Victoria Dean (she/her)'s Avatar

Victoria Dean (she/her)

@vdean.bsky.social

Asst. Prof. @ Olin College of Engineering | CMU, MIT alum | reinforcement learning, AI ethics, equity and justice, baking | ADHD ๐Ÿ’–๐Ÿ’œ๐Ÿ’™

2,376 Followers  |  1,157 Following  |  29 Posts  |  Joined: 16.11.2024  |  1.7218

Latest posts by vdean.bsky.social on Bluesky

Preview
AI Killed My Job: Tech workers Tech workers at TikTok, Google, and across the industry share stories about how AI is changing, ruining, or replacing their jobs.

Whew ๐Ÿ˜ฌ โ€œBeing forced to use AI has turned a job I liked into something I dread. As someone with a journalism background, it feels insulting to use AI instead of creating quality blog posts about education policy.โ€ โ€” A marketing team-member at an EdTech co. www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-ai-is-...

25.06.2025 18:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 55    ๐Ÿ” 13    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

Specifically, if you're looking for a CS job at a small liberal arts college check this list (later this summer): cs-pui.github.io

And warning: many of these jobs have early fall deadlines!

#FAccT2025

25.06.2025 12:47 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 20    ๐Ÿ” 8    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Pulitzer Prizes Public Service Winner: ProPublica. Image (right) displays headline that reads: Their States Banned Abortion. Doctors Now Say They Can't Give Women Potentially Lifesaving Care.

Pulitzer Prizes Public Service Winner: ProPublica. Image (right) displays headline that reads: Their States Banned Abortion. Doctors Now Say They Can't Give Women Potentially Lifesaving Care.

JUST IN: ProPublicaโ€™s โ€œLife of the Motherโ€ series, which exposes the fatal consequences of abortion bans, has won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

This is the second consecutive year weโ€™ve been awarded this distinction and our eighth Pulitzer: www.propublica.org/series/life-...

05.05.2025 19:37 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 22107    ๐Ÿ” 6036    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 408    ๐Ÿ“Œ 293
Post image

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

25.04.2025 15:32 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 60710    ๐Ÿ” 20858    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 610    ๐Ÿ“Œ 840

Breaking news: I am now an "adult"

22.04.2025 14:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 28    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This grant was led by my colleague Caitrin Lynch (who gets credit for this thread). The other co-PIs were @erhardtgraeff.bsky.social, Gillian Epstein, Alessandra Ferzoco, and Rob Martello. (5/5)

11.04.2025 19:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The work that the National Endowment for the Humanities had been funding was essential to making the world a better place for all. In addition to terminating grants, 80% of the staff have been let go. For the sake of our collective futures: Let's bring NEH back. (4/5)

11.04.2025 19:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

So now, we've got one more example of the cuts our government, via DOGE, is making in the purported interest of "efficiency." I note that "efficiency" here is accompanied by erasure of context, values, the long-term, and positive future-making. (3/5)

11.04.2025 19:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This grant was supporting integration of humanities + STEM perspectives on AI and Climate Change. Linked is our grant announcement last year, back when the US govt possessed the wisdom to understand why we need broad and holistic understanding of the impact of technology on human flourishing. (2/5)

11.04.2025 19:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
NEWS: Olin receives NEH grant for AI, climate change, and humanities curriculum integration

Our NEH grant was terminated this week. The reason? The letter reads, "NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the Presidentโ€™s agenda." www.olin.edu/articles/new... ๐Ÿงต (1/5)

11.04.2025 19:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

If you're working on "fairness" "ethics" "responsible AI" and such at these companies while watching your colleagues getting fired for protesting this carnage and managing to be quiet about these lucrative "AI" for genocide contracts, you're providing cover for these companies to commit genocide.

08.04.2025 18:33 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 132    ๐Ÿ” 62    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
Screenshot of a letter. Full text here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WFgiczX6J1VYtVnSLzvaX3L02WuxCuLn/view?usp=drivesdk

Screenshot of a letter. Full text here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WFgiczX6J1VYtVnSLzvaX3L02WuxCuLn/view?usp=drivesdk

I'm supposed to be at
Sweet Briar College, where I was so excited to meet with the amazing students, faculty, and staff who organized my visit & made Mobility their Common Read. Hours before my flight I learned about their Board's exclusion of trans & nonbinary people. So now I'm not going.

02.04.2025 16:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3049    ๐Ÿ” 595    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 102    ๐Ÿ“Œ 70
Photo of two people standing beneath a large, gnarled tree. At the top: "The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University." Below: Tribute Tree Mob: Saying Goodbye to the Silver Maple, April 2 @ 4pm

Photo of two people standing beneath a large, gnarled tree. At the top: "The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University." Below: Tribute Tree Mob: Saying Goodbye to the Silver Maple, April 2 @ 4pm

Immersed in so much cruelty, I'm ๐Ÿฅน to see that the Arnold Arboretum is hosting a ceremony to say goodbye to its silver maple

view.hu.harvard.edu?qs=e61e0290f...

