Zach Levonian
@zwlevonian.bsky.social
Human–computer interaction researcher. PhD from University of Minnesota. Tacoma, WA. Mastodon: zwlevonian@hci.social
Pinned
Zach Levonian
@zwlevonian.bsky.social
· Feb 6
Blog Index
Zachary Levonian’s blog, for self-published writing. Zach is a researcher and data scientist with a PhD in Human-computer Interaction.
levon003.github.io
Hi! My name is Zach, and I'm a computer science researcher working in industry. You can learn more about me and find my writing (peer-reviewed and otherwise) on my blog: levon003.github.io/blog/
I regularly see critiques of pleasing-but-false ideas, but I've also had to work quite hard to shape my information feed to include that kind of information. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit here: human–computer interaction researchers should build tools that make feed-shaping easier for people.
When's the last time you heard someone actually critique an idea they found ideologically pleasing? It's incredibly rare and getting rarer, and it's an artifact of us all existing in informational spaces we've specifically selected to tell us what we know we already want to hear.
November 12, 2025 at 6:23 PM
I regularly see critiques of pleasing-but-false ideas, but I've also had to work quite hard to shape my information feed to include that kind of information. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit here: human–computer interaction researchers should build tools that make feed-shaping easier for people.
Worth reading. Some nice reflections here.
Are we approaching a Turing Test for Teaching? A deep dive into the evidence on AI tutoring. carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-algori...
November 11, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Worth reading. Some nice reflections here.
Reposted by Zach Levonian
“look how much better my favorite model is compared compared to these other TRASH MODELS😒😒😒 when I specifically chose a DGP that matches my models assumptions and not the others’😌”
November 7, 2025 at 4:13 AM
“look how much better my favorite model is compared compared to these other TRASH MODELS😒😒😒 when I specifically chose a DGP that matches my models assumptions and not the others’😌”
Feeling major #CSCW2025 FOMO this week! But I enjoyed virtual participation and I'm honored to share that I won a Best Paper Award. Here's a blog post about my study: levon003.github.io/2025/10/22/c...
CSCW best paper: “Peer Recommendation Interventions for Health-related Social Support”
Using recommendations to help people find peer support online. Adaptation of a talk at CSCW 2025.
levon003.github.io
October 22, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Feeling major #CSCW2025 FOMO this week! But I enjoyed virtual participation and I'm honored to share that I won a Best Paper Award. Here's a blog post about my study: levon003.github.io/2025/10/22/c...
Reposted by Zach Levonian
Love this story about how Wikipedia fends off censorship and disinformation: "Wikipedia’s first and best line of defense is to explain how Wikipedia works." www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
September 22, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Love this story about how Wikipedia fends off censorship and disinformation: "Wikipedia’s first and best line of defense is to explain how Wikipedia works." www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
Created a small tool for updating a Slack channel when new papers are added to a Zotero library. Totally free using Google Cloud Run's basic tier. levon003.github.io/2025/09/19/z...
Zotero Slack Connector: a Slack bot for notifications about new papers
I created a small open-source tool for notifying a Slack channel when new papers are added to a Zotero group.
levon003.github.io
September 19, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Created a small tool for updating a Slack channel when new papers are added to a Zotero library. Totally free using Google Cloud Run's basic tier. levon003.github.io/2025/09/19/z...
A quick love letter to the Internet Archive's free online book loans: it makes it so easy to verify extremely obscure facts! I'm constantly using it to verify info on Wikipedia.
September 13, 2025 at 6:32 PM
A quick love letter to the Internet Archive's free online book loans: it makes it so easy to verify extremely obscure facts! I'm constantly using it to verify info on Wikipedia.
Thinking again about AI as tarmac. (Here's Fred Turner, writing in 2017.) levon003.github.io/2024/05/19/m...
September 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Thinking again about AI as tarmac. (Here's Fred Turner, writing in 2017.) levon003.github.io/2024/05/19/m...
This genuinely shocked me. A Qualtrics heatmap included in a 2019 Nature Comms paper, turned into a far-right meme by the Department of Homeland Security. levon003.github.io/2024/07/27/m...
August 26, 2025 at 9:44 PM
This genuinely shocked me. A Qualtrics heatmap included in a 2019 Nature Comms paper, turned into a far-right meme by the Department of Homeland Security. levon003.github.io/2024/07/27/m...
Starting to get excited for #CSCW2025! I have a paper on peer support via recommender systems in the virtual session. Recommender systems should treat people matching as a serious design goal! levon003.github.io/2025/02/25/c...
Research paper: “Peer Recommendation Interventions for Health-related Social Support”
Can recommendation systems help people find health-related peer support online? I wrote a research paper exploring this question.
levon003.github.io
August 20, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Starting to get excited for #CSCW2025! I have a paper on peer support via recommender systems in the virtual session. Recommender systems should treat people matching as a serious design goal! levon003.github.io/2025/02/25/c...
