1.
Badola, Anand; Dehghan, Ehsan
Networks in context: positive propaganda and the case of farmers’ protests in India Book Chapter
In: Bastos, Marco; Rossi, Luca (Ed.): Handbook of Social and Communication Networks, pp. 55–72, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2026, ISBN: 9781035325047 9781035325030 9781049406268.
@incollection{bastos_networks_2026,
title = {Networks in context: positive propaganda and the case of farmers’ protests in India},
author = {Anand Badola and Ehsan Dehghan},
editor = {Marco Bastos and Luca Rossi},
url = {https://www.elgaronline.com/view/book/9781035325047/chapter6.xml},
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year = {2026},
date = {2026-06-01},
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pages = {55\textendash72},
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}
2.
Weinbrand, Shir
A search changer: auditing Google’s AI overviews interface in political and news search Journal Article
In: Telematics and Informatics, vol. 107, pp. 102417, 2026, ISSN: 07365853.
@article{weinbrand_search_2026,
title = {A search changer: auditing Google’s AI overviews interface in political and news search},
author = {Shir Weinbrand},
url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0736585326000535},
doi = {10.1016/j.tele.2026.102417},
issn = {07365853},
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date = {2026-06-01},
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journal = {Telematics and Informatics},
volume = {107},
pages = {102417},
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pubstate = {published},
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}
3.
Lupton, Deborah; Bailey-Charteris, Bronwyn
‘You can’t put the cat back in the bag once it's out’: Australians’ understandings, practices and imaginaries concerning generative AI Journal Article
In: Big Data & Society, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 20539517261442430, 2026, ISSN: 2053-9517, 2053-9517.
@article{lupton_you_2026,
title = {‘You can’t put the cat back in the bag once it's out’: Australians’ understandings, practices and imaginaries concerning generative AI},
author = {Deborah Lupton and Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris},
url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517261442430},
doi = {10.1177/20539517261442430},
issn = {2053-9517, 2053-9517},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-06-01},
urldate = {2026-04-20},
journal = {Big Data \& Society},
volume = {13},
number = {2},
pages = {20539517261442430},
abstract = {Since their introduction in late 2022, generative AI applications have proliferated as Big Tech companies seek to encourage widespread adoption from the public. This article reports on the findings from exploratory qualitative research conducted in mid-2025 with Australian adults about their knowledge, everyday practices and imaginaries related to generative AI. Nearly all participants, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity or geographical location, had experimented with generative AI applications, and many had incorporated them into their quotidian routines. However, far from being enchanted by these technologies, these Australians saw them as little more than mundane software that was now pervasive and therefore unavoidable. Generative AI was described as offering useful tools or helpers for achieving better efficiency, time-saving, and productivity in accomplishing routine tasks at home and work. Most participants were aware that the tools frequently generated incorrect information, and therefore required checking, but seemed largely untroubled about this. They expressed concerns about the impacts of possibilities of fake information, scams and data privacy issues, and the loss of learning or critical thinking that generative AI use could cause. However, participants also expressed feelings of powerlessness over what they could do to avoid using generative AI in the face of the determination by Big Tech \textendash and in some cases, employers and educational institutions \textendash to promote its use. More profound negative impacts were mostly recounted as abstract or as potential problems in a future world if generative AI development by Big Tech was allowed to progress unchecked.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
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}
Since their introduction in late 2022, generative AI applications have proliferated as Big Tech companies seek to encourage widespread adoption from the public. This article reports on the findings from exploratory qualitative research conducted in mid-2025 with Australian adults about their knowledge, everyday practices and imaginaries related to generative AI. Nearly all participants, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity or geographical location, had experimented with generative AI applications, and many had incorporated them into their quotidian routines. However, far from being enchanted by these technologies, these Australians saw them as little more than mundane software that was now pervasive and therefore unavoidable. Generative AI was described as offering useful tools or helpers for achieving better efficiency, time-saving, and productivity in accomplishing routine tasks at home and work. Most participants were aware that the tools frequently generated incorrect information, and therefore required checking, but seemed largely untroubled about this. They expressed concerns about the impacts of possibilities of fake information, scams and data privacy issues, and the loss of learning or critical thinking that generative AI use could cause. However, participants also expressed feelings of powerlessness over what they could do to avoid using generative AI in the face of the determination by Big Tech – and in some cases, employers and educational institutions – to promote its use. More profound negative impacts were mostly recounted as abstract or as potential problems in a future world if generative AI development by Big Tech was allowed to progress unchecked.
4.
Lupton, Deborah
Revisiting critical digital health studies in the age of generative AI: Research in textitHealth and beyond Journal Article
In: Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, pp. 13634593261451272, 2026, ISSN: 1363-4593, 1461-7196.
@article{lupton_revisiting_2026,
title = {Revisiting critical digital health studies in the age of generative AI: Research in textitHealth and beyond},
author = {Deborah Lupton},
url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13634593261451272},
doi = {10.1177/13634593261451272},
issn = {1363-4593, 1461-7196},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-05-01},
urldate = {2026-06-04},
journal = {Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine},
pages = {13634593261451272},
abstract = {This review article for
Health
’s 30th anniversary special issue provides an update on an article I contributed for the 20th anniversary of
Health
in 2016 which outlined how the sub-field of critical digital health studies has been explored in the journal. The current review article is in two parts. It begins with an overview of digital health research published in
Health
in the decade since the first review was published, reflecting on the methods and conceptual approaches that have been used over the past 10 years to engage with this topic. The second part goes on to consider how critical digital health studies might address the latest ‘big thing’ in digital health: generative AI applications. Some bold claims have been made about the benefits that generative AI models are supposed to offer patients and healthcare providers, but their impacts have not yet been fully evaluated from a critical digital health perspective. The article ends by emphasising the importance of acknowledging and identifying how the introduction of generative AI applications into medicine and health care can harm humans and the ecosystems of which they are part. Critical digital health studies should therefore expand its focus beyond its current human-centric preoccupations. As an interdisciplinary social research journal from its inception,
Health
is well-placed to offer a home for such critical analyses.},
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This review article for
Health
’s 30th anniversary special issue provides an update on an article I contributed for the 20th anniversary of
Health
in 2016 which outlined how the sub-field of critical digital health studies has been explored in the journal. The current review article is in two parts. It begins with an overview of digital health research published in
Health
in the decade since the first review was published, reflecting on the methods and conceptual approaches that have been used over the past 10 years to engage with this topic. The second part goes on to consider how critical digital health studies might address the latest ‘big thing’ in digital health: generative AI applications. Some bold claims have been made about the benefits that generative AI models are supposed to offer patients and healthcare providers, but their impacts have not yet been fully evaluated from a critical digital health perspective. The article ends by emphasising the importance of acknowledging and identifying how the introduction of generative AI applications into medicine and health care can harm humans and the ecosystems of which they are part. Critical digital health studies should therefore expand its focus beyond its current human-centric preoccupations. As an interdisciplinary social research journal from its inception,
Health
is well-placed to offer a home for such critical analyses.
