Alek Tarkowski
@alek.bsky.social
Doing my share to help the digital commons grow. Director of Strategy at openfuture.eu, sociologist and digital activist. European perspective on global challenges. Board Chair at Centrum Cyfrowe, Board Member at Wikimedia Europe. Bread, tea, apples.
„So reform the system if you must, establish grants for creators, tax Big Tech developers up to the gills and give the money to creators; anything but the assumption that the traditional remuneration system has any hope of surviving”
- @technollama.bsky.social on the #copyright AI singularity
- @technollama.bsky.social on the #copyright AI singularity
How AI is breaking traditional remuneration models
It’s been a busy few weeks in the AI and copyright beat, and while I’ve been following all of the developments closely, I haven’t had the time to react to everything in the blog. …
www.technollama.co.uk
July 10, 2025 at 6:37 AM
„So reform the system if you must, establish grants for creators, tax Big Tech developers up to the gills and give the money to creators; anything but the assumption that the traditional remuneration system has any hope of surviving”
- @technollama.bsky.social on the #copyright AI singularity
- @technollama.bsky.social on the #copyright AI singularity
“Europe will need to do more than come up with new wrappings for the same chips” - good piece by @lionellaurent.bsky.social for Bloomberg on European AI sovereignty - and NVIDIA as the main beneficiary of this effort #publicAI
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Nvidia’s ‘Sovereign’ AI Could Win a Prize for Irony
The global scramble for chips risks entrenching new tech dependencies in Europe.
www.bloomberg.com
June 25, 2025 at 11:23 AM
“Europe will need to do more than come up with new wrappings for the same chips” - good piece by @lionellaurent.bsky.social for Bloomberg on European AI sovereignty - and NVIDIA as the main beneficiary of this effort #publicAI
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
New piece from my co-director Zuza Warso. Good overview of EU’s current take on digital sovereignty and public infrastructures
🇪🇺 The EU's new digital policies are ambitious—but without substantial investment in public infrastructure and alternatives to Big Tech, they will remain merely aspirational.
Read Zuzanna Warso's analysis of recent EU digital policy developments: openfuture.eu/blog/europe-...
Read Zuzanna Warso's analysis of recent EU digital policy developments: openfuture.eu/blog/europe-...
Europe Talks Digital Sovereignty – Open Future
The EU takes steps toward digital sovereignty with new policies, but success requires substantial investment in public digital infrastructure.
openfuture.eu
June 12, 2025 at 12:23 PM
New piece from my co-director Zuza Warso. Good overview of EU’s current take on digital sovereignty and public infrastructures
Reposted by Alek Tarkowski
For the past few years, me, Kris at Naive and Matt at Reddit have been running the Tiny Awards, celebrating the good bits of the web. THEY ARE BACK IN 2025 AND NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN! Please tell your friends and share the link, as a small act of resistence to everything being shit: tinyawards.net
Tiny Awards
This is the home of the Tiny Awards, which, since 2023, has celebrated the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.
tinyawards.net
June 2, 2025 at 10:18 AM
For the past few years, me, Kris at Naive and Matt at Reddit have been running the Tiny Awards, celebrating the good bits of the web. THEY ARE BACK IN 2025 AND NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN! Please tell your friends and share the link, as a small act of resistence to everything being shit: tinyawards.net
“Making for the web is easy, but most of us have forgotten how – ceding our digital agency to platforms and corporate landlords.”
@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social + @sachajudd.com on building the Good Internet, out of the cozy web bits. Good stuff.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/good-inter...
@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social + @sachajudd.com on building the Good Internet, out of the cozy web bits. Good stuff.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/good-inter...
How to Build the Good Internet
Stepping out of the dark forest and reclaiming a social, handmade and cozy web
zine.kleinkleinklein.com
June 7, 2025 at 8:23 PM
“Making for the web is easy, but most of us have forgotten how – ceding our digital agency to platforms and corporate landlords.”
@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social + @sachajudd.com on building the Good Internet, out of the cozy web bits. Good stuff.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/good-inter...
@kleinkleinklein.bsky.social + @sachajudd.com on building the Good Internet, out of the cozy web bits. Good stuff.
zine.kleinkleinklein.com/p/good-inter...
Reposted by Alek Tarkowski
🤖 Join us May 20 for a discussion on Public AI. We will present a new white paper, commissioned by @bertelsmannst.bsky.social, with authors @felice.bsky.social and @alek.bsky.social, as well as industry experts.
📅 15:00 CEST | Free online event
openfuture.eu/event/online...
📅 15:00 CEST | Free online event
openfuture.eu/event/online...
May 9, 2025 at 9:32 AM
🤖 Join us May 20 for a discussion on Public AI. We will present a new white paper, commissioned by @bertelsmannst.bsky.social, with authors @felice.bsky.social and @alek.bsky.social, as well as industry experts.
