Anita Chan
@anitachan.bsky.social
Scholar, Speaker, Educator Author, Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech & Our Fight for an Independent Future Director, Community Data Clinic, communitydata.illinois.edu anitachan.org
Excited to speak on #PredatoryData @U-M's Digital Studies Institute tom/Tues @ 3P ET-US. Join online or onsite. Thx @Yousif Hassan @Center for Ethics, Society & Computing @Amer Culture @English Lang & Lit @Film, TV & Media @Instit for Research on Women & Gender + @Sci, Tech, & Public Policy Program!
So honored that #PredatoryData was a finalist for the 2026 #ProseAwards in Computing and Information Sciences. Thank you to all the colleagues in the field who took the time to consider all the nominees and authors, whose esteemed company I'm so proud to be part of. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
#predatorydata #proseawards | Anita Chan
So honored to have #PredatoryData named as a finalist for the 2026 #ProseAwards in Computing and Information Sciences. Thank you to all the colleagues in the field who took the time to consider all th...
linkedin.com
Thx @briahnajoygray.bsky.social & #BadFaith for letting me break down Palintir's CEO Alex Karp's #TechnoFascist ambitions. Aside from running the largest #SurveillanceTech machine behind ICE deportations, Karp is clearly trying to outcompete Elon and Sam A for Trump's most-favored/fascist Techbro.
AI Overlords Are RUNNING The US War Machine (w/ Anita Say Chan)
YouTube video by Bad Faith
youtube.com
For all grad/undergrad students + early career scholars: UCLA Center for Resilience & Digital Justice has a new survey on awareness of public-interest technology jobs. It's illuminating to even read thru; participants get $20 Digital Gift Card for completing by Jan 31 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Attitudes to Careers in Public Interest Technology
The UCLA Center for Resilience and Digital Justice and the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) are conducting this survey to understand how current students and early career profess...
docs.google.com
For ALL parents/caregivers and educators alike: @brookings.edu new study on AI and learning I asserts an unequivocal NO: "At this point in its trajectory, the risks of utilizing generative AI in children’s education overshadow its benefits." www.brookings.edu/articles/a-n...
A new direction for students in an AI world: Prosper, prepare, protect | Brookings
This report explores the potential risks generative AI poses to students and outlines what we can do now to minimize them.
brookings.edu
“Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” said @mit.edu's Pres. The other 8 campuses have yet to respond: U of AZ, Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn, USC, UT, Vanderbilt, + UVA. Faculty, Alum, speak out!
Anita Chan@anitachan.bsky.social · 10mo agoSo proud to be an alum of @mit.edu today. MIT is the 1st of 9 universities Trump tried and FAILED to pressure into a contract. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...
So proud to be an alum of @mit.edu today. MIT is the 1st of 9 universities Trump tried and FAILED to pressure into a contract. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...
M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment
nytimes.com
#EugenicFantasies of a racially cleansed US are driving DHS's + Trump's campaign to illegally deport law-abiding residents. Chinese S/E European Jewish immigrants + dissidents were 1st targeted by eugenic surveillance tech 100 yrs ago, see my piece in #PubicEye politicalresearch.org/2025/10/10/d...
DHS’s Immigrant Tracking Tech Lays the Ground for Authoritarian Surveillance
Anita Say Chan reveals how new surveillance technologies employed by DHS and ICE to monitor, arrest, and deport immigrants have a long history rooted in eugenics profiling from the 19th and 20th centu...
politicalresearch.org
Am excited to join @CHARLES BABBAGE Institute w/ @rachelplotnick.bsky.social for the new CBI Research Fellows cohort! It'll be a privilege to work w/ @justcode.bsky.social & CBI's amazing researchers. Keep your eyes peeled this Spring 2026 for #AICriticalGeographies programming we're planning!
Jeffrey Yost@justcode.bsky.social · 10mo agoCBI is absolutely delighted to announce that thought-leading scholars University of Illinois' @anitachan.bsky.social & Indiana University's @rachelplotnick.bsky.social have just joined us as new CBI Research Fellows. Below is the link to the article. #histsci cse.umn.edu/cbi/news/cbi...
What a pleasure to speak to the hosts of @disruptedscience.bsky.social podcast - their questions on AI's on academic publishing and research, and why our institutions can and SHOULD reframe the core issue to 1 about #publicsafety and service (rather than productivity/efficiency) are beyond timely!
