bethmsemel.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Grateful for the chance to share my thoughts on responsible use of LLMs in psychology research @spspnews.bsky.social #spsp2025. Here's a summary of my presentation for those who missed it. Thanks to @ashwinia.bsky.social for organizing this panel! How should LLMs be used in psychology research? 🧵

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

📣Our February newsletter is out! Read more on indigenous statistics, policing a postcolonial city, the political economy of smart surveillance in Curitiba, Brazil, Morocco’s AI-Enhanced governance of borders, predatory data & call for proposals for Africa Spyware & Digital Surveillance!

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

My new paper with @technolua.bsky.social is out! ✨ We ask two questions: How can AI and so-called smart technologies undermine democratic processes in local governments? And what is the role of smart-washing in the privatization of urban digital infrastructure?

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

Seeing the screenshot of Elon Musk, billionaire Nazi dismantling the US federal government, quote tweet Palmer Luckey, cofounder of the autonomous weapons and surveillance company Anduril, about the superiority of AI-assisted teaching tells me a lot about the political project of AI in education.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Now live! A short piece that I wrote right after the election. This one’s for my friends who suffer from energy limiting diseases. Thank you to @forgeorganizing.bsky.social for publishing. forgeorganizing.org/article/coll...

submitted 11 days ago • 7 comments

I am saddened to see so many universities (including my own) who have happily advertised and exploited the labor of those of us now being scorned by the administration as “DEI hires” simply roll over dead at a legally questionable threat without even fighting back

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Happening today! See you at 18h CET / 12PM ET 🧪

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

“African Tech Workers Rising is organising for better wages, mental health protections and professional standards in Kenya and beyond. We are doing this because AI is not magic. Behind every algorithm are thousands of hidden workers labelling, training & moderating data under precarious conditions.”

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

Elon Musk is calling for the CFPB's remaining account balance of $711,586,678 to be returned to the American taxpayers. That you give everyone $2-$3. But returning Elon Musk’s money to taxpayers would give everyone about $1,300 each.

submitted 12 days ago • 73 comments

Endowment tax + slashing overhead on federal grants is designed to cripple the university. This weakened university is going to be even more susceptible to the efficiency claims of genAI. All of these moves further concentrate wealth and power in the private sector. Don't capitulate in advance.

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

LA STUDENT STRIKE DAY 5 - RIGHT NOW: Pasadena High School has just joined the dozens of other schools all over LA that have staged walkouts throughout this week. This is the 6th straight day of anti-ICE, immigrations rights protests in LA.

submitted 16 days ago • 28 comments

Breaking news: State attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Vermont, and Wisconsin advise Trump's EO banning trans care is unlawful, hospitals should provide care. Big counter salvo!

submitted 18 days ago • 253 comments

50,000 faculty & staff; 450,000 students AI companies are especially keen to impose this tech on people whose ability to refuse is ambiguous. if admin can railroad faculty & staff, then these companies look forward to half a million annual licenses for garbage that can't be evaluated or scrutinized

submitted 19 days ago • 7 comments

The “killer app” is to forcefully embed these systems into education and government so that there become few ways to meaningfully reject them.

submitted 19 days ago • 7 comments

Not only conducting mass raids, ICE has posted notices for contractors to provide surveillance tech to enlarge, transform, and modernize capabilities to track, monitor & surveil noncitizens. Migrants are at nexus of surveillance tech & expansion of racial state power. truthout.org/articles/ice...

