{"id":7047,"date":"2026-02-20T13:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/?p=7047"},"modified":"2026-02-20T13:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:26:26","slug":"fake-data-upcoming-book-and-the-political-economy-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/archives\/2026\/02\/20\/fake-data-upcoming-book-and-the-political-economy-of-ai.html","title":{"rendered":"Fake Data, Upcoming Book, and the Political Economy of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Robot-Flower.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1005\" height=\"552\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Robot-Flower.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7048\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Robot-Flower.jpg 1005w, https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Robot-Flower-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Robot-Flower-768x422.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Robot-Flower-624x343.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1005px) 100vw, 1005px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">&#8220;If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change.&#8221; by maybe Buddha [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dreamstime.com\/humanoid-robot-stands-against-vibrant-yellow-background-gently-holding-sunflower-its-large-eyes-express-curiosity-desire-image367509826\">img<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The world is on fire &#8211; and I&#8217;ve often been at a loss for how to constructively contribute to public discourse. For decades, I have shared knowledge gained through fieldwork to offer a different perspective on complex sociotechnical matters. Too often these days, I find myself banging my head against the wall while navigating the cacophony of anguish that is emerging in all directions. For better or worse, I chose this time to turn my attention locally. I have found joy trying to find my footing as a professor and think more directly about how to prepare the next generation. And amidst it all, I&#8217;ve also had a series of wins, which I thought I&#8217;d share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2602.10944\"><strong>&#8220;The State&#8217;s Politics of &#8216;Fake Data'&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> is a new paper that I wrote with Chuncheng Liu which starts from the premise that &#8220;all data are fake, but some are useful.&#8221; We look at the various ways in which purportedly (and often pejoratively) so-called &#8220;fake&#8221; data serve a purpose. And we do it by comparing insights we gleaned from both Chinese and American bureaucrats. It&#8217;s a fun paper!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>My upcoming book has a title! &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/chicago\/D\/bo277581183.html\"><strong>&#8220;Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census.&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> And I&#8217;m in the final throes of getting the book ready to share with all y&#8217;all. If all goes well, the book will be released in September! And thanks to Herv\u00e9 Le Crosnier, it will be simultaneously launched in French! &lt;grin> The lovely people at Columbia Journalism School and the Nielsen Foundation have also shortlisted my book for the <a href=\"https:\/\/journalism.columbia.edu\/news\/lukas-shortlists-2026\">J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize<\/a>. And I&#8217;m starting to prep a book tour and some op-eds and other things so if you have ideas, please holler. If you want to support me, please pre-order the book from <a href=\"https:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/chicago\/D\/bo277581183.html\">University of Chicago Press<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0226824977\/danah-20\">Amazon<\/a>. There&#8217;s no book cover yet (and I&#8217;m fascinated that there&#8217;s a page count given that there&#8217;s still some editing to go), but omg omg omg it&#8217;s starting to become more real!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While putting the finishing touches on the book, I&#8217;ve been working on three new research projects. I am super grateful to the Sloan Foundation for naming me as a <a href=\"https:\/\/sloan.org\/fellowships\/2026-Fellows\">2026 Sloan Research Fellow<\/a> to support this work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Political Economy of AI.<\/strong> I have multiple collaborations underway to grapple with the world-building project that is underpinning the contemporary AI project. <a href=\"https:\/\/global.cornell.edu\/hub\/home\/seed-grant-awards\">Cornell Global Hubs<\/a> is supporting one facet (so I&#8217;ll be coming to Edinburgh this summer). I also have two papers underway with amazing collaborators, an initiative at Cornell, and proposals out to a few venues to convene people. You&#8217;ll hear more on this shortly. So if this tickles your fancy, ping me!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Participatory Privacy Protections.<\/strong> I&#8217;m working with a phenomenal team of scholars on an NSF-sponsored grant to reckon with what it takes to achieve meaningful participatory engagement when rolling out privacy-enhancing technologies like differential privacy in various data contexts. This is building on earlier work on the consequences of <a href=\"https:\/\/hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu\/pub\/3vj5j6i0\/release\/3\">epistemic disconnects<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/08969205241270898\">divergent statistical imaginaries<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Youth, Mental Health, and Tech.<\/strong> After years of avoiding doing new research on this topic, I&#8217;m working with an amazing team on an NIH-sponsored project to collect new data about young people&#8217;s relationship with tech, with mental health, and with their broader social world. Early focus groups are already super eye-opening. (Teaser: some youth see AI as yet-another example of how adults are trying to destroy their future.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This semester, I&#8217;m going to keep chugging along on these different projects &#8211; while teaching &#8220;Theories to Think With&#8221; and &#8220;Trust &amp; Safety in Online Platforms&#8221; &#8211; but I hope to have a lot more research and ideas to share shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the meantime, stay safe and protect your neighbors. And keep reading history&#8230; it&#8217;s a good reminder that this too shall change. (My book this week was <a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9780805082401\/overthrow\/\">Overthrow<\/a> &#8211; which is basically the history of US&#8217;s obsession with regime change from the author who documented the CIA coup in Iran in 1953. Le sigh.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PS: I also pay to maintain <a href=\"https:\/\/made-not-found-by-danah-boyd.ghost.io\/\">a newsletter at Ghost.io<\/a>. Subscribe there to not miss anything!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world is on fire &#8211; and I&#8217;ve often been at a loss for how to constructively contribute to public discourse. For decades, I have shared knowledge gained through fieldwork to offer a different perspective on complex sociotechnical matters. Too often these days, I find myself banging my head against the wall while navigating the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7049,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions\/7049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}