Srravya

Good morning from the Jubilee line

I've always been icky about my calls to any customer care being recorded. But today as I waited on the line with my broadband provider, and heard the familiar words, "calls maybe recorded for training purposes", I wondered (w/ dread) how long before companies acquired these for AI training purposes?

AI data centers demand is driving up smartphone costs and squeezing cheap budget phones off the market https://restofworld.org/2026/ai-data-center-memory-chip-shortage-cheap-smartphones-digital-divide/?utm_campaign=row-social&utm_source=bluesky

New #AIES paper w/ @benzevgreen.bsky.social & @tisjune.bsky.social - "Deconstructing AI Hype: A Playbook for Resistance"! Read here: shreyachowdhary.net/files/decons... We argue that AI hype is a problem not because it misdescribes AI, but because it facilitates AI entrenchment.

"Remote jobs such as content moderation & data annotation have been promoted as a win-win by UN agencies & global tech companies... But interviews with more than two dozen refugees in Kakuma show that only one side has clearly benefited." www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

The origin story of Zotero!

On the 20th anniversary of Zotero's 1.0 release on October 5, 2006, I wrote a history of the collaboration and years it took to create the popular research tool now used by over 20 million people: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...

Quality = complying.

As with Meta glasses, so with Co-pilot.

🚨 Call for Applications: Postdocs We’re looking for postdoctoral researchers for the following research areas and topics: - Political Economy - Economic Sociology - Technology and Statehood - Wealth and Social Inequality 🗓️ Application deadline: Dec. 11 📢 Please share widely! s.gwdg.de/UzLEpr

4-year postdoc(s) at Copenhagen Business School on project The Business of Corruption: Why Business Elites Collude or Combat Political Corruption, led by @mkjustesen.bsky.social. Start: summer 2027, deadline 18 September. www.cbs.dk/en/about-cbs...

What goes around, comes around... folded

One of the policy areas we highlight on our recently re-launched Feminist Tech Policy site is ‘Digital Violence’. One of our main points is: What if we connected the dots between online and offline violence? feministtechpolicy.org/en/spotlight/digital-violence

Amazon is shutting down MTurk in under a month! And that's all the heads up it gave to all the workers who use the platform to earn their livelihood! They make AI possible, they make AI work! @krystalkauffman.bsky.social's piece 👇 putting it in context & outlining the hard Qs that we must confront

Data workers will lose vital income when Amazon's Mechanical Turk shuts down. Krystal Kauffmann calls for lawmakers to protect AI's hidden workforce. buff.ly/qOfG2tu

I often talk about how the narrative of an "AI race" is actually just a bunch of people aimlessly running without a plan for direction or destination, so thank you to China's robotics industry for this visual metaphor

In this post, Sridhar Raghavan traces coasts (karai) as produced by silt, sea and coastal engineering. As an agent of history, siltation in the Kaveri Delta renders the karai, where (post-)colonial engineering attempts control, as a site of dialectic of land and water.

PhD candidates/new grads: Postdoc opportunity with me focused on political economy and tech. See details here: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32502

The whole series is great and I especially find the fifth post in the series insightful, thinking about the how we, as labour/tech researchers, might relate to workers in our research. Link below 👇

www.csds.in/researching_... Summer school alert ⚠️ Doctoral students are welcome to apply to the 1 month long summer school at CSDS, Environmental Entanglements. Last date of application 5 July 2026

A depressingly long list of universities who are implementing cuts and redundancies, as well as the petitions and actions against them (via @onslies.bsky.social) qmucu.org/qmul-transfo.... This is a national emergency that should be responded to with national policy.

Come be my colleague! American University's History Department is searching for a tenure-track assistant professor of science, tech and society. I am chair of the search and pleased to answer any questions either on here or email (grao at american) american.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/AU/job/Main-...

Looking forward to the discussion tomorrow. Happening online, details below 👇

What is it with workers increasingly being asked to wear cameras like this? Glad that in this particular instance the project has been shelved but there are other cases including in factories where the same is happening. Not how companies should be collecting data.

Call: 3 PhD positions on a project on algorithmic warfare & kill clouds at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Deadline May 29. For more info: drive.proton.me/urls/07B1G9G...

We are hiring at the Dept of Sociology @uniluzern.bsky.social ! Applications for Assistant Professor of Sociology with a focus on “Communication and Sociological Theory" (100%, tenure track) are due May 29, 2026 www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

Gig workers in Africa helped train AI systems for a company that performed work for a secretive U.S. military unit. Many were never told their work could be used for military purposes https://restofworld.org/2026/gig-workers-us-military-appen/?utm_campaign=row-social&utm_source=bluesky

The major tech and human rights conference RightsCon "will not proceed" after Zambian government officials announced they would postpone the conference in order to “ensure full alignment with Zambia’s national values, policy priorities, and broader public interest considerations.”

It is with heavy hearts that we share: RightsCon will not proceed in Zambia or online.

A good summary why UK HE has ended up in such a mess. I’d also add the growth of a managerial layer who refuse to take any responsibility for things they are responsible for; fall in available research funding, which wastes huge amounts of labour; and the pointless hamster wheel of REF! 🫠

#CfP! Submit your papers for our 3rd Workshop on “Public Interest AI” at the 49th German AI Conference in Bremen. We welcome reports on work in progress, case studies, tools or present a synthesis of empirical insights on #AI for the public interest. Deadline: 1 June. 👉 www.hiig.de/en/call-for-...

This is going to be a fun, engaging showcase, happening in Manchester in June! It's a great excuse to plan a trip to Manchester this summer! Read about the first queer data showcase held last year in Edinburgh: www.gender.ed.ac.uk/blog/2025/qu...

Why are colonial histories often sidelined in our understanding of the modern world? Join us on 27 May with Gurminder Bhambra, Imogen Tyler @imogentyler.bsky.social & Les Back @academicdiary.bsky.social Part of our Conversation Series. Free & online! 🔗 buff.ly/lTcfQjW

📣 Postdoc opportunity with Dr Nayha Sethi, CTMF Affiliate 📣 The Medicine without Doctors Project is recruiting a postdoc fellow with a background in law/regulation/socio-legal studies to work on a case-study exploring socio-legal elements of AI. Closing date: 8 May Info & apply 👇 edin.ac/3Qf8VQX

Call for Papers for CBI's MOSAICS Symposium: cse.umn.edu/cbi/call-pap... Thrilled to announce this & to work with Sareeta Amrute, @babintsevak.bsky.social, @anitachan.bsky.social & Gerardo Con Diaz!! MOSAICS Symposium: October 15-16, 2026 Proposal Deadline: May 29, 2026 #AIstudies #histtech

📢 Just under 1 week left to apply! 📢 More info & apply 👇 3-year PDRA: edin.ac/4edC20O 2-year PDRA: edin.ac/4cjuhnQ Closing Date: Monday, 20 April 2026 @schoolofppls.bsky.social @edfuturesinstitute.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @shannonvallor.bsky.social #PhilJobs #PhilScience #Ethics

Online seminar by @grohmannrafael.bsky.social starting in an hour! Join us if you're interested in digital labour, collective governance and what worker power in AI can look like! Details to join below 👇

Here's a collection of trans/queer focused papers at #CHI2026! 🌈🏳️‍⚧️📝 padlet.com/haimson/chi2...

The CHI Papers Explorer is back for #CHI2026! As every year, you can explore all 2,769 papers using semantic search. Type any topic, see papers ranked by relevance, and build your schedule. Try it and please share with everyone heading to Barcelona: johnguerra.co/viz/chi2026P... @chi.acm.org #HCI