Keren Weitzberg
@kerenweitzberg.bsky.social
#biometrics #borders #digitalidentity #migration #austerity #STS; senior lecturer in School of Politics and International Relations & IHSS Fellow at Queen Mary University of London
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
The @digsovobs.bsky.social is hiring a short-term research consultant to develop a #digitalsovereignty digest to inform policymaking and shape future research directions.
Apply by October 26th!
Details here: lnkd.in/p/g2ff42AV
Apply by October 26th!
Details here: lnkd.in/p/g2ff42AV
October 5, 2026 at 6:55 PM
The @digsovobs.bsky.social is hiring a short-term research consultant to develop a #digitalsovereignty digest to inform policymaking and shape future research directions.
Apply by October 26th!
Details here: lnkd.in/p/g2ff42AV
Apply by October 26th!
Details here: lnkd.in/p/g2ff42AV
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
📣 Job alert: We are looking for a short term consultant to work on our Digital Sovereignty Digest.
More info: www.graduateinstitute.ch/internationa...
More info: www.graduateinstitute.ch/internationa...
October 5, 2026 at 8:38 AM
📣 Job alert: We are looking for a short term consultant to work on our Digital Sovereignty Digest.
More info: www.graduateinstitute.ch/internationa...
More info: www.graduateinstitute.ch/internationa...
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
Swiss glaciers suffer 'disastrous' year of ice loss, threatening water supplies
"…in its simplest form, what we see right now is that we took an ice cube out of the fridge and it's just melting in front of our eyes."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"…in its simplest form, what we see right now is that we took an ice cube out of the fridge and it's just melting in front of our eyes."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
October 1, 2026 at 5:11 AM
Swiss glaciers suffer 'disastrous' year of ice loss, threatening water supplies
"…in its simplest form, what we see right now is that we took an ice cube out of the fridge and it's just melting in front of our eyes."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"…in its simplest form, what we see right now is that we took an ice cube out of the fridge and it's just melting in front of our eyes."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!
September 28, 2026 at 3:42 PM
This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
It's too depressing and obnoxious to write about, but virtually all of the doomy/horny AI hyperventilating is transparently displaced anxiety about our fucked climate and political situation. Even rich idiots know it's bad and being permitted to get worse. They're trying to write their own ending.
September 24, 2026 at 4:56 PM
It's too depressing and obnoxious to write about, but virtually all of the doomy/horny AI hyperventilating is transparently displaced anxiety about our fucked climate and political situation. Even rich idiots know it's bad and being permitted to get worse. They're trying to write their own ending.
Are you a tech worker? Or know a tech worker? Or just want to know what tech workers actually think about “AI”? Check out @cwunews.bsky.social and @utaw.tech’s tech workers inquiry. www.instagram.com/p/DdrTMsqIvX_/
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
www.instagram.com
September 24, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Are you a tech worker? Or know a tech worker? Or just want to know what tech workers actually think about “AI”? Check out @cwunews.bsky.social and @utaw.tech’s tech workers inquiry. www.instagram.com/p/DdrTMsqIvX_/
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
"There’s a special place in hell for people who steal from the poor"
Criminals exploit a well-known flaw in the cards most low-income Americans use to get aid: magnetic-stripe tech. Few states have switched to the [more secure] chip cards that distribute welfare funds.
www.wsj.com/us-news/how-...
Criminals exploit a well-known flaw in the cards most low-income Americans use to get aid: magnetic-stripe tech. Few states have switched to the [more secure] chip cards that distribute welfare funds.
www.wsj.com/us-news/how-...
How Romanian Crime Rings Are Draining U.S. Welfare Accounts
Thieves have exploited antiquated magnetic stripes on benefits cards to steal hundreds of millions of public dollars.
www.wsj.com
September 23, 2026 at 2:05 PM
"There’s a special place in hell for people who steal from the poor"
Criminals exploit a well-known flaw in the cards most low-income Americans use to get aid: magnetic-stripe tech. Few states have switched to the [more secure] chip cards that distribute welfare funds.
www.wsj.com/us-news/how-...
Criminals exploit a well-known flaw in the cards most low-income Americans use to get aid: magnetic-stripe tech. Few states have switched to the [more secure] chip cards that distribute welfare funds.
www.wsj.com/us-news/how-...
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
Ditto 30,000 roles in universities in the past three years.
I think it's absolutely mad that today there's a *national news story* about 400 oil platform workers losing their jobs, and the government being blamed.
25% of the UK TV industry lost their jobs in the last 4 years and we never hear a peep about it!
Some jobs are 'real jobs' I guess.
