UVA researchers examine AI’s impact on democracy
University of Virginia researchers examined how artificial intelligence is reshaping democracy during a discussion Friday, January 9, focusing on the technology’s influence on what people see, share and believe online.
Digital construction comes to the Pacific Northwest: Timber and the landscapes of automation
Megan Wiessner, DTD Lab postdoctoral research fellow, has contributed an article to an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) special issue, "Automation by Design: Politics, Culture and Landscape in an Age of Machines That Learn".
AI Is Transforming Climate Science. Who Gets to Build It Matters, Says UVA Study
A UVA research team, including Mona Sloane, DTD Lab faculty co-lead, published a paper encouraging scientists, policymakers, and communities to rethink how AI processes for climate research are designed, governed, and shared.
How emotions spread online following celebrity suicide news
Analyses of resharing behavior reveal distinct temporal patterns in the online propagation of different emotions following tragedies in a new publication co-authored by DTD Lab postdoctoral research fellow, Ehsan Nouri.
Online propagation of emotions: A study of resharing dynamics on social media following celebrity suicides
Ehsan Nouri, DTD Lab postdoctoral research fellow, co-authors a paper about emotional contagion on social media, particularly following shocking and tragic events, which often unfolds through widespread resharing, amplifying affective responses that are typically intense and negative.
The true paradox of the “iPhone socialist”
In his latest column, David Nemer, DTD Lab faculty co-lead, describes the paradox of the 'iPhone socialist' that lies in the capitalist who uses products heavily funded, conceived, and enabled by the state, while denying the crucial role of the public sector throughout the entire innovation chain.
The Measured Body
Mona Sloane, DTD Lab faculty co-lead, and co-authors argue that redesigning motion capture systems to be more representative of real human bodies and movements could make them fairer and more useful for applications such as law enforcement and medical diagnostics.
AI’s Sociological Era
In an introduction to a new Social Science Computer Review Special Issue "What Is Sociological About AI?", Mona Sloane, faculty co-lead of the DTD Lab, outlines how AI’s cultural meanings, material effects, political entanglements, reliance on human labor and data, and embeddedness in status and power make it a fundamentally sociological phenomenon.
Research Spotlight: Building Fair and Secure AI at UVA
In this podcast from AI Exchange @ UVA, Steven L. Johnson, faculty co-lead of the DTD Lab, discusses his work with data science colleague, Tom Hartvigsen, to bridge business, data science, and ethics to improve how humans and AI interact.
On the controversiality of AI: The controversy is not the situation
Mona Sloane, faculty co-lead of the DTD Lab, is among the contributors to a new publication emerging from the Shaping AI project published in Big Data & Society. The piece reflects on a central question that shaped the project: Do public controversies about AI actually matter—and do they meaningfully influence how AI becomes embedded in society?
