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Ryan Heuser

@heuser.bsky.social

1.9K followers 1.9K following 230 posts

Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities @camdighum.bsky.social. Florida man abroad, lapsed Catholic, vulgar marxist; phd'd Stanford English, alum of Literary Lab. I make data about culture and write about forms of abstraction in (C18) literary history.

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Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · 19h

Excited to share my latest publication, "Generative Aesthetics: On formal stuckness in AI verse." It's published in a special issue in the Journal of Cultural Analytics, expertly edited by Tess McNulty and Laura Chapot, on "Computation and Form, Reconsidered."
culturalanalytics.org/article/1448...

Generative Aesthetics: On formal stuckness in AI verse | Published in Journal of Cultural Analytics

By Ryan Heuser. This paper examines the formal and aesthetic patterns of AI-generated poems through a series of computational experiments.

culturalanalytics.org

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · 19h

Most of all, I recommend you check out all the incredible articles in this special issue (culturalanalytics.org/issue/12788), with work by Tess McNulty, Laura Chapot, @jeddobson.bsky.social, Alexandre Miller et al, and @katelelkins.bsky.social.

Vol. 10, Issue 3, 2025 | Published by Journal of Cultural Analytics

In this special issue, we bring together scholars from across multiple disciplines to reconsider the intersections of computation and form at this emerging technological and critical moment.

culturalanalytics.org

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · 19h

Finally, I speculate whether generative AI secretly encodes an aesthetics of its own—as if internalizing Cicero's goals for art to "delight" & "instruct" to an obsessive, historically unprecedented degree. I propose "generative formalism" as a method for studying this hyper-historical aesthetics.

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · 19h

I investigate whether training data can explain this effect, and find some evidence that it cannot. Instead, I find that "instruction-tuning" and Reinforcement Learning Human Feedback—designed to produce "helpful" chatbots—may instill conservative, "idealizing" aesthetic tendencies in the models.

Figure 5.Frequency of rhymed verse in poems detected in open and closed LLM training data. Points indicate mean likelihood; size indicates the number of poems per data point; whiskers show standard error.

For comparison, I also reproduce similar results from Walsh, Preus, and Antoniak, who detect poems in both open and closed models by the identical procedure, in their case by querying for a more canonical sample from the Poetry Foundation (PF) and Academy of American Poets (AAP). Then, for all four cases (i.e., Chadwyck-Healey in open and closed datasets; PF/AAP in open and closed datasets), I measure rhyme in the poems discovered by these methods to be present or absent in the training data (Figure 5). Across all methods and datasets, the distribution of rhyme in poems found in LLM training data (shown in blue) is not disproportionately high compared to poems not found in that data (shown in red). A comparison of means between found and unfound poems’ rhyming shows in all cases either statistically insignificant differences or differences with small effect sizes. Moreover, though very few poems from the historical corpora used in this study were found in open LLM training data, those found even rhymed less often than those not found. These results suggest that LLMs’ tendency to overuse rhyme cannot be explained simply by an overrepresentation of rhyming poetry in their training data. Rather, this data points to something more fundamental in how these models process and generate poetic forms.

Figure 9.Frequency of rhymed verse across generative completions of historical poems, one “instruction-tuned” and the other a raw next token generator. Points indicate mean likelihood; size indicates the number of poems per data point; whiskers show standard error.

Figure 9 above shows that llama3.1:instruct rhymes far more often than its identically-trained llama3.1:text. Comparing the frequency of rhymed verse in these two variants of the same model shows that the raw text completion variant rhymes far less (with a statistically significant difference of means across all historical periods of the completed poems) than the one tuned to respond helpfully to user instructions. Does this helpful responsiveness push them, by accident, into more idealized aesthetic forms like rhythm and regular rhythm?

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · 19h

As in work by @mellymeldubs.bsky.social et al, I examine formal tendencies in the poetic output of 9 LLMs. I find that LLM verse is "formally stuck" on rhyme & regular meter, producing these forms far more than even the formally strictest periods of literary history—and even when instructed not to.

Figure 1.Frequency of rhymed poems in the Chadwyck-Healey corpora compared with LLM-generated verse. Generative models were prompted for three types of poems: rhyming poems, unrhyming poems, and poems without specifying whether to rhyme. Points indicate mean likelihood; size indicates the number of poems per data point; whiskers show standard error.

The left-hand portion of the graph shows that historically, across the 1,000 sampled poems per half-century in the Chadwyck-Healey poetry collections, the average likelihood for a poem to rhyme descends over time, particularly since the late nineteenth century. Prior to that, the historical incidence of rhymed verse hovers between 71% and 90% for three centuries, before turning away from it in the late nineteenth century (71%) and plummeting in the early twentieth (15%)—with ultimately only 7% of poems written by postwar poets in rhyme.

