First was an engaging session on the role of data science in understanding and shaping the public interest at the LSE with @abpowell.bsky.social, @chrishwiggins.bsky.social, and Erin Young www.youtube.com/live/tLIV4xg... (2/5)

The power of data: ethics, politics, and public interest | LSE Event

YouTube video by LSE

youtube.com

Last week, DSI and the Department of Media and Communications (@lsemedia.bsky.social) hosted a talk on data science's role in public interest – from access to info to democracy. Speakers included Chris Wiggins, @abpowell.bsky.social and Erin Young. Watch here▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLIV...

The power of data: ethics, politics, and public interest | LSE Event

YouTube video by LSE

youtube.com

🤖 The power of #data: #ethics #politics & #publicinterest @lsedatascience.bsky.social 📅 Thurs 8 May 2025 6.30-8pm @abpowell.bsky.social & experts discuss important questions around the role of data science in understanding & shaping the public interest Find out more: www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/...

The power of data: ethics, politics, and public interest

6.30pm Thurs 8 May | Alison Powell, Chris Wiggins, Erin Young | Free public event at LSE

lse.ac.uk

💬 Minkälaisia rooleja teknologiaan liittyvissä tarinoissa ja narratiiveissa voi havaita? Pitäisikö nykyisille tarinoille ja narratiiveille miettiä vaihtoehtoja? Tätä pohdittiin 29.1. Scholarly Talkissa @abpowell.bsky.social sekä diskussanttien Yana Boevan & Santeri Räisäsen kanssa. Lue lisää 👇

“Systems are broken – and so are their stories” – REPAIR Scholarly Talk with Associate Professor Alison Powell on 29.1. — Repair

On Wednesday January 29th, we had the pleasure of hosting our first REPAIR Scholarly Talk of the year, featuring Associate Professor Alison Powell from the London School of Economics and Political Sci...

repair-research.fi

Where can we find other stories for tech policy? My "Repairing Systems and Stories" at U Helsinki gets beyond critique by playing around with narrative structure - involving live Tarot readings for policy projects. Enjoy! www.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/v...

I've got the most fun, hilarious, enlightening article with Fenwick McKelvey in this special issue. It's all about the **drama*** of AI policy-making publicera.kb.se/jdsr/article...

Thao Phan@thaophan.bsky.social · 2y ago

Part of a 🔥 special issue on (UN)STABLE DIFFUSIONS eds. Fenwick McKelvey, @jredden.bsky.social, Jonothan Roberge, and @lukestark.bsky.social w articles by @sunhahong.bsky.social @melhogan.bsky.social @abpowell.bsky.social @katemiltner.bsky.social & more Check it out👇 publicera.kb.se/jdsr/issue/v...

Are you working on automation of care? The private/public spaces of genomic databases? Epistemic justice? Submit to 4S open panel hosted by @philippseuferling.bsky.social and me - focusing on deceptive narratives and health and care systems. www.xcdsystem.com/4sonline/mem... we are Open Panel 47.

TOMORROW! London friends, come to this LSE talk / book launch for #Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful, chaired by @abpowell.bsky.social @lsemedia.bsky.social For those further afield you can join remotely, details below ⬇️ Book details here: www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful

6.30pm Thurs 5 Dec | Mirca Madianou | Free public event at LSE

lse.ac.uk

I've written a few pieces about the idea of the 'more-than-human, looking at 'otherness' 'risk' and 'danger', and how more-than-human ecologies don't only repair the artificial fracture between society and nature, they also allow for deep reflection on humanity itself. ugp.rug.nl/potcj/articl...

I need to make a confession. I don't know how to "do" social media any more. I'm a different person than I used to be. The previous person was into Networking. This person is mostly interested in Doing The Work. I like the memes though, thanks.

This line really got me: "even though women academic experts posted as frequently as male experts on Twitter and followed and engaged with similar numbers of people, they, amassed, on average, only half as many followers as their male colleagues. Male experts also got nearly double as many likes"

Taylor Lorenz@taylorlorenz.bsky.social · 2y ago

The latest Pew Research report on news content creators paints a damning picture of our skewed information ecosystem. 
I went deep into the 122 page report and broke down the key findings and what they mean www.usermag.co/p/the-majori...

