Just Published: 'Neural Networks' (U of MN Press and meson press), co-authored by Lucy Suchman, @theolr, and yours truly. Examining critically the figure of the neural network, the book puts the neuroscientific back into our conversations about computational neural networks. (1/n)

The Canadian military built its own internet. My new journal article explores how its design was shaped by Canada’s pursuit of national identity amid fears of US influence & rising demands for self-determination within Indigenous & Québécois nations 🧵
bit.ly/4aMpyZf

하҉이҉퍼҉ ҉슈҉퍼҉ ҉엑҉스҉라҉지҉ ҉…҉ ҉펑҉!҉
H҉y҉p҉e҉r҉ ҉S҉u҉p҉e҉r҉ ҉X҉-҉l҉a҉r҉g҉e҉ ҉…҉ ҉B҉o҉o҉m҉!҉

📐일정 _ 2024년 4월 19일(금) - 27일(토) 1시 - 7시
📐장소 _ 탈영역우정국 1, 2층 (서울 마포구 독막로 20길 42)

NYC's 'AI' 'weapon scanners' produce 85% false positives!!1!!

AKA they don't detect weapons-- they give cops a pretext to harass ppl while lining the pockets of vendors. In the meantime, NYC is shutting libraries on weekends citing budget constraints.

hellgatenyc.com/nyc-ai-weapons…

I spoke with Israeli intelligence officers about the AI-based target machine they used which marked 37,000 Gazans as suspects for assassination. These whistleblowers expose numerous machines & policies that killed thousands of civilians since October.
972mag.com/lavender-ai-is…

'Included in this guide are several examples of the “hundreds and thousands” of features that can increase an individual’s rating, such as being in a Whatsapp group with a known militant, changing cell phone every few months, and changing addresses frequently.'

Horrid new report from +972 Magazine on an 'AI' system called Lavender and 'Where's Daddy?' used by the IDF. Has a 10% error rate, and acceptable 'collateral' from 15 to 100 civilians per target.

This is sick and the future of AI warfare for US Empire.

972mag.com/lavender-ai-is…

My new book on Pee-wee Herman is now available for pre-order! I Know You Are, but What Am I? is about what Pee-wee meant and means to queer folks, written through the playhouse, Reuben's arrest, and broken talking dolls. Coming in July from U of MN Press.

upress.umn.edu/book-division/…

Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions in Postsocialist Times

I have been thinking about the contents of this book for over a decade and cannot wait to read it. Thank you for writing it, Erin McElroy!

dukeupress.edu/silicon-valley…

Tech billionaires treat science fiction as though it’s predicting the future, but as Ursula K. Le Guin explained in 1985, science fiction isn’t the future and when people start to believe that scifi gets “megalomania.”

disconnect.blog/what-if-we-nev…

btw I think this is the best book on fascism published within the macro political debate about fascism that's been going on since roughly 2015

The misinformation syllabus from Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan on 🟦☁️) is, along with the Critical Disinformation Studies one by alice e. marwick Rachel Kuo Shanice Jones Cameron and Moira Weigel from CITAP (@citap.bsky.social), my favorites and routinely recommended. (If you have others you like/recommend, please share!)

Here's the recording of our panel, with four absolutely storming presentations from the speakers
goldsmiths.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/…

This essay is great. Ed Zitron really nails the AI Bullshit Loop that is sustaining the technology and it's industry. In my work, I've called this dynamic of magical thinking and fictitious capital the Tinkerbell Effect. As I write in my next book coming out later this year:

This is cool: BLOOD IN THE MACHINE is the @bbc's Book of the Week, and you can listen to an abridged audio version BBC4 produced for the occasion

bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…

Data is inherently limited, C Thi Nguyen writes. “And these limitations aren’t accidents. They are built into the core of what data is. The methodology of data requires leaving out some of our more sensitive and dynamic ways of understanding the world.” Read: issues.org/limits-of-data…

Our special issue of New Media & Society on automation after the pandemic is out, and entirely open access! In the editorial @markandrejevic & I discuss automation and the temporality of viral contagion, preemptive intervention, and environmental control journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11

Reminder ⚠️ not too late to register for 'Predictions Without Futures / Of Cosmograms and Clockwork' with Sun-ha Hong at 4:00pm ET

How does tech legitimize capital and prevent other possible futures? Join us and Sun-ha Hong on Feb. 20 at 4:00pm for a lecture exploring prediction as a powerful conceptual model. Register here: bit.ly/3UuiICT

From the wonderful Carina Albrecht, a history of the 'like button', and the controversial project of turning 'subjectivities' into 'objectivities', for our 'Mining the Past' column Harvard Data Science Review! hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/nf9bhik3 Digital Democracies Institute SFU School of Communication Christopher J. Phillips