Michael Gavin
@michaelgavin.bsky.social
Professor of English and Digital Humanities at Univ South Carolina. Author of Literary Mathematics (Stanford UP). Quiet poster, usually. Website: https://literarymathematics.org/
Ugh! Reviewing for a journal and had my first encounter today with an AI-generated submission -- fake quotes, fake sources, completely vague argument, the whole nine yards. So poorly done. What a waste of my time!
April 22, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Ugh! Reviewing for a journal and had my first encounter today with an AI-generated submission -- fake quotes, fake sources, completely vague argument, the whole nine yards. So poorly done. What a waste of my time!
Also, of course, left unsaid here is that there's much more to personhood than mere legal status. AI just ain't people, my friend. We were all comforted on this score long ago by Walt Whitman's "Song for Occupations"
April 3, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Also, of course, left unsaid here is that there's much more to personhood than mere legal status. AI just ain't people, my friend. We were all comforted on this score long ago by Walt Whitman's "Song for Occupations"
Reposted by Michael Gavin
📆 Save the date! 📆
Mikko Tolonen @tolonen.bsky.social (@helsinki.fi) is going to give our Annual Voltaire Foundation Lecture on Digital Enlightenment Studies!
9 May 2025, Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, 17:00–19:00.
More information:
tinyurl.com/3cjmx4zj
Mikko Tolonen @tolonen.bsky.social (@helsinki.fi) is going to give our Annual Voltaire Foundation Lecture on Digital Enlightenment Studies!
9 May 2025, Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, 17:00–19:00.
More information:
tinyurl.com/3cjmx4zj
Annual Voltaire Foundation Lecture on Digital Enlightenment Studies: Mikko Tolonen on Books as Objects, Data and Meaning: A Computational Approach to Eighteenth-Century Book and Intellectual History
9 May 2025 Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, 17:00–19:00 Annual Voltaire Foundation Lecture on Digital Enlightenment Studies Mikko Tolonen (University of Helsinki) Books as Objects, Data and Meaning: A…
www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk
March 12, 2025 at 4:18 PM
📆 Save the date! 📆
Mikko Tolonen @tolonen.bsky.social (@helsinki.fi) is going to give our Annual Voltaire Foundation Lecture on Digital Enlightenment Studies!
9 May 2025, Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, 17:00–19:00.
More information:
tinyurl.com/3cjmx4zj
Mikko Tolonen @tolonen.bsky.social (@helsinki.fi) is going to give our Annual Voltaire Foundation Lecture on Digital Enlightenment Studies!
9 May 2025, Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, 17:00–19:00.
More information:
tinyurl.com/3cjmx4zj
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Thrilled to say @ucdpolitics.bsky.social is making a permanent hire at Assistant Professor in any field across politics and international relations. Details here: my.corehr.com/pls/coreport... Join us!
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my.corehr.com
March 11, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Thrilled to say @ucdpolitics.bsky.social is making a permanent hire at Assistant Professor in any field across politics and international relations. Details here: my.corehr.com/pls/coreport... Join us!
If not for the sunk cost fallacy, how could anyone make it through middle age?
February 25, 2025 at 10:26 PM
If not for the sunk cost fallacy, how could anyone make it through middle age?
Reposted by Michael Gavin
The Beastie Boys’ ‘So What’cha Want’
-by The Muppets
-by The Muppets
January 8, 2025 at 7:23 PM
The Beastie Boys’ ‘So What’cha Want’
-by The Muppets
-by The Muppets
Reposted by Michael Gavin
My essay on links, AI chatbots, and Alexander Pope's Dunciad is up at Aeon today! aeon.co/essays/when-...
When AI summaries replace hyperlinks, thought itself is flattened | Aeon Essays
In creating anonymous summaries, AI flattens out all the fascinating architecture of thought that makes the internet hum
aeon.co
December 6, 2024 at 12:40 PM
My essay on links, AI chatbots, and Alexander Pope's Dunciad is up at Aeon today! aeon.co/essays/when-...
Reposted by Michael Gavin
.@zentralwerkstatt.org and I co-wrote this piece on why you are (probably) doing AI criticism wrong as a humanist and why we, in Critical AI Studies, need to do better methodologically than 'So I asked ChatGPT a question and now I have thoughts...'
Now available on arXiv at doi.org/10.48550/arX...
