What do people think about AI-driven persuasion? In a new working paper with @adrauc.bsky.social, we show the hidden costs of attempts at automated opinion change in politics. arxiv.org/abs/2603.27413

Political campaigns worldwide experiment with AI. But how do people see different electoral uses of AI and with what consequences?

In a new study in @polcommjournal.bsky.social with @adrauc.bsky.social and @kunkakom.bsky.social, we address these questions. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 1/

Public support for #DeepfakeRegulation: In an online survey, @dnvglr.bsky.social, @adrauc.bsky.social and @notsaved.bsky.social explored presumed effects, perceived risk and trust in institutions regarding deepfakes of Swiss citizens. doi.org/10.5771/2192...

third part in @dnvglr.bsky.social, @adrauc.bsky.social & me's deepfake study, this on risk perception and regulation support doi.org/10.5771/2192...

📢 New paper out!
What do people want from AI systems? How should outputs be adjusted? And how do views differ between countries?
@adrauc.bsky.social and I explore this for @socialmedia-soc.bsky.social in Public Opinion on the Politics of AI Alignment.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

New paper in Telematics and Informatics with
@adrauc.bsky.social, Joshua Philip Suarez, Nikka Marie Sales: Winning and losing with Artificial Intelligence: What public discourse about ChatGPT tells us about how societies make sense of technological change.

AoIR 2025 | Snurblog — Axel Bruns Association of Internet Researchers conference, Niterói, 15-18 Oct. 2025.

Started the day at the #AoIR2025 conference with a great panel on the challenges of using LLMs in computational communication research, also featuring several excellent @qutdmrc.bsky.social colleagues. Liveblog here:

📢 New publication on the positioning of executives on LinkedIn. We analyze more than 4'500 posts of CEOs and CEOs of EURO STOXX 50 companies and find distinct communicator profiles (re. content, timing, frequency, audiences and engagement).
🔗 www.emerald.com/ccij/article...

Explaining public preferences for regulating Artificial Intelligence in election campaigns: Evidence from the U.S. and Taiwan The increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in election campaigns, such as AI-generated political ads, automated messaging, and the widespread …

🧵 New publication: How do people feel about regulating #AI in election campaigns? 🧵

In a new article, @adrauc.bsky.social, @kunkakom.bsky.social, and I examine when and why people support stronger AI regulation in political competition.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

👇

Artificial Intelligence in deliberation: The AI penalty and the emergence of a new deliberative divide Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) promise help for democratic deliberation, such as processing information, moderating discussion, and fact-che…

📢 New Journal Article: AI & Deliberation 📢

What impact does #AI have on democratic deliberation? Together with @adrauc.bsky.social, I explore this question in a new article in Government Information Quarterly. Findings in the thread 🧵👇

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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How government use of AI could hurt democracy Countries are eager to use AI to automate some government processes, but this risks eroding citizens’ trust and feelings of democratic control – because AI mistakes can ruin their lives

More governments may turn to AI and algorithms for processing tax returns and screening public benefits applications - but a survey shows this risks eroding trust in government and citizens' feelings of democratic control. 🧪

www.newscientist.com/article/2488...

🧵1/ In a new working paper with @kunkakom.bsky.social & @adrauc.bsky.social, we examine how people feel about AI use by governments.

We find an unsettling tension: information about AI-driven efficiency gains boosts trust – but makes people feel less in control.

arxiv.org/abs/2505.01085

Extreme weather event attribution predicts climate policy support across the world - Nature Climate Change Literature produced inconsistent findings regarding the links between extreme weather events and climate policy support across regions, populations and events. This global study offers a holistic asse...

New paper: What increases people’s support for policy responses to #climate #change? ✊
We find: It’s not necessarily firsthand experience of extreme weather events. Instead, it’s whether people think that these events are linked to climate change. Here is the paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🔎

Voice and Value: How Elected Officials Evaluate Online and Offline Constituent Feedback Abstract. Social media has made it easier than ever for citizens to voice their opinion to their elected representatives. However, officials may infer that

"Our results suggest that a social media message would have to be sent by more than 47 constituents for it to exceed the value of a single face-to-face meeting." academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...

