Publications

Publications


Academic Book 


  • Weiss-Blatt, N. (2021). The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication. pp. 208. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited. TechlashBook.com

The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication Nirit Weiss-Blatt Book Cover

Invited Book Chapters


  • Weiss-Blatt, N. (2016). Role of tech bloggers in the flow of information. In: L. Guo & M. McCombs (Eds.), The Power of Information Networks: New Directions for Agenda Setting. pp. 88-103. New York: Routledge. In Routledge / In Google Books

The Power of Information Networks. New Directions for Agenda Setting. McCombs & Guo.
  
  • Weimann, G., Weiss-Blatt, N., Mengistu, G., Mazor, M. & Oren, R. (2016). Reevaluating "The End of Mass Communication?" In: R. Wei (Ed.), Refining Milestone Mass Communications Theories for the 21st Century. pp. 155-181. New York: Routledge. In Routledge / In Amazon

  • The 'Milestones' essays in Mass Communication and Society are reflective and analytical articles by the most notable scholars in the field. This book will be essential reading for students and researchers of Mass Communications Research.

Refining Milestone Mass Communications Theories for the 21st Century. Wei.
 

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles 




  • Ravid, G., Bar-Ilan, J., Baruchson-Arbib, S., Yaari, E., Aharony, N., Rafaeli, S. & Weiss-Blatt, N. (2014). I Just Wanted To Ask?: A Comparison of User Studies of the Citizens Advice Bureau (SHIL) in Israel. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 46(1), 21-31. goo.gl/ZEABiQ


Articles in Conference Proceedings

  • Ravid, G., Bar-Ilan, J., Baruchson-Arbib, S., Yaari, E., Rafaeli, S. & Weiss, N. (2010). A User Survey of a Site Providing Citizen Information: Preliminary Findings of SHIL.INFO. Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS) 2010 Proceedings, pp. 69-91.

Monographs and Reports


  • Weiss-Blatt, N., Thierer, A. & Barkley, T. (2024). The AI Technopanic and its Effects. The Abundance Institute. Salt Lake City, Utah. Download.
The AI Technopanic and its Effects_Weiss-Blatt_Thierer_Barkley_May 2024
                   

Recent OpEds


Nirit Weiss-Blatt portfolio


  • Donald Trump caused the Techlash (Techdirt) - Some of my conclusions from the Techlash research. It includes the roots of the shift in coverage and the Tech PR template for crises (how tech companies defended themselves from scrutiny, over and over again, and how it was too backlashed). The story is more nuanced than the headline.


  • Big Tech's Art of Making Up Rules as It Goes Along (Newsweek magazine) - The tech platforms believe they have "more work to do" which "will never be done," but their inconsistent policies can be enforced consistently. "Those of us who chronicle the companies' responses live in a tech-response' Groundhog Day.'"



  • Facebook: Amplifying the Good or the Bad? It's Getting Ugly (Techdirt) - Does Facebook merely reflect (a mirror to the good and ugly) or shape (amplify the bad)? Is it the algorithms' fault or the people who build them or use them? Fix the machine? The societal problems? It all depends on whom you ask.


  • Can We Compare Dot-Com Bubble To Today's Web3/Blockchain Craze? (Techdirt) - Currently, VCs are aggressively promoting Web3 - Crypto, NFTs, decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, and a bunch of other Blockchain stuff, and they are also getting more pushback. The heated debate sounds all too familiar. There are many similarities between the "Dot-Com Bubble" discussions and today's techno-optimism & techno-pessimism around Web3 and Blockchain.

  • What Happens When A Russian Invasion Takes Place In The Social Smartphone Era (Techdirt) - Several days into Russia's attack on Ukraine, we have already witnessed astonishing stories play out online. Social media platforms, after years of Techlash, are once again at the center of a historic event, as it unfolds. Different tech issues are still evolving, but for now, here are the key themes. 

  • Tech Journalists as Bullshit Detectors and Hype Slayers (Techdirt) - The way tech journalists report on and criticize technology is evolving. Still, they should serve as bullshit detectors and hype slayers. This guide provides tips for minimizing the overly positive and negative hypes, stopping with "the END of _"/"_ is Dead," and examining the underlying forces.





  • Generative AI Is Not Our Gateway To Heaven Nor A Frankenstein Monster (The Daily Beast) - Current coverage of Generative AI is strikingly similar to previous AI hype cycles. The debate may seem novel, but it's simply a rehash of the most common media frames associated with AI. We need to cut through the hype, look at the complex reality, and see humans at the helm, not machines.

