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Ruth Starkman

@ruthstarkman.bsky.social
154 followers 76 following 95 posts

Teacher, computing ethics monger, firstgens @Stanford Global ethics, philosophizing with 🔨 coding with ✏ surfing with 🐕 ruth.substack.com

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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Universities should resist the easy clarity of blanket AI bans. The harder and more honest task is to teach students when AI supports judgment, when it substitutes for it, and how responsibility changes when these tools are already in the classroom. open.substack.com/pub/ruth/p/b...
open.substack.com
Berkeley Law’s New AI Policy Gets the Problem Right and the Pedagogy Wrong
A blanket ban purchases clarity at the cost of understanding how students already use AI.
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The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics @iethics.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
"The encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas ('Magnificent Humanity'), will center on 'the protection of the human person in the age of [#AI]' and will be presented May 25 by the pope as well as Curial cardinals and theologians": ncronline.org/vatican/vati... #ethics #tech #religion
ncronline.org
Pope Leo to present his encyclical on AI alongside Anthropic co-founder
Pope Leo XIV will personally present his first major teaching document on AI's ethical challenges alongside the co-founder of the AI research company that recently thrust into a public clash with the ...
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Excited to share the first issue of _Welcomed_, a new Stanford student journal devoted lived faith traditions, political & cultural tensions, and creating meaning in university life. So proud of the students! ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.ph...
ojs.stanford.edu
Welcomed: Building Communities of Faith at Stanford
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 13/04/2026
🎉🥳
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The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics @iethics.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
One research team "found that beginning a question with 'You are an independent thinker' instead of 'You are a helpful assistant' helped"; another researcher "found that writing a question from a third-person point of view reduced social sycophancy'" spectrum.ieee.org/ai-sycophancy #ethics #tech #AI
spectrum.ieee.org
Why AI Chatbots Agree With You Even When You’re Wrong
Language models often abandon correct answers to please users. Scientists are studying why—and are teaching AI to push back.
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
My biomedical ethics students were inspired by important new work in Science Magazine. Drawing on Myra Cheng et al. and Anat Perry, we compared human and AI feedback, and found students preferred the latter even if it negatively impacted their work ruth.substack.com/p/teaching-a...
ruth.substack.com
Teaching Against AI Sycophancy in the Research Writing Classroom
Why Students Still Prefer Machine Praise
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 01/04/2026
if you have some expertise in AI, this is one of the most consequential and rewarding positions you can occupy. apply
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has concluded a three-year cloud computing investigation by accepting non-binding pledges from Amazon and Microsoft — and opening a new probe into Microsoft's corporate software dominance, writes Megan Kirkwood.
buff.ly
UK Regulator Probes Microsoft While Backing Voluntary Cloud Rules
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has concluded a three-year cloud computing investigation by accepting non-binding pledges from Amazon and Microsoft.
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Looking forward to speaking in the Laura C. Harris Series at Denison University this week. denison.edu/series/harris
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
I appreciate @seanhollister.bsky.social 's reporting here about the latest step Google is taking in their quest to destroy the information ecosystem and disempower information seekers: www.theverge.com/tech/896490/... 🧵>>
theverge.com
Google Search is now using AI to replace headlines
Let us know if you see more.
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Now out: Video of my recent conversation with @chrislhayes.bsky.social about his great book The Siren's Call, social media's grip on our attention, and what AI may mean for our focus, politics, and future. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY38...
youtube.com
CBH Talk | Chris Hayes Discusses “The Siren’s Call” with Alondra Nelson
YouTube video by Center for Brooklyn History
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
I guess our paper hit a bit of a nerve 👀 @olivia.science, @marentierra.bsky.social et al. (2025). Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia. Zenodo. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Alt metric score of 1300
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Look what arrived!!! w/ @alexhanna.bsky.social
Photo of my author copies of the Spanish translation of The AI Con

Title (large black font): La estafa de la IA
Authors (small green font): Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna
Subtitle (small green font): Cómo combatir el espejismo de las grandes tecnológicas que amenaza tu trabajo y tu libertad

Image of a cartoon figure of a person holding a large bag labeled with a dollar sign, where the head is obscured by a green and gold computer chip.