Disrupted Science@disruptedscience.bsky.social · 11mo agoOur new interview with @anitachan.bsky.social is up! A great interview with someone who has thought deeply about Big Tech, eugenics, AI, and dispossessed communities. www.the-geyser.com/pod-intervie...
I was the guest on #TheInternetIsCrack latest episode, with hosts @Caroline Risberg and @Seth Camillo. It was a fast conversation, w/ discussion on Francis Galton's 19th C design of a creepy hand-held "beauty" tracker, to OpenAI's aim to monetize child attention.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQXY...
#47 The Whole Story: A Discussion with Anita Say Chan
YouTube video by The Internet is Crack
youtube.com
What an honor to have #PredatoryData included @nature.com's recommended Summer reading list. I'm already of fan of other authors in the list - @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social 's the AI Con, @Grace Howard's The Pregnancy Police - that are great reading in the Fall & Winter too!
Gen Wojcik@genandgenes.bsky.social · last yr.We never left. I wrote about “Predatory Data” by @anitachan.bsky.social in Nature’s summer reading list. Such a great work demonstrating the persistence of eugenics in all its many forms while offering a better way forwards. Maybe not a fun beach read, but absolutely essential for these times.
We never left. I wrote about “Predatory Data” by @anitachan.bsky.social in Nature’s summer reading list. Such a great work demonstrating the persistence of eugenics in all its many forms while offering a better way forwards. Maybe not a fun beach read, but absolutely essential for these times.
AI hype, crackling northern lights and more: take it all in with these holiday reads
Ten of Nature’s recent contributors share their current book obsessions.
nature.com
Louise Seamster@louiseseamster.bsky.social · last yr.we're back here (if we ever left)
So excited to see #JUSTCODE's out, just in time for a new semester of teaching! Three cheers to its authors + editors @justcode.bsky.social & Gerardo Con Diaz for a volume that unpacks how the invisible work of code in algorithmic bias, AI in labor practices and more perpetuate global inequality.
Jeffrey Yost@justcode.bsky.social · 12mo agoCopies of JUST CODE just arrived! Partnering w Con & teaming w 19 brilliant STS authors on the vital topic of code/codes & inequality was so special! Authors (full list ToC below) On bsky: @mysdick.bsky.social @histoftech.bsky.social @dmulvin.bsky.social & blurb from @anitachan.bsky.social #histtech
I don't usually get to talk to broadcast news personalities about eugenics in big tech, but I was so glad for this interview w/ @The Mark Thompson Show. Thanks @Mark Thompson, @Kim McCallister, and producer @John Daly for the welcome conversation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Pv...
Eugenics, It’s Thriving in Silicon Valley With Elon & The Tech Bros, Professor Anita Say Chan
YouTube video by The Mark Thompson Show
youtube.com
@aft.org #OpenAI plan will ram AI into public schools w/o ANY real consent fr parents + teachers. OpenAI's real goal is to DATAFY KIDS, who currently are poorly modeled in the data AI co's scrape. Get ready for a future where our kids get sex ed from AI. No one wants this @rweingarten.bsky.social.
OpenAI claims that LLMs will "discover new science" are RIDICULOUS. It also distracts us fr what AI heads KNOW is their ACTUAL concern: ie monetize systems for MUCH more boring queries. & we'll burn up the planet for exchanges on celebrities & sports. Stop #AIHype www.the-geyser.com/altman-makes...
Altman Makes Science Claims
OpenAI's CEO says science is up next. Not so fast . . .
the-geyser.com
University heads in the US can take a lesson fr the Pope in being so clear in the commitment to human dignity and protecting future generations, rather than profit as progress, in addressing AI in higher ed: techcrunch.com/2025/06/18/p... #CatholicWorkersMovement #LiberationTheology
Pope Leo makes AI’s threat to humanity a signature issue | TechCrunch
Pope Leo XIV, the new American pope, is making the threat of AI to humanity a key issue of his legacy.
techcrunch.com
The recording of my event w/ @timnitgebru.bsky.social & @xriskology.bsky.social w/ @datasociety.bsky.social is now posted. Emile & I are planning a Fall event on how the conversation on AI, Big Tech, Eugenics & TESCREALism needs to include others beyond tech researchers. Stay tuned! lnkd.in/g9Q_gffq
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
Thanks @Kent Anderson for the interview in The Geyser. Among the topics we discussed, how surveillance capitalism started with eugenics, how history shows us predatory data is NOT inevitable, & why DOGE's dysfunction sadly doesn't mean the end to techno-eugenics. www.the-geyser.com/interview-an...
