Joanna Bryson
@j2bryson.bsky.social
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
Pinned
Joanna Bryson
@j2bryson.bsky.social
· Feb 19
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.
The EU may be a larger economy already. We need to get our own O2 mask on, then start helping others.
Guess why there was no reporting of AI revenue?
thread. correct numbers and data backing them come later, but this is the thrust.
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
AI is already superhuman. So are libraries, cars, and calculators. Not a reason to abandon the strong history of science-led digital policy in the EU.
Please sign if you have a PhD in or near AI.
#digitalGovernance #AIEthics
pads.c3w.at/form/#/2/for...
Please sign if you have a PhD in or near AI.
#digitalGovernance #AIEthics
pads.c3w.at/form/#/2/for...
CryptPad
pads.c3w.at
November 11, 2025 at 7:45 AM
AI is already superhuman. So are libraries, cars, and calculators. Not a reason to abandon the strong history of science-led digital policy in the EU.
Please sign if you have a PhD in or near AI.
#digitalGovernance #AIEthics
pads.c3w.at/form/#/2/for...
Please sign if you have a PhD in or near AI.
#digitalGovernance #AIEthics
pads.c3w.at/form/#/2/for...
Wow, I hadn't realised Nigel Franks didn't publish about this until 2015. He'd been talking about it as long as I'd been at Bath (since 2002), probably longer. Gives me hope for some of my own #cooperation work that's languishing.
IMO, #quorumSensing explains a LOT.
www.nature.com/articles/sre...
IMO, #quorumSensing explains a LOT.
www.nature.com/articles/sre...
How ants use quorum sensing to estimate the average quality of a fluctuating resource - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - How ants use quorum sensing to estimate the average quality of a fluctuating resource
www.nature.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Wow, I hadn't realised Nigel Franks didn't publish about this until 2015. He'd been talking about it as long as I'd been at Bath (since 2002), probably longer. Gives me hope for some of my own #cooperation work that's languishing.
IMO, #quorumSensing explains a LOT.
www.nature.com/articles/sre...
IMO, #quorumSensing explains a LOT.
www.nature.com/articles/sre...
AI is already superhuman. So are libraries, cars, and calculators. Not a reason to abandon the strong history of science-led digital policy in the EU.
Please sign if you have a PhD in or near AI.
#digitalGovernance #AIEthics
pads.c3w.at/form/#/2/for...
Please sign if you have a PhD in or near AI.
#digitalGovernance #AIEthics
pads.c3w.at/form/#/2/for...
CryptPad
pads.c3w.at
November 11, 2025 at 7:45 AM
AI is already superhuman. So are libraries, cars, and calculators. Not a reason to abandon the strong history of science-led digital policy in the EU.
Please sign if you have a PhD in or near AI.
#digitalGovernance #AIEthics
pads.c3w.at/form/#/2/for...
Please sign if you have a PhD in or near AI.
#digitalGovernance #AIEthics
pads.c3w.at/form/#/2/for...
I learnt a lot from my many 1990s roommates (which I needed after giving up my programmer's salary to be a PhD student) Some are still close friends.
Americans constructing their own poverty and precarity, eg being "trapped" in GAFAM salaries or even US vs UK academia is a big part of the problem.
Americans constructing their own poverty and precarity, eg being "trapped" in GAFAM salaries or even US vs UK academia is a big part of the problem.
This has bothered me since it came up in 2001 in Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich - she's exploring being working poor and housing is expensive but a (non-romantic) roommate is beyond the pale.
Okay I'm going to flag this not to dunk on Sandra but because I want to point that one major driver of increased housing costs is that young people today are MUCH more reluctant to have roommates than in the past. I personally know a number of folks who just refuse to consider it!
November 11, 2025 at 7:32 AM
I learnt a lot from my many 1990s roommates (which I needed after giving up my programmer's salary to be a PhD student) Some are still close friends.
Americans constructing their own poverty and precarity, eg being "trapped" in GAFAM salaries or even US vs UK academia is a big part of the problem.
Americans constructing their own poverty and precarity, eg being "trapped" in GAFAM salaries or even US vs UK academia is a big part of the problem.
This is funny, but AI is different from astronomy. Humans respond automatically and implicitly to language, we alter our language to conform with what we perceive as our in group. If we actually woke up different planets some days, scifi might affect our astronomy more.
*I'd be alarmed if this was true, but if it was, then science fiction would have caused astronomy to explode in flames in 1634 when Kepler wrote that nutty book about his Moon trip
And they only serve to boost his ego, and book sales, while confusing and alarming the public, eroding trust in real science and harming the credibility and efforts of actual astrobiologists to build serious technosignature searches into a sustained and supported branch of science. (5/7)
November 11, 2025 at 7:22 AM
This is funny, but AI is different from astronomy. Humans respond automatically and implicitly to language, we alter our language to conform with what we perceive as our in group. If we actually woke up different planets some days, scifi might affect our astronomy more.
