The Project of AI is a world-building endeavor, wherein those who fund and develop AI systems both operate through and seek to sustain networks of power and wealth. Janet Vertesi, Alex Taylor, Ben Shestakofsky, and I teamed up to try to disentangle the technical systems we call “AI” from
tl;dr: Read "Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media" The lovely folks at the Social Media + Society journal asked me to contribute to their anniversary issue by reflecting on the trajectory of social media. Ooof. Snark exuded from my pores as I tried to figure out what I
There's something uniquely demoralizing about editing and editing and editing a book manuscript. The words all start to blur together and you start thinking that every sentence is crap, no one will ever want to read this, why bother completing the book. I was definitely in this state.
The world is on fire - and I've often been at a loss for how to constructively contribute to public discourse. For decades, I have shared knowledge gained through fieldwork to offer a different perspective on complex sociotechnical matters. Too often these days, I find myself banging my head
Virtual Convo! On Monday, November 3 at 7PM ET, Lee Vinsel, Cory Doctorow, and I will be jamming in a livestream about Cory's new book Enshittification. I love this book and I love that I'll get to brain jam with two people I adore. So please
Earlier this week, Alvaro Bedoya published a story-forward account of his experience as an FTC commissioner in the US. It's the kind of story that makes an ethnographer swoon. Through his accounting, he demonstrates how his perspective on politics changed by talking with people around the country.
For years, I thought that there were two "sides" to the discussion around climate change. There were the people who believed in the science and the people who thought it was all a farce. Often, they could segregated into Democrats and Republicans. Of course, there were plenty of
Last week, I published an essay at Tech Policy Press: We Need an Interventionist Mindset. This essay is targeted at those who are building or governing tech systems, including AI. I am so grateful that they let me publish it there. If you don't mind clicking on the
Wildfires are terrifying. They are especially gobsmackingly horrible when you add in hurricane-style winds. I will never forget the day of the Marshall Fire when my daughter stepped out of the car and literally blew down the street, forcing us to race after her and catch her. In those
Many of us are aghast at the unprecedented dismantlement of the US administrative state. Mass terminations. Website erasure. Removal of watchdogs. Unchecked access to the treasury. All around me, people are trying to connect what's happening to historical events. Is this fascism? A hostile corporate takeover? A coup?
Fuck you Facebook. That was the first thought I had when I woke up this morning. Followed by: What ministry is Mark Zuckerberg volunteering to manage for the dictators of the world? All I could think of is how Orwell's Ministry of Love is about hate. So what
Well, it's been one heck of a year. ::shaking head:: Although I love getting those end-of-year postcards from folks, I've never managed to make them. Instead of recounting my familial adventures and emotional trials and tribulations, I thought I could at least step back