iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Ah, are recent public statements of tech oligarchs & their hearts of gold perhaps driven by goals that are… not linked solely to selflessly, singlehandedly saving humanity? At least no media outlets fell for it by slipping into a full blown 2 week panic/fawn response to very earnest tech bros, phew

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Wow, reading these words about #DemocratizingAI from @rcalo.bsky.social (@uwlaw.bsky.social) means the world to me—I keep learning a huge amount from the law&tech community & esp Ryan’s absolutely pathbreaking work. I am so inspired by #techlaw scholarship &want #philosophers to be in dialogue w/it!

Philosophy Professor Annette Zimmermann book Democratizing AI, political philosophy of AI, AI policy and governance, AI ethics

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

During my Euro sabbatical, I’ve been investing into impacting local AI policy & media. In this @deutschlandfunk.de.web.brid.gy show I (in stress-activated German!) debunk alarmist AI doom narratives. Actionable priority problems rn: #oligarchy, #marketconcentration, #regcapture, antidem #ideology.

Professor Annette Zimmermann on AI and Democratic Control, superintelligence, xrisk, AI safety, AI ethics, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

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Alvaro M. Bedoya @bedoyausa.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Gavin Newsom caved to that pressure. So did Xavier Becerra. And eventually, so did Attorney General Rob Bonta, agreeing to a weak settlement that will be exceedingly difficult to enforce. People want champions who are not afraid of rich bullies. Newsom, Becerra, and Bonta did not meet that mark.

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Alvaro M. Bedoya @bedoyausa.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Today, billionaires yet again bribed, censored, and bullied their way to the top. As a result, a billionaire media company closely allied with the president will soon own one of its closest rivals, including some of the nation’s critical news outlets. Saudi Arabia will co-own those outlets, too.

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

So cool to see @linamkhan.bsky.social calling out #AIexceptionalism at the recent @theatlantic.com festival—a key concept in my book Democratizing AI! Throwback to my @re-publica.com talk in Berlin earlier this year on how tech oligarchs use exceptionalism to further concentrate power & wealth:

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Spent an inspiring hour with the absolutely brilliant German journalist @annewill.bsky.social discussing #AIdoom narratives circulating in SV & the media this week, their political context re #midterms & why #techoligarchs’ calls for more regulation aren’t strictly new, surprising, or all that noble

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Vauhini Vara @vauhinivara.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

You know what has power? Narratives have power. The richest, most powerful, people in the world know this — they grew up reading sci fi — and have used it to their advantage. They're describing a fictional future that serves their interests, in the hopes that, in believing it, we'll make it happen.

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Grateful to receive this kind praise for my book #DemocratizingAI from Brian Berkey (Penn)! Colleagues, DM me if you are teaching #polphilofAI #AIethics #ppe #sts this year & want to teach parts of this book & need a digital instructor copy. @manchesterup.bsky.social #philosophyofAI #philoftech

Democratizing AI book by Professor Annette Zimmermann

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Amazing feeling to finally unpack a physical copy of #DemocratizingAI! #publicationday Get your anti-broligarchic treatise here: www.amazon.com/Democratizin... @manchesterup.bsky.social #philosophyofAI #AIethics

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Visiting the Baltics this fall for some talks, keen to connect with the broader local #AI / #philosophyofAI / #AIethics / #AIpolicy / #democraticinnovations community. What should I make sure not to miss & who should I talk to? Recs welcome!

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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 03/08/2026

Learn from recent local wins: Communities have successfully blocked, rolled back, or constrained ALPR deployments; this 2025 retrospective walks through examples and tactics you can borrow. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

eff.org

Local Communities Are Winning Against ALPR Surveillance—Here’s How: 2025 in Review

Across ideologically diverse communities, 2025 campaigns against automated license plate reader (ALPR) surveillance kept winning. From Austin, Texas to Cambridge, Massachusetts to Eugene, Oregon, succ...

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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 03/08/2026

"Flock cameras are just one part of a vast ecosystem," @lastweektonight.com's John Oliver warned his audience last night. "Check out resources like the EFF's Atlas of Surveillance, which catalogs each of the technologies used in your area." www.atlasofsurveillance.org/

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Ah well I sure hope someone would write a whole book about what a ✨politically alert✨ response might look like ☺️👀

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Been in this exact situation, except this was by a European beach and the guy in question stormed off, found the tallest possible cliff, jumped off it, came back, announced that he found the tallest cliff, then demanded that I email him “proof” so that he can (you guessed it) “do his own research” 🥰