Health
’s 30th anniversary special issue provides an update on an article I contributed for the 20th anniversary of
Health
in 2016 which outlined how the sub-field of critical digital health studies has been explored in the journal. The current review article is in two parts. It begins with an overview of digital health research published in
Health
in the decade since the first review was published, reflecting on the methods and conceptual approaches that have been used over the past 10 years to engage with this topic. The second part goes on to consider how critical digital health studies might address the latest ‘big thing’ in digital health: generative AI applications. Some bold claims have been made about the benefits that generative AI models are supposed to offer patients and healthcare providers, but their impacts have not yet been fully evaluated from a critical digital health perspective. The article ends by emphasising the importance of acknowledging and identifying how the introduction of generative AI applications into medicine and health care can harm humans and the ecosystems of which they are part. Critical digital health studies should therefore expand its focus beyond its current human-centric preoccupations. As an interdisciplinary social research journal from its inception,
Health
is well-placed to offer a home for such critical analyses.
5.
Lupton, Deborah
Generative AI's Impacts on the Environment: What Can Critical Humanities Scholarship Offer Sociological Inquiry? Journal Article
In: Sociology Compass, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. e70195, 2026, ISSN: 1751-9020, 1751-9020.
@article{lupton_generative_2026,
title = {Generative AI's Impacts on the Environment: What Can Critical Humanities Scholarship Offer Sociological Inquiry?},
author = {Deborah Lupton},
url = {https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/soc4.70195},
doi = {10.1111/soc4.70195},
issn = {1751-9020, 1751-9020},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-05-01},
urldate = {2026-06-04},
journal = {Sociology Compass},
volume = {20},
number = {5},
pages = {e70195},
abstract = {ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been a rapid and massive expansion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and infrastructures. Big AI Tech corporations are vigorously marketing these services in the pursuit of profit, despite their devastating impacts on the environment. A body of sociological inquiry into generative AI technologies is beginning to develop, but most of this research is human‐centric, with few studies focusing specifically on their ecological costs. To meet this gap, this review's aims are threefold: (i) to advance a more‐than‐human theoretical perspective in sociological analyses of generative AI's impacts on the natural world; (ii) to introduce the body of literature in the humanities that has already adopted this critical approach; and (iii) to thereby demonstrate the importance of this scholarship in expanding and deepening sociological inquiry into this topic. Insights from more‐than‐human theory, the digital environmental humanities, critical AI, data and data centre studies, and creative arts‐based work are discussed. This scholarship emphasises the importance of continued interdisciplinary social critique and creative inquiry into the harms posed to the natural world\textemdashand by extension, to humans\textemdashby generative AI development and use.},
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ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been a rapid and massive expansion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and infrastructures. Big AI Tech corporations are vigorously marketing these services in the pursuit of profit, despite their devastating impacts on the environment. A body of sociological inquiry into generative AI technologies is beginning to develop, but most of this research is human‐centric, with few studies focusing specifically on their ecological costs. To meet this gap, this review's aims are threefold: (i) to advance a more‐than‐human theoretical perspective in sociological analyses of generative AI's impacts on the natural world; (ii) to introduce the body of literature in the humanities that has already adopted this critical approach; and (iii) to thereby demonstrate the importance of this scholarship in expanding and deepening sociological inquiry into this topic. Insights from more‐than‐human theory, the digital environmental humanities, critical AI, data and data centre studies, and creative arts‐based work are discussed. This scholarship emphasises the importance of continued interdisciplinary social critique and creative inquiry into the harms posed to the natural world—and by extension, to humans—by generative AI development and use.
In recent years, there has been a rapid and massive expansion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and infrastructures. Big AI Tech corporations are vigorously marketing these services in the pursuit of profit, despite their devastating impacts on the environment. A body of sociological inquiry into generative AI technologies is beginning to develop, but most of this research is human‐centric, with few studies focusing specifically on their ecological costs. To meet this gap, this review's aims are threefold: (i) to advance a more‐than‐human theoretical perspective in sociological analyses of generative AI's impacts on the natural world; (ii) to introduce the body of literature in the humanities that has already adopted this critical approach; and (iii) to thereby demonstrate the importance of this scholarship in expanding and deepening sociological inquiry into this topic. Insights from more‐than‐human theory, the digital environmental humanities, critical AI, data and data centre studies, and creative arts‐based work are discussed. This scholarship emphasises the importance of continued interdisciplinary social critique and creative inquiry into the harms posed to the natural world—and by extension, to humans—by generative AI development and use.
6.
Thomas, Ryan J.; Thomson, T. J.; Cools, Hannes; Venema, Rebecca; Toohey, Oscar; Gardam, Caroline; Strikovic, Edina; Riedlinger, Michelle; Burgess, Jean
Expecting Humans, Encountering Machines: An Expectancy Violations Theory Approach to Generative AI in Journalism Journal Article
In: Journalism Studies, pp. 1–20, 2026, ISSN: 1461-670X, 1469-9699.
@article{thomas_expecting_2026,
title = {Expecting Humans, Encountering Machines: An Expectancy Violations Theory Approach to Generative AI in Journalism},
author = {Ryan J. Thomas and T. J. Thomson and Hannes Cools and Rebecca Venema and Oscar Toohey and Caroline Gardam and Edina Strikovic and Michelle Riedlinger and Jean Burgess},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2026.2680642},
doi = {10.1080/1461670X.2026.2680642},
issn = {1461-670X, 1469-9699},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-05-01},
urldate = {2026-06-04},
journal = {Journalism Studies},
pages = {1\textendash20},
keywords = {},
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tppubtype = {article}
}
7.
