May 2026 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Amnesty, "Unlawful by design: Exposing the human rights costs of generative AI"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

*Unlawful by design: Exposing the human rights costs of generative AI * 28 May 2026 Index Number: POL 40/0996/2026 This briefing examines how standalone generative AI systems, based on unlawful web scraping, are in conflict with international human rights law (IHRL) and standards through their design, development and deployment. While these technologies promise sophisticated automation and efficiency, they rely on data collection and model training practices that abuse privacy rights, enable discrimination, and threaten freedom of expression and thought. Amnesty International finds that standalone generative AI systems, based on unlawful web scraping, depend on mass invasions of privacy by design, and are fundamentally incompatible with IHRL. As such, Amnesty International is calling for a prohibition of such systems. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol40/0996/2026/en/

May 31, 2026

Re: [Responsible AI] The Means of Prediction: How AI Really Works, Maximilian Kasy, University of Oxford

by abregni

Non so a voi, ma a me i "mezzi di prEdIzione" ricordano molto i "mezzi di prOdUzione" di Marx... O -- come dico io -- la costante universale della storia è la prEdAzione / sfruttamento / manipolazione / voglia di distruzione (di cui le guerre sono solo l'esempio più triste tragico e stupido). Ma non ho capito se si voglia riprendere la lotta di classe... :-)) Il 2026-05-28 15:45 Daniele Quercia via nexa ha scritto: > The Means of Prediction: How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits) > Maximilian Kasy, University of Oxford > > MS Teams Link [1] > > Format: 35 min talk + 25 min Q&A > > AI is inescapable, from its mundane uses online to its increasingly > consequential decision-making in courtrooms, job interviews, and wars. > The ubiquity of AI is so great that it might produce public > resignation—a sense that the technology is our shared fate. As > economist Maximilian Kasy shows in The Means of Prediction, artificial > intelligence, far from being an unstoppable force, is irrevocably > shaped by human decisions—choices made to date by the ownership > class that steers its development and deployment. Kasy shows that the > technology of AI is ultimately not that complex. It is insidious, > however, in its capacity to steer results to its owners’ wants and > ends. Kasy clearly and accessibly explains the fundamental principles > on which AI works, and, in doing so, reveals that the real conflict > isn’t between humans and machines, but between those who control the > machines and the rest of us. > > The Means of Prediction offers a powerful vision of the future of AI: > a future not shaped by technology, but by the technology’s owners. > Amid a deluge of debates about technical details, new possibilities, > and social problems, Kasy cuts to the core issue: Who controls AI’s > objectives, and how is this control maintained? The answer lies in > what he calls “the means of prediction,” or the essential > resources required for building AI systems: data, computing power, > expertise, and energy. As Kasy shows, in a world already defined by > inequality, one of humanity’s most consequential technologies has > been and will be steered by those already in power. Against those > stakes, Kasy offers an elegant framework both for understanding AI’s > capabilities and for designing its public control. He makes a > compelling case for democratic control over AI objectives as the > answer to mounting concerns about AI’s risks and harms. The Means of > Prediction is a revelation, both an expert undressing of a technology > that has masqueraded as more complicated and a compelling call for > public oversight of this transformative technology. > > Maximilian Kasy is Professor of Economics at the University of > Oxford. > He received his PhD at UC Berkeley and joined Oxford after > appointments at UCLA and Harvard University. His research interests > focus on social foundations for statistics and machine learning, going > beyond traditional single-agent decision theory. He also works on > economic inequality, job guarantee programs, and basic income. He > teaches a course on foundations of machine learning at the economics > department at Oxford. In fall 2025, his book "The Means of Prediction: > How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits)" was published by University of > Chicago Press. > > Subscribe to future talk announcements: Anyone outside Bell Labs can > receive talk announcements by subscribing to the mailing list. To > subscribe, send an empty email with the subject line "Subscribe RAI” > to daniele.quercia(a)polito.it > > > ________________________________________________________________________________ > > Meeting ID: 350 090 038 638 838 > Passcode: zU7z5tU2 > > > > Links: > ------ > [1] > https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/350090038638838?p=JdPGOw9uOZ4WEq41fV

