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LK Seiling

@lkseiling.eurosky.social

DE/EN. 📍 Potsdam / Berlin coordination of @dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social, various research at @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social among other things: http://zusammenfuergleichstellung.de

68 Posts219 Follower 305 Folgt

LK Seiling @lkseiling.eurosky.social · 2mo ago

Admittedly, it's been a while since our last newsletter. But no worries, we've tried to make up for it with a juicy package that should make for some great Friday reading. Let us know if we missed anything - and be sure to share it with anyone to whom it may be helpful!

DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory@dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The #DSA40 Collaboratory newsletter #4 is out! Catching up on enforcement, court rulings, and everything data access 🔍 Inside you'll find: 🤝 Community initiatives 💡 Practical tips for data access applications 📅 Sept 2025–May 2026 DSA enforcement timeline 📚 Summer reading list

in the dark blue-tinted background appartment mailboxes are visible. yellow writing on top of this shows a pencil icon combined with a circular progress bar, the number four (#4), and the date of publication: 12.06.2026

LK Seiling @lkseiling.eurosky.social · 2mo ago

Coimisiún na Meán has released guidance on Art. 40(4) data access. We took a closer look 👇

DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory@dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Yesterday @cnam-ie.bsky.social published a new version of their Guidance for Data Access Applications to "non-public" data under Art. 40(4-11) DSA. What's new? At first glance that's hard to say.

LK Seiling @lkseiling.eurosky.social · 3mo ago

You registered your data access request in the @dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social's Tracker, right? Don't be an Anakin. Contribute now: www.soscisurvey.de/DSA40applica... One more day to go!

DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory@dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🚨 Reminder: Tomorrow we close data collection for our planned publication. Please support us by adding your application to the DSA 40 Data Access Tracker and sharing the tracker with others who have applied for access: 👉 www.soscisurvey.de/DSA40applica...

the famous Anakin-Padme meme.
Anakin says: "I've made a data access request under Art. 40 DSA"
Padme responds, excitedly: "And registered it in the tracker, right?"
Anakin looks back silently.
Padme, worried: "You've registered it in the tracker, right?"

LK Seiling @lkseiling.eurosky.social · 3mo ago

No plans for the morning of the second day of #rp26? Come join us for breakfast at @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social to get an update on all the latest things data access!

DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory@dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Researchers, journalists, civil society folks & policymakers — come have breakfast with us! 🥐 19 May @ Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin (2nd day of #rp26) We're talking platform data, DSA Article 40, and how it contributes to a competitive EU. 👉 dsa40collaboratory.eu/data-access-breakfast/

the text says "Data Access Breakfast", in the background one can see blurry croissants on a plate

LK Seiling @lkseiling.eurosky.social · 3mo ago

We're wrapping up 2 years of tracking researcher experiences with DSA-based data access. If you haven't documented your application yet, please take 5 min to do so! We'll publish aggregated results AND turn them into actionable guidance for easier data access in the future 🙏🏻

DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory@dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social · 3mo ago

📢 Final days to contribute to the DSA 40 Data Access Tracker. This month, we're making one last push to collect as many data access experiences as possible before we lock the dataset for our first publication. 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝟮𝟮 𝗠𝗮𝘆. 👉 www.soscisurvey.de/DSA40applica...

Bernie Sanders meme saying "I am once again asking for your application data"

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 3mo ago

Preprinted! Been working on this for ~1 year w wonderful coauthors Nancy & Mark: > Understanding Artificial Neural Networks: Mysterianism about Known Mechanism is Mysticism doi.org/10.5281/zeno... Have you noticed many experts say they don't understand AI? What's going on? 🤯 Let us tell you... 1/

Understanding Artificial Neural Networks:
Mysterianism about Known Mechanism is Mysticism
Olivia Guest1,2, Nancy Abigail Nuñez Hernández3, and Mark Blokpoel1,2
1Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Radboud University, The Netherlands
2Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
3Facultad de Estudios Superiores Acatlán-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
Mysterianism is the idea that human cognition, mind, cannot be understood. Taking this
concept and applying it to known mechanism — such that claims are made that we do not
know how engineered systems, such as artificial neural networks (ANNs), work, or that they
constitute black boxes that we can only open with difficulty — is inappropriate at best and
malicious at worst. We do know the mechanistic structure of such models because we designed
and built them. We also do know their functional role (what they are for) as well as the
mathematical function they are asked to approximate (map inputs to target outputs). Because
mysterianist beliefs about known systems, such as ANNs, are often expressed, scientists need
to sit up and take notice. We provide an error theory as to what is going on to help unpick
this metatheoretical blunder. Ultimately, the problem is that ‘understanding’ is not a technical
term in these cases: the word is co-opted for a specific narrative to sell ‘artificial intelligence’
through mystification. All computational systems, from pendulums to databases, will behave
in ways we cannot predict or control — this is not a unique property of ANNs — and experts
do indeed grasp the computational properties of these systems nonetheless.
Keywords: artificial neural networks; mechanism; black box; epistemology; artificial
intelligence; understanding