📅 15:00 CEST | Free online event
openfuture.eu/event/online...
📅 15:00 CEST | Free online event
openfuture.eu/event/online...
“Europe Must Build: a Strategic Reset” by @nicolascolin.bsky.social, great piece that has faith in Europe’s tech capacity.
Colin proposes “decentralized coordination” as mode of operations suited for EU’s diversity
Useful for thinking about #publicAI in Europe.
www.driftsignal.com/p/building-i...
Colin proposes “decentralized coordination” as mode of operations suited for EU’s diversity
Useful for thinking about #publicAI in Europe.
www.driftsignal.com/p/building-i...
Europe Must Build: A Strategic Reset
Drift Signal #253
www.driftsignal.com
April 12, 2025 at 12:49 PM
“Europe Must Build: a Strategic Reset” by @nicolascolin.bsky.social, great piece that has faith in Europe’s tech capacity.
Colin proposes “decentralized coordination” as mode of operations suited for EU’s diversity
Useful for thinking about #publicAI in Europe.
www.driftsignal.com/p/building-i...
Colin proposes “decentralized coordination” as mode of operations suited for EU’s diversity
Useful for thinking about #publicAI in Europe.
www.driftsignal.com/p/building-i...
The European Commission published the AI Continent Action Plan, with the aim of building a European approach that is innovative and competitive in the "race for leadership in AI".
Here’s my analysis: ttps://openfuture.eu/blog/from-ai-factories-to-public-value/
#ai #publicAI #europe
Here’s my analysis: ttps://openfuture.eu/blog/from-ai-factories-to-public-value/
#ai #publicAI #europe
From AI Factories to Public Value – Open Future
The AI Continent Action Plan needs a stronger vision of purposeful AI deployment if it wants to achieve more than just boost commercial AI development.
openfuture.eu
April 11, 2025 at 6:13 AM
“Algo decision making systems are “leviathans”, harmful not for their arbitrariness or opacity, but systemacity of decisions"
- @christinalu.bsky.social on need for plural #AI model ontologies (sounds technical, but has big consequences for human #commons)
www.combinationsmag.com/model-plural...
- @christinalu.bsky.social on need for plural #AI model ontologies (sounds technical, but has big consequences for human #commons)
www.combinationsmag.com/model-plural...
Model Plurality
Current research in “plural alignment” concentrates on making AI models amenable to diverse human values. But plurality is not simply a safeguard against bias or an engine of efficiency: it’s a key in...
www.combinationsmag.com
April 2, 2025 at 7:57 AM
“Algo decision making systems are “leviathans”, harmful not for their arbitrariness or opacity, but systemacity of decisions"
- @christinalu.bsky.social on need for plural #AI model ontologies (sounds technical, but has big consequences for human #commons)
www.combinationsmag.com/model-plural...
- @christinalu.bsky.social on need for plural #AI model ontologies (sounds technical, but has big consequences for human #commons)
www.combinationsmag.com/model-plural...
Strong piece from @dacemoglumit.bsky.social on the AI opportunity
- public interest AI will be built only if societies don't leave it just to the developers and engineers, and also
- EU needs to build alternatives to the "Silicon Valley model"
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
- public interest AI will be built only if societies don't leave it just to the developers and engineers, and also
- EU needs to build alternatives to the "Silicon Valley model"
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
Will We Squander the AI Opportunity? | by Daron Acemoglu - Project Syndicate
Daron Acemoglu worries that the technology is on track to disempower, rather than complement, most of humanity.
www.project-syndicate.org
March 20, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Strong piece from @dacemoglumit.bsky.social on the AI opportunity
- public interest AI will be built only if societies don't leave it just to the developers and engineers, and also
- EU needs to build alternatives to the "Silicon Valley model"
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
- public interest AI will be built only if societies don't leave it just to the developers and engineers, and also
- EU needs to build alternatives to the "Silicon Valley model"
www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
Good op-ed in NYT about the tech billionaries and companies they own, and how antithetical to democracy they are. good quotes from @himself.bsky.social who does some of the best thinking on this.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/o...
Opinion | It May Not Be Brainwashing, but It’s Not Democracy, Either (Gift Article)
How the federal government became “an outdated software system that must be replaced.”
www.nytimes.com
March 19, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Good op-ed in NYT about the tech billionaries and companies they own, and how antithetical to democracy they are. good quotes from @himself.bsky.social who does some of the best thinking on this.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/o...
A proposal for how the UK National Data Library could function (from Feb, I'm catching up on #publicAI examples).
Sounds a lot like #publicdatacommons.