25% of the UK TV industry lost their jobs in the last 4 years and we never hear a peep about it!
Some jobs are 'real jobs' I guess.
September 22, 2026 at 9:55 AM
Ditto 30,000 roles in universities in the past three years.
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
About 2.7 million hours of work for no return.
21,627 applications for the Marie Curie early career fellowships.
Alter. 21627 Einreichungen auf ein Fellowship-Programm. Wer soll das alles begutachten? 😶🌫️ Wer jetzt nicht für mehr Grundförderung und weniger Drittmittel argumentiert, der ist doch nicht gescheit.
September 19, 2026 at 8:37 PM
About 2.7 million hours of work for no return.
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
‘OpenAI’s policy director…wrote that the company was “creating systems that substitute for the labor of the people that define the ‘culture’ of society”… OpenAI called itself an “existential threat” to news publishers, …“no matter how prominently we show the links, users won’t click.”’
‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft
"Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions."
www.404media.co
September 19, 2026 at 11:59 AM
‘OpenAI’s policy director…wrote that the company was “creating systems that substitute for the labor of the people that define the ‘culture’ of society”… OpenAI called itself an “existential threat” to news publishers, …“no matter how prominently we show the links, users won’t click.”’
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
This is why I hate "just a tool" so so so much.
You can make a calculator without access to every calculation. You can make photoshop without access to all photos.
Someone show me a genai tool that didn't require all of our labour in its production. It's plagiarism software.
You can make a calculator without access to every calculation. You can make photoshop without access to all photos.
Someone show me a genai tool that didn't require all of our labour in its production. It's plagiarism software.
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft.
Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
September 18, 2026 at 12:31 PM
This is why I hate "just a tool" so so so much.
You can make a calculator without access to every calculation. You can make photoshop without access to all photos.
Someone show me a genai tool that didn't require all of our labour in its production. It's plagiarism software.
You can make a calculator without access to every calculation. You can make photoshop without access to all photos.
Someone show me a genai tool that didn't require all of our labour in its production. It's plagiarism software.
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
people are always saying anti-AI arguments don’t understand the full nuances of the technology. which is correct. but only because it stole everyone’s work, exists solely to get you fired, has made the entire internet unusable and has been forced on everyone without consent
September 18, 2026 at 11:20 PM
people are always saying anti-AI arguments don’t understand the full nuances of the technology. which is correct. but only because it stole everyone’s work, exists solely to get you fired, has made the entire internet unusable and has been forced on everyone without consent
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
Exactly.
"To these detectives of digital inauthenticity, I say:
Friend, welcome to a typical Tuesday in a Kenyan classroom, boardroom, or intra-office Teams chat. The very things you identify as the fingerprints of the machine are, in fact, the fossil records of our education."
"To these detectives of digital inauthenticity, I say:
Friend, welcome to a typical Tuesday in a Kenyan classroom, boardroom, or intra-office Teams chat. The very things you identify as the fingerprints of the machine are, in fact, the fossil records of our education."
September 17, 2026 at 4:11 PM
Exactly.
"To these detectives of digital inauthenticity, I say:
Friend, welcome to a typical Tuesday in a Kenyan classroom, boardroom, or intra-office Teams chat. The very things you identify as the fingerprints of the machine are, in fact, the fossil records of our education."
"To these detectives of digital inauthenticity, I say:
Friend, welcome to a typical Tuesday in a Kenyan classroom, boardroom, or intra-office Teams chat. The very things you identify as the fingerprints of the machine are, in fact, the fossil records of our education."
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes:
UCU members at Brighton University face the threat of derecognition. We have called an emergency rally tomorrow at 1:15pm.
It would be amazing to see as many #TUC26 delegates as possible in attendance.
58-67 Grand Parade, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN2 0JY
It would be amazing to see as many #TUC26 delegates as possible in attendance.
58-67 Grand Parade, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN2 0JY
September 14, 2026 at 7:40 PM
***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes:
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
Good luck to all those university students starting shortly who will find their departments looking dramatically different, due to job cuts, to how they looked when they applied ....
September 10, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Good luck to all those university students starting shortly who will find their departments looking dramatically different, due to job cuts, to how they looked when they applied ....
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
Zemene Mesafint II (the age is so disordered it hasn’t got round to a name for itself, let alone the obvious candidate).
September 7, 2026 at 1:42 PM
Zemene Mesafint II (the age is so disordered it hasn’t got round to a name for itself, let alone the obvious candidate).
