Louis Ravn

New project to investigate societal consequences of using synthetic data to train algorithms Researchers in the University of York’s Department of Sociology will lead one of the first large-scale, systematic social science studies of synthetic data.

I am very excited and honoured to be the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant, starting January 2026 🔆 @erc.europa.eu. The five-year project will explore the broader social, political, and ethical implications of training algorithmic models on synthetic data. www.york.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Meta suppressed research on child safety, employees say The company’s lawyers intervened to shape research that might have shed light on risks in virtual reality, four current and former staffers have told Congress. Meta denies the allegations.

this is the industry governments want to hand over education and other societal infrastructure

www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

🙈

no way, is this in NL?

👇

We are starving My body is breaking down. My mother is collapsing from exhaustion. My cousin cheats death every day for a morsel of aid.

“My body is breaking down. My mother is collapsing from exhaustion. My cousin cheats death every day for a morsel of aid. Gaza's children are dying in front of our eyes, and we are powerless to help them.”

www.972mag.com/hunger-gaza-...

Weil gerade wieder davon die Rede ist, dass «Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion» ja gar keine «echte» Diversität schaffe: So schaut der faschistische Kampf gegen DEI in den USA aus. Es beginnt mit Zensur und endet in der Verfolgung von Marginalisierten bsky.app/profile/bild...

Das Fahrlässige an Kaubes Text ist, wie er der eigenen Frage ausweicht: «Hat Thiel einen Masterplan?», fragt er zu Beginn – um mit der These zu schliessen, die «politischen Thesen und theologischen Spekulationen» Thiels seien «nur private Marotten». Doch diese «Marotten» haben politische Effekte
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Artificial Intelligence and the ethics of navigating ambiguity - SJ Bennett, 2025 This paper examines ambiguity within AI practice, arguing for an ethics of AI which stays with fundamental ambiguities and accounts for their complex socio-mate...

🎉 A lovely wedding present from Big Data & Society! I bring together an ethnographic study of AI practitioners with Simone de Beauvoir’s ethics of ambiguity, exploring how ambiguity shapes AI practice and ethics
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Very excited to share this. It was an absolute joy to work with @louravn.bsky.social @velocitygravity.bsky.social and my good buddy @matthewarcher.bsky.social

🌞 We are hugely grateful that our commentary is part of the exciting thematic collection on “Politics of Machine Learning Evalustion“, awesomely edited by @dluitse.bsky.social, @annaschjoett.bsky.social, and Tobias Blanke. Also, we warmly thank the two anonymous reviewers!

Unraveling the Regimes of Synthetic Data Metrics: Expectations, Ethics, and Politics - Digital Society Synthetic data - artificially produced data used for various data science tasks - have become the subject of intense scholarly interest, engendering both hope and hype in fields like machine learning ...

🌟 New commentary “Unraveling the Regimes of Synthetic Data Metrics“ in Digital Society: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

📚 In it, @velocitygravity.bsky.social , @matthewarcher.bsky.social, @danishanley.bsky.social, and I argue that synth data metrics are linked to the politics of synth data.

🧵…

Cansın Köktürk: »Palestine«-Shirt – Linkenabgeordnete muss Plenarsaal verlassen Bundestagspräsidentin Julia Klöckner achtet penibel auf die Einhaltung der Parlamentsetikette, auch in puncto Kleidung. Nun verwies sie die Linkenabgeordnete Cansın Köktürk des Saals. Die fällt nicht ...

Das ist das neue Normal. 20 Prozent Rechtsextreme im Saal, und die Person of Colour mit dem Palästina-Pulli aus dem Parlament verbannen.

headed to #RESAW25 this week ✈️
Super excited abt the program and all the cool research ! catch me in a double feature on Thurs, 7C: Data Loss panel (on GITHUB ARCTIC VAULT) also w @louravn.bsky.social @nannathylstrup.bsky.social and @esmeec.bsky.social and 8C on ROBOTS.TXT with @emae.bsky.social 🤖

they gave a nobel prize to an economist who said vineyards and apple orchards in norway will offset the impacts of this.

