iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

My 3rd year co-advised PhD student, Shuxian Liu @shuxianliu.bsky.social, is presenting our work on the US-China "AI Arms Race" tomorrow at 8AM in the Simcoe room. Visa issues sadly prevent her attendance IRL, but she would love to engage with you: ischool.utexas.edu/profiles/shu...

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The iSchool at UT is hiring up to 4 tenured or tenure-track faculty! open area! Please RT/ forward this to folks on the market, happy to answer questions!

picture of the jobs page at the UT iSchool, with the UT tower on right, and the Information word mark in top left.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

hi Gregory! I recruit for my local AAUP and we certainly don't exclude- all instructors, professors, staff and even PhD students are welcome. Also, you'd know better, but it appears even AAUP@U Delaware also welcomes all faculty?

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I am teaching an undergrad course called "🤖AI, Hype, and Capitalism 🤑" — yes, the emojis are mandatory 😤. I was told undergrads are Not Well. But after reading responses to the intake survey, I am SO EXCITED FOR CLASS TOMORROW:

I saw the title and was genuinely interested. I have seen so much AI hype from large companies/institutions, yet most of the people I know personally are not as excited.
It’s one of the most interesting subjects available in informatics and one of the most time relevant topics for modern society. I am extremely curious about the content we’ll cover, but specifically from someone highly educated and professional, as opposed to varying information from echo chambers and questionable personas online.
Social informatics + interest in the topics!
I’m obsessed with AI and love learning about it
Sounds like a fun title and interested in all aspects that surround AI
I’m studying Informatics with a concentration in Data Science, so AI comes up constantly in both my classes and the career paths I’m considering. I wanted to take a class that looks beyond just how AI works technically and focuses more on its impact on businesses, the economy, and society.
In this class, I am excited to learn about these topics in particular…
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What do people expect will happen when the AI bubble pops? Both from an economic perspective and what would be done with the infrastructure created.
AI, tech related hype, and capitalism are all topics I’m quite interested in talking about and listening to, especially their connections to one another.
How these concepts intertwine with current politics, and how this varies different countries.
How will new EU regulations and other global regulations affect AI progress.
When will everything stop being propped up. Shift in enterprise tokenomics
I’m especially interested in the AI hype cycle and whether the amount of investment and attention AI is receiving actually matches its current capabilities. I’m also interested in how AI is changing Big Tech, startups, jobs, and the way companies make decisions.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

We show how further funding is justified via continual claims that AI faces only ‘one small problem’ impeding its usefulness for military goals. Finally, we examine how DARPA seeks to use AI on the battlefield, including this chilling graphic: We release our data.

Graphic from DARPA grant solicitation saying "demonstrating the prediction that a boy approaching a soldier may hand him an object,
based on previously observed cases".

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

come see my keynote about this unholy love triangle!

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

‼️We @inhacha.bsky.social @amabalayn.bsky.social @blairaf.com are hosting a CHI 2026 meet-up on AI supply chains × HCI! Lightning talks + panel + open discussion Drop by anytime 👇 🗓 April 13 (Monday) | ⏰ 2:15–3:45 PM | 📍 Room 133 aisupplychainresearchandhci.wordpress.com/how-could-ai...

A light blue poster with black text and dark purple title with same info about meet up as found on this website: https://aisupplychainresearchandhci.wordpress.com/how-could-ai-supply-chain-research-shape-hci-inquiries-and-vice-versa/

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

University of Texas is set to curtail teaching of "Controversial Topics", per agenda item added before the holiday weekend for Board of Regent's meeting Thursday. Texas students deserve to learn to think critically about pressing concerns of our day. @aaup.org archive.is/rvbwz

Page 1 of agenda item here: https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/default/files/offices/board-of-regents/board-meetings/agenda-book-full/2-2026AB.pdf

Page two of agenda item previously linked.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

omg same! and I'm excited to see all of the people tomorrow!!!

screenshot of entirely empty monday, entirely full Tuesday weekly calendar

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

I presented @nathanckim.bsky.social and my "How Big Cloud gets Bigger" paper analyzing crunchbase to show how: *Google/Microsoft/Amazon invest at rates rivaling the largest VCs.* Big Cloud = Critical Infrastructure *AND* Venture Capital. here are the slides:

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Howdy! If you're attending the Law and Political Economy Conference in Richmond VA this week, drink with us at the reception and then: ‼️ 📣 join us for the bluesky of ALPE group dinner at 6:30pm on Friday, leaving from the reception to a nearby restaurant. All welcome 📣‼️

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

City of Austin: yes I did! That's because it was 1200% more cold in Texas this week than last. (And I also am loving having a dishwasher again, admittedly…)

City of Austin Utilities email shaming me for using 1200% more electricity this week than last. With a blue bar chart showing this.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

🪲 What is a "bug"? 🐛 Software bugs may seem obvious. 🚨But in a short piece, eminent bug expert @clegoues.bsky.social I seek to answer this seemingly simple question, and find that it is far from clear cut … dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Front page of CACM opinion article linked in post.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Thanks!! I have. I found it... okay. He identifies big problems & then prescribes roughly: better rules+democracy that imo don't meet our technofascist moment. Here's a review i roughly agreed with, don't know the author of it tho. macwright.com/2025/02/23/c... Curious abt your thoughts!