Lupton, Deborah; Bailey-Charteris, Bronwyn
“Just One Prompt Is Enough to Kill a Tree”: Knowledge and Attitudes Concerning the Environmental Impacts of Generative AI Among Australians Journal Article
In: Environmental Communication, pp. 1–17, 2026, ISSN: 1752-4032, 1752-4040.
@article{lupton_just_2026-1,
title = {“Just One Prompt Is Enough to Kill a Tree”: Knowledge and Attitudes Concerning the Environmental Impacts of Generative AI Among Australians},
author = {Deborah Lupton and Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17524032.2026.2673346},
doi = {10.1080/17524032.2026.2673346},
issn = {1752-4032, 1752-4040},
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urldate = {2026-05-22},
journal = {Environmental Communication},
pages = {1\textendash17},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
8.
Stardust, Zahra; Glover, Judith; Albury, Kath; Sundén, Jenny; Sargeant, Amy
Sextech Life Cycles: A User Guide to Sustainable Sextech Report
2026, visited: 22.05.2026.
@techreport{stardust_sextech_2026,
title = {Sextech Life Cycles: A User Guide to Sustainable Sextech},
author = {Zahra Stardust and Judith Glover and Kath Albury and Jenny Sund\'{e}n and Amy Sargeant},
url = {https://eprints.qut.edu.au/265122},
doi = {10.5204/eprints.265122},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-05-01},
urldate = {2026-05-22},
institution = {Queensland University of Technology (QUT)},
abstract = {Ever wondered where your sextech goes to die? Whether your butt plug will end up in landfill? Have you tried to recycle your vibrator but your local council wouldn’t take it? Do you know who makes your sex toys, and what materials they are made from? Are there safety standards for the things we put inside our bodies? What happens if we just DIY? Is sustainable sextech even possible? This report draws on qualitative research as part of a project on Digital Sexual Health funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Welfare and Working Life. A collaboration between researchers, an industrial designer and a visual artist at the Queensland University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology and Uppsala University Sweden, it explores the environmental costs of sexual pleasure.},
keywords = {},
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Ever wondered where your sextech goes to die? Whether your butt plug will end up in landfill? Have you tried to recycle your vibrator but your local council wouldn’t take it? Do you know who makes your sex toys, and what materials they are made from? Are there safety standards for the things we put inside our bodies? What happens if we just DIY? Is sustainable sextech even possible? This report draws on qualitative research as part of a project on Digital Sexual Health funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Welfare and Working Life. A collaboration between researchers, an industrial designer and a visual artist at the Queensland University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology and Uppsala University Sweden, it explores the environmental costs of sexual pleasure.
9.
Lupton, Deborah; Bailey-Charteris, Bronwyn
“Just One Prompt Is Enough to Kill a Tree”: Knowledge and Attitudes Concerning the Environmental Impacts of Generative AI Among Australians Journal Article
In: Environmental Communication, pp. 1–17, 2026, ISSN: 1752-4032, 1752-4040.
@article{lupton_just_2026,
title = {“Just One Prompt Is Enough to Kill a Tree”: Knowledge and Attitudes Concerning the Environmental Impacts of Generative AI Among Australians},
author = {Deborah Lupton and Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17524032.2026.2673346},
doi = {10.1080/17524032.2026.2673346},
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journal = {Environmental Communication},
pages = {1\textendash17},
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pubstate = {published},
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}
10.
Weinbrand, Shir; Nagappa, Ashwin; Angus, Daniel
Framing the future of search: A discourse analysis of Google’s AI Overviews Journal Article
In: Discourse & Communication, pp. 17504813261447684, 2026, ISSN: 1750-4813, 1750-4821.
@article{weinbrand_framing_2026,
title = {Framing the future of search: A discourse analysis of Google’s AI Overviews},
author = {Shir Weinbrand and Ashwin Nagappa and Daniel Angus},
url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17504813261447684},
doi = {10.1177/17504813261447684},
issn = {1750-4813, 1750-4821},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-05-01},
urldate = {2026-05-20},
journal = {Discourse \& Communication},
pages = {17504813261447684},
abstract = {This study investigates how Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) \textendash a major shift in the search engine landscape \textendash are discursively framed by three key actors: Google, tech journalists, and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) marketers. Drawing on platform studies and discourse theory, we combine Leximancer concept mapping with Critical Discourse Analysis to examine how these stakeholders construct, legitimise, and contest the meaning of AIOs across a broad corpus of grey literature, media coverage, and corporate blogs. Our findings reveal four dominant thematic frames: Generative AI Technologies and AI-Platform Wars, Reconfiguring Search: Let Google Do the Searching for You, Commercial Implications of AIOs, and AI Overviews \textendash Utopia versus Dystopia. While Google frames AIOs as seamless innovations that enhance the user experience, journalists highlight issues of misinformation and epistemic opacity, and SEO marketers focus on the economic and strategic disruptions to visibility and discoverability. Crucially, our analysis underscores the absence of the user’s voice and a lack of attention to democratic, societal and environmental implications of AI-generated summaries. By analysing the discourse surrounding AIOs, this paper demonstrates that AIOs are not merely a new feature, but rather part of a broader shift in platform power and control over online knowledge. We argue that AIOs represent a key moment in the transformation of search, reshaping how trust, authority, and visibility are defined and challenged in the age of AI.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This study investigates how Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) – a major shift in the search engine landscape – are discursively framed by three key actors: Google, tech journalists, and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) marketers. Drawing on platform studies and discourse theory, we combine Leximancer concept mapping with Critical Discourse Analysis to examine how these stakeholders construct, legitimise, and contest the meaning of AIOs across a broad corpus of grey literature, media coverage, and corporate blogs. Our findings reveal four dominant thematic frames: Generative AI Technologies and AI-Platform Wars, Reconfiguring Search: Let Google Do the Searching for You, Commercial Implications of AIOs, and AI Overviews – Utopia versus Dystopia. While Google frames AIOs as seamless innovations that enhance the user experience, journalists highlight issues of misinformation and epistemic opacity, and SEO marketers focus on the economic and strategic disruptions to visibility and discoverability. Crucially, our analysis underscores the absence of the user’s voice and a lack of attention to democratic, societal and environmental implications of AI-generated summaries. By analysing the discourse surrounding AIOs, this paper demonstrates that AIOs are not merely a new feature, but rather part of a broader shift in platform power and control over online knowledge. We argue that AIOs represent a key moment in the transformation of search, reshaping how trust, authority, and visibility are defined and challenged in the age of AI.
