Alondra Nelson

@alondra.bsky.social

2014

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344

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Scholar, author, policy advisor
http://www.alondranelson.com

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Alondra Nelson

"How do you regulate a fever dream? …[Because] it *can* be regulated." @alondra.bsky.social spittin straight 🔥🔥🔥, as usual, on this week's Moral Repair podcast with Annanda Barclay and Keisha McKenzie

Moral Repair: A Black Exploration of Tech | Government Regulation: Afrofuturism and Equity in Techplay.prx.org What do we need to know about recent regulatory guidelines on AI trust and safety? What does one recent federal regulator think still needs attention? How could critical Black digital perspectives res...

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Alondra Nelson

NEW: Governing artificial intelligence depends on governments understanding AI civic-texts.ghost.io/governing-ar... Many thanks to @alondra.bsky.social & @alexengler.bsky.social for their insights.

Governing artificial intelligence depends on governments understanding AI firstcivic-texts.ghost.io Good afternoon from sunny Washington, where President Biden has signed a national security supplemental into law that will require ByteDance to divest from TikTok or the social media app will banned i...

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Alondra Nelson

Brandy Zadrozny notes a shift in momentum around attacks on mis- and disinformation researchers. Indeed, we are feeling encouraged by recent developments. And, though the costs have gone (across multiple dimensions), our work continues. www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinfo...

The disinformation war has taken a toll, but researchers feel a shiftwww.nbcnews.com Researchers who study and combat disinformation have faced years of attacks. Recently, they've also achieved some quiet but significant victories.

I'm kicking off @axios.com What's Next Summit tomorrow at 2pm ET with @inafried.bsky.social. You can watch the livestream here: www.axios.com/whats-next-s...

What's Next Summitwww.axios.com Join Axios virtually for our third annual What’s Next Summit on March 19, 2024 featuring conversations with topline innovators on important issues shaping our future and why they matter.

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Alondra Nelson

A paper about the benefits and risks of open-weights foundation models. What is said is not very surprising. What is notable is, who signed on. There's an effort here to organize a broad defense of open AI, stretching from Stella Biderman to Alondra Nelson. #MLSky 🤖

On the Societal Impact of Open Foundation Modelscrfm.stanford.edu

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Alondra Nelson

Critical work from @alondra.bsky.social and @juliaangwin.com on the election misinformation ecosystem we now find ourselves in.

I write with @juliaangwin.com about our study that showed 50% of AI models’ responses to questions voters might ask were inaccurate. Government must hold companies accountable, including through the privacy law called for by POTUS in his powerful #SOTU speech. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Opinion: AI doesn't have all the answers — especially this election seasonwww.latimes.com In our study, we found many AI chatbots and apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini provide misinformation on when and where to vote. Tech companies should improve their platforms.

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Alondra Nelson

Models insisted voting by text was legal in California, that voting precincts didn’t exist in a majority-black district, and said voters could wear campaign paraphernalia to the polls (they can’t).

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Alondra Nelson

Last day to submit your abstract for the EASST-4S meeting! Consider joining Ann Kelly and me in the open panel (P396) “Probing Openness in Biomedical Platforms: Global Health meets Open Science”. And so psyched to announce @alondra.bsky.social will act as discussant! nomadit.co.uk/conference/e...

P396: Probing openness in biomedical platforms: global health meets Open Sciencenomadit.co.uk By focusing on the heuristic device of biomedical platforms this panel examines how biomedical innovations engage notions of openness that obscure global political histories of capitalism and colonial...

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Alondra Nelson

Bluesky added a million followers yesterday. So take the number of followers you added yesterday and subtract it from a million and that’s how many people rejected you

It was great fun to be with @jackstilgoe.bsky.social and @shobitap.bsky.social for a second time on their Received Wisdom podcast and to discuss OSTP and emerging issues in science and tech policy

Starting 2024 with a special episode of The Received Wisdom #podcast! @jackstilgoe.bsky.social and I interview @alondra.bsky.social about her time as Deputy Director, and Acting Director, of OSTP. Listen here or on your fav platform! shobita-parthasarathy.squarespace.com/the-received... #STS #scipol

Episode 38: CRISPR therapies, Boeing, and reconnecting with Alondra Nelson — Shobita Parthasarathyshobita-parthasarathy.squarespace.com

How to regulate AI? One strategy: existing rules and laws do apply to AI. “While robocall scams using AI-generated voices were already considered illegal, Thursday’s ruling clarified that generating a voice with AI for a robocall is illegal in itself”

The Federal Communications Commission announced on Thursday a ruling that makes robocalls using artificial intelligence-generated voices illegal, just weeks after New Hampshire voters received calls from an apparently digitally generated voice impersonating President Biden.

FCC makes it official: AI-generated voices in robocalls are illegalwww.washingtonpost.com FCC makes it official: AI-generated voices in robocalls are illegal

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Alondra Nelson

Thoughts from @jessicahuseman.bsky.social on an important event pulled together by @juliaangwin.com and @alondra.bsky.social-- also feat. @protectdemocracy.org's non-alarmist take on all this. www.votebeat.org/2024/02/05/a...

