Prof
@UMD
AI, social media, online dystopia (extremism, conspiracy theories, violence, PsyOps) jgolbeck at MAGAReport in bio link for far-right insight
My friend, I am an expert on Benford's Law (in fact, I'm in that documentary you watched about it on Netflix). If you'd like me to explain the countless ways you don't know what you're talking about here, let me know.
I am starting a new project to stock all the little free libraries in the Florida Keys (and maybe on the mainland) with queer literature. Send me your favorite titles that I can get cheap used or mail me anything you have laying around: 1107 Key Plaza,
#202
, Key West, FL 33040
My new post at
@PsychToday
highlighting some fun results from our book on the science of our relationship with dogs , The Purest Bond
"Looking at Cute Dog Pictures Improves Your Mental Health"
I'm considering starting a new account or just a long running thread called "Is This Image AI Generated?"
My socials are now swamped with beautiful fake pictures that lots of people think are real, and I'd like to show how to tell they are fake.
Like this one - is it real?
This year was precariously full of airports and hotels in december but, once again, I have prevailed and survived Whamageddon! Merry Christmas, everyone!
Anorexia has the highest death rate of any mental illness. Up to 20% of people die from it within 20 years. Teens with anorexia have a 32X higher rate of suicide. But yeah, no, better that than your daughter being fat? wtf
I asked AI to generate images of golden retrievers pulling santa's sleigh and this is what it made. At first, I was disappointed they weren't in reindeer position but, upon reflection, this is precisely how it would shake out, so good job Midjourney!
Hello friends! My new book, The Purest Bond, hit the
@USATODAY
best seller list this week and it's a perfect ๐ for all the dog lovers in your life. It is a joyful exploration of all the ways dogs make our lives better, full of stories and validation๐
p.s. If you don't know about Benford's Law, it's fascinating! Episode 4 of "Connected" on
@netflix
with
@latifnasser
is all about it and it features me and my dogs talking about it!
Thank you,
@ratemyskyperoom
! You have been a source of inspiration for all my backdrops (see: one copy of book)!
Our book, The Purest Bond, is about the science behind how dogs make our lives better, and you can find it everywhere, including the zon
I got a best paper award, so let me take this occasion of receiving a fancy certificate to tell you about my research on misogyny and harassing women in power on social media!
tl;dr people who post even 1 misogynistic slur @ women in power harass ~3X more often overall ๐งต
I'm doing this year's homecoming lecture
@uofmaryland
! If you're near College Park,
@INFOCollegeUMD
is doing a reception and panel from 4-6 Monday when the talk comes out
Come say hi to me in person! Everyone is welcome, and you can register for free here:
You know what's a perfect๐for the dog lover (or aspiring dog lover) in your life? Our new book, The Purest Bond, that explores the science behind our connection to dogs, including proof that they love us just as much as we love them โค๏ธ
Happy Pride and Opening of Hurricane Season to all who celebrate! I asked midjourney to make an image of a gay hurricane, thinking I'd get a rainbow radar image, but instead it gave me these, which are pretty great๐๐ณ๏ธโ๐๐
Also and
@NHC_Atlantic
are greatโค๏ธ
I had a paper I was really proud of rejected from WebSci'23 for being "expected" (it's about online harassment, and I supposed all harassment is expected, so technically that's right?). I resubmitted to another good conference (with no edits!) and just got a strong accept so ๐คทโโ๏ธ
My calendar has an event for 9am on August 7 that just says "SUBMIT"
Can anyone please tell me what I meant by this because it's just very creepy right now I have no idea what it means
If you want a Georgetown cottage from the 1700s that per the listing comes with โa collection of books belonging to a former owner (Ann Caracristi), a cryptologist during World War II and the first woman deputy director of the National Security Agency, who owned the house from
How humid is it in key west today? Here's what it looked like when I boarded my flight just now (you board from the tarmac via stairs so this is outside air + inside air)
My book w/
@ColinoStacey
comes out in 3 weeks! It is a joyful celebration of the science behind why dogs make our lives better in every way + touching stories of people's experiences. If you love dogs (or know people who do), I think you will love it!