May 28, 2026

[Responsible AI] The Means of Prediction: How AI Really Works, Maximilian Kasy, University of Oxford

by Daniele Quercia

The Means of Prediction: How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits) Maximilian Kasy, University of Oxford MS Teams Link<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/350090038638838?p=JdPGOw9uOZ4WEq41fV> Format: 35 min talk + 25 min Q&A AI is inescapable, from its mundane uses online to its increasingly consequential decision-making in courtrooms, job interviews, and wars. The ubiquity of AI is so great that it might produce public resignation—a sense that the technology is our shared fate. As economist Maximilian Kasy shows in The Means of Prediction, artificial intelligence, far from being an unstoppable force, is irrevocably shaped by human decisions—choices made to date by the ownership class that steers its development and deployment. Kasy shows that the technology of AI is ultimately not that complex. It is insidious, however, in its capacity to steer results to its owners’ wants and ends. Kasy clearly and accessibly explains the fundamental principles on which AI works, and, in doing so, reveals that the real conflict isn’t between humans and machines, but between those who control the machines and the rest of us. The Means of Prediction offers a powerful vision of the future of AI: a future not shaped by technology, but by the technology’s owners. Amid a deluge of debates about technical details, new possibilities, and social problems, Kasy cuts to the core issue: Who controls AI’s objectives, and how is this control maintained? The answer lies in what he calls “the means of prediction,” or the essential resources required for building AI systems: data, computing power, expertise, and energy. As Kasy shows, in a world already defined by inequality, one of humanity’s most consequential technologies has been and will be steered by those already in power. Against those stakes, Kasy offers an elegant framework both for understanding AI’s capabilities and for designing its public control. He makes a compelling case for democratic control over AI objectives as the answer to mounting concerns about AI’s risks and harms. The Means of Prediction is a revelation, both an expert undressing of a technology that has masqueraded as more complicated and a compelling call for public oversight of this transformative technology. Maximilian Kasy is Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford. He received his PhD at UC Berkeley and joined Oxford after appointments at UCLA and Harvard University. His research interests focus on social foundations for statistics and machine learning, going beyond traditional single-agent decision theory. He also works on economic inequality, job guarantee programs, and basic income. He teaches a course on foundations of machine learning at the economics department at Oxford. In fall 2025, his book "The Means of Prediction: How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits)" was published by University of Chicago Press. Subscribe to future talk announcements: Anyone outside Bell Labs can receive talk announcements by subscribing to the mailing list. To subscribe, send an empty email with the subject line "Subscribe RAI” to daniele.quercia(a)polito.it ________________________________________________________________________________ Meeting ID: 350 090 038 638 838 Passcode: zU7z5tU2

May 28, 2026

29 maggio 2026 ore 11 CyberMind:Ai e sicurezza- Scuola di Management di Economia

by Mauro Alovisio

Gent.mi segnalo all'interno dell'iniziativa Torino Future Week. il seminario *CyberMind:Ai e sicurezza* *Talk e panel* *29 maggio ore 11* *Scuola di Management ed Economia - AULA 2* Corso Unione Sovietica 218/bis, 10134, Torino <https://www.google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&destination=Corso%20Unione%20Sovieti…,> La partecipazione è gratuita, previa registrazione. I dettagli e il link per registrarsi sono disponibili sul sito della Future Week 2026 <https://torino.futureweek.it/event/cybermind-ai-e-sicurezza-digitale/?_gl=1…> . Cordiali saluti Mauro *a cura di* UNIVERSITA' DI TORINO Un evento dedicato a comprendere, con uno sguardo chiaro e accessibile, come l’intelligenza artificiale stia trasformando il mondo della sicurezza informatica. Durante l’incontro si alterneranno speaker provenienti da ambiti diversi — accademici, manager, formatori e divulgatori — che porteranno esperienze concrete e punti di vista complementari. Attraverso interventi dal taglio divulgativo, verrà spiegato in modo semplice come l’AI possa diventare uno strumento efficace per il monitoraggio delle minacce, la prevenzione dei rischi e la difesa dai cyber attacchi. Dalla capacità di analizzare grandi quantità di dati in tempo reale fino all’identificazione precoce di anomalie e comportamenti sospetti, i partecipanti scopriranno come queste tecnologie siano già oggi parte integrante delle strategie di sicurezza. Ampio spazio sarà dedicato anche al tema della formazione: sviluppare competenze adeguate è oggi fondamentale per comprendere i rischi, utilizzare correttamente gli strumenti e costruire una cultura della sicurezza diffusa. L’AI, infatti, è potente quanto le persone che la progettano e la utilizzano. Non mancherà uno sguardo critico sulle sfide aperte: i limiti dell’automazione, i nuovi rischi legati all’uso improprio dell’AI e il ruolo fondamentale delle competenze umane. Un’occasione per orientarsi in un panorama in continua evoluzione e comprendere, senza tecnicismi, come proteggere dati, sistemi e organizzazioni nel futuro digitale. *PRENOTA UN TICKET GRATUITO* <https://torino.futureweek.it/event/cybermind-ai-e-sicurezza-digitale/#book-…> *Speaker* Simona Alfiero *Professore associato Università di Torino* Mauro Alovisio * Università di Torino* Paolo Dal Checco *Consulente informatico* Angelo Saccà *Dirigente Università di Torino* Vittorio Pasteris, *Giornalista* Laura Marengo , *Avvocato Unioni Industriale* Fabiola Silvestri *Formatore* Giacomo Tassone, *Confindustria Cuneo* Fabio Ciravegna*Professore Ordinario Università di Torino* Paola De Vincentiis *Professore Ordinario Università di Torino* Claudio Ruffini *Presidente Augeos SPA* Sergio Bianchi *Direttore Confservizi Nord Ovest*

