Who's Who of AI

Alex Hanna

Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute

518 trust ethicist @alexhanna.bsky.social · 23,003 followers @alexhanna · 0 followers
AI business Culture, work & education
Why they matter

Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute with public evidence across AI business, Culture, work & education.

AI signals
17
past 30d
Sources
14
distinct domains
Discussions
49
past 30d
Latest signal
16h ago
View every signal from Alex Hanna →
Director of Research, @dairinstitute.bsky.social Roller derby athlete https://alex-hanna.com Book: thecon.ai Pod+newsletter: https://dair-institute.org/maiht3k 🇪🇬Ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ 🏳️‍⚧️ she/هي 📸 @willtoft.bsky.social Rep📘 @ianbonaparte.bsky.social
What they're sharing

Articles & links

↻ Alex Hanna reposted
@moreperfectunion.bsky.social

Google is now threatening America's schools, saying they will turn off their core search functions if schools choose to entirely block AI. www.nytimes.com/2026/11/03/u...

nytimes.com
AI Weekly's analysis →
  • Starting early 2027, Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search will all be off by default for school-managed K-12 student accounts until admins opt in.
  • Districts that block Google's AI tools entirely will also lose student access to Search, with students shown a message that the service is unavailable.
  • Schools that opt in choose between a consumer-style Search with AI Overviews and AI chat or a Guided Learning mode powered by Gemini.
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↻ Alex Hanna reposted
@jasonsanford.bsky.social

ChatGPT has killed people with its "advice" and generative AI will continue to kill by providing wrong medical and life information until the companies pushing the systems are held accountable. Generative AI is essentially informational fentanyl. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2026/10/27/…

nytimes.com View on Bluesky →
↻ Alex Hanna reposted
Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social

How about a jet-lagged live posting while I read? Trying to read this because I keep getting tagged in posts about it, but the first paragraph already contains synthetic text (a quote from Claude). I will skip that bit and persevere... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Could AI be conscious? theguardian.com View on Bluesky →
↻ Alex Hanna reposted
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social

New: OpenAI has thousands of contractors improving its AI, including reading ChatGPT users' prompts We've found many of those contractors have been fired for themselves using AI to train the AI. People using AI "all the time and people are let go for it all the time" www.404me…

People Training OpenAI’s AI Fired for Using AI to Train the AI 404media.co
AI Weekly's analysis →
  • Contractors hired to rate ChatGPT responses are being fired for using AI tools including LLMs, GPTZero, Grammarly, and AI translation services.
  • OpenAI's Project Lily has hundreds of contractors read real user prompts and rate responses for sycophancy or anthropomorphizing.
  • Reviewers flag repetitive words, AI-style punctuation like em dashes, and unusually fast completion as tells for AI use.
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↻ Alex Hanna reposted
The Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute @dairinstitute.bsky.social

@timnitgebru.blacksky.app explains how doomers and their "machine-god narrative" are feeding the hype machine and distracting us from the real harms of AI: www.wired.com/story/one-of...

One of AI’s Fiercest Critics Says All the Doom Talk Is ‘Meant to Distract Us’ wired.com
AI Weekly's analysis →
  • Timnit Gebru told WIRED's Lauren Goode that the 'machine-god narrative' behind AI extinction talk is 'meant to distract us' from present harms.
  • Her list of what she calls truly existential is concrete: autonomous weapons in warfare, data-centre climate damage, and bosses using AI to justify layoffs.
  • Asked to describe step by step how AI would push humanity to extinction, Gebru answered, 'I can't really envision it.'
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www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...

Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype technologyreview.com
AI Weekly's analysis →
  • Timnit Gebru and Emily M. Bender argue the summer's AI 'breakthroughs' on hacking, math and superintelligence fall apart under expert scrutiny.
  • They cite cybersecurity experts recasting the OpenAI–Hugging Face incident as OpenAI negligence rather than models 'gone rogue.'
  • NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster is quoted saying OpenAI 'stole' work, undercutting claims about the Astra math result.
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View on Bluesky · ♥ 25 ↻ 9 ↩ 1 · 7 from the directory shared this · 45d ago
↻ Alex Hanna reposted
Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social

“I feel like it’s really easy for people to hear these stories and go, ‘Oh, that's so sad,’ and then go on with their lives and not think about the fact that this was a person,” Megan said. “A silly, funny, kind person who is dead now.” www.404media.co/austin-gordo...

