Data & Society

We don’t have to have unsupervised killer robots Employees at some companies with defense contracts feel betrayed.

“When I joined the tech industry, I thought tech was about making people’s lives easier,” an Amazon Web Services employee told @theverge.com, “but now it seems like it’s all about making it easier to surveil and deport and kill people.” www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

NEW: Check out our popular education toolkit to help understand and dismantle the AI Surveillance Pipeline! It includes:

✅ a printable zine / board game
✅ videos featuring tech, policy, and labor experts
✅ a roundup of even more research, reports, and tools

Explore it all at bit.ly/AIpipeline

What’s the Point of School When AI Can Do Your Homework? The creator of the AI agent “Einstein” wants to free humans from the burden of academic labor. Critics say that misses the point of education entirely.

If an AI can go to school for you, what’s the point of going to school? Matthew Kirschenbaum, who teaches English at UVA, says that the attractiveness of agentic AI programs like Einstein is a symptom of a decades-long trend toward a transactive model of education. www.404media.co/whats-the-po...

As part of our series “Democratizing AI for the Global Majority,” Teanna Barrett (@bound4nostar.bsky.social) examines the politics and power asymmetries shaping AI development in Africa today, and how developing local AI ecosystems might offer a path for progress. datasociety.net/points/towar...

Join us online TODAY at 12 pm ET! (Please note corrected time)

Sam Altman Is Losing His Grip on Humanity You don’t “train a human.”

"[T]o liken raising a child — or, for that matter, the evolution of Homo sapiens — to developing algorithmic products makes very clear that the [AI] industry has lost touch, if it ever had any, with what it means to be human," @matteowong.bsky.social writes. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

AI Lost Out to Traditional Models in Forecasting NYC's Blizzard Two days before New York's biggest snowstorm in a decade began, forecasters were still unsure how much snow would fall. One traditional US model had consistently predicted a major hit, while newer art...

“We’re so trained to think anything AI is better,” says Columbia Climate School researcher Andrew Kruczkiewicz. “Even if models are considered better or high quality, decision-making is not necessarily simplified.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

ScamGPT: GenAI and the Automation of Fraud This collaboration between Lana Swartz, Alice E. Marwick, and Kate Larson maps generative AI's role in scams, the communities most at risk, and the broader economic and cultural shifts at play.

Read the primer by @lanalanalana.bsky.social, @alicetiara.bsky.social and Kate Larson: It maps what we know about generative AI’s role in scams, the communities most at risk, and the broader economic and cultural shifts at play. datasociety.net/library/scam...

AI vibe scamming is here AI coding agents make it possible for anyone to build a sophisticated-looking website, including scammers.

"The more and more that AI becomes infrastructural and becomes part of our everyday lives, the more likely we are to encounter scams and fraud,” says @lanalanalana.bsky.social, co-author of our primer "Scam GPT: GenAI and the Automation of Fraud." www.marketplace.org/story/2026/0...

The People vs. AI Across red states and blue, a grassroots movement is pushing back on the unchecked growth of the artificial intelligence industry.

Surveying the growing backlash to AI, TIME spoke to nine Americans from disparate regions, ideologies, and professions — including a nurse, a pastor, and a filmmaker — who are taking the fight over this technology into their own hands. time.com/7377579/ai-d...

The Lesson of A.I. Literacy Class: Don’t Let the Chatbot Think for You

“Are you steering the technology or is it steering you?” asked a slide on the classroom whiteboard at Washington Park High School. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/t...

AI Delusions Are Leading to Domestic Abuse, Harassment, and Stalking ChatGPT and other AI chatbots are reinforcing users' delusions about other people — fueling fixations linked to stalking and abuse.

Perpetrators have long used new technologies to enable abusive behavior. @mharrisondupre.bsky.social finds that AI delusions are amplifying domestic abuse, harassment, and stalking in disturbing ways. futurism.com/artificial-i...

Wrote a short post on @cunygcdi.bsky.social's blog, 'Tagging The Tower' on attending a @datasociety.bsky.social event earlier this week. It prompted me to think about #AILiteracy / #DigitalLiteracy / #CriticalAI in @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social's ecosystem:

gcdi.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2026/02/20/t...

Thank you to @newint.bsky.social and @deccamuldowney.bsky.social for letting us write about Pennsylvania, its planned AI futures, and how people are pushing back. Read online and find in print! The entire March issue is about the humans behind the AI empire machine.

