Robyn Caplan

Assistant Prof @DukeSanford, Affiliate @datasociety, Affiliate @CITAP, PhD from @RutgersCommInfo. Platform governance, tech ethics, mom.

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

Read the long-awaited (sorry about that) follow-up in my "Working History of the Verified Badge" series for
@datasociety.

Part II: The battle between Friendsters and Fakesters

https://t.co/dwF3QpHYDo

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

My desire to spend at least 25% of my time at @AoIR_org in the hotel pool is slightly at odds with my desire to never be seen in a swimsuit by colleagues.

[William Gibson @GreatDismal]

Having long been aware of those tech bros who read my work as utopian porn, where they’ve taken that doesn’t exactly surprise me.

[Laura Bassett @LEBassett]

“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

We are making the same intellectual mistake with concerns about AI and its ability to persuade as we did in the algos and misinfo debate.

We keep treating persuasion as some sort of tech capability rather than a social process.

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

Tomorrow on the podcast. David Robinson quit his job on Open AI's safety team. In his first interview since leaving OpenAI, he tells me why.

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

I haven’t known what to make of the other AI whistleblowers, but I very much trust @dgrobinson.

[Adrienne LaFrance @AdrienneLaF]

New in The Atlantic:

@dgrobinson resigned this week. He was among the longest-tenured employees at OpenAI—and oversaw safety reports on 12 frontier launches.

He is very worried: “The time for trial and error is over.”

You can read his essay here:
https://t.co/DQlszrc0ru

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

@fstflofscholars That's amazing.

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

I really want to write a book about comment sections – like stories of comment sections, viral comments, the best comments of all time, how comment sections make us feel hope and/or despair (etc)...but alas, I am currently writing not that book.

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

@Gloriousbastard I did!! I loved it

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

Writing a book is very hard because as soon as you finish one chapter, you have to start a new one.

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

There is something very “what if the company behind Kool-Aid funded Heaven’s Gate” about the current AI doomsday hypotheses.

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

Kinda hard to take an industry seriously that's currently in a loop of “we’re all gonna die, but we can’t slow down because of China, even though they regulate AI and reverse engineer our models, so the faster we go the faster they go actually.”

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

So happy for my close and personal friend, the television show, Widow’s Bay.

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

A lot of the AI doomsday scenarios seem to believe persuasion is some sort of magic power.

[DeWitt Wallace Center at Duke University @Duke_DeWitt]

📚 New book: De Gruyter Handbook of Technology, Media, & Democracy

Co-edited by DWC faculty @pmnapoli, @robyncaplan & Ken Rogerson

Learn about the Handbook: https://t.co/F9Gof3w9uP

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

I just walked downstairs to get a drink, and then walked upstairs without a drink and realized that instead of getting the drink, I'd cleaned the toilet bowl downstairs. Middle age is wild.

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

@pmnapoli @rogerson @degruyter_brill @Ali_Christopher @blakeplease @jonathan_c_ong @TomDivon I also wrote a chapter for the book: "The Problem of Authority in Platform Governance: A Platforms-in-Society Approach." In it, I offer a broader definition of platform governance (in case you were looking for one). Access it here: https://t.co/IhUiSuTnKL

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

It's baby's first edited volume! Check out the book I edited with @pmnapoli and @rogerson, now published by @degruyter_brill, with chapters from @Ali_Christopher, @blakeplease, @jonathan_c_ong, @TomDivon, and many others!

[Philip Napoli @pmnapoli]

New book: The De Gruyter Handbook of Technology, Media, and Democracy, co-edited with my Duke/DeWitt Wallace Center colleagues, @robyncaplan and @rogerson. Contributors from across the world, as well as a number of contributors from the Duke community.
https://t.co/TdKocKRfZ1

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

@LeonDerczynski Always. But then it’s your turn to do an edited volume and you realize the whole game…

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

tfw you're writing a book chapter for an edited volume, and you have to rewrite an argument you've already made but somehow do it differently.

[Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan]

@profmdwhite I absolutely hate it. Makes me feel physically nauseous.