Evan Selinger

Just arrived today. Can’t wait to read @evanselinger.bsky.social @foxcahn.bsky.social

New article! "Tokenization of everything? Exploring the limits of blockchain technologies in the governance of financial markets and assets" led by Anetta Proskurovska

If you want to learn about #tokenization in #finance & #financialmarkets then check it out

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Don’t take advice from AI. Use it to brainstorm instead. - The Boston Globe Chatbots are terrible life coaches because they have no stake in anything they tell you.

Not on this platform much, but for anyone interested, here’s my take on why it is irresponsible for LLMs to give any advice. My guiding principle is a version of Spider-Man’s mantra:
With great authority comes great responsibility. #AIEthics

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/18/o...

For a long time, I’ve been trying to put my finger on what AI fundamentally can’t offer, even when it generates compelling writing. The answer is “existential solidarity”: comfort of hearing from others who can speak to struggles we identify with and care about. blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/06/s...

British friends, excited that UK preorders for my 1st book are live! @evanselinger.bsky.social and I explain why the DOGE (move fast & break things) approach is broken and how we can fix huge problems by moving slow and upgrading. You can get 25% off until Friday! www.waterstones.com/book/move-sl...

Thrilled that “Move Slow and Upgrade,” my new Cambridge University Press book written with Albert Fox Cahn, is available for pre-order this week at 25% off.

www.waterstones.com/campaign/oct...

Do Artifacts Have Political Economy? - Kean Birch, 2025 Harking back to Langdon Winner's now classic essay “Do artifacts have politics?,” my aim in this article is to ask a very similar question—namely, do artif...

I have a new article out: "Do artifacts have political economy?" It's a riff on an old argument by Langdon Winner about the embedding of politics in technology

#STS #sociology #technoscience #technology #innovation

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Mary! It’s been too long.

I’ll put a version online next week and send you the URL.

The Ethics of Empathetic AI in Medicine The expression of empathy is an important part of effective and humane medical care. Modern medicine faces a significant challenge in this area, at least in part due to the ever-increasing demands on ...

Thomas Carroll and I put our heads together to articulate the main ethical concerns with using AI to address the empathy crisis in medicine. “The Ethics of Empathetic AI in Medicine” is now out in IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society.

ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/110...

A chatbot can never truly be your friend - The Boston Globe AI relationships may be useful and even enjoyable. But only a fellow human can offer the depth of understanding that real closeness comes from.

Wrote about why Robin Williams’s wisdom from Good Will Hunting is worth revisiting in the AI age: books and bots offer words that move us, but they’re not offering caring relationships.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/07/o...

The Precautionary Approach to AI: Less Human, More Honest Have you ever caught yourself thanking Siri or saying please to ChatGPT? If so, you’re not alone. Evolutionary forces, social norms, and design features all make us naturally inclined to treat these t...

Not much on social media these days. But if anyone is interested in why I think the entire paradigm of human-like AI is wrong, here’s a short post at the APA Public Philosophy blog. They leaned into the “shit on a stick” story for the cover art. 😆

blog.apaonline.org/2025/07/01/t...

What Can Enlightened Coders Really Do? | Los Angeles Review of Books Evan Selinger reads Darryl Campbell’s “Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software” with the realities his students face in mind.

"The profit-driven nature of life outside the classroom makes students wonder why we even bother discussing the ethics of technology in class." @evanselinger.bsky.social reads Daryl Campbell's "Fatal Abstraction" with the realities his students face in mind. lareviewofbooks.org/article/what...

What Can Enlightened Coders Really Do? | Los Angeles Review of Books Evan Selinger reads Darryl Campbell’s “Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software” with the realities his students face in mind.

Can enlightened altruistic coders save us from the oppressive tyranny of corporate managerialism? Alas, I don’t think so. My argument in a review essay of Darryll Campbell’s “Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software.” lareviewofbooks.org/article/what...

What a great event on law enforcement use of #FRT with fantastic presentations & provocative keynotes by @petefussey.bsky.social @hartzog.bsky.social @evanselinger.bsky.social & closing words of Karen Yeung! Many thanks to wonderful @clequesne.bsky.social for the impeccable organisation! #AI

Wish I could! But it’s only in-person. There isn’t a link.

The attack on universities mirrors our blind spot with supply chains. Because both operate invisibly, misconceptions abound. The profound contributions of universities often go unnoticed—and, just like supply chains, we risk only recognizing their value when they're diminished or fail.

Dodgy Data

The main thesis is that the hermeneutic circle (no, they don't use this phrase!) haunts AI consciousness claims. Our theories of mind are built on pre-theoretical experience of consciousness. And yet companies insist they can replicate what they can't even define independently of that experience.

Congrats!

Please tune in to my conversation with Andrew Keen on the risks of AI companions.

Last opportunity to register to Seton Hall Law School's AI Companions online symposium tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 18 ,12 pm-2:30 pm EST. You can register here: : bit.ly/40Ztl2j

Growing up in the 80s makes me a sucker for underdog stories. I loved reliving Karate Kid vibes with Cobra Kai!

Question—

Does celebrating beating the odds risk minimizing how stacked the deck is?

Or is that view overblown b/c life poses many challenges, and we need many inspirational stories?

Hey @evanselinger.bsky.social

It's out! You can now access The Cambridge Handbook of the Law, Ethics and Policy of #AI: www.cambridge.org/core/books/t...

20 #openaccess chapters covering topics on AI, ethics, philosophy, legal domains and sectoral applications.

Huge thanks to all the authors who made this possible!

Narrating counterfactuals is necessary to make the invisible legible. Tragically, though, I suspect many will find such stories too abstract and hypothetical to resonate. When people are hurting, it's hard to point out that things could have been worse, and much is taken for granted.

It’s hard for some to appreciate this because, tragically, they only associate governance with one thing: a scolding headshake.

“The second fallacy we’ve heard is that AI requires a tradeoff – between safety and progress, between competition and collaboration, and between rights and innovation.”

The top 100 legal scholars of 2024 is in and a woman made number 1–so happy to appear alongside @ariezra.bsky.social @klonick.bsky.social @hartzog.bsky.social @lsolum.bsky.social @micahschwartzman.bsky.social @richschragger.bsky.social @meganstevenson.bsky.social @uvalaw.bsky.social Whoos!

Ha! But is that idea—that everything can be explained with the right mathematical take—the same perspective being advocated for here and also explicitly linked to ketamine epiphanies?

with his take, his response was basically, “Well, I guess you don’t get math.”