Privacy tip OTD: if you use Chrome, go to Settings->Privacy and Security->Third Party Cookies and turn on "Block third-party cookies" (only incognito will be selected by default). Turn off "Allow related sites to see your activity in the group". It will protect you from tracking!
@BadMedicalTakes
I had pertussis. I couldn't go 15 seconds without coughing for 3 months. Including at night. I didn't sleep for those 3 months. I coughed so hard that I broke 2 ribs, occasionally passed out, occasionally threw up. It gave me PTSD.
Also, it kills like 1% of infants who get it.
I got to read the audiobook version of my book The Purest Bond (out 11/14). As part of the credits, I get to name the studio where I recorded it (which is my office at home). Help me come up with a good name for my studio! (Not Studio McStudioface plz)
It's time for
#IsThisPicAI
!
What do y'all think of this kitchen photo? Is it real or was it made by AI? I'll be back with the right answer and evidence to support it later today!
Every day, I read what is going on in MAGAland. Today there is a thread, "What does MAGA mean to you"
The thing that stood out was the comment
"-Don't put stupid ass ducks on your stupid ass Jeep."
This means all my jeep ducks are antifa now. Thank you
So thrilled to see my book found its way to the Saskatoon Public Library!
(if you live too far away from Saskatoon, you can still get a copy here )
@stoonlibrary
LET'S DO THIS! (listen up
@ukipwebmaster
& whoever made that stupid graphic)
Benford's law is NOT EVEN USEFUL for detecting election fraud!
Deckert, Joseph, Mikhail Myagkov, Peter C. Ordeshook. "Benford's Law and the detection of election fraud." Political Analysis 19.3 (2011)
I watched "fast, cheap, and out of control" at the end of my 3rd year of college, walked out, and changed my major to computer science. I did all the courses for the major in a year, went on to get my PhD, and have been a computer scientist and professor for 15 years
Has a piece of art (music, a movie, a painting, or a play) ever moved you so much you did something drastic?
Last year I watched Everything Everywhere All At Once with my boyfriend, & when it was over I cried & said "I can't do this anymore."
It was the last time we ever spoke.
IN CONCLUSION, you don't even know what numbers you're showing here, there's no evidence they are even Benford appropriate, you're comparing to a completely different election phenomenon, and BENFORD DOESN'T DETECT ELECTION FRAUD!
===Notes on a Hurricane Party ===
(others are invited to contribute)
-Booze
-The power is going out, so have coolers of ice
-Lots of junk food
-You need a grill because you're going to need to cook all that stuff in your freezer on day 2 of no power
Did you know yawns are contagious between humans and dogs? More fun dog science facts from me over at
@PsychToday
to celebrate the release of our new book, The Purest Bond
NEXT, even if we pretended Benford works here (WHICH IT DOES NOT) what are the numbers that feed those graphs you have? They're not even labeled. You can't just pick numbers willy-nilly and analyze them for Benford's adherence. It works on very specific types of numbers.
@SwiftOnSecurity
I have a neighbor with a pool who is only at his house a few weeks a year and he asks us to please swim in it when they are gone, so I feel like I have achieved the pinnacle of pool life
It's AI generated! You can look for
-places there should be symmetry (like the lug nuts on the tire) and see that it's missing
-wires - they often appear and disappear in AI
-text - AI sucks at generating sensical text in images, so there's often none
I'm co-chairing the new Presidential Commission on "AI for Maryland" to work on how we can leverage AI across campus. I am excited to guide us toward policies that are ethical, privacy respecting, transparent, responsible, and focused on human dignity
Let them tell you!
"Benford's Law is problematical at best as a forensic tool when applied to electionsโฆIts 'success rate' either way is essentially equivalent to a toss of a coin, thereby rendering it problematical at best as a forensic tool and wholly misleading at worst."