🎆 Are you interested in the role of mythmaking and metaphors in contemporary and historical research and deployment of AI? Join us on 6th June, 1-2.30pm, for exciting talks by Dr Audrey Borowski and @velocitygravity.bsky.social, followed by a Q&A

🖊️ sign up:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digital-me...

Interoperability capitalism you say? 👀

The political economy of platformed silos: Theorizing data storage reconfigurations in the age of interoperability capitalism - Matthew Archer, Louis Ravn, Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, 2025 Interoperability has become a prominent topic in contemporary discourses around digital infrastructures in fields as diverse as security, finance, health, and c...

Platforms, silos, interoperability - what's the deal with these database buzzwords?

Check out this🔥new paper by @matthewarcher.bsky.social @louravn.bsky.social and @nannathylstrup.bsky.social

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

The political economy of platformed silos: Theorizing data storage reconfigurations in the age of interoperability capitalism by @matthewarcher.bsky.social, Louis Ravn & @nannathylstrup.bsky.social in Big Data & Society. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

✨New commentary by @matthewarcher.bsky.social, @louravn.bsky.social and myself on the politics of desiloization in what we call "interoperability capitalism"! Grateful to find a home in the 🔥special issue on interoperability ed by @ikkibop.bsky.social, Silvan Pollozekj and @janpassoth.bsky.social !

⚡️New commentary in BD&S ⚡️

Check out our new article on how *interoperability* strategies relate to power in platform capitalism.

Very thankful to have co-written this w/ @matthewarcher.bsky.social & @nannathylstrup.bsky.social.

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

Hype, with Dani Shanley and Gemma Milne | The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

Please enjoy!

Hype, with Dani Shanley and Gemma Milne

@danishanley.bsky.social
@gemmamilne.bsky.social

shows.acast.com/63997541ed12...

✨The first two papers in our Topical Collection on the 'Politics of Machine Learning Evaluation' are out in Digital Society!

The collection is edited together with @dluitse.bsky.social and Tobias Blanke, with the great support of Digital Society and Federica Russo.
link.springer.com/collections/...

On December 17 & 18, we are organizing a conference at the University of Amsterdam on GenAI & Creative Practices. We are very much looking forward to your proposals for papers, panels, roundtables and fishbowls!! CfP: rdt.uva.nl/genai--creat... Deadline proposals: 26 May

New article published in Big Data & Society. Latin American Critical Data Studies
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

New essay in @nytimes.com✨ With @richove.bsky.social I discuss gov data deletion of vital datasets and health resources as political strategy. Special thx to brilliant (!) @ktmac.bsky.social for our exciting discussions that has shaped this thinking! Thank you @erc.europa.eu for enabling our work

The CDC Has Been Gutted Thousands of CDC employees who worked on things like preventing HIV and lead poisoning have been told they were subject to a reduction in force. Experts say people will die.

NEW: The CDC has been gutted this morning. Thousands of CDC employees who worked on things like preventing HIV and lead poisoning have been told they were subject to a reduction in force. Experts say people will die.

from me, @makenakelly.bsky.social, @knibbs.bsky.social:

1 / Executive power now operates via Delete Commands in digital infrastructures. This isn't data management. It's calculated obliteration of who gets to exist in digital memory and knowledge infrastructures. Thank you @verfassungsblog.de for publishing our (@ktmac.bsky.social and my) essay!

Attorney General Bonta Urgently Issues Consumer Alert for 23andMe Customers Californians have the right to direct the company to delete their genetic data OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued a consumer alert to customers of 23andMe, a genetic testing ...

23andMe is going under. Californians have the right to delete their genetic data before it's turned over to next party buying the assets. If you have a 23andMe account, go log in to download whatever reports you want to save, then follow these instructions to delete your data.

I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of the others they've fired.

It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the process is fascinating. 🧵