Rob Nelson
@ailogblog.bsky.social
writes at 𝐀𝐈 𝐋𝐨𝐠 https://www.ailog.blog
teaches at Penn
speaks at technology and education conferences
consults at responsible edtech companies
teaches at Penn
speaks at technology and education conferences
consults at responsible edtech companies
Pinned
Rob Nelson
@ailogblog.bsky.social
· Nov 16
The long and the short of our confidence in AI
𝐀𝐈 𝐋𝐨𝐠 reviews AI Snake Oil and The Ordinal Society
ailogblog.substack.com
One of my favorite jokes from Arrested Development is the "Bob Loblaw Law Blog." So, I write the AI Log Blog.
AI Log Blog is not a good joke. But it is inspired by one. I needed you to know that.
This is the kind of thing I do there.
ailogblog.substack.com/p/the-long-a...
#EduSky #EdAI
AI Log Blog is not a good joke. But it is inspired by one. I needed you to know that.
This is the kind of thing I do there.
ailogblog.substack.com/p/the-long-a...
#EduSky #EdAI
Large language models are language machines, and we need to think about what they do with language as more than just "mathy math."
Language Machines as Antimeme
www.ailog.blog/p/language-m...
Language Machines as Antimeme
www.ailog.blog/p/language-m...
Language Machines as Antimeme
AI Log reviews Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism
www.ailog.blog
November 9, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Large language models are language machines, and we need to think about what they do with language as more than just "mathy math."
Language Machines as Antimeme
www.ailog.blog/p/language-m...
Language Machines as Antimeme
www.ailog.blog/p/language-m...
@orzelc.bsky.social has become one of my favorite higher education writers of late. But he is importantly wrong when he disagrees with Timothy Burke’s description of “the deal” offered to nine universities.
Trump offers carrots to nine universities
www.ailog.blog/p/trump-offe...
Trump offers carrots to nine universities
www.ailog.blog/p/trump-offe...
Trump offers carrots to nine universities
And why Chad Orzel has me worried
www.ailog.blog
October 5, 2025 at 11:56 AM
@orzelc.bsky.social has become one of my favorite higher education writers of late. But he is importantly wrong when he disagrees with Timothy Burke’s description of “the deal” offered to nine universities.
Trump offers carrots to nine universities
www.ailog.blog/p/trump-offe...
Trump offers carrots to nine universities
www.ailog.blog/p/trump-offe...
Why were so many university presidents and boards quick to undermine the principles and practice of academic freedom this past week? The answer has to do with who runs institutions of higher education, and how they think and don’t think about their work.
www.ailog.blog/p/its-not-ch...
www.ailog.blog/p/its-not-ch...
It's not chickens all the way down
Higher education leadership in this moment of crisis
www.ailog.blog
September 21, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Why were so many university presidents and boards quick to undermine the principles and practice of academic freedom this past week? The answer has to do with who runs institutions of higher education, and how they think and don’t think about their work.
www.ailog.blog/p/its-not-ch...
www.ailog.blog/p/its-not-ch...
This essay is better than the talk I gave at AC&U 2025-26 Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum on Friday because it reflects the collective intelligence of those who asked questions and made comments.
What comes after the chatbot?
www.ailog.blog/p/what-comes...
What comes after the chatbot?
www.ailog.blog/p/what-comes...
What comes after the chatbot?
Notes and image credits for my talk at the AAC&U AI Institute
www.ailog.blog
September 14, 2025 at 11:20 AM
This essay is better than the talk I gave at AC&U 2025-26 Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum on Friday because it reflects the collective intelligence of those who asked questions and made comments.
What comes after the chatbot?
www.ailog.blog/p/what-comes...
What comes after the chatbot?
www.ailog.blog/p/what-comes...
The Lippmann-Dewey debate is a meme created in the 1980s, and used ever since to talk about a question intellectuals find endlessly fascinating: wouldn’t it be better if intellectuals ran things?
Lippmann called this “as complete a delusion as perpetual motion.”
www.ailog.blog/p/a-revery-e...
Lippmann called this “as complete a delusion as perpetual motion.”
www.ailog.blog/p/a-revery-e...
