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Dr Abeba Birhane

@abeba.blacksky.app
54K followers 915 following 5K posts

Founder & PI @aial.ie. Assistant Professor of AI, School of Computer Science & Statistics, @tcddublin.bsky.social AI accountability, AI audits & evaluation. Cognitive scientist by training. Ethiopian in Ireland. She/her

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 7h
Huge congratulations to our colleagues at @iccl.bsky.social on this win! In a landmark ruling on 25 Sep, the ICCL secured a precedent that will reshape how Big Tech companies defend themselves in GDPR class actions that impact their operations across the entire EU enforce.ie/digital-data...
enforce.ie
ICCL secures landmark precedent against Big Tech - Enforce
Landmark ruling will reshape how Big Tech companies defend themselves in court for EU-wide GDPR class actions
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 18h
unsolicited brag: dug into the data -> ai -> surveillance pipeline in class this morning and received a standing ovation at the end of class. genuinely did not expect it. now i’m in tears. first time for everything
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ZP Rosen @zaqdelinguist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
(1) I love this, and (2) it makes me think about this awesome piece by @abeba.blacksky.app that I come back to often :)
direct.mit.edu
The Impossibility of Automating Ambiguity
Abstract. On the one hand, complexity science and enactive and embodied cognitive science approaches emphasize that people, as complex adaptive systems, are ambiguous, indeterminable, and inherently u...
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Paul Murphy TD @paulmurphy.pbp.ie · 27/09/2026
Police arrived at top of Garvaghy Road with threatening audio saying protestors will be arrested.
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tagerai.bsky.social @tagerai.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It’s interesting to think about this fake award on the same day that nature published the story on fake academic societies. Billionaires creating new awards for ideological capture and to launder their reputations is also a scam, but its not treated as such and gets a ‘Newsvertisement‘ in the WSJ
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tagerai.bsky.social @tagerai.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It’s funny but very sad. The worst people you know will get rich, and after they win, media outlets will quote their ass opinions and then after their name write “winner of the 1M carob trust prize, awarded to brave academics”. Just another avenue for billionaires to launder influence
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tagerai.bsky.social @tagerai.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
lol how did I miss this I just got an email advertising a prize for 1 MILLION dollars to 5 ‘social scientists who tell controversial truths at great professional cost“. The head of the committee is Roland fryer, it’s got Vanderbilt report alums, and it’s bankrolled by Bill Ackman And NerI Oxman.
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B.S.W. Barootes @barootes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
And yet I was only allowed to access a 1955 B.Litt. thesis, the only lengthy study on Robert Braybrooke, in person and take notes (no photos). I had to sign a register of those who had ever accessed the thesis.
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Exhausted sociologist @iaracpassos.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
@mozilla.org launched a campaign against the tech billionaire class during the UNGA — and my face is in NY. 🧵 The ad places me next to Zuckerberg: he manufactures surveillance eyewear; I build local AI to expose political violence in Brazil, with Instituto Fogo Cruzado.
Triad of posters from the Mozilla Foundation campaign. First panel, left: Mark Zuckerberg; second panel, center: Iara, a white woman wearing glasses. Above, the text "Mark gets into eyewear / Gives creepers, peepers" over Zuckerberg and "Iara builds local AI / Exposes political violence" over Iara. Third panel, white background, all caps: "The powerful shouldn't choose what we see", below: "We all decide."Triad of posters from the Mozilla Foundation campaign. First panel, left: Jeff Bezos; second panel, center: Rose Njeri Tunguru. Above, the text "Jeff builds a rocket. Celebrities go to outer space." over Jeff and "Rose builds democracy tools. Kenyan voices grow stronger." over Rose. Third panel, white background, all caps: "Joyrides won't build a better future", below: "We all will."Triad of posters from the Mozilla Foundation campaign. First panel, left: Elon Musk; second panel, center: Rudy. Above, the text "Elon buys the blue bird. He trashes the place." over Elon and "Rudy builds Blacksky. Communities call the shots." over Rudy. Third panel, white background, all caps: "Wannabe kings don't rule the internet", below: "We all do."
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Annmarie O'C @annmarietg.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
When you think it can't get any worse. #StopTheGame #SpeirGorm
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Conor @ernekid.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
How about if they visit Gaza? Oh but you guys don't let people do that do you?
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Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Gavin Bazunu statement on withdrawing from Ireland squad

Posts gavin_bazunu
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Statement - Gavin Bazunu

Representing my country means everything to me. I have the utmost respect for every single one of my team mates, the Manager, his staff and the Irish people

However I have reached a decision that I have hot taken lightly. I am a man of strong faith and try my best to be a person of character and principle therefore 1 feel it would be wrong to participate in the upcoming fixtures against Israel.

