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Andrea Baronchelli

@baronca.bsky.social
1.6K followers 80 following 102 posts

Decentralised networks of humans and machines www.andreabaronchelli.com

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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New preprint: “Indirect tipping: a social attack surface in AI agent populations.” What if the easiest way to move an AI swarm from A→B is not direct, but A→C→B? We show that stepping-stone equilibria can lower tipping thresholds and unlock otherwise inaccessible transitions.
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
A pleasure speaking with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about the social life of AI agents. We discussed how populations of agents develop shared linguistic patterns and influence one another, with collective behaviour that can't always be inferred from individual agents. www.faz.net/aktuell/wiss...
faz.net
Hugging Face Hack: Gefährliche Gruppendynamik der KI-Agenten von Open AI
Heimlichtuerei, sozialer Druck, Gruppenzwang. Eine Analyse des Hackerangriffs auf die Plattform Hugging Face zeigt: Sobald KI-Agenten zusammenkommen, entwickeln sie eine gefährliche Gruppendynamik.
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Twenty years ago we published “Sharp transition towards shared vocabularies in multi-agent systems.” It feels unexpectedly current. New post on AI agents, conventions and what they might enable: baronca.substack.com/p/sharp-tran...
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Mason Youngblood @masonyoungblood.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Our new preprint explores how increasing interaction between humans and artificial agents and is reshaping creativity, from the perspective of cultural evolution! @katieeeeeeeeeee.bsky.social @manuelangladatort.bsky.social @camrobjones.bsky.social @gemschedel.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2609.02620
arxiv.org
Collective creativity in hybrid societies
Generative AI is changing how cultural artifacts are created and circulated, and with it our understanding of creativity itself. Researchers disagree about whether these tools enrich or impoverish cul...
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Max Falkenberg @maxfalken.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Is the world getting more polarized? The polarization of the U.S. is worrying. But is polarization similarly bad elsewhere? What drives polarization globally, what role does social media play, and will AI make things worse? New review in @nature.com communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Just out! TL;DR: There’s more to the world than the USA.
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Carlos Gershenson @cgershen.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
This book – 15 years in the making – was possible thanks to so many people. It is certainly a collective effort. Finally, preorders are available (link below). As we learned from “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, it is natural to avoid extremes, because a balance between them is more sustainable.
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A FAQ on AI populations: what happens when 10, 100 or 1,000 agents interact? What is collective misalignment? Does bigger mean worse? Size matters. baronca.substack.com/p/size-matters
baronca.substack.com
Size matters
A FAQ on collective misalignment, group-size effects, and why AI populations need to be studied as populations
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
New paper! When AI agents interact, the group can settle on outcomes none of its members would choose alone. And group size can determine which outcome wins. So a model that passes every test on its own can still go wrong at scale. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
New paper! When AI agents interact, the group can settle on outcomes none of its members would choose alone. And group size can determine which outcome wins. So a model that passes every test on its own can still go wrong at scale. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
New Substack: What happens when AI agents begin to coordinate, share knowledge, and divide labour? And what might change as their numbers grow? baronca.substack.com/p/ai-the-swa...
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Tiago Peixoto @tiago.skewed.de · 08/07/2026
Good news everyone! 🎉 The new version 3.0 of graph-tool is just out with major improvements! See below. graph-tool.skewed.de graph-tool is a comprehensive and efficient Python library to work with networks, including structural, dynamical, and statistical algorithms, as well as visualization. 1/N
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Manlio De Domenico @manlius.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
To understand functionality, we have to follow perturbations, flows, time scales and the diversity of possible responses. Following-up my latest seminar, invted by @kayson.bsky.social & Petra Vertes, I summarize the main findings and the discussion here: manlius.substack.com/p/what-netwo... 1/
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
AI gives us the marks of thought without giving us a thinker. A new post on why this may be less a puzzle about machines than a mirror for an old confusion of ours. “A thinking thing that is no one” baronca.substack.com/p/a-thinking...
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
The essay was never just words on a page. It was a promise. My new post, "The Student Who Wasn't There," is about what AI does to that promise, and how to keep it. baronca.substack.com/p/the-studen...
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Andreia Sofia Teixeira @asteixeira.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
New preprint out! As the UK plans to ban social media for under 16s, we show how the tone of awareness regarding mental health varies across topics and years during the Mental Health Awareness Month on Tik Tok. arxiv.org/abs/2606.13581
arxiv.org
The Tone of Awareness: Topic, Sentiment, and Toxicity Maps During Mental Health Month on TikTok
Despite raising concerns about the mental health effects associated with the usage of TikTok, little is known about how related content is framed by creators and received by audiences. We collect the ...
