Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Christoph Abels @cabels18.bsky.social · Jul 7

Generative AI (GenAI) can do more than just answer questions - it can tailor its responses based on users’ preferences, habits, and even emotional tone.

We call this capability hypercustomization - explored in our new paper in Behavioral Science & Policy. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The governance & behavioral challenges of generative artificial intelligence’s hypercustomization capabilities - Christoph M. Abels, Ezequiel Lopez-Lopez, Jason W. Burton, Dawn L. Holford, Levin Brink...

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is changing human–machine interactions and the broader information ecosystem. Much as social media algorithms persona...

journals.sagepub.com

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Luke Thorburn @lukethorburn.com · Jun 30

🔔

Often our tech policy interventions operate from linear, top-down assumptions that don't account for the complexity they seek to govern.

To dig into this I'm co-organizing a workshop at ACM CI 2025 with Jason Burton, Joe Bak-Coleman, + Naomi Shiffman. You should come!

ci-x-tp.github.io

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.bsky.social · Jun 19

I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12

The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding

The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. It tries to provide guidance to ...

sks.to

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · Jun 18

🚨 Workshop update 🚨

We're excited to announce that @naomishiffman.bsky.social will be joining to share her experience with designing and passing implementable tech policy.

Our half-day agenda is up (ci-x-tp.github.io) and early registration for @acmci.bsky.social ends on 23 June — don’t miss out!

Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · May 19

(1/4) Ever wondered what tech policy might look like if it were informed by research on collective intelligence and complex systems? 🧠🧑‍💻

Join @jbakcoleman.bsky.social, @lukethorburn.com, and myself in San Diego on Aug 4th for the Collective Intelligence x Tech Policy workshop at @acmci.bsky.social!

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · May 19

(1/4) Ever wondered what tech policy might look like if it were informed by research on collective intelligence and complex systems? 🧠🧑‍💻

Join @jbakcoleman.bsky.social, @lukethorburn.com, and myself in San Diego on Aug 4th for the Collective Intelligence x Tech Policy workshop at @acmci.bsky.social!

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Center for Adaptive Rationality (MPIB, Berlin) @arc-mpib.bsky.social · May 20

🚨New podcast episode!!🚨

Ralph Hertwig calls for a shift from nudging to boosting—empowering people with the skills to make informed decisions. It’s a transparent way to strengthen agency in the face of challenges like misinformation, climate change, and more.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9r-...

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · May 19

(4/4) Interested in participating? 

RSVP to get access to pre-workshop materials here: ci-x-tp.github.io.

Complete the official registration here: ci.acm.org/2025/

And stay tuned for more updates!

CI x TP | ACM CI 2025

ci-x-tp.github.io

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · May 19

(3/4) The workshop will be interactive. We aim to involve participants from both sides of the science-policy interface, and a majority of the time will be spent collaboratively developing collective-intelligence-inspired policy recommendations.

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · May 19

(2/4) We’ll talk about what it means to adopt the collective intelligence perspective, and how that perspective can change the way we approach some of today’s most pressing tech policy issues — like how to reform social media and how to responsibly govern AI.

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · May 19

(1/4) Ever wondered what tech policy might look like if it were informed by research on collective intelligence and complex systems? 🧠🧑‍💻

Join @jbakcoleman.bsky.social, @lukethorburn.com, and myself in San Diego on Aug 4th for the Collective Intelligence x Tech Policy workshop at @acmci.bsky.social!

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Philipp Lorenz-Spreen @lorenzspreen.bsky.social · May 15

New preprint with @jbakcoleman.bsky.social @lewan.bsky.social @randomwalker.bsky.social @orbenamy.bsky.social @lfoswaldo.bsky.social where we argue for a complex-system perspective to understand the causal effects of social media on society and for a triangulation of methods
arxiv.org/abs/2505.09254

Moving towards informative and actionable social media research

Social media is nearly ubiquitous in modern life, and concerns have been raised about its putative societal impacts, ranging from undermining mental health and exacerbating polarization to fomenting v...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · May 6

I'm excited that I can finally share what I've been working on for the past 9 months:

The United Nations 2025 Human Development Report: "A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI" 🧵

hdr.undp.org/content/huma...