Now available on arXiv at doi.org/10.48550/arX...
December 2, 2024 at 1:20 PM
.@zentralwerkstatt.org and I co-wrote this piece on why you are (probably) doing AI criticism wrong as a humanist and why we, in Critical AI Studies, need to do better methodologically than 'So I asked ChatGPT a question and now I have thoughts...'
Now available on arXiv at doi.org/10.48550/arX...
Now available on arXiv at doi.org/10.48550/arX...
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Funded PhD Studentship @UCL History and @wellcomecollection.bsky.social on project titled 'Translating Monstrosity: Constructions of Difference in #earlymodern England and France'. Deadline Jan 31st 2025. Project & application info: www.ucl.ac.uk/history/oppo.... #histmed #histsci #HSTM #bookhistory
Opportunities
Find opportunities to join UCL History in academic, research, teaching and learning, admin and other capacities below.
www.ucl.ac.uk
December 16, 2024 at 7:28 AM
Funded PhD Studentship @UCL History and @wellcomecollection.bsky.social on project titled 'Translating Monstrosity: Constructions of Difference in #earlymodern England and France'. Deadline Jan 31st 2025. Project & application info: www.ucl.ac.uk/history/oppo.... #histmed #histsci #HSTM #bookhistory
Reposted by Michael Gavin
From 2,000 years ago ~ remarkably-conserved frescoes from the Villa of Livia, wife of the Emperor Augustus. The villa was rediscovered in 16C just outside Rome & was probably part of the dowry Livia brought to her marriage in 39 BC (Palazzo Massimo Museum)
November 13, 2024 at 6:09 AM
From 2,000 years ago ~ remarkably-conserved frescoes from the Villa of Livia, wife of the Emperor Augustus. The villa was rediscovered in 16C just outside Rome & was probably part of the dowry Livia brought to her marriage in 39 BC (Palazzo Massimo Museum)
Reading the new Computational Humanities collection and found this footnote. lol. that was me!
Ps: can I include this in my annual review under “recognition”?
Ps: can I include this in my annual review under “recognition”?
December 2, 2024 at 2:34 PM
Reading the new Computational Humanities collection and found this footnote. lol. that was me!
Ps: can I include this in my annual review under “recognition”?
Ps: can I include this in my annual review under “recognition”?
Reposted by Michael Gavin
The joy when someone cancels their meeting with you so you can get more marking done!
(Seriously, it's an unexpected gift)
#AcademicSky
(Seriously, it's an unexpected gift)
#AcademicSky
December 2, 2024 at 1:27 PM
The joy when someone cancels their meeting with you so you can get more marking done!
(Seriously, it's an unexpected gift)
#AcademicSky
(Seriously, it's an unexpected gift)
#AcademicSky
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Computational Humanities is now available! (OA version this winter.) Thank you to the amazing contributors, co-editors extraordinaire @dmimno.bsky.social and Jessica Marie Johnson, the team Minessota, and series editors @laurenfklein.bsky.social and Matt Gold!
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791598...
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791598...
Book Details - University of Minnesota Press
The first book to intervene in debates on computation in the digital humanities Bringing together leading experts from across North America and Europe, Compu...
www.upress.umn.edu
September 24, 2024 at 3:43 PM
Computational Humanities is now available! (OA version this winter.) Thank you to the amazing contributors, co-editors extraordinaire @dmimno.bsky.social and Jessica Marie Johnson, the team Minessota, and series editors @laurenfklein.bsky.social and Matt Gold!
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791598...
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791598...
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Periodic reminder that Journal of Open Humanities Data is a thing. I've published in and reviewed for this title. Very good way to present your dataset to the world.
openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com
openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com
Journal of Open Humanities Data
The Journal of Open Humanities Data (JOHD) aims to be a key part of a thriving community of scholars sharing humanities data. The journal features peer reviewed publications describing humanities rese...
openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com
November 20, 2024 at 3:10 PM
Periodic reminder that Journal of Open Humanities Data is a thing. I've published in and reviewed for this title. Very good way to present your dataset to the world.
openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com
openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Where the streets are paved with…bones! An example of animal bone (cattle & sheep) flooring from Park End Street in Oxford - 12 examples of bone flooring have been found in the county of Oxfordshire! 17th cent. On display at Museum of Oxford!