What do people want from AI moderation?
🚨 New Working Paper with @adrauc.bsky.social: What do people expect from Artificial Intelligence?
📊 Public attitudes on AI alignment in 🇩🇪 Germany and 🇺🇸 the U.S.
[Link to paper: arxiv.org/abs/2504.124...
🧵 A short summary of what we found – and why it matters:

Using Principal-Agent Theory, our new paper argues delegating governmental tasks to #AI undermines feelings of being in control, leading to a "failure-by-success":

Initial AI efficiency drives wider adoption, ultimately eroding citizens' sense of control, a cornerstone of democratic legitimacy

I'm calling for a total and complete shutdown of JAMA Pediatrics until we can figure out what is going on goodscience.substack.com/p/the-resear... I mean, come ON

Reddit-User mit KI-Bots getäuscht- das fragwürdige Experiment der Universität Zürich - Das Netz ist politisch Dank den Hinweisen von mehreren aufmerksamen DNIP-Lesern haben wir von einem spannenden Fall am Wochenende erfahren:

Zürcher Forschende haben im Reddit-Forum ChangeMyView KI-Bots für ein unethisches Experiment eingeschleust. Darunter fiktive Personas, wie ein Vergewaltigungsopfer.
Dies ohne Moderatoren und Community zu informieren. Reddit-User wurden getäuscht.
Forscher:innen sind entsetzt⬇️
dnip.ch/2025/04/28/r...

How to remember the human: Recommendations for ethical Reddit research The first rule of etiquette on the social platform Reddit is “Remember the human.” This rule should apply to researchers, too.

We are trying to help! @sarahagilbert.bsky.social @michaelzimmer.bsky.social @profprof.bsky.social Naiyan Jones and I published a paper earlier this year about research ethics for Reddit that includes discussion of e.g. possible community harms. cfiesler.medium.com/how-to-remem...

This is one of the worst violations of research ethics I've ever seen. Manipulating people in online communities using deception, without consent, is not "low risk" and, as evidenced by the discourse in this Reddit post, resulted in harm.

Great thread from Sarah, and I have additional thoughts. 🧵

This feels like the defining image from this year’s Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting.

The National Science Foundatipn paid for a booth in the exhibit hall. But the booth sits empty, because NSF has been DOGE’d, and there is no one left to send.

Reviewer notes: That’s a very nice mediation analysis you have there. It would be a shame if something happened to it. Mediation analysis has gotten a lot of flak, including classic titles such as “Yes, but what’s the mechanism? (Don’t expect an easy answer)” (Bullock et al., 2010), “What mediation analysis can (not) ...

New blog post! In which I explain the issue with mediation analysis and sketch out one way to deal with the underlying causal inference problem -- in just a bit over 1,000 words!

If you have never found the time to read up on this, now is your chance.

www.the100.ci/2025/03/20/r...

This letter is a direct attack on the independence of American universities. Literally seeks to use government power to dictate how private universities are organized and operated.

My first strike ever.

I have joined demonstrations before. But Monday I will be on strike. As part of the national series of strikes across the country @woinactie.bsky.social

Against draconian, shortsighted cuts to research and higher education 🟥

Hopefully joined by many @uva.nl colleagues.

Artificial Intelligence in Deliberation: The AI Penalty and the Emergence of a New Deliberative Divide Digital deliberation has expanded democratic participation, yet challenges remain. This includes processing information at scale, moderating discussions, fact-checking, or attracting people to partici...

📢 Neues Working Paper: KI & Deliberation 📢

Welche Rolle spielt Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) bei demokratischen Diskussionen? Zusammen mit @adrauc.bsky.social habe ich diese Frage untersucht.

arxiv.org/abs/2503.07690

Ergebnisse im Thread 🧵👇

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Losing $30 billion to trigger the libs.

The process of making the chart was recorded as a gif using {camcorder} in #RStats 📹

So massive swaths of social media prioritized right-wing content in the run-up to elections, incl Musk supporting the AfD, yet it looks like results for AfD are not higher than predicted. I’m no expert on elections but wondering what that tells us about limits of direct social media influence?

Wrote Scientific Reports February 8 2024 that a newly published meta-analysis on mindfulness & brain morphology excluded all null-findings and therefore ... by definition found a relationship.

Still no proper response from the journal (other then many "we'll look into it"). It's been a year now.

Hostile Government Takeover (EDM Remix) by AGiftFromTodd & Vinny Marchi on Apple Music Song · 2025 · Duration 2:39

In case you’re wondering what the TikTok kids have been up to