I'm excited to be a co author on this new paper, "Computational Hermeneutics," with a bunch of other great scholars from the humanities + computer science. In it, we lay out concepts for evaluating gen AI's capacity for interpretation esp ambiguity, context, etc. www.frontiersin.org/journals/art...
For anyone who doubts these processes -- or humanity's power to alter our planet -- consider this dispatch from the poles: Human-caused warming has already melted so much ice in Greenland and Antarctica that Earth's rotation has slowed and its axis has shifted, slightly altering the length of the day and disrupting the precision of satellite tracking, global positioning systems and timekeeping.
oh my god
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/o...
Garth Greenwell and Ben Lerner: both contemporary white male autofiction authors who write about: a) personal medical crises during large-scale social crises (Small Rain, 10:04) b) discrete, contained, mild (?) crossing of sexual boundaries (the last scene of Cleanness, that one scene in 10:04)
Building benchmarks is only one way scholars can help steer AI development. We can also measure the effects of AI on students, build better datasets, or tune new open models. Openness itself could be our most important contribution. Universities have huge libraries, and the legal doctrine of fair use should protect models trained on those collections for a nonprofit educational purpose. At the moment, we are not pressing this advantage. Higher education has been so cautious about fair use that the private sector can now train more freely on our libraries (via Google Books) than is possible for academic AI researchers. We need to be bolder: It is our duty to ensure library collections remain open to the public in a form that empowers 21st-century readers. If our intellectual heritage gets enclosed in proprietary tools, we will find ourselves making the same bad bargain we made with scientific publishers, who sell our own research back to us at a steep markup.
We're in a strange situation rn where Google can train freely on books from university libraries—but researchers *at* universities have limited access. I'm optimistic this can be fixed, but if you're in admin or working at a foundation, please know: univs are failing here & resources are needed.
Super pumped to be embarking on this @aiainetwork.bsky.social funded project with Dr. Heidi Biggs (GT). We'll be bringing together textile artists and water experts to address the impact of data centers on local watersheds. www.aiai.network/ai-water-imp... Stay tuned for our call for artists!
The Price Lab’s Critical Approaches to AI Working Group has released a white paper in which we advocate for AI-free instruction in reading, writing, & research. These are fundamental skills in the humanities (& in general), & with decisive action we can keep teaching them well in the age of AI!
Another win for the paper industry.
Alright well I just watched The Brave Little Toaster for the first time in thirty years and I’m thinking I have at least two essays on it in me. WILD movie.
In which I ask the brilliant Beci Carver a question and don't say "um!"
it's just so hard for me to imagine a mass "exodus" of wealthy people from new york city, one of the places wealthy people most enjoying living. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/o...
Hard to overstate how important ACPC is and has been, and not only to the people of Atlanta.
This is the most economically unequal big city in America. Most surveilled. Tip of the spear for so many ‘innovations’ driving the fascist project today. We can’t afford to lose this journalism.
New theranos company: just one drop of blood and you can sign in to your gmail on a different computer
A joy: my son reading about a meal in a novel and deeply craving that meal (tea and buttery brown toast from wind in the willows) and then getting to eat it and being so happy
Quilicura, Chile, one of the communities I wrote about in EMPIRE OF AI, has launched a brilliant initiative to inspire more responsible AI prompting. Today, don't use AI; ask the townspeople instead: quili.ai. So heartened to see this creative act of resistance.
I've written this blogpost on ICE protest chants & songs, w/ a large section of transcriptions of singing at protests by faith leaders and the Singing Resistance. It also includes songs about ICE agents' perceived masculinity issues and new songs protesting ICE. medium.com/@norikomanab...
Just donated to this program at the middle school my partner’s cousin works at in Minneapolis. They are currently delivering groceries to school families in hiding www.icafoodshelf.org/community-ma...
It’s sad how they are undermining trust in government. The official White House account has made at least 14 posts with AI. This one altered a woman’s face who was arrested while protesting ICE. They made it look like she was crying and darkened her skin. This is sickening.
Chronology of water is an incredible film, very confident, very singular. It feels like life. It’s a wonderful testament to the source material. Probably they (barely) allowed Kristen Stewart to make the film bc of her name, but I’m hopeful that because it exists there will be more films like it.
For people elsewhere who have asked how to support Minnesota while we’re overrun with nazi thugs, here’s an excellent list of places that could use financial help. Lots of choices. Thank you so much!
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
@miriamposner.com bringing it like she always does
AOC: I want everybody to understand that the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this. You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face.
The official explanation they’re apparently going with here is that they aren’t 100% convinced that breathing soot and ozone is actually bad for you.
He didn’t go head to head with Nixon. He didn’t dispute the administration publicly. But he refused to accept wanton criminality and fascistic repression as the new normal and refused to participate in it. I wish there were a lot more people like him around in government today
Lately I’m thinking a lot of my spouse’s grandfather, Randolph Thrower, who was commissioner of the IRS under Nixon and when asked to do immoral and illegal things responded with incredulity and refused to commit crimes www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/u...
But also please can WWIII not start when I’m away from my family
Excited to land in Toronto for MLA and remember snow exists
I didn't want to have to delete these sites but I can see I must.
Fascinating project on historical LLMs. github.com/DGoettlich/h... I have so many questions! I just submitted a Humboldt Research Fellowship proposal on making small LLMs that would've cited this if I'd known about it.
Once again tempted to discuss the "vibe" of a quotation in my diss chapter