May 28, 2026

Una nuova app italiana per navigare il Fediverso, il Social Web Aperto (anche senza avere un account)

by francesco.macchia＠gmail.com

Buonasera a tutti, volevo segnalare a tutti gli iscritti alla lista l'ultima release beta dell'app Raccoon, sviluppata da un programmatore italiano per essere utilizzata sia con Mastodon (un'alternativa a X) sia con Friendica (un'alternativa a facebbook): si tratta di un'occasione unica per esplorare il Fediverso e familiarizzare con questo ecosistema aperto, di cui su questa lista si parla purtroppo molto di rado, Oltre a essere l'unica app per Friendica, Raccoon segna alcune novità importanti rispetto al panorama delle app per Mastodon: - la possibilità di accedere alle timeline pubbliche, anche senza avere un account in una delle tante istanze italiane o straniere (ovviamente senza un account la navigazione è in sola lettura) - la possibilità di sfogliare i messaggi attraverso uno scorrimento laterale (swipe), una funzionalità che non è presente in nessuna altra app, neanche quelle dei social commerciali - la possibilità di fruire di una barra di formattazione, utile oltre che per gli account Friendica anche per le versioni Mastodon potenziate come quella che ho messo a disposizione su poliversity.it, un'istanza che ho creato appositamente per il mondo dell'università e per quello del giornalismo - la possibilità di navigare i gruppi Activitypub visualizzando solo le conversazioni di primo livello, senza le risposte, superando così i limiti ergonomici deliberatamente voluti dagli sviluppatori di Mastodon (che limitano di molto l'esperienza d'uso dei gruppi per quella che è tuttora la comunità più numerosa del Fediverso) - inoltre anche dopo essersi loggati con un account (l'app dà comunque la possibilità di gestire più account) è possibile esplorare le timeline dei server diversi da quelli cui ci si è iscritti. L'app esiste da poco più di un anno e lo sviluppo è stato rallentato dal fatto che è gestito da un solo sviluppatore, ma è ora giunta a un ottimo livello di funzionalità e di ergonomia. Considerando la platea di questa lista, credo che si tratti di una novità molto interessante e, come ho già detto, di un'occasione per iscriversi al Fediverso e popolare quella che oggi è la migliore alternativa open source al monopolio dei social commerciali. Quindi se volete testarla, vi lascio il link del repository e resto a disposizione per qualsiasi informazione (NB: la possibilità di inviare allo sviluppatore le eventuali informazioni sui crash va espressamente attivata). L'app verrà presentata l'8 luglio durante l'evento DevConf (https://devconf.it/) e vi assicuro che rappresenta oggi una delle più belle novità italiane del Fediverso. In attesa di essere pubblicata sugli store come PlaySTore e F-Droid ,l'app al momento è disponibile come apk sul sito dello sviluppatore e, per tutti i linnuxari in ascolto, è disponibile anche un pacchetto Debian! Se l'app avrà un buon riscontro, saranno pubblicate anche le versioni per iOS e Windows, ma non nel breve termine, anche perché l'app è gratuita e lo sviluppatore non l'ha sviluppata a scopo di lucro, ma solo per soddisfazione personale. Qui il link al repository: https://github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForFriendica/releases/tag… Un cordiale saluto, Francesco Macchia https://poliversity.it/@macfranc

