Podcast appearances and mentions of gina neff

In January, the United Kingdom's new Labour Party prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced a new initiative to go all in on AI in the hopes of big economic returns, with a promise to “mainline” it into the country's veins: everything from offering public data to private companies, to potentially fast-tracking miniature nuclear power plants to supply energy to data centers. UK-based researcher Gina Neff helps explain why this flashy policy proposal is mostly a blank check for big tech, and has little to offer either the economy or working people.Gina Neff is executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, and a professor of responsible AI at Queen Mary University of London.References:The AI Opportunities Action Plan‘Mainlined into UK's veins': Labour announces huge public rollout of AIGina Neff: Can democracy survive AI?Labour's AI Action Plan - a gift to the far rightFresh AI Hell:"AI" tool for predicting how Parliament will react to policy proposals"AI" detects age based on hand movementsApple Intelligence misleading summaries of newsBook simplification as a serviceCEO doesn't understand why kid turned AI features of toy offCheck out future streams at on Twitch, Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.Our book, 'The AI Con,' comes out in May! Pre-order now.Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown. Follow us!Emily Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender Alex Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex Twitter: @alexhanna Music by Toby Menon.Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park. Production by Christie Taylor.

Hear Richard Westcott (Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus) talk to Gina Neff (Cambridge University), Jeni Tennison (Connected by Data), and Jean-François Bonnefon (IAST) about how data and algorithms are shaping our lives. They explore how these technologies impact work, public services, and decision-making, and raise questions about ethics, fairness, and governance.Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platformSeason 4 Episode 4 transcriptFor more information about the Crossing Channels podcast series and the work of the Bennett Institute and IAST visit our websites at https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.Follow us on Linkedin, Bluesky and X. With thanks to:Audio production by Steve HankeyAssociate production by Burcu Sevde SelviVisuals by Tiffany Naylor and Aurore CarbonnelMore information about our podcast host and guestsRichard Westcott is an award-winning journalist who spent 27 years at the BBC as a correspondent/producer/presenter covering global stories for the flagship Six and Ten o'clock TV news as well as the Today programme. In 2023, Richard left the corporation and is now the communications director for Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, both organisations that are working to support life sciences and healthcare across the city. @BBCwestcottJean-François Bonnefon, CNRS senior research director, is a cognitive psychologist whose work spans computer science, psychology, and economics, reflected in his more than 100 publications. Renowned for his expertise in moral preferences and decision-making, he is particularly recognised for his contributions to the ethics of advanced artificial intelligence, especially in autonomous driving. In 2024, he was appointed Director of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department (SBS) at TSE and the Institute of Advanced Studies in Toulouse (IAST). He is affiliated with TSE, IAST, the Toulouse School of Management, and the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (ANITI).Gina Neff is Professor of Responsible AI at Queen Mary University London and Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy at the University of Cambridge. She is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer for UKRI Responsible AI UK (RAi) and Associate Director of the ESRC Digital Good Network. Her award-winning research focuses on how digital information is changing our work and everyday lives. Her books include Venture Labor (MIT Press 2012), Self-Tracking (MIT Press 2016) and Human-Centered Data Science (MIT Press 2022).Jeni Tennison is an Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, and the founder of Connected by Data.  She is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, an adjunct Professor at Southampton's Web Science Institute, a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow, and a co-chair of GPAI's Data Governance Working Group.  She sits on the Boards of Creative Commons and the Information Law and Policy Centre.

"Misinformation, disinformation, and trolling campaigns are not just a celebrity story. They are everywhere. They affect how we see reality online."In a year when four billion people are heading to the polls, and with the World Economic Forum warning that online misinformation is the most severe risk the world faces, Who Trolled Amber? shines a light on the shady industry of social media manipulation. It reveals how bots and trolls can sway opinions from celebrity trials to general elections.On May 16th Alexi Mostrous will be joined by Jen Robinson, Amber Heard's lawyer, and Gina Neff, Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge in the Tortoise newsroom to discuss Who Trolled Amber? and give their insights into the world of online disinformation and its effect on all of our everyday lives. You can book your place here, to attend in person or online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Misinformation, disinformation, and trolling campaigns are not just a celebrity story. They are everywhere. They affect how we see reality online."In a year when four billion people are heading to the polls, and with the World Economic Forum warning that online misinformation is the most severe risk the world faces, Who Trolled Amber? shines a light on the shady industry of social media manipulation. It reveals how bots and trolls can sway opinions from celebrity trials to general elections.On May 16th Alexi Mostrous will be joined by Jen Robinson, Amber Heard's lawyer, and Gina Neff, Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge in the Tortoise newsroom to discuss Who Trolled Amber? and give their insights into the world of online disinformation and its effect on all of our everyday lives. You can book your place here, to attend in person or online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The leader of the Taliban has declared on state television that women who commit adultery will be stoned to death. Nuala McGovern speaks to the former deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament, Fawzia Koofi. We look at the legacy of children's TV executive Kay Benbow, hailed as “Queen of the Beebies”, who has died with historian Dr Emily Baughan and producer Anne Wood.Our reporter Jo Morris talks to the mum of a young man who got into serious trouble with drugs in the third in our series Breaking The Cycle about SHiFT a new approach to helping young people at risk of going off the rails. A new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research warns of an AI "jobs apocalypse" which will have the greatest impact on women and young people. We talk to Carsten Jung from the IPPR and to AI Expert Prof. Gina Neff.And live music from Zara McFarlane who's appearing at this year's Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Manager: Steve Greenwood

