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Dr Abeba Birhane

@abeba.bsky.social

48K followers 810 following 3.6K posts

Founder & PI @aial.ie, @tcddublin.bsky.social AI accountability, AI audits & evaluation, critical data studies. Cognitive scientist by training. Ethiopian in Ireland. She/her

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · Jun 25

New paper hot off the press www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We analysed over 40,000 computer vision papers from CVPR (the longest standing CV conf) & associated patents tracing pathways from research to application. We found that 90% of papers & 86% of downstream patents power surveillance

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Computer-vision research powers surveillance technology - Nature

An analysis of research papers and citing patents indicates the extensive ties between computer-vision research and surveillance.

www.nature.com

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Hend Amry @libyaliberty.bsky.social · 10m

Once the data is in government hands and systems of surveillance are embedded in systems of labor and beyond, your supposed protections are nothing more than flimsy surmountable barriers. One terrorist attack and “emergency powers” are claimed. We just saw it used for protests.

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 13m

It turns out it is really really really hard to get approval from a university/finance department to buy mobile phone devices and SIM cards in dozens for RESEARCH purposes… even when you emphasise you’re only going to use them for research and not for any bot farms or “illegal” activity

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 4h

😍😍 and this entire dish is vegan-friendly

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12h

did i eat this entire plate of ethiopian? yes, i did.

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Rep. Steven Woodrow @woodrowforco.bsky.social · 11h

The media’s job is to make you think that the people who want to give you healthcare are just as crazy as the people trying to take it away.

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 4h

So much of political discourse now, across the West, boils down to "Be realistic, our policies have to have SOME evil in them!"

And if you say "No they don't", you're a dangerous extremist.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 5h

unequivocal support for and unending pride towards our students last night and always www.voxweb.nl/en/pro-pales...

Pro-Palestine activists occupy Goudsmitpaviljoen: ‘We are not going to allow research to be done in this building’ - Vox magazine

Pro-Palestine activists occupied the Goudsmitpaviljoen behind the Huygens building this morning. They have locked the building from the inside and a number of activists are also at the door, secured t...

www.voxweb.nl

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 18h

We also have this website with an overview: www.ru.nl/en/research/...

Critical AI Literacy (CAIL) | Radboud University

Critical AI literacy is crucial for our world, as AI applications rapidly spread across society. In this project, we educate students, education professionals, and the public on how uncritical AI adop...

www.ru.nl

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 18h

These resources from @olivia.science may be useful: olivia.science/ai

Critical AI

On this page are some resources for Critical AI Literacy (CAIL) from my perspective.

olivia.science

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 17h

im not sure why you implied a "use or refuse" dichotomy from what I said. and talking/hearing about the *potential* "positive" use cases without a shred of critical thinking (which is what you're doing) is what im tried of

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Drop Site @dropsitenews.com · 1d

She called out world leaders for sitting by and watching a live-streamed genocide without taking action.

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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 20h

Supreme Court: of course states can regulate, and restrict access to, medical procedures if there’s a compelling public interest

Colorado: (bans conversion therapy for minors)

Supreme Court: no not like that, we only meant abortion

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 20h

ideally, the only places i want to be in AI are spaces for resistance, refusal and community organising

in reality, i find myself in spaces where AI governance, regulatory or institutional/scientific decisions are made where either i my input is paid lip service or entirely ignored

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Tombmas Spooks @thomasfuchs.at · 23h

How many trillions of dollars have been invested into this technology so far?

Google search for "austria hungary in space"

Google excitedly tells you about the 1889 orbital flight, and that by 1908 there was a Mars research output with 30 people.

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Ian Gordon @idgordon.bsky.social · 1d

If you'd like to delight in a side-by-side comparison, here's Bari Weiss' reported note to CBS staffers (left) and the one I cooked up on ChatGPT with a quickly dashed-off prompt (right). Looking forward to hearing from you in the days and weeks ahead!

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 1d

this! legitimate, trusted, and verifiable knowledge/reality are becoming a thing of the past

Quantian @quantian.bsky.social · 1d

Sora is not the real problem here. The real problem is that in 12, at most 24 months, there will be a Sora clone from Tencent or Alibaba that is just as good and can be run by anybody with a 5099, at which point everyone in society needs to rapidly agree to treat all digital video as fake, period.

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Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 1d

After 8 years of inaction, the DPC now claims that RTB adtech does not provide location data to dodgy firms.
Wrong.
Meet "Patternz" for example:
An Israeli surveillance tool built on RTB data that provides a targeted individual's coordinates and "driving path" www.iccl.ie/wp-content/u...

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 1d

This statement can be both accurate and misleading.

It is intended to reassure Dublin’s largest employer (Google) that no effective regulatory action will be taken, while justifying that by the use of the word “precise” in the last line.

Without a definition, it can be used to avoid all action.

Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 1d

We told the DPC about this. It has known for years.
But yesterday it released this in a statement - perhaps in an attempt to absolve itself from the location scandal shown on national TV recently.
The statement is incorrect.

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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 1d

"Deported" is a very interesting way to say kidnapped, imprisoned illegally, abused, then released. 🤔

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 1d

🤦🏾‍♀️

Clemens Vasters 🇪🇺🇩🇪 @clemens.vasters.com · 1d

Techmeme front page:

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 1d

It's a pretty big deal that the NYC Bar Association--one of the most prominent and respected bar associations in the country--is accusing the President of ordering the "unlawful summary execution," i.e. murder--of civilians in violation of US and international law. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...

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Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 2d

It's Nobel Prize week! A good time to remember that the economics prize was created by Swedish bankers in 1968 (67 years after the 5 original Nobel prizes) against the wishes of the Nobel family, partly to legitimize neoclassical economics in the public eye and partly to help banks avoid regulation.

Philip Mirowski - Why Is There a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics?

YouTube video by New Economic Thinking

m.youtube.com

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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 1d

Megyn Kelly has now made multiple denigrating posts about me across X, YouTube, her podcast so I’m sharing this. Unlike her, I don't perform dislike and disdain in public,then become my real self when the cameras are off. That's the definition of the grift she accuses me of;I find it profoundly sad.

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Lydia Polgreen @polgreen.bsky.social · 1d

Not to be a pedant but Bari Weiss was a junior editor who occasionally wrote opinion pieces in the opinion section, not a columnist.

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 1d

this!!!

Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 1d

Everything I have learned about [insert name of far-right US media pundit], I have learned entirely against my will.

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 1d

Installing someone like Bari Weiss as the head of a major news organization isn’t even about profit or longevity. In effect it’s about continuing to shrink the traditional news industry smaller and smaller and weaker and weaker and less and less journalism based until it ceases to exist

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