Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Joanna Bryson

@j2bryson.bsky.social

9K followers 620 following 5.4K posts

Professor of Ethics & Technology @ Hertie School, Berlin. Interests: Artificial & Natural Intelligence; Behavioural Ecology; Cooperation; Digital Governance. Social media policy: https://joanna-bryson.blogspot.com/2024/10/guidance-to-my-social-media.html

joanna-bryson.blogspot.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · Feb 19

thread. correct numbers and data backing them come later, but this is the thrust.

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · Feb 5

One thing I learned last week was that if you don’t count the BS market capitalisation bubble of 7 “AI” firms, the US economy as measured by the s&p 500 didn’t go up 13% last year; it went down 7%.

The EU may be a larger economy already. We need to get our own O2 mask on, then start helping others.

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · Feb 5

Guess why there was no reporting of AI revenue?

4 9 37

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

michael veale @michae.lv · 6h

OpenAI’s Sora opt-out for IP is clearly OpenAI trying to do a Google ContentID pivot to turn rightsholders of key trademarked characters into price-takers not price-setters.

1 6 9

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Access Now @accessnow.org · Jun 23

What should AI governance look like, and who gets to shape it?

In this op-ed, Namrata Maheshwari and Daniel Leufer explore the potential impact of India hosting the next #AIActionSummit and bringing Global Majority voices to the forefront.

Read more: economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-c...

Will India's AI Action Summit redefine global AI governance? - The Economic Times

India will host the next AI Action Summit. The Government of India seeks public input to shape the summit. India aims to bring global perspectives to AI governance. The summit will address AI regulati...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 6h

Barbara Walter, UCSD, "Once citizens begin to view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army, violence becomes inevitable. Trump’s team knows this. In fact, that’s the point. They are not trying to restore order… trying to trigger the unrest that would justify further crackdowns."

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 6h

Ryan Enos, Harvard "The reason that the Reichstag fire is such a poignant example of a pretext for an authoritarian power grab is not because it is unique, but rather because the consequences are now seen as so severe."

bsky.app/profile/jeko...

jekolski.bsky.social @jekolski.bsky.social · 9h

Try this gift article

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | Trump Is Not Afraid of Civil War. Neither Is Stephen Miller.

www.nytimes.com

1 3

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 7h

The journalists are some of the heroes. Thank you for not only writing your articles, but getting them where people see them. bsky.app/profile/dlkn...

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 11h

My own story on the raid is here:

What a Chicago immigration raid says about Trumpism
www.economist.com/united-state...
From The Economist

1 1 4

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 7h

Trump's warriors chose a building in serious disrepair. No one looks excellent in this, not Chicago, not America. But there are some real heroes described: Watson working to document, entire NGOs working to recover the lost. And at the heart, families trying to stay alive and love their children.

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 13h

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

1 1 9

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Tuta @tuta.com · 19h

We did it: 🇩🇪Germany will OPPOSE Chat Control! 🥳

Thanks everyone for writing to the ministers. 🫶

#ChatControl will not get a majority in the EU Council - at least for now.

Map of Europe showing opposing countries in green: NL, DE, PL, CZ, AT, SL, SK, EE, FI

1 89 200

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Jakob @jdw.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 8h

Can we do the thing we did about #chatcontrol about #wealthtax next?

2 2

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Joanna Bryson, blathering @j2bryson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 7h

I helped too. I posted in German on LinkedIn, everyone must have known THAT was serious!! https://mastodon.social/@mfeilner/115335365263865209

Markus Feilner (@[email protected])

#chatcontrol is fallen and I helped. "Facing a wave of calls and emails from the public, the Social Democrats held their ground, and for the first time, even the conservative opposition leadership is voicing criticism." https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/citizen-protest-halts-chat-control-breyer-celebrates-major-victory-for-digital-privacy/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRVPLPFoJL0

mastodon.social

1 2

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 15h

Risk reshapes amygdala representation of choice https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680813v1

5 5

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 14h

Wow, that looks seriously bubblicious. The velocity of AI $ is now in a league of its own.