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · Apr 29

Another example of why we need a new approach to address the ethics of social media experiments

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

@vincentjstraub.bsky.social

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Stefan Herzog @stefanherzog.bsky.social · Apr 11

🚨🤖👥
Webinar "Collective Intelligence in the era of LLMs"
April 24 5-6pm CET
www.hacid-project.eu/hacid-webina...

Register
nesta.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Speakers:
- Jason Burton, Copenhagen Business School
- Lucie Flek, University of Bonn
- Nikolas Zöller, Max Planck Institute for Human Development

A group of six people sits around a large wooden table working collaboratively with laptops, tablets, smartphones, and notebooks. The screens display a presentation slide titled “Discussion Outline.” The table also has coffee mugs, notebooks with handwritten notes, and small potted plants, suggesting a casual but focused team meeting or brainstorming session.

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · Feb 28

🚨 UPCOMING EVENT: Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Freedoms, April 10-11 at @columbiauniversity.bsky.social & online. In collaboration with Senior AI Advisor @sethlazar.org & co-sponsored by the Knight Institute and @columbiaseas.bsky.social. RSVP: knightcolumbia.org/events/artif...

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Communications Psychology @commspsychol.nature.com · Feb 21

Revised ethical guidelines for social media experiments have not stuck. A participatory governance approach, akin to developments in AI, can improve practices & align the interests of researchers, platforms & users. @vincentjstraub.bsky.social @jasonburton.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Participatory approaches should be used to address the ethics of social media experiments - Communications Psychology

The use of social media field experiments has led to calls for revised ethical guidelines—but none have stuck. A participatory governance approach, similar to developments in AI, can improve practices...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Helen Pearson @helenpearson.bsky.social · Feb 5

Endlessly reading news, but can’t recall details of it later? Worried you rely on the internet/your phone to store things instead of your brain?

Me too. I explored for @nature.com whether the internet (and AI) is worsening human memory, according to research. www.nature.com/articles/d41... 1/3

Are the Internet and AI affecting our memory? What the science says

Search engines, GPS maps and other tech can alter our ability to learn and remember. Now scientists are working out what AI might do.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Jason W. Burton

Center for Adaptive Rationality (MPIB, Berlin) @arc-mpib.bsky.social · Feb 4

🚨 Applications for the 22nd Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality are now open!

🌐 Join us in Berlin @mpib-berlin.bsky.social from June 17–25, 2025 to explore "Decision Making in a Digital World".

✏️ Application deadline is March 9 - more info at 👇!!

www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/research/res...

Summer Institute

www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · Jan 27

Thanks, Samuli!

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · Nov 3

This should work: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · Sep 30

Have you already read about the middleware proposal? fsi-live.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/...

And the exchange on "the future of platform power" here: www.journalofdemocracy.org/issue/july-2...

Issue: July 2021 | Journal of Democracy

www.journalofdemocracy.org

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · Sep 20

So, how will LLMs reshape CI?

Check out our paper for the good, the bad, and what we think should be done to safeguard CI amid rapid LLM development.

Open access: rdcu.be/dUytc

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · Sep 20

LLMs might have an important role to play in promoting CI. It even could be argued that LLMs are new kind of CI itself.

Yet, LLMs also seem to be leading us towards a more opaque, proprietary, and enclosed information environment, which could undermine much of the CI we know and rely on today.

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · Sep 20

We see collective intelligence (CI) wherever individuals act collectively to achieve outcomes that no individual could achieve alone.

CI underpins the the success of groups, organizations, markets, and societies.

But CI is fragile and only emerges when certain elements align.

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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · Sep 20

There's been lots of speculation about potential societal impacts of LLMs 🌍

In a new Nature Human Behaviour (@natureportfolio.bsky.social) article, I and 27 researchers argue that we should be thinking about those impacts through the lens of collective intelligence

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

How large language models can reshape collective intelligence - Nature Human Behaviour

Collective intelligence is the basis for group success and is frequently supported by information technology. Burton et al. argue that large language models are transforming information access and tra...

www.nature.com

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