AI, and the future of jobs

In a substantive note penned to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Technology - Sri Lanka, and UNDP Sri Lanka responding to what was sadly a performative public consultation on the country's first-ever national AI strategy, I stressed the importance of looking at job displacement because of AI. Address the significant risks, and challenges of AI more …

Inconvenient stories: The potential and pitfalls of narratives in the social media age

In addition to the lecture at Pathshala South Asian Media Institute on generative AI, and photography, Shahidul Alam also invited me to deliver a public lecture at Drik on 6th May. The talk was billed as 'Storytelling as Resistance', but I changed the title of the lecture as delivered to 'Inconvenient Stories'. A video of …

Irreal interplay: Generative AI, photography, & assault on meaning

I was invited by the legendary Shahidul Alam - one of the most influential photographers alive - to give two lectures in Dhaka, including to all the students of Pathshala Institute, one of South Asia's pre-eminent photography, film and media schools. I had a wonderful time engaging with the students, and what was billed as …

Eyes Wide Open: The Christchurch Call at 5

As Christchurch Call enters 5th year, the information environment (globally, and in New Zealand) linked to what it is designed to respond to is far more complicated, and violent than in 2019. One predominant aspect of this is the role, reach, and relevance of Twitter (I refuse to call the platform X). Pre-Musk Twitter was …

Feedback on Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Sri Lanka

A week ago, the Ministry of Technology (MoT) released a draft strategy for AI in Sri Lanka, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to ostensibly “to leverage AI technologies to drive innovation, economic growth and societal progress across the nation”[1]. In my capacity as Research Director at The Disinformation Project based in New …

Ad tech’s and Meta Pixel’s rapacious reach: The curious case of New Zealand

A tweet by Pat Walshe (Privacy Matters) 🐾 alerted me to an article published in The Register, noting that 96% of US hospital websites share visitor info with Meta, Google, data brokers. Everything mentioned in the article adds to research I've led on the use of ad tracking tech - especially Facebook (or more accurately, …

The OSA’s first application as red flag

A news report on the first case using the Online Safety Act's (OSA) provisions is cause both for concern, and realises umpteen warnings around how application will be very far removed from how the Bill was benignly presented by those in government - as a legislative measure or means to protect women, and children. The …

Social media weaponisation in elections: The UK, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand

In August 2020, I wrote in to a technical consultation in the United Kingdom looking at digital imprints in the context of election campaigns. As Chloe Smith MP, the then Minister of State for the Constitution and Devolution noted in the Foreword to the consultation's brief, ...there is growing concern about the transparency of the …

People, protests, and tech

Very late to this watch party, but after three months discovered a programme I did with renowned journalist Hari Sreenivasan's YouTube series, 'Take on Fake'. https://youtu.be/X3ZhlDVC09E?si=BXXaf5xp2A8N5gHP Hari's a journalist I admire hugely, and followed for well over a decade. It was an absolute treat to finally speak with him. We talked a lot, and in …

Reflection, refraction, and rebuttal: Data signatures of the March 2019 Christchurch massacre on Twitter

For PhD, studied 819,813 tweets, & around 14 million words in them produced after March 2019's Christchurch massacre. Immediately evident is how Twitter today is unrecognisable from what the platform was then, & especially around discourse framing an unprecedented act of terrorism in New Zealand.  Screenshot Access it here as a PDF. I've included the …