Aristotle on social animals. Some have rulers, some donβt.
@begus
Assoc. Professor at UC Berkeley Artificial and biological intelligence and language Linguistics Lead at Project CETI π³ PI Berkeley Biological and Artificial Language Lab π£οΈ College Principal of Bowles Hall π° https://www.gasperbegus.com
Aristotle on social animals. Some have rulers, some donβt.
Our reconstruction is that AN voice comes from prepositions turned post verbs where the newly unmarked object gets reanalyzed as subjects after pro-drop:
ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/007...
As AI becomes ever more interwoven in daily life, new research from Nina BeguΕ‘, PhD β20, and GaΕ‘per BeguΕ‘, PhD '18, is beginning to map out machine learningβ "latent space," the hidden mathematical area that processes information and eventually produces an output.
Harvard's magazine reporting on our paper 'Latent Spacecraft'
with @metahaven.bsky.social and @begus.bsky.social
gsas.harvard.edu/news/what-fi...
Unfortunately not. There are other talks recorded here:
www.gasperbegus.com/videos
implications. If language is a continuum (and the only necessary condition is informative imitation), then the barrier is gone.
β¨Language like-abilities also mean we could see their ability to enter contractual relations, express pain etc.
More here:
www.ecologylawquarterly.org/wp-content/u...
The idea is that if we think language and thought are separate (we cite @evfedorenko.bsky.social'swork), then language can serve as a window into the inter worlds of animals.β¨β¨
We show one of the highest degrees of complexity in the animal kingdom (with vowels for example), which has legal
I don't, but in western law, language is often the last frontier, last barrier to keep animals from being subjects of rights. The argument is much more complex than that, however. In the paper we have a long discussion.
But emerging research in Al and animal communication challenges this assumption. This talk presents a new theory of language across humans, animals, and machines, and explores how this shift could reshape legal understandings of personhood, agency, and the scope of rights."
Linguistics and law working together to make changes in the animal rights law.
It was great speaking at NYU Law on AI, animals, and law.
"Law has long treated language as a uniquely human capacity-and a foundation for rights.
If you call it the bunny's letter, maybe it isn't so bad?
My @nyulaw.bsky.social talk is happening tomorrow instead of today (βοΈ)
www.law.nyu.edu/events/disti...
Very few artworks have the actual model running in real time and generating outputs on the go.
Below is a GAN model trained on Finnegans Wake audio, FinneGAN.
Explore the latent spaces with Latent Spacecraft:
latentspacecraft.antikythera.org
@metahaven.bsky.social @begus.bsky.social
Understanding AI can bring us closer to the natural world and can have profound legal implications.
I'm honored to give a Distinguished Speaker Series lecture at NYU Law on AI, language, and rights of animals.
www.law.nyu.edu/events/disti...
Understanding AI can bring us closer to the natural world and can have profound legal implications.
I'm honored to give a Distinguished Speaker Series lecture at NYU Law on AI, language, and rights of animals.
www.law.nyu.edu/events/disti...
Is it watermarking? Is it coincidence? Itβs not watermarking, itβs not coincidence. Itβs LLMs playing poetic games with us.
The one construction by which I recognize LLM writing is the βitβs not X, itβs Yβ construction.
It reminds me so much of the Slavic antithesis. We should call it the LLM antithesis. Where did LLMs get this from?
A great piece on exploring the latent spaces by poetic engineering
open.substack.com/pub/poeticen...
Whales exchange vowels in conversations. It was wonderful to speak to our CBS News station about this wonderful species.
@projectceti.bsky.social
Check out the book on how millennia old Pygmalion myth becomes one of the most relevant topics of our time!
The first time I see a whale drawing on a talk announcement π come to my talk and hear about AI interpretability, building realistic models of human learning and animal communication.
Imagining will be more important than executing in the future. Thatβs where fiction and humanities excels.
Imagining will be more important than executing in the future. Thatβs where fiction and humanities excels.
Humanities offer crucial tools for the development of AI. Now companies are realizing this. Check out Nina Begus book for guidelines on how to use the humanities in AI development:
www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...
@ninabegus.bsky.social
Humanities offer crucial tools for the development of AI. Now companies are realizing this. Check out Nina Begus book for guidelines on how to use the humanities in AI development:
www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...
@ninabegus.bsky.social
Latent Spacecraft pertains to latent space as an interiority of AI which can be made navigable. The piece tests this idea for fiwGAN (for Featural InfoWaveGAN), a speech-generating artificial neural network by @begus.bsky.social et al - see latentspacecraft.antikythera.org cc @ninabegus.bsky.social
Right, we inhabit a locked hole, but can we use it?
ββ FinneGAN, 2026
β¨πβ¨π§΅β¨