We celebrate Christmas and 2025, the year that was, at the Center for Digital Narrative with music, conversation, and holiday merriment with our friends.

In episode four of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta welcomes Nick Seaver, Associate Professor in Anthropology and Director of the Science, Technology & Society program at Tufts University, to catch up on his recent ethnographic research on algorithms, computing and automation.

Scott and Jhave are back talking billions of dollars and discussing whether the new AI economy truly is "too big to fail".

On this episode Scott talks to author and media theorist Roberto Simanowski about digital media, AI, art and hypertext.

Scott and Jhave are here to talk about a major class-action lawsuit that will reward authors for the fact that their books were used for AI training data... and this is not just any class-action lawsuit: the largest publicly reported settlement in human history.

References:

https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/

My Book Was Stolen by an AI Company. Why Does Suing Them Feel Wrong? Thea Lim

https://thewalrus.ca/suing-ai-company/

In episode three of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta visits Minna Ruckenstein, a Professor in Emerging Technologies in Society at the University of Helsinki's Consumer Society Research Center, for a deep dive into her work on algorithmic folklore.

On this episode Scott talks to Espen Aarseth, Dean of the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong, about his groundbreaking work in game studies.

In episode two of ALGOpod, Gabriele de Seta is joined by Guro Flinterud, a folklorist and cultural studies researcher, about her research on social media and digital platforms as an interface between the police and the public.