Stay tuned for insights from the other round-tables, or check out the ELSA Network Day summary in the meantime: www.aim4dem.nl/looking-back...
10.03.2026 12:02
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Stay tuned for insights from the other round-tables, or check out the ELSA Network Day summary in the meantime: www.aim4dem.nl/looking-back...
Allowing work to also go outside the settled plans and guidelines, explore alternatives and interesting pathways, can lead to valuable and unexpected breakthroughs: it is important for academics to remember that pushing structural boundaries is a great way to create truly novel research.
๐จ Taking inter-disciplinarity to the next level: ELSA & Creativity โ led by Guillermo Romero Moreno: Creative work within research is restrained by traditional research structures: funding cycles, research papers as the main output, and having to settle outcomes and work packages from the start.
All these are connected ways of thinking, valuing, and doing. Expressed through body parts, the head represents wisdom and critical thinking, the heart is full of care and responsibility, while the hands drive action.
โ๏ธ Sketching out the ultimate ELSA researcher โ led by @teresaelena.bsky.social: The "ELSA way" means using to embedded practice to create tangible impact. The core ELSA attitudes are self-reflexivity, anticipation of future impacts, responsiveness, and explicitness in values and assumptions.
๐งโ๐ป What makes an ELSA researcher, and how can you truly do inter-disciplinary work?
We are back with some insights and conclusions about the ELSA process from two of the five round-tables led by our lab members during our ELSA Network day this past February ๐งต
๐จNew publication:
With @teresaelena.bsky.social we did an expert survey of +/- 100 academics, fact checkers & journalists.
We show that experts are mostly, but not always aligned about disinformation in times of generative AI
@aimediademlab.bsky.social
misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/on-t...
๐ Welcome Philipp Darius to our lab!
We are pleased to introduce @philippdarius.bsky.social, our newest postdoc! His research examines the intersection of political communication, digital technologies, and democratic governance.
๐ Read more about Philipp here: www.aim4dem.nl/about-philip...
๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐๐๐ข๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฅ
International survey of 1138 scholars across 77 countries - plus four focus groups - maps the what, how and why. 69.2% already use it for at least one research task, especially writing and literature review.
5 takeaways:
medium.com/@hannes.cool...
๐ You can see a full rundown of the talk & the research behind it on our website:
www.aim4dem.nl/oscar-westlu...
Researchers should not have to modify the contents of their work for these reasons, nor have to resort to anonymity (and thus lose the attributions they deserve) or to retracting manuscripts from journal submissions (which dr. Westlund has sadly encountered as editor-in-chief of Digital Journalism).
Oscar Westlund highlighted the consequences of political pressure on research:
โก๏ธ research funding without political strings attached is more rare
โก๏ธ economic government interests reflected in the research areas being funded
โก๏ธ censorship & self-censorship by academics
๐ก๏ธ We need to protect academia as a core academic institution!
@oscarwestlund.bsky.social paid a visit to our lab last week and held a panel discussion at SPUI25 with @natalihelberger.bsky.social and @theresajseipp.bsky.social, on the topic "Academic Freedom Under Attack".
Here are some takeaways ๐๏ธ
๐ฃ Our lab member Manel Slokom is looking for study participants as part of her research on privacy-friendly personalized recommender systems!
Applied to a Netflix use case, it involves testing a visual interface of a federated recommender model for films & TV.
๐ฌ๏ธ Register here: tinyurl.com/2wfa5u7e
โฐ๏ธ Regulation tends to lag behind technological advancements โ we can speed up this process through discussions & research like these ๐๏ธ into the enforcement and the tangible impact of the Digital Services Act on how democratic user rights and freedoms can be protected on massive online platforms!
โข @maxvandrunen.bsky.social chaired a session on design risks and user empowerment
โข @natalihelberger.bsky.social led a plenary discussion on platform power, markets and democracy; she also participated in a plenary panel on platform regulation and AI.
