Joshua Tucker

I thought this was an interesting and balanced contribution to the AI discussion here. As an old dog trying to learn the new tricks, let me make a few observations from my own experience using Claude (not Claude code, just the chatbot). 🧵

Thanks!

Thanks @marcratkovic.bsky.social

Probably paid off based on who got most votes in first round regardless of whether it advanced to second round?

The train has left the station: Agentic AI and the future of social science research | Brookings A new era of agentic AI agents has begun. What does it mean for social scientists? Solomon Messing and Joshua Tucker discuss.

Apologies to everyone who has written something interesting on this topic since we sent this in our editors two and a half weeks ago! And huge thanks to our editors at Brookings for their input, excellent editing, and quick turnaround!

Full article here: www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

5/5

And yes, the title is inspired by Andy Hall's seismic post from January 2nd that "Claude Code and its ilk are coming for the study of politics like a freight train."

4/

We're interested in thoughts, comments, feedback! It seems to be a conversation a lot of people are having, so we decided we'd try to write some of our impressions down.

3/

Either way, @solmg.bsky.social & I have a new article out @brookings.edu for you!

bsky.app/profile/solm...

2/

The train has left the station: Agentic AI and the future of social science research | Brookings A new era of agentic AI agents has begun. What does it mean for social scientists? Solomon Messing and Joshua Tucker discuss.

Are you a social scientist who has been hearing about Claude Code but hasn't checked it out yet? Or are you a social scientist who has been playing with Claude Code and has been wondering what it means for the future of social science research?

www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

1/

The train has left the station: Agentic AI and the future of social science research | Brookings A new era of agentic AI agents has begun. What does it mean for social scientists? Solomon Messing and Joshua Tucker discuss.

Thoughtful piece from @jatucker.bsky.social and @solmg.bsky.social about agentic AI and social science.

6 principles for independent research in a digital world | Brookings Lancieri, Peukert, and Tucker offer six principles to guide research on digital markets, fostering data transparency and rigorous research

Brookings article: www.brookings.edu/articles/6-p...

Website and full list of signatories:
www.ascona-principles.org

Digital platforms shape markets and public debate at a scale that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago. At the same time, independent researchers face obstacles when trying to study them. As a result, much of the digital economy remains difficult to examine from the outside.

Was excited to get a chance to talk about the TikTokification of social media in recent years this morning on @cnbc.com's Squawk Box.

Full clip available here: www.cnbc.com/video/2026/0...

It doesn’t say it as directly, but at its core all of this stuff is Calhounism and Dred Scott: An assertion that the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were conceived in purely racial terms and to include exclusively the white race.

Honored to be invited to contribute to the NYU Law @democracyproject.bsky.social "100 ideas" series.

democracyproject.org/posts/embrac...

Researchers say no evidence of TikTok censorship, but they remain wary Posts have been going viral on social media accusing TikTok's new owners of suppressing content, but eight academics examined the issue and found no evidence to support the claims.

www.npr.org/2026/02/04/n...

Researchers say no evidence of TikTok censorship, but they remain wary Posts have been going viral on social media accusing TikTok's new owners of suppressing content, but eight academics examined the issue and found no evidence to support the claims.

Media coverage: www.npr.org/2026/02/04/n...

Was there censorship on TikTok after the U.S. takeover? A TikTok outage more likely explains recent anomalies – there’s no evidence of larger platform changes so far.

🌐 📲 With international collaborators, the Observatory’s director @andreucasas.bsky.social revisited recent “TikTok censorship” claims after the TikTok USDS takeover

➡️ Detailed information about the analysis available: goodauthority.org/news/was-the...

🧵[1/5]

Was TikTok blocking certain political posts last week?

We investigated & found no systematic evidence of political censorship on TT post-restructuring at this point. A server outage better explains the data. But the story isn't over, and platforms need to provide the public more transparency.

Last week the story was that TikTok censored anti-Trump/ICE/Pretti videos after the U.S. ownership change. We investigated with a large set of US TikTok data and found some interesting results, short thread...

⬇️ Please repost in your networks, thank you!

@csmapnyu.org @jatucker.bsky.social @solmg.bsky.social @henryhenryhenry.com @benansell.bsky.social @nachristakis.bsky.social @dingdingpeng.the100.ci @claesdevreese.bsky.social @dgrand.bsky.social @ecpr.bsky.social @fil.bsky.social

NYU's Center for Social Media and Politics Strengthening democracy by conducting rigorous research, advancing evidence-based public policy, and training the next generation of scholars.

CSMaP is now the Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics (CSMAP). Our research has expanded beyond social media to include digital media more broadly—especially generative AI and large language models and their role in politics and public life.
Learn more at csmapnyu.org

We acknowledge that no one has the bandwidth for this, but if it helps:

- It’s ‘voilà,’ not ‘wallah!’
- It’s ‘a lot,’ not ‘alot.’
- It’s ‘further ado,’ not ‘farther adieu.’
- It’s ‘flesh out,’ not ‘flush out.’
- It’s ‘sneak peek,’ not ‘sneak peak.’

No worries if not!!!

Is there anyone out there who actually likes the newest version of Overleaf with the comments to the left of the text? And the panel where you now have to toggle between comments and the file tree?

Is Joe Rogan really just a voice of the right? Our new @csmapnyu.org piece for @goodauth.bsky.social shows he’s just as much a space for the left and the center, too. A look inside today’s surprisingly complicated podcast information ecosystem. 🎙️

goodauthority.org/news/podcast...

Check out our newest piece on @goodauth.bsky.social! Especially if you are someone who thinks the left needs a "Joe Rogan of the left". Exciting analysis from our new podcast dataset👇. Huge kudos to project leads @melinamuch.bsky.social & Kylan Rutherford!

Platform-independent experiments on social media Changing algorithms with artificial intelligence tools can influence partisan animosity

@jennyallen.bsky.social and @jatucker.bsky.social
add a fantastic Perspective piece on the importance of platform-independent experiments on social media's impact on us: science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Strongly agree!

Joint work with @tiziano.bsky.social, @jiachenyan.bsky.social, Jeff Hancock, Jeanne Tsai, @mbernst.bsky.social

Link: doi.org/10.1126/scie...

And a very thoughtful perspective by @jennyallen.bsky.social and @jatucker.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1126/scie...

/1

New in Science: Reranking partisan animosity in algorithmic social media feeds alters affective polarization www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Key from @jennyallen.bsky.social @jatucker.bsky.social: (1) important new paradigm (2) but not clear why results differ
www.science.org/doi/full/10....

As generative AI becomes more accessible, synthetic political images are reshaping how people see and interpret events. One question remains: Do AI labels help the public navigate this environment?

Our new preprint, It Works When It Works, tests exactly that.
🔗 osf.io/preprints/so...