Reposted by Zach Levonian
The @acm-cscw.bsky.social Starter Pack is growing ahead of #CSCW2025 ! (go.bsky.app/SPumuMT) 🔥 A warm welcome to all of our new members 🔥: @imanm02.bsky.social
@jesanovi.bsky.social @shadinz.bsky.social @jaytee-ess.bsky.social @jaewonk.bsky.social @sypark9.bsky.social
New member thread 1/x
@jesanovi.bsky.social @shadinz.bsky.social @jaytee-ess.bsky.social @jaewonk.bsky.social @sypark9.bsky.social
New member thread 1/x
ACM-CSCW
Join the conversation
go.bsky.app
August 19, 2025 at 3:01 PM
The @acm-cscw.bsky.social Starter Pack is growing ahead of #CSCW2025 ! (go.bsky.app/SPumuMT) 🔥 A warm welcome to all of our new members 🔥: @imanm02.bsky.social
@jesanovi.bsky.social @shadinz.bsky.social @jaytee-ess.bsky.social @jaewonk.bsky.social @sypark9.bsky.social
New member thread 1/x
@jesanovi.bsky.social @shadinz.bsky.social @jaytee-ess.bsky.social @jaewonk.bsky.social @sypark9.bsky.social
New member thread 1/x
Reposted by Zach Levonian
This article was a supreme delight: grab a cup of tea, set aside 10 or 15 minutes, and enjoy this story about The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan.
aresluna.org/the-hardest-...
(via @ferociousj.bsky.social)
aresluna.org/the-hardest-...
(via @ferociousj.bsky.social)
The hardest working font in Manhattan
A story of a 150-year-old font you have never heard of – and one you probably saw earlier today.
aresluna.org
August 12, 2025 at 2:31 PM
This article was a supreme delight: grab a cup of tea, set aside 10 or 15 minutes, and enjoy this story about The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan.
aresluna.org/the-hardest-...
(via @ferociousj.bsky.social)
aresluna.org/the-hardest-...
(via @ferociousj.bsky.social)
Very interesting bill. I wrote up a few initial thoughts, including on the peer support exemptions. levon003.github.io/2025/08/11/i...
August 12, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Very interesting bill. I wrote up a few initial thoughts, including on the peer support exemptions. levon003.github.io/2025/08/11/i...
Amazing things are happening in the UK www.ft.com/content/6256...
Here’s 1,000 words about Tesco’s birthday cake sandwich, none of which concern how it tastes
Blog of saddos: Cakewich 2
www.ft.com
August 8, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Amazing things are happening in the UK www.ft.com/content/6256...
Reposted by Zach Levonian
I wrote about how AI chatbots strip cultural and historical context away from language. What remains is merely a ghost in the machine, and it's repeatedly making people confused and scared www.wired.com/story/chatgp...
The Real Demon Inside ChatGPT
AI chatbots strip language of its historical and cultural context. Sometimes what looks like a satanic bloodletting ritual may actually be lifted from Warhammer 40,000.
www.wired.com
July 29, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I wrote about how AI chatbots strip cultural and historical context away from language. What remains is merely a ghost in the machine, and it's repeatedly making people confused and scared www.wired.com/story/chatgp...
Reposted by Zach Levonian
This post tries to explain why I find language models exciting. But it doesn't try to persuade skeptics that they should agree. It's aimed more at people already working with AI, and its goal is to sharpen our collective sense of what the upside potential might be. #MLSky 🤖 🧪
A more interesting upside of AI
Does AI provide anything to look forward to, if “super-intelligence” sounds boring?
tedunderwood.com
July 2, 2025 at 2:49 PM
This post tries to explain why I find language models exciting. But it doesn't try to persuade skeptics that they should agree. It's aimed more at people already working with AI, and its goal is to sharpen our collective sense of what the upside potential might be. #MLSky 🤖 🧪
Interesting method. The author (Will Schulz) has a working paper for this ICA 2025 presentation: willschulz.com/wp-content/u...
June 17, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Interesting method. The author (Will Schulz) has a working paper for this ICA 2025 presentation: willschulz.com/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Zach Levonian
Validity as a style guide for science.
Strunk and White for Science
Validity as a style guide for telling stories about correlations
www.argmin.net
June 13, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Validity as a style guide for science.
Short story recommendation: "How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub" by @pdjeliclark.bsky.social. Reminded me a lot of Fallen London from @failbettergames.com; the same number of tentacles, but more colonialism and less hope. www.uncannymagazine.com/article/how-...
