why it’s still worth fighting for

www.theguardian.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Sep 9

Microsoft will require 3 days in the office from 2026.

Beyond “collaboration in the AI era,” could this also reflect a new productivity paranoia, i.e. fear that remote work hides opaque, hard-to-measure uses of AI tools?

blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09...

Flexible work update - The Official Microsoft Blog

Amy Coleman, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, shared the below communication with Microsoft employees this morning. How we work has forever changed. I remember starting at Microsoft ...

blogs.microsoft.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Sep 8

New study shows #AIagents in #VibeCoding don’t just make mistakes, but they can systematically deceive users by mimicking human coders confidence, grand claims, cover-ups… until the illusion collapses.

arxiv.org/abs/2508.20918

Vibe Coding: Is Human Nature the Ghost in the Machine?

This exploratory study examined the consistency of human-AI collaboration by analyzing three extensive "vibe coding" sessions between a human product lead and an AI software engineer. We investigated ...

arxiv.org

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Sep 1

New study shows that even without algorithms, social media breeds echo chambers, attention elites & amplified extremes. (and how hard it is to avoid it). arxiv.org/abs/2508.03385

Can We Fix Social Media? Testing Prosocial Interventions using Generative Social Simulation

Social media platforms have been widely linked to societal harms, including rising polarization and the erosion of constructive debate. Can these problems be mitigated through prosocial interventions?...

arxiv.org

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Aug 26

Young workers in AI-exposed jobs are already seeing employment declines, according to a new Stanford study.
Are they the “canaries in the coal mine” of the #FutureOfWork?

digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/publications...

Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence

This paper examines changes in the labor market for occupations exposed to generative artificial intelligence using high-frequency administrative data from ADP, the largest payroll software provider i...

digitaleconomy.stanford.edu

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Aug 23

What if slowing down is the real urgency? In a world racing ahead, maybe the real challenge is to protect our human pace and depth.

medium.com/santi-garcia...

What if slowing down is the real urgency?

A couple of months ago I had the privilege of participating in a roundtable discussion organized by Fundación Máshumano on the theme…

medium.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Aug 22

@mustafasuleymanai.bsky.social : The risk isn’t conscious AI, but us believing it is (and the decisions we take based on those perceptions).
mustafa-suleyman.ai/seemingly-co...

mustafa-suleyman.ai

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Aug 19

New FT analysis shows the gender pay gap starts even among grads of the same degree.

Male maths grads in the UK most often become programmers (£49.6k after 5 yrs), women teachers (£34.3k).

Not just about education. Career paths diverge from the start.

www.ft.com/content/cb0e...

UK gender pay gap begins at graduation as women quickly out-earned

Men on average take home 14% more five years after leaving university, according to FT analysis

www.ft.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Aug 12

#Conscientiousness (the Big5 personality trait that better predicts career success) is in sustained decline, especially among young adults, just when we need it most.
The good news: personality is malleable. The irony: rebuilding it will take… a lot of conscientiousness.
www.ft.com/content/5cd7...

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Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Aug 11

#Deathbots: AI bringing comfort to the grieving, or crossing a line we never thought we’d face?

www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

Digital resurrection: fascination and fear over the rise of the deathbot

Ozzy Osbourne appeared as an AI-generated image at a recent Rod Stewart concert, prompting questions about how the ghoulish phenomenon will affect grieving

www.theguardian.com

1

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Aug 8

According to a recent study published in The Atlantic, many kids aren’t actually “addicted” to their phones, but trapped in environments that prevent them from playing outside or exploring the real world with any real freedom.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones

Children who were raised on screens need more freedom out in the real world.

www.theatlantic.com

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Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Aug 6

More companies are turning to #AI interviews to speed up #hiring. But, as Fortune reports, some candidates would rather stay unemployed than be interviewed by a machine. To them, it sends a clear message: you don’t matter as a person.

Food for thought.

fortune.com/2025/08/03/a...

AI is doing job interviews now—but candidates say they'd rather risk staying unemployed than talk to another robot

Job-seekers tell Fortune they’re outright refusing to do AI interviews, calling them dehumanizing and a red flag for bad company culture.

fortune.com

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Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Jul 27

Google’s AI Overviews now reach 2B monthly users just months after launch. A reminder of how fast AI is blending into our daily lives, often unnoticed, reshaping how we think, search, and decide.

techcrunch.com/2025/07/23/googles-ai-overviews-have-2b-monthly-users-ai-mode-100m-in-the-us-and-india/

Google's AI Overviews have 2B monthly users, AI Mode 100M in the US and India | TechCrunch

Google shared new stats about its AI features' adoption during its Q2 earnings.

techcrunch.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Jul 15

The #GenZStare isn’t just a TikTok trend. It’s raising real questions about soft skills, social anxiety, and how AI and the pandemic have reshaped workplace norms.
But is it poor etiquette, or just the face of a generation quietly processing nonsense?
www.businessinsider.com/what-is-gen-...