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Rwanda struck a deal with Anthropic to embed its AI systems across the country’s health ministry, public agencies and education system, raising questions about whether an external review should have occurred, Javaid Iqbal Sofi writes.
techpolicy.press
Anthropic is Becoming the Backbone of Rwanda’s Government. But Who is Accountable?
Rwanda's agreement with Anthropic to embed AI in government did not trigger any external review mechanism, Javaid Iqbal Sofi writes.
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
A wave of AI-generated images and video has emerged from the Iran war. But a new phenomenon is also observable, write shirin anlen and Mahsa Alimardani from WITNESS: the spread of technical-looking analyses used to discredit authentic evidence.
buff.ly
How AI Content Detection is Being Weaponized in the Iran War
When trust in evidence collapses, the greatest casualty is accountability for real-world harm, write shirin anlen and Mahsa Alimardani from WITNESS.
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Students now recognize model prose on sight, yet many still reach for it when not sure what to say. ruth.substack.com/p/model-styl...
ruth.substack.com
Model Style Is So Cringe
What it teaches us about writing and alignment
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Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
3,900 Pages of Paul Klee’s Personal Notebooks Are Now Online, Highlighting His Bauhaus Teachings (1921–1931)
openculture.com
3,900 Pages of Paul Klee’s Personal Notebooks Are Now Online, Highlighting His Bauhaus Teachings (1921–1931)
Paul Klee led an artistic life that spanned the 19th and 20th centuries, but he kept his aesthetic sensibility tuned to the future.
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Referencing Tamar Mitts’ recently published Safe Havens for Hate: The Challenge of Moderating Online Extremism, Joseph Stabile considers the trajectory of online threat actors, voluntary platform commitments, and international regulatory regimes over the past decade.
techpolicy.press
Platform Convergence and the Limits of Technical Solutions to Counter Online Hate | TechPolicy.Press
Joseph Stabile considers the trajectory of online threat actors, voluntary platform commitments to counter terrorism, and international regulatory regimes.
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Check out this great GRACE paper on Generative AI, Filmmaking, Creative labor, and Copyright ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.ph...
ojs.stanford.edu
Who Holds the Camera? Filmmaking Justice in the Era of Generative AI | GRACE: Global Review of AI Community Ethics
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
If we want lasting change, we need to take a step back and consider the downstream impacts of AI in government, writes Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America. A bad AI decision isn’t just a bug to fix in the next release. It’s a mom losing access to food assistance because of a faulty algorithm.
buff.ly
DOGE Should Look to States For How to Implement Effective AI | TechPolicy.Press
We’ve seen what happens when we move fast and break things, writes Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America.
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Check out this great article on de-identified medical data by Britney Bennett in @stanford's GRACE journal ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.ph...
ojs.stanford.edu
De-Identified Medical Datasets and the 2025 Readiness Gap:: Toward Equity, Scale, and Trust in Foundation Model Training | GRACE: Global Review of AI Community Ethics
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Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
If I had a dollar for each time someone asked me what AI agents mean for sustainability, I could have retired early.. instead, with my colleagues @brigittetousi.hf.co and @yjernite.bsky.social, we wrote a blog post about it! 🤗🌱 huggingface.co/blog/sasha/a...
huggingface.co
Are AI Agents Sustainable? It depends
A Blog post by Sasha Luccioni on Hugging Face
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Check out this great book by Dr. Joy Buolamwini @jovialjoy _Unmasking AI_. Out soon in paperback! Reviewed in @stanford's GRACE journal by Angela Nguyen ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.ph...
ojs.stanford.edu
Unmasking AI:: Why Ethical Tech Is Everyone’s Responsibility | GRACE: Global Review of AI Community Ethics
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Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
The saga with the legal status of TikTok in the United States is taking longer than 40 years on internet history.