Today, we look at how AI could play a role in this year's elections around the world. Is AI threatening democracy? Is it influencing how people vote? To discuss Adam is joined by former global chair of news at Twitter (X) Vivian Schiller, chief executive of Demos Polly Curtis and executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge professor Gina Neff.You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhereToday's Newscast was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Maia Davies and Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was . The senior news editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Sam Bonham.

The third special programme in association with PwC UK to look at developments around AI at work and in society, timed to coincide with The World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2024 and asking the question: are we at a fork in the road in terms of AI and its impact on the future of work?  Co-hosts Julia Hobsbawm and Stefan Stern were joined in studio by Kevin Ellis, the Alliance Senior partner of the UK and Middle East of PWC UK and Gina Neff, director of the Cambridge University Minderoo Center For Technology and Democracy.

The prime minister has outlined the potential risks of artificial intelligence, arguing we must not “put our heads in the sand”. His comments come ahead of a two-day AI safety summit at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire next week. Professors Hannah Fry and Gina Neff join us in the studio to discuss the event as well as the risks and opportunities presented by AI. And, Bastille singer Dan Smith takes a seat next to Planet Earth III director Kiri Cashell for a conversation about how they made the music and television for the latest iteration of Sir David Attenborough's iconic documentary series. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere Today's Newscast was presented by Adam Fleming and Alex Forsyth. It was made by George Dabby with Gemma Roper and Miranda Slade. The senior news editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Sam Bonham.

In this episode, we find ourselves at the British Ambassador's residence in Dublin, where we had  the honour of conversing with Professor Gina Neff. This gathering brings together a gathering of AI experts from both Ireland and the UK to deliberate on the objectives of the UK's AI Safety Summit scheduled for November. Professor Neff serves as the Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, renowned for her research concerning the impacts of the digital information environment. Her extensive background encompasses advisory roles for international organisations, leadership in humanitarian endeavours, and contributions to AI4Trust solutions. Her academic prowess has garnered numerous accolades, and she has played a pivotal role in creating educational resources that have reached a global audience of millions. In our podcast, Gina delves into several captivating subjects: Her journey and the development of her expertise at the nexus of technology, society, and democracy. Key takeaways from her latest book, "Human-Centered Data Science," shedding light on its implications for individuals and society. As the Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy, she outlines the centre's primary objectives and ongoing endeavours. Her advisory role for international organisations such as UNESCO and the OECD, focusing on the significant challenges they confront in the digital era, particularly in relation to technology and democracy. Insights into how the digital information landscape is reshaping the nature of work and daily life for workers and workplaces.