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
🚨🚨🚨JOB ALERT: The HSS Department at Penn is hiring a tenure-track or tenured professor in the history of data/info science, computing, or AI. Please share widely!
apply.interfolio.com/192132
apply.interfolio.com/192132
Apply - Interfolio
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apply.interfolio.com
August 25, 2026 at 2:57 PM
🚨🚨🚨JOB ALERT: The HSS Department at Penn is hiring a tenure-track or tenured professor in the history of data/info science, computing, or AI. Please share widely!
apply.interfolio.com/192132
apply.interfolio.com/192132
A good piece on Aadhaar, its design problems, and the opacity behind some of its purported figures (deduplication failure rates, exclusion errors, cost savings estimates)
"Remarkably, little of the domestic critique [about Aadhaar] appears to have shaped how the system is described to the rest of the world. This is worth a closer look, not b/c digital identity is a bad idea, but b/c Aadhaar embodies one particular design choice."
www.techpolicy.press/aadhaars-suc...
www.techpolicy.press/aadhaars-suc...
Aadhaar's Success Story Deserves a Closer Look
Remarkably little of the domestic critique appears to have shaped how the system is described to the rest of the world, writes Subhashis Banerjee.
www.techpolicy.press
August 15, 2026 at 4:03 PM
A good piece on Aadhaar, its design problems, and the opacity behind some of its purported figures (deduplication failure rates, exclusion errors, cost savings estimates)
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
Jason Arday is dead, and the culpabilities are numerous.
August 14, 2026 at 10:51 PM
Jason Arday is dead, and the culpabilities are numerous.
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
There’s a Ralph Bunche Rd in Nairobi: Kenyatta and Bunche were friends from LSE days, and he visited Kenya at Kenyatta’s invitation
August 14, 2026 at 8:56 PM
There’s a Ralph Bunche Rd in Nairobi: Kenyatta and Bunche were friends from LSE days, and he visited Kenya at Kenyatta’s invitation
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
our entire global financial system is currently leveraged to the hilt on the premise that it was good and right for a small cadre of US companies to steal all of the intellectual work ever produced by humanity and sell its back to us without credit or remuneration to the authors (plagiarism)
August 14, 2026 at 10:10 PM
our entire global financial system is currently leveraged to the hilt on the premise that it was good and right for a small cadre of US companies to steal all of the intellectual work ever produced by humanity and sell its back to us without credit or remuneration to the authors (plagiarism)
"Questions have been raised about colleagues’ research performance being evaluated, without the use of provisional REF grades or journal metrics or actually reading any of it, by managers with no expertise...What we do have expertise in, however, is bullshit..."
Better Than You
From the office of Prof. Neville Morley, Supreme Plenipotentiary, Überboss and Vice-Chancellor of Ex University, Earth 2: Your ever-caring and responsive senior management team has heard your pathe…
thesphinxblog.com
August 14, 2026 at 5:50 PM
"Questions have been raised about colleagues’ research performance being evaluated, without the use of provisional REF grades or journal metrics or actually reading any of it, by managers with no expertise...What we do have expertise in, however, is bullshit..."
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
I ran a workshop on jobs in history outside universities for PhD students at the University of Vienna earlier this year and got very good feedback from participants, so I'm looking to run it again later this year.
Please get in touch if this would interest your students or department.
Please get in touch if this would interest your students or department.
July 6, 2026 at 9:36 AM
I ran a workshop on jobs in history outside universities for PhD students at the University of Vienna earlier this year and got very good feedback from participants, so I'm looking to run it again later this year.
Please get in touch if this would interest your students or department.
Please get in touch if this would interest your students or department.
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
For @newleftreview.bsky.social I wrote about Timothy Mitchell's fascinating and frustrating book The Alibi of Capital.
newleftreview.org/issues/ii159...
newleftreview.org/issues/ii159...
Jack Copley, Rentier Regimes, NLR 159, May–June 2026
Jack Copley on Timothy Mitchell, The Alibi of Capital. Capital re-conceptualized as terraforming expropriation of the future.
newleftreview.org
July 3, 2026 at 3:18 PM
For @newleftreview.bsky.social I wrote about Timothy Mitchell's fascinating and frustrating book The Alibi of Capital.
newleftreview.org/issues/ii159...
newleftreview.org/issues/ii159...
Reposted by Keren Weitzberg
As someone who has written a whole book about the importance of Twitter to public discourse I cannot emphasise enough important it is for people to log off the current incarnation of the site.
July 3, 2026 at 4:13 PM
As someone who has written a whole book about the importance of Twitter to public discourse I cannot emphasise enough important it is for people to log off the current incarnation of the site.