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Excited to learn last week that colleagues are using our @neuripsconf.bsky.social position paper, in which we debunk common #myths & #misconceptions about #democratizingAI, in their undergrad teaching. We’re starting to track this so if you’re including our paper in your syllabus pls dm/email me ✨

Zimmermann, Annette et al. “Don’t Give Up on Democratizing AI for the Wrong Reasons” (NeurIPS’25) #politicalphilosophyofAI

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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

AI companies are writing their own constitutions. Meanwhile, a shared vocabulary for contesting algorithmic power has been traveling across red and blue states, from legislatures to civil society. New from me in @science.org: "A Civic Grammar for AI Rights" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵

science.org

A civic grammar for AI rights

Earlier this year, the artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic, developer of the large language model Claude, published a document it calls “Claude’s Constitution,” described by the company as ...

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Happy to be interviewed in @dazeddigital.com about the feminist, anticonsumerist political & philosophical context of the ongoing cyberdeck renaissance on TikTok! Impressed with the young, politically & technologically engaged women at the forefront of this scene.

Annette Zimmermann interview in Dazed magazine 2026, feminism & AI, cyberpunk, democratizing AI, cyberdecks TikTok

Annette Zimmermann interview in Dazed magazine 2026, feminism & AI, broligarchy, cyberpunk, democratizing AI, cyberdecks TikTok

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Brett Karlan @oldjerryfodor.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

In this paper, I show that "looksmaxxing" falls prey to familiar demandingness objections, and we should instead focus our moral energies on "lookssatisficing"

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Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

“While energy projects on nontribal lands can face permitting delays of three to 10 years, projects on tribal land often proceed more quickly because tribes wield sovereign authority to handle their own regulations and permitting.” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/u...

nytimes.com

Big Tech Is Now Targeting Native American Land for Massive Data Centers

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

TODAY only: you can pre-order 🤖DEMOCRATIZING AI🤖 for 50% off if you order it through MUP's website! Stop doomscrolling Big Tech oligarchs' whacky manifestos and find out why & how to subject AI to meaningful democratic control: tiny.cc/ege6101 @manchesterup.bsky.social

Professor Annette Zimmermann, Democratizing AI book 2026, political philosophy of AI

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Throwback to my talk at an excellent @columbiauniversity.bsky.social workshop in Paris by powerhouses Jean Cohen & @katharinapistor.bsky.social! TLDR: tech oligarchic capture affects multiple spheres, not just one. As I argue in my book, we need frameworks & mechanisms to address *all* of them.

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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

1000 evaluators given identical resumes & told candidate used AI. Only difference on resumes was candidate’s name: Emily vs James. Study found women using AI are evaluated as less competent than men who use AI...To evaluators, women’s AI use signaled inability, while men’s AI use signaled initiative

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 01/07/2026

quality research and activism aren't mutually exclusive the same way "innovation and regulation" aren't. in fact, an underlying theory of change and vision that drives research strengths the quality of your academic scholarship, not weakens it any way 2/

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The bigger threat I see re: pseudoscience & corporate #ethicswashing/ #participationwashing actually falls more into the “people who have absolutely no clue about philosophy (and zero skills in logical reasoning) try to legitimize bogus ideas by using fancy philosophy-esque words” category (9/n)

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I feel like there’s actually an impressive amount of philosophers doing important & critical & nuanced & politically engaged & empirically grounded work in this space, esp since this field turned from its originally quite individualist focus to more structural & political & economic questions (8/n)

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

With that in mind, the characterization of “most” of the subfield of #philofAI as “sensationalizing” & “churning out corporate propaganda” doesn’t sit right with me. Really, “most” of the philosophers in field basically do naive hype/delulu work? Doesn’t match my impression at all tbh. (5/n)

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Hmmm…. thread coming up 🤖 I’m 1000% on board with having better convos as a field on disclosure & transparency—as I argue in #DemocratizingAI, potential #academiccapture (in addition to more well-understood and often more obvious regulatory capture) remains a key concern in the AI space. (1/n)

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

V important reporting as always from @khari.bsky.social. This case arguably generalizes: in many jurisdictions, public sector agencies have been all too eager to deploy tools even when academic experts voice serious concerns yet noticeably recalcitrant when it comes to transparent public disclosure!

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Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Ah so LLMs operate like senior male academics. Who could have envisioned that technology trained on existing texts could operate in a fundamentally conservative nature

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Samantha Brennan @samanthabrennan.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Nancy Cartwright, professor of philosophy at Durham University and the University of California, San Diego, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Humanities. dailynous.com/2026/06/15/c...

dailynous.com

Cartwright Wins Frontiers of Knowledge Award - Daily Nous

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Had a great time presenting some insights from political philosophy about how to do civic tech well at an exciting @sorbonne-universite.fr @sciencespo.bsky.social workshop in Paris! (1) technosolutionism can take the form of harder-to-spot cryptonormative judgments re: feasibility constraints.

