Bóxī Wú 吴泊曦

light purple techy background with a bubble text that reads "Culture Machine, Vol. 25 Call for Papers: University as Infrastructure. Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2025"

Culture Machine CfP: University as Infrastructure - how 'the technologies it chooses to adopt follow a colonial and extractivist model'

~from colleagues at Critical Infrastructures & Image Politics x Critical Media Lab x Centre for the Study of the Networked Image culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-un...

it's been 3 months since @aboxiwu.bsky.social and I sowed some seeds in our tiny tech futures garden thanks to @daniadmiss.bsky.social, Arts Catalyst, flematu sessay and all the greats we continue to learn from and dream with 🌱 💚

Sobering piece in @nytimes.com compares China's advances in clean energy to the U.S.'s retrenchment in fossil fuels. Hard to read at a moment when the U.S. is giving up on a more affordable, healthier, and more sustainable future.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

🧪🔌💡☀️💨🔋

Keir Starmer Used Dodgy Figures to Claim 4,000 New Jobs. In Fact, It’s Only 400 | Novara Media Labour’s plans to kickstart productivity are based on massively inflated numbers from a US private equity giant. Why is the prime minister doing Blackstone's PR? Polly Smythe reports.

novaramedia.com/2025/06/04/k...

Data centres will not create the thousands of jobs gov would like us to think they will.

The emerging reality of the OpenAI-SoftBank grand plan for data centres The financing and future of the Stargate project hailed by Trump are far from straightforward

"In Silicon Valley, some investors ask whether the AI infrastructure boom will become what fibre optic cables were to the dotcom era."

www.ft.com/content/0e24...

Critical Unpacking Global Challenges, Challenging Narratives, Inspiring Just Futures

📢 Excited to launch my free newsletter *Critical* to connect directly with you! I'll share international experience, research & scholar-activism on critical global challenges like democracy, climate, sustainability & much more. Let's work together for a just future!
Subscribe here & share!
#Critical

Google-linked project to bring $10 billion data center to West Memphis Turns out the biggest secret in West Memphis was hiding in plain sight.

This is just too common: Google hides behind an LLC, asking for tax breaks for a massive data center. There is a short public hearing with a little notice given to residents who will be impacted the most. The mayor insists secrecy is necessary. The deal passes.
www.jonesborosun.com/theeveningti...

The Right Understands That All Governance Is Data Governance The tech arm of Trump 2.0 isn't just reshaping government — it's consolidating control over the data infrastructure that makes modern governance possible. By centralizing data flows and gutting public...

This is a terrific and extremely important post by @salome.bsky.social

lpeproject.org/blog/the-rig...

Great to have the opportunity to discuss mine and @jaivipra.bsky.social's "Computing Commons" report with brilliant co-panellists @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social, @aboxiwu.bsky.social, Guy Lalanne and Aleks Turobov.

Thanks to everyone who joined, and to the @bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk team for hosting!

Carbon Emissions in the Tailpipe of Generative AI

For my last class of the semester in my AI & climate course, one of the assigned readings was @tamigraph.bsky.social's & Meg Young's article. It's good: hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/fscsqwx4...

Tesla whistleblower says Musk wanted to deport her team for raising brake issue Former senior Tesla engineer Cristina Balan has prevailed in a years-long legal battle against Musk, and is now able to speak freely.

For those who think Elon Musk just “turned” bad a few years ago:

In 2014, Musk threatened an entire team at Tesla with deportation when their leader asked him to address a brake safety issue with the Model S. She was forced to resign.

Elon Musk’s xAI accused of pollution over Memphis supercomputer Hearing scheduled for Friday as residents receive anonymous leaflets that downplay pollution dangers

The environmental disaster that is GenAI trucks on, heedlessly. Musk is operating 33 illegal methane generators at this data center.

The race for AI dominance hinges on who controls the keys to computing power. Our hidden gem of the week unveils how most resources still cater to elite research communities, not the public.

By @halcyene.bsky.social & @jaivipra.bsky.social at @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social

https://buff.ly/3X7hMou

I’m excited to meet we have so many shared connections 🥹

Looking forward to hearing from @oii.ox.ac.uk DPhil student @aboxiwu.bsky.social speaking at the upcoming @bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk event ‘The AI Value Chain: Research and policy priorities’. Tuesday 6 & Wednesday 7 May 2025. Full details below. Find out more about her work: bit.ly/42oyQta.

Looking forward to speaking at this event next month with @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social @aboxiwu.bsky.social @alturobov.bsky.social!

I'll be talking about my work with @jaivipra.bsky.social on how public compute—state provision of computing resources—can be used to reshape the AI sector.

Sign up 👇

Digital Economic Security Seminar – Spring 2025 Programme Organisers/Hosts: Vili Lehdonvirta, Philipp Riederle Sessions: Tuesdays, 12pm–1pm (UK time), during Oxford term time, via Zoom Participation: Open to researchers and students from any university or re...

The next season of our “Digital Economic Security Seminar” is about to embark - organised by yours truly and Vili Lehdonvirta. Check out our schedule and sign up here: diesl.eu/digital-econ...

Pentagon’s ‘SWAT team of nerds’ resigns en masse Employees of a defense tech unit say they were sidelined by DOGE. “Either we die quickly or we die slowly,” says the director.

“They’re not really using AI, they’re not really driving efficiency. What they’re doing is smashing everything,” the former official said.

www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

🎤Digital Sovereignty for people and the planet.

IIPP Prof @ceciliarikap.bsky.social will welcome a diverse panel of experts to the upcoming #IIPPInConversation event, addressing key questions on achieving digital sovereignty.

🔗Learn more & register here: buff.ly/S9s7ypx

I'll be working on a publication and building out my policy research on AI infrastructure, while continuing to think about how researchers can support communities who are 'subject to' AI infrastructure. Please connect if you want to work on this together!

As the UK government unveils its AI Opportunities Action Plan, proposing 'AI Growth Zones' to accelerate Big Tech backed data centre buildouts, research that grounds infrastructural transformations in the experiences of local communities (and local government) is increasingly important.

V grateful for my supervisor @anavaldi.bsky.social (an incredible AI infrastructure scholar) and others in and around the OII who have shaped how I approach this work: Vili Lehdonvirta, Keegan McBride, Corinne Cath, PhD, Bill Kelly and of course, the part-time MSc cohort 🎉

This research would not have been possible without the collaboration of my interlocutors from Friends of the Earth, particularly Ian Pirie, and the residents of Havering who are navigating the reality of what happens when the cloud hits the ground.

OII | Introducing the 2024 MSc Thesis Prize Winners We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 OII MSc Thesis Prizes. These prizes recognize outstanding work and contributions to the field.

Proud (& surprised) to receive the OII's @oii.ox.ac.uk 2024 Thesis Prize for my research 📚 "Frictions in the Cloud: An Ethnographic Case Study of Local Data Centre Contestation in the UK".

www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/...

Mississippi libraries ordered to delete academic research in response to state laws - Mississippi Today The two research collections state officials ordered for deletion included material from professional journals, conference papers, books, student dissertations, periodicals and newspaper articles.

This is the literal destruction of knowledge.

Mississippi libraries are being ordered to remove academic research on race and gender from library databases.
mississippitoday.org/2025/04/08/m...

Some light morning reading on the BBC

ai is a political project to centralize power

UK creating ‘murder prediction’ tool to identify people most likely to kill Exclusive: Algorithms allegedly being used to study data of thousands of people, in project critics say is ‘chilling and dystopian’

Would say “these systems don’t work” but the actual work of these systems is to more fully embed and perpetuate the racism of carceral systems, and thus they work exactly as intended.