I'm so happy to see this. I've been thinking recently about "digital innovation harm reduction" - that is, rebalancing how innovation is thought about, who benefits from it and how it is done. Rachel's done so much of the heavy lifting to start and connect work in this area - hope to join in

Rachel Coldicutt@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 2y ago

Ah yes! Have been working with others to get the field of "community tech" of the ground in the UK as an alt www.promisingtrouble.net/blog/innovat...

Wonderful! Already shared to my students.

michael veale@michae.lv · 2y ago

In response to OpenAI’s recent ‘A Student’s Guide to Writing with ChatGPT’, Arthur Perret (maître de conferénces, Jean Moulin Lyon 3) writes a line-by-line rebuttal — A Student’s Guide to Not Writing with ChatGPT www.arthurperret.fr/blog/2024-11...

I have mixed feelings about a focus on AI metaphors. If one knows that an LLM is an elaborate autocorrect, one might read 'intelligent machine' as a metaphor to critique. But much of public press is shaped towards the idea that the robots are smart, and there's nothing we can do about it.

Melanie Mitchell@melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 2y ago

For Science Magazine, I wrote about "The Metaphors of Artificial Intelligence". The way you conceptualize AI systems affects how you interact with them, do science on them, and create policy and apply laws to them. Hope you will check it out! www.science.org/doi/full/10....

News from Aotearoa, where the treaty governing the country has *two versions* - only one that Māori signatories agreed to. Soon to be published is a PhD by my student Henry Lyons investigating the epistemic, ontological and land-based issues that have resulted, in the here and now

ashley fairbanks@ziibiing.com · 2y ago

Māori MPs briefly suspended the Aotearoa parliament’s attempts to reinterpret their founding treaty in the most bad ass use of the Haka I’ve ever seen.

Thinking about how to avoid US owned compute...? "How Lidl accidentally took on the big guns of cloud computing: A unit of Europe’s largest retailer is offering IT services to companies wary of big providers such as Amazon and Google" www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

How Lidl accidentally took on the big guns of cloud computing

A unit of Europe’s largest retailer is offering IT services to companies wary of big providers such as Amazon and Google

irishtimes.com

“One of the many fascinating facts in the report is that businesses based in the town centre earn 20% more profit when there’s a bank and post office on the high street. It’s clear that public realm improvements can provide multi-dimensional benefits.” www.livingstreets.org.uk/press-media/...

Pedestrians spend more, new report reveals

Living Streets launches its updated Pedestrian Pound report, showing the correlation between walkable places and thriving business.

livingstreets.org.uk

Hello to everyone. These days most of my energies are going to teaching that the current arrangements of power/discourse/technology are not inevitable - but I did write this short thing recently on how AI is expensive blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/202...

AI is Expensive

LSE’s Alison Powell explains the real costs of AI, and how these might be mitigated. AI is everywhere; AI is here. The story around AI implies that it is here because it’s making things effic…

blogs.lse.ac.uk

New - and ever more crucial report - on carceral AI, a growing class of algorithmic and data-driven practices designed to police, incarcerate, surveil, and control people. Recommendations, report, and beautiful artwork too! www.carceral-ai.com Spearheaded by @dashapruss.bsky.social

begin | Carceral AI

carceral-ai.com

Events this week have had me thinking about my project about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, which showed that a shift towards more 'objective' data-driven public engagement displaced marginalized people's anger. My recommendations? Listen, and don't fear feelings www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Objectivity vs affect: how competing forms of legitimacy can polarize public debate in data-driven public consultation

How do data and objectivity become politicized? How do processes intended to include citizen voices instead push them into social media that intensify negative expression? This paper examines the p...

tandfonline.com

Critical Data Studies researcher here. 100% agree. Do not under any circumstances submit your medical scans to Grok.

Iain Bancarz 🇨🇦@iainrb.bsky.social · 2y ago

Cancer researcher here. 100% agree. Do not under any circumstances submit your medical scans to Grok.

Don't pace around nervously! Read this new essay by me and Matt Dowse from the Centre for Sociodigital Futures. What if innovation were rethought as if people, rather than firms, are the things that matter most? www.promisingtrouble.net/blog/innovat... @carefultrouble.bsky.social

So we are here, now. Hello. I've been thinking about 'digital innovation," and how narratives of efficiency, objectivity and accuracy obscure potential damage to knowledge and care. Been writing about Babylon Health, teaching students about AI governance. Gardening and looking at mushrooms. You?