While many people feel relief after using chatbots for mental health support, they are designed to keep you coming back and can drive dependence. "You need to really be careful about what forms of other care you’re displacing,” says D&S researcher @briana-v.bsky.social. www.msn.com/en-us/health...

'Pennsylvania is perfect' Tech companies are building enormous data centres and reconfiguring energy infrastructure across the US, all to power the burgeoning AI industry. On a road trip, Maia Woluchem and Livia Garofalo trace...

In @newint.bsky.social, D&S's @mwoluchem.bsky.social and @livgar.bsky.social write about their work tracing the impacts of, and resistance to, the AI industry's development push in Pennsylvania — and introduce us to some of the people living in the thick of it. newint.org/science-and-...

Looking forward to reading more work in this vein at next month's D&S workshop on AI-enabled science 🦾

In one illustration of how AI is reshaping scientific practice, AI on the Ground Program Director Ranjit Singh considers the research a computational biologist is conducting on fruit flies, and the lessons it holds for the field. datasociety.net/points/simul...

Mental Health, Chatbots, and the Future of Care

Next week @livgar.bsky.social and I are hosting a discussion on our research into how people use LLMs for care/support—with voices across psychiatry, policy, engineering, and research in one room (rare & urgently needed). Come ask hard questions + share thoughts 💙 datasociety.net/events/menta...

Feb 26: Join researchers @livgar.bsky.social & @briana-v.bsky.social, in conversation with Luca Belli, @mbogen.bsky.social & @marlynnweimd.bsky.social, as they explore ongoing research on mental health and chatbots, and how to navigate a profound shift in care. datasociety.net/events/menta...

Opinion | A.I. Companies Are Eating Higher Education

“AI companies seem to look at college students as a strapped customer base to hook when they are most stressed....The headlong pursuit of AGI...has significantly hampered building support for developing systems that might help make students smarter.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...

Really looking forward to this event, in which we will be discussing Anuli's insightful and provocative report on the reality of AI literacy and upskilling in the "Age of AI". Hope to see you there!

Hear more TODAY at 12 pm ET, as Akanegbu discusses her research on the AI literacy trap with GA State Senator Nikki Merritt, @techequity.bsky.social's @tnewmsblues.bsky.social, & Bard Professor @threatstovalidity.bsky.social, w @serena124.bsky.social. datasociety.net/events/404-j...

Atlanta study questions what 'AI-literate' means for the job market A new study takes a close look at how Atlanta’s booming tech economy is reshaping expectations around artificial intelligence — and who actually benefits.

Akanegbu also talked to @wabe.org about what her research reveals about AI, workforce development and the myth that upskilling alone can solve structural inequality. www.wabe.org/atlanta-base...

Hear more TODAY at 12 pm ET, as Akanegbu discusses her research on the AI literacy trap with GA State Senator Nikki Merritt, @techequity.bsky.social's @tnewmsblues.bsky.social, & Bard Professor @threatstovalidity.bsky.social, w @serena124.bsky.social. datasociety.net/events/404-j...

Opinion: Georgia must regulate AI in the public interest to thrive Artificial intelligence (AI) risks reinforcing existing disparities between communities — to the advantage of those who are already privileged. Atlanta is no exception.

“Public officials now face a defining choice: Invest in public infrastructure, regulatory frameworks and enforcement mechanisms that protect workers — or allow AI-driven inequities to harden,” D&S researcher Anuli Akanegbu writes in @ajc.com. ajc-ajc-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/opinion/2026...

Next week! Join us on Feb 17 as D&S's Anuli Akanegbu, GA State Senator Nikki Merritt, @techequity.bsky.social's @tnewmsblues.bsky.social, & Bard Professor @threatstovalidity.bsky.social discuss what the AI literacy trap is doing to workers, w @serena124.bsky.social. datasociety.net/events/404-j...

Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses

Fully aware that adding facial recognition to its smart glasses carries safety and privacy risks, Meta has a plan: launch in a "dynamic political environment" where its critics "have their resources focused on other concerns.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash Flock off

Well then www.theverge.com/news/878447/...

$10 Million to Advance AI By and For People

We’re honored to be among the incredible organizations to receive a generous grant from @macfound.org, part of their aligned grantmaking in support of Humanity AI! This support enables our civic engagement work, including events on AI and the public interest. www.macfound.org/press/press-...