Jeffrey Yost
@justcode.bsky.social
Writer I Speaker I Professor I Historian I Ctr. Dir. I Director, CBI for Computing Info. & Culture; Prof. HST/STS, U of MN Co-Edit JHUP Computing & Culture bk srs. Research-Social Study of AI, Privacy/Sec., Labor, Race, Gender & Inequality. JUST CODE
Deeply honored to have given a Keynote yesterday on AI History and Policy at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs' "7th World Conference on Remedies to Racial and Ethnic Economic Inequality." So glad to be a part of this wondrous and vital three-day global conference! #histtech #criticalai
"Attorney General Keith Ellison...said the law wasn’t aimed at restricting free speech, but rather placing guardrails on a tool that can cause harm to Minnesotans." Judge rejects effort by Elon Musk's company to block Minnesota's new ban on nude AI fakes | MPR News share.google/PsUvHdPm291K...
Judge denies X.AI effort to halt ban on tech that depicts people nude without permission
Elon Musk’s company X.AI sought an emergency injunction blocking the law that bans nudification technology, a tool that can use someone’s likeness to make a realistic photo or video of them that’s fak...
share.google
It was an absolute joy & honor to work w Con & such amazing chapter authors on Just Code!! THANKS to T&C's reviewer Ricky Wichum! J.C.'s authors on Bsky: @histoftech.bsky.social @mysdick.bsky.social @shreeharsh.bsky.social @dmulvin.bsky.social @janakis.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Project MUSE -- Verification required!
muse.jhu.edu
Nearly through reading @xiaochang.bsky.social brilliant new book Divination Engines!! This is the best historical study on Natural Language Processing, & imo, the most insightful monograph on AI history! CBI was so fortunate have Xiaochang as a keynote at our 2023 "Automation by Design" symposium!
Resurfacing online to mention: my book on the history of Speech Rec, NLP, and data-driven AI is coming out in a couple of weeks! Just got my author's copy from @uchicagopress.bsky.social and it finally feels real! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Divination Engines
A revealing and surprising origin story, showing how attempts to render human speech and language computable led from the era of big data to today’s AI. Since the advent of computers, society has fant...
press.uchicago.edu
✨ MotL 92 is live! ✨ We speak with Mario Rendina about the politics of public employment & training in the US as they shifted over the course of the late 20th century. Please listen & share! 🎧 🙌 moneyontheleft.org/2026/07/02/p...
Congratulations to CBI Senior Research Fellow Prof. David Nye on his just published The Great Energy Transition: America from 1876 to 1929!! MIT Press. Here is a short article on it. "American Progress was an Optical Illusion" from @mitpress.bsky.social thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/american-pro...
American Progress Was an Optical Illusion
The turn-of-the-century energy transition dazzled the nation — while concealing segregation, extraction, and ruin.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
New from Interfaces, a review essay I just published on STS of blockchain with RMIT's Dr. Kelsie Nabben's insightful book Decentralised Digital Security as the centerpiece. Also discusses work of @ntnsndr.in others.. #histtech #eth #ethereum #cybersecurity #ethnography share.google/F55gFHqTfnnm...
With the World Cup final taking place this weekend, this is great time to read up on AI/Tech workers in football or soccer. @techpolicypress.bsky.social just published an analysis essay "Soccer's Tech Revolution Has a Labor Chain" www.techpolicy.press/soccers-tech...
Soccer's Tech Revolution Has a Labor Chain
AI has transformed the game into monetized data, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Tatiana Dias.
techpolicy.press
📢 New open-access article just out! 📜 "Ecologies of time: interdisciplinarity and temporal misalignments in data-mediated environmental research collaboration," by Virginia Vargolskaia and @ulrike-felt.bsky.social #interdisciplinarity #knowledgeproduction #STS 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
Ecologies of time: interdisciplinarity and temporal misalignments in data-mediated environmental research collaboration
Temporal misalignments pose significant challenges to interdisciplinary collaborations between ecologists and data scientists in environmental research projects. Even though data infrastructures ar...
doi.org
I want the book to sell, but my favorite thing is seeing that it's going to be in LIBRARIES! Public libraries created me, and so it's a full-circle moment. I plan to donate many copies to libraries in the Central Valley of California, where I grew up.
Kumiko@kumiko-ide.bsky.social · 3w agoCongrats!! PS. For anyone else in Vancouver, BC - looks like our library is already on it, too.
Almost a hundred degrees today in Minneapolis. Heavy traffic between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles!
Looking forward to #ESHS-HSS in Edinburgh! My talk will be one of the last talks in the last panels on the last day! WHEE! If you can't make it (can't blame anyone), here's the flyer for my book, #TransformingNight, w/promo codes for both US & outside-the-US addresses! Thank you, @uwapress.uw.edu!
“Prompting represents a mutation in the exercise of political power, beyond the direct command and even the more indirect ‘action at a distance’ characteristic of liberal governmentality.”
Louise Amoore@amoorelouise.bsky.social · 3w ago
Hey, I have these postcards of my book's cover (by Vera Villanueva for Yale UP). I'd love to mail you one. Will you send me a screenshot of 1) your pre-order OR 2) your (free!!) request that your library purchase the book? And of course an address to mail it to.