My decision is based purely upon my personal belief that the killing of innocent people is wrong.

It is important to note that my stance is not in opposition of the Israeli people or the Jewish community but against the atrocities in the region.

There are few times where you get a chance ir ife to stand up for something bigger and strongly believe that this is one of them


gavin_bazunu
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A better way to phrase this Variety headline would be "Publicity Seeker Who Invented A Program Continues Long Con"
Variety headline: Tilly Norwood Would Love to Work With Tom Holland and Olivia Colman, ‘but Only If It Were Their Digital Twins’ on an ‘AI Production’
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Jussie Northside @jussienorthside.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Janice Turner has no background or training in medicine, neuroscience, psychology or psychiatry.
Janice Turner: Is your ADHD diagnosis really helping you?
A huge increase in those claiming the condition as well as receiving Pip to cope with it risks creating a lost generation
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I don't disagree with the thread below but frame it somewhat differently as an academic who regularly sees people who read for a living fail in the way described here. From that perspective it seems more a cultural crisis than an educational one
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Wtaf is this question my university just asked me about my project?
Does the project involve any work that could be interpreted as promoting DEIA, climate change research, or non-compliant to any Presidential Executive Orders?
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Tony - Pod Guy - Groves @tonygroves.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Dear Ireland, Please understand that your Deliveroo/Just Eat delivery person is similarly shafted by these companies.
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michaeledward @michaeledward.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Actress Susan Sarandon being arrested earlier today for protesting Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations. One is speaking out against genocide, one is committing it. One was arrested, one was not. Photo: AP News
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Jamie Smart @jamiesmart.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Can’t eat a sandwich until you subscribe to sandwiches. Can’t eat today’s sandwich until it has applied daily sandwich updates. Sandwich now has adverts even though you paid for ad-free sandwich. Can pay again to have less sandwich adverts. Now you can eat the sandwich, but it’s smaller.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 26/09/2026
"ChatGPT says"?! please make it stop
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 26/09/2026
omg. i love this version so much
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
DoorDash spent $1.4M trying to stop Zohran Mamdani from becoming mayor. This week's historic $131.5M enforcement action against DoorDash for underpaying NYC delivery workers shows why. Yet another reminder that the only thing that can beat organized money is organized people.
theintercept.com
DoorDash Spent $1.4 Million Trying to Stop Mamdani From Becoming Mayor. Now We Know Why.
In a wage-theft settlement, DoorDash now has to pay its workers around 100 times what it spent trying to beat Zohran Mam
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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
That's because the anti-intellectualism of the populists and Far Right is in direct contradiction to the basic foundations of any civilisation
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Butt teeth! Butt teeth! Butt teeth! @panic.gay · 25/09/2026
THIS. AI isn't "going rogue" any more than those exploding Samsung galaxy phones from 2016 went rogue. Human engineers poorly deployed a technology and there were negative consequences. The responsibility falls entirely on humans.
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Dreams~2~Realization @platinumray.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
100% RTÉ radio uncritically playing Altman’s bullshit sound bites as news over several days this week, it’s infuriating
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Greatest trick AI leaders have pulled is convincing many people—especially influential people in govt, media, and business—that their software is intelligent, independent, yet never culpable. Humans build it, humans deploy it, but no one bears responsibility for the things that happen when they do.
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Mark Dingemanse @markdingemanse.net · 25/09/2026
This weekend! Reclaiming our Futures, De Lindenberg, Nijmegen reclaimingourfutures.org A two-day festival of arts and sciences convened and curated by @samiraibnelkaid.bsky.social with funding from KNAW & our Futures of Language project Almost full — some last minute registrations still possible!
Iridiscently coloured ginger with slogan "The Future if Rhizomatic"
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Becca Harrison @beccaeharrison.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If I were running a university where staff spent weeks and weeks of time putting grant proposals together only for UKRI to feed them into LLMs without informed consent—effectively theft of the time and work—I’d be taking serious action to defend those staff. But I’m not running a university, so
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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Money from foreign students (who pay multiples of the domestic and EU fees) is a critical source keeping Irish colleges afloat. The Minister for Higher Education’s complaint is another thinly veiled effort to address the synthetic bot army of X, and their demands to see fewer brown or black people
