Dr Matt Mahmoudi
@docmattmoudi.bsky.social
📝 ‘Migrants in the Digital Periphery’ for Uni. Of California Press, ‘Resisting Borders+Tech’ @haymarketbooks. Assistant Professor @Cambridge Digital Humanities. Research/advice @Amnesty Tech. Views=own
Every day is like “this company is trying to build a gateway to hell” yet we are all supposed to pretend like everything is fine.
This startup wants to turn the world into a searchable video feed, starting in San Francisco
Orchestra has installed more than 100 cameras in San Francisco. Next up: 900 more, then the rest of the world.
businessinsider.com
"We look at it with horror, seeing armed conflict and violence spreading across the world, where they see it as business opportunities." @marwasf.bsky.social speaks with @alixdunn.com and @docmattmoudi.bsky.social about how tech executives view AI-powered warfare with dollar signs in their eyes.
The U.S. and Israel, along with other countries, are using AI to kill more people, more quickly, with less transparency into why. So what do we do about it?
Honoured as ever to be in conversations with some truly special friends in @marwasf.bsky.social and @alixdunn.com, and to round off this critical series from @themaybe.org! Check out and sign the statement here as well 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 www.accessnow.org/press-releas...
Access Now - Joint statement on AI in warfare
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, are deeply alarmed by the rapid militarization of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. AI systems embedded into military kill chains are accele...
accessnow.org
Alix Dunn@alixdunn.com · 2mo agoWhy are robots making kill lists, and how the hell do we stop them? I spoke with @docmattmoudi.bsky.social from @amnesty.org and @marwasf.bsky.social from @accessnow.org about the demands in their joint statement on AI and warfare, and the path towards a better future. Listen to the conversation:
They discuss the demands of their joint statement, what it takes for public dissent to motivate private action, and what future we can (and must!) build towards. "What if tech companies built tools that were considered public goods? What if they weren't private?" @docmattmoudi.bsky.social
Read Matt Mahmoudi's (@docmattmoudi.bsky.social) 'Borders as Algorithms as Borders', an analysis of the racial capitalist and (neo-)colonial logics underpinning the algorithmic operations of today’s bordering regimes, from Palestine and Jordan to Europe and the US:
Borders as Algorithms as Borders | Ibraaz
A brave space for art, culture, and ideas from the global majority
ibraaz.org
this @amnesty.org report is a must read!!
Alexander Laufer@alexlaufer.bsky.social · 2mo agoGovernments claim risk profiling systems help identify potential criminals or fraudsters but in practice they reinforce discrimination & inequality. A new @amnesty.org report shows how their use in law enforcement, social security & migration violates human rights. www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Huh. I wonder why the “users give scans of their eyeballs to Sam Altman for no discernible benefit” startup is failing
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2mo ago“The company has struggled to show how its iris-scanning ‘Orb’ can generate revenue and win over regulators…”
Senior researchers at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association were handing out copies of an editorial, published in the association's journal, condemning Trump administration cuts to diabetes research. Police came to arrest them. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/w...
Police Remove Diabetes Experts From Conference for Distributing Critique of Trump Administration
nytimes.com
Unsurprising to most observers of the AI industry, but it nonetheless raises a host of complex (ethical) questions: a) what are the ethics of a company making a tech that creates security threats & then sells software that helps address such security threats? 1/ www.ft.com/content/d02d...
US National Security Agency using Anthropic’s Mythos for cyber attacks
Arrangement comes as AI lab is locked in legal battle with Pentagon over Claude model
ft.com
I built and continue to promote the most dangerous threat to society's epistemic grounding since some caveman invented words, but I told my text-prediction machine to avoid doing epistemic harm in a "constitution" so I'm sure it'll be ok.
MUST READ! @amnesty.org shining a light on the abuses of AI data scraping. Think we should force the AI corps to be transparent about what they trained off? There's a bill in California that would do just that - please support it by adding your signature to this petition: tinyurl.com/4uxbp963 1/
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Sometimes you procrastinate writing something for 8 months and it pays off because someone publishes the perfect thing to cite
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
It’s good to see this from Amnesty.
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
See you can just say "it sucks we should ban it"
Alix Dunn@alixdunn.com · 2mo agoOh hell yeah @amnesty.org comes out swinging: "Amnesty International finds that standalone generative AI systems... are fundamentally incompatible with IHRL. As such, Amnesty International is calling for a prohibition of such systems." www.amnesty.org/en/documents...
Oh hell yeah @amnesty.org comes out swinging: "Amnesty International finds that standalone generative AI systems... are fundamentally incompatible with IHRL. As such, Amnesty International is calling for a prohibition of such systems." www.amnesty.org/en/documents...
Unlawful by design: Exposing the human rights costs of generative AI - Amnesty International
This briefing examines how standalone generative AI systems, based on unlawful web scraping, are in conflict with international human rights law (IHRL) and standards through their design, development ...
amnesty.org
"...standalone generative AI systems... depend on mass invasions of privacy by design, and are fundamentally incompatible with IHRL"
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Great read on GenAI from Amnesty International, taking a supply chain lens and focusing on how current data harvesting practices violate international human rights law. None of this was inevitable - certainly not the design choices made by the current general GenAI companies.
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
This ⬇️
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Amnistía Internacional pide que se PROHÍBAN los sistemas de IAG basados en la extracción ilegal de datos de la web porque entran en conflicto con las normas del Derecho Internacional de los DD. HH. a lo largo de su diseño, desarrollo e implementación La IA generativa es ILEGAL desde su diseño 🔥
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
“Racial, gender and cultural biases are consistent features of generative AI systems, a product of the training data that is largely pulled from the web and therefore polluted with real-world biases which harm historically marginalized communities.”
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Amnesty International have produced a briefing for civil society looking at the human rights implications of generative #AI. From unlawful, non-consensual, data scraping to the implications for mass surveillance, global majority languages & freedom of expression it is damning & demands action.
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Love this!
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
“The extractive data pipeline, inherent design choices made by tech companies and exploitative supply chains, to build generative AI systems have enabled a paradigm of technology development that opens up a risk of mass abuse of human rights.”
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Do people who use LLMs "just for X, Y and Z" feel anything when they see that kind of headline or does it not matter to them at all?
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Read — the Report and the thread. First the Pope, now @amnesty.org (building on the great work so many have been doing and the growing mountains of evidence). Keep the momentum building y’all.
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
GREAT analysis! It's fantastic that Ammesty International has taken a deep dive into generative AI. Yes, web crawlers that slurp up absolutely everything on the Internet are literally STEALING the works of artists, authors, scientists without permission. And users are disabling Copilot and 1/4
When the Pope & Amnesty, in the same week, go 'your treatment of humanity & working practice are beyond the pale, pall', you get booed at every graduation, & you're still making losses though you've been stealing everything, might it be your 'inevitable' technology isn't as inevitable after all?
Dr Matt Mahmoudi@docmattmoudi.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
So we’ve been cooking up some thoughts on Gen AI at @amnesty.org and I’m ecstatic to finally see it out in the world! Our 🗝️ conclusion: standalone gen AI systems, built on unlawful web scraping, constitute mass invasions of privacy by design & should be prohibited www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...
Proud to read about my brilliant former student’s research in the Guardian yesterday—congrats to @j-hancock.bsky.social and team 👏🏽
Jamie Hancock@j-hancock.bsky.social · 2mo agoIt’s not every week your research gets covered by the Times and the Guardian I tested how 5 chatbots answered questions the Scottish elections. 34.1% of answers contained errors - with ChatGPT providing errors 46.2% of the time www.theguardian.com/technology/2... www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...