I'm an author on the research being profiled in this LA Times article, but few things have convinced me about the extent to which Twitter has become a toxic place as much as the responses to the tweet of the article by the @latimes. https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-04-27/hate-speech-twitter-surged-since-elon-musk-takeover
(link to tweet: https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1651583247707430919?s=20)
LA Times covering our research on hate speech on Twitter:
"One billionaire owner, twice the hate: Twitter hate speech surged with Musk, study says" https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-04-27/hate-speech-twitter-surged-since-elon-musk-takeover
New paper on auditing Elon's early impact on Twitter.
- Hateful users became more hateful
- Hate increased dramatically
- There was no overall change in bots
Paper (accepted to ICWSM 2023) is here:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.04129
Here’s a new preprint w Zack Dunivin: Dynamics of covert signaling: Modeling the emergence and extinction of identity signals.
We use theoretical modeling to explore the dynamics of identity signals when their use is penalized by a hostile outgroup.
Depending on the benefits of coordination and expected costs of discovery by outgroups individuals, we should expect a wide range of dynamics for the emergence and persistence of identity signals.
Feedback much appreciated.
I was recently on the @sfiscience #Complexity Podcast with C Thi Nguyen. We had a bonkers far-reaching conversation about selection, incentives, institutions and #CulturalEvolution. Good times. https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/101
Our grad group discussed #ChatGPT today, and I argued that it should never be considered an author because it has no agency or accountability. Nor should it. I direct interested parties to
@j2bryson 's evergreen essay "Robots Should Be Slaves" http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/~jjb/ftp/Bryson-Slaves-Book09.html
New paper with Cody Moser. We use modeling to explore how the network structures that best support innovation are also (1) less efficient per capita, and (2) create more severe inequality of knowledge among individuals. The latter is likely to be linked to other forms of inequality. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/n3hc6
Driving my daughter (3.5) to preschool, “Left Behind” by Slipknot came on the radio. I asked her if she liked it because otherwise we could change it, and she gave me a sly grin and a thumbs up. I found this funny, so texted my wife when I got to the school. When I got home, opened insta to find this. The cookies never sleep.
Just found out that my book can be pre-ordered! Release date is October 3, 2023. Text has been finalized, cover is still being designed.
PUP: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224138/modeling-social-behavior
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691224145?tag=it_books_com-20
Paradigmatically promiscuous scientist. Modeler. Curmudgeon. Faculty at UC Merced and Santa Fe Institute. https://smaldino.com/wp/