Petter Törnberg
Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science at University of Amsterdam
Studying the intersection of AI, social media, and politics.
Polarization, misinformation, radicalization, digital platforms, social complexity.
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- A reminder to all NYCers that this is tonight: publictheater.org/performances... Would love to see some friendly faces there. Jennifer Egan will be doing a reading, Rhett Miller will be writing a song in response, and I'll be answering questions about all things AI!
- The bots populating Moltbook apparently all come to sound like a familiar kind of internet denizen with delusions of philosophical grandeur. Manifestos and declarations all over the place.
- Somebody created an Reddit clone exclusively populated by personal digital agents and let them interact with each other. It’s bonkers, fascinating and terrifying in equal measure. www.forbes.com/sites/amirhu...
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- 📢 We’re hiring @vuamsterdam.bsky.social PhD position in my ERC project: Welfare State Transformation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Interested in how AI is reshaping labor markets, social protection, and the politics of redistribution? Apply here: lnkd.in/eCcAXsaS Please share widely!
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- I’m about a quarter of the way through this open access* book and it’s SO GOOD, so far at least lol, I really want to talk about it with someone * www.taylorfrancis.com/reader/downl...
- 📘 Book launch: Seeing Like a Platform (with Justus Uitermark) 🗓 10 Dec | Amsterdam A conversation on platforms, politics, power, and digital modernity - followed by drinks. Hope to see you there! 👉 Details & RSVP: globaldigitalcultures.uva.nl/content/even...
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- .@pettertornberg.com's keynote in Oxford was fantastic. What comes after the traditional model of social media ends? 1) Algorithmic broadcasting platforms (everything turning into TikTok and Instagram reels) 2) Private and semi-private spheres (like group chats) 3) Chatbots and LLMs as new media
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- LLMs are now widely used in social science as stand-ins for humans—assuming they can produce realistic, human-like text But... can they? We don’t actually know. In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test. And our findings are striking: LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
- Cool paper! You might find my work on this topic helpful/useful as well: link.springer.com/article/10.1... journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... arxiv.org/abs/2509.08199 arxiv.org/abs/2503.20062
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- Now in PNAS! With @mmosleh.bsky.social and @dgrand.bsky.social Examining news engagement across 7 platforms, we find: - differences WRT political lean ("echo platforms") - similarities WRT news quality (posting low qual news => more engagement) Read paper and thread for more!
- 🚨New WP🚨 We examine news sharing on 7 platforms: 1)Right-leaning platforms=lower quality news 2)Echo-platforms: Right-leaning news gets more engagement on right-leaning platforms, vice-versa for left-leaning 3)But low-quality news gets more engagement EVERYWHERE, even BlueSky! osf.io/preprints/ps...
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- Mindscape 330 | Petter Törnberg @pettertornberg.com on the Dynamics of (Mis)Information. #MindscapePodcast www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025...
- www.flamman.se/valfardsstat... It was great to talk to @flamman.se about the link between weak welfare state protection and the expansion of online platform work in Europe. @pettertornberg.com
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- Social media feeds today are optimized for engagement, often leading to misalignment between users' intentions and technology use. In a new paper, we introduce Bonsai, a tool to create feeds based on stated preferences, rather than predicted engagement. arxiv.org/abs/2509.10776
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- Super excited to share that I got the ERC Starting Grant! 🎉 Over the next five years, I’ll be studying how AI is reshaping the politics of the welfare state. A huge thank you to all the friends and colleagues who supported me along the way. vu.nl/en/news/2025... #ERCStG
- And if you’re a scholar from the Global South thinking of applying, feel free to reach out. I’d be more than happy to share my experience and what I’ve learned!
- Gig labor is often understood as the expression of digital disruption. But our new study suggests a deeper story: 👉 The rise of platform labor is inseparable from the retreat of the welfare state. 🧵 w/ @pettertornberg.com journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
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- Don’t blame the algorithm: Polarization may be inherent in social media | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... @pettertornberg.com
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