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

Evergreen request: For @motherjones.com, I am always looking for stories of local projects led by disabled/chronically ill people to help other disabled/chronically ill people. These days, we need hope. If you have any leads. My email is [email protected]

submitted 24 days ago • 8 comments

Cyberlibertarianism has shaped how we see the internet. As tech aligns with the extreme right, it’s more important than ever to reassess it. This week @hypervisible.bsky.social joins @parismarx.com to discuss David Golumbia’s book on cyberlibertarianism. Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/261_...

submitted 24 days ago • 11 comments

I want to make it clear that Biden’s expansion of the detention facilities in the U.S., as well as Obamas bullshit with Guantanamo, made this possible. When you see so many people yelling that liberal policy leads to fascism, this is what we mean.

submitted 25 days ago • 29 comments

I know that Trans Youth Emergency Project could use donations. Perhaps they even need some volunteers. southernequality.org/tyep/

submitted 25 days ago • 11 comments

This is about as clear confirmation as you can get that Derek and I have been denied entry to the United States for critique of Israeli genocide. Solidarity to every single person who participated in campus protests and all the students who will be affected by this. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

submitted 25 days ago • 9 comments

ai boosters have been saying this for the whole time.

submitted 25 days ago • 5 comments

I’m an NSF panel reviewer that was scheduled to meet today. Just got notice that all NSF panels were canceled today. I reviewed some innovative proposals in support of students. Devastating if these scholars don’t get to do this work. For the love of science & students I hope this is just a delay.💔

submitted 27 days ago • 69 comments

THIS. What I term algorithmic agnotology.

submitted 28 days ago • 5 comments

If you're wondering why medical bills are still skyrocketing, here's something:

submitted 28 days ago • 2 comments

mickey mouse in fantasia enchanting all the brooms to do his cleaning-ass tweet

submitted 28 days ago • 2 comments

📢We're proud to support the launch of the Data Labelers Association of Kenya with an online event! Join to meet and support the workers: 📅Feb 13 ⏰8pm Kenya/ 6pm EU/ 12pm ET ✅Watch and submit your questions to the speakers: twitch.tv/dair_institute

submitted 30 days ago • 1 comment

regret to inform you @saraevogel.bsky.social @sciedhenry.bsky.social that we must write about this

submitted 30 days ago • 2 comments

BREAKING: I was exonerated by the Northwestern ad hoc committee investigating me, and am returning to the classroom in the spring! But also, Northwestern is investigating me anew! A full press release here, with comment from @AAUP @pal_legal drive.google.com/file/d/1z8H-...

submitted 31 days ago • 31 comments

"It’s “never really expanding access to benefits, just restricting it and causing devastation on really massive scales,” he said. “Nowhere has this been implemented where it didn’t mean cuts, delays, loss of benefits for people who are eligible, unfounded fraud accusations."

submitted 31 days ago • 1 comment

i knew this was coming, but it doesnt make it any less bleak.

submitted 32 days ago • 19 comments

i went to the centre for advanced brainrot studies and everyone there knew you!

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

Well, this will be a good one. Some of the most thoughtful tech scholars around—all of them take the long way around the archive if you know what I mean. Good history telling is like an iceberg, you can only see a bit of it but you know that there’s a massive base underneath it.

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

What is one to conclude from the contrast between the AHA’s position on Ukraine and its position on Gaza other than it believes some people’s histories are worth more than others?

submitted 37 days ago • 4 comments

ICYMI, we put this map together of jails & prisons potentially impacted by the LA fires, as of at least yesterday they still had not evacuated a child detention center that’s just 1 mile from the Hurst fire

submitted 43 days ago • 3 comments

We're hoping to organize a hopeful virtual event to get us to think our possible technological futures, and have a creative workshop. Stay tuned. In the mean time, read our Possible Futures Series. If you have thoughts on what you'd like to see from the event, comment below.

submitted 47 days ago • 15 comments

Historians for Palestine: Thank you for voting at #AHA25. We are fundraising today on behalf of the Sameer Project for journalists fighting to keep historical record in Gaza. Suggested donation is $25 for 2025! chuffed.org/project/supp...

submitted 48 days ago • 1 comment

Hot take: all immigration discourse about “skilled labor” is a dogwhistle no matter who it’s from and you can’t convince me otherwise.

submitted 52 days ago • 3 comments