AI Accountability Lab

At the @aial.ie, we collectively reflected and deliberated on the merits of the use of generative AI in research. Our collective statement and Lab Policy can be read here: aial.ie/blog/gen-ai-... zenodo.org/records/2322...

This: “The environmental costs, labour exploitation, data extraction, concentration of power, and normalisation of surveillance underlying the technology make it difficult, if not impossible, to meaningfully operationalise and practice “ethical” and “responsible” use.”

@aial.ie's @hellinanigatu.bsky.social reflects on African AI sovereignty, the current AI landscape, as well as the conference itself following her participation in the 2026 Deep Learning Indaba. #DLI2026 Read about it here: aial.ie/blog/worksho...

👉 Queremos una simplificación real sin debilitar los derechos de las personas consumidoras. 🔗Toda la info de la iniciativa: killthecookiebanner.eu @beuc.eu @noyb.eu @eff.org @checkmyads.org @aial.ie @forbrukerradet.bsky.social, @openrightsgroup.org

🍪 ¿Cansado de los banners de cookies? Nos unimos a otras 18 organizaciones para pedir a la UE que impulse señales de privacidad automatizadas: elegir nuestras preferencias una vez y olvidarnos de los banners. 📰Nota de prensa: cecu.es/notas/cecu-s...

Dr Hellina Hailu Nigatu (PhD), a postdoc at the @aial.ie in ADAPT at @tcddublin.bsky.social, has received the 2026 Wangari Maathai Impact Award at the Deep Learning Indaba conference in Lagos, Nigeria. Learn more: www.adaptcentre.ie/news-and-eve... @researchireland.ie

Olivia Rodrigo raised $20 million for women's well-being with a benefit show featuring a women-led lineup. Her show raised $10 million and Melinda French Gates pledged another $10 million. Rodrigo said the festival's artists and activists give her hope despite the “regression of women's rights."

do we know of any universities/higher ed institutions that have explicitly stated resistance/refusal of genai as their official policy

Dr Emily Sullivan, Co-Director of the CTMF, discusses how the Centre for Technomoral Futures is helping ensure AI serves society, protects human values and creates futures worth wanting in a feature for Enlightened. You can read it here 👉 edin.ac/4bAfdm4

‘Creating technomoral futures means striving for futures where technology is designed and used in ways that improve human flourishing, rather than in ways that eat away at human rights, contribute to climate collapse or create greater social exclusion.’ – Dr Emily Sullivan, CTMF Co-Director

please share any tools, libraries, or other resources that you find helpful for numerous research tasks

TODAY! Tune in to the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 live stream to hear @emilymbender.bsky.social, @alexhanna.bsky.social and @savasavasava.myatproto.social discuss how “responsible use” of LLMs isn’t a thing & AI “harm reduction” frameworks in edtech. July 6, noon Pacific twitch.tv/dair_institute

#FAccT2026 has been a great experience of leaning from, connect with, and socialising with the FAccT community. Huge thanks to the organising committee! #FAccT26

AIAL @ #FAccT2026

AIAL @ #FAccT2026

For our final episode of Computer Says Kill, @alixdunn.com sat down with @docmattmoudi.bsky.social from @amnesty.org and @marwasf.bsky.social from @accessnow.org to talk about our path out of AI in warfare.

Will you be at FAccT next week? Come hang out with us & learn about our work. We’ll discuss pathways to meaningful accountability, theories of change, & what brings us joy along the way over iconic bagels & TimBits in the park Sat June 27th, 18:00 - 20:00, Jeanne-Mance Park aial.ie/news/facct20...

The CCMI bureau visited the AI Accountability Lab research group at Trinity College Dublin, which works on the risks and societal impacts of AI systems 🤝 We thank @abeba.blacksky.app and the @adaptcentre.bsky.social team for their presentation, which was highly insightful and provocative 🖥️

AI-accelerated warfare must stop! Together with @amnesty.org and +200 experts and civil society organizations, we are calling on governments and tech companies to ensure AI does not become a tool for accelerating death and destruction. Read our statement: www.accessnow.org/press-releas...

"AIAL, one of the few independent sources of research into AI’s societal risks, conducts testing that is a model for evaluating systems before they are released to the public." www.macfound.org/press/grante...

On Sat a well attended screening of doc GHOST IN THE MACHINE examined the roots of #AI offering audiences a critical look at the forces that have shaped the tech's development. Followed by an engaging Q&A w/ @abeba.blacksky.app @aial.ie & host @elaineburke.bsky.social @fortechssakepod.bsky.social

Congratulations to Dr @abeba.blacksky.app on being elected to the AI Act Advisory Forum! Abeba is director of the @aial.ie of @tcddublin.bsky.social & ADAPT. Learn more about the lab: aial.ie

ICYMI: why it's a bad idea for the UK government to give US tech giant Palantir a role at the heart of the state - and why ministers need to take the chance to kick them out of the NHS: www.lbc.co.uk/article/pala...