A Revery Entertained by the Intellectual Class: Dewey and Lippmann Revisted
AI Log Reviews Superbloom, Part Two
www.ailog.blog
September 7, 2025 at 11:11 AM
The Lippmann-Dewey debate is a meme created in the 1980s, and used ever since to talk about a question intellectuals find endlessly fascinating: wouldn’t it be better if intellectuals ran things?
Lippmann called this “as complete a delusion as perpetual motion.”
www.ailog.blog/p/a-revery-e...
Lippmann called this “as complete a delusion as perpetual motion.”
www.ailog.blog/p/a-revery-e...
Nicholas Carr’s Superbloom brings to light our longstanding cultural habit of enthusiastically greeting each new social technology. You may be surprised to learn that this cycle goes back a ways.
With a Certain Pathetic Moderation: AI as a New Social Medium
www.ailog.blog/p/with-a-cer...
With a Certain Pathetic Moderation: AI as a New Social Medium
www.ailog.blog/p/with-a-cer...
With a Certain Pathetic Moderation: AI as a New Social Medium
AI Log reviews Superbloom by Nicholas Carr
www.ailog.blog
August 31, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Nicholas Carr’s Superbloom brings to light our longstanding cultural habit of enthusiastically greeting each new social technology. You may be surprised to learn that this cycle goes back a ways.
With a Certain Pathetic Moderation: AI as a New Social Medium
www.ailog.blog/p/with-a-cer...
With a Certain Pathetic Moderation: AI as a New Social Medium
www.ailog.blog/p/with-a-cer...
Ben Recht says it clearly and plainly. The way this technology is being commercialized matters. OpenAI is the worst. Courts should punish them. Consumers should boycott them. No educational institution should do business with them.
The Banal Evil of AI Safety
www.argmin.net/p/the-banal-...
The Banal Evil of AI Safety
www.argmin.net/p/the-banal-...
The Banal Evil of AI Safety
Chatbot companies are harmful and dishonest. How can we hold them accountable?
www.argmin.net
August 29, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Ben Recht says it clearly and plainly. The way this technology is being commercialized matters. OpenAI is the worst. Courts should punish them. Consumers should boycott them. No educational institution should do business with them.
The Banal Evil of AI Safety
www.argmin.net/p/the-banal-...
The Banal Evil of AI Safety
www.argmin.net/p/the-banal-...
𝐀𝐈 𝐋𝐨𝐠 turns two years old tomorrow. To celebrate, I made a listicle and decided to reveal Phase 2 of my plan.
Five things I have learned writing AI Log + Phase 2 begins
www.ailog.blog/p/five-thing...
Five things I have learned writing AI Log + Phase 2 begins
www.ailog.blog/p/five-thing...
Five things I have learned writing AI Log + Phase 2 begins
AI Log turns two years old and I celebrate with a listicle and a public declaration about my next writing project
www.ailog.blog
August 24, 2025 at 10:54 AM
𝐀𝐈 𝐋𝐨𝐠 turns two years old tomorrow. To celebrate, I made a listicle and decided to reveal Phase 2 of my plan.
Five things I have learned writing AI Log + Phase 2 begins
www.ailog.blog/p/five-thing...
Five things I have learned writing AI Log + Phase 2 begins
www.ailog.blog/p/five-thing...
I will teach a class enrolling only first-year undergraduates this fall for the first time in years. We're going to have some fun reading, writing, and talking about AI.
Shakespeare helped me figure out how to start things off.
Get Me to the Funnery
www.ailog.blog/p/get-me-to-...
Shakespeare helped me figure out how to start things off.
Get Me to the Funnery
www.ailog.blog/p/get-me-to-...
Get Me to the Funnery
An introduction to the course I will be teaching this fall about How AI Is Changing Higher Education.
www.ailog.blog
August 17, 2025 at 10:27 AM
I will teach a class enrolling only first-year undergraduates this fall for the first time in years. We're going to have some fun reading, writing, and talking about AI.
Shakespeare helped me figure out how to start things off.
Get Me to the Funnery
www.ailog.blog/p/get-me-to-...
Shakespeare helped me figure out how to start things off.
Get Me to the Funnery
www.ailog.blog/p/get-me-to-...
Reposted by Rob Nelson
here's part 2 of the conversation with @ailogblog.bsky.social & the conversations he's looking to have with #highereducation institutions about #GenAI
aiedusimplified.substack.com/p/give-ourse...