In 2024, 10 Black students were admitted to Stuyvesant, one of the best high schools in NYC. In 2025, 8 Black students were admitted. Now, for 2026, 3 Black students have been admitted. It's a travesty.
Gothamist@gothamist.com · 4w agoJust 3 Black students admitted to NYC's elite Stuyvesant High School, data shows gothamist.com/news/just-3-...
Vance already displaying his sick campaigning skills! About 56 million in US workforce have 4-year degrees, less than 3 million are medical doctors or engineers. They (53 million strong), like me, have fake jobs (as Vance sees it).
FactPost@factpostnews.bsky.social · 4w agoVance: A lot of the people who are going and getting 4-year degrees, they're not like engineers and doctors. They have fake jobs
This gorgeous essay from the social-media-less Lily Hu is everything: on what it means to "do" philosophy amidst pressure to automate it (with lessons that travel much more broadly). Rhymes with brilliant insights from @biblioracle.bsky.social @janerosenzweig.bsky.social Ted Chiang & others
Lily Hu · Un-Doing Philosophy
Analytic philosophers in the United States are increasingly embracing AI, both by taking advisory positions at tech companies and by using large language models for their own research and writing. Som...
blnreview.de
“Because they want features such as super-reliable “five nines”, or 99.999 per cent power availability with only a few minutes of downtime a year, they are often going for systems powered by gas and diesel, which emit air pollutants” www.ft.com/content/7800...
The great AI data centre cover-up
Tech companies need to come clean about the mounting environmental fallout of their race to build more hubs
ft.com
Just in case it isn't obvious: calling something "super" doesn't make it exempt from laws, ethics, or y'know, just basic decency.
More Perfect Union@moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 4w agoMeta is currently testing "super sensing" AI glasses that will continuously record surrounding audio while snapping pictures every few seconds. The new hardware also gets rid of the LED light that notifies bystanders when the glasses are recording. www.ft.com/content/ac28...
New from Interfaces, a review essay I just published on STS of blockchain with RMIT's Dr. Kelsie Nabben's insightful book Decentralised Digital Security as the centerpiece. Also discusses work of @ntnsndr.in others.. #histtech #eth #ethereum #cybersecurity #ethnography share.google/F55gFHqTfnnm...
"Nearly one in four people in the U.S. now participate in some form of gig or freelance work." inequality.org/article/big-...
Big Tech Built a Gig Economy That Works Against Us
Surveillance pricing is squeezing workers dependent on the gig economy — especially Black workers. Algorithmic transparency is the first step to fighting back.
inequality.org
-Water used at power plants that supply electricity to data centers can be greater than the amount of water used in the data centers themselves. -" $170 billion of AI data-center capacity has been blocked, stalled or canceled since 2024" www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-d...
AI Data Centers Use Far More Water Than Most Tech Giants Report
Water used at the power plants that supply electricity to data centers can be much greater than the water used in the data centers themselves.
wsj.com
Congratulations to CBI Senior Research Fellow Prof. David Nye on his just published The Great Energy Transition: America from 1876 to 1929!! MIT Press. Here is a short article on it. "American Progress was an Optical Illusion" from @mitpress.bsky.social thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/american-pro...
American Progress Was an Optical Illusion
The turn-of-the-century energy transition dazzled the nation — while concealing segregation, extraction, and ruin.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
Book Cover Out! The Midterms fight will be vital & no better timing for this bk in Con Diaz & my JHUP Computing & Culture bk series, UVA Anthro. Bryan Pfaffenberger's Machining the Vote out this Fall! #democracy #histtech #anthropology Machining the Vote | Hopkins Press share.google/Mbh9PeYTXBWu...
Machining the Vote
The Forgotten Story of the Mechanical Voting Machine, and Why It Matters
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Terrific UL, UMN article on Nappi Archives & CBI Project Archivist of Maureen Nappi Papers Jennifer Shaw-Spence. Dr. Nappi a NYC artist, multimedia, was videographer of concerts at Greenwich Vill. Pepperment Lounge in 80s--videos of Ramones, REM, Sonic Youth, Black Flag... z.umn.edu/CBI-Nappi
Painting on the Art Speak Machine: CBI acquires the collection of Computer Artist Maureen A. Nappi - UMN Libraries News & Events
The digital world would be entirely opaque without screens and graphics, without computer artists and designers, without people like Maureen Nappi.
z.umn.edu
You go, NIST workers! NIST is my other favorite federal agency! The history of NIST (originally, the National Bureau of Standards) is crucial to know for the history of women in science.
NEH Union - AFGE L3403@nehafge3403.bsky.social · last mo.Welcome to the #AFGE family, NIST-EL! We're stronger together. #unionstrong #NEH #NIST #NSF #IMLS #NIFA #USFS #USGS #AFGE3403
www.yorku.ca/yfile/2026/0... 👀
Researchers at York create first map of Canada's data centres - YFile
Faculty at the Schulich School of Business have mapped Canada’s rapidly expanding data centre landscape, shedding new light on where digital infrastructure is being built and what it means for energy ...
yorku.ca
