It’s been five months since Alison Gopnik, Cosma Shalizi, James Evans and myself wrote to argue that we should not think of Large Language Models (LLMs) as “intelligent, autonomous agents” paving the way to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), but as cultural and social technologies. In the interim, these models have certainly improved on various metrics. […]
In the summer of 2023, I was fortunate to participate in a double dose of Digital Humanities learning. I signed up for a three-day workshop Manos a la obra organized by the US Latino Digital Humanities Center, and I was the recipient of a Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium Mellon grant/fellowship. A result of this rewarding […]
As the conversations about Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) increase as faculty start designing courses and assessments for the fall I have noticed lately a reoccuring theme in a lot of the posts – the need for flexibility. Many of the posts speak to how difficult it is to design when the technology […]
In the digital age, historical maps hold a wealth of information, but unlocking their full potential for geospatial analysis and historic research often requires labor-intensive georeferencing. An innovative project the University of Texas Libraries is evolving this process through the power of machine learning. See full post.
Between 2019 and 2022, I also worked on a project called Books of Hours as Transformative Works. If you’re not familiar with the term “transformative work,” it comes out of fandom studies—think of fan fiction or fan art—where people respond emotionally and creatively to something they love. I wanted to apply this framework to Books […]
Yesterday I gave a talk on AI and archives at the Colby/Bates/Bowdoin Special Collections and Archives Staff Retreat. Thanks to the staff of the George J. Mitchell Department of Archives and Special Collections and the Bowdoin Library, the amazing Schiller Center for Coastal Studies, where the event was held, and Bowdoin’s Hastings Initiative for AI […]
When I spend time with kids, I become hyperconscious of my word choices. “Look at Mr. Frog in the pond. Doesn’t he look grumpy?” Why did I say Mr. Frog? Why did I say he? Where do these gendered presumptions even come from, and how pervasive are they? Is it common to assume that a […]
Last spring dh+lib published the special issue “Making Research Tactile: Critical Making and Data Physicalization in Digital Humanities,” which featured seven case studies on ways critical making could be integrated into a digital humanities (DH) research practice. This follow-up special issue features concrete ways we can integrate critical making into our (library) instruction. Given the […]
Capturing mixed social identities through categorical data presents significant challenges. Nonbinarity provides a conceptual, computational, and visual framework for reimagining social identities beyond binary oppositions. When applied beyond gender to domains such as language, culture, or ethnicity, nonbinarity reveals the complex and sometimes contradictory ways individuals experience social belonging. In this way, it complements intersectionality […]
There’s a fascinating piece of research out from Anthropic. Agentic Misalignment: How LLMs could be insider threats. Maybe you’ve seen it doing the rounds this weekend as it landed on Friday I think. There’s a lot of hyperbolic reaction, even for something that merits serious concern. Nevertheless, it seems these things aren’t ready to be […]
