Researchers testing a cheap, homegrown oil in Uganda found what cats knew all along – it worked as well as the artificial chemical used globally

Algorithms have become central objects of contemporary societies. They shape how we communicate, work, consume, govern, and imagine possible futures. Yet, despite their pervasiveness, algorithms are not merely technical systems: they are social, political, and cultural objects, embedded in relations of power, shaped by economic incentives, and infused with visions of what society should be. This conference, Socializing Algorithms, brings together scholars from across disciplines to examine algorithms not as isolated technologies, but as co-produced within social practices, institutions, and imaginaries.

Earlier this week, a prominent venture capitalist named Geoff Lewis — the managing partner of the multi-billion dollar investment firm Bedrock, which has backed high-profile tech companies including OpenAI and Vercel — posted a disturbing video on X-formerly-Twitter that immediately caused concern among his peers. "This isn't a redemption arc," Lewis says in the video. "It's a transmission, for the record. Over the past eight years, I've walked through something I didn't create, but became the primary target of: a non-governmental system, not visible, but operational. Not official, but structurally real. It doesn't regulate, it doesn't attack, it doesn't ban. […]

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**__Soundtrack: Mack Glocky - Chasing Cars__** * * * Last week, I spent a great deal of time and words _framing the generative AI industry as a cynical con_ where OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei have used a compliant media and braindead investors to frame _unprofitable, unsustainable,_