Today is the 12th anniversary of 369 Eritrean refugees who drowned in Lampedusa (Italy) exactly 12 years ago. As our researcher and refugee advocate Meron Estefanos wrote, one of them was 22 years old and was giving birth as she was drowning. Her body was later found with an umbilical cord attached to her baby. In this possible futures entry, @npub1zmkm...6wm0 imagines a future where the families of the disappeared find closure.
DAIR (Distributed AI Research Institute)
Closure for Families of the Missing
Behind every name is a family torn apart, a void where a loved one should be.
“These are really big, scary problems that are complex & challenging to address — it’s so easy to gravitate towards fantastical thinking & wanting a one-size-fits-all global solution. I think it’s the reason that so many people turn to cults & all sorts of really out there beliefs when the future feels scary & uncertain [...] this is not different than that. They just have billions of dollars to actually enact their ideas.” @npub19u84...pjzk , lead research engineer at the @npub1mmfh...2mx9
AP News
How Silicon Valley is using religious language to talk about AI
As the rapid, unregulated development of artificial intelligence continues, the language people in Silicon Valley use to describe it is becoming in...
"“AI isn’t magic; it’s a pyramid scheme of human labor,” said Adio Dinika, a researcher at the Distributed AI Research Institute based in Bremen, Germany. “These raters are the middle rung: invisible, essential and expendable.”
the Guardian
How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart
Contracted AI raters describe grueling deadlines, poor pay and opacity around work to make chatbots intelligent
In this article for Africa in Fact, Adio writes: “The choice facing Africa is stark: continue as a data colony providing cheap labour for surveillance tools that serve foreign interests, or assert digital sovereignty by developing governance frameworks that prioritise African lives over foreign profits. ”
Africa in Fact
AI surveillance and data colonialism shape African conflicts  - Africa in Fact
On 3 November 2021, Professor Meareg Amare, a respected chemistry academic at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, was gunned down o...
Surveillance Watch now has an interactive diagram that shows the high level of funding towards various surveillance technology types:
Surveillance Watch: They Know Who You Are
Surveillance Watch is an interactive map revealing the intricate connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations.
 You can click through to explore by funder as well, example:
Surveillance Watch: They Know Who You Are
Surveillance Watch is an interactive map revealing the intricate connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations.
 The belly of surveillance capitalism can only be exposed by following the money to understanding who's complicit in the usage of tech for war crimes, genocides, any other grave injustices etc. image
🔇🔇🔇Join us for an honest conversation with some of the people forging a better digital future. Event will be recorded for those who can't make it. ⏰ Thursday May 30th at 10am PDT/1pm EDT ➡️ Register at
Eventbrite
Imagining More: A Candid Convo About the Future of the Black Web Experience
Join us for a conversation with the people creating the next generation of social media platforms.
 More info on our amazing speakers below🧵 image
Join us at
Twitch
Twitch
Twitch is the world's leading video platform and community for gamers.
 in just a few hours for the launch of The AI Con (
THE AI CON
THE AI CON
How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
).
Distributed AI Research Community
Alex Hanna (@alex@dair-community.social)
Attached: 1 image TODAY at 2 PM PT! Join us as we celebrate the release of the THE AI CON! @emilymbender and I are so excited to chat with Vauhin...
"For all its promised benefits, the artificial-intelligence boom is likely to prove costly to public health and even lead to hundreds of deaths a year in the U.S. alone, and those ill effects are likely to disproportionately hit poorer communities, according to a study by California researchers..."
San Francisco Examiner
AI pollution could cost billions
Recent research projects AI data centers’ public-health harms.
Congratulations to @npub1z40l...s3fq for being awarded the 2025 Miles Conrad Awardee! "The award recognizes her critical work on the dangers of biases in AI as the information community grapples with ethics and rapidly advancing technologies." Dr. Gebru will deliver the Miles Conrad Lecture at #NISOPlus25.
Dr. Timnit Gebru to Receive the 2025 Miles Conrad Award
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Timnit Gebru, Executive Director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR), will b...
Congratulations to our very own @Alex Hanna for being named in Business Insider's 2024 "AI Power List."
Business Insider
Alex Hanna, DAIR's director of research explores AI's impact on communities
Alex Hanna, a former Google AI ethicist, is leading DAIR's research on communities most affected by AI.