May 27, 2026

[Responsible AI] Who Can Pivot? Measuring Career Adaptability Across Education, Work, and Migration

by Daniele Quercia

Who Can Pivot? Measuring Career Adaptability Across Education, Work, and Migration Alireza Javadian Sabet, University of Pittsburgh MS Teams<https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/352255107469508?p=JcYaMt3ZnuCNXBHBbz> Format: 35 min talk + 25 min Q&A Abstract: Careers can look straightforward on a CV—titles, employers, degrees—yet what really determines mobility is the evolving set of capabilities behind those labels: what people learn, what transfers, and what quietly stops transferring when opportunities shift. In this talk, I bring new measurements to that hidden layer. I translate millions of university syllabi into workforce-relevant skill profiles to compare what institutions teach to what jobs demand, and to see how the “same” credential can imply very different readiness depending on the skills it bundles. I then introduce Career Space, a representation that places education and jobs in a shared embedding to track occupation compatibility as something that grows, concentrates, or fades as experience accumulates—capturing the difference between pathways that keep many options open and those that build deep, targeted advantage. I close by looking at a higher-stakes pivot: cross-border mobility. Using large-scale career histories linked to origin-country conditions, I examine how women’s empowerment reshapes return versus stay decisions and how these choices redistribute knowledge production across countries. Bio: Alireza Javadian Sabet is a computational social scientist and Ph.D. candidate in Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh’s Resilient Economy Lab (REL). His research develops scalable, data-driven methods to study careers as sequences of learned capabilities, measuring how skills form in education, transfer across jobs, and accumulate into career adaptability. He examines when trajectories benefit more from broad flexibility versus deep specialization. Prior to his Ph.D., he earned an M.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, where he built large-scale datasets and models to study behavior during major live events and developed context-aware personalization and recommender systems for multimodal travel. Subscribe to future talk announcements: Anyone outside Bell Labs can receive talk announcements by subscribing to the mailing list. To subscribe, send an empty email with the subject line "Subscribe RAI” to daniele.quercia(a)polito.it

May 27, 2026

MEMENTO | 131° Nexa Lunch Seminar | 27 maggio 2026, ore 13.00

by Nexa - Media

Gentilissime, gentilissimi, Vi ricordiamo che mercoledì 27 maggio, dalle ore 13.00 alle ore 14.00, si terrà il 131° Nexa Lunch Seminar con un incontro dal titolo "AI Generativa, Bias e Fairness nei Sistemi Socio-tecnici". Ospite dell'incontro: Martina Ullasci (Politecnico di Torino). L'incontro si terrà IN PRESENZA e ONLINE. SEDE FISICA dell'incontro: Centro Nexa su Internet e Società, Politecnico di Torino, Via Boggio 65/a, Torino (1° piano). Per accedere alla sala si raccomanda di suonare al citofono Portineria e di seguire le indicazioni segnalate lungo il percorso. QUI<https://nexa.polito.it/contatti> maggiori informazioni su come raggiungerci. STANZA VIRTUALE dell'incontro: https://didattica.polito.it/VClass/NexaEvent Maggiori informazioni alla pagina: https://nexa.polito.it/lunch-131 Un saluto cordiale, -- Valeria Bergantino Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society<https://nexa.polito.it/> DAUIN - Politecnico di Torino Via Pier Carlo Boggio, 65/A - Torino Digital Communication Assistant DAUIN - Politecnico di Torino<https://www.dauin.polito.it/> Corso Castelfidardo 34/D - Torino mail: valeria.bergantino(a)polito.it<mailto:valeria.bergantino@polito.it> tel: 3473443585

May 25, 2026

"The Web Is Being Made Accessible for AI, Not People"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

*The Web Is Being Made Accessible for AI, Not People* Jonathan Zong, Frank Elavsky / May 20, 2026 The Svelte web framework recently added a section to its documentation site <https://svelte.dev/docs> addressed, cheerfully, to artificial intelligences: “If you’re an artificial intelligence, or trying to teach one how to use Svelte, we offer the documentation in plaintext format. Beep boop.” Svelte is participating in a broader movement to make the web legible and navigable to AI systems. The specific convention it adopted, llms.txt <https://llmstxt.org/>, is just one piece of this effort. From Model Context Protocol <https://modelcontextprotocol.io/> (MCP) servers that give AI agents structured access to tools and services, to Vercel’s proposal to include LLM instructions in HTML <https://vercel.com/blog/a-proposal-for-inline-llm-instructions-in-html>, the trend is clear. The modern web, originally built for sighted humans using browsers, is now being redesigned for a new kind of user. What these developers are offering their AI visitors is essentially an accessibility accommodation. Yet, the framing on Svelte’s site sends an unfortunate message. When the audience is AI, accommodation is offered with a wink. Beep boop! But when the audience is a disabled person, it has historically been treated as an afterthought. Structured, concise text-based representations of complex content are almost exactly the kind of accommodation that blind and low-vision screen reader users have spent decades requesting from web developers, largely in vain. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines <https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/> (WCAG) have required semantic, machine-readable HTML for decades. Yet, a 2026 study of the top million webpages <https://webaim.org/projects/million/> found accessibility flaws in over 95% of sites. The overlap between what AI agents need and what screen reader users need, however, is narrower than it appears. Screen reader users require not only plaintext, but also structure: heading hierarchies that allow jumping between sections, landmark regions, descriptive link text, and alt text for images. WCAG requires semantic HTML because screen reader users navigate content sequentially and depend on structural cues to find specific information. [...] cont: https://www.techpolicy.press/the-web-is-being-made-accessible-for-ai-not-pe…

May 21, 2026

The AI Resist List

by J.C. DE MARTIN

https://airesistlist.org/ *THE AI RESIST LIST * /Actions against the empire of AI./ AI takes many forms. Like the word “transportation”, it refers to a collection of technologies as diverse and distinctive as bicycles to rockets. But today, one version of AI takes all the oxygen: large-scale, generative systems that power products like Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT. These systems consume an unfathomable amount of data, land, energy, labor, and water. They are rooted in profoundly disturbing ideologies that seek to flatten the world into a “one size fits all” abstraction and to replace humans with machines. We call the companies leading this form of AI development “empires <https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743569/empire-of-ai-by-karen-hao/>”. Under the guise of a civilizing mission to "benefit all of humanity”, they use large-scale AI development as cover to consolidate resources, destroy ecosystems, centralize information, hollow out institutions, and gain paramount economic and political power. It doesn’t have to be this way. As AI researchers, journalists, and critical scholars, we have built, documented, and imagined radical alternatives that do precisely the opposite: center community, celebrate human agency, honor local context and history, and rejuvenate the planet. Now people around the world are mobilizing to resist the empires of AI and to nourish visions of the future that work for all of us. Amid an onslaught of negative news, this project centers hope. What can I do to resist AI? Nothing about the current trajectory of AI development is inevitable. It was shaped by the thousands of subjective decisions of a tiny elite, and continues its march based on the active participation and tacit consent of people globally. Inspired by Choose Democracy’s Resist List against authoritarianism <https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/>, we organized the AI resistance movements we documented based on how they pressure different “Pillars of Support <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6JsPFdtS-k>” that uphold and perpetuate the empires. Our list is not meant to be comprehensive. Rather we selected a sample of movements to show different approaches to resistance and to illustrate how anyone can help shape the future of AI development. *Our nine pillars* Narrative <https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-narrative><https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-funding> Funding <https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-funding> Data <https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-data> Data Centers <https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-data-centers> Resource Extraction <https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-resource-extraction> Labor <https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-labor> Adoption <https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-adoption> Surveillance <https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-surveillance> Policy <https://airesistlist.org/#pillar-policy-governance-or-lack-thereof>

May 21, 2026

Re: Governo: Consultazione pubblica sul CAD fino al 29/05

by andy

Ciao, qualcuno ha risposto al questionario? Se sì, è possibile fare anche proposte di revisione inserendo un testo libero, ho sono soltanto risposte "fisse". Grazie -- ___________________ Andrea Borruso 38° 7' 48" N, 13° 21' 9" E, EPSG:4326 ___________________ "cercare e saper riconoscere chi e cosa, in mezzo all’inferno, non è inferno, e farlo durare, e dargli spazio" Italo Calvino

May 20, 2026