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¶ I've been thinking a lot about, and experimenting a lot with, the uses of AI — its promises, possibilities, pitfalls, and especially its uncanny (in many senses) insights into the shape of the human cultural corpus. ¶ Large Language models work in the principle of a predicting the next element in sequence of tokens — of words and fragments: given what came before, what comes next? ¶ The posts here combine older work and new, in the form of a collage, an experimenter's log, and a commonplace book.

Featured

• 🖨️Reclaiming the Cliché

  What is it that makes the output of large language models and other varieties of generative AI so interesting, and then so boring? For me the most useful operative metaphor for AI’s promise and problems is the cliche.

• ✍️Blog Resurrection

  Using LLMs to pull thousands of old blog posts back from a grave of mangled database text and rotten links

• 🌉Doves Type

  In 1909 T.J. Cobden-Sanderson laboriously destroyed the renowned typeface he had helped create for the Doves Press, lest it ever be used in mechanized reproduction. The destruction didn't take, though, and these words are set in Doves Type. Here's why I chose it (with fear and trembling) for my own dredged-up, AI-reinvigorated online repository.

Recent

• 🤖When a Claude Meets a Claude

  AI stress tests and the "spiritual bliss" attractor

• 💡It's All Printing

  Semiconductor fabrication continues the age-old tradition of lithography at the bleeding edge of physics

• 📝Five Questions with Jeffrey Rosen

  Explore how the National Constitution Center embraces remote education and reaches new audiences, as Jeffrey Rosen discusses constitutional challenges during COVID-19.

• 🤖AI as a Cliche Machine

  LLMs excel at distilling, but lag on expansion. Except when they don't ...

Archive

• 🏘️Slums are the answer

  Insights into community resilience found in the world's squatter cities.

• 📚We speak volumes

  From Penelope Lively's _Moon Tiger_, a reflection on the nature of language and memory.

• 🎬Fridge logic

  An exploration of TV-writer jargon that highlights the intricacies of scriptwriting with a humorous touch.

• 🔬Scientists in Synagogues

  Inviting Jewish congregations to explore awe, curiosity and wonder through the lens of science