Meanwhile, the right-hand portion of the graph, a distant reading of rhyme not in historical but generative verse, shows several striking findings. On average across the LLMs, prompts for a rhyming poem (shown in blue) and prompts simply for a poem without specifying whether to rhyme (shown in green) produce a body of artificial verse composed of 95% rhyming poetry. Not only is this incidence more than in any historical period of actual human-authored verse, but its similarity across these two categories of prompts suggests a remarkably stubborn association between the genre of poetry and the form of rhyme within these models. Furthermore, whether prompted simply to write a poem, a rhyming poem, or an unrhyming poem (shown in purple), generative models—despite the overwhelming bias in their training data toward the contemporary—rhyme more often than poets born in the late twentieth century, and sometimes significantly more. Finally, even prompting the models for an unrhyming poem yields rhyming poems 50% of the time on average across the models, more than seven times as often as in the …

Figure 6.Frequency of syllable stress per syllable position into 10-syllable lines, drawn from historical and generative sonnets. Points indicate mean likelihood; whiskers indicate standard error.

Even before attempting to metrically scan these syllable stresses, Figure 6 shows how generative sonnets arrange their unstressed and stressed syllables more regularly than in any known century of the form. That LLM imitations of Shakespeare’s sonnets (in red) dip much lower in syllable stress likelihood in the odd-numbered syllables and peak much higher in the even-numbered ones—more than any other sonnet source, including Shakespeare’s own—shows how inhumanly rigidly its syllable stresses adhere to an iambic pentameter metrical template. The second syllable in the line, for example, is stressed 62% of the time in twentieth-century sonnets; 63% Shakespeare; and 69% in pre-twentieth-century sonnets, partly given the more frequent use of traditional metrical variations like the trochaic inversion. But LLM verse stresses this syllable a striking 89% of the time, far exceeding the sonnets of any historical period from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. Although this syllable shows the largest difference between generative and historical sonnet meter, and although all sonnet sources rise in regularity toward the end of the line (a well-known phenomenon in metrics), generative sonnets maintain an historically unprecedented regularity in syllable stress across the line.

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · 19h

Excited to share my latest publication, "Generative Aesthetics: On formal stuckness in AI verse." It's published in a special issue in the Journal of Cultural Analytics, expertly edited by Tess McNulty and Laura Chapot, on "Computation and Form, Reconsidered."
culturalanalytics.org/article/1448...

Generative Aesthetics: On formal stuckness in AI verse | Published in Journal of Cultural Analytics

By Ryan Heuser. This paper examines the formal and aesthetic patterns of AI-generated poems through a series of computational experiments.

culturalanalytics.org

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · 8d

Glad to see the tide finally turning back to it being acceptable to say Taylor Swift makes bad music. Some of us have been holding the torch of hate in the darkness all this time

Reposted by Ryan Heuser

David Bamman @dbamman.bsky.social · 20d

The UC Berkeley School of Information is hiring an assistant professor in the broad field of Information--including areas of info seeking/retrieval, digital humanities, cultural analytics, info viz, & philosophy of information (among others). Deadline Nov 1! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05014

Assistant Professor - Information - School of Information

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · 24d

For the LA Times, two brilliant friends of mine wrote a brilliant take on the "Department of War" name change: that it's good.

Nathaniel Zetter @nathanielzetter.bsky.social · 24d

I co-wrote a piece with T. Banerjee for the @latimes.com on the Department of Defense’s renaming. “Defense” has long made military action sound inevitable while masking its true objectives. Calling it “War” is more honest about American history—and could mean less military funding in the future.

Contributor: 'Department of War' is a more accurate label than 'Defense'

President Trump's idea to rename the department invites Americans to reckon more honestly with the nation’s use of military power.

www.latimes.com

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Sep 10

ICYMI: We are hiring an Associate/Full Professor in Digital Humanities at @camdighum.bsky.social. App deadline Sep 21. The position is for Deputy Director of CDH, and eventually Director on rotational basis. Please circulate/apply and let me know if you have any Qs! www.cdh.cam.ac.uk/about/news/n...

Now Hiring: Associate Professor/Professor in Digital Humanities - CDH

Cambridge Digital Humanities (CDH) is currently recruiting for an Associate Professor/Professor in Digital Humanities from January 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter. The appointment may be made a...

www.cdh.cam.ac.uk

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Sep 8

Wow, Kamala really had her finger on the nation's pulse in trying to run to Trump's right on immigration, mocking him for not building the wall and pledging to build it.

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · Sep 7

Highest level of support since Gallup started asking this question a quarter century ago

Americans' Views on Immigration's Effect on the U.S.
On the whole, do you think immigration is a good thing or a bad thing for this country today?
— % Good thing - - % Bad thing
100%
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
79
17
2001
2005
2010
2015
2020
2025
The percentages who volunteer that the effects are "mixed" or who do not have an opinion are not shown.
GALLUP®

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Sep 6

FYI: We are hiring a 3-year research postdoc at @camdighum.bsky.social to study AI and the future of creativity. Application deadline Sep 21; more info below. Please circulate / apply! www.cdh.cam.ac.uk/about/news/r...