And the breakout sessions and panels chaired by members:
โข @claesdevreese.bsky.social, our co-director, chaired a session titled "Access to Data for Vetted Researchers";
โข @laurensnaudts.bsky.social chaired a session on multistakeholder governance;
@maxvandrunen.bsky.social presented a paper with @natalihelberger.bsky.social, Aytalia Kulichkina and @anniewald.bsky.social, providing a theoretical framework on the role and risks of using simulations in platform regulation, and reports the results of interviews with 16 individuals.
๐ The 2026 DSA and Platform Regulation Conference: looking back
Our lab members made quite a few contributions to the annual conference organized by the @dsaobservatory.bsky.social and @ivir-uva.bsky.social โ in the form of papers, panels, and breakout sessions ๐๏ธ
๐ช๐บ What is the future of the EU's AI regulation?
@natalihelberger.bsky.social and @hannahruschemeier.bsky.social are holding a discussion in the Humane Conversations series on the direction of AI legislation in the EU, amidst Digital Omnibus proposals.
๐
03/03 | 15:00
Register: tinyurl.com/4e4mv6hm
๐ฅ We've just had a packed ELSA Network day event!
Members of the steering committee & 6 AI ELSA Labs in the Netherlands all gathered to exchange knowledge, showcase latest projects and collaborations, and discuss the central theme of impact.
๐ See the highlights: www.aim4dem.nl/looking-back...
A recent visit to our lab by Mae Sosto, a PhD candidate at @cwi-amsterdam.bsky.social, has sparked conversation on how LLM outputs about European LGBTQIA+ rights policy can be evaluated through research. How can we adapt methodologies to this area of research?
๐ More about Mae: maesosto.github.io
๐ฐ New preprint! By @ferraribraun.bsky.social and @ccs.bsky.social, highlighting the hidden influences of European news media's reliance on the cloud infrastructures of Big Tech. For news work, autonomy is decreasing, while vulnerabilities are increasing.
Read here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Lei Nelissen from Studio Falkland recently visited us to discuss Dutch digital autonomy: starting from their online visualizer (zijnwealautonoom.nl) we had conversations on the pain points of reliance on Big Tech, finding alternatives, and scaling efforts.
๐ Read more: www.aim4dem.nl/are-we-alrea...
โจ New publication by lab member @annaschjoett.bsky.social with @nadjaschaetz.bsky.social!
This ethnographic study explores how journalists interface with online courses on AI use in the newsroom, what they learn, and how didactic material may be biased.
Read here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
๐๏ธ The AI-generated visual disinformation being spread by the White House regarding a recent protester arrest is damaging the already dwindling credibility of photos as proof.
Our lab director @claesdevreese.bsky.social has spoken with @rtl.nl and @france24.com about this: tinyurl.com/3y3fvbz9
๐๏ธ Our lab is organizing a panel discussion with @natalihelberger.bsky.social and special guest @oscarwestlund.bsky.social on the global challenges posed to academic freedom. Join to learn why defending it matters!
๐ SPUI25 (and online)
๐
24.02 | 17:00
Sign up for free: www.spui25.nl/programma/ac...
๐ข A national AI board is needed in the Netherlands!
Our lab directors @natalihelberger.bsky.social and @claesdevreese.bsky.social, and our board member Pascal Wiggers, have signed an open letter asking the government to establish a regulatory body for AI.
Read more: www.aim4dem.nl/letter-to-th...
๐ Our lab co-director @natalihelberger.bsky.social has become the namesake of an award (which is now taking applications)!
See more about the Natali Helberger Award created by @tomasdodds.bsky.social, at the Public Tech Media Lab of @uwsjmc.bsky.social:
ptml.sjmc.wisc.edu/natali-helbe...
โ Last weeks to apply to the legal postdoc position hosted by @ivir-uva.bsky.social and AIMD!
Our department is looking for a researcher to explore the legal aspects of inclusive technologies for access & social participation.
๐ Apply here, deadline 31 January 2026:
werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...