Ryan Bruno

How AI Will Reshape Public Opinion Social media democratised public opinion, shifting influence away from elites and experts to ordinary people. LLMs will partly reverse this trend. They are a powerful, new technocratising force.

AI might just clean up the mess that social media made, argues Dan Williams open.substack.com/pub/conspicu...

Bullshit benchmark by Peter Gostev, looking at how willing AI is to answer your stupid questions without pushback.

Maybe OpenAI is a better fit for the current US administration than Claude!!

AI wants you to be alone forever On why you are definitely not the problem

open.substack.com/pub/ryanbrun...

Wikipedia is needed now more than ever, 25 years on The online encyclopedia is an antidote to an increasingly poisoned information ecosystem. Researchers should help to nourish it.

- Wikipedia balances neutrality with proportionality: all major viewpoints are considered, and are given due weight according to their prominence

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

(1/2) Why wikipedia is so useful and what we can learn from it:

- Entries are treated as ongoing, editable drafts

- Entries are verifiable with evidence (which is always cited)

- Civil discussions between diverse editors are encouraged

Science Is Drowning in AI Slop Peer review has met its match.

www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...

Sacrificing the health of your children to own the libs and because nobody is the boss of you

The co-occurrence of ingroup and outgroup prosociality across 121 societies | PNAS In an increasingly interconnected world, prosociality across group boundaries becomes ever more important. Yet, a common premise in the behavioral ...

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Yes, It’s Fascism Until recently, I thought it a term best avoided. But now, the resemblances are too many and too strong to deny.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

There’s a 92 Percent Chance Trump Is Making It Up When riffing, the president exhibits an unusual tell.

www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Modest Advice for New Graduate Students Throughout the course of my years in graduate school, I kept a running list of the best advice given to me, and the strategies that helped…

Great list. Learned a lot from it. dorsaamir.medium.com/modest-advic...

Does Data Matter in Psychology? Psychology presents itself as deeply empirical and quantitative.

“Psychologists are more like activists or maybe lawyers, and our data are simply things we use to persuade, but the ideas are true, regardless of the data... we could be more like philosophers and simply rely on logic to make our cases.” open.substack.com/pub/michaeli...

🚨 Call for Abstracts!
I'm excited to announce the 2nd workshop on Directions of Polarization, Social Norms, and Trust in Societies
@ MIT on Dec 5-6
Keynotes from
@bgoldberg.bsky.social & @adamberinsky.bsky.social

🗓️ Deadline to submit: July 14, 2025
🔗 sites.google.com/view/polariz...

Assistant Director, Epley Lab Department Booth Roman Family Center for Decision Research About the Department The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and second to none w...

Nick epley is hiring a new asst director:

uchicago.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

Thanks Shane!

Soon, I will (excitingly) be starting my PhD at USC, which means I’ll (sadly) be leaving my pre-doc position with Emma Levine and Jane Risen.

We are accepting applicants now! Please share!

chicagobooth.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Soon, I will (excitingly) be starting my PhD at USC, which means I’ll (sadly) be leaving my pre-doc position with Emma Levine and Jane Risen.

We are accepting applicants now! Please share!

chicagobooth.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

I am hiring a new Lab Manager to help run the NYU Center for Conflict & Cooperation.

We start reviewing apps on MAY 1st and it pays over $58,000. Please share with anyone who might be interested!

Please apply here: apply.interfolio.com/166620

See more details below:

As Famine Rages in Sudan, U.S. Aid Remains Scarce The stark consequences of the rollback are evident in few places as clearly as in Sudan, where a brutal civil war has combined with a staggering humanitarian catastrophe.

Genuinely curious what apologetics for this might sound like.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/19/w...

Trump Officials Blame Mistake for Setting Off Confrontation With Harvard An official on the administration’s antisemitism task force told the university that a letter of demands had been sent without authorization.

WTF www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/b...

Treating Friends Like Enemies Podcast Episode · The David Frum Show · 04/09/2025 · 54m

Politics 101 — Being predictable to your allies matters
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

‘Uniquely human’ language capacity found in bonobos In a first, researchers have seen a nonhuman animal combine different calls to make new meanings

“Low hoot,” … appears to mean something like “I am excited.” “High hoot” … may mean “Pay attention to me.” But the combination of the two calls doesn’t simply mean “I am excited, pay attention to me”; instead, it conveys a more nuanced message.

www.science.org/content/arti...

He saw me

JANE GOODALL: recognising the animal as an individual Podcast Episode · Lives Well Lived · 06/27/2024 · 58m

Its always cool to hear a conversation between two legends:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...

Ocean alkalinity destruction by anthropogenic seafloor disturbances generates a hidden CO2 emission Anthropogenic sediment disturbances reduce natural marine carbon sequestration by 2 to 8 Tg CO2 year−1.

By dragging nets across the seafloor, fishers not only kill countless sensitive species but also weaken the ocean’s natural carbon sink, equivalent to losing 2 to 8 million tons of CO₂ absorption each year.

Another reason to cut fish from your diet!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

U.S. to End Vaccine Funds for Poor Countries (Gift Article) A 281-page spreadsheet obtained by The Times lists the Trump administration’s plans for thousands of foreign aid programs.

Trump administration to cut vaccination funds. "The loss of U.S. support may mean 75 million children do not receive routine vaccinations in the next five years, with more than 1.2 million children dying as a result," reports @stephanienolen.bsky.social Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/h...

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

I'll be in London on 12 June for an event at the Royal Institution Theatre: The Mystery of Morality.

I'll be joined by Richard Swinburne, Jessica Frazier, and Alex O’Connor to discuss animals, machines, and the origin of ethics.

NEW: Erdogan has banned protests in Turkey. He has threatened to arrest anyone attending one.

This is the people’s response.

Fighting for their democracy with another vast gathering in Istanbul tonight. #Turkey 🇹🇷

(🎥 Credit: Özgür Özel - Chairman, Republican People’s Party)