11.
Dewi, Udiana Puspa
Vernacular infrastructuring: Rethinking linguistic agency of minority‐language speakers in multilingual digital environment Journal Article
In: Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. e70038, 2026, ISSN: 1055-1360, 1548-1395.
@article{dewi_vernacular_2026,
title = {Vernacular infrastructuring: Rethinking linguistic agency of minority‐language speakers in multilingual digital environment},
author = {Udiana Puspa Dewi},
url = {https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jola.70038},
doi = {10.1111/jola.70038},
issn = {1055-1360, 1548-1395},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-05-01},
urldate = {2026-01-14},
journal = {Journal of Linguistic Anthropology},
volume = {36},
number = {1},
pages = {e70038},
abstract = {Abstract
This article introduces the concept of vernacular infrastructuring to examine how speakers of minoritized languages navigate multilingual digital environments. Building on notion of vernacular creativity and extending insights from linguistic anthropology, I conceptualize infrastructuring as the everyday negotiation of institutional norms, platform logics, and user practices that structure linguistic visibility. Drawing on the case of
Nanti Kita Sambat tentang Hari Ini
(NKSTHI), a popular Instagram and X account that reimagines the Javanese speech genre
sambat
(“to complain”), I show how users creatively mobilize Javanese to perform cultural intimacy while tactically responding to algorithmic imaginaries. I argue that vernacular infrastructuring operates through three entangled layers: institutional infrastructures (historical hierarchies of language policy and media), perceived platform infrastructures (folk theories and algorithmic imaginaries), and user practices (stylization, code‐mixing, and affective design). Through this layered analysis, the paper demonstrates that vernacular practices are not merely expressive but infrastructurally strategic forms of discursive value work, referring to the speakers' reflexivity to assign and contest linguistic value. By foregrounding the agentive tactics of minoritized users, vernacular infrastructuring contributes to ongoing debates in linguistic anthropology on language, media, and infrastructure, showing how digital platforms actively participate in the revaluation of linguistic diversity.
,
Abstrak
Artikel menika ngenalaken teori “praktik infrastruktur vernakular” kagem mahami cara penutur basa minoritas menavigasi lingkungan digital multibahasa. Kanthi dasar gagasan bab kreativitas vernakular lan nambah kawruh saking linguistik antropologi, kula njabaraken konsep “infrastruktur” minangka negosiasi norma kelembagaan, logika platform, lan praktik panganggenan platform digital ingkang mbentuk visibilitas linguistik. Sangking kasus Nanti Kita Sambat Tentang Hari Ini (NKSTHI), akun instagram lan X babagan “sambat”, kula nedahi pangangge kaliyan mobilisasi kreatif basa jawi kangge nampilaken keintiman budaya merespon imajinasi algoritmik. Kula nggadahi pemanggih menawi infrastruktur vernakular kedah nglangkungi tigang lapisan kekait: infrastruktur kelembagaan (hierarki historis kebijakan basa lan media), infrastruktur platform ingkang dipersepsikan (teori rakyat lan imajinasi algoritmik), lan praktik pangangge basa (stilisasi, campur kode, lan desain afektif). Liwat analisis berlapis puniki, kula nunjukaken menawi praktik vernakular sanes naming ekspresif, ananging bentuk‐bentuk strategis infrastruktural saking nilai sosial ingkang gadhah sipat diskursif, ingkang ngrujuk ing refleksivitas penutur lebet netepaken lan memperdebatkan nilai sosial basa. Kanthi ngutamaaken taktik agensi pengguna basa minoritas, teori infrastruktur vernakular gadhahi kontribusi ing perdebatan teori lebeting bidang linguistik antropologi bab basa, media, lan infrastruktur, nedahaken kados pundi platform digital tumut gadhahi peran lebet revaluasi karagaman basa ing jagad digital.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Abstract
This article introduces the concept of vernacular infrastructuring to examine how speakers of minoritized languages navigate multilingual digital environments. Building on notion of vernacular creativity and extending insights from linguistic anthropology, I conceptualize infrastructuring as the everyday negotiation of institutional norms, platform logics, and user practices that structure linguistic visibility. Drawing on the case of
Nanti Kita Sambat tentang Hari Ini
(NKSTHI), a popular Instagram and X account that reimagines the Javanese speech genre
sambat
(“to complain”), I show how users creatively mobilize Javanese to perform cultural intimacy while tactically responding to algorithmic imaginaries. I argue that vernacular infrastructuring operates through three entangled layers: institutional infrastructures (historical hierarchies of language policy and media), perceived platform infrastructures (folk theories and algorithmic imaginaries), and user practices (stylization, code‐mixing, and affective design). Through this layered analysis, the paper demonstrates that vernacular practices are not merely expressive but infrastructurally strategic forms of discursive value work, referring to the speakers' reflexivity to assign and contest linguistic value. By foregrounding the agentive tactics of minoritized users, vernacular infrastructuring contributes to ongoing debates in linguistic anthropology on language, media, and infrastructure, showing how digital platforms actively participate in the revaluation of linguistic diversity.