  • Overwhelmed By All The Generative AI Headlines? This Guide Is For You (Techdirt)- There's a strange synergy now between people who hype AI's capabilities and those who thereby create false fears (about those so-called capabilities). It's all overwhelming. But none of this is new. Since we're flooded with news about generative AI's "magic powers," I gathered the "Top 10 AI Frames" from the most positive (pro-AI) to the most negative (anti-AI). My hope is that after reading this, you'll be able to cut through the AI hype.

  • The AI Doomers' Playbook (Techdirt) - Why do we see so many doomsday scenarios about AI? Mass media plays a key role in promoting AI Doomers. From "AI Panic Marketing" (Sam Altman) to "Panic-as-a-Business" (Tristan Harris, Eliezer Yudkowsky), there's a clear playbook. 


  • 2023: The Year of AI Panic (Techdirt) - In 2023, the extreme ideology of "human extinction from AI" became one of the most prominent trends. It was followed by extreme regulation proposals. As we enter 2024, let's take a moment to reflect: How did we get here?

  • Effective Altruism's Bait-and-Switch: From Global Poverty to AI Doomerism (Techdirt) - "EA's key intellectual architects were all directly or peripherally involved in transhumanism, and the global poverty angle was merely a stepping stone to rationalize the progression from a non-controversial goal (saving lives in poor countries) to transhumanism's far more radical aim" (AI existential risk), explains Mollie Gleiberman. It was part of the movement's "brand management" strategy to conceal the latter.

  • AI Panic Newsletter (Substack):
  1. Your Guide to the Top 10 "AI Media Frames"
  2. What's Wrong with AI Media Coverage & How to Fix It
  3. What Ilya Sutskever Really Wants
  4. The AI Panic Campaign - part 1
  5. The AI Panic Campaign - part 2
  6. Effective Altruism Funded the "AI Existential Risk" Ecosystem with Half a Billion Dollars
  7. Ultimate Guide to "AI Existential Risk" Ecosystem
  8. The $665M Shitcoin Donation to the Future of Life Institute (Repost on AI Supremacy)
  9. Panic-as-a-Business is Expanding
  10. Effective Altruism's Bait-and-Switch: From Global Poverty to AI Doomerism
  11. The Role of AI Metaphors in Shaping Regulations
  12. When Effective Altruism Takes a Dark Turn

Podcast Interviews


Nirit Weiss-Blatt podcast appearances podcasts guest podchaser


transcript

  • Innovation Files: How pack journalism and predictable crisis PR responses have influenced the Techlash
ITIF | transcript 

  • Business Bookshelf: Dr. Nirit Weiss-Blatt – Author of "The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication"
transcript

PodBean | transcript

Google Podcasts | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | transcript

Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | transcript

  • Keen On: Why the Techlash Has Gone Too Far
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify 

  • Peoples & Things: Nirit Weiss-Blatt on The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | YouTube


  • AI Inside (Club TWiT members-only show, exclusive content)

Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Spotify | Acast | iHeart | Patreon



Media Interviews & Quotes


Nirit Weiss Blatt media quotes



  • An article in Forbes quoted the book for a discussion about the startup's ethical movement: "In the Techlash, Nirit Weiss-Blatt chronicles the change in the nature of media coverage of the tech industry, from fawning admiration to a more critical stance that is slightly more capable of seeing warts in the sector."

  • An article in Forbes quoted the book for a discussion about employee well-being: "Various stories of workers revolting against such practices have emerged in books such as The Techlash, by the University of Southern California's Nirit Weiss-Blatt, and Alex Rosenblatt's Uberland, with such stories taking some of the unvarnished veneers off of the march of technology in recent years."

  • Alex Kantrowitz, the tech journalist behind "Big Technology" and the author of "Always Day One," published an investigative piece about The soft corruption of Big Tech's Antitrust defense: How companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are funding third parties (millions of dollars) to make their case. In this piece, I pointed out the lack of disclosure.

  • FamilyandMedia – an international think-tank with research members from Italy, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile – published a review of my book in three languages: English, Italian, and Spanish. The author of this piece is a marketing expert from Italy, who wrote: "In her book The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication, she explores how – and through which means – tech companies have responded to the spreading negative sentiments about them and summarizes valuable lessons." 