And a good example of a data-first pathway to more public AI (and other tech policy goals)
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/tbi-ndl
Sounds a lot like #publicdatacommons.
And a good example of a data-first pathway to more public AI (and other tech policy goals)
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/tbi-ndl
Here's a pitch for what the National Data Library should actually be
Do you want to be a National Data Librarian?
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk
March 19, 2025 at 11:49 AM
A proposal for how the UK National Data Library could function (from Feb, I'm catching up on #publicAI examples).
Sounds a lot like #publicdatacommons.
And a good example of a data-first pathway to more public AI (and other tech policy goals)
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/tbi-ndl
Sounds a lot like #publicdatacommons.
And a good example of a data-first pathway to more public AI (and other tech policy goals)
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/tbi-ndl
David Braue writes about the National Library of Australia, which began Terms of Use, limiting open access to its resources.
Braue describes the context as "voracious genAI training algorithms overstay open government’s welcome".
ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...
Braue describes the context as "voracious genAI training algorithms overstay open government’s welcome".
ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...
National Library cracks down on public data access
Archives are throttling access to data that was supposed to be open.
ia.acs.org.au
March 18, 2025 at 3:11 PM
David Braue writes about the National Library of Australia, which began Terms of Use, limiting open access to its resources.
Braue describes the context as "voracious genAI training algorithms overstay open government’s welcome".
ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...
Braue describes the context as "voracious genAI training algorithms overstay open government’s welcome".
ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...
This Guardian piece looks at how Nordic countries, once at the forefront of digital payments, now see cash as a crucial mechanism for resilience. Social campaigns are encouraging people to pay with cash, at least once in a while.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
As cyberwarfare threat looms, cashless Nordic nations go back to banknotes | Miranda Bryant
Nordic countries were early adopters of digital payments. Now, electronic banking is seen as a potential threat to national security
www.theguardian.com
March 18, 2025 at 1:43 PM
This Guardian piece looks at how Nordic countries, once at the forefront of digital payments, now see cash as a crucial mechanism for resilience. Social campaigns are encouraging people to pay with cash, at least once in a while.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
I've been working on a white paper on #publicAI policies and learned in the process that sound proposals are imposible without deep technical dive into the #AI stack. THis is a great NYT explainer on GPUs, data centers, energy and water use for AI.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
What DeepSeek? Big Tech Keeps Its A.I. Building Boom Alive.
An apparent breakthrough in efficiency from the Chinese start-up did not make tech’s biggest companies question their extravagant spending on new data centers.
www.nytimes.com
March 18, 2025 at 8:58 AM
I've been working on a white paper on #publicAI policies and learned in the process that sound proposals are imposible without deep technical dive into the #AI stack. THis is a great NYT explainer on GPUs, data centers, energy and water use for AI.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
@communia.bsky.social analysis of the recent draft European research strategy 2025-2027. Good to see a strong commitment to #openscience. And an overall #publicinterest perspective - which is often missing from EU’s broader digital strategies
communia-association.org/2025/03/10/e...
communia-association.org/2025/03/10/e...
Proposal for the European Research Area Policy Agenda 2025-2027
At the end of February, the European Commission adopted its proposal for a Council Recommendation on the European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda for 2025 to 2027. COMMUNIA supports the Commission’s...
communia-association.org
March 17, 2025 at 9:54 AM
@communia.bsky.social analysis of the recent draft European research strategy 2025-2027. Good to see a strong commitment to #openscience. And an overall #publicinterest perspective - which is often missing from EU’s broader digital strategies
communia-association.org/2025/03/10/e...
communia-association.org/2025/03/10/e...
New piece from my @jankrewer.bsky.social , my team member, on how EU should seek Exit from current digital challenges to #publicdigitalinfrastructure, in @techpolicypress.bsky.social
www.techpolicy.press/looking-for-...
#publicAI
www.techpolicy.press/looking-for-...
#publicAI
Looking for an Exit: Europe’s Way to Public Digital Infrastructures | TechPolicy.Press
The EU must fund and govern digital commons as part of long-term public infrastructure to escape a cycle of dependency, writes Jan Krewer.
www.techpolicy.press
March 6, 2025 at 2:44 PM
New piece from my @jankrewer.bsky.social , my team member, on how EU should seek Exit from current digital challenges to #publicdigitalinfrastructure, in @techpolicypress.bsky.social
www.techpolicy.press/looking-for-...
#publicAI
www.techpolicy.press/looking-for-...
#publicAI
AI is meant to be destroying knowledge jobs, but at the moment, in the #US, it’s the state that’s destroying PhD jobs through funding cuts. The key question is then, how do the two trends intertwine? (And I guess it’s a #publicAI question)
www.msn.com/en-ca/money/...
www.msn.com/en-ca/money/...