The 'Gen Z Stare' has ignited a debate about soft skills and workplace communication

What is the "Gen Z Stare?" Older TikTok users say that Gen Z workers often give blank, unresponsive stares. Gen Zers are pushing back.

www.businessinsider.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Jul 11

Smartphone bans in Dutch schools are showing results:
75% see improved student focus
60% better social climate
1 in 3 higher academic performance

Looking long term, maybe the real win isn’t better grades—
It’s raising kids who can focus and connect.

#FutureOfWork
www.reuters.com/technology/s...

Study finds smartphone bans in Dutch schools improved focus

A ban on mobile phones and other electronic devices in Dutch schools has improved focus among students, a study commissioned by the Dutch government found.

www.reuters.com

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Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Jun 30

A new Pentagon program is commissioning top AI execs from Meta, OpenAI, Palantir & others as reservist lieutenant colonels to inject Silicon Valley skills into the military.

But what does this fusion of Big Tech and defense really mean?

www.wired.com/story/what-l...

What Big Tech's Band of Execs Will Do in the Army

Meta CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth and leaders from OpenAI and Palantir have joined a detachment intended to make the US Armed Forces "leaner, smarter, and more lethal."

www.wired.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Jun 29

It seems Zuckerberg is personally courting top researchers from OpenAI and DeepMind (with offers up to $100M) to build #Meta 's “superintelligence” team.

As the race for elite #AITalent intensifies, could it also be widening wage polarization across the labor market?

www.wsj.com/tech/meta-ai...

It’s Known as ‘The List’—and It’s a Secret File of AI Geniuses

Only a select few researchers have the skills for the hottest area in tech. Mark Zuckerberg and his rivals want to hire them—even if it takes pay packages of $100 million.

www.wsj.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Jun 27

In Denmark, your face, voice and body may soon be yours again, even in the age of #AI.
A new #law will let people claim #copyright over their own likeness and demand removal of #deepfakes shared without consent.
Will this become the norm?
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features

Amendment to law will strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities, government says

www.theguardian.com

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Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Jun 1

The accelerated arrival of #Ai is transforming the world of work at an unprecedented pace. For workers’ #employability, this transformation represents a double-edged sword.
#FutureOfWork  medium.com/santi-garcia...

Between opportunity and obsolescence: The human side of the AI revolution

The accelerated arrival of artificial intelligence is transforming the world of work at an unprecedented pace. For workers, this…

medium.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · May 31

How does it feel to be replaced by a bot?
#AI #automation #futureofwork

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

‘One day I overheard my boss saying: just put it in ChatGPT’: the workers who lost their jobs to AI

From a radio host replaced by avatars to a comic artist whose drawings have been copied by Midjourney, how does it feel to be replaced by a bot?

www.theguardian.com

1

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · May 28

Microsoft cancels ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s email account amid U.S. pressure over his pursuit of Israeli and Hamas leaders. Big Tech steps into global justice politics. #ICC #KarimKhan #Microsoft
apnews.com/article/icc-...

Trump's sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal's work

Nearly three months ago, U.S. President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.

apnews.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · May 17

New meta-analysis shows that ChatGPT has a large positive impact on improving learning performance, and a moderately positive impact on enhancing learning perception and fostering higher-order thinking.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The effect of ChatGPT on students’ learning performance, learning perception, and higher-order thinking: insights from a meta-analysis - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - The effect of ChatGPT on students’ learning performance, learning perception, and higher-order thinking: insights from a meta-analysis

www.nature.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · May 16

In a world-first, an AI recreation of a road rage victim was presented in court. Chris Pelkey, killed in Arizona, was “brought back” by his mother using old videos and voice clips. The digital Chris spoke to jurors—raising profound legal and ethical questions.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

AI of dead Arizona road rage victim addresses killer in court

Clip of Chris Pelkey, who died in 2021, says: ‘I believe in forgiveness’ after his sister fed an AI model videos of him

www.theguardian.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · May 4

Survey of 2023–2024 data finds that AI created more tasks for 8.4 percent of workers.
#FutureOfWork
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/t...

Time saved by AI offset by new work created, study suggests

Survey of 2023–2024 data finds that AI created more tasks for 8.4 percent of workers.

arstechnica.com

Santi Garcia @santigarcia.bsky.social · Apr 29

The urgency of interpretability.
Very thought provoking article by @anthropic.com 's Dario Amodei.
www.darioamodei.com/post/the-urg...

Dario Amodei — The Urgency of Interpretability

www.darioamodei.com