4 GUEST, NUÑEZ HERNÁNDEZ, & BLOKPOEL≈
ANNs are equiva-
lent to or inspired
by humans.
α
≡
ANNs are a black
box or unknowable,
even if opened.
β
≡
Humans are a black
box or unknowable.
γ
Figure 1
Three co-occurring (latent) assertions in the context of con-
temporary reasoning on AI and cognition. While they may
appear to hang together in “reflective equilibrium” (Elgin 2017),
their metatheoretical examination brings their contradictions to
light. Starting from the top, and moving clockwise: 𝛼) represents
the typical assertion of so-called cognitive, neural, or otherwise
biological plausibility or inspiration presented for ANNs; 𝛽) is
the claim we tackle head on here — both in terms of analysing
the constituent terms and in how it relates to the other two
assumptions; and 𝛾) exemplifies a type of mysterianism, which
while not always explicitly expressed, plays a background role
and importantly comes into conflict with the other two claims
in important ways

MYSTERIANISM ABOUT KNOWN MECHANISM IS MYSTICISM 11World
?Di
Data?Si
ANN
Figure 3
Not all systems, 𝑆𝑖 relate to their relevant data, 𝐷𝑖 and world
phenomena this way, but ANN models (as many inferential
statistical models) do when used without scientific understand-
ing of the data-generating process or without verbal or formal
theory to match (Guest and Martin 2025b, 2021, 2023). As we
move from left to right above, we move from full understanding
of engineered systems, 𝑆𝑖 to less or even possibly none of the
data, 𝐷𝑖 to the world which can be thought of as the set of
phenomena to be understood.

Technology, Power, and Domination @digipolicy.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Wir laden ein: Vortrag & Diskussion zum Buch „Was das Valley herrschen nennt” von @adriandaub.bsky.social. Er zeigt, wie Tech-Eliten Macht denken, legitimieren und zunehmend politischen Einfluss ausüben. 📅 01.06.2026, 16-18 Uhr 📍 Weizenbaum-Institut ➡️ Mehr Infos und Anmeldung: tinyurl.com/yc2mxd7h

Buchcover in pink: "Adrian Daub - Was das Valley herrschen nennt" (Edition Suhrkamp)

Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 3mo ago

I will always be here for a good “the map is not the territory” reference

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 3mo ago

Finally: 5️⃣ models are not (of the) data! > This confusion [of] map and territory, theory and observations, [is at the root of] damaging issues in contemporary theorising, especially when under the influence of the technology industry’s logic doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Fifth, models are not (of the) data. The intention to “map
reality more closely [to] provide a better understanding” (in
the blockquote above) should ring alarm bells for any theor-
etician (Guest & Martin, 2025). On why making our theories,
maps, resemble the territory as closely as possible, perhaps
considering the case of the actual map is helpful. Lewis Car-
roll (1893) has a compelling such example wherein a fictional
character proudly proclaims:
“We actually made a map of the country, on the
scale of a mile to the mile!” [And when asked if
the map has been used, explains:] “It has never
been spread out[. T]he farmers objected: they
said it would cover the whole country, and shut
out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself,
as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly
as well.” (n.p.)

LK Seiling @lkseiling.eurosky.social · 3mo ago

Just migrated my data to @eurosky.social on servers in Germany - and can keep using bluesky like nothing happened. Next: re-starting to blog using @leaflet.pub. Genuinely excited to see where this goes. In case you are also considering to move 👉 move.eurosky.tech

a screenshot of my Eurosky dashboard, detailing the number of posts, followers, following and other applications also using ATproto

Katrin Weller @kwelle.bsky.social · 5mo ago

And @lkseiling.bsky.social and Sophia Graf presenting lots of super useful work by the @dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social snurb.info/index.php/no... #smad2026 #digitalservicesact

Assessing the Operation of EU Social Media Data Access Mechanisms via the DSA40 Collaboratory | Snurblog — Axel Bruns

The post-lunch session at the

snurb.info

LK Seiling @lkseiling.eurosky.social · 5mo ago

The issue with data access under DSA Art. 40(4): only successful requests are published on the Commission's Data Access Portal. When it comes to rejected requests, researchers have to share information amongst themselves. That's what our data access tracker is for 👇

DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory@dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🚨 First DSA Art. 40(4) data access decisions are in! Coimisiún na Meán has sent out its first responses to researcher applications. Did you apply for DSA data access? Log it in the DSA40 Tracker (takes ~10 min): www.soscisurvey.de/DSA40applica... Your input helps build researcher support tools!

