Understanding China via culture: An intro to Lu XunWe can learn about China — and about ourselves — by reading one of its most famous authors.Apr 131Apr 131
The future of recreational drugs in the US: history and predictionThe availability of psychoactive drugs varies with time and place. Can we explain why, or predict how this will change in the future?Oct 30, 20231Oct 30, 20231
What China’s ‘interim measures’ can teach us about the future of AIMuch work is being done to make law for language models. I look at what recent Chinese proposals suggest about the future of AI.Jul 15, 20231Jul 15, 20231
A searchable, bilingual archive of news about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plantThe title really says it allJul 5, 2023Jul 5, 2023
Linguistic Hegemony and Large Language ModelsLanguage models do best in English and Chinese. Why, and what follows?Jul 4, 2023Jul 4, 2023
Can LLMs help with OSINT or dis|misinformation research?Many think LLMs like ChatGPT will be bad for our informational environment. Playing with the gpt4 api, I offer a more positive take.Jun 5, 2023Jun 5, 2023
AI Doom and the nature of predictionCan it ever be reasonable to predict that superintelligent AI will kill us all?May 27, 2023May 27, 2023
More from Ireland’s extremist fringesI look at a couple of protest events that recently happened in Ireland, tracing their connections with communities outside the island.May 21, 2023May 21, 2023
Tracing the Irish far right on TelegramThe Irish far right seems to be more visible. I look at their behavior on Telegram in recent days.May 13, 20232May 13, 20232
Global culture wars?Chinese and Russian language stories about US culture wars issues are very different. What explains this?May 6, 2023May 6, 2023