Taylor Barkley

Adaptation and Innovation: The Civic Space Response to AI-Infused Elections With case studies also by: Laura Zommer and Kian Vesteinsson Introduction AI avatars delivered independent news about Venezuela’s contested election, allowing journalists to protect their identity and...

New research alert!🚨 Pleased to share a new @cendemtech.bsky.social report on information resilience in the context of AI and elections.

For me it answers the question of whether AI matters for elections with a clear “yes” - though not always in the way you’d expect🧵 cdt.org/insights/ada...

The 1800s Had 'Brainrot' Too! The Oxford Dictionary just added "brainrot" as its newest official word—a tongue in cheek term for consuming too much short-form social media content.

1899 article on new media ‘brainrot’:

"The number of people who think like birds, in little broken thoughts, will be greatly enlarged."

Making people: “unable to learn anything, to know anything well and to concentrate their minds upon anything." newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/the-1800s-...

Part V: The Abundance Institute AI and Post-Election Update Tracking the Impact of AI on the 2024 U.S. Election

Today we wrapped and summarized findings from an 11 month study of generative AI and how it was used in the US election. Bottom line: Although it was present, AI was not the disinformation game changer many pundits predicted it would be. nowandnext.substack.com/p/part-v-the...

The Terminator, HAL 9000 etc etc are fictional characters and not actual evidence of AI harm.

From our brief ”’Virtually no modern website would function if users had to sort through content themselves.' ... All would thus be harmed if Section 230 were constricted to exclude automated recommendation systems." https://www.thecgo.org/research/amicus-curiae-brief-filed-in-gonzalez-v-google-llc/

Today is a good day for the internet. The Supreme Court could have used this opportunity to erode Section 230's protections for internet platforms, yet chose not to. Like we said in our amicus brief: algorithms play an essential role in sorting content. Leaving 230 for another day is the right call.

Q1 2023 saw biggest drop ever in paid tv subscribers. YouTube TV was only provider tracked by the survey to have gained customers. We are still in the middle of the media landscape shift. https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/cord-cutting-all-time-high-q1-2023-pay-tv-losses-1235610939/

So... we're excited to launch: Moderator Mayhem (which we've spent the last few months building, in partnership with Engine). A browser-based mobile content moderation simulator game: https://moderatormayhem.engine.is/

Those quotation marks don’t help at all.

NEW RESEARCH from @thecgo.org that analyzes the attitudes of Americans towards commercial drone overflights; how much they'd need to be paid for that; and the level of gov best situated to regulate local airspace: https://www.thecgo.org/research/can-landowners-exclude-drones-from-their-low-airspace/

I was glad to be interviewed for this piece on state and federal social media bills. The emphasis on digital literacy and equipping teens is indeed the better approach. https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/federal-and-state-lawmakers-want-to-regulate-young-social-media-users-will-it-work/2023/04

Bringing NEPA Back to Basics If we are to address the challenges of our time, whether they be climate change or the emergence of strategic adversaries, we must not let NEPA keep one hand tied behind our backs.

Hi @aoc.bsky.social, so glad you are here!

Can I shill you my paper on NEPA reform? The problem is that current NEPA practice goes well beyond any plain reading of the law as it was originally passed.

https://www.thecgo.org/research/bringing-nepa-back-to-basics/

Was Marc Andreessen’s Substack intended to run for only a week in March? Where’d it go?

I was in entrepreneur.com this week writing about the proposed TikTok ban, small businesses, and what Congress should be doing to balance those issues: https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/banning-tiktok-would-hurt-small-businesses-heres-what/449607

I think about this potentiality every time I see a USB charging port when I am out and about.

Easter ribs.

Nice to have Will Rinehart and my research featured in this New York Magazine article on teens, social media, and mental health: https://t.co/atXpzvPIST

Fascinating to watch the Utah social media bills pass into law. Provided they aren’t prevented by courts from actually being enacted, how will we know whether or not they are effective?