,
Abstrak
Artikel menika ngenalaken teori “praktik infrastruktur vernakular” kagem mahami cara penutur basa minoritas menavigasi lingkungan digital multibahasa. Kanthi dasar gagasan bab kreativitas vernakular lan nambah kawruh saking linguistik antropologi, kula njabaraken konsep “infrastruktur” minangka negosiasi norma kelembagaan, logika platform, lan praktik panganggenan platform digital ingkang mbentuk visibilitas linguistik. Sangking kasus Nanti Kita Sambat Tentang Hari Ini (NKSTHI), akun instagram lan X babagan “sambat”, kula nedahi pangangge kaliyan mobilisasi kreatif basa jawi kangge nampilaken keintiman budaya merespon imajinasi algoritmik. Kula nggadahi pemanggih menawi infrastruktur vernakular kedah nglangkungi tigang lapisan kekait: infrastruktur kelembagaan (hierarki historis kebijakan basa lan media), infrastruktur platform ingkang dipersepsikan (teori rakyat lan imajinasi algoritmik), lan praktik pangangge basa (stilisasi, campur kode, lan desain afektif). Liwat analisis berlapis puniki, kula nunjukaken menawi praktik vernakular sanes naming ekspresif, ananging bentuk‐bentuk strategis infrastruktural saking nilai sosial ingkang gadhah sipat diskursif, ingkang ngrujuk ing refleksivitas penutur lebet netepaken lan memperdebatkan nilai sosial basa. Kanthi ngutamaaken taktik agensi pengguna basa minoritas, teori infrastruktur vernakular gadhahi kontribusi ing perdebatan teori lebeting bidang linguistik antropologi bab basa, media, lan infrastruktur, nedahaken kados pundi platform digital tumut gadhahi peran lebet revaluasi karagaman basa ing jagad digital.
This article introduces the concept of vernacular infrastructuring to examine how speakers of minoritized languages navigate multilingual digital environments. Building on notion of vernacular creativity and extending insights from linguistic anthropology, I conceptualize infrastructuring as the everyday negotiation of institutional norms, platform logics, and user practices that structure linguistic visibility. Drawing on the case of
Nanti Kita Sambat tentang Hari Ini
(NKSTHI), a popular Instagram and X account that reimagines the Javanese speech genre
sambat
(“to complain”), I show how users creatively mobilize Javanese to perform cultural intimacy while tactically responding to algorithmic imaginaries. I argue that vernacular infrastructuring operates through three entangled layers: institutional infrastructures (historical hierarchies of language policy and media), perceived platform infrastructures (folk theories and algorithmic imaginaries), and user practices (stylization, code‐mixing, and affective design). Through this layered analysis, the paper demonstrates that vernacular practices are not merely expressive but infrastructurally strategic forms of discursive value work, referring to the speakers' reflexivity to assign and contest linguistic value. By foregrounding the agentive tactics of minoritized users, vernacular infrastructuring contributes to ongoing debates in linguistic anthropology on language, media, and infrastructure, showing how digital platforms actively participate in the revaluation of linguistic diversity.
,
Abstrak
Artikel menika ngenalaken teori “praktik infrastruktur vernakular” kagem mahami cara penutur basa minoritas menavigasi lingkungan digital multibahasa. Kanthi dasar gagasan bab kreativitas vernakular lan nambah kawruh saking linguistik antropologi, kula njabaraken konsep “infrastruktur” minangka negosiasi norma kelembagaan, logika platform, lan praktik panganggenan platform digital ingkang mbentuk visibilitas linguistik. Sangking kasus Nanti Kita Sambat Tentang Hari Ini (NKSTHI), akun instagram lan X babagan “sambat”, kula nedahi pangangge kaliyan mobilisasi kreatif basa jawi kangge nampilaken keintiman budaya merespon imajinasi algoritmik. Kula nggadahi pemanggih menawi infrastruktur vernakular kedah nglangkungi tigang lapisan kekait: infrastruktur kelembagaan (hierarki historis kebijakan basa lan media), infrastruktur platform ingkang dipersepsikan (teori rakyat lan imajinasi algoritmik), lan praktik pangangge basa (stilisasi, campur kode, lan desain afektif). Liwat analisis berlapis puniki, kula nunjukaken menawi praktik vernakular sanes naming ekspresif, ananging bentuk‐bentuk strategis infrastruktural saking nilai sosial ingkang gadhah sipat diskursif, ingkang ngrujuk ing refleksivitas penutur lebet netepaken lan memperdebatkan nilai sosial basa. Kanthi ngutamaaken taktik agensi pengguna basa minoritas, teori infrastruktur vernakular gadhahi kontribusi ing perdebatan teori lebeting bidang linguistik antropologi bab basa, media, lan infrastruktur, nedahaken kados pundi platform digital tumut gadhahi peran lebet revaluasi karagaman basa ing jagad digital.
12.
Kegalle, Hiruni Nuwanthika; Salim, Flora D.; Sanderson, Mark; Chan, Jeffrey; Hettiachchi, Danula
Applying Value Sensitive Design to Location-Based Services: Designing for Shared Spaces and Local Conditions Conference Paper
In: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–18, ACM, Barcelona Spain, 2026, ISBN: 9798400722783.
@inproceedings{nuwanthika_kegalle_applying_2026,
title = {Applying Value Sensitive Design to Location-Based Services: Designing for Shared Spaces and Local Conditions},
author = {Hiruni Nuwanthika Kegalle and Flora D. Salim and Mark Sanderson and Jeffrey Chan and Danula Hettiachchi},
url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3772318.3791636},
doi = {10.1145/3772318.3791636},
isbn = {9798400722783},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-06-24},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
pages = {1\textendash18},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {Barcelona Spain},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
13.
Kuai, Joanne; Ferrari, Fabian
Generative AI governance: from regulatory design to institutional reordering Journal Article
In: Information, Communication & Society, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 1803–1812, 2026, ISSN: 1369-118X, 1468-4462.
@article{kuai_generative_2026,
title = {Generative AI governance: from regulatory design to institutional reordering},
author = {Joanne Kuai and Fabian Ferrari},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2026.2639565},
doi = {10.1080/1369118X.2026.2639565},
issn = {1369-118X, 1468-4462},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-05-25},
journal = {Information, Communication \& Society},
volume = {29},
number = {6},
pages = {1803\textendash1812},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
14.
Matich, Phoebe; Richardson, Michael; Burgess, Jean
Authenticity controversies: Witness media and generative AI imagery Journal Article
In: Media, Culture & Society, pp. 01634437261442039, 2026, ISSN: 0163-4437, 1460-3675.
