Matt Davies
Data/AI policy @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social
(Political) philosophy of tech @lsegovernment.bsky.social @lsepoltheory.bsky.social
Views my own 🔮✨
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesI trust you, but your AI agent is a snitch: Why we need a new social contract. We’re chatting on Signal, enjoying encryption, right? But your DIY productivity agent is piping the whole thing back to Anthropic. Friend, you just created a permanent subpoena-able record of my private thoughts...1/
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesWe’re dropping the first 4 essays in Reframing Impact: AI Summit 2026, our new series with Aapti Institute and @themaybe.org that takes a clear-eyed look at the narratives shaping the India AI Impact Summit and insists we collectively build the conversations that are missing 🧵
- Reposted by Matt DaviesNEW BOOK! I'm very happy to say that my new book, Utopia, co-written with Douglas Mao, has been published on-line academic.oup.com/book/62279
- "The lesson to take from [Moltbook] is actually not primarily about the technology. It’s about the collective sense many of us feel that we lack the power as individuals to stop a runaway train." Superb primer from @smw.bsky.social on what's really at stake in recent reporting about AI agents:
- Reposted by Matt Davies"In the latest move in Labour’s drive to inject AI into Britain’s bloodstream, the government has announced three US tech companies ... have agreed to help as the council pushes to apply AI to local schools, hospitals, GPs and businesses in Barnsley" www.theguardian.com/business/202...
- Reposted by Matt DaviesIf they haven’t already someone should write about the expanded UTAX universe of new Open Phil-adjacent think tanks springing up, the post-Bostrom wave of alt-ac including Cosmos Institute, Roots of Progress, etc. Elevated art deco slop and statue avis and their textual equivalents.
- Reposted by Matt DaviesNew from 404 Media: here is the user guide for ELITE, the tool Palantir made for ICE. A map shows people on a map; ICE clicks them, brings up their dossier. ICE uses to find which neighborhoods to target. We obtained it, you can now read the document for yourself: www.404media.co/here-is-the-...
- Reposted by Matt DaviesFrom our paper (w/ @smw.bsky.social and @meredithmeredith.bsky.social) in 2024:
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesLast term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out. As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class. Here's what happened:
- Reposted by Matt DaviesCould the secret police PLEASE use silencers when they shoot civilians for backtalk all this noise is disturbing my vibe coding
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesIf you're in London, last spots available for this event at Newspeak House with Noortje Marres Alex Taylor @tmsqrll.bsky.social Dominique Barron @halcyene.bsky.social Annie Radcliffe Yasmine Boudiaf and Mukul Patel, on AI infra in public spaces luma.com/p4fmir78 (cc @edsaperia.bsky.social)
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesAn epidemic of workforce demoralization? "Intensive AI use is demotivating and deskilling, fuelling boredom and mediocrity. We could even see a reverse ‘productivity J-curve’: short-term productivity gains rapidly overwhelmed by a deterioration in labour quality" newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
- "There are lots of AI tools that are potentially very centaurlike, but my thesis is that these tools are created and funded for the express purpose of creating reverse centaurs, which none of us want to be." www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
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- Reposted by Matt Daviesthis is smart, thorough, and excellent
- Reposted by Matt DaviesTaiwan's semiconductor industry’s power demand is forecast to grow eightfold by 2028. A rapid expansion of wind energy to power this demand is upending the livelihoods of farmers, fishers and rural communities, reports Hsiuwen Liu for @restofworld.org restofworld.org/2026/taiwan-...
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- Looking forward to this! Sign up here to join us: luma.com/p4fmir78
- Reposted by Matt Davies📣 NEW w/@udbhav-tiwari.bsky.social Mapping the technical reality & privacy/security perils of pushing AI agents into our infra We offer palliatives, but the core issues are paradigmatic: 'agency' relies on pervasive data access + ability to act w/o explicit consent www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ANE...
- Reposted by Matt DaviesThis is basically the view of the world that Plato sets out to refute in the Republic. One of the core questions asked therein is: why do powerful people think the mere fact of them exercising dominion makes it good for them to do so? Sure, you *can* get away with stuff if you're powerful - so what?
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesI am reminded here to tap the sign encouraging you all to support independent, worker run, billionaire free newsrooms how and where you are able
- Nicolas Maduro's heavy-handed rule in Venezuela is finally ended by Trump reut.rs/3YWbo3K
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesWhatever you might think of Maduro, the seizure and kidnapping of a head of state takes us to a very dark place. Vast, arbitrary, extra-legal power, which could be exercised almost anywhere, regardless of the character of the target government.
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- "Fear is what this campaign is all about: trying to make people afraid of Abd el-Fattah, and by extension, Muslims and migrants. Like so much in this political moment, in the UK and elsewhere, they are tightening the circle around what is considered a “real” citizen."
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesIn our latest Centre for Democratising Work interview, Amelia Horgan spoke to @brunoleipold.com about his book, CITIZEN MARX, and Marx and republicanism. Read here: www.common-wealth.org/centre-for-d...
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesAny MP who was laughing about prisoners who are on hunger strike should use the Christmas break to consider whether this is who they want to be and how they want to spend their time on the Earth.
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- Super cool (and important) work from Eleanor Shearer @cmmonwealth.bsky.social visualising-extractive-capitalism.common-wealth.org
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesFree Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature, is among the most clarifying books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Really enjoyed my conversation with @alybatt.bsky.social — we cover nature, value, feminist economics, existentialism, freedom and more live now!
- NEW EPISODE: Markets, Freedom and the Politics of Nature with Alyssa Battistoni @adriennebuller.bsky.social speaks to @alybatt.bsky.social about value, the politics of nature, and how we might live freely in a finite world. Listen now 👇 www.break-down.org/politics-of-...
- "Google partnering with the government to explore how to refine its own Gemini model may or may not benefit teachers and pupils, but it will undoubtedly benefit Google.” 🔥 from @imogen-parker.bsky.social on UK government's new Google DeepMind tie-up www.ft.com/content/b20f...
- Reposted by Matt DaviesGave a talk this morning about how AI FOMO isn't a strategy and several Qs afterwards were asking if may be FOMO *should* be the driving force. But if 89% of the public think proven safety should come first, then it feels like a good idea to respect that
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- Reposted by Matt Davies🎄All we want for Christmas is for AI regulation to work for people and society. Our new polling shows the UK public are concerned that tech companies’ needs are being prioritised over their own when it comes to AI regulation. Read the full findings ⬇️ www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/policy-brief...
- "VC strategy thrives on rapidly scaling up growth for extraordinary returns... VC investment, especially in defence, comes with its own dynamics." Sharp analysis from @elkeschwarz.bsky.social on UK government's growing entanglement with US venture capital: transitionsecurity.org/venture-capi...
- Reposted by Matt Davies"This is the disaster of the the Starmer administration so far - preemptively absorbing the most simplistic account of conventional economics, so as to endlessly signal their conformity to what they imagine the lowest common denominator of conservative financial opinion to be..." - Adam Tooze
- Reposted by Matt DaviesSubmissions for ISSUE #3 – AIRBORNE, are now open! We are accepting pitches exploring the importance of air in the climate and ecological crises, its role in environmental history and activism, and its future on a transformed planet. More details 👇
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- Reposted by Matt DaviesAhead of the Budget, good to see this briefing from @acadsocsciences.bsky.social & @fairness.bsky.social, looking at how high levels of inequality hold back the UK economy. The briefing draws on the report on wealth taxes that Howard Reed and I published last month. 1/2👇 acss.org.uk/publications...
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