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

📣 2 exciting things: 1. I'm taking 3.5 months off! No email, but reading recs ⬇️ pls! 2. In December, I'll be an Assistant Professor at UT Austin in the School of Information! ❗️Tell folks wanting to think about & dismantle systems of power in AI supply chains to do a PhD with me! Deadline Dec 1!

David smiling wearing a burnt orange Texas Research t-shirt holding a burnt orange Texas coffee mug. He is indoors, standing to the right of a plant and in front of a window with the williamsburg bridge behind.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Today I moderated a conversation between Joan Greenbaum and Lucy Suchman about workplace organizing and collective resistance to war technologies. I have learned so much from them in my own research and activism, so this was a blast and a huge honor.

Lucy, David and Joan seated, tbe last two listening while Lucy talks with her hands.

Lucy and David smiling while Joan talks.

Joan, David and Lucy standing for a picture outside.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

I had the privilege of hosting @inhacha.bsky.social this summer at the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell, where she led amazing work unpacking "AI Sovereignty" with me & @richmondywong.bsky.social. Her work connects the local to the global in such an inspiring way. Look out for a preprint soon!

Inha in black dress and white shirt posing for photo with david in white shirt and pink shorts in front of black statue with gold chinese characters. they are doing the two finger peace sign and smiling.

Inha in her final presentation in front of two large TVs with her slides.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Helped organize the "Toward the promise of open source AI" workshop at Berkeley AI Research, where I yesterday I gave a ✨new talk ✨: BIG *isn't* open! To make Open real, we need to (1) think beyond BIG, by (2) starting with USES we want to enable.

Yellow slide with big title "Big isn't open!", Big in bold and open in red.

Subtitle "Who Big serves, how Big threatens Open, and small ways forward."

Byline: "David Gray Widder • Berkeley Open Source AI Convening • 12 August 2025"

Takeaways slide, with body:

"1: Beyond Big AI
Recognize that AI futures built on Big Tech are not open.
Reject the “Foundation Model”-Fine Tune paradigm—massive open models handed down from the gods—because this is not very open.
2: Imagine the ends we want, then figure out the mechanisms
Embrace Use-first—asking us what goals we want to achieve, for whom, then how.
Open as means to an end! Where do we wanna go, and how can we re-imagine open to help us get there?"

and at bottom: davidwidder.me/ + incentives.pdf, cloud.pdf, open-nature.pdf open.pdf • Thoughts welcome! david.g.widder@gmail.com

Room full of people seated watching a panel discussion in the front of the room with four palensits and one monitor.

A group of 6 people standing in front of a table of sticky notes from their brainstorming session.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Finally, fully *half* of all Big Cloud investments are made internationally, and each has their target countries. Interestingly, Big Cloud invests primarily through accelerators abroad while prioritizing traditional equity investments at home.

3 heat maps of the world, one for each Big Cloud company. Amazon visibly invests a higher % of its deals in India, Google in Brazil and lesser in india, Microsoft in China.

Two split bar charts, split in the same way as above, but with one bar chart for Non US and the other for US investments, showing that Google and Microsoft use Accelerator programs abroad more than equity investments, whereas Amazon prefers equity investments at home and abroad.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Big Cloud is also *investing* in a way that brings much of the same risks as vertical integration, which competition authorities watch for. And startups operating in the AI supply chain *more likely to rely on Big Cloud as their lead or sole investor* when they invest vs other investors:

Two very large heat maps, each with Developer Services, As a Service, Cloud, Data, Internet Infra, and Hardware on the Y axis, and the Big Cloud companies alongside NVidia, Apple, Meta, Accel and Sequoia Capital on the Y axis. The temperature of each sell measures % of time that investor is the sole or lead investor respectively, and broadly show that AI supply chain companies are more likely to be dependent on Big Cloud investor as their sole or lead investor than other investors.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Big Cloud invests heavily through accelerator programs, locking in startups early: • They offer *massive cloud credits* that smaller cloud companies can’t compete with • Capture ecosystems by pushing startups to use their other tech • Incentivizes compute-heavy tech, such as building Gen AI.

Split bar chart with red and blue bars per investor, showing that Google and Microsoft invest via Accelerator programs more than their other investments, whereas the reverse is true for Amazon. Of course, accelerators invest only through accelerator programs, and the biggest VCs make no accelerator investments. Other Big Tech companies have no recorded accelerator investments.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

We might remember Microsoft's huge investment in OpenAI, but this was just the tip of a massive hidden iceberg🥶: Big Cloud deploys *hundreds of billions* over *thousands of deals*, often in smaller, lesser-known startups. They invest like VCs — and *100x more* than other Big Tech companies.

