Peter Hall
@peterha2l.bsky.social
Science and tech writer. PhD student in Cryptography @ NYU. 2025 MMF at MIT Technology Review. Signal: @PeterHall.1142
Deportations and denials of entry. Visa delays. Researchers avoiding US meetings. It’s been bubbling up for a while, but the international collaboration crisis in science is here. My latest Op-Ed for @undark.org undark.org/2026/01/01/o...
The Uncertain Future of International Scientific Collaboration
Opinion | It’s getting harder for scientists from around the world to work together. Researchers must find ways to adapt.
undark.org
January 7, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Deportations and denials of entry. Visa delays. Researchers avoiding US meetings. It’s been bubbling up for a while, but the international collaboration crisis in science is here. My latest Op-Ed for @undark.org undark.org/2026/01/01/o...
Reposted by Peter Hall
For many, the end of the year is an opportunity to catch up on reading or to purchase books as gifts. In 2025, a number of authors joined the Tech Policy Press podcast, providing fresh insights into how technology interacts with people, politics, and power. Check out the list:
Tech Policy Press: The Year in Books 2025 | TechPolicy.Press
In 2025, a number of authors joined the Tech Policy Press podcast, providing fresh insights into how technology interacts with people, politics, and power.
www.techpolicy.press
December 22, 2025 at 6:31 PM
For many, the end of the year is an opportunity to catch up on reading or to purchase books as gifts. In 2025, a number of authors joined the Tech Policy Press podcast, providing fresh insights into how technology interacts with people, politics, and power. Check out the list:
My first piece at Quanta Magazine is out! Cryptography and other fields in TCS holds a lot of promise for helping us understand how LLMs and other AI models work, and I’m excited to continue following this in the coming years.
If you swap each letter in “bomb” with the next letter in the alphabet, you’ll get “cpnc.” Recently, scientists showed that and other methods can bypass filters on LLMs like Gemini, DeepSeek and Grok. @peterha2l.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/cryptographe...
Cryptographers Show That AI Protections Will Always Have Holes | Quanta Magazine
Large language models such as ChatGPT come with filters to keep certain info from getting out. A new mathematical argument shows that systems like this can never be completely safe.
www.quantamagazine.org
December 10, 2025 at 7:32 PM
My first piece at Quanta Magazine is out! Cryptography and other fields in TCS holds a lot of promise for helping us understand how LLMs and other AI models work, and I’m excited to continue following this in the coming years.
Reposted by Peter Hall
404 Media is making a print zine about the surveillance tactics used by ICE, and how people are resisting this tech.
Why? Print media is cool. Also, 404 Media has watched ICE grow from an already horrifying organization into a deportation force that is better funded than most militaries.
Why? Print media is cool. Also, 404 Media has watched ICE grow from an already horrifying organization into a deportation force that is better funded than most militaries.
404 Media Is Making a Zine
We are publishing a risograph-printed zine about the surveillance technologies used by ICE.
www.404media.co
December 8, 2025 at 5:29 PM
404 Media is making a print zine about the surveillance tactics used by ICE, and how people are resisting this tech.
Why? Print media is cool. Also, 404 Media has watched ICE grow from an already horrifying organization into a deportation force that is better funded than most militaries.
Why? Print media is cool. Also, 404 Media has watched ICE grow from an already horrifying organization into a deportation force that is better funded than most militaries.
Reposted by Peter Hall
💻 Spotlight on Peter! @peterha2l.bsky.social spent the summer digging into stories @technologyreview.com, supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation. Don’t miss his work: www.aaas.org/programs/mas...
#MassMediaFellowship #SciComm
#MassMediaFellowship #SciComm
November 24, 2025 at 4:11 PM
💻 Spotlight on Peter! @peterha2l.bsky.social spent the summer digging into stories @technologyreview.com, supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation. Don’t miss his work: www.aaas.org/programs/mas...
#MassMediaFellowship #SciComm
#MassMediaFellowship #SciComm
Reposted by Peter Hall
Can AI simulations of human research participants advance cognitive science? In @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social, @lmesseri.bsky.social & I analyze this vision. We show how “AI Surrogates” entrench practices that limit the generalizability of cognitive science while aspiring to do the opposite. 1/
AI Surrogates and illusions of generalizability in cognitive science
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated enthusiasm for using AI simulations of human research participants to generate new know…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Can AI simulations of human research participants advance cognitive science? In @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social, @lmesseri.bsky.social & I analyze this vision. We show how “AI Surrogates” entrench practices that limit the generalizability of cognitive science while aspiring to do the opposite. 1/
Wrote this piece on battery recycling for AI microgrids a while ago, and now it’s out!
Redwood Materials is one of the largest battery recyclers in the US. Now, the company is using old batteries from electric vehicles to power AI.
We named Redwood Materials to this year's list of 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch.
We named Redwood Materials to this year's list of 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch.