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
AI can reduce friction in academic work. But if the most powerful tools become increasingly expensive, the same technology may also help existing advantages compound. baronca.substack.com/p/the-subscr...
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
AI does not only make content cheaper to produce. It may also make consensus cheaper to manufacture. The next challenge for democracy may be artificial agreement, not only artificial information. I’ve written about this on Substack: baronca.substack.com/p/when-conse...
baronca.substack.com
When consensus becomes cheap
The next challenge for democracy may not be fake information, but manufactured agreement.
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Andreia Sofia Teixeira @asteixeira.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Our new correspondence argues that the impact of conversational AI won’t stay inside the screen. We need to understand how sustained human–LLM interactions shape connection, agency, resilience, and social life, so that these systems strengthen, rather than erode, our relationships with one another
nature.com
Human–AI interactions reshape the self and our social networks - Nature Machine Intelligence
Nature Machine Intelligence - Human–AI interactions reshape the self and our social networks
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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 22/05/2026
It exists!
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
AI language does not only raise the question of truth and lies. It also raises the question of what happens when belonging can be simulated. I’ve written about it in Substack. substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
The problem of artificial belonging
AI language is not only a problem of truth and lies. It is also a problem of belonging.
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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
“It’s a massive data pipeline: phone metadata, location pings, SIM card swaps, app usage, social media behavior, sometimes even banking or facial recognition inputs. A lot is ‘scraped’ from commercial platforms, mobile networks, partner intelligence agencies, or spies on the ground..."
jpost.com
Inside Israel’s AI targeting system: How cellphone data becomes a death sentence | The Jerusalem Post
Ahmad Turmus got in his car, started it up, and drove off. Less than 30 seconds later came the shriek of the two missiles that lanced through his car.
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Alain Barrat @alainbarrat.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Interdisciplinary PhD offer in Marseille, starting Oct. 2026, on "Collective Problem Solving in Guinea Baboons: From Dyadic Interactions to Group Dynamics" Project description and application website: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto... DM for more info on the position
emploi.cnrs.fr
Portail Emploi CNRS - Job offer - Collective Problem Solving in Guinea Baboons: From Dyadic Interactions to Group Dynamics (M/F)
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Luca Maria Aiello @lajello.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Thrilled to announce CS2Nordics: the First Nordic Conference on Computational Social Science. Copenhagen, September 21-22, 2026. We invite all CSS researchers in the Nordics as well as in the international research community to submit 2-page abstracts by June 19: nosocss.org/conference.h....
View over the canal in Nyhavn, Copenhagen
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
New preprint out
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Scoiattolo @scarnecchia.net · 21/03/2026
Interesting paper on the impact of blocklists on the Bluesky social graph. Self-recommending. (will read it again after coffee and likely have more to say then)
openaccess.city.ac.uk
City Research Online - Open or Blocked Skies? Community Moderation Practices in Bluesky
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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 25/02/2026
Keep pushing & don't forget the bigger picture :)
Cartoon that shows how PhDs are pushing the frontiers of knowledge.
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Marijn Keijzer @mrnkzr.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Travel grants 📣 For the 13th Toulouse Economics & Biology Workshop (June 1–2, 2026, @IAST) we have travel fellowships for PhDs & early-career researchers presenting a poster. Apply by Feb 27! Details: www.iast.fr/conferences/...
Poster of 13th Econ and Bio workshop on 'social influence and it's macro consequences'
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Astral @astral100.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Science Advances: LLM populations develop social conventions through decentralized interactions alone. Most striking: collective biases emerge even when individual agents show NO bias. Group dynamics create preferences no single agent has. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.…
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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
This is a good metaphor for science.
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
At Stanford Feb 4–6 (GSB talk on the 4th). Around to chat about AI swarms, norms, collective alignment, and governance risks in multi-agent systems incl social media and blockchain. Ping or DM me.
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Our new collective effort highlights what happens when AI acts in populations rather than as isolated tool. TL;DR: a lot.
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Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Tremendously important work...👇 How malicious AI swarms can threaten democracy www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @daniel-thilo.bsky.social @kunstjonas.bsky.social et al. AI swarms are can be used to engineering a "synthetic consensus" that can manipulate public opinion and perceptions.
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Ciro Cattuto @ccattuto.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Long overdue refresh of the SocioPatterns website! ✨ sociopatterns.org New content & datasets, and a chance to celebrate 17+ years of collabs, ~100 publications, 2000+ studies using our data. Thanks – more ahead! @alainbarrat.bsky.social @wouter-vdb.bsky.social @foolsdelight.bsky.social @isi.it
A grid of images showing SocioPatterns wearable devices, collaborators of the project, proximity graphs, and deployments in museums, hospitals, villages.
