The Global State of Social Connections

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Gallup: “Social needs are universal, and the degree to which they are fulfilled — or not — impacts the health, well-being and resilience of people everywhere. With increasing global interest in understanding how social connections support or hinder health, policymakers worldwide may benefit from reliable data on the current state of social connectedness. Despite the critical role of social connectedness for communities and the people who live in them, little is known about the frequency or form of social connection in many — if not most — parts of the world.

Meta and Gallup have collaborated on two research studies to help fill this gap. In 2022, the Meta-Gallup State of Social Connections report revealed important variations in people’s sense of connectedness and loneliness across the seven countries studied. This report builds on that research by presenting data on connections and loneliness among people from 142 countries…(More)”.

AI-driven public services and the privacy paradox: do citizens really care about their privacy?

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Based on privacy calculus theory, we derive hypotheses on the role of perceived usefulness and privacy risks of artificial intelligence (AI) in public services. In a representative vignette experiment (n = 1,048), we asked citizens whether they would download a mobile app to interact in an AI-driven public service. Despite general concerns about privacy, we find that citizens are not susceptible to the amount of personal information they must share, nor to a more anthropomorphic interface. Our results confirm the privacy paradox, which we frame in the literature on the government’s role to safeguard ethical principles, including citizens’ privacy…(More)”.

The impact of generative artificial intelligence on socioeconomic inequalities and
policy making

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Valerio Capraro et al: “Generative artificial intelligence, including chatbots like ChatGPT, has the potential to both exacerbate and ameliorate existing socioeconomic inequalities. In this article, we provide a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary overview of the probable impacts of generative AI on four critical domains: work, education, health, and information. Our goal is to warn about how generative AI could worsen existing inequalities while illuminating directions for using AI to resolve pervasive social problems. Generative AI in the workplace can boost productivity and create new jobs, but the benefits will likely be distributed unevenly. In education, it offers personalized learning but may widen the digital divide. In healthcare, it improves diagnostics and accessibility but could deepen pre-existing inequalities. For information, it democratizes content creation and access but also dramatically expands the production and proliferation of misinformation. Each section covers a specific topic, evaluates existing research, identifies critical gaps, and recommends research directions. We conclude with a section highlighting the role of policymaking to maximize generative AI’s potential to reduce inequalities while
mitigating its harmful effects. We discuss strengths and weaknesses of existing policy frameworks in the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom, observing that each fails to fully confront the socioeconomic challenges we have identified. We contend that these policies should promote shared prosperity through the advancement of generative AI. We suggest several concrete policies to encourage further research and debate. This article emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary collaborations to understand and address the complex challenges of generative AI…(More)”.

Co-Designing Urban Futures: Innovation and partnerships for improved service delivery in intermediary cities

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Report by GSMA: “Cities across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are grappling with the concurrent challenges of rapid urbanisation, climate change and widening inequalities. For intermediary cities, which account for more than half of the urban population in LMICs, these challenges are more pronounced. There is growing evidence that partnerships, collaboration and innovative service delivery models can address these challenges. The GSMA, Connected Places Catapult and UN-Habitat have come together to support cities by driving collaboration between the public and private sectors and enabling the adoption of these innovative models.

This report first outlines the state of urbanisation and the challenges of urban service provision associated with the rapid pace with which cities are growing. It then delves into the unique challenges that intermediary cities face: Governance, digital development, financial capacity and climate change, making the case to accelerate innovation and partnerships in these cities…(More)”.

Social Movements and Public Opinion in the United States

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Amory Gethin & Vincent Pons: “Recent social movements stand out by their spontaneous nature and lack of stable leadership, raising doubts on their ability to generate political change. This article provides systematic evidence on the effects of protests on public opinion and political attitudes. Drawing on a database covering the quasi-universe of protests held in the United States, we identify 14 social movements that took place from 2017 to 2022, covering topics related to environmental protection, gender equality, gun control, immigration, national and international politics, and racial issues. We use Twitter data, Google search volumes, and high-frequency surveys to track the evolution of online interest, policy views, and vote intentions before and after the outset of each movement. Combining national-level event studies with difference-in-differences designs exploiting variation in local protest intensity, we find that protests generate substantial internet activity but have limited effects on political attitudes. Except for the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, which shifted views on racial discrimination and increased votes for the Democrats, we estimate precise null effects of protests on public opinion and electoral behavior…(More)”.

Data-Driven Innovation in the Creative Industries

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Open Access Book edited by Melissa Terras, Vikki Jones, Nicola Osborne, and Chris Speed: “The creative industries – the place where art, business, and technology meet in economic activity – have been hugely affected by the relatively recent digitalisation (and often monetisation) of work, home, relationships, and leisure. Such trends were accelerated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. This edited collection examines how the creative industries can be supported to make best use of opportunities in digital technology and data-driven innovation.

Since digital markets and platforms are now essential for revenue generation and audience engagement, there is a vital need for improved data and digital skills in the creative and cultural sectors. Taking a necessarily global perspective, this book explores the challenges and opportunities of data-driven approaches to creativity in different contexts across the arts, cultural, and heritage sectors. Chapters reach beyond the platforms and approaches provided by the technology sector to delve into the collaborative work that supports innovation around the interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral issues that emerge where data infrastructures and approaches meet creativity.

A novel intervention that uniquely centres the role of data in the theory and practice of creative industries’ innovation, this book is valuable reading for those researching and studying the creative economy as well for those who drive investment for the creative industries in a digitalised society…(More)”.

The tech industry can’t agree on what open-source AI means. That’s a problem.