@article{matich_authenticity_2026,
title = {Authenticity controversies: Witness media and generative AI imagery},
author = {Phoebe Matich and Michael Richardson and Jean Burgess},
url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01634437261442039},
doi = {10.1177/01634437261442039},
issn = {0163-4437, 1460-3675},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-05-22},
journal = {Media, Culture \& Society},
pages = {01634437261442039},
abstract = {This article explores how AI-generated content reconfigures struggles over authenticity in witness media. Media witnessing is traditionally understood as a relational field of practice involving the performance through media of testimony to oppression and violence, where the testimony must both be genuine and carry democratic weight. As AI-generated content circulates in and around global conflicts, concern deepens about misinformation, given AIGC’s perceived lack of an “indexical” relationship to reality. This article acknowledges but goes beyond the misinformation frame, instead focusing on two recent cases to show how multimodal AI may represent human experiences of conflict in nuanced and ambivalent ways, unsettling contemporary assumptions about media witnessing and the mechanisms through which it happens. We present a comparative analysis of two controversies around AI-generated content that foreground authenticity debates, informed by STS, witnessing and journalism studies research. These controversies demonstrate that, by subordinating indexicality to iconic or analogical representation, AI-generated content resists established witnessing norms, yielding questions about media functions, ethics, and power relations.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article explores how AI-generated content reconfigures struggles over authenticity in witness media. Media witnessing is traditionally understood as a relational field of practice involving the performance through media of testimony to oppression and violence, where the testimony must both be genuine and carry democratic weight. As AI-generated content circulates in and around global conflicts, concern deepens about misinformation, given AIGC’s perceived lack of an “indexical” relationship to reality. This article acknowledges but goes beyond the misinformation frame, instead focusing on two recent cases to show how multimodal AI may represent human experiences of conflict in nuanced and ambivalent ways, unsettling contemporary assumptions about media witnessing and the mechanisms through which it happens. We present a comparative analysis of two controversies around AI-generated content that foreground authenticity debates, informed by STS, witnessing and journalism studies research. These controversies demonstrate that, by subordinating indexicality to iconic or analogical representation, AI-generated content resists established witnessing norms, yielding questions about media functions, ethics, and power relations.
15.
Thomson, T. J.; Thomas, Ryan J.; Cools, Hannes; Anderson, Rachael; Venema, Rebecca; Toohey, Oscar; Gardam, Caroline; Strikovic, Edina; Riedlinger, Michelle; Burgess, Jean
News audiences’ acceptance of generative artificial intelligence in journalism: a use case study across three domains Journal Article
In: Media International Australia, pp. 1329878X261441933, 2026, ISSN: 1329-878X, 2200-467X.
@article{thomson_news_2026,
title = {News audiences’ acceptance of generative artificial intelligence in journalism: a use case study across three domains},
author = {T. J. Thomson and Ryan J. Thomas and Hannes Cools and Rachael Anderson and Rebecca Venema and Oscar Toohey and Caroline Gardam and Edina Strikovic and Michelle Riedlinger and Jean Burgess},
url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X261441933},
doi = {10.1177/1329878X261441933},
issn = {1329-878X, 2200-467X},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-04-27},
journal = {Media International Australia},
pages = {1329878X261441933},
abstract = {News audiences’ acceptance of generative AI (GenAI) in journalism is shaped by their knowledge of (or direct experience with) what AI is, what it can do, and what implications its use has. Acknowledging this, the present study draws on the technology acceptance model to first explore what a sample of news audiences in two countries knows about GenAI and what their experiences, if any, with it have been to date. Next, it explores this sample's acceptance of use cases that demonstrate how AI is \textendash or could be \textendash used in journalism. It does this by using in-depth interviews with 60 participants to introduce or re-introduce 23 use cases to them and ask them how accepting they are of journalists using each. Acceptance depended on how AI was used, how transparent the use was, whether the use impacted accuracy, and whether legal and other ethical considerations were appropriately attended to.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
News audiences’ acceptance of generative AI (GenAI) in journalism is shaped by their knowledge of (or direct experience with) what AI is, what it can do, and what implications its use has. Acknowledging this, the present study draws on the technology acceptance model to first explore what a sample of news audiences in two countries knows about GenAI and what their experiences, if any, with it have been to date. Next, it explores this sample's acceptance of use cases that demonstrate how AI is – or could be – used in journalism. It does this by using in-depth interviews with 60 participants to introduce or re-introduce 23 use cases to them and ask them how accepting they are of journalists using each. Acceptance depended on how AI was used, how transparent the use was, whether the use impacted accuracy, and whether legal and other ethical considerations were appropriately attended to.
16.
Giami, Alain; Corona, Esther; Welsh, Lisa; Forcada, Ricardo Hernandez; Stardust, Zahra; Khan, Md. Sharful Islam; Pirotte, Magaly; Parker, Richard G.; Feki, Shereen El; Regalado, Amaranta Gómez; Medico, Denise; Kurilla, Agata Loewe; Perelman, Luis; Klerk, René De; Janssen, Erick; Nobre, Pedro; Rudolph, Elna
Sexual Justice and the Future of Sexual Rights: A Call to Action Journal Article
In: International Journal of Sexual Health, pp. 1–22, 2026, ISSN: 1931-7611, 1931-762X.
@article{giami_sexual_2026,
title = {Sexual Justice and the Future of Sexual Rights: A Call to Action},
author = {Alain Giami and Esther Corona and Lisa Welsh and Ricardo Hernandez Forcada and Zahra Stardust and Md. Sharful Islam Khan and Magaly Pirotte and Richard G. Parker and Shereen El Feki and Amaranta G\'{o}mez Regalado and Denise Medico and Agata Loewe Kurilla and Luis Perelman and Ren\'{e} De Klerk and Erick Janssen and Pedro Nobre and Elna Rudolph},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19317611.2026.2655809},
doi = {10.1080/19317611.2026.2655809},
issn = {1931-7611, 1931-762X},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-04-28},
journal = {International Journal of Sexual Health},
pages = {1\textendash22},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
17.
Whelan-Shamy, Daniel
Simulation and the epistemology of transformer models: operational similarity through sustained difference Journal Article
In: AI & SOCIETY, 2026, ISSN: 0951-5666, 1435-5655.