Interview: Anita Chan, Author of “Predatory Data”
Why eugenics is the most important concept on the table today — from Silicon Valley to RFK
the-geyser.com
Disrupted Science@disruptedscience.bsky.social · last yr.@anitachan.bsky.social explains why AI is problematic. It’s the people. www.the-geyser.com/interview-an...
Join us momentarily online and in person for a book talk on #eugenicsInBigTech at @ucsandiego.bsky.social's Design Center! If you are looking for ways to resist #PredatoryData, and reimagine solidarity around tech, Zoom in at the link below! calendar.ucsd.edu/event/predat...
This #MayDay in honor of #workersAgainstAI, I'm traveling to @UTEP to talk on #PredatoryData and #eugenics in #BigTech. Later this May, I’ll be traveling to another pt of the US West - to UCSD’s Design Lab & UCSC. Thx @Elise Takehana @Nik Usher @gleemie.bsky.social @Zac Zimmer for the invitations!
It was such an honor to get to speak with Bill Ayers on for the @underthetreepod.bsky.social podcast! The episode was just posted and aside from the amazing @Lisa Yun Lee, who introduced us, there are few others I wanted to get to talk #HullHouse data history & #solidaritystrategies with.
Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom@underthetreepod.bsky.social · last yr.NEW EPISODE! We’re joined by @anitachan.bsky.social, author of Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech We talk surveillance, algorithmic discrimination, echoes of anti-immigration movements of the 19th century, and alternative data practices of minority actors in pursuit of justice. bit.ly/42zfRuE
NEW EPISODE! We’re joined by @anitachan.bsky.social, author of Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech We talk surveillance, algorithmic discrimination, echoes of anti-immigration movements of the 19th century, and alternative data practices of minority actors in pursuit of justice. bit.ly/42zfRuE
I had a blast getting to talk to @ksqdfm.bsky.social's @Moment of TRUTH's @Meilin Obinata and @Reggie Meisler whose Community Radio conversations in #SantaCruz and the #BayArea are more of what the Tech World needs!! ksqd.org/predatory-da...
"Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech" Interview with Anita Chan
Guest host Meilin Obinata and local activist Reggie Meisler speak with Dr. Anita Say Chan, a professor at the University of Urbana-Champaign who recently published Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech...
ksqd.org
JOIN me, @xriskology.bsky.social, @timnitgebru.bsky.social & @mwoluchem.bsky.social for @datasociety.bsky.social 's #PredatoryData event discussion of the 21st C #eugenicsInBigTech and how to resist it. RSVP and join us online tomorrow Thur 4/10 at 1P EasternUS time! datasociety.net/events/resis...
Resisting Predatory Data
Join Predatory Data author Anita Say Chan, Emile P. Torres, and Timnit Gebru for an online discussion of the 21st century eugenics revival in big tech and how to resist it, moderated by D&S’s Maia Wol...
datasociety.net
Data & Society@datasociety.bsky.social · last yr.Join us tomorrow! bsky.app/profile/data...
Join us tomorrow! bsky.app/profile/data...
Data & Society@datasociety.bsky.social · last yr.April 10 @ 1pm ET: Join "Predatory Data" author @anitachan.bsky.social, @xriskology.bsky.social, @timnitgebru.bsky.social, & @mwoluchem.bsky.social for a discussion of the 21st century eugenics revival in big tech and how to resist it. RSVP and join us online! datasociety.net/events/resis...
I'm thrilled to be speaking on #EugenicsinBigTech this Thursday 4/3 at 12P at the Nat'l Center for Supercomputing Applications - @ncsaatillinois.bsky.social for its Colloquium series! Join us in person (w/pizza) or or online - more details are here: calendars.illinois.edu/detail/7097?...
“AI may be a mid technology with limited use cases to justify its financial and environmental costs,” @tressiemcphd.bsky.social writes. “But it is a stellar tool for demoralizing workers who can, in the blink of a digital eye, be categorized as waste.” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/o...
Opinion | The Tech Fantasy That Powers A.I. Is Running on Fumes
A.I. is just what we need in the post-fact era: less research and more predicting what we want to hear.
nytimes.com