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Edd Gent: “Suddenly, “open source” is the latest buzzword in AI circles. Meta has pledged to create open-source artificial general intelligence. And Elon Musk is suing OpenAI over its lack of open-source AI models.

Meanwhile, a growing number of tech leaders and companies are setting themselves up as open-source champions. 

But there’s a fundamental problem—no one can agree on what “open-source AI” means. 

On the face of it, open-source AI promises a future where anyone can take part in the technology’s development. That could accelerate innovation, boost transparency, and give users greater control over systems that could soon reshape many aspects of our lives. But what even is it? What makes an AI model open source, and what disqualifies it?

The answers could have significant ramifications for the future of the technology. Until the tech industry has settled on a definition, powerful companies can easily bend the concept to suit their own needs, and it could become a tool to entrench the dominance of today’s leading players.

Entering this fray is the Open Source Initiative (OSI), the self-appointed arbiters of what it means to be open source. Founded in 1998, the nonprofit is the custodian of the Open Source Definition, a widely accepted set of rules that determine whether a piece of software can be considered open source. 

Now, the organization has assembled a 70-strong group of researchers, lawyers, policymakers, activists, and representatives from big tech companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon to come up with a working definition of open-source AI…(More)”.

New Jersey is turning to AI to improve the job search process

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Beth Simone Noveck: “Americans are experiencing some conflicting feelings about AI.

While people are flocking to new roles like prompt engineer and AI ethicist, the technology is also predicted to put many jobs at risk, including computer programmers, data scientists, graphic designers, writers, lawyers.

Little wonder, then, that a national survey by the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development found an overwhelming majority of Americans (66%) believe that they “will need more technological skills to achieve their career goals.” One thing is certain: Workers will need to train for change. And in a world of misinformation-filled social media platforms, it is increasingly important for trusted public institutions to provide reliable, data-driven resources.

In New Jersey, we’ve tried doing just that by collaborating with workers, including many with disabilities, to design technology that will support better decision-making around training and career change. Investing in similar public AI-powered tools could help support better consumer choice across various domains. When a public entity designs, controls and implements AI, there is a far greater likelihood that this powerful technology will be used for good.

In New Jersey, the public can find reliable, independent, unbiased information about training and upskilling on the state’s new MyCareer website, which uses AI to make personalized recommendations about your career prospects, and the training you will need to be ready for a high-growth, in-demand job…(More)”.

Could artificial intelligence benefit democracy?

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Brian Wheeler: “Each week sees a new set of warnings about the potential impact of AI-generated deepfakes – realistic video and audio of politicians saying things they never said – spreading confusion and mistrust among the voting public.

And in the UK, regulators, security services and government are battling to protect this year’s general election from malign foreign interference.

Less attention has been given to the possible benefits of AI.

But a lot of work is going on, often below the radar, to try to harness its power in ways that might enhance democracy rather than destroy it.

“While this technology does pose some important risks in terms of disinformation, it also offers some significant opportunities for campaigns, which we can’t ignore,” Hannah O’Rourke, co-founder of Campaign Lab, a left-leaning network of tech volunteers, says.

“Like all technology, what matters is how AI is actually implemented. “Its impact will be felt in the way campaigners actually use it.”

Among other things, Campaign Lab runs training courses for Labour and Liberal Democrat campaigners on how to use ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) to create the first draft of election leaflets.

It reminds them to edit the final product carefully, though, as large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT have a worrying tendency to “hallucinate” or make things up.

The group is also experimenting with chatbots to help train canvassers to have more engaging conversations on the doorstep.

AI is already embedded in everyday programs, from Microsoft Outlook to Adobe Photoshop, Ms O’Rourke says, so why not use it in a responsible way to free up time for more face-to-face campaigning?…

Conservative-supporting AI expert Joe Reeve is another young political campaigner convinced the new technology can transform things for the better.

He runs Future London, a community of “techno optimists” who use AI to seek answers to big questions such as “Why can’t I buy a house?” and, crucially, “Where’s my robot butler?”

In 2020, Mr Reeve founded Tory Techs, partly as a right-wing response to Campaign Lab.

The group has run programming sessions and explored how to use AI to hone Tory campaign messages but, Mr Reeve says, it now “mostly focuses on speaking with MPs in more private and safe spaces to help coach politicians on what AI means and how it can be a positive force”.

“Technology has an opportunity to make the world a lot better for a lot of people and that is regardless of politics,” he tells BBC News…(More)”.

Data Rules: Reinventing the Market Economy

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Cristina Alaimo and Jannis Kallinikos: “Digital data have become the critical frontier where emerging economic practices and organizational forms confront the traditional economic order and its institutions. In Data Rules, Cristina Alaimo and Jannis Kallinikos establish a social science framework for analyzing the unprecedented social and economic restructuring brought about by data. Working at the intersection of information systems and organizational studies, they draw extensively on intellectual currents in sociology, semiotics, cognitive science and technology, and social theory. Making the case for turning “data-making” into an area of inquiry of its own, the authors uncover how data are deeply implicated in rewiring the institutions of the market economy.

The authors associate digital data with the decentering of organizations. As they point out, centered systems make sense only when firms (and formal organizations more broadly) can keep the external world at arm’s length and maintain a relative operation independence from it. These patterns no longer hold. Data transform the production of goods and services to an endless series of exchanges and interactions that defeat the functional logics of markets and organizations. The diffusion of platforms and ecosystems is indicative of these broader transformations. Rather than viewing data as simply a force of surveillance and control, the authors place the transformative potential of data at the center of an emerging socioeconomic order that restructures society and its institutions…(More)”.