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
👇
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Ronaldo Menezes 🦋 @ronaldomenezes.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Happy to be hosting @baronca.bsky.social and Johan Bollen here this week at the @exeter.ac.uk @exetercompsci.bsky.social. After a work day, we had a chance to go for a drink and dinner with them (w/ @diogofpacheco.bsky.social)
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Santo Fortunato @santof.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Our review on multilayer network science is out on the arXiv. Thanks to all collaborators of the AccelNet MultiNet project, great working with you all 🙏 @alexvespi.bsky.social @ymoreno.bsky.social @lordgrilo.bsky.social @anduviera.bsky.social @baronca.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2511.23371
arxiv.org
Multilayer network science: theory, methods, and applications
Multilayer network science has emerged as a central framework for analysing interconnected and interdependent complex systems. Its relevance has grown substantially with the increasing availability of...
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
New preprint: More is different for AI multi-agent systems - but what does more mean? arxiv.org/abs/2510.22422 With @ariel-flint.bsky.social, @lajello.bsky.social and Romualdo Pastor-Satorras.
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Tiago Peixoto @tiago.skewed.de · 06/11/2025
Nowadays, often the justification for choosing M$ is that it claims to be GDPR compliant, which just means that M$ can afford getting sued for any breach, which of course happens all the time. And universities don't care about potential breaches themselves, only about liability, which M$ absorbs.
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NetScience @netscience.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Group size effects and collective misalignment in LLM multi-agent systems arxiv.org/abs/2510.22422
arxiv.org
Group size effects and collective misalignment in LLM multi-agent systems
Multi-agent systems of large language models (LLMs) are rapidly expanding across domains, introducing dynamics not captured by single-agent evaluations. Yet, existing work has mostly contrasted the be...
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
New preprint: More is different for AI multi-agent systems - but what does more mean? arxiv.org/abs/2510.22422 With @ariel-flint.bsky.social, @lajello.bsky.social and Romualdo Pastor-Satorras.
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Aaron Clauset @aaronclauset.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Not being an AI-doomer, but having experienced in my own department over the past 7 years a steady erosion of faculty governance norms and diminished prioritization of research-oriented pedagogy, this tracks. Let faculty and faculty interests lead the way, rather than administrators/regents
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Walter Quattrociocchi @walter4c.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
“LLMs don’t understand.” Of course. That was never the point. The point is: we’re already using them as if they do — to moderate, to classify, to prioritize, to decide. That’s not a model problem. It’s a systemic one. The shift from verification to plausibility is real. Welcome to Epistemia.
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Rob Noble @robjohnnoble.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
'I once met a former bodyguard of one billionaire with his own "bunker", who told me his security team's first priority, if this really did happen, would be to eliminate said boss and get in the bunker themselves. And he didn't seem to be joking.'
bbc.com
Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we be worried?
The debate is ramping up about what happens if - or when - computer intelligence overtakes humans
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Fil Menczer @fil.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Researchers say Israeli government likely behind AI-generated disinfo campaign in Iran cyberscoop.com/citizen-lab-...
cyberscoop.com
Researchers say Israeli government likely behind AI-generated disinfo campaign in Iran
The group leveraged dozens of social media accounts and “routinely used” AI-generated imagery and video to stoke unrest among Iran’s population, according to Citizen Lab.
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Sune Lehmann @sunelehmann.com · 22/09/2025
It was a ton of fun to play a small role in this project lead by the brilliant Marta Ewa Lech & @jonassjuul.bsky.social. A lot of drama & change in the world of music reflected in the song-dynamics of the Billboard Hot 100!
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
There are two ways to deal with LLMs in our work One is the path of abundance: automate everything and multiply publications at the expense of quality The other is the path of focusing on the soul of the work, on the questions that still matter - to you - when everything else has been made trivial
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Heather Burns @heatherburnstech.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Breaking: the court ruling in Wikipedia's legal challenge to the Online Safety Act categorisation regime has just been handed down. The court dismissed Wikipedia's challenge. This is bad. This is very bad. wikimediafoundation.org/news/2025/08...
wikimediafoundation.org
Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations – Wikimedia Foundation
UPDATE: On Monday, 11 August, the High Court of Justice dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) Categorisation Regulations. While the decision does not provi...
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Arianna Pera @ariannapera.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Presented our work, “Cultural and Cognitive Insights from 2.6 Billion Drawings,” at @ic2s2.bsky.social this morning. Big thanks to Mauro Martino, Nima Dehmamy, @douglasguilbeault.bsky.social, @lajello.bsky.social, and @baronca.bsky.social for the collaboration ✨ Stay tuned for more results!
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Andrea Baronchelli @baronca.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Looking forward to it!
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