Joanna Bryson
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j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson
@j2bryson.bsky.social
9.4K followers 710 following 6.5K posts

Professor of Ethics & Technology @ Hertie School, Berlin. Interests: Artificial & Natural Intelligence; Behavioural Ecology; Cooperation; Digital Governance. Social media policy: https://joanna-bryson.blogspot.com/2024/10/guidance-to-my-social-media.html .. more

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Joanna Joy Bryson is professor at Hertie School in Berlin. She works on Artificial Intelligence, ethics and collaborative cognition. She has been a British citizen since 2007.

Source: Wikipedia
Computer science 31%
Neuroscience 25%
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j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · Feb 19
thread. correct numbers and data backing them come later, but this is the thrust.
j2bryson.bsky.social Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · Feb 5
One thing I learned last week was that if you don’t count the BS market capitalisation bubble of 7 “AI” firms, the US economy as measured by the s&p 500 didn’t go up 13% last year; it went down 7%.

The EU may be a larger economy already. We need to get our own O2 mask on, then start helping others.
garymarcus.bsky.social Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · Feb 5
Guess why there was no reporting of AI revenue?

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

conjugateprior.org
Will Lowe @conjugateprior.org · 9h
While this is a classic Good diss, the highlighted section is more important. The key point for subjective Bayesians is that Quine et al. are right: you don't automatically know your own mind just because you talk to yourself about it. You're estimating things, and that includes your credibilities.
aseaton.bsky.social Andy Seaton @aseaton.bsky.social · 14h
I've been reading Good Statistics by I. J. Good. He's entertaining as a writer. He's also pretty good at letting you know exactly what he thinks in the most unimpeachably polite British way possible.

#statsky

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 11h
We are not supposed to know what is happening, or what has happened. Except right around us, which we should transmit for others to consolidate and know. -- the bad guys.

Academia and the Press, and in my opinion, all social media users who seek to build comms networks that work -- the good guys.

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 11h
Also, including me.

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 11h
Tho Xitter has long been useless for posts being seen (for me at least since 2019) but it still had the comms network we built AND a huge part of our history. Yesterday was the first day search there completely failed for me. It used to be astoundingly good, now you can't even retrieve by @-handle.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

isdglobal.bsky.social
Institute for Strategic Dialogue @isdglobal.bsky.social · 12h
Amelia, an AI-generated schoolgirl from a UK counter-extremism game, has been co-opted online as a far-right meme, inspiring viral edits & a cryptocurrency as users repurpose the character’s image & tone for political messaging. ISD’s Sid Venkataramakrishnan speaks to CNN & The Guardian below.
Amelia, the AI-generated character co-opted and monetised online
Amelia, an AI-generated character originally created for counter-extremism, has spread as a far-right meme, spawning monetisation efforts.
www.isdglobal.org

Reposted by Lilian Edwards

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 12h
Worth skimming through and reading the bottom, if you wonder what's happening in software engineering these days.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

simon.fedi.simonwillison.net.ap.brid.gy
Simon Willison @simon.fedi.simonwillison.net.ap.brid.gy · 12h
I built two new tools to help coding agents demonstrate their work beyond just running automated tests: Showboat and Rodney https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/10/showboat-and-rodney/
Introducing Showboat and Rodney, so agents can demo what they’ve built
A key challenge working with coding agents is having them both test what they’ve built and demonstrate that software to you, their overseer. This goes beyond automated tests—we need artifacts …
simonwillison.net

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Paul E. Smaldino

mrnkzr.bsky.social
Marijn Keijzer @mrnkzr.bsky.social · 13h
📖 Our book is out! 🎉

Computational Social Science of Social Cohesion and Polarization
is published, openly and freely available at doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-01373-6

(1/3)

#ComputationalSocialScience #Polarization #SocialCohesion #NetworkScience #ABM #TextAnalysis
Computational Social Science of Social Cohesion and Polarization
This open access book explores the decay of social cohesion in democratic societies through the lens of Computational Social Science (CSS)
doi.org

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

brianchristian.bsky.social
Brian Christian @brianchristian.bsky.social · 13h
But in both bias and sycophancy scenarios, LLMs can do something amazing that people cannot. They can use their own API to simply *ask themselves* the question with the relevant information redacted. We show this literal self-simulation vastly outperforms prompting.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

brianchristian.bsky.social
Brian Christian @brianchristian.bsky.social · 13h
New Preprint with @matanmazor.bsky.social: Overcoming both bias and sycophancy requires LLMs to imagine not knowing something they know. Like humans, they struggle with this. But unlike humans, LLMs can do something remarkable: they can, quite simply, *ask their counterfactual selves*.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Hugo Mercier

dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social
Duncan Stibbard Hawkes @dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social · 14h
📢 New Paper 🚨

Hadza food-sharing is egalitarian, yet offers in giving games have never matched the equitable redistribution seen in real life.

