xiaochang
@xiaochang.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Communication @ Stanford. Histories of AI/ML, NLP, speech recognition, and related data practices; general tomfoolery.
Reposted by xiaochang
"A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field. Browse and contribute images of all kinds: diagrams, schematics, photos, graphic elements, and other visual fragments."
Cybernetics Image Library
A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field.
cyberneticsimagelibrary.dev
August 14, 2025 at 6:41 PM
"A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field. Browse and contribute images of all kinds: diagrams, schematics, photos, graphic elements, and other visual fragments."
It's already well-known in CS, but for those unfamiliar in humanities/social sciences doing historical/social critique of speech processing, NLP, and AI/ML, Dan and Jim's textbook + site is an incredible (and accessible) resource for gaining a foundational understanding of key techniques.
Now that school is starting for lots of folks, it's time for a new release of Speech and Language Processing! Jim and I added all sorts of material for the August 2025 release! With slides to match! Check it out here: web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/sl...
Speech and Language Processing
Speech and Language Processing
web.stanford.edu
August 25, 2025 at 6:49 AM
It's already well-known in CS, but for those unfamiliar in humanities/social sciences doing historical/social critique of speech processing, NLP, and AI/ML, Dan and Jim's textbook + site is an incredible (and accessible) resource for gaining a foundational understanding of key techniques.
Hey, so it turns out I'll be in NYC next week. Who's around?
July 25, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Hey, so it turns out I'll be in NYC next week. Who's around?
I am increasingly convinced that the problem is not so much that people don't seem to understand how computers work than it is that they seem to have forgotten what *language* does.
In a stunning moment of self-delusion, the Wall Street Journal headline writers admitted that they don't know how LLM chatbots work.
July 21, 2025 at 3:16 AM
I am increasingly convinced that the problem is not so much that people don't seem to understand how computers work than it is that they seem to have forgotten what *language* does.
See downthread re: v. cool forthcoming special issue on algorithms+occult, but as a tangent: is there a name for visual genre of merging vaguely late-antiquity/early-modern imagery w/digital/electronic iconography? Like sacred geometry+circuit schematic vibes. If not, can I propose glitch esoterica?
Etsy witches = a form of occult gig work. It’s precarity all the way down, both for the young people who are using witchcraft to help them find job and for the witches who are using a platform like Etsy to sell their services
Etsy Witches Charge for Jobs, Sunshine and Knicks Wins. Business Is Booming.
Some spells promise love, success and revenge; $25 for a tax refund and a boyfriend
www.wsj.com
July 20, 2025 at 10:25 PM
See downthread re: v. cool forthcoming special issue on algorithms+occult, but as a tangent: is there a name for visual genre of merging vaguely late-antiquity/early-modern imagery w/digital/electronic iconography? Like sacred geometry+circuit schematic vibes. If not, can I propose glitch esoterica?
So . . . what do we think is going to happen when they eventually incorporate all that text that people have been scraping from *fanfiction archives* into these datasets?
"SCPs that got hoovered up and regurgitated by chatbots end up giving tech executives schizophrenia" is perhaps fittingly a very SCP thing to happen
July 19, 2025 at 2:34 AM
So . . . what do we think is going to happen when they eventually incorporate all that text that people have been scraping from *fanfiction archives* into these datasets?
Reposted by xiaochang
the curse of enjoying the early internet is having to watch all its silly little aspects get churned up and spat out in its final form as a civilization-eating demogorgon
July 18, 2025 at 6:50 PM
the curse of enjoying the early internet is having to watch all its silly little aspects get churned up and spat out in its final form as a civilization-eating demogorgon
I would say that only 95% of my writing problems are, in fact, thinking problems. The remaining 5% are the result of my doomed attempts to turn my point into a pun.
This definitely goes for writing history. “Why is this paragraph so contorted and hard to phrase?” 1 day later: “oh, it’s because I didn’t know what I was talking about.”
“Every writing problem in nonfiction is a reporting problem” is so punishingly true and every single time it hurts to relearn it
July 14, 2025 at 11:35 PM
I would say that only 95% of my writing problems are, in fact, thinking problems. The remaining 5% are the result of my doomed attempts to turn my point into a pun.
"to solve DoD use cases"--I've read decades-worth of documentation from NLP-related DoD projects since 1940s & seen proposed use cases from run-of-the-mill mass surveillance to "idk, we try telepathy yet?" I can't think of one for this that isn't just to watch the world burn.
The Department of Defense will begin using Grok, the AI chatbot built by Elon Musk’s start-up xAI, the company announced www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
July 14, 2025 at 10:18 PM
"to solve DoD use cases"--I've read decades-worth of documentation from NLP-related DoD projects since 1940s & seen proposed use cases from run-of-the-mill mass surveillance to "idk, we try telepathy yet?" I can't think of one for this that isn't just to watch the world burn.
Me, an absolute monster, with curiosity borne from deepest void of late capitalist despair: "what kind of ads were they?"
this is a wild set of options for printing your boarding pass from an airline website
July 14, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Me, an absolute monster, with curiosity borne from deepest void of late capitalist despair: "what kind of ads were they?"
No idea why Mariners are trending since I don't follow baseball and never have, but this 3.5+ hour documentary that @secretbase.bsky.social put out some years ago might be one of my favorite pieces of media of all time. Fully serious. It's this and vol. 3 of Proust. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIgK...
The History of the Seattle Mariners: Supercut Edition
YouTube video by Secret Base
www.youtube.com
July 14, 2025 at 5:01 AM
No idea why Mariners are trending since I don't follow baseball and never have, but this 3.5+ hour documentary that @secretbase.bsky.social put out some years ago might be one of my favorite pieces of media of all time. Fully serious. It's this and vol. 3 of Proust. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIgK...