  • In the 2022 Israel Brands Index, Google ranks first. Far behind, at number 123 (!): Facebook. WHY? An interview with Globes - Israel's financial newspaper (in Hebrew & English).


  • The Washington Post published an article (by tech reporters Will Oremus and Nitasha Tiku) on how social media content moderation wars are moving into the AI culture war: The right's new culture-war target: 'Woke AI.' My quote concerns Big Tech's failed attempt to avoid those AI-content moderation battles (more context - here).

  • In an article for WIRED, Will Knight discussed the "Why They’re Worried” paper (that I reviewed and summarized in this Twitter Thread): “A Letter Prompted Talk of AI Doomsday. Many Who Signed Weren't Actually AI Doomers.” My observation: “Many of the professors who sign those open letters are not worried about existential risk. They have concerns about other issues that have nothing to do with ‘human extinction.’ But they lent their name and credibility to the extreme AI doomers, who are being interviewed about those letters through the lens of X-risk. As a result of this exploitation, the fringe becomes mainstream. That’s the real misinformation here.”

  • Sharon Goldman from VentureBeat published an article: “Even OpenAI’s Ilya Sutskever calls deep learning ‘alchemy’” that is based on materials I’ve provided her. It followed other Ilya Sutskever quotes I published in the “AI Panic Newsletter”: “What Ilya Sutskever Really Wants.” “In a transcript from a May 2023 talk in Palo Alto provided to VentureBeat by Nirit Weiss-Blatt, a communications researcher who recently posted quotes from the transcript online, Sutskever said…”


  • Erik Sherman published on Forbes a column titled “The Real Economic Problem of AI isn’t Tech but People.” He took Ilya Sutskever’s quotes from my “What Ilya Sutskever Really Wants” post. Then, he added: “There is a lot going on under the surface. Nirit Weiss-Blatt, a communications researcher who focuses on discussions of technology, has referred to ‘AGI utopia vs. potential apocalypse’ ideology’ and how it can be ‘traumatizing.’” (Indeed).


  • Quotes during OpenAI's saga: 


- Investing 101 (Kyle Harrison): The Leaders of Movements

- That Was The Week (Keith Teare): The OpenAI Debacle - e /acc versus e /a

- Slate (Nitish Pahwa): What the Heck Just Happened at OpenAI??



  • Scientific American magazine published an article (by Chris Stokel-Walker) on the "AI Impacts" survey and the Effective Altruism movement: "AI Survey Exaggerates Apocalyptic Risks." I'm quoted about how the AI community is uncomfortable with the focus on "Existential Risk": “Nowadays, more and more people are reconsidering letting Effective Altruism [EA] set the agenda for the AI industry and the upcoming AI regulation. EA's reputation is deteriorating, and BACKLASH is coming."


  • The Week published a piece on the "complex tapestry of AI's impact on society" (by Harmeet Singh and Salik Khan). It mentioned I described 2023 as "the year of AI panic."


  • "The Cambridge Analytica Scandal, Six Years Later" (The Dispatch, by Will Rinehart) mentions that in my Techlash book, I "laid the 'Techlash' at the feet of Cambridge Analytica."


  • ArsTechnica published a detailed article on the SB 1047 bill: “From sci-fi to state law: California’s plan to prevent AI catastrophe” (by Benj Edwards and Kyle Orland). The topic: The overblown focus on existential threats by future AI models could severely limit AI R&D, slow innovation, and stifle open-source AI. Quotes: Next to AI luminaries like Yann LeCun and Andrew Ng, I added this perspective: "If we see any power-seeking behavior here, it is not of AI systems, but of AI doomers. With their fictional fears, they try to pass fictional-led legislation, one that, according to numerous AI experts and open-source advocates, could ruin California's and the US's technological advantage."

  • Tania Duarte, founder of We and AI, wrote on Tech Policy Press about the "AI Hype" special collection and research webinar. I'm quoted on the "AI x-risk" hype: "There's a lot of hyperbolic terminology in AI discourse (e.g., God-like AI, Superintelligence). This AI hype distorts media coverage and public knowledge, resulting in misguided political decisions. We need a better understanding of what AI can and cannot do if we want the proper guardrails. In Prof. Milton Mueller's words, 'If our threat model is unrealistic, our policy responses are certain to be wrong."


YouTube Video


  • "AI Hype - Explained." A 25-minute version of my presentation on "The Media Coverage of Generative AI."



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