Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 54m

On November 18, join organizers and experts for a cross-issue panel discussion exploring how workers and communities are pushing back: From Our Workplaces to Our Communities: Stop the AI Surveillance Pipeline Now! bit.ly/stopAIsurveillance

4

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 54m

“Privacy-preserving” isn’t as private as you might think. Our new brief, published in collab w @powerswitchaction.org & Coworker, exposes how so-called “privacy-preserving” technologies can actually enable *more* worker surveillance — and what we can do about it. datasociety.net/library/the-...

1 4 10

Reposted by Data & Society

Tamara Kneese @tamigraph.bsky.social · 15h

Join @datasociety.bsky.social's Climate, Technology, and Justice program+ Kapor Foundation for a webinar on CA data centers in context, connecting data center buildout + policy interventions to histories of environmental racism + resistance

10/9, 12-1:30 PM PT kaporcenter.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

California Data Centers in Context: Histories, Impacts, Policies with Khari Johnson, Masheika Allgood, and Nicole Merino Tsui. Moderated by Cecilia Marrinan and Tamara Kneese. October 9, 12-1:30 pm. Registration link for Zoom is in the post

1 6 9

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 21h

“Not only is the ratio of AI’s resource rapacity to its productive utility indefensibly and irremediably skewed, AI-made material is itself a waste product: flimsy, shoddy, disposable, a single-use plastic of the mind.” www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

Large Language Muddle | The Editors

The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...

www.nplusonemag.com

13 35

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 1d

“The user interfaces on our devices have become less like tools and more like receptacles for collection,” @anthropunk.bsky.social writes. It’s a dynamic that “exploits our energy and labor.” www.fastcompany.com/91397818/lar...

LLMs are the users now

Tech companies have shifted focus from designing for people to prioritizing algorithms.

www.fastcompany.com

5 15

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 1d

While workers are largely following mandates to embrace genAI, it seems few companies are seeing it create real value. One possible reason: AI tools are being used to produce content that looks polished but lacks substance, "offloading cognitive labor onto coworkers." hbr.org/2025/09/ai-g...

AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity

Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appea...

hbr.org

8 13

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 2d

“The notion of AI personhood is a marketing exercise and a legal maneuver that I don’t think we should buy into,” says D&S researcher @cariatida.bsky.social. “Tilly is not an actress any more than, like, Sid the sloth from the ‘Ice Age’ movies is an actor.” www.huffpost.com/entry/ai-act...

Experts Warn This Real-World Effect Is The Most Unsettling Thing About 'AI Actor' Tilly

This Hollywood newcomer has a long list of haters already.

www.huffpost.com

3 3 19

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 4d

“AI isn’t magic; it’s a pyramid scheme of human labor,” said @adiod.bsky.social, a researcher at @dairinstitute.bsky.social. “These raters are the middle rung: invisible, essential and expendable.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart

Contracted AI raters describe grueling deadlines, poor pay and opacity around work to make chatbots intelligent

www.theguardian.com

24 48

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 5d

Revisit the primer by @lanalanalana.bsky.social, @alicetiara.bsky.social and Kate Larson, which maps what we know about generative AI’s role in scams, the communities most at risk, and the broader economic and cultural shifts at play. datasociety.net/library/scam...

ScamGPT: GenAI and the Automation of Fraud

This collaboration between Lana Swartz, Alice E. Marwick, and Kate Larson maps generative AI's role in scams, the communities most at risk, and the broader economic and cultural shifts at play.

datasociety.net

2

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 5d

How is AI changing the nature of scams? @lanalanalana.bsky.social & @alicetiara.bsky.social spoke to @alixdunn.com on @themaybe.org to explain how AI automates & scales the work already being done in massive, exploitative “cybercrime compounds” around the world. www.themaybe.org/podcast/gotc...

The Maybe

www.themaybe.org

1 11 22

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 5d

In deploying AI in the medical field, a worst case scenario would be if AI tools remain imperfect and humans lose the ability to function without them: “If you’re a betting person, you should train doctors who know how to use AI but also know how to think.” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

If A.I. Can Diagnose Patients, What Are Doctors For?

Large language models are transforming medicine—but the technology comes with side effects.

www.newyorker.com

2 5

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 5d

Breaking through the noise to find an audience has always been challenging in music, but musicians in Latin America say AI is now making it nearly impossible, as the speed and volume of new AI music exhausts human artists and distracts listeners. restofworld.org/2025/ai-musi...

Latin American musicians say AI is stealing their streams

Musicians from Chile to Mexico say bots are stealing streams, siphoning income, and shortening the lifespan of songs. Even Bad Bunny isn’t safe.

restofworld.org

4 2

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 5d

“AI isn’t really designed to be therapeutic,” says Stanford addiction scientist Dr. Anna Lembke. “It’s really designed to make people feel better in the short term, which also ultimately promotes continued engagement — which is the real agenda for these companies.” futurism.com/chatgpt-marr...

ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners

Across the world, marriages are being destroyed as spouses use AI like OpenAI's ChatGPT to attack their partners.

futurism.com

2 5

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 6d

New research shows how AI models default to Western-style directness, missing the cultural cues that govern everyday interactions for millions of Persian speakers worldwide — with the potential to derail negotiations, damage relationships, and reinforce stereotypes. arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/w...

When “no” means “yes”: Why AI chatbots can’t process Persian social etiquette

New study examines how a helpful AI response could become a cultural disaster in Iran.

arstechnica.com

10 21

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 6d

Join us on Oct 9 @ 12pm PT for a webinar on the histories, impacts & policies of California’s data centers. This talk will feature @khari.bsky.social, Masheika Allgood & Nicole Merino Tsui, moderated by Cecilia Marrinan of Kapor Foundation & @tamigraph.bsky.social kaporcenter.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

7 13

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 6d

“Apps may promise to optimize parenting, but ultimately, they threaten to sap its intimacy & humanness,” Miranda Rake writes. “Rather than dismantling families’ to-do lists, the apps tend to encourage a do-it-all model...that constantly demands more from parents.” www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...

AI Is Coming for Parents

Apps are promising to ease the job of child-rearing—but they’re missing something crucial.

www.theatlantic.com

4 3

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 7d

“If the social platforms and language models that increasingly shape our understanding of the world are inscrutable black boxes, Wikipedia is the opposite, maybe the most legible, endlessly explainable information management system ever made." www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

Wikipedia is under attack — and how it can survive

The site’s volunteers face threats from Trump, billionaires, and AI.

www.theverge.com

3 33 95

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 7d

Who are the people and places who power our digital age? Join the first event in the “Global Circuits” series on October 9 at 11 am ET, featuring Maurice Carney from Friends of the Congo + Mark Po-Jen Hsu from Environmental Rights Foundation Taiwan. bsky.app/profile/tami...

Tamara Kneese @tamigraph.bsky.social · 8d

📦🔋🌱Global Circuits, a new series on environmental justice and the AI supply chain, co-sponsored by (m)otherboard, Green Screen Coalition, & @datasociety.bsky.social Climate, Technology, and Justice program

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Global Circuits | Session 1, from mining to chip manufacture in the Congo and Taiwan. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining...

Join us for our first session in the Global Circuits speaker series where we draw connections and forge solidarity from the Congo to Taiwan. We are lucky to host Maurice Carney, Executive Director at ...

northwestern.zoom.us

1

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 8d

Video: “Technological progress that isn’t sustainable isn’t really progress,” @katecrawford.bsky.social says, as she explains how the AI industry is damaging the earth and leaving humans in the lurch, jeopardizing its own future and ours. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/o...

Opinion | A.I.’s Environmental Impact Will Threaten Its Own Supply Chain

www.nytimes.com

5 14

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 8d

Google is “now positioned to further entrench its dominance of our information landscape,” @juliaangwin.com writes. “This is a perilous moment to be granting one company this much control over global access to knowledge.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/o...

Opinion | Google Wins, We Lose

www.nytimes.com

3 7

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 9d

Featuring D&S research affiliate @robyncaplan.bsky.social! bsky.app/profile/duke...

Duke Sanford @dukesanford.bsky.social · 12d

Will AI prompt a new golden era? On Policy 360 Podcast, @robyncaplan.bsky.social explores deepfakes to the growing importance of social media verification w/ @agpines.bsky.social.

@duke-dewitt.bsky.social @datasociety.bsky.social @dukescisoc.bsky.social #EduSkyAI

sanford.duke.edu/story/will-a...

1 2

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 11d

As tech companies rush to create devices they can sell as interventions in America’s loneliness epidemic, @yair-rosenberg.bsky.social argues that they are bound to fail, “because they are the same technologies fueling it in the first place.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Have You Considered Not Polluting the Water?

The tech industry will do anything to solve our loneliness epidemic except stop causing it in the first place.

www.theatlantic.com

4 16

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 12d

Tech companies are marketing AI-based note-taking software to therapists as a time-saving tool. But by using these tools, providers may be unknowingly offering their patients’ sensitive health information as data fodder to the multibillion-dollar AI therapy industry. jacobin.com/2025/09/ther...

Your Therapist’s Notes Could Become Fodder For AI

Tech companies are marketing AI-based note-taking software to therapists as a new time-saving tool. But by signing up, providers may be unknowingly offering patients’ sensitive health information as d...

jacobin.com

1 4 11

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 12d

If you missed the event or want to revisit it, full video is now available! www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4hQ...

4 8

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 13d

On the @lawfaremedia.org podcast, D&S's @mwoluchem.bsky.social, @livgar.bsky.social, and Joan Mukogosi discuss their recent research trips across PA, where they explored the state’s industrial histories and futures, and its nascent AI data center industry. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lawf...

Lawfare Daily: A Trip Through Pennsylvania’s Nascent AI Data Center Industry

What are the current and future impacts of the AI data center industry in Pennsylvania?

www.lawfaremedia.org

3