Not very surprising. 🤦‍♂️.Was @elonmusk 's opinion piece written by AI?.@Tagesspiegel thinks so. The newspaper asked Grok to write for a conservative newspaper why only the AfD can save Germany. Result: almost identical piece to the one in DieWelt.

In the new year, I also hope to share more on the website of my research that is in-progress, as peer review is taking longer and longer. (Some of the research with media partners at @AIMediaDem_Lab has a specific momentum).

New year, new website ✨.Work in progress, but feel free to take a look!.(Also an excuse to keep better track of my work, and to write more blogposts 😅).

Big tech is shifting right for Trump 🌐🧐 (exhibit ∞).“Joel Kaplan has been one of the most forceful voices inside Meta against restrictions on political speech, arguing internally that such policies would disproportionately mute conservative voices.”.

Happy New Year! 🎆 First recommended read: @FinancialTimes staff writers forecasting the world in 2025. Last year, they had 15 out of 20 predictions right 😮✨.

Eens met Katleen Gabriëls trouwens! 👌.

Ik vind het hoe langer hoe meer kwalijk dat we gewoon maar AI inzetten zonder na te denken: Is dit eigenlijk de oplossing voor het probleem? Alsof we er alles aan doen om een tekst maar niet zelf te hoeven lezen 👇.

🙏 Very much enjoyed @VWPickard's talk on reimagining local media infrastructures at @ivir_uva. In it, he analyzed some of the structural problems afflicting our information ecosystems. In addition, he offered some 'non-reformist media reforms'. More info:

. There is also not much emphasis on using alternative LLM-tech that might be more 'privacy-proof'. Interestingly, Surf does also not mention specific alternatives, they basically say that Copilot should not be used, but they do not offer other options 🤷‍♂️.

Educational & research institutions have of course been using copilot the last couple of months in NL, so this warning might be too little too late. Imo it shows how quickly we take specific technologies for granted without truly considering their risks. .

Interesting 🧐.The IT-organization of educational & research institutions in NL say that civil servants & scientists should not use Microsoft Copilot. They say privacy risks are too great & they are not transparent enough about what happens to user data 👇.

Onbegrijpelijke beslissing. Naast het onderwijs wordt er in Nederland ook stevig bezuinigd op de publieke omroep (NPO). Gisteren raakte bekend dat de VPRO na 23 jaar met programma Tegenlicht. Ook hier kwaliteitsverlies. 👎 #DoeHetNiet.

Just heard that our paper 'Uses of Generative AI in the Newsroom' was the 2nd best read paper of Journalism Practice this year 🙏.Nice to know that people still view/read academic papers 🙃 @ndiakopoulos .

🚨Digital Democracy Centre is hiring full professor 🚨. Professorship in Digital communication & society. Join a fantastic group of researchers in DK 🇩🇰 . Any questions - @claesdevreese (go to bsky 🦋 ;)). 🗓️ Apply before February 17!. Full job post:

🆘 We waren met veel, heel veel in Den Haag vandaag. Hopelijk zijn deze irrationale bezuinigingsplannen snel van tafel! #nationalebetoging @WOinactie

These irrational budget cuts need to be reversed. That's why I am joining the national protest against these plans in The Hague on Monday. #WOinActie.

🆘 The irrational budget cuts in higher education are unprecedented in The Netherlands (1 billion euro!). I wrote an opinion piece on why promising, and often young scientists are hit disproportionately by these cuts 👇.

Cinemas in Amsterdam are out of this world.

Highly recommended 🧐 .Every year, @benedictevans produces a presentation exploring macro and strategic trends in the tech industry. For 2025, his presentation is titled ‘AI eats the world’. More questions than answers, but such interesting questions! 👇

🆘❌ Naar aanleiding van de bezuinigingen in het hoger onderwijs schreef ik een opinie voor Folia over hoe beloftevolle en vaak jonge onderzoekers buitensporig hard geraakt worden door de besparingen 👇 via @Folia .