A gathering of election officials and experts takes some of the mystery out of AIwww.votebeat.org New technology sparks worries, but poses challenges election officials have dealt with before

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Alondra Nelson

Episode 38: CRISPR therapies, Boeing, and reconnecting with Alondra Nelson — Shobita Parthasarathyshobita-parthasarathy.squarespace.com

"AI regulation doesn't staunch innovation, it enables it. And it's a critical tool in our ongoing efforts to prevent the proliferation of deepfakes."

In a new piece in @foreignaffairs.bsky.social, I argue that agile, effective AI governance will require anchoring in fundamental values and rights; expansively leveraging existing standards, regulations, and policies; and leaning into *policy* innovation. foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

My year in review: January www.linkedin.com/posts/alondr...

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Alondra Nelson

Oh wow! @alondra.bsky.social has been elected to the Board of Directors for The @innocence.bsky.social Project. This is huge great news for everyone involved, quite frankly. innocenceproject.org/team/alondra...

Alondra Nelson - Innocence Projectinnocenceproject.org

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Alondra Nelson

This is huge. In a state system, where budgets are tight, this will effectively shrink sociology departments in Florida's higher ed system. You lose students taking soc classes for gen ed, but then downstream majors because they don't get exposed to the discipline.

The Board of Governors in Florida just removed an intro sociology course that mentioned race and gender as a social science option for their gen ed requirements. The vote came after faculty and students on the board objected

Florida education officials now going after college sociology courseswww.orlandoweekly.com State higher-education officials on Thursday moved toward making changes to 'general education core courses' at state universities

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Alondra Nelson

Great meeting with the great @alondra.bsky.social - thanks for visiting us at TU Munich!

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Alondra Nelson

Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam has won a seat on the New York City Council, more than three decades after he was wrongfully accused and convicted as a teenager

Exonerated ‘Central Park Five’ member Yusef Salaam wins New York City Council seatbit.ly Exonerated “Central Park Five” member Yusef Salaam won a seat Tuesday evening on the New York City Council.

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Alondra Nelson

Reply to

Hetan Shah

Oxford’s Institute for AI Ethics lecture by @alondra.bsky.social is now available to watch back here m.youtube.com/watch?v=7FaW...

Ethics in AI Annual Lecture with Professor Alondra Nelson: Thick Alignmentm.youtube.com

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Alondra Nelson

One company’s research estimates “that even in situations designed to prevent it from happening, chatbots invent information at least 3 percent of the time — and as high as 27 percent.”

Chatbots May ‘Hallucinate’ More Often Than Many Realizewww.nytimes.com When summarizing facts, ChatGPT technology makes things up about 3 percent of the time, according to research from a new start-up. A Google system’s rate was 27 percent.

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Alondra Nelson

Hello @shengokai.bsky.social @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social @bakerdphd.bsky.social @kwazana.bsky.social @triciamatthew.bsky.social @heyitsaugusta.bsky.social @alondra.bsky.social @andrecarrington.bsky.social @saffista.bsky.social Please follow #blackademics to build community

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Alondra Nelson

Again, relying on for-profit orgs for public goods like public health maybe wasn't our best idea.

Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens have signaled plans to collectively shutter more than 1,500 stores in the past two years. Public health experts have already seen the fallout, noting that the first neighborhoods to lose their pharmacies are often predominantly Black, Latinx and low-income.

Drugstore closures are leaving millions without easy access to a pharmacywww.washingtonpost.com Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens have signaled plans to shutter more than 1,500 stores in the past two years, and public health experts say there’s already been fallout.

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Alondra Nelson

RIP Evelyn Boyd Granville, space-flight trailblazer (1924—2023) Mathematician and programmer who transcended barriers of race and gender. #blacksky #science #STS #womeninstem #feministsky #academicsky www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Evelyn Boyd Granville, space-flight trailblazer (1924—2023)www.nature.com Mathematician and programmer who transcended barriers of race and gender. Mathematician and programmer who transcended barriers of race and gender.

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Alondra Nelson

Reply to

Hetan Shah

Inspiring place to close from @alondra.bsky.social with this quote from DuBois - the future is not written - we can help to shape it

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Alondra Nelson

Reply to

Hetan Shah

‘Years of sociotechnical research show that advanced digital technologies, left unchecked, are used to pursue power and profit at the expense of human rights, social justice, and democracy.’ This piece by @alondra.bsky.social challenges a narrow concept of safety www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

AI safety on whose terms?www.science.org Rapid, widespread adoption of the latest large language models has sparked both excitement and concern about advanced artificial intelligence (AI). In response, many are looking to the field of AI saf...

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Alondra Nelson

The Brooklyn Public Library has announced that any teenager in America is now eligible for a Brooklyn Public Library card. Teens can sign out ebooks + audiobooks from wherever they live. The move is designed to combat censorship, with some titles listed as "always available." 📚

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Alondra Nelson

For years, people have been saying that EVs will require fewer workers than gas cars do. It’s become a truism repeated by CEOs, politicians, workers, and journalists. But actual evidence suggests it’s not true — and in fact, EVs might even need *more* workers. heatmap.news/electric-veh...

There’s Surprisingly Little Evidence That EVs Will Require Fewer Workersheatmap.news The research instead suggests the opposite is true.