The eeriness of AI language lies in the fact that everything depends on the linguistic context, with no reference to anything outside of language itself.

Indeed, language had to be abstracted to that level before LLMs were even conceivable! Not to mention that the databases used to train them were abundant in business and managerial discourse. But my point is that (in non-AI language) there is always a connection with an extra-linguistic context.

In this great piece, Eryk reminds us that in order to be sceptical about so-called AI, we don’t have to dismiss LLMs as mere fancy auto-complete. As a colleague from linguistics once remarked, we overestimate AI as a simulation of thinking, but we may underestimate it as a model of language
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Yes, but even those "commodified" types of language are connected to experience, as they depend on particular contexts and interpretation practices/conventions to determine if they are correct or incorrect, if they make sense or are nonsensical.

Excellent essay!

"To believe this to be true, one would have to imagine that all human speech is motivated entirely by grammar."

But it is not. Meaning depends on extra-linguistic context much more than we realize, so language is more than just words and syntax; it's an embodied practice.

“Without the data center boom, we’d probably be in a recession...” paulkrugman.substack.com/p/why-arent-...

Peak risk society—AI has become an uninsurable risk, like a natural catastrophe or nuclear accident or war. share.google/ODsGbHi5spzr...

Piero Sraffa también tuvo una gran influencia en el giro de Ludwig Wittgenstein de la lógica formal a la filosofía del lenguaje ordinario.

¡¡¡Enhorabuena a mi brillante colega Natalia Castro Picón por el premio Anagrama de Ensayo!!! El libro se publicará a fines de octubre. ¡Deseando leerlo ya!

New paper out with @dasalgon.bsky.social: “Far-Right Agenda Setting: How the Far Right influences the Political Mainstream” doi.org/10.1017/S1475676525100066 #openaccess in @ejprjournal.bsky.social🧵

La viñeta de hoy de El País me ha sacado una risa. Lo de conjugar nunca fue lo mío😅

"AI isn't going to wake up, become superintelligent and turn you into paperclips – but rich people with AI investor psychosis are almost certainly going to make you much, much poorer."

Must read.

The Digital Theory Lab at NYU will host Karen Hao for a book talk on Empire of AI on Monday, October 13, RSVP required here:
as.nyu.edu/research-cen...

"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."

Hadn't seen this "Cartography of Generative AI" before. From Estampa, a collective of programmers, filmmakers and researchers working in the fields of audiovisual media and digital environments: cartography-of-generative-ai.net

1. There is something going on in the burger #LinguisticLandscape of Korea. Something maximum? Something to do with meat and masculinity? Something to do with style and excess? Something interesting, regardless . . . .

Our department is hiring! Join us and be part of a wonderful community of faculty, students, and staff. Apply here and/or please share: www.indeed.com/viewjob?from...

I wrote about the politics of immigration (non)enforcement for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/wag...

You may find some references here: escholarship.org/uc/item/97s0...

It didn’t take long to go from ‘AI as a world-changer’ to just another way of making money by selling ads.

Looks great! Adding it to my to-read list.

There’s no guarantees that LLMs keep getting better - just look at search engines: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...

"In retrospect, we pretend to understand why history took a particular course. (...) Yet after reading memoirs of the 1930–38 period in Germany, I was struck that no one, from eminent politicians to ordinary housewives, predicted what would eventually happen."
www.dissentmagazine.org/article/how-...

Coincidencia espacial de la representación y lo representado (para una clase de semiótica).