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Check out this important book by @DrCABerry and @csdoctorsister reviewed in GRACE journal, every department needs to order one for students and faculty ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.ph...
ojs.stanford.edu
Teaching Justice: Mitigating Bias in Machine Learning | GRACE: Global Review of AI Community Ethics
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Check out this important book by @MarietjeSchaake reviewed in GRACE, we're teaching a chapter in our Fall ESF course! journalhttps://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/grace/article/view/3807
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Also available as video on PeerTube: peertube.dair-institute.org/w/cbWGbfdJoW...
peertube.dair-institute.org
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 53 - Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday)
Measuring your talk time? Counting your filler words? What about "analyzing" your "emotions"? Companies that push LLM technology to surveil and summarize video meetings are increasingly offering to...
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
What to do about a divergence between "public" and "expert" opinion about "AI"? Some might think that we need to educate the public so that they come to understand more how experts do. I disagree: expertise in building these systems is far from the only relevant expertise. >>
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Check out this new issue of Stanford GRACE journal on Generative AI and Global Futures GREAT student work! ⭐ ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.ph...
ojs.stanford.edu
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2025): Generative AI and Global Futures | GRACE: Global Review of AI Community Ethics
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Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
In an hour (12pm EST) I'm doing a YT livestream re: PhD admissions advice stuff. This is usually the time of year when it's questions from folks who (a) are making final decisions about where to accept offers; or (b) were unsuccessful in applications this year. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZg4...
youtube.com
PhD Admissions Q&A (March 2025 Edition)
YouTube video by Casey Fiesler
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/03/2025
This piece from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social starts with a bang and just gets better and better. Gift link.
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Tech Fantasy That Powers A.I. Is Running on Fumes (Gift Article)
A.I. is just what we need in the post-fact era: less research and more predicting what we want to hear.
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Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
The Best Photographer You’ve Never Heard Of: An Introduction to Tseng Kwong Chi
openculture.com
The Best Photographer You’ve Never Heard Of: An Introduction to Tseng Kwong Chi
Once, the United States was known for sending forth the world's most complained-about international tourists; today, that dubious distinction arguably belongs to China. But it wasn't so long ago that ...
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Check out this interview with about her brilliant new course! @cynthiablee.bsky.social teachingwriting.stanford.edu/news/intervi...
teachingwriting.stanford.edu
Interview with Dr. Cynthia Bailey on Her Writing in the Major Course for Computer Science
Ruth Starkman
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
The launch of ROOST (Robust Online Open Safety Tools) is an opportunity for the trust and safety field, writes the Institute for Security and Technology's Fatima Faisal Khan, but not one without potential challenges.
buff.ly
ROOST Reminds Us Why Open Source Tools Matter | TechPolicy.Press
ROOST represents more than just a technical breakthrough; it embodies the promise of a new era in trust and safety, writes Fatima Faisal Khan.
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
GREAT podcast today @alexhanna.bsky.social a & @emilymbender.bsky.social and with the amazing Dr. Nicole Holliday! Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000. www.twitch.tv/dair_institute
twitch.tv
dair_institute - Twitch
Welcome to our live show!
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
My mother is finally proud of what I do
podcasts.apple.com
Shannon Vallor: The AI Illusion
Podcast Episode · Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda · 11/03/2025 · 41m
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Irene Chen @irenetrampoline.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
AI deployments in health are often understudied because they require time and careful analysis.⌛️🤔 We share thoughts in @ai.nejm.org about a recent AI tool for emergency dept triage that: 1) improves wait times and fairness (!), and 2) helps nurses unevenly based on triage ability
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
👏👏
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
By clarifying core definitions and identifying effective audit approaches now, the DSA audits can become a more effective accountability tool, writes Peter Chapman.
buff.ly
From Ambiguity to Accountability: Analyzing Recommender System Audits under the DSA | TechPolicy.Press
Peter Chapman examines auditing under the DSA regime.