Okay, while I'm here, something sound studies and media tech history folks may find of interest: the Ray Dolby papers were recently processed and are now available for research at Stanford's Silicon Valley Archives. A bunch of stuff has been digitized too: exhibits.stanford.edu/dolby
July 14, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Okay, while I'm here, something sound studies and media tech history folks may find of interest: the Ray Dolby papers were recently processed and are now available for research at Stanford's Silicon Valley Archives. A bunch of stuff has been digitized too: exhibits.stanford.edu/dolby
Wow, I couldn't even remember to put a link to the actual @sigcisconf.bsky.social account in my repost. It's social media amateur hour over here. (Don't worry, I'm not going to be the one actually running the SIGCIS bsky account.)
I should probably be making my own "go follow the new SIGCIS account" post, but instead I'm just going to repost Laine's:
also, SIGCIS (the special interest group in computing, information, and society AKA the computer history people) finally got over here on Bluesky
can we give @sigcisconf.bsky.social a big welcome and an even bigger follow????
can we give @sigcisconf.bsky.social a big welcome and an even bigger follow????
July 14, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Wow, I couldn't even remember to put a link to the actual @sigcisconf.bsky.social account in my repost. It's social media amateur hour over here. (Don't worry, I'm not going to be the one actually running the SIGCIS bsky account.)
Reminder that the extended deadline for SIGCIS proposals is tomorrow 7/14!
We're on our all-virtual rotation this year, which means registration will be Pay-What-You-Can and you don't have to travel to Luxembourg.
We're on our all-virtual rotation this year, which means registration will be Pay-What-You-Can and you don't have to travel to Luxembourg.
Deadline EXTENDED to Mon, 7/14! SIGCIS 2025: Power Surge with keynote speaker Lily Geismer. Find more details and full CFP here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
SIGCIS 2025 CFP: Power Surge
The Special Interest Group for Computing, Information, and Society (SIGCIS) welcomes submissions to their 16th Annual Conference SIGCIS 2025: power surge ⚡🔌🔋💥 September 25-27 2025 | Online via Zoom K...
docs.google.com
July 14, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Reminder that the extended deadline for SIGCIS proposals is tomorrow 7/14!
We're on our all-virtual rotation this year, which means registration will be Pay-What-You-Can and you don't have to travel to Luxembourg.
We're on our all-virtual rotation this year, which means registration will be Pay-What-You-Can and you don't have to travel to Luxembourg.
I should probably be making my own "go follow the new SIGCIS account" post, but instead I'm just going to repost Laine's:
also, SIGCIS (the special interest group in computing, information, and society AKA the computer history people) finally got over here on Bluesky
can we give @sigcisconf.bsky.social a big welcome and an even bigger follow????
can we give @sigcisconf.bsky.social a big welcome and an even bigger follow????
a basketball game between minnesota and new york is being played
ALT: a basketball game between minnesota and new york is being played
media.tenor.com
July 14, 2025 at 3:39 AM
I should probably be making my own "go follow the new SIGCIS account" post, but instead I'm just going to repost Laine's:
Reposted by xiaochang
Anyway, it's our fundraising season, pls donate to ROMchip if you like our rizz donate.romchip.org
January 18, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Anyway, it's our fundraising season, pls donate to ROMchip if you like our rizz donate.romchip.org
Reposted by xiaochang
Yeah I need way more money than anyone ever got before. I need it because my shit is difficult right now. But it's important in ways even I haven't been able to work out. OpenAI is a serious business. Help me. Please help me please my serious company is so good. Help me
www.cnbc.com/2024/12/27/o...
www.cnbc.com/2024/12/27/o...
December 28, 2024 at 5:57 AM
Yeah I need way more money than anyone ever got before. I need it because my shit is difficult right now. But it's important in ways even I haven't been able to work out. OpenAI is a serious business. Help me. Please help me please my serious company is so good. Help me
www.cnbc.com/2024/12/27/o...
www.cnbc.com/2024/12/27/o...
File under: tech company execs eventually "innovate" themselves into an slightly worse version of the very thing they sought to disrupt. This is just how a lot of long-running procedural shows on network tv worked.
December 28, 2024 at 6:46 AM
File under: tech company execs eventually "innovate" themselves into an slightly worse version of the very thing they sought to disrupt. This is just how a lot of long-running procedural shows on network tv worked.
2024 is absolutely nailing it: "Air Canada essentially argued that 'the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions,' a court order said." Impeccable, no notes. 🙃 arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
February 19, 2024 at 9:40 AM
2024 is absolutely nailing it: "Air Canada essentially argued that 'the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions,' a court order said." Impeccable, no notes. 🙃 arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
Reposted by xiaochang
UPDATED DEADLINE for submissions for SIGCIS Conference 2024 (July 14th in Viña del Mar, Chile) by Monday, February 12th.
Please find the CfP on the SIGCIS conference website meetings.sigcis.org.
Please find the CfP on the SIGCIS conference website meetings.sigcis.org.
January 31, 2024 at 6:51 PM
UPDATED DEADLINE for submissions for SIGCIS Conference 2024 (July 14th in Viña del Mar, Chile) by Monday, February 12th.
Please find the CfP on the SIGCIS conference website meetings.sigcis.org.
Please find the CfP on the SIGCIS conference website meetings.sigcis.org.
I first set up my twitter account 15 years ago, so I truly have no recollection of how I'm supposed to do this.
January 29, 2024 at 1:03 AM
I first set up my twitter account 15 years ago, so I truly have no recollection of how I'm supposed to do this.