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
That’s a lot.
67% of Germans say that “When in doubt, we can and should no longer rely on military assistance from the US.”
Study: www.moreincommon.de/wp-content/u...
67% of Germans say that “When in doubt, we can and should no longer rely on military assistance from the US.”
Study: www.moreincommon.de/wp-content/u...
November 11, 2025 at 6:39 AM
That’s a lot.
67% of Germans say that “When in doubt, we can and should no longer rely on military assistance from the US.”
Study: www.moreincommon.de/wp-content/u...
67% of Germans say that “When in doubt, we can and should no longer rely on military assistance from the US.”
Study: www.moreincommon.de/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
The Authoritarian Stack: how tech billionaires are building a post-democratic America and why Europe is next.
My new project is an interactive investigation and open data platform to expose tech authoritarianism and mobilize collective power for democratic alternatives.
www.authoritarian-stack.info
My new project is an interactive investigation and open data platform to expose tech authoritarianism and mobilize collective power for democratic alternatives.
www.authoritarian-stack.info
The Authoritarian Stack
How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next
www.authoritarian-stack.info
November 8, 2025 at 1:33 PM
The Authoritarian Stack: how tech billionaires are building a post-democratic America and why Europe is next.
My new project is an interactive investigation and open data platform to expose tech authoritarianism and mobilize collective power for democratic alternatives.
www.authoritarian-stack.info
My new project is an interactive investigation and open data platform to expose tech authoritarianism and mobilize collective power for democratic alternatives.
www.authoritarian-stack.info
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
Coming up at LMU Munich: workshop on AI & consciousness, organized by Prof. Sven Nyholm (@svennyholm.bsky.social) & colleagues, on Nov 21. Speakers include Prof. Joanna Bryson (@j2bryson.bsky.social) & Prof. Tobias Schlicht (Bochum). Register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #aiethics
AI & Consciousness at LMU
Date: November 21st, 2025 (09:30 until 17:30)
Location: LMU München, Leopoldstraße 13, 80802 München, Room 2102.
Please register until 18th of November 2025.
docs.google.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Coming up at LMU Munich: workshop on AI & consciousness, organized by Prof. Sven Nyholm (@svennyholm.bsky.social) & colleagues, on Nov 21. Speakers include Prof. Joanna Bryson (@j2bryson.bsky.social) & Prof. Tobias Schlicht (Bochum). Register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #aiethics
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
OK I gave in
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
November 10, 2025 at 1:28 AM
OK I gave in
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
Happy Berlin Wall fall day! Good riddance to the Wall and the regimes that had built it. Celebrate the freedom that followed and don't fall for revisionism. The hard next decade was the pain of extrication from a failed political and economic project. This is my high school class on that day.
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Happy Berlin Wall fall day! Good riddance to the Wall and the regimes that had built it. Celebrate the freedom that followed and don't fall for revisionism. The hard next decade was the pain of extrication from a failed political and economic project. This is my high school class on that day.
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
🚨Very Strong Job Market Candidates
#EconSky
The Berlin School of Economics is a unique cooperation of 9 institutions - together we do research and train PhDs/Postdocs.
This year: fantastic people in applied micro, behavioral/experimental, and macro. 👇🏻
berlinschoolofeconomics.de/job-market/j...
#EconSky
The Berlin School of Economics is a unique cooperation of 9 institutions - together we do research and train PhDs/Postdocs.
This year: fantastic people in applied micro, behavioral/experimental, and macro. 👇🏻
berlinschoolofeconomics.de/job-market/j...
Job Market Candidates
berlinschoolofeconomics.de
November 10, 2025 at 6:47 AM
🚨Very Strong Job Market Candidates
#EconSky
The Berlin School of Economics is a unique cooperation of 9 institutions - together we do research and train PhDs/Postdocs.
This year: fantastic people in applied micro, behavioral/experimental, and macro. 👇🏻
berlinschoolofeconomics.de/job-market/j...
#EconSky
The Berlin School of Economics is a unique cooperation of 9 institutions - together we do research and train PhDs/Postdocs.
This year: fantastic people in applied micro, behavioral/experimental, and macro. 👇🏻
berlinschoolofeconomics.de/job-market/j...
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
And now, if you read the devastating piece about what Venezuelan deportees endured at the El Salvador torture prison, read what incarcerated U.S. citizens endure in Alabama prisons.
State prisons in the U.S. that are massive systems of human rights violations.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...
State prisons in the U.S. that are massive systems of human rights violations.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...
‘How is this possible?’: a new film looks inside the appalling abuses of the Alabama prison system
In the year’s most shocking documentary, The Alabama Solution, prisoners share astonishing footage in a plea for help
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:38 PM
And now, if you read the devastating piece about what Venezuelan deportees endured at the El Salvador torture prison, read what incarcerated U.S. citizens endure in Alabama prisons.
