Jonathan Zittrain

Dr. Ifeoma Ajunwa, J.D., Ph.D. @iajunwa Brilliant & eye-opening essay by @zittrain on AI Agents. "There ought to be a new, special blank on a packet’s digital form to indicate that a packet has been generated by a bot or an agent..." image is of a robot arm with a glove on the hand part From theatlantic.com 2:02 AM · Jul 11, 2024 · 1,388 Views

"We Need to Control AI Agents Now"

Like @iajunwa.bsky.social, I'm very intrigued by @zittrain.bsky.social's idea for a "new, special blank on a packet’s digital form."
tweet:
x.com/iajunwa/stat...
article:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

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🚨 New paper from an awesome group led by Noam Kolt and
@nickacaputo
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We hear a lot about what important concepts and methods from AI research that lawyers need to understand. But it's really a two-way street...

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1/ Trump's War Powers Report to Congress on the #Venezuela strikes and seizure of #Maduro is in.

I've read/coded every WPR report and used to work on them in the White House. (See this searchable database & graphics warpowers.lawandsecurity.org/%F0%9F%91%87)

Here's what stands out about this one🧵:

Study with us!

The Resonant Computing Manifesto Technology should bring out the best in humanity, not the worst—a manifesto for resonant computing built on five principles that reject hyper-scale extraction for human flourishing.

What if technology didn’t feel so… hollow?

Some friends and I just released a manifesto about a world where tech leaves us feeling nourished (along with an evolving list of theses about how we can build it)

resonantcomputing.org

Killing Shipwrecked Survivors is Not Just Illegal—It Endangers U.S. Servicemembers If the United States chooses a path where killing defenseless survivors becomes acceptable, American servicemembers will pay the price for that choice.

Must read by @marknevitt.bsky.social on why killing survivors at sea is a moral & strategic disaster for all of us:

"If America chooses a path where killing defenseless survivors becomes acceptable, American servicemembers will pay the price for that choice."

www.justsecurity.org/125998/boat-...

What the Senate Judiciary Committee Should Ask A.G. Bondi on Drug Cartel Strikes Annotated questions the Senate Judiciary Committee could ask Attorney General Pam Bondi on lethal strikes against drug cartels.

Mary McCord, former Acting Assistant AG for National Security, and I teamed up on Qs Senators should ask #Bondi at her Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, on strikes that have killed 17 people to date.

The implications are serious. Consider a few of the Qs:

www.justsecurity.org/121862/ask-b...

Working on a new book, “The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government.” Drawing from my experience as a prosecutor, the book offers ideas to take back our democracy and a vision for the future. Available June 9, 2026. Here’s the cover. What do you think?

My dear friend JZ @zittrain.bsky.social is starting a podcast (still not named) about AI, technology and society as he launches his next book. I was thrilled to be his first guest. Stay tuned.

Deleted?

Jonathan Zittrain: AI Agents and Trust YouTube video by Before AGI

I spoke with @aleksmadry.bsky.social on his podcasts about all things AI -- www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeoG...

Product and Research Manager

Join our team! LIL is looking for a Product and Research Manager to help create, shape, and execute on our portfolio of open knowledge projects. PRMs work across every piece of the LIL ecosystem, from software experimentation to convening of events. Learn more at careers.harvard.edu/job/product-...

Thank you! I’m eager to dig into your piece.

New Perspectives on AI Agentiality and Democracy: "Whom Does It Serve?" | TechPolicy.Press Richard Reisman and Richard Whitt write that interoperability will enable agential relationships that serve individuals and communities faithfully.

"It should impel us to demand commitments by model makers and operators that the models function as the harmless, helpful, and honest friends they are so diligently designed to appear to be." We need personal AIs that interact with other AIs to do that for us!
www.techpolicy.press/new-perspect...

35 Years for Privacy, Free Speech, and a Brighter Future Through July 10, new monthly or annual Sustaining Donors get an EFF35 Challenge Coin! With your help, EFF is here to stay.

Imagine a world where:
💻 Your device is truly yours
📱 You speak freely without fear
🔐 Your privacy is protected
That's the future we're fighting for at EFF. Stand with us for our 35th anniversary!

As you may have heard, there’s an important birthday this weekend. We can only hope that people across the nation — nay, the globe — engage in tribute and fanfare proportional to the occasion. 1/

1M public domain books now available digitally, through our Institutional Data Initiative at Harvard.

What AI Thinks It Knows About You What happens when people can see what assumptions a large language model is making about them?

Recent research reveals the stereotypes that inform the "thinking" of #chatbots, which it might be good to share with ppl during interactions and to keep the bots from being manipulative, argues @zittrain.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a... #AI

@oddletters.bsky.social TIL!

I put "beliefs" in quotes to mark that very controversy.

The essay focuses on the pioneering work of @viegas.bsky.social and @wattenberg.bsky.social and their Insight + Interaction Lab, insight.seas.harvard.edu

What AI Thinks It Knows About You What happens when people can see what assumptions a large language model is making about them?

AI is often thought of as a black box -- no way to know what's going on inside. That's changing in eye-opening ways. Researchers are finding "beliefs" models are forming as they converse, and how those beliefs correlate to what the models say and how they say it.

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

What AI Thinks It Knows About You What happens when people can see what assumptions a large language model is making about them?

When you peer inside a large language model’s black box, you can see what it tells you when it thinks you’re rich—and what it tells you when it thinks you’re not.

@zittrain.bsky.social on the assumptions AI makes about people:

I spoke with my old friend Jim Sciutto about the discovery that a copy of the Magna Carta at the Harvard Law School Library purchased for $26.50 in 1956 turns out to be a real one from AD 1300. (!)

ALT: A large, framed, yellowing document. Text reads: "Harvard Law Paid $27 for a Copy of Magna Carta. Surprise! It’s an Original." Photo credit: Lorin Granger/Harvard Law School

Two British academics discovered that a "copy" of Magna Carta, held in Harvard Law School’s library for 80 years, is one of seven originals dating from 1300.

Read more: nyti.ms/4dkc3ma

Jonathan Zittrain (@zittrain.bsky.social) A small creature who likes to run around in universities. Prof. Harvard Law School, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Harvard Kennedy School. EFF Board. Director of the Berkman ...

He told us so: @zittrain.bsky.social ‘s Future of the Internet” (almost a decade ago) predicted that controlled, contained digital products like iPhone, Xbox, etc. would suppress the next generation’s tech tinkering.

@rose.bsky.team delighted for you to visit BKC!

Like @coloradotravis.bsky.social I consumed this over the weekend, and I highly encourage everyone to read it.

The coverage is treating the book as an expose of Meta culture and execs and while it is that, I think the more interesting parts are in between and focus on global power dynamics 1/