In this episode we talk tech, power, and the endless hell of phone storage with sociologist Professor Gina Neff. As the Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at Cambridge, and the Professor of Technology and Society at Oxford, she briskly rejects the mythology of a ‘lone genius' in Silicon Valley coding every aspect of our daily lives. Instead, she champions those she calls the ‘unsung heroes' of innovation – essentially everyone struggling to make a “better, faster, new way of working” actually … work. Her academic research spans industries as diverse as fashion, construction, and healthcare, and she's equally at home online, winning a coveted Webby award for her beginner's guide ‘The A to Z of AI'. Her love of a good data story well told is anything but dry, and her pandemic project is still flourishing. But her main goal is to empower us all to answer two key questions: what kind of future do we want? And what choices must we make today to make that happen? Learn More: Follow Gina Neff on Twitter (for those daily flower photos and more!) https://twitter.com/ginasue Gina Neff is the Executive Director of The Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at CRASSH - all projects discussed in this episode can be found here: The Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy https://www.mctd.ac.uk/ Watch Gina Neff give the CRASSH annual lecture, on 'The Cost of Data - making sense in digital society' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P94q42MzKvI Her recently published book, Human-Centered Data Science, discussed in this episode can be found here: Human-Centered Data Science https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543217/human-centered-data-science/ Gina Neff's 'A to Z of AI' project, discussed in this episode, and which won a Webby Award for Best Educational Website in 2021, can be found here: https://winners.webbyawards.com/2021/websites-and-mobile-sites/general-websites-and-mobile-sites/education/174204/the-az-of-ai Other examples of Gina Neff's work can be found here: On why AI must not make working women's lives worse AI must not make women's working lives worse - OECD.AI https://oecd.ai/en/wonk/ai-womens-working-lives A paper relating to her ongoing work on technology in commercial construction, 'Innovation through practice: the messy work of making technology useful for architecture, engineering and construction teams' https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8354369c-816b-4bc9-a74d-4f276fe4cc41 Her work on data, and on work: Who does the work of data? http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2020/who-does-the-work-of-data and Venture Labor https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262527422/venture-labor/

"That’s such a hard question,” Gina Neff, a sociologist at the Oxford Internet Institute, responds when asked what social science research or thinker most influenced her. “It’s like a busman’s holiday for an academic, because so many things have influenced my thinking.” Her answer, by the way, was Ulrich Beck’s concept of the risk society, as explained in this 1986 book. In this montage drawn from the last two years of Social Science Bites podcasts, interviewer David Edmonds poses the same question to 25 other notable social scientists. For many of the guests, the answer proves difficult to pin down to just one person or work (“That’s like asking who’s your favorite kid,” was David Halpern’s first response). For a few guests, the response is instant. “A simple answer, really,” replies Rupert Brown, naming a fellow social psychologist, Turkish-American Muzafer Sherif, and his work in the 1950s. And sociologist Les Back, too, answers instantly: “Don’t even have to think about it: WEB DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk. DuBois is the writer who captures both the heat and the passion of life and also the cool historical perspective and analysis in the most extraordinary compound of literary expression.” Back, in turn, was mentioned by one scholar: Kayleigh Garthwaite as her great influencer. A number of the guests cited titans from the early days of social science – Max Weber, Karl Marx, Pierre Bourdieu, Emile Durkheim, while others named modern-era titans like Stephen Pinker, Daniel Kahneman, Jonathan Haidt or Jean Piaget. And many named creators of the new canon – Jim Scott cited A.P. Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class, Alondra Nelson picked Troy Duster’s Backdoor to Eugenics, and Gurminder  Bhambra tabbed Danielle S. Allen’s Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education. And no such list would be complete without a wild card, and for that we turn to Michelle Gelfand, who turned to Herodotus’ The Histories and the lessons a 2,500-year-old post-mortem of an ancient war can teach us today: “He was a brilliant cross-cultural psychologist … he also had a really interesting observation — that all humans are ethnocentric. They don’t just think that their culture is different, they think it’s better.” This is the fourth collection in this series (and the 100th Social Science Bites podcast).

In this episode, we talk with Gina Neff, whose work focuses on...work! No, that's not a typo — she's actually a sociologist who studies how web-based technologies are shaping the changing nature of work. Gina is a professor of Technology & Society at the Oxford Internet Institute and the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford, and has published three well-acclaimed books. In this conversation, Gina tells us about the cross between web science and work. She brings us through the early onset of the Web, discussing why an Internet industry would form in New York City, even though the Web is hypothetically worldwide. Part of the reason is that industries rely on social capital, which is easier built in person. That's precisely the type of interactions that we've largely lost during the pandemic and work-from-home era. And Gina touches on this too, talking about work done over web meetings and potential privacy concerns if workers get tracked at home. To learn about all this and more, press play! Click here for this episode's transcript, and click here for this episode's show notes.

Gina Neff, Oxford Internet Institute, gives the third talk in the second Ethics in AI seminar, held on January 27th 2020 (postponed from December 2nd 2019).

Gina Neff, Oxford Internet Institute, gives the third talk in the second Ethics in AI seminar, held on January 27th 2020 (postponed from December 2nd 2019).