#AIEdu #EdTech
aiedusimplified.substack.com/p/give-ourse...
#AIEdu #EdTech
August 14, 2025 at 9:43 AM
here's part 2 of the conversation with @ailogblog.bsky.social & the conversations he's looking to have with #highereducation institutions about #GenAI
aiedusimplified.substack.com/p/give-ourse...
#AIEdu #EdTech
aiedusimplified.substack.com/p/give-ourse...
#AIEdu #EdTech
Reposted by Rob Nelson
Part 1 of a conversation with the great, @ailogblog.bsky.social about what he's doing in the classroom around #GenAI
#HigherEd #AIEdu #EdTech #Teaching
aiedusimplified.substack.com/p/in-the-mod...
#HigherEd #AIEdu #EdTech #Teaching
aiedusimplified.substack.com/p/in-the-mod...
August 11, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Part 1 of a conversation with the great, @ailogblog.bsky.social about what he's doing in the classroom around #GenAI
#HigherEd #AIEdu #EdTech #Teaching
aiedusimplified.substack.com/p/in-the-mod...
#HigherEd #AIEdu #EdTech #Teaching
aiedusimplified.substack.com/p/in-the-mod...
This is not the first time newly elected Republicans have interested themselves in the affairs of universities and colleges. In 1819, we got corporate personhood redefined. What will get we get this time?
To what problem is the modern American university a solution?
www.ailog.blog/p/to-what-pr...
To what problem is the modern American university a solution?
www.ailog.blog/p/to-what-pr...
To what problem is the modern American university a solution?
AI Log reviews "Dartmouth College V. Woodward: Colleges, Corporations, and the Common Good" by Adam R. Nelson
www.ailog.blog
August 10, 2025 at 11:09 AM
This is not the first time newly elected Republicans have interested themselves in the affairs of universities and colleges. In 1819, we got corporate personhood redefined. What will get we get this time?
To what problem is the modern American university a solution?
www.ailog.blog/p/to-what-pr...
To what problem is the modern American university a solution?
www.ailog.blog/p/to-what-pr...
"A university is definitely not a democratic institution" is truer today than when Dean Herbert Deane said it in 1968, and more true of Columbia than it was a week ago.
Three bad ideas that are good for US higher education
www.ailog.blog/p/three-bad-...
Three bad ideas that are good for US higher education
www.ailog.blog/p/three-bad-...
Three bad ideas that are good for US higher education
Logpodge #10 is all about strawberry statements. Columbia could use leaders like Herbert Deane today. At least he had the courage of his anti-democratic convictions and spoke the truth.
www.ailog.blog
July 27, 2025 at 10:51 AM
"A university is definitely not a democratic institution" is truer today than when Dean Herbert Deane said it in 1968, and more true of Columbia than it was a week ago.
Three bad ideas that are good for US higher education
www.ailog.blog/p/three-bad-...
Three bad ideas that are good for US higher education
www.ailog.blog/p/three-bad-...
Small matters
www.ailog.blog/p/small-matt...
www.ailog.blog/p/small-matt...
Small matters
Logpodge #9 When it comes to AI in education, models, teams, and ambitions should be small
www.ailog.blog
July 13, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Small matters
www.ailog.blog/p/small-matt...
www.ailog.blog/p/small-matt...
Socrates comes to mind when I am urged to teach AI literacy. There is a rumor, likely false, that Socrates himself was illiterate. Maybe he chose not to read and write, so great was his commitment to the kind of conversational back and forth we named after him.
www.ailog.blog/p/a-phaedrus...
www.ailog.blog/p/a-phaedrus...
A Phaedrus Moment
If Socrates was right, what do we make of Claude?
www.ailog.blog
July 6, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Socrates comes to mind when I am urged to teach AI literacy. There is a rumor, likely false, that Socrates himself was illiterate. Maybe he chose not to read and write, so great was his commitment to the kind of conversational back and forth we named after him.
www.ailog.blog/p/a-phaedrus...
www.ailog.blog/p/a-phaedrus...
Brad DeLong posted a double shot of analysis of what he calls Modern Advanced Machine Learning Models (MAMLMs). An excellent overview of the economic and organizational impact of this new cultural technology.