@article{whelan-shamy_simulation_2026,
title = {Simulation and the epistemology of transformer models: operational similarity through sustained difference},
author = {Daniel Whelan-Shamy},
url = {https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00146-026-03004-x},
doi = {10.1007/s00146-026-03004-x},
issn = {0951-5666, 1435-5655},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-04-22},
journal = {AI \& SOCIETY},
abstract = {Abstract
Extending simulation beyond its usual semiotic application, this article steps through the process by which Large Language Models (LLMs) reproduce similarity, to argue that simulation produces a “doubling” effect: an operational similarity sustained through difference. Accordingly, this article draws on literary theory to “read” transformer models with the intent of understanding how they operate as an infrastructure for the production of linguistic similarity. It is argued that neural networks enact an epistemology of exchange in which tokenisation, vectorisation, and self-attention render language commensurable, thereby producing an operational similarity that manifests differently in each natural language response generated. The political and epistemic implications of doubling are thereafter discussed with reference to the relationship between simulation, models and subjectivity.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Abstract
Extending simulation beyond its usual semiotic application, this article steps through the process by which Large Language Models (LLMs) reproduce similarity, to argue that simulation produces a “doubling” effect: an operational similarity sustained through difference. Accordingly, this article draws on literary theory to “read” transformer models with the intent of understanding how they operate as an infrastructure for the production of linguistic similarity. It is argued that neural networks enact an epistemology of exchange in which tokenisation, vectorisation, and self-attention render language commensurable, thereby producing an operational similarity that manifests differently in each natural language response generated. The political and epistemic implications of doubling are thereafter discussed with reference to the relationship between simulation, models and subjectivity.
Extending simulation beyond its usual semiotic application, this article steps through the process by which Large Language Models (LLMs) reproduce similarity, to argue that simulation produces a “doubling” effect: an operational similarity sustained through difference. Accordingly, this article draws on literary theory to “read” transformer models with the intent of understanding how they operate as an infrastructure for the production of linguistic similarity. It is argued that neural networks enact an epistemology of exchange in which tokenisation, vectorisation, and self-attention render language commensurable, thereby producing an operational similarity that manifests differently in each natural language response generated. The political and epistemic implications of doubling are thereafter discussed with reference to the relationship between simulation, models and subjectivity.
18.
Floreani, Samantha; Sadowski, Jathan
Platforming landlords: A critical trend analysis of rental housing technology in Australia and beyond Journal Article
In: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, pp. 02637758261441138, 2026, ISSN: 0263-7758, 1472-3433.
@article{floreani_platforming_2026,
title = {Platforming landlords: A critical trend analysis of rental housing technology in Australia and beyond},
author = {Samantha Floreani and Jathan Sadowski},
url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02637758261441138},
doi = {10.1177/02637758261441138},
issn = {0263-7758, 1472-3433},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-04-15},
journal = {Environment and Planning D: Society and Space},
pages = {02637758261441138},
abstract = {This article advances a critical analysis of digital technologies in rental housing by drawing out five trends in the Australian ‘RentTech’ market and placing them in direct relation with shared political-economic imperatives that transcend borders and underpins the development of rental technologies around the world. By situating Australian examples within a wider context, we draw connections across seemingly disparate dynamics. We show how service integration across the value chain (Trend 1) leverages rentier models to accumulate data rents (Trend 2), which facilitates value extraction from rental assets (Trend 3) and supports risk management imperatives through moral evaluation of renters (Trend 4), all of which are in service of consolidation in the private rental market (Trend 5). Together, these interlocking dynamics describe how RentTech is both
responding
to housing financialisation and shared logics of property and data assetisation, while also actively
shaping
its future direction. Our aim is to analyse patterns that exist within and across markets for RentTech to better understand how this sector is developing in different global and national contexts. We conclude by arguing that there are key points of convergence between international markets and shared imperatives that inform the current state and trajectory of technologies in rental housing.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article advances a critical analysis of digital technologies in rental housing by drawing out five trends in the Australian ‘RentTech’ market and placing them in direct relation with shared political-economic imperatives that transcend borders and underpins the development of rental technologies around the world. By situating Australian examples within a wider context, we draw connections across seemingly disparate dynamics. We show how service integration across the value chain (Trend 1) leverages rentier models to accumulate data rents (Trend 2), which facilitates value extraction from rental assets (Trend 3) and supports risk management imperatives through moral evaluation of renters (Trend 4), all of which are in service of consolidation in the private rental market (Trend 5). Together, these interlocking dynamics describe how RentTech is both
responding
to housing financialisation and shared logics of property and data assetisation, while also actively
shaping
its future direction. Our aim is to analyse patterns that exist within and across markets for RentTech to better understand how this sector is developing in different global and national contexts. We conclude by arguing that there are key points of convergence between international markets and shared imperatives that inform the current state and trajectory of technologies in rental housing.
responding
to housing financialisation and shared logics of property and data assetisation, while also actively
shaping
its future direction. Our aim is to analyse patterns that exist within and across markets for RentTech to better understand how this sector is developing in different global and national contexts. We conclude by arguing that there are key points of convergence between international markets and shared imperatives that inform the current state and trajectory of technologies in rental housing.
19.
Binns, Daniel
A media-materialist method for interpreting generative AI images Journal Article
In: Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, pp. 13548565261441949, 2026, ISSN: 1354-8565, 1748-7382.