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Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
In a plenary panel at #SIGCSE2025 on the future of CS education, @mapq.bsky.social suggested that maybe Operating Systems doesn’t need to be a core required CS course… but maybe Human-Computer Interaction should be. I agree, what do you all think?
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Ruth Starkman @ruthstarkman.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Here's my review of yesterday's @StanfordEthics event The AI We Deserve ruth.substack.com/p/the-ai-we-...
ruth.substack.com
The AI We Deserve?
Reflections on a Boston Review Discussion at Stanford
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Being armed with impactful evidence of quality and inclusion assurance is our best route to ethical and inclusive AI, writes @suoman.bsky.social.
techpolicy.press
Assuring Inclusive AI: Reviewing Evidence as a Call to Inclusive AI Action | TechPolicy.Press
Being armed with impactful evidence of quality and inclusion assurance is our best route to ethical and inclusive AI, writes Susan Oman.
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
It may seem like AI chatbots are taking over every digital application, whether we like it or not. But Mallory Knodel and Andrés Fábrega say AI features raise significant security risks for users of encrypted messaging applications.
buff.ly
Can Bots Read Your Encrypted Messages? Encryption, Privacy, and the Emerging AI Dilemma | TechPolicy.Press
Mallory Knodel and Andrés Fábrega say AI features raise significant security risks for users of encrypted messaging applications.
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The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics @iethics.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
"[G]reater demand for #electricity is coming. The capacity of all the energy projects waiting to connect to the U.S. grid amounts to 2,600 GW—more than double the nation’s entire generation capacity currently" spectrum.ieee.org/transformer-... #ethics #AI #sustainability #environment #tech #business
spectrum.ieee.org
This Essential Element of the Power Grid Is in Critically Short Supply
A transformer supply crisis bottlenecks energy projects
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The Internet Ethics program--Markkula Center for Applied Ethics @iethics.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
"A bill headed to the Senate floor in Utah would require officers to disclose if a #police report was written by generative #AI" and "to legally certify that the report was checked for accuracy": eff.org/deeplinks/20... #ethics #law #tech #lawenforcement #gov #business
eff.org
Utah Bill Aims to Make Officers Disclose AI-Written Police Reports
A bill headed to the Senate floor in Utah would require officers to disclose if a police report was written by generative AI. The bill, S.B. 180, requires a department to have a policy governing the u...
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
The trend of tech oligarchs going to any length to kiss the ring of President Donald Trump makes it more urgent to pass privacy, competition, and AI laws in US states and at the federal level, argues Ben Winters, Director of AI and Data Privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.
buff.ly
Fickle Loyalties of Tech Oligarchs Intensifies the Dire Need for US Data Privacy, Competition, and AI Legislation | TechPolicy.Press
Without basic constraints, there is little to protect regular people from the whims of the oligarchs, writes Ben Winters.
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Roxana Daneshjou, MD, PhD @roxanadaneshjou.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Something we have done for years feels like an act of resistance. We have an annual leadership in diversity lecture. Health disparities exist and racism is a driving factor. Study after study has shown this.
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Roxana Daneshjou, MD, PhD @roxanadaneshjou.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
What is an indirect? It’s a complicated name for funding for research infrastructure, which usually isn’t covered by grants. So no research infrastructure funding means research halts. Please share in laymen’s terms what your research does here so people can see what we would lose.
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Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Of course L'Express was obliged to use a photo of Sam Altman to best illustrate a conversation with me. Of course neither a) taking a new picture of me during the interview, nor b) asking me to provide a picture of myself were impossible. Of course.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 11/02/2025
"Vance’s remarks signaled that his first trip to Europe would advance the Trump administration’s “America First” approach to foreign policy, promoting U.S. industrial interests over relationships with allies." www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
washingtonpost.com
Vance pushes ‘America First’ AI agenda, accuses allies of overregulation
President Donald Trump has taken dramatic executive action to advance policies that benefit tech companies. Now Vice President JD Vance is advancing that message on the world stage.
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