MSN
www.msn.com
March 6, 2025 at 12:54 PM
AI is meant to be destroying knowledge jobs, but at the moment, in the #US, it’s the state that’s destroying PhD jobs through funding cuts. The key question is then, how do the two trends intertwine? (And I guess it’s a #publicAI question)
www.msn.com/en-ca/money/...
www.msn.com/en-ca/money/...
"as we build new social media, we need to keep in mind lessons learned from activist efforts to make corporate social media better" - @mallory.techpolicy.social.ap.brid.gy , at #rightscon panel on new social web. Fixing big platforms + alternatives is two pronged strategy for #digitalpublicspace
February 25, 2025 at 1:16 AM
"as we build new social media, we need to keep in mind lessons learned from activist efforts to make corporate social media better" - @mallory.techpolicy.social.ap.brid.gy , at #rightscon panel on new social web. Fixing big platforms + alternatives is two pronged strategy for #digitalpublicspace
An amazing #opensourceAI story: Perplexity AI took the DeepSeek R1 model and de-censored it.
the-decoder.com/perplexity-a...
the-decoder.com/perplexity-a...
Perplexity AI removes Chinese censorship from Deepseek R1
Perplexity AI has unveiled R1 1776, a modified version of the Deepseek-R1 language model specifically designed to overcome Chinese censorship through specialized post-training techniques.
the-decoder.com
February 21, 2025 at 8:10 AM
An amazing #opensourceAI story: Perplexity AI took the DeepSeek R1 model and de-censored it.
the-decoder.com/perplexity-a...
the-decoder.com/perplexity-a...
Looking forward to #RightsCon, and seeing how ideas about #AI as public infrastructure resonate with people who focus on #digitalrights.
🤖 Join us at @rightscon.org next Tuesday (Jan 25, 10:15 CST–Taiwan time) to explore #PublicAI.
@bertelsmannst.bsky.social hosts this session where experts from Taiwan AI Academy, Open Future, and Thomson Reuters will discuss pathways to democratizing AI.
www.rightscon.org
#RightsCon2025
@bertelsmannst.bsky.social hosts this session where experts from Taiwan AI Academy, Open Future, and Thomson Reuters will discuss pathways to democratizing AI.
www.rightscon.org
#RightsCon2025
February 20, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Looking forward to #RightsCon, and seeing how ideas about #AI as public infrastructure resonate with people who focus on #digitalrights.
Reposted by Alek Tarkowski
@alek.bsky.social will present research on #OpenSourceAI by @opensource.org and Open Future—featuring insights from #DataGovernance experts—examining how #OpenAI can prioritize public access over private commodification.
📙 openfuture.eu/publication/...
📙 openfuture.eu/publication/...
February 20, 2025 at 11:58 AM
@alek.bsky.social will present research on #OpenSourceAI by @opensource.org and Open Future—featuring insights from #DataGovernance experts—examining how #OpenAI can prioritize public access over private commodification.
📙 openfuture.eu/publication/...
📙 openfuture.eu/publication/...
Reposted by Alek Tarkowski
🇪🇺 The #EuroStack report proposes €300B for EU tech sovereignty through chips, AI, and cloud infrastructure.
Read @jankrewer.bsky.social's analysis:
openfuture.eu/blog/eurosta...
Read @jankrewer.bsky.social's analysis:
openfuture.eu/blog/eurosta...
February 18, 2025 at 8:58 AM
🇪🇺 The #EuroStack report proposes €300B for EU tech sovereignty through chips, AI, and cloud infrastructure.
Read @jankrewer.bsky.social's analysis:
openfuture.eu/blog/eurosta...
Read @jankrewer.bsky.social's analysis:
openfuture.eu/blog/eurosta...
“the future lies in institutional reform – in rebuilding the public institutions that have been “eaten” by the profit-driven platforms”
– Mike Pepi talks #publicdigitalinfrastructure in Dazed piece on #platform alternatives (with rare mainstream / pop tone
www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture...
– Mike Pepi talks #publicdigitalinfrastructure in Dazed piece on #platform alternatives (with rare mainstream / pop tone
www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture...
Social media is in a death spiral – so what comes next?
It’s clear that X, Instagram and TikTok are broken, but the problem runs deeper than any single platform. Is it possible to build something better?
www.dazeddigital.com
February 17, 2025 at 7:56 PM
“the future lies in institutional reform – in rebuilding the public institutions that have been “eaten” by the profit-driven platforms”
– Mike Pepi talks #publicdigitalinfrastructure in Dazed piece on #platform alternatives (with rare mainstream / pop tone
www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture...
– Mike Pepi talks #publicdigitalinfrastructure in Dazed piece on #platform alternatives (with rare mainstream / pop tone
www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture...