Suresh Venkatasubramanian

I agree that raw salary is definitely one of the reasons that public sector/advocacy technology struggles to be appealing to young technologists. An important part of the 'value alignment' piece, too, is creating contexts where grads feel like they have have the opportunity to grow technically.

Very glad to be a part of a new paper detailing how developers and developer platforms can prevent AIG-NCII, a form of image based sexual abuse that disproportionately harms women and girls. Thanks to all the collaborators and Max Kamachee & @scasper.bsky.social for leading this important project!

Democratic politicians need to stop accepting Trump’s white nationalist premise that immigration is bad and proudly and loudly make a positive case for why America’s identity and history as a nation of immigrants is so important.

Historian of eugenics here. I don't normally like to retweet bad arguments, but this is such a fundamental misunderstanding of eugenics, I think it's important to point out. I don't have time to debunk all of the ways this is inaccurate, but I'll highlight a few things and then recommend some books🧵

excellent. My son came in at 73 :)

Spotify thinks I'm 71. Damn you classical guitar music.

it is really very well written.

that reasoning by the judge is just fantastic

This is a fantastic and informative article (read the paper as well)

I'm spending my PhD researching just this question of what careers in tech "for good" or "in the public interest" look like. Just published an op-ed this weekend about one option: go do tech and/or data work for a non-profit! localnewsmatters.org/2025/11/30/b...

Sadeghi says this "genetic optimization" allows parents to minimize disease while maximizing traits they prefer. However, critics have drawn comparisons to a different term: "eugenics." "[It's not eugenics] by any stretch, because it's fundamentally about empowering people with information that they can use to give their child the best start in life," he said. "And yes, if you want 2 inches taller for your child, 3 inches taller, right, if you want a couple IQ-point difference, absolutely, by all means, do that. But I'm saying, you're really asking me here, you're asking me, what is life about? That's what you're really getting at when you talk about height and IQ, right, they're abstractions of life."

His “it’s not a eugenics company” tee is raising questions already answered by his shirt. www.cbsnews.com/news/nucleus...

Things are swell until Merriam’s French, know-it-all, boyfriend, Roget, shows up to win her back and ask that they get engaged (or, if you prefer, betrothed, affianced, or perhaps, intended).

“Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas”

Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.

Every single one of these cases is a tragedy. But it cuts even deeper when you can see your own children in this face.

One thing I've tossed around is "task-specific" vs "general purpose" rather than classical versus transformers. it's not ideal but does focus on the training process

The pretraining phase of transformer construction is definitely "self"-supervised (not unsupervised or supervised). But everything that comes after is quite supervised...

First page of AI Civil Rights Act.

Table of contents of AI Civil Rights Act.

Y'all, tmrw is a BIG DAY for civil rights and tech. @markey.senate.gov, @repyvetteclarke.bsky.social, @jayapal.house.gov, @pressley.house.gov, & @repsummerlee.bsky.social are introducing the AI Civil Rights Act: the new gold standard AI bill endorsed by 85+ civil society orgs. Pull up a chair.
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Comic. Panels up to the 10-year point are grayed out. New panels since the Ten Years comic, which chronicles the first ten years of PERSON 1's journey with cancer: (1) [two people in bed] PERSON 1 (woman): One more chapter? PERSON 2 (man): Don’t we both have to get up early? PERSON 1: Nnnnnggggh PERSON 2: Sure, good point. (2) [many people wearing masks, walking while looking at graphs on their phones] (3) [birds landing on people] PERSON 2 in beanie and scarf: Hah! They like *my* seeds best. PERSON 1 in scarf holding phone with a bird sitting on it: Wait, how do I take a picture of this one? (4) [two people rowing boats with tree landscape] (5) [Person 1 carries overflowing stack of things to Person 2 in bed] PERSON 1: I brought you honey lemon tea, more pillows, a cinnamon roll, Tylenol, another blanket, a– PERSON 2: It was just Appendicitis, I’m really– PERSON 1: *It is my turn to take care of you and I am going to do it right!* (6) [Two people in car] (7) [still in car) PERSON 1: Oh my god. PERSON 2: Oh my god. (8) [car driving] PERSON 1: Pull over! PERSON 2: I am! (9) [both people get out of car] (10) [Large colored panel of aurora borealis over water with both people looking on] (11) [Person 1 sits against tree while Person 2 lies on the ground] PERSON 1: Fifteen years. No sign of the cancer. (12) I *am* having some weird symptoms. Joint pain. Fatigue. I think I’m losing my close-up vision. PERSON 2: Yeah. Me too. (13) PERSON 2: I think we’re getting old. (14) PERSON 1: I guess that’s okay. PERSON 2: It’s all I wanted.

Fifteen Years

xkcd.com/3172/

Gobble, gobble!

Thanksgiving recess is right around the corner. 🦃

As many know, @bjard.bsky.social and I have been drafting a Technology Law coursebook for a few years. We've used it to teach classes at three institutions, including Yale Law School, and others have used chapters in their techlaw classes.

We're excited to share the current version more broadly!

We're adding some incredible folks to @acm.org's US tech policy team! Looking forward to the work we can do together.

ACM members/computing researchers who should be members interested in contributing should join the subcommittee's mailing list!

One of our goals here is to build policy coalitions across institutions so we can do more as a collective 💪 and balance special interest groups.

I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

Serena Booth And Suresh Venkatasubramanian Co-Chair ACM’s US Technology Policy Committee’s Subcommittee On AI And Algorithms Brown CS faculty members Serena Booth and Suresh Venkatasubramanian have just been appointed to co-chair the AI and Algorithms Subcommittee, whose recent work includes responses to government RFIs, te...

@reniebird.bsky.social and I have just been appointed to co-Chair @TheOfficialACM's US Technology Policy Committee’s Subcommittee on AI and Algorithms. cs.brown.edu/news/2025/11...

A truly all-star list of tech policy folks

Another American leader turning to the great Alondra Nelson for counsel on building a more just future. A wise choice!

ok fine I'm still mad about it bsky.app/profile/cost...

Amazing!! NYC is in good hands

I saw a lot of this X fake account discussion even here. A corollary to @cwarzel.bsky.social's point is that it's not enough to stay away from X or Facebook or other engagement-driven platforms. It doesn't matter that Bsky avoids algorithmic filtering if people themselves transmit the info.

This is not the way, and @cnygren.bsky.social and I lay out in detail why it isn’t in this essay here. static1.squarespace.com/static/55577...