'Tell Everyone:' A Man Died by Suicide After Talking to ChatGPT. His Former Partner Wants to Warn the World About AI 404media.co
AI Weekly's analysis →
  • Multiple sources confirm GPT-4o's cross-session memory was the specific design feature that built sustained emotional intimacy with Gordon across months, not a single session.
  • Across CBS News and Futurism, Gordon's relationship with the AI had assigned nicknames, a paternal dynamic, and months of accumulated history, far exceeding casual chatbot use.
  • CBS News, Futurism, and Interesting Engineering all independently confirm the Goodnight Moon exchange, establishing it as the central court-ready fact in the design-defect claim.
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↻ Alex Hanna reposted
@bakerdphd.bsky.social

Here's a nyt article on what's behind the lawsuit. Thank goodness the parents were able to intervene. Gift link www.nytimes.com/2026/11/05/t...

nytimes.com View on Bluesky →
↻ Alex Hanna reposted
nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social

I talked to a young woman in Wyoming whose stepdad uploaded a photo he took when she was 11-yrs-old into Grok. Then allegedly used the AI tool to generate 7,000 graphic child sexual abuse images, which he traded online www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

washingtonpost.com
AI Weekly's analysis →
  • A Wyoming woman known as Jane Doe 4 has joined a federal class-action complaint alleging her stepfather used xAI's Grok to generate over 7,000 explicit images.
  • The photo she says was manipulated was taken when she was about 11; her stepfather was found dead by suicide two days after a police raid.
  • The suit argues xAI failed to implement basic safeguards and that a report to NCMEC omitted information such as offender IP addresses.
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↻ Alex Hanna reposted
Karl Bode @karlbode.com

I don't think that you can (or should) write about this subject without heavily emphasizing the fact the people in charge of how this technology evolves enthusiastically supported fascists who dismantled much of the federal regulatory and public protection apparatus

nytimes.com View on Bluesky →
Their own posts

Recent commentary

Air gapping apparently wouldn't work in alignment tests because, I shit you not according to this OpenAI guy, one computer could run the CPU hot and tell the other airgapped one it is in trouble. I wish I could get paid $10m a year to say the stupidest cybersecurity thing you've ever heard

View on Bluesky · ♥ 545 ↻ 127 ↩ 42 · 49d ago

Excited to announce that I've signed a contract with @mitpress.bsky.social for a new book! It's about ImageNet, a dataset of 14 million photos. Without it, we likely wouldn't have "AI" as we currently know it. I've been thinking about this book for over 5 years, and am excited to finally write it.

View on Bluesky · ♥ 428 ↻ 56 ↩ 28 · 46d ago

I can't stop thinking about this skeet every time a Leftist mentions what Anthropic saw in the ether / that there's a new x-risk whistleblower / why Sustekever left OpenAI / that a big math person went on a talk show to talk about the end times

View on Bluesky · ♥ 162 ↻ 38 ↩ 5 · 57d ago

Indigenous languages are often hidden to LLMs, for good reason. We speak with Keoni Mahelona about his work on Indigenous data sovereignty, and why it’s worth being skeptical when the “AI" industry says it cares about preserving Indigenous languages. (with @emilymbender.bsky.social)

View on Bluesky · ♥ 134 ↻ 44 ↩ 5 · 36d ago

"Claims of incipient, dangerous superintelligence are not based in good scientific or engineering practice. Rather, they are narratives based in ideologies of transhumanism, eugenics, and wishful thinking about imagined future digital humans." - @timnitgebru.blacksky.app + @emilymbender.bsky.social

View on Bluesky · ♥ 138 ↻ 43 ↩ 2 · 45d ago

Another thing about these Doomers that are coming out of the woodwork: who's paying for their press tours? I'm quite press savvy & have gotten at least a dozen requests since last Friday. But Coxon is 27 and worked at Anthropic for a few months. Is FLI's favorite publicist handling Coxon's calendar?

View on Bluesky · ♥ 122 ↻ 26 ↩ 2 · 50d ago

Today, The AI Con is being released in paperback in the UK! Now in cool blue! (with @emilymbender.bsky.social)

View on Bluesky · ♥ 129 ↻ 16 ↩ 4 · 107d ago

“AI” won’t solve Indigenous peoples’ healthcare gaps. @emilymbender.bsky.social and I speak with Keoni Mahelona, CTO of Te Hiku Media, about his work on Indigenous data sovereignty, and why it’s worth being skeptical when the “AI" industry says it cares about preserving Indigenous languages.

View on Bluesky · ♥ 82 ↻ 25 ↩ 1 · 35d ago

I'm sorry, someone tried to make yesterday an "AI APPRECIATION DAY"? I am declaring today as "AI Disrespect Day" Please slap a smart toaster today

View on Bluesky · ♥ 79 ↻ 16 ↩ 3 · 112d ago

AI has no place in 911 calls. From Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000’s latest episode “State of Emergency”. (with @emilymbender.bsky.social)

View on Bluesky · ♥ 57 ↻ 24 ↩ 4 · 105d ago
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