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Alondra Nelson

@alondra.bsky.social

44K followers 1.8K following 810 posts

Scholar, author, policy advisor alondranelson.com Science, Technology, and Social Values Lab https://www.ias.edu/stsv-lab

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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 26d

🧵 The summer of 2025 has been AI's "cruel summer"—wrongful deaths, dangerous therapy chatbots, medical misinformation, facial recognition failures. These aren't isolated glitches but predictable harms from systems deployed without adequate oversight. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

An ELSI for AI: Learning from genetics to govern algorithms

In the United States, the summer of 2025 will be remembered as artificial intelligence’s (AI’s) cruel summer—a season when the unheeded risks and dangers of AI became undeniably clear. Recent months h...

www.science.org

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Diane Coyle @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social · 7h

Given the circular deals, it surely isn’t a $1T market?

Techmeme @techmeme.com · 7h

The recent wave of circular deals and partnerships involving Nvidia and OpenAI is escalating concerns that they are artificially propping up the $1T AI market (Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 14h

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 14h

Happening right now. To us. In America.

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 14h

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 21h

I've had this experience too when hallucinated bibliographies cite to me - the entries are so much the least surprising prediction that I'm not sure for a minute whether I wrote the damn thing or not.

Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.bsky.social · 1d

And here we go. I never wrote this article, and yet it is cited here.

www.liberalbriefs.com/geopolitics/...

And of course, it sounds so plausible, I seriously checked whether I had forgotten it, or the footnote was slightly wrong.

#AIisnotresearch

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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 1d

One week until applications close on Oct 15th. 👇

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · Jun 27

Some news: In 2026-27, I'll be visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, leading the theme seminar on

‘𝘌𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘺‘

There's no place quite like the IAS to think, together, about big questions. Please share—applications are open 𝚗̲̲𝚘̲̲𝚠̲.

Screenshot of this document: https://www.ias.edu/sites/default/files/SSS%20Call%20for%20Applications%202026-27%20.pdf

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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 1d

"Precisely because they have been losing court cases over free speech and visas for foreign students, Trumpists now seek to entrap universities in a deal that effectively removes the protections of federal law and gives the administration arbitrary power over them."

US universities must reject Trump’s ‘compact’. It is full of traps | Jan-Werner Müller

The administration is trying to make nine universities an offer they seemingly cannot refuse

www.theguardian.com

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 1d

My new op-ed with @lkfazio.bsky.social:

Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.
Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

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Robert Mackey @robertmackey.bsky.social · 1d

The Oregon Republican Party tried to help Donald Trump make the case for military intervention in Portland with an image of a fiery protest — but since Portland is calm, they had to fabricate one by merging old photos of police in Ecuador and protesters in Brazil www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Republicans post fake image of Oregon protest – using photos of South America

A federal judge had blocked Trump’s request to deploy California national guard to Portland

www.theguardian.com

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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 1d

The International Energy Agency slashed in half its forecast of US renewable energy growth by 2030, even as the rest of the world races to double its green power capacity over the same period

IEA Cuts US Renewable Growth Forecast in Half on Trump Policies

The International Energy Agency slashed in half its forecast of US renewable energy growth by 2030, even as the rest of the world races to double its green power capacity over the same period.

bloom.bg

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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 1d

Families can now sue the university for mishandling human remains donated for research and teaching puroses.

Harvard ruled as legally liable for theft of body parts from morgue

Families can now sue the university for mishandling human remains donated for research and teaching puroses.

bit.ly

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Timothy McBride @mcbridetd.bsky.social · 2d

South Carolina judge's home burned just weeks after brutal decision against Trump administration
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Judge's home burned weeks after decision against Trump administration

Just weeks before a South Carolina judge's beachfront property burned to the ground in a potential act of arson, she had issued a decisive ruling against the Trump administration.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 2d

Judge Diane Goodstein crossed the Trump administration last month. Yesterday, her home burned, her husband was injured and it's being investigated for arson.

www.postandcourier.com/news/crime/s...

Judge blocks South Carolina from giving DOJ millions of voters' data
Sep. 3, 2025

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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 2d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 4d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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NE Ohio Regional Sewer District @neorsd.org · 7d

I’m a sewage system. I also have a great personality.

