maybe: leif weatherby
@leifw.bsky.social
Hegel, cybernetics, Buffalo Bills
Pinned
maybe: leif weatherby
@leifw.bsky.social
· Jun 24
Language Machines is out today, can be ordered from @uminnpress.bsky.social www.upress.umn.edu/978151791932... - gathering a few parergonal writings below 1/
Reposted by maybe: leif weatherby
Large language models are language machines, and we need to think about what they do with language as more than just "mathy math."
Language Machines as Antimeme
www.ailog.blog/p/language-m...
Language Machines as Antimeme
www.ailog.blog/p/language-m...
Language Machines as Antimeme
AI Log reviews Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism
www.ailog.blog
November 9, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Large language models are language machines, and we need to think about what they do with language as more than just "mathy math."
Language Machines as Antimeme
www.ailog.blog/p/language-m...
Language Machines as Antimeme
www.ailog.blog/p/language-m...
Let him who has not parroted stochastically cast the first stone
November 13, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Let him who has not parroted stochastically cast the first stone
Recruiter: holy shit, this applicant is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
November 6, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Recruiter: holy shit, this applicant is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This market is “stuff that will happen before GTA VI”
November 6, 2025 at 10:17 PM
This market is “stuff that will happen before GTA VI”
Some are saying it’s a match made in heaven
Boning up for this conversation of the titans @leifw.bsky.social and @annakornbluh.bsky.social on Friday 12/12 at the Sem Coop.
LFG!
www.semcoop.com/event/leif-w...
LFG!
www.semcoop.com/event/leif-w...
November 6, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Some are saying it’s a match made in heaven
If you’re local stop by!
October 30, 2025 at 3:39 PM
If you’re local stop by!
Ben continues to derive actionable insights from unstructured data
Also very important to have the opposing coach call a run on 2nd and 10 from their own 44 with 42 seconds remaining.
This all goes into the model.
This all goes into the model.
October 26, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Ben continues to derive actionable insights from unstructured data
Reposted by maybe: leif weatherby
SUNY Binghamton just substantially increased stipends for grad students and we have several fully-funded PhD spots in art history. Pretty sure our endowment is smaller more our placement record is great
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:26 PM
SUNY Binghamton just substantially increased stipends for grad students and we have several fully-funded PhD spots in art history. Pretty sure our endowment is smaller more our placement record is great
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
SOTA
This recording captures my talk on “Genre and GenAI” at Sciences Po last week. This is work toward a formal and material critique of instruction-fine tuned models that present what I call the “instructional-conversational” genre. [INST]
La vidéo de la présentation de @jeddobson.bsky.social lors du séminaire du médialab est en ligne !
Une discussion autour des normes, idéologies et attentes intégrées dans les architectures linguistiques contemporaines.
A regarder dès maintenant sur Vimeo 👇
Une discussion autour des normes, idéologies et attentes intégrées dans les architectures linguistiques contemporaines.
A regarder dès maintenant sur Vimeo 👇
October 21, 2025 at 1:22 PM
SOTA
Thursday Night Football starring Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort
October 17, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Thursday Night Football starring Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort
Reposted by maybe: leif weatherby
The first in a (jam-packed) series of events on cultural AI this year from DTL. More incoming!
The Digital Theory Lab at NYU will host Karen Hao for a book talk on Empire of AI on Monday, October 13, RSVP required here:
as.nyu.edu/research-cen...
as.nyu.edu/research-cen...
Karen Hao on Empire of AI
Lunch will be available for the event. Event begins at 12pm
as.nyu.edu
October 6, 2025 at 4:22 PM
The first in a (jam-packed) series of events on cultural AI this year from DTL. More incoming!
The Digital Theory Lab at NYU will host Karen Hao for a book talk on Empire of AI on Monday, October 13, RSVP required here:
as.nyu.edu/research-cen...
as.nyu.edu/research-cen...
Karen Hao on Empire of AI
Lunch will be available for the event. Event begins at 12pm
as.nyu.edu
October 6, 2025 at 4:02 PM
The Digital Theory Lab at NYU will host Karen Hao for a book talk on Empire of AI on Monday, October 13, RSVP required here:
as.nyu.edu/research-cen...
as.nyu.edu/research-cen...
Man if only cognitive maps were still functioning
We're already in the Torment Nexus; what I want is a map of it
October 1, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Man if only cognitive maps were still functioning
Reposted by maybe: leif weatherby
Greg Olsen is so committed to the decision-theory bit: "Just because the outcome is good, doesn't mean the decision was correct."
Anyway, Carson Wentz.
Anyway, Carson Wentz.
September 28, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Greg Olsen is so committed to the decision-theory bit: "Just because the outcome is good, doesn't mean the decision was correct."
Anyway, Carson Wentz.
Anyway, Carson Wentz.
Reposted by maybe: leif weatherby
Extremely good stuff from Leif here
i was on Disintegrator podcast, a really awesome conversation
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3...
