Ciarán O'Connor

Hype, Hazards, Harms, and Help - Enough About AI Dónal and Ciarán return for a new year of new updates and new concerns in the world of Generative Artificial Intelligence. Again for 2026, the podcast will provide roughly quarterly updates on major t...

New year - new hype, new harms, new nefarious things Meta is up to... First 2026 @enoughaboutai.com ep is out and to be found wherever podcasts are. @ciaranoconnor.bsky.social & I talk about Grok, OpenClaw, Safer Internet Day, and taking a deep breath.

podcast.enoughaboutai.com/2421061/epis...

Dónal and Ciarán return for S02 E04. In this ep, they continue 'bubble watch,' reporting on the latest expansion in valuations and hype around AI. They also discuss robots and the bizarre and emerging field of AI erotica.

New report out from us & the Hope and Courage Collective today, looking at online threats to electoral integrity in the recent Irish presidential election. In the report:

🔵 Online narratives targeting the legitimacy of election
🔵 The targeting of candidates
🔵 The use of genAI

Read more below ⬇️

‘This is our country, get them f***ing out’: Citywest riot raises questions for social media giants There is now a depressingly familiar pattern to how this plays out – and at the centre of it all are online social media platforms.

The violent events in Citywest, Dublin, last week were not without precedent. There is now a depressingly familiar pattern to how this plays out. At the centre of it all are online social media platforms. I wrote about this for @irishtimes.com.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

The Online Playbook Behind the Violence in Citywest | H&CC All of us want to believe that our children are safe no matter where they are. It is also true that we want a community where every child is safe and cared for by systems that work, whether they live in care, in the community or are seeking international protection.

Far-right agitators exploited a local tragedy to incite violence in Citywest, Dublin—and platforms let it spread. A new ISD & Hope and Courage Collective report shows how the unrest was coordinated, not spontaneous, & communities stepped up where platforms failed.

Read it below ⬇️

Ciarán O'Connor: Jim Gavin won’t be the last victim of a smear campaign. What will it take for platforms to act? Allegations about the presidential candidate received thousands of comments and nearly a million views, as platforms did little to stop the spread

Why did it take so long for these “malicious smears”, as Gavin characterised them, to be addressed?

Smears, recommender systems, AI; it's been quite the two weeks in the presidential election. And the campaign has just begun. Wrote about this for @irishtimes.com.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

A Guide To Monitoring Conflict Amidst a Sea of Misinformation - bellingcat How does one monitor a conflict zone on the brink of civil war, especially in a region which is difficult to access, experiences frequent internet shutdowns and where misinformation is common? In this...

A Guide To Monitoring Conflict Amidst a Sea of Misinformation www.bellingcat.com/news/rest-of...

New episode of our podcast is out, this time discussing the AI bubble, overinflation & valuations and dot-com comparisons.

Ciarán O’Connor: Donald Trump is in danger of being swallowed up by an Epstein conspiracy he helped to create Trump is learning that conspiracy theories are elastic, self-sealing and practically impossible to disprove to a base radicalised over time

Ciarán O’Connor: The Epstein files have become a purity test for MAGA diehards and, unable to substantiate the claims they campaigned on for years, these political figures have found themselves cast as the villains they once promised to oust.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

Conspiracy Theories | Galway International Arts Festival Endless conspiracy theories flood our phones in conversation with Saoirse McHugh every day, straining credulity, but with an increasing number of enthusiastic followers.

I'm going back to the Galway International Arts Festival once again for another fascinating tech-focused conversation, this time chatting to @ciaranoconnor.bsky.social and Cian O'Mahony about conspiracy theories!

Dress code: Tinfoil hats optional.

www.giaf.ie/festival/eve...

New episode of the Enough About AI podcast with @donalmulligan.com & @ciaranoconnor.bsky.social is out now, discussing alignment, AI being "too sycophant-y" and the risk of letting superintelligence out of the box.

Available on all pod platforms & our site: podcast.enoughaboutai.com/2421061/epis...

Alignment Anxieties & Persuasion Problems - Enough About AI Dónal and Ciarán continue the 2025 season with a second quarterly update that looks at some recent themes in AI development. They're pondering doom again, as we increasingly grapple with the evidence ...

New @enoughaboutai.com episode with @ciaranoconnor.bsky.social out, covering alignment issues, the problems of powerful AI persuasiveness, AI in academia, and letting superintelligence out of the box. Find it wherever you get podcasts, or on the site here:
podcast.enoughaboutai.com/2421061/epis...

DCU's Dr Dónal Mulligan @donalmulligan.com and Ciarán O'Connor @ciaranoconnor.bsky.social discuss key issues related to AI and academia in the latest episode of their podcast 'Enough About AI'. You can listen to the full episode here: launch.dcu.ie/3YHqlHk

Illicit masses being held in Derry Illicit masses are being held in Derry where priests are administering the sacraments without the authority of the Catholic Church. The Bishop of Derry has issued a warning about the services carried ...

Quite an interesting story going on in Derry. Would really like to hear more from anyone in contact with this group.

*****
Illicit masses in Derry. The Bishop has issued a warning about services held by fundamentalist group SSPX Resistance. Via @drivetime.bsky.social

www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Ireland’s Kate O’Connor wins pentathlon silver medal at World Indoor Championships Kate O’Connor was won her first ever global medal – and Ireland’s first at the World Indoor Championships for 19 years – after a superb showing in the pentathlon in Nanjing, China, today.