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD
@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
I'm an epidemiologist. Sewage systems are sexy.

Dosco Jones @doscojones.bsky.social
I'm an engineer. Sewage systems are sexy.

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John Palfrey @palfrey.org · 2d

Crucial historical and legal context for those of us living in Chicago right now... and those of us living anywhere in the USA for that matter.

Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 2d

The very first statute authorizing domestic use of the military during domestic emergencies, enacted in 1792 by a Congress full of the same folks who wrote and ratified the Constitution, expressly provided for judicial review in certain circumstances *before* the President could even send troops.

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susannah glickman @susglickman.bsky.social · 3d

have a new piece out of defense tech with nyrb!

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

The War Over Defense Tech | Susannah Glickman

Last October, on a Martin Luther–inspired website called www.18theses.com, a software executive named Shyam Sankar published a four-thousand-word polemic

www.nybooks.com

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · Jan 16

Curious about the role of VC influence in defence but no time to read my full research artice? I have a shorter version of the @finandsoc.bsky.social article on VC and military AI up now with @theconversation.com. Check it out! theconversation.com/the-silicon-...

The Silicon Valley venture capitalists who want to ‘move fast and break things’ in the defence industry

Enormous sums of venture capital money and influence is pouring into a defence industry which is being reshaped in the image of Silicon Valley.

theconversation.com

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 3d

None of it was in pursuit of justice, but all of it was in pursuit of social media videos.

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Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 3d

Reuters gathered an expansive set of arrest records in D.C. since Trump's show of force began. The number of arrests -- a key measure of law enforcement activity, not necessarily of crime -- barely changed.
www.reuters.com/world/us/did...

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Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 7d

The gender wage gap is widening again, and showing “worrying trends.”

Top of the list of reasons, to no one’s surprise: soaring child care costs.

Important read from @kedseconomist.com

Quote from article:
The first is that the gender wage gap widened for the second year in a row. Women’s earnings as a share of men’s fell to 80.9% in 2024, from 84% in 2022. There is no racial group or educational class within the working population in which women outearn men. The second is that the gender working gap is also widening. Women are leaving the labor force: 383,000 since January, for a 0.6 percentage-point decline in their participation rate, compared to an addition of 690,000 men, an 0.1 point increase. The overall employment picture is even worse: There are 499,000 fewer women working now than at the start of the year, compared to 368,000 more men working.

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Cole Donovan @colesci.bsky.social · 3d

The thing I come back to is that Starlink is still heavily reliant on government contracting services—Musk wouldn’t be out there trying to get every agency in the world to sign if it weren’t. The commercial viability of space is still really difficult. Governments aren’t entirely powerless yet.

Kara Swisher @karaswisher.bsky.social · 3d

Read: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Elon Musk’s latest power grab points in a clear direction

His SpaceX deal could fundamentally alter the relationship between a state and its citizens.

www.washingtonpost.com

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John Schwartz @jswatz.bsky.social · 5d

“No self-respecting university could ever accept something like this,” said Lee Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar and former Columbia University president. “Trying to protect conservative ideas against being ‘belittled’ — that’s about as violative of the First Amendment interests as you can get.”

Colleges weigh whether to sign onto Trump plan or forgo federal benefits

A new proposal from the Trump administration would give colleges funding advantages if they adopt conservative priorities.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Tim Dickinson @timdickinson.bsky.social · 3d

"this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if
accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this
nation."

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 3d

BREAKING: A federal judge has granted a restraining order blocking President Trump's call-up of the National Guard in Portland.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 3d

Trey Reed, a student at Delta State University in Mississippi, was found hanging from a noose. Mississippi police ruled the death a suicide. Now an autopsy reportedly concludes that he suffered extensive blunt force trauma across his body before he died, meaning he was beaten before he was lynched.

Kaepernick-Funded Autopsy Reportedly Finds Trey Reed Didn’t Die by Suicide — Family Attorney Ben Crump Hasn’t Confirmed

According to a source who isn't authorized to comment publicly, the autopsy of Trey Reed reveals that his death was not caused by a suicide.

www.blackenterprise.com

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