2025 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Redwood Materials and its new AI microgrids
One of the largest US battery recyclers is using old batteries from electric vehicles to power AI.
www.technologyreview.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Wrote this piece on battery recycling for AI microgrids a while ago, and now it’s out!
Reposted by Peter Hall
The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”
OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT
GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.
www.theverge.com
October 11, 2025 at 12:02 PM
The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”
The 2026 AAAS Mass Media Fellowship application is open! This program was one of the best experiences of my PhD, highly recommend it for anyone interested in #SciComm /Journalism. Happy to answer questions about the app or @technologyreview.com.
@aaasmassmedia.bsky.social @aaas.org
aaas.org/mmf
@aaasmassmedia.bsky.social @aaas.org
aaas.org/mmf
AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship
This 10-week summer program places science, engineering, and mathematics students at media organizations nationwide. Fellows use their academic training as they research, write, and report today’s hea...
aaas.org
October 1, 2025 at 2:25 PM
The 2026 AAAS Mass Media Fellowship application is open! This program was one of the best experiences of my PhD, highly recommend it for anyone interested in #SciComm /Journalism. Happy to answer questions about the app or @technologyreview.com.
@aaasmassmedia.bsky.social @aaas.org
aaas.org/mmf
@aaasmassmedia.bsky.social @aaas.org
aaas.org/mmf
One of the final pieces I worked on as a fellow for Technology Review is now up. I profiled James Zou and covered both his Nature article and his upcoming conference #Agents4Science, where AI must be the primary author of submitted papers.
Link here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/22/1...
Link here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/22/1...
Meet the researcher hosting a scientific conference by and for AI
James Zou used virtual AI ‘scientists’ to find novel covid-19 treatments. Now, he’s having AI review and present all of the research at a controversial new conference.
www.technologyreview.com
August 25, 2025 at 12:53 PM
One of the final pieces I worked on as a fellow for Technology Review is now up. I profiled James Zou and covered both his Nature article and his upcoming conference #Agents4Science, where AI must be the primary author of submitted papers.
Link here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/22/1...
Link here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/22/1...
New at Technology Review today. Some astrophysicists are worried we are due for a bad storm like the Carrington Event (the last superstorm, from 1859). Being able to predict bad storms will be needed to mitigate the havoc this would cause to electrical grids, satellites, etc. #SpaceSky #Space #NASA
Surya, an AI model developed by NASA and IBM, tries to find hidden patterns in solar data to detect solar flares and winds.
NASA’s new AI model can predict when a solar storm may strike
Surya, an AI model developed by NASA and IBM, tries to find hidden patterns in solar data to detect solar flares and winds.
www.technologyreview.com
August 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Devs at all sorts of companies are already hard at work building MCP servers that will let AI agents send emails, edit databases, and more. But there’s still a long way to go to making sure these agents act safely, transparently, and efficiently. Read more at www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/04/1...
These protocols will help AI agents navigate our messy lives
Anthropic, Google, and others are developing better ways for agents to interact with our programs and each other, but there’s still more work to be done.
www.technologyreview.com
August 5, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Devs at all sorts of companies are already hard at work building MCP servers that will let AI agents send emails, edit databases, and more. But there’s still a long way to go to making sure these agents act safely, transparently, and efficiently. Read more at www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/04/1...
A little bit of data viz for @technologyreview.com today about where AI is impacting work. Check out some more charts and the rest of the story here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/16/1...
July 16, 2025 at 4:43 PM
A little bit of data viz for @technologyreview.com today about where AI is impacting work. Check out some more charts and the rest of the story here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/16/1...
It seems like safety and responsible AI folks are pushing in a lot of possible directions at once, but one that I’ve found following (with some reservations) for a while has been machine unlearning. Here’s one potential app of it to combat audio deepfakes.
This is an important step in stopping the rise of audio deepfakes.
AI text-to-speech programs could “unlearn” how to imitate certain people
New research shows models can be directly edited to hide selected voices, even when users specifically ask for them.
www.technologyreview.com
July 15, 2025 at 1:25 PM
It seems like safety and responsible AI folks are pushing in a lot of possible directions at once, but one that I’ve found following (with some reservations) for a while has been machine unlearning. Here’s one potential app of it to combat audio deepfakes.
New story out for @technologyreview.com today. Working artists are on the frontier of the impacts of AI, and seeing what people are doing in this space will give the the blueprints for everyone else.
A new technique called LightShed will make it harder for artists to use existing protective tools to stop their work from being ingested for AI training. It’s the next step in a cat-and-mouse game—across technology, law, and culture—that has been going on between artists and AI proponents for years.
This tool strips away anti-AI protections from digital art
The proof-of-concept technology removes a layer of digital “poison” meant to disrupt AI models that scrape online images for training.
www.technologyreview.com
July 10, 2025 at 1:57 PM
New story out for @technologyreview.com today. Working artists are on the frontier of the impacts of AI, and seeing what people are doing in this space will give the the blueprints for everyone else.