Data about us as individuals is usually conceived of as something gathered about us, whether siphoned from our Facebook or requested by bureaucrats. But data collected and displayed by the tracking applications on our iPhones and Fitbits is material we collect by ourselves and for ourselves. Well, maybe, says sociologist Gina Neff, who with Dawn Nafus (a senior research scientist at Intel Labs) wrote the recent book, Self-Tracking. In this Social Science Bites podcast, Neff tells interview David Edmonds that such information – your information -- is widely available to the device or software maker. Now combine that with social network data – and many apps essentially require you connect those dots – and what results is an unintentionally rich portrait of the user.  And that digital you, your doppelgänger, gets shared widely, whether you want it to or even if it’s an accurate depiction, at times making the difference in decisions of whether you worthy of that job or ought to be insured. Neff said she thinks of tracking devices as a sort of “bait and switch,” since their outputs aren’t wholly your own. As anthropologist Bill Maurer has said, data doesn’t have ownership so much as having parents. But Neff doesn’t approach smart devices as a Luddite or even that much of an alarmist; she bought first-generation Fitbit when they were brand new and virtually unknown (all of five years ago!). She approaches them as a sociologist, “looking at the practices of people who use digital devices to monitor, map and measure different aspects of their life.” Many people with and without activity trackers feel they already track their lives – through a tally they keep in their head. Think of the item of clothing – say those ‘skinny jeans’ - you wear when you feel you’re particularly slim. “One of the things that motivated us in thinking about the book were these qualitative measures that help people understand their lives and give them a sense of tracking that is more empowering in some ways.” And one of the findings is that a low-common-denominator approach to the devices can prevent people from really taking control, or customizing the collection, of their own data. “For too many people,” Neff says, “they can’t access and control their own data on the devices in order to begin to frame the next question.” Her findings on smart devices surprised her several times. For example, she explains, many of today’s digital artifacts are anchored in much older sociological practices. She cites Lee Humprheys’ examinations of how Twitter use lines up with how diaries were used in the 19th century: “Lo and behold, some of those same short entries – ‘Had breakfast late,’ ‘It rained today’ – that we think of as disposable and part of the digital era really are much older.” Neff was also taken aback at who the audience is for self-tracking. “I thought I was going to study just these kind of geeky, West Coast, Silicon Valley, male types who wanted to engineer everything about their life. And boy, was I wrong.” Users are much more diverse, and often less self-absorbed; some people are using the devices to stay on top of medical concerns, and other just want to be more productive in everyday life. And their devotion can be ephemeral – Neff said studies find 60 percent of activity trackers get disused within six months. Neff is an associate professor, senior research fellow, program director of the DPhil in information, communication and the social sciences at the Oxford Internet Institute. Self-Tracking, which reviewer Simon Head at The New York Review of Books described as “easily the best book I’ve come across on the subject,” is her third book. Earlier volumes were 2012’s Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative Industries, which won the 2013 American Sociological Association Communication and Information Technologies Best Book Award, and 2015’s Surviving the New Economy (with John Amman and Tris Carpenter).

Gina Neff, a senior research fellow and associate professor at the University of Oxford, explores technology development from a sociological perspective, as well as the implications of self-tracking and the quantified self for the individual and society.

Gina Neff of the Oxford Internet Institute, and author of book 'Trump and the Media', discusses the fracturing of society's bonds and the media's role in creating networks of solidarity.

As chatbots and virtual assistants become an ever-present part of our world, and algorithms increasingly support decision-making, people working in this field are asking questions about the bias and balance of power in AI. With the make-up of teams designing technology still far from diverse, is this being reflected in how we humanise technology? Who are the people behind the design of algorithms and are they re-enforcing society’s prejudices through the systems they create?   Join our host, philosopher Peter Millican, as he explores this topic with Gina Neff, Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute,  Carissa Véliz, a Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, and Siân Brooke, a DPhil student at the Oxford Internet Institute focussed on construction of gendered identity on the pseudonymous web. 

with Greg Lynn (@greglynnform), Gina Neff (@ginasue), Tracy Young (@Tracy_Young), and Hanne Tidnam (@omnivorousread) Construction has been one of the industries most resistant to innovation and change over the last decades -- productivity has actually decreased there while it has risen in other industries around it. So how are new technologies (finally!) beginning to transform the most brick-and-mortar of all the (literally!) brick-and-mortar industries? This episode of the a16z Podcast -- with Tracy Young, co-founder and CEO of PlanGrid; Greg Lynn, architect, professor at UCLA, and co-founder of Piaggio Fast Forward; and Gina Neff, sociologist at Oxford University (in conversation with Hanne Tidnam) -- considers the problems, and progress, in the construction industry. Information flows in particular are one area where tech is already making meaningful inroads into the construction process... will coordination follow?