November 10, 2024 at 8:37 PM
Where the streets are paved with…bones! An example of animal bone (cattle & sheep) flooring from Park End Street in Oxford - 12 examples of bone flooring have been found in the county of Oxfordshire! 17th cent. On display at Museum of Oxford!
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Hard to know if it's just the influx of new joins or the new visibility offered by "starter packs", but I'm encouraged by finding lots of once-familiar names and faces now on here-- as well as new ones!
November 10, 2024 at 1:11 AM
Hard to know if it's just the influx of new joins or the new visibility offered by "starter packs", but I'm encouraged by finding lots of once-familiar names and faces now on here-- as well as new ones!
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Really rewarding paper to read, pressuring the norm of uncritically using cosine similarity as a proxy for semantic similarity.
Rewarding, but also makes me sweat a little.
arxiv.org/pdf/2403.054...
Rewarding, but also makes me sweat a little.
arxiv.org/pdf/2403.054...
March 11, 2024 at 5:52 PM
Really rewarding paper to read, pressuring the norm of uncritically using cosine similarity as a proxy for semantic similarity.
Rewarding, but also makes me sweat a little.
arxiv.org/pdf/2403.054...
Rewarding, but also makes me sweat a little.
arxiv.org/pdf/2403.054...
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Carreg Cennen. Spectacular.
September 4, 2024 at 3:46 AM
Carreg Cennen. Spectacular.
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Was it this one on generative AI, LLMs and the transformer from the FT? If not, it’s an excellent read anyway.
ig.ft.com/generative-ai/
ig.ft.com/generative-ai/
Generative AI exists because of the transformer
The technology has resulted in a host of cutting-edge AI applications — but its real power lies beyond text generation
ig.ft.com
August 21, 2024 at 5:21 PM
Was it this one on generative AI, LLMs and the transformer from the FT? If not, it’s an excellent read anyway.
ig.ft.com/generative-ai/
ig.ft.com/generative-ai/
Reposted by Michael Gavin
This is huge news. The microfilm (& OCR?) of EEBO and The Eighteenth Century (ie ECCO) is available via Internet Archive! I need to dig derper but I wonder about the reactions from libraries, Gale, and ProQuest. H/T to David Smith @dasmiq.bsky.social for sharing news. archive.org/details/bim_...
Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine
archive.org
June 3, 2024 at 4:24 PM
This is huge news. The microfilm (& OCR?) of EEBO and The Eighteenth Century (ie ECCO) is available via Internet Archive! I need to dig derper but I wonder about the reactions from libraries, Gale, and ProQuest. H/T to David Smith @dasmiq.bsky.social for sharing news. archive.org/details/bim_...
Reposted by Michael Gavin
How is agency distributed between characters in fiction writing? In a new PNAS paper, I present a large-scale analysis of the interaction networks of 87,531 fiction works written between 1850 and 2010. What I found is an “agency gap”… Here's a rundown of my findings: 1/
www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
July 12, 2024 at 10:11 AM
How is agency distributed between characters in fiction writing? In a new PNAS paper, I present a large-scale analysis of the interaction networks of 87,531 fiction works written between 1850 and 2010. What I found is an “agency gap”… Here's a rundown of my findings: 1/
www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Today Nomic released version 3.0 of GPT4All, the easiest and best way to run LLMs on your own computer. If you've never run a private local LLM, try some of the llama3 or mistral derivatives, and chat locally with your own documents. Open source LLMs have gotten crazy good.
www.nomic.ai/gpt4all
www.nomic.ai/gpt4all
GPT4All
Run Large Language Models Locally: privacy-first and no internet required
www.nomic.ai
July 2, 2024 at 4:48 PM
Today Nomic released version 3.0 of GPT4All, the easiest and best way to run LLMs on your own computer. If you've never run a private local LLM, try some of the llama3 or mistral derivatives, and chat locally with your own documents. Open source LLMs have gotten crazy good.
www.nomic.ai/gpt4all
www.nomic.ai/gpt4all
Reposted by Michael Gavin
Spinoza voice: “why yes, the Bible IS a historical document”
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters issued this memo today requiring teachers in all schools to keep a Bible in their classroom and teach from it as a historical document. (Via KOCO 5 News)
June 27, 2024 at 9:12 PM
Spinoza voice: “why yes, the Bible IS a historical document”
Reposted by Michael Gavin