The first bar graph in the report, showing google having the most investments (3501), Microsoft second (1681) and then Amazon (745), all way more than other “Magnificent Seven” big tech companies and way way more than all other investors, and in the same range of other bars representing Big VC and Active Accelerators.

The second graph in the report, showing a similar trend to the last one, but this time as measured in the dollar size of the deals they participate in. Google and Microsoft invest in deals summing to an amount similar to big VCs, with Amazon at a smaller amount about one third that of Microsoft.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

📣🚨NEW: ☁️ Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft & Amazon—control two thirds of the cloud compute market. They’re getting rich off the AI gold rush. In new work with @nathanckim.bsky.social, we show how Big Cloud is expanding their empire by scrutinizing their *investments*… 🧵 📄PDF: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

The cover of the report, with dark blue title "How Big Cloud becomes Bigger" with "Bigger" in bold, and subtitle in light blue "Scrutinizing Google Microsoft and Amazon's investments", and light grey author line "David Gray Widder and Nathan Kim" on light grey page background with three clouds: white, dark grey, and very dark grey getting bigger and going towards the top right until they're off the page.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

ironic ad for me to get this week 👀 (stay tuned for something big from me next week!)

Screenshot of a gmail inbox with advertisement reading "Google Cloud Startups: Scale with $200k, on us"

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

but I'm probably gonna tune into the last day of the Birzeit conference tomorrow morning as I work! :) Livestream will be here: www.youtube.com/@BirzeitUniv...

conference schedule on Third Day - online only, 31 july, 2025, full text here: https://ialiis.birzeit.edu/conference/en/

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

I'm tuning into the "Engineering Destruction: Militarization and the War Economy" conference held by Birzeit University's Inst. of Intl. Studies: ialiis.birzeit.edu/conference/en/ Now, Andrew Ross (NYU)'s keynote is about the closeness between academia and war: www.youtube.com/live/N-B5eo8...

Conference program with spiky artwork and title "Engineering Destruction: Militarization and the War Economy", and details: "29-31 July at Birzeit University and Online, Hall 243, Institute of Law Annex Building".

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

📣🔥❤️‍🔥 I'm excited to moderate a panel with none other than *Lucy Suchman and Joan Greenbaum* at Aarhus '25 - we'll hear them reflect on their work in tech social justice movements, and what we can learn and do today. Join us on August 19th IRL or online: tech-organizing-reflections.github.io

A green flier with title "From Tech Lash to Text Fash: Strategic Reflections on a Decate of Collective organizing in Computing" with a QR code and link (same as one in body of post) and with blurb and details:

Hybrid Workshop @ Aarhus
Tuesday August 19, 8:30-11:30 am EST / 2:30-5:30 pm CEST
Computing is a field plagued with presentism, oriented towards the new in ways that limit our design and research practices - as well as our capacity to understand and collectively respond to emerging crises. To improve our sensemaking and strategizing about today's crises, this workshop explores what Tamara Kneese has deemed the last decade's shift from "techlash" to "tech fash". What have we learned from the era of misinformation and bias, of "surveillance capitalism" and tech worker organizing that can inform our struggle against the increasing power of a techno-fascist oligarchy? We will also look towards previous generations of computing professionals and activists, who likewise sought to address the harms of emerging automated systems and the complicity of computing within violent, imperialist projects. This workshop will create space for participants to explore these questions collectively, bridging past and present moments in an effort to devise strategies moving forward."

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

"I hope this email finds you well. " How your email found me:

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

I have spent the last 4 hours staring at this diagram add that to the 400 hours I spent doing so in my undergrad <me learning to do data work again>

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Very excited to be at Michigan this Friday, presenting work with @siree.sh and Lucy Suchman, and talking about how accepting military funding, even for Basic Research, can enlist us in a warfighting agenda. The talk will be live streamed, all are welcome! esc.umich.edu/event/politi...

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

🍅🍅🥫Updates on my scheme to start a Tomato farm in Brooklyn. I built a greenhouse entirely from found materials, including shower doors lugged on the subway all the way from Times Square.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Anyone else being bombarded with 100s of new follows from what appear to be Democrat supporting bots?

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Mine was "can-be-convinced-the-earth-is-flat-nobody-puts-baby-in-a-corner-crying" :'''( , and…

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

TLDR: the AI Action Summit was a hype circus. Buzzword bingo. Macron dancing awkwardly. Silly AI art. A surprising number of FAccTy people! More to come.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Op ed by Cornell Professor James Grimmelmann: "Cornell Must Defend Its Values", on the university cowardly backing away from its support for Trans youth. Powerful stuff: cornellsun.com/2025/02/08/g...

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