State prisons in the U.S. that are massive systems of human rights violations.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...
State prisons in the U.S. that are massive systems of human rights violations.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...
9 November is or was Germany's 4th of July. Now the 1918 founding of the Republic is besmirched by the 1923 "Beer Hall Putsch," the 1938 Kristallnacht, & the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
A memorial reminder: it can happen anywhere; it is happening in the US.
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
A memorial reminder: it can happen anywhere; it is happening in the US.
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
Elon Musk’s Grok Chatbot Goes Full Nazi, Calls Itself ‘MechaHitler’ | Joanna Bryson | 14 comments
Today in "AI is a product of engineering." I hate the anthropomorphised title & text – grok (like all generative AI) only provides predictions based on the subset of training text it is steered toward...
www.linkedin.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:15 AM
9 November is or was Germany's 4th of July. Now the 1918 founding of the Republic is besmirched by the 1923 "Beer Hall Putsch," the 1938 Kristallnacht, & the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
A memorial reminder: it can happen anywhere; it is happening in the US.
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
A memorial reminder: it can happen anywhere; it is happening in the US.
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
TBH, this is LESS scary than what I've previously seen (& show in my talks) which is strictly proportional. The absolute declines of wild mammals are less severe than I'd realised. Humans are VERY good at producing public goods. But life in general is NOT zero sum. We make biomass from rocks & sun.
In 1850 the weight of all the world's wild mammals equalled the weight of humans and our livestock
Today they are outweighed 1 to 20
Reconfiguring life on this planet to produce cheap meat and dairy
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Today they are outweighed 1 to 20
Reconfiguring life on this planet to produce cheap meat and dairy
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 9, 2025 at 9:32 AM
TBH, this is LESS scary than what I've previously seen (& show in my talks) which is strictly proportional. The absolute declines of wild mammals are less severe than I'd realised. Humans are VERY good at producing public goods. But life in general is NOT zero sum. We make biomass from rocks & sun.
Everyone please read at least through the bottom three "key points" after the abstract, which are actionable. By which point you may as well look at the pictures too.
via @eightywires.bsky.social
via @eightywires.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Everyone please read at least through the bottom three "key points" after the abstract, which are actionable. By which point you may as well look at the pictures too.
via @eightywires.bsky.social
via @eightywires.bsky.social
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
📢 Call for abstracts!
🚀 The time has come — abstract submission for #EHBEA2026 is officially OPEN since this week! 🎉
🗓 Submission Nov 1st – Dec 15th
📝 300 words
🧠 Important: Make an OpenReview account before submitting — it takes time!
👉 www.ehbea2026.com
🚀 The time has come — abstract submission for #EHBEA2026 is officially OPEN since this week! 🎉
🗓 Submission Nov 1st – Dec 15th
📝 300 words
🧠 Important: Make an OpenReview account before submitting — it takes time!
👉 www.ehbea2026.com
Overview | EHBEA2026
www.ehbea2026.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:49 PM
📢 Call for abstracts!
🚀 The time has come — abstract submission for #EHBEA2026 is officially OPEN since this week! 🎉
🗓 Submission Nov 1st – Dec 15th
📝 300 words
🧠 Important: Make an OpenReview account before submitting — it takes time!
👉 www.ehbea2026.com
🚀 The time has come — abstract submission for #EHBEA2026 is officially OPEN since this week! 🎉
🗓 Submission Nov 1st – Dec 15th
📝 300 words
🧠 Important: Make an OpenReview account before submitting — it takes time!
👉 www.ehbea2026.com
“One of the first public displays of the double helix, at the Royal Society Conversazione in June 1953, was signed by the authors of all three Nature papers1–3,21. In this, the discovery of the structure of DNA was not seen as a race won by Watson and Crick, but as the outcome of a joint effort.”
November 8, 2025 at 2:08 PM
“One of the first public displays of the double helix, at the Royal Society Conversazione in June 1953, was signed by the authors of all three Nature papers1–3,21. In this, the discovery of the structure of DNA was not seen as a race won by Watson and Crick, but as the outcome of a joint effort.”
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
Meet me Saturday, 5pm at the Musikbrauerei in Prenzlauerberg! I'm speaking for a foreign university with which I've never been affiliated in my home Kietz! Super cool venue, hopefully the talks won't be too boring either :-)
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
BERLIN SCIENCE WEEK | Viktoria Österdahl
🌐 Are you in Berlin this weekend? Then please join the ETH Zürich event at Berlin Science Week, entitled: Beyond Avatars, this Saturday 8 November! We’ll be exploring how emerging technologies are re...
www.linkedin.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Meet me Saturday, 5pm at the Musikbrauerei in Prenzlauerberg! I'm speaking for a foreign university with which I've never been affiliated in my home Kietz! Super cool venue, hopefully the talks won't be too boring either :-)
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
Morgen sind: Daniel Ziblatt, Thomas Weber, Daniel Siemens, Tamara Ehs, Heike Klüver u.v.a. im GORKI Theater in Berlin. Und im Livestream ab 19.30h – im Rat der Geschichte: Was hilft gegen die AfD?
www.gorki.de/de/der-rat-d...
www.gorki.de/de/der-rat-d...
