Ben Collier

We Reject the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Reflexive Qualitative Research - Tanisha Jowsey, Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke, Deborah Lupton, Michelle Fine, 2025 Four hundred and nineteen experienced qualitative researchers from 32 countries invite readers of Qualitative Inquiry to consider their position on use of gener...

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

#sociology

The Only Thing Standing Between Humanity and AI Apocalypse Is … Claude? As AI systems grow more powerful, Anthropic’s resident philosopher says the startup is betting Claude itself can learn the wisdom needed to avoid disaster.

There’s so much I have to say about this, much of which is in my book. But the lack of critical questioning and the last two sentences of this article encapsulate everything wrong with tech journalism:

“Like it or not, however, we’re strapped in for the ride. At least Anthropic has a plan”

Abstract for a paper entitled "Transfeminist AI Governance". The abstract reads: "This paper re-imagines the governance of artificial intelligence (AI) through a transfeminist lens, focusing on challenges of power, participation, and injustice, and on opportunities for advancing equity, community-based resistance, and transformative change. AI governance is a field of research and practice seeking to maximize benefits and minimize harms caused by AI systems. Unfortunately, AI governance practices are frequently ineffective at preventing AI systems from harming people and the environment, with historically marginalized groups such as trans people being particularly vulnerable to harm. Building upon trans and feminist theories of ethics, I introduce an approach to transfeminist AI governance. Applying a transfeminist lens in combination with a critical self-reflexivity methodology, I retroactively reinterpret findings from three empirical studies of AI governance practices in Canada and globally. In three reflections on my findings, I show that large-scale AI governance systems structurally prioritize the needs of industry over marginalized communities. As a result, AI governance is limited by power imbalances and exclusionary norms. My reflections reveal that re-grounding AI governance in transfeminist ethical principles can support AI governance researchers, practitioners, and organizers in addressing those limitations."

Why is AI governance so often ineffective at preventing AI from harming people and the planet? My new paper Transfeminist AI Governance addresses this question, now out in this month's issue of First Monday: firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph...

As everyone knows, the only thing more viscerally exciting than a 3rd sector consultation response is a consultation response to a regulator's annual plan of work. But FIPR's response to Ofcom's recent consultation is worth a read - we cover some of the biggest policy issues facing the UK today.

You can read our consultation response at fipr.org

We recommend that Ofcom commission further research work on currently proposed technological approaches to regulating platform-based public communication. 7/7

It is these groups who, in the context of a global resurgence of far right politics, face both the most acute harms in online spaces and the most immediate potential for negative consequences from intensified digital surveillance. 6/7

It is particularly important to consider the challenges -- differing technical consequences, effects on rights, and harms -- posed for marginalised groups 5/7

We emphasise the importance of policymakers and regulators' engagement with technical stakeholders and expertise from outside the platform and 'big tech' industries, and of renewed consideration of the negative consequences of potential technical designs and restrictions. 4/7

We suggest that Ofcom engage in further consultation with technical expert groups, including FIPR, on the benefits and negative consequences of potential technical designs, and what is possible -- in technical terms -- for the implementation of desired government policy 3/7

We outline key challenges for 2026-27 in relation to AI and communications services, emerging cross-jurisdictional flashpoints and 'digital sovereignty', age checks with regard to user-to-user regulated services, and debate and policy on social media and children. 2/7

FIPR has submitted a response to the Ofcom consultation on its work plan for 2026, arguing that the UK needs an ambitious programme of technically-informed work on the digital rights, privacy, and information policy issues that we currently face. 1/7

Further, the serious consequences of increased surveillance and controls on young people need to be further considered. Marginalised young people in particular - e.g. LGBT kids - face both some of the most serious harms online and also the most serious consequences of surveillance over-reach.

From digital sovereignty to age verification and Online Safety, UK policy is facing serious problems. Policymakers are demanding irreconcilable technical features, leaving much of the implementation in the hands of big tech, and risking handing further power to big US firms

As everyone knows, the only thing more viscerally exciting than a 3rd sector consultation response is a consultation response to a regulator's annual plan of work. But FIPR's response to Ofcom's recent consultation is worth a read - we cover some of the biggest policy issues facing the UK today.

This is the biggest targeted training programme since Harold Wilson started the Open University (note).

