Chatterings

By: Daniel Nunez Finding Critical Research AI Community Across the Globe One of the challenges resulting from the ongoing surge of interest in AI is finding community and resources outside of tech, “innovation” focused organizations that are often closely aligned with the political and commercial interests of “Big Tech”. The work of critical research communities, […]

By: Daniel Nunez ChatGPT hasn’t made classrooms worse. It has highlighted problems that students, professors, and teaching assistants know all too well. Last year, the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT triggered widespread warnings of the “inevitable” disruption large-language models (LLMs) would cause. Academic assignments was perhaps, among the most straightforward fixations, as students could now generate […]

By: Daniel Nunez The hype and increased prevalence of Artificial Intelligence companies and their products have renewed public anxieties about automation. There is understandable public fear that Artificial Intelligence, chatbots, image recognition algorithms, and robotics represent an incoming wave of digital and mechanical labourers that will replace human workers. In speaking with community members at […]

By: Daniel Nunez The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the mid-20th century has been long intertwined with fantasies of computer therapists. Joseph Weizenbaum created ELIZA, one of the first chatbots, to explore communication between humans and computers. Against his own expectations and intentions, Weizenbaum was surprised to learn that users enjoyed discussing personal matters […]

By: Daniel Nunez Algorithmic recommendation systems have, deservingly, been the subject of scrutiny amongst artists and commentators in the music industry. The New Yorker staff writer Kyle Chayka’s new book Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Cultureargues that these systems heavily shape the products we buy, and the culture we consume. For Chayka, machine-guided curation stifles creativity […]