Ireland’s Kate O’Connor wins pentathlon silver medal at World Indoor Championships

www.independent.ie/sport/other-...

Springtime for Putin as Trump embraces Kremlin’s distorted reality Vladimir Putin must be rubbing his hands with glee that Russian-backed disinformation campaigns backing Brexit and Trump 1.0 have caused an existential crisis in the West, writes Ciaran O'Connor

Disinformation, used to advance the cause of resurgent nativist populism, has succeeded.

I wrote something for the @irishexaminer.bsky.social about the last few weeks in disinfoland.

www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

A new year and a new season of our Enough About AI pod.

This episode takes stock of everything that's happened since November including: Trump, Musk and OpenAi; China and Deepseek; and a runthrough of reasoning models.

Available on all the usual platforms.

X under Musk’s leadership: Substantial hate and no reduction in inauthentic activity Numerous studies have reported an increase in hate speech on X (formerly Twitter) in the months immediately following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform on October 27th, 2022; relatedly, despite ...

The 'feeling' that X under Musk is a different place than before is quantified in this new study titled 'Substantial Hate'

1️⃣ hate speech up to 50% higher;
2️⃣ hate speech increase persistent;
3️⃣ no reduction in inauthentic accounts

#commsky @polcomm.bsky.social

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

“During COVID … there was a subsection of those interested in wellness who saw it as the "ultimate truth” and their own thinking overlapped with conspiracy theories."

I spoke to Brendan O’Connor about 'conspirituality' on @rteradio1.bsky.social on Feb 8th.

www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

"A supposedly UK-based network of Telegram channels is hoping to spark civil war in Britain – but the operation appears to be run from Russia.

HOPE not hate can reveal that a network of Telegram channels is offering cash to UK citizens willing to commit acts of terror and vandalism"

“We know that the architecture of platforms makes it astonishingly easy for sensationalist allegations to go viral – enragement sadly equals engagement – and platforms often prioritise user attention over accuracy.”

The police broke the law to spy on journalists - and that should worry us all A landmark judgment has found that forces across the UK illegally tried to discover journalists’ sources—now we need the full story

What happened when two Northern Irish journalists reported on a loyalist massacre? They were arrested and spied on by police

Plus: Two former Tory ministers and ex chief whip break government anti corruption rules

All new on Democracy for Sale:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/the-police...

Mick O'Keeffe has the same issue Chay Bowes has, except that the former is talking to Americans and the latter to Russians. Both have to say shit like "speaker", "Irish Prime Minister", "The Irish Parliament" etc.

‘Impossible’ to create AI tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted material, OpenAI says Pressure grows on artificial intelligence firms over the content used to train their productsBusiness live – latest updatesThe developer OpenAI has said it would be impossible to create tools like its groundbreaking chatbot ChatGPT without access to copyrighted material, as pressure grows on artificial intelligence firms over the content used to train their products.Chatbots such as ChatGPT and image generators like Stable Diffusion are “trained” on a vast trove of data taken from the internet, with much of it covered by copyright – a legal protection against someone’s work being used without permission. Continue reading...

‘Impossible’ to create AI tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted material, OpenAI says

Why the Far Right Stumbled in Ireland’s Election | The Dark State Get more from The Dark State on Patreon

Why did the far right and anti-immigration parties fail to make a breakthrough in the General Election? I went on @johnmooneyirl.bsky.social's Dark State podcast and tease out some potential explanations.

www.patreon.com/posts/why-fa...

Ireland is primed to be a video game development hub, so why hasn't it broken big? Ireland is home to a well-educated, English-speaking, diverse workforce and is already the tech hub of Europe. So why hasn't it truly penetrated the video game industry?

REPORT: Over the last eight months I've been trying to get to the bottom of why (despite being the ideal candidate) Ireland is not a video game development hub. The answer?

A lack of government understanding surrounding the sector.

For Shacknews:
www.shacknews.com/article/1424...

The Irish Times view on social media regulation: Ireland caught in the middle As the European home of some of the major tech players, the State has a crucial role in an area where tensions are likely with the US

X is taking legal action against Coimisiún na Meán in the High Court in Dublin.

As the European home of some of the major tech players, the State has a crucial role in an area where tensions are likely with the US.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/edit...

To understand why the HSE is in such a financial mess, look no further than Cork's Glenwood House Millions of euro were spent, a great deal of it wasted, on Glenwood and other mental health facilities in Cork

This is instructive if you're ever trying to understand how the health budget increased by billions in recent years and yet nothing seemed to improve

www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

How Luigi Mangione ignited the internet <a href='https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sky-news-daily/id951048357' target='_blank'>👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈</a>

Katherine Keneally joins Sky News’ Daily Podcast to break down the social media reactions to the murder of Brian Thompson that has ignited debates about the state of healthcare in the United States. ow.ly/2HG150UsIKX

Liz Carolan: TikTok’s annus horribilis of 2024 creates problems for Ireland European Commission plans to crack open tightly guarded black box of social media firm’s algorithmic operations

"The EU may be taking a step toward a deeper understanding — and potentially stricter oversight — of the algorithmic systems that drive the platforms." - @lizcarolan.com on the ball as per.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024/12/17/tiktoks-annus-horribilis-of-2024-creates-problems-for-ireland/