Open to all UK adults online, taking as little as under 20 minutes, the courses will give

founding partners - Accenture, Amazon, Barclays, BT, Google, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Sage, SAS and Salesforce to take the Al Skills Boost programme to the next level and upskill 10 million workers with Al skills by 2030.

The government’s suggestion that rolling out 20 minute courses on writing “AI“ prompts, sponsored by Google, Microsoft and Amazon, is somehow comparable to the founding of the Open University (the Wilson government‘s, & Jennie Lee’s, proudest achievement), is an insult to our human intelligence.

If Ofcom did decide to ban the social media platform X, how would such a ban work? Some thoughts drawn from Internet history...
iptegrity.com/online-safet... @fipr-policy.bsky.social

Reads: What is trans-exclusionary data activism? And the logo for the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab.

New research maps the campaign to erase trans people from UK data 🔢

This peer-reviewed article offers the first detailed account of how UK campaign groups have sought to define sex as strictly biological across the census, policing, healthcare and digital ID.

doi.org/10.1080/0958...

Trans-exclusionary data activism in the UK In the UK, the design and management of sex and gender categories in data – including census questions, police and health records, and digital ID – has become a key focus of trans-exclusionary acti...

These tactics – which mirror the anti-trans politics of the Trump administration – is about changing something within trans people rather than changing the signage on toilets and changing rooms.

Read here (open access): doi.org/10.1080/0958...

#data #trans #gender #queer #research #LGBTQ #UK

"Virgin Active’s decision to abandon trans people is a shocking failure for a company that claims to be a proud supporter of LGBTQ+ rights. It’s time to hold them to account."

Starmer set to drop plans to make digital ID mandatory for UK workers Latest U-turn comes after Labour MPs expressed concern about compulsory nature of proposed scheme

Starmer set to drop plans to make digital ID mandatory for UK workers ft.trib.al/VqcAnBf

Screenshot of the first page of the journal article, with teal green text for headings and authors and normal black text for main body prose.

Dr @dianamiranda.bsky.social is a co-author of a new journal article in Surveillance & Society:

'The Ontological Shift in Surveillance: Revisiting the “Surveillant Assemblage” in the Age of Facial Recognition'
#Surveillance #Biometrics #Criminology #CrimSky
ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/su...

The #OnlineSafetyAct allows providers to mark their own homework. @ofcom.bsky.social told to kick X into gear, with little effective power. How likely will we see positive action? My take on the policy problem. iptegrity.com/ai/grok-ai-i... @fipr-policy.bsky.social

Interception: State Surveillance from Postal Systems to Global Networks A media history of how the UK and US governments have surveilled citizens by intercepting their private communications.It may not be Big Brother (yet), but

Open Access link:
direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...

December 10 is International Human Rights Day #HRD. Celebrate with us and the Tor Community! 💜Join our State of the Onion Day 2 broadcast in an hour:
📺https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZVk0kb7lhw
🧅http://xgsobitduxv7gcc5qlveigwiku7qcjn5exf4ayusw4mwq7kfrapmrjyd.onion/

YouTube video by The Tor Project State of the Onion 2025 – Community Day

Community contributions are what power Tor, tune in Wed, Dec 10 at 1700 UTC for day 2 of our State of the Onion to hear directly from @ooni.org, The Guardian Project, @freedom.press, HushLine and more.
📺 www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZVk...
🧅 xgsobitduxv7gcc5qlveigwiku7qcjn5exf4ayusw4mwq7kfrapmrjyd.onion

Excited to announce @leverhulmecal.bsky.social posts - we are looking for 7 interdisciplinary fellows to join our Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, closing date 30 January 2026 (1/3) durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

Striking for me as a physicist who also does social science work is the way these physicists were suddenly totally ok with autoethnography as data because they personally enjoyed using GPT-5. A case study in how values orient our empirical practices if there ever was one lol

A letter written to the principal of the University of Edinburgh, from Lorna Slater MSP

I want to extend my full support to staff threatened with compulsory redundancy at the University of Edinburgh.

I have today written to the Principal imploring him to change direction.

APT Meets GPT: Targeted Operations with Untamed LLMs Starting in June 2025, Volexity detected a series of spear phishing campaigns targeting several customers and their users in North America, Asia, and Europe. The initially observed campaigns were tail...

More technical report www.volexity.com/blog/2025/10... via the excellent @fipr-policy.bsky.social