zeynep tufekci

The picture we've all been waiting for: #AlaaIsFree

h/t: Mohamed Elbaqer

Egypt announces pardon for top activist who's spent 6 years behind bars Egyptian authorities on Monday announced the presidential pardon of prominent activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, according to his lawyer Khaled Ali and an announcement by Egypt’s state TV.

Egyptian authorities announced the presidential pardon of prominent activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah after six years in prison, according to his lawyer Khaled Ali and an announcement by state TV.

Opinion | Social Media Reduced Two Horrific Killings to Cheap Snuff Films

Social Media Reduced Two Horrific Killings to Cheap Snuff Films
By Zeynep Tufekci

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/o...

Egypt's Sisi orders authorities to study pardon for activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered authorities on Tuesday to study the possible pardon of high-profile Egyptian-British activist and blogger, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a statement by the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights said.

Egypt's president Sisi has ordered authorities to study the possible pardon of Egyptian-British activist and blogger, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who has already served an unjust 5 year sentence www.reuters.com/world/uk/egy...

Pssst ... @zey.bsky.social let me know when that other moment approaches!

Highlighted part in your last graf is what we do at Starling Lab, an academic research program based jointly at Stanford + USC. So happy you're casting a light on this emerging field of authenticity. We share your concerns!

Yes. This AI path we are on can easily lead to uber-surveillance by authorities as a means to restore social order being welcomed by shell-shocked people.

We know the step after that.

bsky.app/profile/just...

AI video is almost there: no amount of post-hoc squinting can tell fake from real.

Losing our last bastion of verification is no joke. Trusted news can help with high-profile events, but what about everyday life? Recipe for chaos.

Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/o...

This is very important. From the start ChatGPT- the name, the interface- was designed to make us view it as 'like us' & capable of thought, not just a collection of numbers for text prediction. Creating a social role for an LLM is more imp. than the LLM itself, and it's where any profit comes from.

Plausibility engine is such a great way to think of LLM's

This is a great essay:

L.L.M.s are what they eat

Nice piece on the dangers of LLMs. I liked the description as “plausibility engines” and not “truth seekers” or “reasoning machines”

I wrote about Grok going "MechaHitler" over at X, and the need to view LLMs correctly: as remarkably powerful plausibility engines.

Their AGI marketing and the strong inclination to project human qualities to anything that can speak is misleading us.

NYT gift link:

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/o...

Opinion | Another Day, Another Chatbot’s Nazi Meltdown

After trying to sift thru the AI-generated crap in #WNBA, I found this

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/o...

"AI-generated content — true and otherwise — is taking over the internet, providing training material for the next generation of LLMs, a sludge-generating machine feeding on its own sludge."

Opinion | As the Texas Floodwaters Rose, One Indispensable Voice Was Silent

“the Weather Service employee whose job it was to make sure those warnings got traction — Paul Yura, the long-serving meteorologist in charge of “warning coordination” — had recently taken an unplanned early retirement amid cuts pushed by DOGE. He was not replaced.”

"The problem is that complex systems are only as strong as their weakest point." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/o...

Opinion | A Fact About the Floods the Government Doesn’t Seem Eager to Discuss

“To a Washington bean counter, his loss might have looked like one tiny but welcome subtraction in a giant spreadsheet, but not in a region so prone to these perilous events that it’s known as Flash Flood Alley.” @zey.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/o...

As Floods Hit, Key Roles Were Vacant at Weather Service Offices in Texas (Gift Article) Some experts say staff shortages might have complicated forecasters’ ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management officials.

"The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge," according to its union's legislative director. 🎁 🔗

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/u...

Head of local weather warnings takes early retirement as NOAA cuts continue Yura has over 32 years experience, spending more than half of his career at the NWS Austin/San Antonio office.

Here's the original KXAN article from April reporting on Paul Yura's early retirement "as the Trump Administration works to slash the budget at NWS and the larger NOAA organization"

www.kxan.com/weather/weat...

As Floods Hit, Key Roles Were Vacant at Weather Service Offices in Texas

Key Texas floods @nws.noaa.gov vacancies:
San Angelo office is missing
* meteorologist in charge
* senior hydrologist
* staff forecaster
San Antonio office is missing
* warning coordination meteorologist
* science officer

U.S. Enters War With Iran, Striking Fordo Nuclear Site: Live Updates President Trump announced the United States had struck Fordo, Iran’s heavily fortified nuclear facilities, as well as two other sites.

Breaking News: President Trump said that the U.S. had bombed Fordo, Iran’s heavily fortified nuclear facility, as well as two other sites.

Paging the approximately ten million PhD students working on AI & society

These positions are jointly with @randomwalker.bsky.social but the exact distribution will depend on fit to various projects.

Separately, I am also considering hiring postdocs to work on AI and society so please reach out over email if that is already your field!

We can’t match corporate salaries but do offer decent pay, great benefits and real intellectual freedom and challenge.

We have a group of people from CS, sociology, policy, history, law etc. thinking hard about this historic moment—and no lazy AGI talk.

We’re hiring at Princeton on AI and society, working with Arvind Narayanan or me depending on fit.

I think current AI developments are all a huge deal but am very unexcited by current state of the AGI and/or AI safety discourse.

Please share as you see fit.

puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

Perilously Close to Death, a Mother Continues Her Hunger Strike The Egyptian government may let Laila Soueif die as she protests the treatment of her son Alaa Abd el-Fattah — just to prove that it does not change course

My latest article with New Lines magazine is about Alaa Abdel Fattah and Laila Soueif's hunger strike. I apologize for the harsh language, but Soueif's life is in danger and at risk of death.

#FreeAlaa #SaveLaila #FreeThemAll

Twitter and Tear Gas “Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest” is riveting firsthand account and incisive analysis of modern protest, revealing internet-fueled social movements’ greatest strengt...

I read Twitter and Tear Gas by @zey.bsky.social in 2017 and it looks like it’s going to be extremely relevant this year too

She has a Creative Commons pdf version online

www.twitterandteargas.org

The Guardian view on Egypt and Alaa Abd el-Fattah: Starmer and Lammy vowed to do all they can. So do it | Editorial Editorial: The UK still has ways to press for the release of the British-Egyptian writer and bring an end to the hunger strike endangering his mother’s life

THE GUARDIAN: Starmer and Lammy's empty promises: The race against time to save Alaa Abd el-Fattah from Egypt’s prisons and his mother’s relentless hunger strike must spur action from a Britain failing to hold Sisi accountable.

Ahdaf Soueif | Day 250 Laila Soueif never normalised her son’s incarceration. Through three arrests and three trials she fought for him in...

‘Laila had given ten years of her life to fighting for her son, and now, in what she decided would be the final act of the fight, she put her life on the line.’

Ahdaf Soueif on her sister Laila’s struggle for the release of her son, Alaa Abd el-Fattah: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ju...

250 days on hunger strike: Can Laila Soueif secure her son’s freedom? – podcast Who is Alaa Abd el-Fattah and why are British diplomats trying to obtain his release? Patrick Wintour reports

250 days on hunger strike: Can Laila Soueif secure her son’s freedom? – podcast