The DSA40 Data Access Tracker
Keep track of your access application

We call upon researchers and other non-profit organisations to share their data access requests with us, so that we can

- inform the public about the success rate of access requests
- develop guidance for successful access requests
- inform ongoing regulatory processes

Jakob Ohme @dscheykopp.bsky.social · 5mo ago

It’s not a privilege, it’s a researchers right! #DSA40 @lkseiling.bsky.social and I summarize what the European Commission decision in their case against X (I feel we should follow John Oliver and from now on call it Twitter again) means for researchers right to platform data access [in German]

Weizenbaum-Institut@weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social · 5mo ago

📰 👉Jetzt lesen: buff.ly/Sip9TR2 @lkseiling.bsky.social @dscheykopp.bsky.social #DSA

Freiheitsrechte.org - GFF @freiheitsrechte.org · 6mo ago

Durchbruch für digitale Rechte – und für den Kampf gegen #Desinformation und #Wahlbeeinflussung online: Das Kammergericht Berlin entschied heute, dass die Plattform #X unserer Partnerorganisation @democracyreporting.bsky.social Zugang zu #Forschungsdaten geben muss. 💪

Zitatkachel mit dem GFF-Juristen Joschka Selinger: „Auch die großen Digitalkonzerne stehen nicht über dem Gesetz. Der DSA ist ein scharfes Schwert für digitale Rechte und Plattformregulierung.“

Freiheitsrechte.org - GFF @freiheitsrechte.org · 6mo ago

Heute verhandelt das Kammergericht Berlin, ob @democracyreporting.bsky.social von #X Plattformdaten bekommt, um zu Wahlbeeinflussung und Desinformation zu forschen. Obwohl DRI nach dem #DSA der EU ein Recht darauf hat, verweigert X die Herausgabe. Mehr Infos im Quotepost.

Zwei Vertreter*innen von DRI und GFF vor dem Berliner Kammergericht

Freiheitsrechte.org - GFF@freiheitsrechte.org · 6mo ago

Unsere Partnerorga @democracyreporting.bsky.social (DRI) klagte im Dezember mit Unterstützung von uns & der Kanzlei #Hausfeld auf Zugang zu Daten von X. Die Forschenden wollen im Kontext der Wahlen in Ungarn im April Erkenntnisse zu #Desinformation & Wahlbeeinflussung auf X sammeln und auswerten 🔍

Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.uk · 6mo ago

There have been increasingly shrill accusations against the EU over its digital legislation, based on accusations of "censorship" by defenders of "free speech" -- including, so it appears, the right to peddle an AI app that seemingly produces child sexual abuse material (CSAM). 1/9

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 11mo ago

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

LK Seiling @lkseiling.eurosky.social · 7mo ago

Anyone interested in drafting an Art. 40(4) DSA access request to make use of this moment? Looks like a great chance to figure out, how the @grok account fits into X' internal governance/moderation structures.

Reuters@reuters.com · 7mo ago

EU Commission has ordered X to retain all Grok documents until end 2026, spokesperson says reut.rs/4jw0qeI

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 7mo ago

"Why Are Grok and X Still Available in App Stores? Elon Musk’s chatbot has been used to generate thousands of sexualized images of adults and apparent minors. Apple and Google have removed other “nudify” apps—but continue to host X and Grok." www.wired.com/story/x-grok...

Why Are Grok and X Still Available in App Stores?

Elon Musk’s chatbot has been used to generate thousands of sexualized images of adults and apparent minors. Apple and Google have removed other “nudify” apps—but continue to host X and Grok.

wired.com

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 7mo ago

The Guardian doing inexplicable voluntary free public relations work for a corporation profiting from sexual abuse by headlining this as the image gen being "turned off". It isn't off: they've just monetised it. What the fuck are we doing here people, come on. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Grok turns off image generator for most users after outcry over sexualised AI imagery

X to limit editing function to paying subscribers after platform threatened with fines and regulatory action

theguardian.com

Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 7mo ago

liked undressing any woman or child on the platform? throw us some cash and you can keep doing it

