Nicolas Kayser-Bril

Head of Journalism (on parental leave)

Photo: Julia Bornkessel, CC BY 4.0

Nicolas is a French-German journalist. He pioneered data-driven journalism in Europe, regularly speaks at international conferences, and taught journalism at several journalism schools in France, Switzerland and Russia. As a self-educated developer, he created interactive, data-driven applications for Le Monde. He built the data journalism team at OWNI and co-founded and managed Journalism++ from 2011 to 2017. Nicolas was one of the main authors of the Datajournalism Handbook.

Articles for AlgorithmWatch

The year we waited for action: 2023 in review

Exactly one year ago, I wrote that automated systems might be regulated for good in 2023. This was too optimistic. Not only did European institutions fail to pass the AI Act, even in its watered-down version; the rise of generative models brought us to a new level of danger.

Some image generators produce more problematic stereotypes than others, but all fail at diversity

Automated image generators are often accused of spreading harmful stereotypes, but studies usually only look at MidJourney. Other tools make serious efforts to increase diversity in their output, but effective remedies remain elusive.

AlgorithmWatch welcomes first fellows in algorithmic accountability reporting

After the announcement that we offer a fellowship in algorithmic accountability reporting, we received over 100 applications and were overwhelmed by the quality and diversity of them. After a careful examination, we’re very happy to introduce our first six fellows, an outstanding group of journalists, academics, and a civil society activist.

The year automated systems might have been regulated: 2022 in review

Automated systems were surprisingly absent from this year’s major stories. On the regulation front, European institutions stepped up their efforts. How much change Europeans can expect depends on the institutions’ resolve, and the first test of 2023 already began.

Wolt: Couriers’ feelings don’t always match the transparency report

In August, the Finnish delivery service Wolt published its first “algorithmic transparency report”. We asked three couriers about their experiences. They don't always match the report’s contents.

Algorithmic elections: How automated systems quietly disenfranchise voters

In the United States, automated systems purge voters rolls and verify signatures. They sometimes discard valid votes, especially in historically marginalized communities. Such systems are unlikely to be as widespread in the European Union.

Mastodon could make the public sphere less toxic, but not for all

The open-source social network gained millions of new users following Twitter’s takeover. While some of its features could improve the quality of public discourse, disadvantaged communities might be excluded.

The fediverse is growing, but power imbalances might stay

Alternative social network Mastodon, which has no algorithmic timeline and a decentralized structure, is rapidly gaining steam. But the regulatory framework, which was built for billion-dollar companies, could dampen its growth.

How researchers are upping their game to audit recommender systems

Recommender systems, such as a social network’s news feed or a streaming service’s recommendations, are notoriously difficult to audit. Despite high hurdles, practitioners from journalism and academia are pushing forward.

AlgorithmWatch is offering 5 fellowships in algorithmic accountability reporting

Fellows will receive €1,200 per month during 6 months and will report on automated decision-making in Europe.

Meta is sued for abetting fraud, and they don’t want you to know about it

The Australian consumer commission accuses Meta of helping scammers defraud its users. The scams are global and the legal case could have repercussions elsewhere.

Face recognition data set of trans people still available online years after it was supposedly taken down

A US academic scraped videos off YouTube to train face recognition software on pictures of trans people. New research reveals that his methods were even more carefree than previously known.

A European newsroom to investigate automated systems

AlgorithmWatch is delighted to announce that the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie is funding a decentralized newsroom to investigate automated systems in Europe.

The year that was not saved by automated systems – 2021 in review

A climate catastrophe in Germany and the revelations of the Facebook Files had one thing in common: the humans in the loop failed to take the right decisions. 2021 was not the year algorithms were reined in, but 2022 might be.

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European Council and Commission in agreement to narrow the scope of the AI Act

The European Council, which represents Member States, is pushing for a “narrow” definition of AI, which would dramatically water down the AI Act. The European Commission seems to be in agreement.

Facebook goes after the creator of InstaPy, a tool that automates Instagram likes

Facebook sent a cease-and-desist letter to Tim Grossmann, the creator of InstaPy, and blocked his accounts – and those of his start-up – on the platform.

Marine National Park

National parks near Marseilles deploy automated, live video surveillance against poachers

Two national parks in southern France want to automate the detection of poachers, but the efficacy of these systems remains unclear.

An English police force created its own ethics committee and it’s totally not ethics washing, they say.

The West Midlands police force, which controls 2.9 million persons around Birmingham, created its own independent ethics committee in 2019. Despite its work and its transparency, critics are not convinced that it is a solid enough counterweight.

YouTube cleaned its ‘news’ section… with content from Axel Springer

First findings of a data donation experiment by AlgorithmWatch show that Die Welt, a conservative news outlet from the German media conglomerate Axel Springer, dominates the news section.

Instagram algorithm: Süddeutsche publishes results of data analysis

Using thousands of data donations from AlgorithmWatch’s Instagram monitoring browser plug-in, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung showed that posts from the far-right appear higher on users’ timelines.

LinkedIn automatically rates “out-of-country” candidates as “not fit” in job applications

A feature on LinkedIn automatically rates candidates applying from another EU country as “not a fit”, which may be illegal. I asked 6 national and European agencies about the issue. None seemed interested in enforcing the law.

How Big Tech Charms and Bullies European Politicians, Journalists and Academics

Google, Facebook and other very large tech companies built a lobbying system that, under the guise of furthering research or journalism, binds intellectuals in a complex network of patronage. Transparency is long overdue.

Twitter’s algorithmic bias bug bounty could be the way forward, if regulators step in

Twitter opened its image cropping algorithm and gave prizes to people who could find biases in it. While interesting in itself, the program mostly reveals the impotence of regulators.

EU Commission asks foxes to stop eating chickens but does not build fence

The European Commission published a "Guidance on Strengthening the Code of Practice on Disinformation" aimed at large tech companies on Wednesday. The wish-list of measures forgoes any enforcement mechanism.