Points
A home for ideas and reflections at the intersection of technology and society, our blog publishes pieces that consider timely issues and essential questions related to our work and the field.
If you have an idea, get in touch at [email protected].
Reframing Our Relationship to Technology
Insights from the Data for Black Lives Conference
Anuli Akanegbu reflects on the connections between data practices and systemic racism, and offers resolutions to guide work that prioritizes the humane over the artificial.
Points
Our Year in Review
As 2024 comes to a close, we’re looking back on some highlights of a milestone year.
Participation and Trust
A Working History of the Verified Internet
In part three of her series, Robyn Caplan looks at what happened when celebrities and media companies began flooding social media platforms, creating a new demand for verified status and identity.
Reframing Our Relationship to Technology
How to Think Like a Sociotechnical Researcher
Start by recognizing that every technical system represents a set of choices.
Policy and Accountability
July 24, 2024
Why AI Safety Requires a Sociotechnical Approach: Our Top Ten Reads
February 1, 2024
Why We’re Endorsing the AI Environmental Impacts Act
Brian J. Chen and Tamara Kneese explain why we’re taking the unusual step of endorsing the AI Environmental Impacts Act of 2024.
January 10, 2024
Measuring Justice: Field Notes on Algorithmic Impact Assessments
What does it look like to assess how algorithms impact people’s lives, choices, and access to essential services?
Participation and Trust
September 18, 2024
The Algorithmic Impact Methods Lab: Methods from the Field
The AIMLab team reflects on why they’ve shifted from thinking about their work as being about “impact assessment” to understanding it as a form of impact engagement.
March 13, 2024
A Working History of the Verified Internet
Robyn Caplan introduces her research on the history of the verified badge: the familiar checkmark that is “one of the few symbols of stratification on the internet that is visible to us, the user.”
October 18, 2023
Shaping AI Systems By Shifting Power
Why we need participatory methods in AI, and what this looks like at Data & Society.
Reframing Our Relationship to Technology
May 29, 2024
The Science and Technology of Social Justice
Dr. Sará King on healing through contemplative technology
January 24, 2024
When Kindness Kills
How algorithms accelerate savior swarms
August 16, 2023
Doppelgangers in a Digital world
From deep fakes and avatars to big data, we all have a doppelganger that lives and acts online.