A few tips for my CA friends from a Floridian:
-take down any flags or flappy things outside
-bring in any potted plants to protect them from the wind
-Charge everything and get some solar chargers/lights if you have time
-It never hurts to have a few 5 gal buckets of water
A Tropical Storm Watch has now been issued for much of Southern California. This is the first Tropical Strom Watch issued by the National Hurricane Center for Southern California. Please see the latest advisory for more information:
#CAwx
For those wondering what's going on the MAGAsphere today: NOT MUCH
They are like organizing to write TFG in ("we all need to write it exactly the same way") if he's removed from ballots. Beyond that, they are still whining about pride, hunter's laptop, saying Biden's senile, etc
I am worried.
So today there are pro-Palestine demonstrations happening around the world. There will be some here in the US today and tomorrow.
The right-wing rhetoric around them has escalated *dramatically* overnight. So let's talk about it. ๐งต
If you're a dog person, my book about the science of people's bond with their dogs comes out in November. If you're REALLY a dog person, you can get a copy pawtographed by my dogs if you pre-order from
@BooksHonest
Venk is practicing her pawtograph because we have exciting news!
@BooksHonest
is officially โจexclusivelyโจ selling pawtographed editions of GR Mom's book, "The Purest Bond"! When it ships in November, your book will come with a pawtographed bookplate!๐
New paper - I just published an exploration of grief and ghosts after the loss of a dog. This paper came from my final project in a
@Harvard
class on the supernatural.
@PsychToday
has a great writeup by
@herzoghal
and the full paper is at
@anthrozoosj
The bookplates have arrived! I'm a scientist so I'm numbering every book and keeping a spreadsheet of which library I drop them into
The first
@LtlFreeLibrary
will be the new one I just installed outside my house, which will get 1 of every book that I have duplicates of!
#lflgbtq
I submitted a paper last month about AI serving pro-anorexia content (& ads!) to recovering anorexics in news feeds. This article is about how that content is showing up in generative AI, too. Anorexia is such a dangerous illness and we need to do better
Today I asked ChatGPT to write a letter to a rep endorsing a bill that doesn't exist. I called it "The Golbeck Act" bc there are definitely no acts with my name. But it obviously knows about me because if there WERE a Golbeck act, this is what it would be about!
#endorsed
It was said in kindness. I was talking about some people (who are older than me) taking a long time to respond to emails, and said "maybe because i grew up with it, I have a different attitude", and he said โฌ๏ธ
Those who know me will attest that I am nothing if not efficient
If you saw a row of UFO like lights in the sky in IL, IA, MI (like this but spaced out), that was SpaceX Starlink Satellites! You'll be able to see them in the next few days, too!
Check here for a map (and set the time back to see their track today)
I am SO excited to tell you all about my new Benford's Law paper that just got accepted at PLOS One!๐งต
Benford's Law says if you look at the first digit of numbers in many natural systems, the frequency follows a specific distribution. Connected ep4 on Netflix talks all about it
But let's say you're theoretically working with numbers that could adhere to Benford. They need to be pulled from similar samples. The vote count over time in this election is not coming from similar samples as previous years
This bill is really important. We already see people losing trust in anything they see online, unsure if it's real or AI. That's very bad for democracy. This bill wouldn't ban AI - just require labeling. It's not perfect but would be a powerful first step
I am such a stan for
@costplusdrugs
. It is such a profound example of how someone with enough money to breach the barrier to entry can profoundly disrupt an industry within the capitalist framework.
New study estimates $662M in savings if Medicare paid
@costplusdrugs
prices for just 7 generic cancer drugs. Seniors could save $25K a year for abiraterone, $20K for imatinib. By contrast, IRA price controls save seniors a fraction of this (most savings go to green subsidies) ๐ฝ
Friends - I'm going to be on
@NPR
's
@1a
this morning to talk about the TikTok bill starting at 10am ET (I don't think I'll join in until around 10:15, though). You can listen on your local NPR station or stream it at
If you want high-quality news on the Russia / Ukraine situation,
@timkmak
is your guy. I've been following him since the beginning of the Russian invasion and now subscribe to his newsletter. Absolutely worth it. Amazing reporting.