September 24, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Extremely good stuff from Leif here
i was on Disintegrator podcast, a really awesome conversation
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3...
September 24, 2025 at 4:24 PM
i was on Disintegrator podcast, a really awesome conversation
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3...
the political economy of bad thinking, a really great piece about the *hostile synergy* between B and X from Henry
September 24, 2025 at 3:36 PM
the political economy of bad thinking, a really great piece about the *hostile synergy* between B and X from Henry
The humanities long since in its Cringe Era
The AHA was right to try to produce guidance on AI, but I wonder if it's even possible. This statement got dinged , of course, for being insufficiently critical. But they were working so hard to be critical that they wrote sentences (like the blue one) that are def false.+
bsky.app/profile/hist...
bsky.app/profile/hist...
September 22, 2025 at 5:35 PM
The humanities long since in its Cringe Era
Reposted by maybe: leif weatherby
I'm going to write on this, but the subtext is that the Nate Silver crowd have shifted hard away from political science, and hard towards the Silicon Valley mindset as a foundational source for purportedly better grounded knowledge. This by @beenwrekt.bsky.social and @leifw.bsky.social
The Bookmaker | The Point Magazine
In the lead-up to the 2008 election, Nate Silver revolutionized the way we talk about politics, bringing cold, hard, numerical facts to a world that had been dominated by the gut feelings of reporters...
thepointmag.com
September 16, 2025 at 12:12 AM
I'm going to write on this, but the subtext is that the Nate Silver crowd have shifted hard away from political science, and hard towards the Silicon Valley mindset as a foundational source for purportedly better grounded knowledge. This by @beenwrekt.bsky.social and @leifw.bsky.social
extremely imporant one-two from Dan here:
"First, the communication of the polling results to policymakers is likely to be at least as difficult a problem as the election forecast presentation, probably much more so. Second, the technical problems with polling are going to be worse."
"First, the communication of the polling results to policymakers is likely to be at least as difficult a problem as the election forecast presentation, probably much more so. Second, the technical problems with polling are going to be worse."
a little bit of good natured blog beef, in which I say that @beenwrekt.bsky.social and @leifw.bsky.social are more right than wrong about the state of polling, contra @andrewgelman.bsky.social
backofmind.substack.com/p/you-cant-t...
backofmind.substack.com/p/you-cant-t...
you can't take it back in a disclaimer
thoughts on the state of opinion research
backofmind.substack.com
September 12, 2025 at 4:54 PM
extremely imporant one-two from Dan here:
"First, the communication of the polling results to policymakers is likely to be at least as difficult a problem as the election forecast presentation, probably much more so. Second, the technical problems with polling are going to be worse."
"First, the communication of the polling results to policymakers is likely to be at least as difficult a problem as the election forecast presentation, probably much more so. Second, the technical problems with polling are going to be worse."
Reposted by maybe: leif weatherby
UChicago alumni: we are drafting a letter targeting a few of the more persuadable-seeming trustees urging them to change course on humanities funding. Please sign:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Explanation to follow ...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Explanation to follow ...
September 2, 2025 at 9:14 PM
UChicago alumni: we are drafting a letter targeting a few of the more persuadable-seeming trustees urging them to change course on humanities funding. Please sign:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Explanation to follow ...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Explanation to follow ...
Reposted by maybe: leif weatherby
"automated language results from Goedel and Jackobson systems interacting together, without cognition. The incomplete and greedy combine to show us what language is in the absence of cognition and present a strong attractor for meaning."
—Leif Weatherby, Language Machines
—Leif Weatherby, Language Machines
September 1, 2025 at 9:20 PM
"automated language results from Goedel and Jackobson systems interacting together, without cognition. The incomplete and greedy combine to show us what language is in the absence of cognition and present a strong attractor for meaning."
—Leif Weatherby, Language Machines
—Leif Weatherby, Language Machines
Reposted by maybe: leif weatherby
loving @leifw.bsky.social’s Language Machines so far. in particular:
“It seems that mental illness, or at a minimum neurosis, should be a criterion for passing the Turing test, but it is equally unlikely that this view will ever be adopted by engineers or journalists.”
“It seems that mental illness, or at a minimum neurosis, should be a criterion for passing the Turing test, but it is equally unlikely that this view will ever be adopted by engineers or journalists.”
August 27, 2025 at 3:54 PM
loving @leifw.bsky.social’s Language Machines so far. in particular:
“It seems that mental illness, or at a minimum neurosis, should be a criterion for passing the Turing test, but it is equally unlikely that this view will ever be adopted by engineers or journalists.”
“It seems that mental illness, or at a minimum neurosis, should be a criterion for passing the Turing test, but it is equally unlikely that this view will ever be adopted by engineers or journalists.”
Language Machines is in The Observer!
Language Machines is out today, can be ordered from @uminnpress.bsky.social www.upress.umn.edu/978151791932... - gathering a few parergonal writings below 1/
August 27, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Language Machines is in The Observer!