research thread! i study queer histories of computing -- how LGBTQ+ people seize the means of connection & computation to build community and keep each other safe.
here are a few pieces that might interest you:
We love to see it!
Community-created harm reduction infrastructure to contest the alarming integration of AI agents into the Windows operating system (which is currently the most reckless deployment environment) ♥️
github.com/zoicware/Rem...
Watch Lucy Dacus perform the women's suffrage and workers' rights anthem "Bread And Roses" at @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's NYC mayoral inauguration
Was really challenging to participate in this, but I think I was able to pen something real, important, and personal to my experience in AI. Remember that GenAI is not *all* of AI nor all of what it should be.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/15/1...
Screenshot of a paper entry: Fictional Failures and Real-World Lessons: Ethical Speculation Through Design Fiction on Emotional Support Conversational AI Authors: Faye Kollig, Jessica Pater, Fayika Farhat Nova, Casey Fiesler (There are tabs with "abstract" and "summary" and "summary" is selected.)
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
this isn't the point but it is funny and kind of a broader point that the focus of the subhead is "architects" and then they replaced what was, in the original photo, labourers.
every pax unplugged is perfect because I go to all my favorite restaurants and cafes while im here but I love when I can yell at my friends to come and hang out with me too !!
dear diary, today i used grice’s maxims to explain why a character in an AI generated video inexplicably pulled out a gun
fascinating seeing verb-noun stress shift generalizing out. just heard someone say COMpute as a noun and wholly lost my train of thought.
hair appointment LOCKED im gonna be either peach or bald for pax
tonight is a victory for so many, but for me the backbone of NYC has always been its diversity, and tonight feels like so many standing in defense of it. your half of New York feels very small, Andrew.
i’m going to sit in how good I feel tomorrow, but for a moment I can’t shake cuomo’s ‘almost half of New York’, holding it up like a victory. knowing that his New York excludes the people whose names he won’t pronounce. the people he denigrates because of where they were born or what they practice.
But for real, collectively, progressive, left leaning folks needed something we can call a “win.”
Proof that sticking to our ideals, without wavering or compromise can still win out in this day and age, no matter what the fascists try to tell us.
It’s not a line in the sand, but it’s something.
:)
what a beautiful day for a large gathering of friends. :)
Okay this is a good headline
This week, our colleague Dr. Mark Bray came under attack by Turning Point USA’s Rutgers chapter for his public scholarship. Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union condemn this campaign and stand in solidarity with our colleagues. Read our full statement here: https://loom.ly/BDXasRY
In this spirit of fraternity, hope and caution, we call upon your leadership to uphold the following principles and red lines to foster dialogue and reflection on how AI can best serve our entire human family: Human life and dignity: AI must never be developed or used in ways that threaten, diminish, or disqualify human life, dignity, or fundamental rights. Human intelligence – our capacity for wisdom, moral reasoning, and orientation toward truth and beauty – must never be devalued by artificial processing, however sophisticated. AI must be used as a tool, not an authority: AI must remain under human control. Building uncontrollable systems or over-delegating decisions is morally unacceptable and must be legally prohibited. Therefore, development of superintelligence (as mentioned above) AI technologies should not be allowed until there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and there is clear and broad public consent. Accountability: only humans have moral and legal agency and AI systems are and must remain legal objects, never subjects. Responsibility and liability reside with developers, vendors, companies, deployers, users, institutes, and governments. AI cannot be granted legal personhood or “rights”. Life-and-death decisions: AI systems must never be allowed to make life or death decisions, especially in military applications during armed conflict or peacetime, law enforcement, border control, healthcare or judicial decisions.
Independent testing and adequate risk assessment must be required before deployment and throughout the entire lifecycle. Stewardship: Governments, corporations, and anyone else should not weaponize AI for any kind of domination, illegal wars of aggression, coercion, manipulation, social scoring, or unwarranted mass surveillance. Responsible design: AI should be designed and independently evaluated to avoid unintentional and catastrophic effects on humans and society, for example through design giving rise to deception, delusion, addiction, or loss of autonomy. No AI monopoly: the benefits of AI – economic, medical, scientific, social – should not be monopolized. No Human Devaluation: design and deployment of AI should make humans flourish in their chosen pursuits, not render humanity redundant, disenfranchised, devalued or replaceable. Ecological responsibility: our use of AI must not endanger our planet and ecosystems. Its vast demands for energy, water, and rare minerals must be managed responsibly and sustainably across the whole supply chain. No irresponsible global competition: We must avoid an irresponsible race between corporations and countries towards ever more powerful AI.
I was part of a working group on AI and Fraternity assembled by the Vatican. We met in Rome and worked on this over two days. I am happy to share the result of that intense effort: a Declaration we presented to the Pope and other government authorities
coexistence.global
a powerpoint slide that reads "the awakening: mad women" with the quote cited in my post below. there is an abstract image of red and brown waves.
lecturing on "mad" (angry) women today, the topic of my second book:
"women’s silence is learned. since childhood I’ve been taught that working-class women need to be tough & resilient. there is no time, no space for weakness, for emotion, for the indulgence of madness."
my favorite part of reading ML papers is the point where the authors obviously gave up on coming up with terminology. every time i see a ‘chunk’ or a ‘glob’ or similar i just giggle
🧵 The summer of 2025 has been AI's "cruel summer"—wrongful deaths, dangerous therapy chatbots, medical misinformation, facial recognition failures. These aren't isolated glitches but predictable harms from systems deployed without adequate oversight. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
AI companies cannot claim to possess cutting-edge technology capable of transforming humanity and then hide behind purported design “limitations” when confronted with the harms their products cause, writes Center for Humane Technology policy director Camille Carlton.
Self-care is overrated—helping others has the biggest benefits for everyone involved
A new 2-week intervention finds that helping others improves well-being more than "self-kindness", with benefits for depressed mood, anxiety, and loneliness due to social connection psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
A few simple steps can drastically decrease the amount of personal information that’s available about you online. ssd.eff.org/module/how-...
In a new @techpolicypress.bsky.social op-ed, CDT’s @mluria.bsky.social argues that tech firms should strip away illusions of personality & cognition in chatbots. Read more:
BREAKING: Big moment as CDC staff stage a mass walkout.
They have lined the street outside its HQ to greet and salute the four top officials who have resigned in protest at RFK Jr’s attack on the agency’s science base.
(🎥 AP)
So much think-piecing and op-ed'ing about data centers. I wish folks knew that some scholars have been studying these things — as real estate, as geopolitical battlegrounds, as ecological disasters — for a decade+. Mél Hogan, Alix Johnson, Ingrid Burrington, Jen Holt, Patrick Brodie, et al
Nature: Cancelling mRNA studies is the highest irresponsibility
go.nature.com/3HDx4wD
cc Jay Bhattacharya
Quote from a story on changes at the U of Chicago that notes they are "pausing" doctoral eduction in Classics, Comp Lit, Germanic studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Romance languages and literatures, and South Asian Studies.
Wow. The University of Chicago, a world-class institution whose humanities faculty in the past has included Homi Bhabha & Lauren Berlant & Ralph Ellison & Hannah freaking Arendt, is getting rid of basically every graduate department involving the acknowledgment that other cultures & languages exist.
stormed when i first moved in at bryn mawr, stormed when i first moved to long island for grad school, now i have my key for my new apartment in virginia and, you guessed it: storm