Spreadsheet, Not Skynet: Microdoses, Not Microprocessors open.substack.com/pub/braddelo...
Spreadsheet, Not Skynet: Microdoses, Not Microprocessors open.substack.com/pub/braddelo...
Spreadsheet, Not Skynet: Microdoses, Not Microprocessors
The modest power relative to the size of the economy of GPT LLM MAMLMs as linguistic artifacts. Of course, since the economy is super huge, a relatively modest effect on it is still huge one. But...
open.substack.com
June 25, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Brad DeLong posted a double shot of analysis of what he calls Modern Advanced Machine Learning Models (MAMLMs). An excellent overview of the economic and organizational impact of this new cultural technology.
Spreadsheet, Not Skynet: Microdoses, Not Microprocessors open.substack.com/pub/braddelo...
Spreadsheet, Not Skynet: Microdoses, Not Microprocessors open.substack.com/pub/braddelo...
A defining characteristic of large AI models is to spiral or zigzag, introducing errors that no human would make. It is a better Clippy, a better tutor, and a better Eliza, except when it isn’t.
After the AI bubble: ChatGPT as an off-modern educational technology www.ailog.blog/p/after-the-...
After the AI bubble: ChatGPT as an off-modern educational technology www.ailog.blog/p/after-the-...
After the AI bubble: ChatGPT as an off-modern educational technology
What does generative AI teach us by being weird?
www.ailog.blog
June 22, 2025 at 11:22 AM
A defining characteristic of large AI models is to spiral or zigzag, introducing errors that no human would make. It is a better Clippy, a better tutor, and a better Eliza, except when it isn’t.
After the AI bubble: ChatGPT as an off-modern educational technology www.ailog.blog/p/after-the-...
After the AI bubble: ChatGPT as an off-modern educational technology www.ailog.blog/p/after-the-...
In my excitement to get to Q & A, I forgot to share the link to the references and image credits at a talk I gave earlier this week. Since several attendees started following me here, I’m sharing it now.
Notes and image credits for "The Boring Revolution" www.ailog.blog/p/notes-and-...
Notes and image credits for "The Boring Revolution" www.ailog.blog/p/notes-and-...
Notes and image credits for "The Boring Revolution"
My talk from Explorance World 2025
www.ailog.blog
June 15, 2025 at 10:58 AM
In my excitement to get to Q & A, I forgot to share the link to the references and image credits at a talk I gave earlier this week. Since several attendees started following me here, I’m sharing it now.
Notes and image credits for "The Boring Revolution" www.ailog.blog/p/notes-and-...
Notes and image credits for "The Boring Revolution" www.ailog.blog/p/notes-and-...
Do large language models bring anything of value to the classroom or the workplace? If we stop pretending they are human, and instead, treat them as a new cultural technology, we might find out.
Seriously, Let's Stop Treating LLMs like People www.ailog.blog/p/seriously-...
Seriously, Let's Stop Treating LLMs like People www.ailog.blog/p/seriously-...
Seriously, Let's Stop Treating LLMs like People
At least in the classroom and the workplace
www.ailog.blog
May 25, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Do large language models bring anything of value to the classroom or the workplace? If we stop pretending they are human, and instead, treat them as a new cultural technology, we might find out.
Seriously, Let's Stop Treating LLMs like People www.ailog.blog/p/seriously-...
Seriously, Let's Stop Treating LLMs like People www.ailog.blog/p/seriously-...
Wonderful piece illustrating how AI is a "normal technology" that has been marketed and used in ways that imagine it as something much, much more.
I got fooled by AI-for-science hype—here's what it taught me www.understandingai.org/p/i-got-fool...
I got fooled by AI-for-science hype—here's what it taught me www.understandingai.org/p/i-got-fool...
I got fooled by AI-for-science hype—here's what it taught me
I used AI in my plasma physics research and it didn’t go the way I expected.
www.understandingai.org
May 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Wonderful piece illustrating how AI is a "normal technology" that has been marketed and used in ways that imagine it as something much, much more.
I got fooled by AI-for-science hype—here's what it taught me www.understandingai.org/p/i-got-fool...
I got fooled by AI-for-science hype—here's what it taught me www.understandingai.org/p/i-got-fool...