In this study, we allowed people to give *or* take. Lifelike equitable distributions only appeared when people took from peers in surplus.

bit.ly/4kvLOwA
The “I” in egalitarianism: Hadza hunter-gatherers averse to inequality primarily when personally unfavorable
Abstract. Many economists contend that humans have strong, universal, other-regarding equality preferences with deep evolutionary roots. Indeed, many hunte
academic.oup.com

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Meredith Broussard

stokel.bsky.social
Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 18h
How are governments integrating AI into their decision-making and legislative processes? I spoke to those on the front line, including the Estonian prime minister, for my latest for @techpolicypress.bsky.social techpolicy.press/governments-...
Governments Are Using AI To Draft Legislation. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
The power of AI to parse public responses or draft legislation is recognized worldwide. But how should lawmakers and leaders use the tech?
techpolicy.press

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Rosie A. Fisher, Mary Feeney , and 8 more

davidrvetter.bsky.social
Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 20h
"A modern-day concentration camp ... People have been killed by the staff here." Irish citizen Seamus Culleton has been in ICE detention since September, despite having a valid work permit and his own business in the US.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Shannon Vallor, Scott L. Greer , and 4 more

rocher.lc
Luc Rocher @rocher.lc · 1d
⚠️ Despite all the hype, chatbots still make terrible doctors. Out today is the largest user study of language models for medical self-diagnosis. We found that chatbots provide inaccurate and inconsistent answers, and that people are better off using online searches or their own judgment.
Banner image with screenshot of scientific article from nature Medicine, as well as two panels from the study method and results

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Katharine Hayhoe, Richard S.J. Tol , and 2 more

wxnb.bsky.social
Nahel Belgherze @wxnb.bsky.social · 1d
Grazalema, Spain, received over 2,000 mm (78 inches) of rain in just the last 20 days.

Over a year’s worth of rain — and it’s only early February. This is hydrologically absurd.

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d
Looks like he's not quite dead yet, actually www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar calls for Starmer to resign: ‘There have been too many mistakes’ – UK politics live
Sarwar says ‘the distraction needs to end’ as he becomes most senior Labour figure to call for PM to stand down
www.theguardian.com

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d
Looks like Starmer is not quite dead yet, actually. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d
Less important, but this somewhat boring may be right about SOME of Epstein. Can confirm that the fees people working for MIT get for speaking (from what I hear) are often a LOT higher than what Epstein was paying out (from what I read). paulkrugman.substack.com/p/seduced-by... @pkrugman.bsky.social
Seduced by the Louis XIV Treatment
What JD Vance and his entourage in Milan teach us about Epstein’s magnetism
paulkrugman.substack.com

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

cortesedaphne.bsky.social
Daphne Cortese @cortesedaphne.bsky.social · 1d
When studying animal physiology we carefully control temperature, oxygen…but often ignore who animals live with.

Social context such as parents (1), social environment (2), litter mates (3) can shape physiology and later plasticity (4). We discuss it in this commentary 👉 doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d
Japan and South Korea are two of the EU's most important partners in this new era. Strongly recommend this read (it assumes you know little and are American, sorry). Thanks Noah Smith for making this visible to non-paying subscribers. www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-takaic...
The Takaichi Era begins for real
Japan is leaving its pacifist era behind. That creates some interesting economic opportunities.
www.noahpinion.blog

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d
www.digitalcameraworld.com/cameras/secu...
Amazon denies that ICE can access Ring camera footage via opt-in ‘Community Requests’ feature
“Ring has no partnership with ICE, does not give ICE videos, feeds, or back-end access” – but alarm bells ring over who can access opt-in ‘Community Requests’
www.digitalcameraworld.com

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 1d
As much as I dislike anthropomorphism (even of children) I have to agree with that metaphor. Except matches are harder to strike!

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

drkatedevlin.bsky.social
Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 1d
"Meanwhile, over on social media, the price of freedom is eternal vigilantes – particularly those posting video doorbell footage on neighbourhood group chats, flagging anyone who walks past their house, often on suspicion of being foreign in a built-up area." www.perspectivemedia.com/youre-on-cam...
You’re on camera | Perspective Media
There’s a quotation by American historian Timothy Snyder currently circulating on social media. It comes from the opening of his pamphlet, On Tyranny, and i ...
www.perspectivemedia.com

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Joanna Bryson, Elizabeth Sharrow , and 7 more

phillewis.bsky.social
Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 2d
Here's that Ring #SuperBowl commercial:

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d
But possibly unable as individuals nations. We may even need scale-up beyond the EU. But I have hope we can get this on the agenda for the new rule-of-law oriented trade consortia. #transnationalUtilities

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

bindinghook.bsky.social
Binding Hook @bindinghook.bsky.social · 2d
Another example of what Anjuli Shere and Neil Ashdown meant when they wrote, "tech barons use their resources to shape when, how, and which policy issues are considered – acting as the ‘stage on which such politics unfold’, rather than as participants themselves."

bindinghook.com/private-powe...

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d
IMO the problem is we stopped identifying & regulating utilities – probably because utilities are no longer national, but transnational concerns. This is the kind of thing we need to negotiate new treaties about – how to govern such entities. #transnationalUtilities #digitalGovernance #twitter

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d
Apparently Pavel Durov sent this to every Telegram user in Spain, + all his own followers. While I actually tend to agree with the content, I also agree with @martingak.bsky.social (on linkedin) pointing out that this is too much power for political communication. 1/2
web.archive.org/web/20260205...
Pavel Durov
🇪🇸 My message to Telegram users in Spain ❗️ Pedro Sánchez’s government is pushing dangerous new regulations that threaten your internet freedoms. Announced just yesterday, these measures could turn S...
web.archive.org

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d
www.macsparky.com/blog/2026/02... nice, quick, near future of AI blogpost. Via @stumpy.com
I Built the Perfect AI Robot. Then I Pulled the Plug. - MacSparky
I built the AI assistant I’ve always wanted. Then I shut it down. For the last few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with OpenClaw, an open source project that started as ClawdBot, then became MultBot, a...
www.macsparky.com

j2bryson.bsky.social
Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 2d
This seven minute video gives a better sense of who she is and what she went through. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9dp... She is a hero, she's still fighting – to help inform policy on Iran and Iraq, and she's still finishing her PhD! 2/2 #ElizabethTsurkov
Student on life after captivity by Iraqi terror group: ‘You’re never the same’
YouTube video by ABC News
www.youtube.com