December 2024: Closing out the year

It's DAIR's third anniversary! We're celebrating our founding on December 2nd of 2021 - thanks to all who helped us get here. Meanwhile, the sixth annual Color of Surveillance conference was a huge success, participants in our Data Workers' Inquiry project testified before the European Parliament, and our latest Possible Futures piece imagines a world of community-led technology development.

We're saying no to data theft and researcher intimidation, and yes to a decentralized tech future. Alex was recognized by Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List. And a milestone 100,000 downloads for our Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 podcast.

We've been busy writing and reading this month. Adio published pieces on data workers' traumatic experiences, and how algorithms are enabling new forms of economic domination, while Mila and colleagues reported in detail on the data workers training AI in Europe. Plus, US Senator Ed Markey is proposing an 'AI Civil Rights Act'.

We launched Surveillance Watch, an interactive map of surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations. Plus a poignant new entry in our Possible Futures series, we join opposition to technology-enabled political violence in Venezuela, and new research on student protests.

Our Data Workers' Inquiry speaker series highlights the unique challenges for Latin American workers this month, with a panel on August 26th. Plus, our collaboration with Brazil's Coding Rights to envision a federated AI commons ecosystem, and our related policy discussion in Rio.

Fifteen data workers from four continents answer their own research questions in one of our most ambitious projects yet. Plus helpful guidelines for software engineers performing social media research, in light of how social media companies make data access difficult for researchers working to hold them accountable.

South Africa marks 30 years since the end of apartheid. Has enough changed? Raesetje's spatial apartheid research in Al Jazeera. Plus, a preview of our forthcoming data workers' inquiry, and other DAIR work in the spotlight.

Our long awaited paper on the eugenic origins of the current race to build Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is out. Plus, plenty of AI Hell.

The EU's Platform Work Directive is put into law. Plus, our report on community driven research on tech and society.

Read our first entry in the possible futures series, request to use our spatial apartheid dataset, join our campaign to support data workers, and more.

The DAIR team can’t say we were that sad to say goodbye to 2023 or that happy to welcome 2024. But we celebrate making it here with your support.

We launched DAIR 2 years ago, on December 2nd 2021, and grew it to a small but mighty team of 16 people across 3 continents.

Our #NoTechForApartheid event with Haymarket Books was held on Monday November 27 2:30pm–5:30pm EST.

We stand in solidarity with our Palestinian siblings who have lived under brutal Israeli occupation and apartheid for 75 years. Read our statement here.

US senator Markey and others sent a letter to 9 companies on the “use of underpaid, overworked data workers.”

Be ware of the generative AI gold rush. In this Tech Policy Press Op-ed, Alex and Emily caution against generative AI hype.

What's Behind the Race to Create AGI? Who is funding the obsession on the hypothetical AI Apocalypse? Learn more in this month's newsletter.

Read about DAIR's presence at FAccT, and Alex’s keynote highlighted the work of Amazon Mechanical Turk workers.

More AI Hype take downs on Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 and answering your questions in this edition of our newsletter.

Recordings of our Stochastic Parrots Day event, DAIR in Kigali and our policy brief on regulation for general purpose AI models.

Agenda for our Stochastic Parrots Day event celebrating the 2nd anniversary of the paper's publication.

The Algorithmic Justice League celebrates the 5 year anniversary of the Gender Shades project, Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, and more.

AI hype vs reality, listen to Tech Won't Save Us, and see what we're reading (and writing).

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary by showcasing our work through a series of talks, interviews and panels.