Now Hiring: Research Associate (Fixed Term) - CDH

Cambridge Digital Humanities (CDH) seeks to appoint a postdoctoral researcher in Digital Humanities. The post will run for three years from Spring 2026. The successful candidate will work with Profess...

www.cdh.cam.ac.uk

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Aug 2

The @nytimes.com just can't stop repeating Israeli talking points

Even after his boss, President Trump, broke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and acknowledged “real starvation” in Gaza, Mr. Huckabee did not.

“There is hunger and there are some serious issues that need to be addressed,” Mr. Huckabee said this past week at his official residence in central Jerusalem. But, he said, “it’s not like Sudan or Rwanda or other places where there has been mass starvation.” The Gaza Health Ministry has said scores of people, including many children, have died of malnutrition. ***It is not clear how many also had other illnesses.***

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jul 23

The @nytimes.com prints genocide denial as 109 aid groups warn of mass starvation. Over 100 Palestinians have died from sheer hunger due to Israel's barbaric siege. 21 months of slaughter of a captive population. Gaza is a concentration camp and Israel is committing genocide: another Holocaust.

NYT Opinion
Bret Stephens

No, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza
July 22, 2025

Al Jazeera

LIVE: Israel pounds Gaza; 109 aid groups warn of ‘mass starvation’

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, in Gaza City
02:57
No food, no aid: hunger is killing people in Gaza

By Virginia Pietromarchi and Nils Adler
Published On 23 Jul 2025
23 Jul 2025
Click here to share on social media
Israeli forces continue bombarding Gaza as 109 aid groups call for action against Israel, warning that “mass starvation is spreading” across the enclave.
At least 10 Palestinians have died of starvation in the past 24 hours in Gaza, bringing the death toll from hunger to 111, including at least 80 children, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jul 22

Reports of 20 Palestinians starving to death in last 24 hours. Those who seek aid are shot. Tanks and drones patrol the rubble. But even AOC votes to send Israel 'defensive' aid, as if what Israel needs is more impunity.

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jul 14

Trying to watch a bootleg cam of SUPERMAN (2025) because I heard it was anti-Israel but I have no idea wtf is going on. Is this a sequel? Was I supposed to watch every other Superman first, did I have homework? Is this just what comic book movies are like these days?

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jun 30

You can tell she has the ick because at first she tries to work (write, cognitive labor) while Aidan is working on the floors (physical labor) but the "noise" bothers her (i.e. the concretization of their class antagonism)

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jun 30

The scene where Carrie first has the affair is when she leaves her apartment to rent a room in a hotel where Big happens to be, because Aidan volunteered to redo her wood floors. She’s grateful, but unconsciously has the ick that he would demean himself by manual labor, something Big would never do.

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jun 30

Being forced to watch S3 of Sex and the City and it’s clear Carrie can’t commit to Aidan and has an affair with Big because Aidan does manual labor and Big is rich (i.e. princess fantasy). It’s about class, but the show represses that and makes it about universal hogwash like ‘emo. availability’ etc

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jun 30

56% of Ukrainians would accept compromise with Russia to end the war. Over a million people have died; land isn't worth this much human life.
www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/...

War-weary Ukrainians ready for peace with Russia through compromise

A poll suggests 56 percent of Ukrainians would agree to a ‘compromise’ to end the conflict.

www.aljazeera.com

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jun 22

Wonderful that in the 22 years since the Iraq war there is still no serious anti-war coalition in either US party.

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jun 19

Israelis aghast at an Iranian bomb hitting a hospital in Tel Aviv as if they haven't bombed every single hospital in Gaza. Obviously no one should bomb hospitals, it's a war crime, but the unregistered double-standard is evidence of a pathological lack of self-awareness or shame at a national level.

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jun 17

Kamala would have undoubtedly been better domestically than Trump but given her belligerence on the campaign trail ("Iran is our number one adversary") she'd probably already have boots on the ground.

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jun 17

Less than 0 pushback from Dems on the v real prospect of a new war in the Middle East—they're encouraging it! Besides Bernie, AOC—and the hard America First wing of MAGA. Leftism and fascism are both responses to liberal capitalist imperialism, but one advances cultural revolution, one regresses it.

jeff com-BOO-ters @helldude.bsky.social · Jun 3

meanwhile the Opposition is spending its time trying to goad trump into yet more belligerence and more war

Reposted by Ryan Heuser

Daniel Denvir @danieldenvir.bsky.social · Jun 14

We can’t defeat fascism in the US without defeating US imperialism abroad. The liberal resistance to Trump must understand the connection between fascism at home and US violence abroad—including support for the genocidal, fascist and extraordinarily belligerent Israeli regime. No kings means no war.

Ryan Heuser @heuser.bsky.social · Jun 14

@jonlovett.bsky.social of @podsaveamerica.crooked.com just can't contain his establishmentarian snark. "But how will you pay for all this?" "Isn't your agenda too ambitious?" "Isn't it too commie to have public grocery stores?" "Do you condemn Hamas?" (jfc). etc etc.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqVQ...

Zohran Mamdani on Andrew Cuomo, Abundance and Anti-Semitism

YouTube video by Pod Save America

www.youtube.com