How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub - Uncanny Magazine
“Ambition!” Trevor emphasized, rapping knuckles hard on the wood table. “That is what makes the great men!” He took a satisfied swallow from his mug. Across from him, Barnaby put down the daily he’d b...
www.uncannymagazine.com
June 9, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Short story recommendation: "How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub" by @pdjeliclark.bsky.social. Reminded me a lot of Fallen London from @failbettergames.com; the same number of tentacles, but more colonialism and less hope. www.uncannymagazine.com/article/how-...
Good excuse to re-share "But is it rigorous? Trustworthiness and authenticity in naturalistic evaluation". Written by
Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba in 1986, so surely we've sorted out how to evaluate varied research methods in the last 40 years. hlanthorn.com/wp-content/u...
Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba in 1986, so surely we've sorted out how to evaluate varied research methods in the last 40 years. hlanthorn.com/wp-content/u...
June 7, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Good excuse to re-share "But is it rigorous? Trustworthiness and authenticity in naturalistic evaluation". Written by
Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba in 1986, so surely we've sorted out how to evaluate varied research methods in the last 40 years. hlanthorn.com/wp-content/u...
Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba in 1986, so surely we've sorted out how to evaluate varied research methods in the last 40 years. hlanthorn.com/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Zach Levonian
Should LLMs be used to review papers? AAAI is piloting LLM-generated reviews this year. I wrote a blog post arguing that using LLMs as reviewers can have bad downstream consequences for science by centralizing judgments about what constitutes good research.
bryanwilder.github.io/files/llmrev...
bryanwilder.github.io/files/llmrev...
Equilibrium effects of LLM reviewing
Equilibrium effects of LLM reviewing
bryanwilder.github.io
May 26, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Should LLMs be used to review papers? AAAI is piloting LLM-generated reviews this year. I wrote a blog post arguing that using LLMs as reviewers can have bad downstream consequences for science by centralizing judgments about what constitutes good research.
bryanwilder.github.io/files/llmrev...
bryanwilder.github.io/files/llmrev...
Reposted by Zach Levonian
People keep plugging AI "Co-Scientists," so what happens when you ask them to do an important task like finding errors in papers?
We built SPOT, a dataset of STEM manuscripts across 10 fields annotated with real errors to find out.
(tl;dr not even close to usable) #NLProc
arxiv.org/abs/2505.11855
We built SPOT, a dataset of STEM manuscripts across 10 fields annotated with real errors to find out.
(tl;dr not even close to usable) #NLProc
arxiv.org/abs/2505.11855
May 23, 2025 at 4:22 PM
People keep plugging AI "Co-Scientists," so what happens when you ask them to do an important task like finding errors in papers?
We built SPOT, a dataset of STEM manuscripts across 10 fields annotated with real errors to find out.
(tl;dr not even close to usable) #NLProc
arxiv.org/abs/2505.11855
We built SPOT, a dataset of STEM manuscripts across 10 fields annotated with real errors to find out.
(tl;dr not even close to usable) #NLProc
arxiv.org/abs/2505.11855
Very swaggy. "By day, you can see scanners scanning and what they're scanning, and when they're not scanning, you will see public domain silent movies and pictures. Sorta like an Internet Archive TV" www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPg2...
lofi Archive radio 🎞️ beats to scan/read microfiche to
YouTube video by Internet Archive
www.youtube.com
May 21, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Very swaggy. "By day, you can see scanners scanning and what they're scanning, and when they're not scanning, you will see public domain silent movies and pictures. Sorta like an Internet Archive TV" www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPg2...
Wrote about a fun research controversy involving the finding that Irish judges are more likely to cite legal cases in rulings if they have a Wikipedia article. levon003.github.io/2025/05/21/w...
How does Wikipedia article quality impact decision-making?
A randomized experiment on Irish judges and a Wiki Workshop 2025 paper on the NFL draft.
levon003.github.io
May 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Wrote about a fun research controversy involving the finding that Irish judges are more likely to cite legal cases in rulings if they have a Wikipedia article. levon003.github.io/2025/05/21/w...
@xuanalogue.bsky.social Congrats on your recent defense! Totally unrelated question: are you familiar with "Three Nightmares of the Inductive Mind" by Reza Negarestani? It reminded me vaguely of "Beyond Preferences", and I was wondering if it was taken seriously. www.glass-bead.org/research-pla...
Three Nightmares of the Inductive Mind — Glass Bead
12
www.glass-bead.org
May 14, 2025 at 11:54 PM
@xuanalogue.bsky.social Congrats on your recent defense! Totally unrelated question: are you familiar with "Three Nightmares of the Inductive Mind" by Reza Negarestani? It reminded me vaguely of "Beyond Preferences", and I was wondering if it was taken seriously. www.glass-bead.org/research-pla...