Nvidia and OpenAI tangle web of deals are “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“ www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

18 16

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Naomi Saphra @nsaphra.bsky.social · 13h

It is wild that anyone out there is advocating for MORE human labor in image moderation. a friend of mine used to be a 4chan janitor. they’re dead now, but they spent the rest of their life unable to look at a child without feeling sick.

2 11 43

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 8h

This is an important thread, but I feel obliged to focus on entire tenements in Chicago being evacuated and sorted by race, which would mean breaking up families except they were already stripping children from parents as well.

However I don't know how to focus on that, what to do.

Serife (Sherry) Wong @serife.bsky.social · 13h

Like other sectors, spirituality embraced AI chat bots to meditate interactions w followers. The leaders are of two camps: people who are hustling new profits and true believers trying to help more people. Both camps lack AI education and are inadvertently harming their communities & the planet.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

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.

150 4.2K 9K

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

I'm Margaret! I'm the best! Blah Blah Blah! @vt-vagabond.bsky.social · 11h

There’s a lot in here that deserves a pull quote, but this is the most egregious. I need people to recognize the gravity of the situation here in Chicago;

SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
Donate

"The ones that are getting out are coming home to no home," Watson said.
According to her, after the raid occurred, building management stole or threw out residents belongings, including visas and important documents.

ICIRR is still trying to determine the identities of all the people detained in the raid. Castro said that the organization usually can do that by following up with family members or loved ones. "In this instance, there was nobody left to work with," she said. The only detainee name they're sure of is that of a person who passed their Venezuelan passport to a neighbor as they were being taken away.

11 280 560

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Joanna Bryson, blathering @j2bryson.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 8h

Good morning. Is Germany a tech dystopia or a champion of #privacy?

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Serife (Sherry) Wong @serife.bsky.social · 10h

This database documents individuals in internment camps in Xinxiang, & they are running low on funds. They need $3000. I vouch for their work and they need very little. Please help! The records of over 90,000 victims must be maintained, it is evidence and hope. www.gofundme.com/f/xinjiang-v...

2 3

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 10h

Monstrous.

"federal agents detained nearly every resident of the 130-unit building—including children and babies—placing them in zip ties and separating them by race into vans for more than two hours early Tuesday morning."

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 13h

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

27 590 1.2K

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

neongrey @neongrey.bsky.social · 1d

all discourse aside, there is one machine with consciousness. it's printers. they are alive and conscious and they hate you and they'd take your arm clean off if you let them. never trust a printer.

130 3.5K 8K

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Simon Willison @simon.fedi.simonwillison.net.ap.brid.gy · 16h

I just tried the official demo for the new Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model and it started by navigating to Google, solving Google's own CAPTCHA and then running a search! https://simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/7/gemini-25-computer-use-captchas/

Gemini 2.5 Computer Use can solve Google’s own CAPTCHAs

Google just introduced a new Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model, specially designed to help operate a GUI interface by interacting with visible elements using a virtual mouse and keyboard. I …

simonwillison.net

2 4 8

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 18h

and cement!

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 18h

Bald könnten ALLE Chat-Nachrichten von den Behörden durchsucht werden! Das entscheiden *heute* die Minister*innen. Sag Nein zur #Chatkontrolle! Jetzt unterzeichnen ✍️ weact.campact.de/petitions/ch...
#Privacy PROTECTS children from their most likely abusers–sadly, their own household. #chatcontrol

Chatkontrolle stoppen!

Die EU-Kommission will Messenger-Dienste wie WhatsApp und Signal zwingen, alle privaten Nachrichten und Fotos in Echtzeit zu scannen. Angeblich zum Kinderschutz. In Wahrheit bedeutet die Chatkontrolle...

weact.campact.de

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Gabriel @gm0stache.tigerente.dev · 1d

feel free to join this petition against #chatcontrol here:

weact.campact.de/petitions/ch...

28 43

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d

We also saw large companies disrupt governments & fuel autocracies in WWII. Social media is a great way to communicate and organise, that's why you're reading this. So how do we convince people to invest in their nations? DOES the digital era contribute to voting out incumbents? Can we counter that?

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d

It's not that we can't afford for human rights and welfare like decent healthcare, it's that we can't get people to pay sufficient tax to do so. We saw exactly this same pattern of increasing populism with increasing inequality long before there was an Internet, in the late 1800s through WWI.

1 1 8