Teaching with AI Redux
www.ailog.blog/p/teaching-w...
www.ailog.blog/p/teaching-w...
Teaching with AI Redux
I was speaking at a conference this week in Kansas City and got a question about where higher ed faculty might start to get up to speed on AI.
www.ailog.blog
May 17, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Teaching with AI Redux
www.ailog.blog/p/teaching-w...
www.ailog.blog/p/teaching-w...
Instead of almost AGI or a cultural apocalypse, let's think of large AI models as:
a cultural and social technology
a normal technology
a technology to be used in the revival of management cybernetics.
Here is a list.
On Beyond AGI: A reading list of sorts www.ailog.blog/p/on-beyond-...
a cultural and social technology
a normal technology
a technology to be used in the revival of management cybernetics.
Here is a list.
On Beyond AGI: A reading list of sorts www.ailog.blog/p/on-beyond-...
On Beyond AGI: A reading list of sorts
Read / Watch / Listen to fourteen writers on the social uses of large AI models. Gopnik / Farrell / Narayanan & Kapoor / Mitchell / Shalizi / Evans / Davies / Pickering Breen / Allen / Fourcade & Heal...
www.ailog.blog
May 11, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Instead of almost AGI or a cultural apocalypse, let's think of large AI models as:
a cultural and social technology
a normal technology
a technology to be used in the revival of management cybernetics.
Here is a list.
On Beyond AGI: A reading list of sorts www.ailog.blog/p/on-beyond-...
a cultural and social technology
a normal technology
a technology to be used in the revival of management cybernetics.
Here is a list.
On Beyond AGI: A reading list of sorts www.ailog.blog/p/on-beyond-...
Does Ben Breen contradict himself?
I find this essay large, to borrow Whitman’s famous line, and it waits on the door slab for the rest of us.
AI makes the humanities more important, but also a lot weirder open.substack.com/pub/resobscu...
I find this essay large, to borrow Whitman’s famous line, and it waits on the door slab for the rest of us.
AI makes the humanities more important, but also a lot weirder open.substack.com/pub/resobscu...
AI makes the humanities more important, but also a lot weirder
Historians are finally having their AI debate
open.substack.com
May 8, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Does Ben Breen contradict himself?
I find this essay large, to borrow Whitman’s famous line, and it waits on the door slab for the rest of us.
AI makes the humanities more important, but also a lot weirder open.substack.com/pub/resobscu...
I find this essay large, to borrow Whitman’s famous line, and it waits on the door slab for the rest of us.
AI makes the humanities more important, but also a lot weirder open.substack.com/pub/resobscu...
On Monday, @benjaminjriley.bsky.social said mean things about NGO leaders and bureaucrats who celebrated Trump's executive order on AI in education. It made some people sad and confused.
Kenneth Burke helps explain what's going on.
Nobody here but us chickens www.ailog.blog/p/nobody-her...
Kenneth Burke helps explain what's going on.
Nobody here but us chickens www.ailog.blog/p/nobody-her...
Nobody here but us chickens
How "trained incapacity" explains why leaders of NGOs are celebrating Trump's executive order on AI
www.ailog.blog
May 4, 2025 at 10:33 AM
On Monday, @benjaminjriley.bsky.social said mean things about NGO leaders and bureaucrats who celebrated Trump's executive order on AI in education. It made some people sad and confused.
Kenneth Burke helps explain what's going on.
Nobody here but us chickens www.ailog.blog/p/nobody-her...
Kenneth Burke helps explain what's going on.
Nobody here but us chickens www.ailog.blog/p/nobody-her...
Large AI models are mycelia. Their outputs are occasionally delightful, often strange, and in some cases, unsafe to consume.
There is a mushroom in my computer www.ailog.blog/p/there-is-a...
There is a mushroom in my computer www.ailog.blog/p/there-is-a...
There is a mushroom in my computer
Complex adaptive systems and social intelligence are ideas that help explain what large AI models do. That does not make their outputs safe to consume.
www.ailog.blog
April 27, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Large AI models are mycelia. Their outputs are occasionally delightful, often strange, and in some cases, unsafe to consume.
There is a mushroom in my computer www.ailog.blog/p/there-is-a...
There is a mushroom in my computer www.ailog.blog/p/there-is-a...