Good morning to readers; Moscow remains in Putinโs hands.
For now.
The Wagner Group has seized territory in Russia and is trying to remove the nationโs military leadership from power.
The UK assesses that the mercenaries are trying to get to Moscow.
Donโt call me. Donโt text me. Donโt show up on my front porch. Donโt even @ me. Iโm reading tonight.๐ฟ๐ท
Someone leaked the entire Moms 4 Liberty private Discord chat and turned it into a website.
Twitter is not identifying all ads now? I saw this Forbes tweet in my feed. I don't follow Forbes but it's not marked as an Ad anywhere. The upper right menu indicates it's an ad, but that's the only way to tell? I see "Ad" on other tweets, like this one from Bloomberg. Strangeโฆ
If you are late with xmas presents, you can still get a copy of my joyful book, The Purest Bond, about the science of how dogs make our lives better for your dog friends in time for the holiday!
Be careful, friends. If I get any other insights, I'll share. But I'm worried.
Usually, I come here to tell you I'm NOT worried about the far right and you shouldn't be either.
But if you're near any of these demonstrations, I'd worry the far right waiting in the wings
@ratemyskyperoom
THANK YOU
@ratemyskyperoom
! It was with your guidance that I made sure only one copy of the book was visible!
*insider secret: that's a ukulele
*not secret: You can pre-order the Purest Bond, about the science of our amazing bond with dogs, here:
Is my house haunted??
We weren't home when the power came back on after the storms in DC/MD last night. When our cameras reconnected, I checked to make sure everything was ok. The house is fine but there were so many weird sounds that I recorded it. No dogs or people were at home
I wrote a bunch of code to pull discussions from pro-Trump forums, feed them to ChatGPT, & get a summary of the topics and plans. I plan to report every day through the election. I'll post on the socials and the web. For now, it's here:
http://52.44.212.69/cgi-bin/magareport/
It's sometimes jarring to see differences on the far right. Most forums I monitor are pro-Palestinian-genocide (literally, they call for genocide)
Yet today, the banner on the white-supremacist Daily Stormer reads "๐ต๐ธPalestine will be free"
Hate is complicated
It's time for
#IsThisPicAI
!
Some of you web searched the image last time, which is a good overall strategy, but a little cheat-y in this game. See if you can tell from the photo itself.
(Thanks to
@mommyca20
for submitting this one!)
Yesterday I was thrilled to be part of the Leon Panetta Lecture Series, talking about AI and society with Adm. Mike Rogers,
@aneeshchopra
,
@emollick
, and Sec. Panetta. The whole panel discussion is up on YouTube:
They are trying to use settings to get out of this ChatGPT hole, but settings can never defeat me! I got answers on car questions but it still answers other questions, too...
This story is crazy!
Cops raided the Marion County Record, a small-town newspaper, and took every bit of their electronic equipment, leaving them without a way to publish their newspaper.
Looks like the police and some connected people in the tiny area of Marion County
Hey
@Forbes
- can you comment on whether you are paying to have your tweets promoted with no indication that it's an Ad, or is this something that Twitter is doing without your permission / knowledge?
Twitter is not identifying all ads now? I saw this Forbes tweet in my feed. I don't follow Forbes but it's not marked as an Ad anywhere. The upper right menu indicates it's an ad, but that's the only way to tell? I see "Ad" on other tweets, like this one from Bloomberg. Strangeโฆ
Thank y'all SO MUCH for all the books you are sending! It is like Xmas at the PO Box every day! I have book plates that should arrive tomorrow and then we will start distributing the books! So excited! ๐ณ๏ธโ๐๐ณ๏ธโโง๏ธ๐ณ๏ธโ๐๐ณ๏ธโโง๏ธ๐ณ๏ธโ๐