Orian Brook

Meta is putting a "Name Tag" feature in Ray-Bans - facial recognition through the glasses' camera. You look at someone, AI tells you who they are.
In an internal document, the company wrote that the timing is good because civil society groups are busy with politics and won't cause problems.

UK Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) spend data, transactions over £25,000, April 2010 - December 2025 drive.google.com/uc?export=do... (1.4 MB XLSX)

#publicspending #opengov #opendata

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The Board of Governors decided, unilaterally, that no published textbook in the field of sociology could be used in compliance with the law for an Intro to Sociology class. None. Victor: There's not a single existing textbook on the market that could be used that would qualify under state law? Zachary: Correct. Victor: I'm sorry, that's kind of funny. Like, the absurdity of not a single sociology textbook getting past the censors. I mean, it makes me kind of proud of our colleagues, but...

I do want to shout-out my fellow sociologists, who have collectively created a discipline so woke that not a single one of our introductory textbooks can make it past Florida's censors.

Great work everyone.

“Independent Thematic Review
of portrayal and representation of the UK in BBC content” www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...

I would say this findings shows women are more AI literate than men, because the majority of non-magical beings have no innate ability to "judge truthfulness"

Episode 2 — Does Cultural Policy Research Need Theory?

I recently discussed the question "Does Cultural Policy Research Need Theory?" on the @culturaltrends.bsky.social podcast. You can listen here, even without a sub: open.spotify.com/episode/679x...

Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless Independent research identifies few learning gains

Blistering piece on ed tech in @economist.com.

‘Although ed-tech companies tout huge learning gains, independent research has made clear that technology rarely boosts learning in schools—and often impairs it.’
economist.com/united-state...

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Who's secretly filming fake TikToks inside Londoners' homes? We tracked down the viral video account invading people's houses to spread false claims about immigrants.

This is one of the strangest and most screwed-up stories I’ve worked on. www.londoncentric.media/p/tiktok-lon...

🚨 Job Alert!

We are looking for a Senior Scientist (40h/week) to develop, establish, and organize the research network “Democracy and Human Rights”.

Start: March 1, 2026
Application deadline: February 2, 2026

Find out more👇

jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Senior-S...

In solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.

"Guyan’s study argues that excluding gender identities from data collection 'presents a more chilling form of power where trans people in data are not possible – when they appear in data, their presence is "wrong" or "inaccurate”'."

archive.is/202601211442...

Nice to see two excellent academic collections on audiences, data and policy [including my only (!) academic article] in new (more affordable) editions:

www.routledge.com/A-Reader-on-...

www.routledge.com/Audience-Dat...

Credit to @sdjhadley.bsky.social for editing/making them happen…

Power and Difference in the time of responsible AI at University of Sheffield on FindAPhD.com | Susan Oman Do a funded PhD with me! We are looking for projects at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary enquiry into AI and inequalities! "Your doctoral research project will be designed by you to respond to...

Do a funded PhD with me! We are looking for projects at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary enquiry into AI and inequalities!

www.linkedin.com/posts/susan-...

I always feel roguish to make such a basic point, but bias is an intrinsic feature of _data_, and transitively of any system of analysis or decision-making based on data.

The fact that this point has to keep being demonstrated over and over for more complex systems is crazy-making to me.

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...

Such a pleasure talking to Dave O’Brien about all things Opera Wars for the New Books Network! Have a listen at the link below! ⬇️

@scribnerbooks.bsky.social

Important January sales news!

You also forgot to say that it is dairy-free! Often cooked for my son before he outgrew his cows milk protein intolerance - delicious!

It can't hallucinate. It can't lie. It can't apologize.

It is a machine that works the way that it was designed to work BY PEOPLE.

Lovely.

Thrilled to have my paper with @drdaveobrien.bsky.social @markrt.bsky.social and Giuliana Giuliani in @wonkhe.bsky.social

Please reshare! I'd love to hear from potential candidates with research interests in disability studies and the arts...

@bavs-uk.bsky.social @bars.bsky.social @ukdishisthub.bsky.social

PhD studentships available in: Creative and Cultural Industries, Media, and Arts Practice (EDI in Practice); Identity, Representation, and Social Justice (EDI in Theory and Experience); Humanities, Philosophy, and Literature (EDI in Knowledge and Method). More details in link below.

English lit - 6.4% unemployed

Maths - 7.5% unemployed

So kid, in your heart you want to study humanities but you worry about your job prospects? Let’s play a game.

On the latest data, who is more likely to be unemployed after 15 months after graduation. The English Lit grad or the Maths grad?

WRONG!

‘Nousferatu’: the notorious consultancy advising Edinburgh uni amid 'huge' cuts Scotland’s largest university has turned to Nous Group at the same time as it is making savings that could lead to nearly 2,000 job losses. Staff say they were misled about the extent of its work.

No matter how tough you say times are, there’s always enough money in the banana stand to pay an external consultant to scope ‘academic efficiency opportunities’ www.theferret.scot/consultancy-...

SNP minister told to intervene in Edinburgh University crisis to protect 1,800 jobs SNP ministers have been warned they must intervene in the University of Edinburgh's dispute with staff amid fears 1,800 jobs could be lost.

Question from @martinwhitfieldmsp.bsky.social in the Scottish Parliament on cuts and job losses at Edinburgh University as @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social take third day of strike action this week #SaveHE #StopTheCuts www.heraldscotland.com/news/2563152...

This from @stephenkb.bsky.social cuts to the heart of the matter. Does the government not understand how toxic this argument is? Do they think they can somehow weaponise it? The last governments at least had the merit not of making this kind of foul claim.

Just to say, I am a supervisor here:

UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Responsible and Trustworthy in-the-world Natural Language Processing
www.responsiblenlp.org/2026-student...

If you are reading things like this and planning PhD project, do reach out:
www.ft.com/content/e5b7...