Richard Veryard
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richardveryard.bsky.social
Richard Veryard
@richardveryard.bsky.social
39 followers 73 following 25 posts
Book: How to do things with data https://leanpub.com/howtodothingswithdata
Guest editor: Algorithmic Culture https://link.springer.com/collections/gcdhjbjafi
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richardveryard.bsky.social
Do I detect a note of sarcasm in @bvig.bsky.social's recent comment about the AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act, when he writes "with the difficulty of separating one layoff cause from the other, Hawley and Warner's bill may become essential"? posiwid.blogspot.com/2025/10/expl...
Explaining Layoffs
Earlier this year, I posted (not for the first time) an important question How soon might humans be replaced at work . Recent layoffs from A...
posiwid.blogspot.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Richard Veryard
abeba.bsky.social
so I am one of the 12 people (including the “god-fathers of AI”) that will be at the Vatican this September for a two full-day working group on the Future of AI

here is my Vatican approved short provocation on 'AI and Fraternity' for the working group
AI and Fraternity, Abeba Birhane, AI Accountability Lab I envision a future where human dignity, justice, peace, kindness, care, respect, accountability, and rights and freedoms serve as the north stars that guide AI development and use. Realising these ideals can’t happen without intentional tireless work, dialogues, and confrontations of ugly realities – even if they are uncomfortable to deal with. This starts with deciphering hype from reality. Pervasive narratives portray AI as a magical, fully autonomous entity approaching a God-like omnipotence and omniscience. In reality, audits of AI systems reveal a consistent failure to deliver on grandiose promises and suffer from all kinds of shortcomings, issues often swept under the rug. AI in general, and GenAI in particular, encodes and exacerbates historical stereotypes, entrenches harmful societal norms, and amplifies injustice. A robust body of evidence demonstrates that — from hiring, welfare allocation, medical care allocation to anything in between — deployment of AI is widening inequity, disproportionately impacting people at the margins of society and concentrating power and influence in the hands of few. Major actors—including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI—have willingly aligned with authoritarian regimes and proactively abandoned their pledges to fact-check, prevent misinformation, respect diversity and equity, refrain from using AI for weapons development, while retaliating against critique. The aforementioned vision can’t and won’t happen without confrontation of these uncomfortable facts. This is precisely why we need active resistance and refusal of unreliable and harmful AI systems; clearly laid out regulation and enforcement; and shepherding of the AI industry towards transparency and accountability of responsible bodies. "Machine agency" must be in service of human agency and empowerment, a coexistence that isn't a continuation of modern tech corporations’ inequality-widening,
August 4, 2025 at 11:31 AM
richardveryard.bsky.social
In his commentary on a recent guilty embrace at a Coldplay concert, @bvig.bsky.social notes our willingness to persecute someone for a perceived wrong despite not knowing the full story. posiwid.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
The Urge to Persecute
People have always sought to project evil onto their neighbours, and that desire now extends to random strangers on the Internet. Malcolm Ga...
posiwid.blogspot.com
July 21, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Richard Veryard
dairinstitute.bsky.social
This is in less than 1 hour. Join us at www.twitch.tv/dair_institute 👇
emilymbender.bsky.social Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · Jul 21
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 livestream TODAY!

@disesdi.bsky.social will join me and @alexhanna.bsky.social to tear into the hype around LLMs for coding & software development more generally.

twitch.tv/dair_institute
Monday, July 21, Noon Pacific
dair_institute - Twitch
Twitch account for The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR).
twitch.tv
July 21, 2025 at 6:07 PM
richardveryard.bsky.social
On #technology and #trust by @zsk.bsky.social quoting @ginasue.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis...
Why don't we trust technology in sport?
Technology editor Zoe Kleinman explores the tensions between between humans and machines that were encapsulated at Wimbledon.
www.bbc.co.uk
July 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
richardveryard.bsky.social
@lot49.com in @theregister.com compares two alternative ways of predicting the future for agentic AI - surveys versus benchmark. Here's my commentary. demandingchange.blogspot.com/2025/07/how-...
How Soon Might Humans Be Replaced At Work
Systems thinking for demanding change - by Richard Veryard and friends
demandingchange.blogspot.com
July 6, 2025 at 8:33 PM
richardveryard.bsky.social
‪
Before and After the Internet. My review of two recent books on #AlgorithmicCulture and #PlatformCapitalism by @striphas.bsky.social and @synthesiastica.bsky.social has been published by @j4subjectivity.bsky.social

rdcu.be/ekN6M
Before and after the internet
rdcu.be
May 15, 2025 at 6:50 AM
richardveryard.bsky.social
Following widespread criticism here and elsewhere, ICE has removed the claim that their job is to stop illegal ideas entering or leaving the US. Apparently it's now only IP they are interested in. Meanwhile, what about their claim to regulate flows of money? www.newsweek.com/ice-illegal-...
ICE deletes post about stopping 'illegal ideas' from crossing border
The agency acknowledged it made a mistake with the wording.
www.newsweek.com
April 11, 2025 at 7:01 AM
richardveryard.bsky.social
Apparently an anxious chatbot can benefit from being given mindfulness exercises. This adds a new twist to my @j4subjectivity.bsky.social piece on the Subjectivity of Devices #chatbotics #mentalhealth rvsoftware.blogspot.com/2025/03/from...
From ChatGPT to Anxiety
There has been a lot of attention to the ways in which algorithms may either promote or alleviate anxiety. A recent article in the journal S...
rvsoftware.blogspot.com
March 7, 2025 at 11:03 PM
richardveryard.bsky.social
"From the paranoia that results, it seems to the prejudiced that if we aren't allowed to say something, it must be because it's true" from Stuart Walton's gloss on #Adorno www.the-tls.co.uk/philosophy/h...
Theodor W. Adorno’s public lectures on aesthetics and democracy
Theodor W. Adorno, more than any other member of the Frankfurt School, has long been known for his inscrutable writings. In Germany, however, he was known
www.the-tls.co.uk
February 27, 2025 at 12:08 PM
richardveryard.bsky.social
Just copying my follows across from another platform.
February 22, 2025 at 7:30 PM
richardveryard.bsky.social
#DataStrategy #DataDriven In news that shouldn't surprise anyone, datadictum.bsky.social reports a Gartner survey showing how few orgs measure business value and cost-effectiveness of data and analytics. Which I've been pushing for years. My comment here. rvsoapbox.blogspot.com/2025/02/data...
Data-Driven Data Strategy
On the structural challenges of achieving a viable service-based business ecosystem with organizational intelligence.
rvsoapbox.blogspot.com
February 22, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Richard Veryard
zephoria.bsky.social
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
February 20, 2025 at 3:50 AM
richardveryard.bsky.social
My commentary on "Left to their own devices", by Jesse Ruse, Ernst Schraube and Paul Rhodes has been published by @j4subjectivity.bsky.social t.co/zOTfiHlgIj
https://rdcu.be/d8PSt
t.co
February 17, 2025 at 8:47 PM