Benjamin Jacobsen

Politics of the prompt: Government in the age of generative AI This paper addresses the politics of the technique of prompting in machine learning, at a time when bureaucratic and democratic government is undergoing transformation. Drawing on the case of the U...

Our article on the politics of AI prompts is out now @econsocjournal.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 1/n

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers | RGS Journal | Wiley Online Library Svamitva drone survey in Rajasthan. Source: Author.

Such a nice paper on feature extraction as a project of perception - drone enclosures in digital India. “Feature extraction is an entirely speculative endeavour” rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Thanks very much Thao!

✨Deeply honoured to deliver this year's Annual Digital Lecture at The National Archives! Drawing on our @erc.europa.eu Data Loss project, I'll explore how preservation creates loss in the digital age and what that means for the politics of archives. Nov 20 6pm at Senate House, London. Do join us!

Thanks so much Nanna!

Explorations in the Indeterminacy of Computation: An Interview with M. Beatrice Fazi - David Beer, 2021 This interview with M. Beatrice Fazi explores in detail her work on computation. Focusing in particular upon her recent publications, it covers the themes of co...

ICYMI: David Beer. 'Explorations in the Indeterminacy of Computation: An Interview with M. Beatrice Fazi' - this interview with M. Beatrice Fazi explores in detail her work on computation. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Glyph: Johns Hopkins Textual Studies – Samuel Weber, Deconstruction and the American Reception of French Theory Several journals played a significant role in introducing so-called ‘French Theory’ to the United States. They would include Yale French Studies, Diacritics, boundary 2 and&nbsp…

Glyph: Johns Hopkins Textual Studies – Samuel Weber, Deconstruction and the American Reception of French Theory
progressivegeographies.com/2025/09/07/g...

Thanks Alex!

Thank so much Tanja! Looking forward to reading more of your articles as well :)

Thank you Anna! It’s surreal

Thanks Sam!

Thanks to @amoorelouise.bsky.social and everyone in the ALGOSOC at Durham @alexcampolo.bsky.social, @sj-bennett.bsky.social and @ludovico-rella.bsky.social - You have provided invaluable help and feedback with the application

New project to investigate societal consequences of using synthetic data to train algorithms Researchers in the University of York’s Department of Sociology will lead one of the first large-scale, systematic social science studies of synthetic data.

I am very excited and honoured to be the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant, starting January 2026 🔆 @erc.europa.eu. The five-year project will explore the broader social, political, and ethical implications of training algorithmic models on synthetic data. www.york.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

If you are at the Association for Philosophy & Literature conference, check out the panel “Philosophies of Intelligence,” organised by @theoryculturesociety.org

I will be speaking alongside N. Katherine Hayles, Luciana Parisi and Joel McKim.

📆 22 August 2025
⏰ 1.45 pm
🗺️ APL 2025 Frankfurt

New Media & Society - Volume 27, Number 8 Table of contents for New Media & Society, 27, 8

Digital Twins special issue in New Media & Society edited by Christoph Borbach, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun & Tristan Thielmann. 15 papers including one by Oliver Dawkins & myself. Interdisciplinary exploration of the conceptualisation and practices of digital twinning. journals.sagepub.com/toc/nmsa/27/8

As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act Amid rising electric bills, states are under pressure to insulate regular household and business ratepayers from the costs of feeding Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.

One study concluded 70% of increased electric cost across US due to AI data centers.
apnews.com/article/elec...

Because the twin is not a copy: On the politics of digital twins - Louise Amoore, 2025 This essay explores the changing form of the digital twin as a political technology in the age of deep learning and generative artificial intelligence (AI). It ...

My essay “Because the twin is not a copy: the politics of digital twins” - written for a 2023 workshop organised by Christoph Borbach & out now in a special issue on digital twinning in #NewMedia&Society #DigitalTwins #algorithms journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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/...

We are looking for a Senior Manager for our Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life @leverhulmecal.bsky.social A key person in our team & a future valued colleague. Apply here durham.taleo.net/careersectio... & feel free to DM me. Also look out for our October research fellows posts.

My follow-up article on synthesis in gen AI is now out 💥💥💥
 
Responding to @shanedenson.bsky.social
response, I expand on my transcendental argument about LLMs and develop the case for a structuralist reading of Kantian synthesis.

Available Open Access ⬇️

journals.ub.uni-koeln.de/index.php/ph...

Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI, Looking beyond the flurry of rapid changes in artificial intelligence, Silicon Empires uncovers the deep economic forces guiding the expansion of AI

Nick Srnicek, Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI - @politybooks.bsky.social, October 2025
www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

Thank you so much @elkeschwarz.bsky.social & @politicalgeography.bsky.social - I am so grateful for this generous discussion of Cloud Ethics. A disc collapsing in my spine prevented me from writing a reply 😔 with 5 months sick. Thank you @oliviamason.bsky.social for continuing without me ❤️

Can't stop the hype: scrutinizing AI's realities Recently, we have been inundated with reports about the revolutions brought about by AI. However, much of our knowledge about these ‘revolutions’ arises from media sensationalism and advertising cl...

7/
The article is open access at @icsjournal.bsky.social, and is available here:
📄 doi.org/10.1080/1369...

🆕New article in New Media & Society!🆕
On how cross-cultural encounters shape techies' perceptions of algorithms and their ethics. Focusing on immigrants to Silicon Valley, it calls for a more diverse view of SV's ideologies and their entanglement with algorithmic production. 🧵👇
tinyurl.com/dmknms

Data, algorithms and the asymmetric politics of extraction - Benjamin N. Jacobsen, 2025 The last few years have seen the rollout of several generative AI applications. Yet, it is often claimed by commentators and social scientists that these have o...

Data, algorithms and the asymmetric politics of extraction by @bnjacobsen.bsky.social in The Sociological Review journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

🚨 Excited to see this review article published in @thesociologicalreview.org. How is the notion of ‘extraction’ used as a framework of analysis and critique of data and algorithms in the social sciences?

Fantastic! Really looking forward to reading this!

Artificial Intelligence and the ethics of navigating ambiguity - SJ Bennett, 2025 This paper examines ambiguity within AI practice, arguing for an ethics of AI which stays with fundamental ambiguities and accounts for their complex socio-mate...

🎉 A lovely wedding present from Big Data & Society! I bring together an ethnographic study of AI practitioners with Simone de Beauvoir’s ethics of ambiguity, exploring how ambiguity shapes AI practice and ethics
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The AI Backlash Keeps Growing Stronger As generative artificial intelligence tools continue to proliferate, pushback against the technology and its negative impacts grows stronger.

public pushback, refusal and resistance remains the main avenue of change so yea... counting on it

www.wired.com/story/genera...

Pope Leo XIV warns of the dangers of AI on youth "Our youth must be helped, and not hindered, in their journey towards maturity and true responsibility," he said.

“Access to data — however extensive — must not be confused with intelligence, which necessarily ‘involves the person’s openness to the ultimate questions of life and reflects an orientation toward the True and the Good’.”

Luddite Pope is not backing down on AI.