@article{binns_media-materialist_2026,
title = {A media-materialist method for interpreting generative AI images},
author = {Daniel Binns},
url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548565261441949},
doi = {10.1177/13548565261441949},
issn = {1354-8565, 1748-7382},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-05-07},
journal = {Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies},
pages = {13548565261441949},
abstract = {This article proposes a four-layer media-materialist method for interpreting AI-generated images as cultural-computational artefacts that bear archaeologically readable traces of their production conditions. Drawing on media materialism’s focus on technological processes rather than content alone, the method analyses dataset (training materials), model (computational processing), interface (user mediation), and prompt (linguistic inscription) as interdependent layers that encode distinct biases and constraints into visual outputs. Through detailed analysis of two major training datasets \textendash the human-curated Wikipedia-based Image-Text Dataset and the algorithmically scored LAION-Aesthetics \textendash and sample image analyses, the method reveals how cultural assumptions become statistically compressed into archetypal arrangements. Abstract prompts like ‘intellectual rigor’ materialise through embedded echoes of academic masculinity, complete with books, globes, and contemplative poses, while platform interfaces create aesthetic path dependencies that systematically shape creative possibilities. The method works both diagnostically (with known metadata) and archaeologically (when original prompts are unknown), demonstrating how visual traces can be read backwards to understand the infrastructural pressures that shaped an image’s generation. This media-materialist approach treats AI images as both medium and artefact, revealing how centuries of visual culture become probabilistically recombined through computational inference. The framework exposes how training data biases, model architectures, interface designs, and prompt conventions collaborate to produce images that appear spontaneous but are actually shaped by layered technological and cultural constraints. Rather than dismissing AI outputs as meaningless ‘slop’ or celebrating them as creative breakthroughs, the method provides systematic tools for reading these synthetic images as cultural documents that encode the material conditions of algorithmic production, offering essential literacy for navigating an increasingly synthetic media landscape.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article proposes a four-layer media-materialist method for interpreting AI-generated images as cultural-computational artefacts that bear archaeologically readable traces of their production conditions. Drawing on media materialism’s focus on technological processes rather than content alone, the method analyses dataset (training materials), model (computational processing), interface (user mediation), and prompt (linguistic inscription) as interdependent layers that encode distinct biases and constraints into visual outputs. Through detailed analysis of two major training datasets – the human-curated Wikipedia-based Image-Text Dataset and the algorithmically scored LAION-Aesthetics – and sample image analyses, the method reveals how cultural assumptions become statistically compressed into archetypal arrangements. Abstract prompts like ‘intellectual rigor’ materialise through embedded echoes of academic masculinity, complete with books, globes, and contemplative poses, while platform interfaces create aesthetic path dependencies that systematically shape creative possibilities. The method works both diagnostically (with known metadata) and archaeologically (when original prompts are unknown), demonstrating how visual traces can be read backwards to understand the infrastructural pressures that shaped an image’s generation. This media-materialist approach treats AI images as both medium and artefact, revealing how centuries of visual culture become probabilistically recombined through computational inference. The framework exposes how training data biases, model architectures, interface designs, and prompt conventions collaborate to produce images that appear spontaneous but are actually shaped by layered technological and cultural constraints. Rather than dismissing AI outputs as meaningless ‘slop’ or celebrating them as creative breakthroughs, the method provides systematic tools for reading these synthetic images as cultural documents that encode the material conditions of algorithmic production, offering essential literacy for navigating an increasingly synthetic media landscape.
20.
Chen, Baiyu; Tag, Benjamin; Xue, Hao; Angus, Daniel; Salim, Flora
When Ads Become Profiles: Uncovering the Invisible Risk of Web Advertising at Scale with LLMs Conference Paper
In: Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2026, pp. 9604–9615, ACM, Dubai United Arab Emirates, 2026, ISBN: 9798400723070, (arXiv:2509.18874).
@inproceedings{chen_when_2026,
title = {When Ads Become Profiles: Uncovering the Invisible Risk of Web Advertising at Scale with LLMs},
author = {Baiyu Chen and Benjamin Tag and Hao Xue and Daniel Angus and Flora Salim},
url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3774904.3793060},
doi = {10.1145/3774904.3793060},
isbn = {9798400723070},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-04-23},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2026},
pages = {9604\textendash9615},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {Dubai United Arab Emirates},
abstract = {Regulatory limits on explicit targeting have not eliminated algorithmic profiling on the Web, as optimisation systems still adapt ad delivery to users' private attributes. The widespread availability of powerful zero-shot multimodal Large Language Models (LLMs) has dramatically lowered the barrier for exploiting these latent signals for adversarial inference. We investigate this emerging societal risk, specifically how adversaries can now exploit these signals to reverse-engineer private attributes from ad exposure alone. We introduce a novel pipeline that leverages LLMs as adversarial inference engines to perform natural language profiling. Applying this method to a longitudinal dataset comprising over 435,000 Facebook ad impressions collected from 891 users, we conducted a large-scale study to assess the feasibility and precision of inferring private attributes from passive online ad observations. Our results demonstrate that off-the-shelf LLMs can accurately reconstruct complex user private attributes, including party preference, employment status, and education level, consistently outperforming strong census-based priors and matching or exceeding human social perception at only a fraction of the cost (223x lower) and time (52x faster) required by humans. Critically, actionable profiling is feasible even within short observation windows, indicating that prolonged tracking is not a prerequisite for a successful attack. These findings provide the first empirical evidence that ad streams serve as a high-fidelity digital footprint, enabling off-platform profiling that inherently bypasses current platform safeguards, highlighting a systemic vulnerability in the ad ecosystem and the urgent need for responsible web AI governance in the generative AI era. The code is available at https://github.com/Breezelled/when-ads-become-profiles.},
note = {arXiv:2509.18874},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Regulatory limits on explicit targeting have not eliminated algorithmic profiling on the Web, as optimisation systems still adapt ad delivery to users' private attributes. The widespread availability of powerful zero-shot multimodal Large Language Models (LLMs) has dramatically lowered the barrier for exploiting these latent signals for adversarial inference. We investigate this emerging societal risk, specifically how adversaries can now exploit these signals to reverse-engineer private attributes from ad exposure alone. We introduce a novel pipeline that leverages LLMs as adversarial inference engines to perform natural language profiling. Applying this method to a longitudinal dataset comprising over 435,000 Facebook ad impressions collected from 891 users, we conducted a large-scale study to assess the feasibility and precision of inferring private attributes from passive online ad observations. Our results demonstrate that off-the-shelf LLMs can accurately reconstruct complex user private attributes, including party preference, employment status, and education level, consistently outperforming strong census-based priors and matching or exceeding human social perception at only a fraction of the cost (223x lower) and time (52x faster) required by humans. Critically, actionable profiling is feasible even within short observation windows, indicating that prolonged tracking is not a prerequisite for a successful attack. These findings provide the first empirical evidence that ad streams serve as a high-fidelity digital footprint, enabling off-platform profiling that inherently bypasses current platform safeguards, highlighting a systemic vulnerability in the ad ecosystem and the urgent need for responsible web AI governance in the generative AI era. The code is available at https://github.com/Breezelled/when-ads-become-profiles.