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Reposted by Matt DeVerna

NERDS @nerdsitu.bsky.social · 8d

Three new NERDS publications: Polarization, image-to-text-mapping, and candidate recommendation
nerds.itu.dk/2025/09/30/t...

A memes present in a dataset of a paper. This type of image shows a high level of cultural complexity that cannot be fully interpreted by simply looking at the objects represented in the picture.

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Reposted by Matt DeVerna

Stanford Cyber Policy Center @stanfordcyber.bsky.social · 15d

“Wait, what is this exactly?” 🤔

New in @hbr.org, Director Jeff Hancock, PhD candidate Angela Lee, and co-authors from BetterUp Labs discuss the surge in AI-generated "workslop" and its implications for today's workers and business leaders.

#workslop #AI

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

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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · 20d

One week to the Trust and Safety Research Conference!

Stoked to see you there and for the amazing program!

@stanfordcyber.bsky.social

Trust and Safety Research Conference 2025

cyber.fsi.stanford.edu

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Johan Ugander @jugander.bsky.social · 26d

📣 Yale workshop, Oct 16-17! 📣 How could/should content ranking work? What's new in content moderation? How can platforms promote civility? Hosted by Yale's Institute for Foundations of Data Science (FDS). Great speakers! Submit posters by 9/22! Spread the word! yalefds.swoogo.com/socialalgori...

New Directions in Social Algorithms Research on October 16-17, 2025 at Yale University

As social media algorithms increasingly mediate social experiences, there has been a rapid increase in research on the effects of how these algorithms are configured, alternatives to engagement-centri...

yalefds.swoogo.com

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Stanford Cyber Policy Center @stanfordcyber.bsky.social · Aug 20

The agenda for the Trust and Safety Research Conference is out now. Two days of lightning talks, presentations, networking and more, with @dwillner.bsky.social‬ as keynote. Join us!

For the full line-up and times, plus link to register, visit:

cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/content/trus...

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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Aug 26

Learn more—and check out the entire incredible agenda—on the conference site:

cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/content/trus...

Trust and Safety Research Conference 2025

cyber.fsi.stanford.edu

Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Aug 26

Looking forward to moderating the 💥 AI and Algorithm Auditing 💥 session in just a few weeks at the Trust and Safety Research Conference at Stanford!!

🎟️ Last chance to register! sto.stanfordtickets.org/the-2025-tru...

#TSRConf
@stanfordcyber.bsky.social

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The Coalition for Independent Technology Research @thecoalition.bsky.social · Aug 19

Today, we’re proud to share the Coalition’s new report: The State of Independent Technology Research: Power in Numbers

It's an offering to our community and all researchers doing public interest work–a reflection of collective strength, solidarity and persistence in the face of adversity. (1/2)

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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Aug 16

Fox settles Dominion lawsuit for $787.5 million over US election lies

The settlement averted a high-profile trial putting one of the world's top media companies in the crosshairs over its coverage of false vote-rigging claims in the 2020 U.S. election.

www.reuters.com

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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Aug 9

open.substack.com/pub/gvrkiran...

My grants on Misinformation were canceled.. what now?

Misinformation or Political Polarization research will not get funding anymore. What should we do now?

open.substack.com

Reposted by Matt DeVerna

University of Washington Information School @ischool.uw.edu · Jul 25

We're the University of Washington Information School, aka UW iSchool, based in beautiful Seattle. We offer five degree programs, and our graduates use their expertise for the advancement of science, business, education, and culture. Check out our website to learn more: ischool.uw.edu

A view from the University of Washington campus with Mount Tahoma/ Mount Rainier in the background, Drumheller Fountain in the center, and vivid purple flowering trees in the foreground. Text reads, "University of Washington Information School Programs: B.S. in Informatics, Master of Library & Information Science, Master of Science in Information Management, Master of Arts in Museology, Ph.D. in Information Science."

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Christopher Barrie @cbarrie.bsky.social · Jul 22

In addition to the original UK results, we have now ***replicated*** this (TWICE) in the US.

The main findings hold strong: information diets are a lot more diverse in attention than in engagement.

New version here: osf.io/preprints/os...

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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Jul 21

"persuasive power ... is likely to stem more from post-training and prompting methods—which boosted persuasiveness by as much as 51% and 27% respectively—than from personalization or increasing model scale"

The Levers of Political Persuasion with Conversational AI

There are widespread fears that conversational AI could soon exert unprecedented influence over human beliefs. Here, in three large-scale experiments (N=76,977), we deployed 19 LLMs-including some pos...

arxiv.org

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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Jul 21

I’ve got serious FOMO for @ic2s2.bsky.social … keynotes and program look awesome!! 🤩🤩 Have fun everyone!

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NERDS @nerdsitu.bsky.social · Jul 19

See here the paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
And poster below. We will have several more NERDS at #IC2S2 - see you soon in Norrköping!

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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Jul 18

arxiv.org/abs/2506.06576

Future of Work with AI Agents: Auditing Automation and Augmentation Potential across the U.S. Workforce

The rapid rise of compound AI systems (a.k.a., AI agents) is reshaping the labor market, raising concerns about job displacement, diminished human agency, and overreliance on automation. Yet, we lack ...

arxiv.org

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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Jul 2

The Effect of Deactivating Facebook and Instagram on Users’ Emotional State

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

www.nber.org

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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · Jun 3

Our preprint “How Malicious AI Swarms Can Threaten Democracy” is now online.

We show how coordinated multi-agent LLM swarms can infiltrate communities, craft synthetic grassroots “consensus,” and erode institutional trust—and what we can do now to stop it.

osf.io/preprints/os...

OSF

osf.io

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Reposted by Matt DeVerna

Dan Goldstein @dggoldst.bsky.social · Jun 30

move slow and fix things

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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Jun 28

Cool "micro-sabbatical" opportunity for tenured or tenure-track faculty at GW’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics (IDDP).

Micro Sabbatical | Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics (IDDP) | Columbian College of Arts & Sciences | The George Washington University

Micro-sabbaticals at GW’s Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics (IDDP) provide a 2-4 week-long visit to IDDP.

iddp.gwu.edu

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Fil Menczer @fil.bsky.social · Jun 20

New preprint: How Malicious AI Swarms Can Threaten Democracy 🧪
osf.io/preprints/os...

OSF

osf.io

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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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Matt DeVerna @matthewdeverna.com · Jun 18

Misinformation research continues to be urgent science

By one account, roughly 70% of Americans regard misinformation as a major threat, outpacing fears about climate change and infectious disease (1). This is true although the current and longer-term imp...

www.science.org

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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · Jun 18

I am thrilled to share a new article in Sociological Methods & Research, “Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages”. My co-first author Sol Messing and our collaborators developed a new approach to measuring “narrative similarity” between texts: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages - Hannah Waight, Solomon Messing, Anton Shirikov, Margaret E. Roberts, Jonathan Nagler, Jason Greenfield, Megan A. Brown, Kevin Aslett, Joshua A. Tuck...

How can one understand the spread of ideas across text data? This is a key measurement problem in sociological inquiry, from the study of how interest groups sh...

journals.sagepub.com

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Jevin D. West @jevinwest.bsky.social · Jun 16

www.axios.com/local/boston...

Judge orders Trump admin. to restore hundreds of terminated NIH grants

"I've never seen government racial discrimination like this," the judge said.

www.axios.com

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