I’d like to draw attention to our book (co-edited with Emma L Briant, Monash University): The Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry. https://t.co/4dmCCmqsyg This Handbook provides the first comprehensive examination of the Influence Industry and how it operates worldwide

How much did @elonmusk reshape Twitter/X? How did the partisan tilt of social media change from 2020 to 2024? The ANES 2024 data is out — and this thread answers all your 🔥 questions! 1/

Me and @digi_ad argue AI companions are flawed. We provide 7 ways to redesign them, incl. remedies for over-attachment & dependency; removal of metrics based on extending engagement via personal info disclosure; & promotion of AI literacy. https://t.co/66aprapmpF @EmotionalAI

AI tells me I have an AI-generated review of my chapter (with @digi_ad ) critiquing the future of emotional AI in the false information field. Feels like too many AIs! The AI review : https://t.co/kJGfiMODZj The (free) chapter: https://t.co/ZauJsl0TXB Make up your own mind.

Me and @digi_ad argue AI companions are flawed. We provide 7 ways to redesign them, incl. remedies for over-attachment & dependency; removal of metrics based on extending engagement via personal info disclosure; & promotion of AI literacy. https://t.co/66aprapmpF @EmotionalAI

I’d like to draw attention to our book (co-edited with Emma L Briant, Monash University): The Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry. https://t.co/4dmCCmqsyg This Handbook provides the first comprehensive examination of the Influence Industry and how it operates worldwide

Interest is growing in use of general purpose AI to empathise, especially through partners, companions, and so on. If you want to know more about the good, bad and the icky of all of this, you might want to join the [free] @IEEEorg lecture below. https://t.co/jREtLJw7Gn

A total pleasure to be a guest on the @BBCRadio4's 'Artificial Human', discussing whether AI can read emotions. The angle on the topic was excellent, as Chris, a listener, had called in asking whether AI can help him understand emotion expressions.

The Ethics of Emulated Empathy: Considering the Significance of Anthropic and Hume’s Collaboration! Dive into this interesting #blog by our AEGIS project! #AI. @digi_ad 📖 https://t.co/X1ONuhJHQy 👉About the project- https://t.co/W0NIFkeNIn

A timely piece from @digi_ad on AI companions and kids.

“Universities are in crisis and the government must act.” We welcome the Education Committee’s inquiry into university finances. Here’s what @DrJoGrady had to say. 🧵

Bangor university gives its vice chancellor a 13% pay rise then cuts dozens of jobs. Handing out massive pay rises while frontline staff face the sack is indefensible. @BangorUcu https://t.co/lyevWN6l9U

Chapters 1 and 2 are freely available on Google Books: https://t.co/HKF2dKTFSf We hope you enjoy reading it.

We also think about what could be done to expose and stymie the unethical impulses of the Influence Industry.

We explore the recent technical, political and economic development of this Influence Industry, surveying the extent and impacts of different technologies and services offered to clients worldwide across multiple domains (commercial, political, national security and government).

We also consider the increasingly datafied infrastructure and actors behind an advanced array of capabilities increasingly based on surveillant profiling that can be used in a coordinated way to affect an audience’s emotions, ideas, and behaviors.

Our book, and its many contributors, analyses the expansion of the notoriously obscure and therefore under-researched Influence Industry, its development, political economy and its role in unethical conduct, disinformation and data-driven influence operations worldwide.

We define the Influence Industry as comprising deliberate attempts to advance an actor’s goal using data-driven profiling of audiences across interconnected private sector and state systems to encourage behavior change in targeted audiences

and here's a summary

Are the dark days at @USSPensions really over? Let's hope so. It is worth noting that the scheme is, essentially, under new management as compared with 2018, with a thoroughly refreshed board and new CEO. I wonder if Jane Hutton would be welcome back?