Kristina McElheran
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kmcelheran.bsky.social
Kristina McElheran
@kmcelheran.bsky.social

Associate Prof at University of Toronto. Digitization scholar studying firm use of technology, productivity, strategy, and the future of work.

Business 68%
Economics 20%
Pinned
Beware of coverage of AI-related pre-prints...unless they are mine. ;-)
The A.I.-Profits Drought and the Lessons of History
Like the steam engine, electricity, and computers, generative artificial intelligence could take longer than expected to transform the economy.
www.newyorker.com

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

Well my assumptions are so bad for this environment...

The RL Agent says "i made big number! Exactly how you told me to. Ive made more GDP than the world and now operate in Space Bucks"

And im just like

"Well.. no.. not like that"

Im laughing crying

youtube.com/shorts/mrmqR...

#econsky
When your program does as it’s programmed to do
YouTube video by Devslopes
youtube.com

Honestly, I think this is why the “gig economy” is potentially so destabilizing. It really tampers with the deep Connective Tissue of Life in ways that are hard to model. Especially hard to grapple with from within
a disciplinary silo…
1. Herbert Simon wrote that if a visitor came from Mars and observed the world economy they would call it "organization economy", not "market economy" because almost everyone is either an employer or an employee somewhere, not an independent household.

Dark, but having trouble finding the humour. I’m supposed to be writing about data-driven decision making and analytics and AI. But it’s hard to be serious about “improved decision making” when we basically just ignore stuff that makes us uncomfortable.
Dark humor things I think about lately is the fact that I haven’t heard people say the phrase “we have the tools” regarding Covid anymore.

National stockpiles haven’t been replenished, variant surveillance is dying, wastewater surveillance isn’t standardized, mask bans are being pushed…

Under his eye.

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

1. Herbert Simon wrote that if a visitor came from Mars and observed the world economy they would call it "organization economy", not "market economy" because almost everyone is either an employer or an employee somewhere, not an independent household.
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
For @teenvogue.com I wrote about the death of trans athlete Lia Smith and how trans youth kind themselves with central pillars of their lives being constantly ripped away from them because of politics. www.teenvogue.com/story/politi...
Politicizing Transgender Athletes Is Dangerous. Lia Smith Deserved Better.
"Let her passing be an inflection point for how you think about trans rights and trans people more generally."
www.teenvogue.com

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

Dark humor things I think about lately is the fact that I haven’t heard people say the phrase “we have the tools” regarding Covid anymore.

National stockpiles haven’t been replenished, variant surveillance is dying, wastewater surveillance isn’t standardized, mask bans are being pushed…

This is both informative and hilarious.

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

Congratulations to Sabrina Shroff on obtaining a “not guilty” for client: Sean “Sandwich Guy” Dunn on misdemeanor charges of assaulting a federal officer with a Subway sandwich.

I had the pleasure to work alongside Ms. Shroff in a high-profile federal case in SDNY. She is a fierce advocate.
Jury acquits D.C. 'sandwich guy' charged with chucking a sub at a federal agent
Sean Dunn faced a single misdemeanor after federal grand jurors refused to indict him on the felony charge sought by prosecutors.
www.nbcnews.com

It’s wild to re-watch the Handmaid’s Tale right now. We are so unbelievably dumb.
By this time next week, the estimated deaths due to the illegal destruction of USAID and the shuttering of its aid efforts will breach 400,000.

More than 260,000 will be children.

Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...
Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts
Brooke Nichols has launched online tracking tools that capture estimated increases in mortality and disease spread for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases as a result of the near-total...
www.bu.edu
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
Mamdani: "We can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him."
WOW. 81% of women 18-29 voted for Mamdani, 80% for Sherril, and 78% for Spanberger.

Gen Z women aren't playing around.

Sounds like a joke I used to tell my young kids about the dribbling in basketball!🏀
Some charts for those who don't know the extent of the US public (and private) investment in research (particularly in biomedical research) compared to other countries and institutions. The destruction of the US' scientific institutions has global implications.

That sounds awesome.
Pay $500/month&request on phone app a task to be done-human virtually in your house teleops robot-sometimes succeeds. "In reality, projects like Tesla’s Optimus or 1X’s NEO are less about practical consumer robotics and more about cashing in off of technological hype." futurism.com/future-socie...
$20,000 Robot Servant Comes With a Major Catch
Owners of the NEO butler-bot from 1X will have to schedule a time for remote operators to plug in and complete tasks.
futurism.com

Come for the alliteration, stay for the insight.
Let me excerpt the concluding paragraph:

Betting that was on purpose so that his followers can watch the grammar scolds come out and confirm that woke lefty intelligentsia are “mean.”

Check the source. My first thought was, “they want to starve people into a fight” but then started reading the stats on who suffers most from SNAP losses. Unless the disabled and children are about to storm the stores, this is just more BS to trick people into accepting a police state.

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

You can now search our database of 3.5 million U.S. political, election, and social issue ads on Facebook and Instagram, dating back to October 10, 2023. Discover who’s running these ads and who they’re targeting. app.polidashboard.org/meta_ads?cou...
Let me excerpt the concluding paragraph:
why would he come for online trads like this

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

look at these down to earth, regular guys
From an Evanston resident filming an arrest at Oakton/Asbury ~an hour ago:

"He was being very violent with her, I said ‘You got to stop that,’ and he said, ‘Step back or I’ll fucking shoot you.‘ I step back, and then I continue to record, at which point he turned around and pointed a gun at me.”
Ahead of the 1st shutdown of US food aid to hungry Americans in 60 years, some of the 200,000 Little Free Library locations are converting into food pantries. Thanks @littlefreelibrary.bsky.social

I loved Tigana so much. I should go hide in it again one weekend soon…
There was a time, not all that long ago, when I really liked Tony Geer, who owns and runs Conversation Tree Press. That was then, now is his having sent me nearly a thousand sheets of his (drop-dead gorgeous) forthcoming special edition of TIGANA to sign. I’ll need lots of good jazz. And pens.

Reposted by Kristina McElheran

There was a time, not all that long ago, when I really liked Tony Geer, who owns and runs Conversation Tree Press. That was then, now is his having sent me nearly a thousand sheets of his (drop-dead gorgeous) forthcoming special edition of TIGANA to sign. I’ll need lots of good jazz. And pens.