November 7, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Morgen sind: Daniel Ziblatt, Thomas Weber, Daniel Siemens, Tamara Ehs, Heike Klüver u.v.a. im GORKI Theater in Berlin. Und im Livestream ab 19.30h – im Rat der Geschichte: Was hilft gegen die AfD?
www.gorki.de/de/der-rat-d...
www.gorki.de/de/der-rat-d...
This is why I’m not thrilled about Tuesday. 1) How do we get voters to stop thrashing and actually reliably select functioning government. 2) How do we rapidly rebuild governance capacity after it’s been destroyed by vandals, WITHOUT enabling radical anti-democratic redeployment of the same skills?
We’re going to hear lots of stories about which people, policies and rhetoric are to blame for the Democrats’ defeat.
Some of those stories may even be true!
But an underrated factor is that 2024 was an absolutely horrendous year for incumbents around the world 👇 
Some of those stories may even be true!
But an underrated factor is that 2024 was an absolutely horrendous year for incumbents around the world 👇 
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
This is why I’m not thrilled about Tuesday. 1) How do we get voters to stop thrashing and actually reliably select functioning government. 2) How do we rapidly rebuild governance capacity after it’s been destroyed by vandals, WITHOUT enabling radical anti-democratic redeployment of the same skills?
I’m conflicted about all this. The double helix story is important and incredible. My inclination is to say it’s great that his terrible statements are out there, so we all remember we’re not in a scripted narrative — no amount of wonderful works or generosity proves someone isn’t also doing evil.
James Watson was not just a scientist who was a racist. He was worse - a scientist who offered other racists the comfort of scientific authority.
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 8:41 AM
I’m conflicted about all this. The double helix story is important and incredible. My inclination is to say it’s great that his terrible statements are out there, so we all remember we’re not in a scripted narrative — no amount of wonderful works or generosity proves someone isn’t also doing evil.
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
We have just published the call for the Nuffield Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships in Politics. These are 3-year fully-funded postdocs that will allow you to focus on your research in a great academic environment. (And with excellent food)
www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...
www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...
Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships in Politics - Nuffield College Oxford University
www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk
November 6, 2025 at 1:27 PM
We have just published the call for the Nuffield Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships in Politics. These are 3-year fully-funded postdocs that will allow you to focus on your research in a great academic environment. (And with excellent food)
www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...
www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
We wrote this paper a while ago and since then OpenAI has claimed plans to be "core infrastructure" of education, Google has rammed Gemini into schools via its education platforms, and AWS showed it underpins most edtech platforms... 1/
New paper just out on how changing sociotechnical systems of knowledge production and access - platforms, the cloud, AI - pose profound challenges to educational practice and research doi.org/10.1080/0305...
Knowledge infrastructure crisis: digital democratic deficits and alternative designs for education
The production and circulation of knowledge in education increasingly depends on large-scale digital infrastructures. In this article we provide a critical review of the transformation of the conte...
doi.org
November 7, 2025 at 9:31 PM
We wrote this paper a while ago and since then OpenAI has claimed plans to be "core infrastructure" of education, Google has rammed Gemini into schools via its education platforms, and AWS showed it underpins most edtech platforms... 1/
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
NEW: Experts say that any lags in protections like security updates and network monitoring caused by the government shutdown could lay the groundwork for future breaches. @lhn.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/the-go...
The Government Shutdown Is a Ticking Cybersecurity Time Bomb
Many critical systems are still being maintained, and the cloud provides some security cover. But experts say that any lapses in protections like patching and monitoring could expose government system...
www.wired.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:38 PM
NEW: Experts say that any lags in protections like security updates and network monitoring caused by the government shutdown could lay the groundwork for future breaches. @lhn.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/the-go...
Reposted by Joanna Bryson
Despite Trump's tariffs and never-ending political drama, TikTok's e-commerce business is exploding, @zeyiyang.bsky.social reports in this week's Made in China www.wired.com/story/tiktok...
TikTok Shop Is Now the Size of eBay
TikTok’s ecommerce arm has kept growing steadily, despite tariffs and never-ending debates over whether the platform should be banned.
www.wired.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Despite Trump's tariffs and never-ending political drama, TikTok's e-commerce business is exploding, @zeyiyang.bsky.social reports in this week's Made in China www.wired.com/story/tiktok...