SCREENING SAT JUNE 6th - Ghost in the Machine w/ Q&A with Dr. @abeba.blacksky.app, Director of @aial.ie @tcddublin.bsky.social and chaired by @elaineburke.bsky.social host of @fortechssakepod.bsky.social TICKETS: ifi.ie/film/ghost-i...

so sorry to be missing #EdTech26 (hello to all!) but grateful to @iltasky.bsky.social for livestreaming keynotes ilta.ie/edtech-2026/ this morning's keynote on AI & Education by @abeba.blacksky.app (@aial.ie) was outstanding: core values of education (love, trust, empathy, care) cannot be datafied

Not just lobbying! our new paper maps 27 mechanisms of regulatory capture used by Big AI + 11 narrative framings that rationalise capture. “Big AI’s Regulatory Capture: Mapping Industry Interference and Government Complicity” will be presented at #FAccT2026 next month arxiv.org/abs/2605.068... 1/

In our conclusion, we stress that industry capture is not just an urgent academic concern but a pressing real-world issue with global consequences. While, gegulators may engage with industry, governance must ultimately protect the public interest, not corporate power. 11/

Civil society orgs and investigative journalists are doing indispensable work: promoting counter narratives and resistance, exposing lobbying and deregulation, documenting harms, advancing strategic litigation... Support them. Fund them. Amplify their work. 10/

We survey and highlight transferable lessons from adjacent movements, namely Big Oil, Big Tobacco and Big Pharma. We advocate for supporting grassroots groups, CSOs and independent academics that are doing amazing work to hold Big AI and regulators accountable and to ensure the rule of law. 9/

These conflicts of interest endanger public trust in institutions’ ability to scrutinise corporations and enforce the law while raising serious questions about the growing integration of Big AI infrastructure into state power under the banner of "government efficiency" 8/

Across the US, EU and UK, our findings show regulatory capture isn’t just driven by Big AI - governments and public officials are deeply entangled too. Revolving doors, blurr regulator-industry boundaries & ownership/direct financial stakes in companies are undermining democratic accountability 7/

49 out of the 100 articles we analysed contain narrative(s) that attempt to justify capture: 'Regulation stifles innovation,' 'Red tape,' 'National interest' were amongst the most frequently invoked 6/

Big AI’s most powerful regulatory tool may be narrative capture -> Epistemic & Discourse Influence: getting regulators to adopt industry talking points as common sense. Close behind is Elusion of law: violations and contentious interpretations of antitrust, privacy, copyright and labour laws 5/

Applying the taxonomy to a dataset of 100 articles, specifically published around four critical events between 2023 and 2025 ( the EU AI Act trilogues and the global AI summits in the UK, South Korea and France), we find 249 cases fitting capture patterns. 4/

Through extensive scoping review of grey and academic literature, we first develop our taxonomy of mechanisms related to capture of AI regulation, spanning 5 dimensions: Direct Influence on Policy, Conflicting Involvement, Market Influence, Elusion of Law, & Epistemic & Discourse Influence 3/

We define Big AI “handful companies that develop & mass deploy large-scale AI built on massive datasets collected through vast, centralised infrastructures, which, with increased integration into societal infrastructure, continue to exert outsized epistemic, economic, political & societal influence”

New research led by @tcddublin.bsky.social, TCD SCSS, @aial.ie & ADAPT pinpoints the growing threat posed by the influence #AI companies have over the rule of law, and people’s lives, as well as outlining how society can stem the tide: www.adaptcentre.ie/news-and-eve...

ICCL is hiring an Office & Operations Manger! The office is the heart of our organisation and ensuring it runs smoothly is an essential role. We are looking for someone experienced in operations, finance and governance. If that sounds like you, then apply before the deadline of 5pm on Sunday 31 May

New from @mbrauh.bsky.social !!

"We must develop and adopt rigorous AI evaluation methods to have a clear-eyed view of such a consequential technology." @mbrauh.bsky.social

"In measurement science, deliberately choosing what background concept/construct is of interest, systematising it into a specific criterion & operationalising it via design of eval methodology are each distinct & important steps that, when skipped over,can undermine validity of any conclusion drawn"

...Both industry reports and academic papers typically study base models, yet a recent paper found that the ChatGPT models available via the official, public API had substantially different performance than that observed through interaction with the chatbot web interface."

"This is a challenge especially for academic work, given the lack of direct access to deployed AI systems, though industry model cards do not always assess deployed systems, either. ...