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Chris Miller @thelittlepakeha.net · 25/09/2026
note that when dealing with computers, "actions we did not intend" is a very different thing from "actions we did not instruct it to do"
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Graham Webster @gwbstr.com · 24/09/2026
The journalistic abdication is incredible. An important, powerful person with a vested interest says something just wild—and you don’t figure out how to check it out and contextualize?
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Steve @stevewmobb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's also very interesting that they are experimenting with their systems hacking other systems. Gives you an idea of what they want to use it for
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
over the past few weeks several AI evaluation/cybersecurity experts have explained how what's happening is a result of human incompetence rather than "AI going rogue". I'm begging the media to show a shred of journalistic integrity and stop parroting what altman or amodei say
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 24/09/2026
Just when I think I can’t hate OpenAI and Sam Altman any more, new details come out about how ChatGPT helped a shooter plan one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history in Tumbler Ridge, BC. OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.
motherjones.com
ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge school shooter focus on guns, tactics, and terror, our investigation reveals
OpenAI’s chatbot fed the shooter’s violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre.
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Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The youngest person his pager attack killed was 9-year-old Fatima Abdullah, who had just started 4th grade. The pager was on a table when it went off and she picked it up to take to her dad. It exploded in her face and reports said it covered the room in her blood. She wanted to learn English.
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Richard Chambers @newschambers.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The story of Natalie Abudayyeh (21) a journalism student and member of the Palestine Women's Football Team. She played in Dublin against @bfcdublin.bsky.social in 2024. Today, she's in an Israeli jail. Her family and teammates say she was taken at gunpoint from university without charge.
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BladeoftheSun @bladeofthes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Crowds outside the UN shouting "Netanyahu you can't hide, you are wanted for Genocide." As Netanyahu will be speaking inside.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
the little spark of joy that keeps me hopeful in what is shaping up to be a bleak geo-political future
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Tony - Pod Guy - Groves @tonygroves.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
With respect, Abeba, if we don’t allow big tech to consume all of our resources and dominate our economic model, how are we supposed to pay-off voters with “budget goodies” so as to distract them from the slow decline of social cohesion?
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
the tobacco industry is a more fitting comparison to big tech (and data centre boom) than the car industry
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Mark Tolman (he/him) 🏳️‍🌈 🖖 @mtolman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is true, that's what makes it both funny and sad.
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 23/09/2026
Idea: no corporate welfare, subsidies, or government contracts for corporations whose employees need to rely on government assistance because of low wages.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
this is absurd. the Irish government has consistently shown it favours big tech over ordinary citizens
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Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
the uk has shown were backing off trans rights takes you & it's horrific my latest for new republic newrepublic.com/article/2155...
newrepublic.com
Centrists Won’t Tell You Where “Moderating” on Trans Rights Ends Up
The recent example of the U.K. Labour Party shows that “compromising” rarely stops at some acceptable midpoint.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
no no no. while well intentioned, the Congressman is talking about sounds like the singularity, which is a fictional idea. regulation is useless, even harmful, if based on hypotheticals
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
there was a time I took jack clark seriously, im embarrassed to say
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Short legged cat with stunned expression inside circular arrows; at top, ‘I wake up’; at bottom, ‘there is something wronger with Britain’
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
i mean who needs universities it’s not like they play a vital role in the UK’s economy, global standing and cultural vitality
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Just Giulio @giuliowolfe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Join us online today (1:30pm CEST - link in first reply) to co-create a collaborative, multistakeholder emergency response mechanism to protect Internet access in conflicts and crises! This online session is part of @rightscon.org Continues @accessnow.org @apc.org @7amleh.bsky.social
Screenshot of the event's banner, mostly repeating the title and speakers for this event
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