Justin Hendrix@justinhendrix.bsky.social · 7mo ago

"Elon Musk's startup xAI has restricted the image generation function on its Grok chatbot on social media platform X to paid subscribers, after the tool's use of AI to create sexualized images sparked a widespread backlash." www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Freiheitsrechte.org - GFF @freiheitsrechte.org · 7mo ago

Gleich gehts los auf dem #39c3: Simone und Jürgen ziehen in „Hacking Karlsruhe - 10 years later“ nach zehn Jahren GFF Bilanz. Hier gehts zum Stream: streaming.media.ccc.de/39c3/fuse

Fuse – 39C3: Power Cycles Streaming

Live streaming from the 39th Chaos Communication Congress

streaming.media.ccc.de

Jordan Maris 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 #NAFO @jmaris.me · 7mo ago

#Trump has been accusing the #EU of #censorship via its #DigitalServicesAct, but is any of what they are saying true? Let's investigate 🧵🔽 #EUpol #USpol

LK Seiling @lkseiling.eurosky.social · 8mo ago

Did you know that the new European Omnibus threatens research based on data donations? We wrote an open letter highlighting the problematic amendment (see below). Please consider reading and signing it. If the amendment goes through, this might well be the end of data donation research...

DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory@dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social · 8mo ago

We've published an Open Letter urging EU policymakers to reject the Digital Omnibus' proposed Amendment to Article 12(5) GDPR, which would undermine citizens' data access rights & the researchers who depend on them for #DataDonation research. Read & sign: shorturl.at/e1mr4 - your signature matters.

the background depicts the proposed amendment, the foreground reads "Open Letter: The Amendment to Article 12, paragraph 5 GDPR in the Omnibus Proposal Undermines Evidence-Based Policymaking"

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 9mo ago

We recently concluded a special article series, “Seeing the Digital Sphere: The Case for Public Platform Data,” in collaboration with the Knight-Georgetown Institute, in which experts explored why access to public platform data is critical. Here’s a snapshot: (1/9)

Markus Reuter @markus.reuter.netzpolitik.org · 9mo ago

Die Grünen sind nur Bürgerrechtspartei, wenn sie nicht in der Regierung sind. www.swr.de/swraktuell/b...

Trotz Kritik: Ab wann die BW-Polizei eine Palantir-Software nutzen darf

Trotz viel Kritik und einer Petition hat der Landtag das Polizeigesetz geändert und die Nutzung der Datenanalyse-Software Palantir beschlossen.

swr.de

Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · 9mo ago

@lkseiling.bsky.social & @markscott.bsky.social plea in @techpolicypress.bsky.social for a new data access regime emerging from a "generation of decentralized platforms that treat data transparency not as a regulatory burden but as a civic and scientific good" www.techpolicy.press/in-critical-...

In Critical Condition – How To Stabilize Researcher Data Access? | TechPolicy.Press

Mark Scott and LK Seiling discuss the struggle for researcher access to social media data and an alternative future where transparency is seen as a civic good.

techpolicy.press

Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The most transparent, de-gamified way to do social media would be a “more like this / less like this” interface that nobody else sees. The “like” is pointless here anyway, while sharing is everything.

TechCrunch@techcrunch.com · 9mo ago

Bluesky is looking to a new signal — "dislikes" — to personalize users' feeds.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 9mo ago

"Many of the deals OpenAI has struck — with chipmakers, cloud computing companies and others — are strangely circular. OpenAI receives billions from tech companies before sending those billions back to the same companies to pay for computing power and other services." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

How OpenAI Uses Complex and Circular Deals to Fuel Its Multibillion-Dollar Rise

Here are seven unusual financial agreements helping to drive the ambitions of the poster child of the A.I. revolution.

nytimes.com

Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 9mo ago

two for one, nice 😎

Magnum, T.I.(M.)@hydrationchimp.bsky.social · 9mo ago

deal

If you eliminate billionaires, the stock market will go, too, according to Mark Cuban

Für sachliche Politik @sachlichepolitik.eurosky.social · 10mo ago

"Gegen vier Uhr morgens drangen Beamt:innen in die Wohnung der syrischen Familie Seleman ein, führten die Geschwister Rouaa (24) und Ibrahim (28) ab und setzten sie in ein Flugzeug. Dabei sollten beide eine Ausbildung antreten. Der Flüchtlingsrat Schleswig-Holstein nennt das „Behördenwahnsinn“.

Abschiebung trotz Ausbildungsvertrag: Aus dem Bett geholt, ins Flugzeug gesetzt

Rouaa und Ibrahim hatten ihre Ausbildungsverträge unterschrieben und hätten damit bis zum Abschluss bleiben dürfen. Trotzdem wurden sie abgeschoben.

taz.de