Professor Annette Zimmermann, Democratizing AI, Sorbonne 2026

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

FYI my book’s index is the most interesting index 💃🏻 #democratizingAI #philosophyofAI #boygenius

Professor Annette Zimmermann book Democratizing AI

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Evan Westra @evanwestra.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

You joke, but every morning while you're still asleep, I get up at the crack of time t, have a cup of coffee,and then get straight to Φing.

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Lured to Paris by a long trail of croissants and many nerdy conversations about constitutional rights & democracy & AI. Anyone here (possibly post-CVPR?) interested in chatting about technical & policy aspects of #democraticAI #philosophyofAI #AIpolicy: dm me 🤖

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Paul Kelleher @paulkelleher.net · 02/06/2026

A New Yorker-style cartoon set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The skyline in the background shows a destroyed, smoldering city under a dark, smoky sky. In the foreground, a man in a tattered business suit sits cross-legged across a small campfire from what appears to be a family, including a child. He addresses them with apparent self-satisfaction.
Caption: "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

here's the discourse dynamic I am talking about: fueled by (possibly well-intentioned yet noticeably noncommittal) #AIpopulism think pieces—easily instrumentalized & weaponized for antidemocratic goals by other political actors.

AI populism, Democratizing AI, political philosophy of AI

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J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

People often pitch AI as unprecedented. But what if we already have the organizational tools to evaluate & negotiate its use? Our new book Auditing AI opens in the 1980s with the story of the US Network for Organ Sharing how how they test & decide on their algorithms direct.mit.edu/books/book/6...

Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

AI democratization skeptics & opponents like to obsess over the claim that regular people can't possibly participate bc they lack AI expertise, while simultaneously obsessing over simplistic narratives like "AI populism" whenever people DO exercise democratic counterpower 🙃 #DemocratizingAI

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Soo pumped to talk about my book #DemocratizingAI at re:publica in Berlin nxt Mon 4:45 pm alongside so many scholars & journalists whose work I have admired for a long time including (but not limited to!) @karenhao.bsky.social @carolecadwalla.bsky.social @quinnslobodian.com @doctorow.pluralistic.net

Professor Annette Zimmermann, political philosophy of AI, republica Berlin 2026, Democratizing AI, democratic innovations and AI, civic tech, AI and political participation

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Teehee spotted this hot take in The Hague 🤖

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

"a term popularized by Palantir" we are cooked

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

This Wed I’ll be talking about #democratizingAI at the @yale.edu Political Theory Workshop! What an honor to be back (though sadly on Zoom this time) 10 years after first setting foot on this campus as a visiting student & deepening my resolve to dedicate myself to democratic theory. #polphilofAI

Assistant Professor Annette Zimmermann, Yale University, Yale Political Theory Workshop 2026, Democratizing Ai, democratic participation and AI, democratically legitimate AI, political philosophy of AI

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Annette Zimmermann @drzimmermann.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Really looking fwd to speaking about how & why to subject AI to more democratic control at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social Colloquium in Law, Philosophy & Political Theory on Fri! Thanks to @joshuacohen.bsky.social & David Singh Grewal for inviting me. #democratizingAI

Professor Annette Zimmermann colloquium talk on Democratizing AI at UC Berkeley Colloquium in Law, Philosophy and Political Theory, political philosophy of AI

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re:publica @re-publica.com · 25/03/2026

Die Macht über KI konzentriert sich derzeit in den Händen weniger „Tech-Broligarchen“. Die Forscherin und Philosophin Annette Zimmermann (@drzimmermann.bsky.social) spricht auf der #rp26 darüber, wie wir das gemeinsam ändern können, indem wir KI demokratisieren. ➡️ re-publica.com/de/news/rp26...

Foto von Annette Zimmermann. Sie trägt offene, lange braune Haare und lächelt in die Kamera.

Visual mit der Aufschrift republica 26, darunter befindet sich ein Peace-Zeichen mit der Unterschrift Politik und Gesellschaft. Darunter steht in Großbuchstaben HOW TO FIGHT THE BROLIGARCHY BY DEMOCRATIZING AI – ANNETTE ZIMMERMANN. Am unteren Rand ist das Motto Never Gonna Give You Up zu lesen mit dem Veranstaltungsdatum 18.-20. Mai und dem Ort, der STATION Berlin.

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