01.04.2025 00:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 42    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Proud to live in a precinct that went +87 for Harris.

31.03.2025 18:24 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Video thumbnail

Migration data is critical in the health, environmental, and social sciences.

We're releasing a new dataset, MIGRATE: annual flows between 47 billion pairs of US Census areas. MIGRATE is:

- 4600x more granular than existing public data
- highly correlated with external ground-truth data

1/2

28.03.2025 16:04 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 28    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Post image Post image

DOGE/Musk preferentially cancelled grants and contracts to recipients in counties that voted for Harris in 2024.

Among cancellations with election data available, 92.9% and 86.1% cancelled grants and contracts went to Harris counties, representing 96.6% and 92.4% of total dollar amounts.

23.03.2025 13:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2243    ๐Ÿ” 1114    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 74    ๐Ÿ“Œ 146
Amtrak Tickets, Schedules and Train Routes Book your train and bus tickets today by choosing from over 30 U.S. train routes and 500 destinations in North America.

A small win: when I type "a" in my address bar, my browser autofills to amtrak.com and not amazon.com

07.03.2025 15:13 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Post image 07.03.2025 00:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 945    ๐Ÿ” 183    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 7    ๐Ÿ“Œ 11

BREAKING: We're sending an open letter to universities across the country, offering support and urging them to reject pressure to punish international students and faculty for exercising their First Amendment rights.

Schools must hold firm against the Trump administration's censorship attempts.

04.03.2025 20:05 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4362    ๐Ÿ” 1216    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 37    ๐Ÿ“Œ 38
Preview
STORY: Olin Collegeโ€™s Undergraduate Research and Hands-on Learning on Display at 2025 AAAS Annual Meeting

Earlier this month, Olin students and faculty made a big splash in the scientific community - joining 4,000 attendees from 65 countries at the @aaas.org Annual Meeting.

๐Ÿ“ฌ Read the recap: www.olin.edu/articles/sto... #science #technology #policy

25.02.2025 16:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Keep shaming them for this. I don't mean Musk, Bannon and the other turds doing the Sieg Heil very openly and purposely (we know they are Nazis). I mean the GOP members who people elect.

They should not be able to get away with it and they should not be normalizing this. We know what comes next.

21.02.2025 03:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 103    ๐Ÿ” 26    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
Video thumbnail

Ex NFL player @chriswarcraft.bsky.social protesting the inclusion of a MAGA acronym in the Huntington Beach library plaque at last nightโ€™s council meeting. He was arrested and cited.

19.02.2025 16:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 10072    ๐Ÿ” 3090    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 224    ๐Ÿ“Œ 506

The Department of Educationโ€™s Office for Civil Rights has threatened to annihilate 60 years of advancements in equal opportunity by eliminating all federal funding for schools that support and celebrate students from diverse backgrounds.

๐Ÿงต
1/

19.02.2025 19:44 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 384    ๐Ÿ” 203    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 7    ๐Ÿ“Œ 14

I think corporations making billions in profit should pay a reasonable percentage of that in corporate income tax. And 0% is not reasonable.

09.02.2025 03:04 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 59    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Excited to share new work led by @vivekmyers.bsky.social and @crji.bsky.social that proves you can learn to reach distant goals by solely training on nearby goals. The key idea is a new form of invariance. This invariance implies generalization w.r.t. the horizon.

06.02.2025 01:13 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 12    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Post image

Suspension Bridge xkcd.com/3048

08.02.2025 00:05 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 28437    ๐Ÿ” 2372    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 541    ๐Ÿ“Œ 249

I bet doom scroll meant something way cooler in the middle ages.

06.02.2025 21:50 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11222    ๐Ÿ” 2522    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 151    ๐Ÿ“Œ 70

Hell yeah. Hold the line. This is what we need people to do.

Slow things down, donโ€™t comply in advance so the courts have time to stop them. Itโ€™s starting to work.

07.02.2025 20:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 117111    ๐Ÿ” 16919    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2104    ๐Ÿ“Œ 480
A quote from Anthropic While we encourage people to use AI systems during their role to help them work faster and more effectively, please do not use AI assistants during the application process. We โ€ฆ

Oh gosh. Found on the web. Anthropic (producer of Claude LLMs) asking job applicants to not use AI systems when filling in their application.

simonwillison.net/2025/Feb/2/a...

06.02.2025 03:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 42    ๐Ÿ” 8    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

@vdean is following 20 prominent accounts