Aaron Steven White
@aaronstevenwhite.io
computational semanticist. into modular synths and cocktails. http://aaronstevenwhite.io
Reposted by Aaron Steven White
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 11:16 PM
It’s blowing my mind that schools, universities, public services would run headlong into this. We spent 15 years documenting black boxes. This is a black box in a black hole!
The new Carrier album is so good.
Carrier - Rhythm Immortal. Bleep.
Buy Rhythm Immortal by Carrier on Bleep.
bleep.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:30 PM
The new Carrier album is so good.
Love teaching stats because I can write a 10-page document explaining to students my custom hierarchical IRT model for curving exams and justify the time spent as instructional material development (which it is!).
November 19, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Love teaching stats because I can write a 10-page document explaining to students my custom hierarchical IRT model for curving exams and justify the time spent as instructional material development (which it is!).
back on my bullshit
November 18, 2025 at 8:15 PM
back on my bullshit
This new Arp album is a *wild* pivot from the previous one (New Pleasures).
November 16, 2025 at 11:06 PM
This new Arp album is a *wild* pivot from the previous one (New Pleasures).
My son wore a Josh Allen jersey his grandfather gave him to school. (Rochester is deep Bills country.) We got multiple “Go Bills!” greetings that day. Meanwhile, the only sport we watch in our household is women’s soccer (NWSL). Like, my son was baffled when we told him men play pro soccer too.
November 16, 2025 at 11:00 PM
My son wore a Josh Allen jersey his grandfather gave him to school. (Rochester is deep Bills country.) We got multiple “Go Bills!” greetings that day. Meanwhile, the only sport we watch in our household is women’s soccer (NWSL). Like, my son was baffled when we told him men play pro soccer too.
Reposted by Aaron Steven White
lets talk about "In context learning". it is clearly NOT "learning", because its ephemeral. It IS some form of generalization from examples, which is very cool. but we need a name. how do we call this skill of generalization from example?
November 16, 2025 at 7:48 AM
lets talk about "In context learning". it is clearly NOT "learning", because its ephemeral. It IS some form of generalization from examples, which is very cool. but we need a name. how do we call this skill of generalization from example?
Reposted by Aaron Steven White
The most chilling thing about this is the way it feels like an ancient evil that has imbibed a thousand pharmaceutical ads to camouflage itself
November 14, 2025 at 12:27 PM
The most chilling thing about this is the way it feels like an ancient evil that has imbibed a thousand pharmaceutical ads to camouflage itself
Just saw a post referring to R.E.M. as “elder millennial music”. And no.
November 14, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Just saw a post referring to R.E.M. as “elder millennial music”. And no.
Lot of filler on this Lily Allen album, but the high points are high.
November 13, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Lot of filler on this Lily Allen album, but the high points are high.
This is a frequent point of discussion in our household—both because we have a kindergartener and because @bonnierok.bsky.social has written (bellwether.org/publications...) on the policy/implementation blockers to fixing the problem—but this is just so deeply infuriating.
November 13, 2025 at 1:22 PM
This is a frequent point of discussion in our household—both because we have a kindergartener and because @bonnierok.bsky.social has written (bellwether.org/publications...) on the policy/implementation blockers to fixing the problem—but this is just so deeply infuriating.
Reposted by Aaron Steven White
Come join us at Rochester to work on low-resource NLP with @cmdowney.bsky.social! 👇
I'm recruiting Linguistics PhD students this cycle! You should apply to work with me if you're interested in anything low-resource NLP. Some topics I'm particularly excited about currently:
November 11, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Come join us at Rochester to work on low-resource NLP with @cmdowney.bsky.social! 👇
Reposted by Aaron Steven White
lots of invigorating discussion this year at #BUCLD2025. Unsurprisingly, LLMs as models & as tools made many appearances w/a wide range of views/claims/caveats ab what they can(not) tell us ab language development
I'm still chewing on a few things that seemed to get short shrift 1/4 🐦🐦
I'm still chewing on a few things that seemed to get short shrift 1/4 🐦🐦
November 10, 2025 at 4:30 PM
lots of invigorating discussion this year at #BUCLD2025. Unsurprisingly, LLMs as models & as tools made many appearances w/a wide range of views/claims/caveats ab what they can(not) tell us ab language development
I'm still chewing on a few things that seemed to get short shrift 1/4 🐦🐦
I'm still chewing on a few things that seemed to get short shrift 1/4 🐦🐦
Undetached bus(es) parts.
November 1, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Undetached bus(es) parts.
Reposted by Aaron Steven White
I would rather live next door to someone who speaks another language than live next door to someone who doesn’t want to live near people who speak other languages. I know nothing about Person A but I know person B is a shitbird.
Vance says it is "totally reasonable and acceptable" for people to not want to live next door to people who speak a different language than they do
October 29, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I would rather live next door to someone who speaks another language than live next door to someone who doesn’t want to live near people who speak other languages. I know nothing about Person A but I know person B is a shitbird.
This language model is very 2018.
October 29, 2025 at 1:34 AM
This language model is very 2018.
Every music genre is ambient if you just vibe hard enough.
October 23, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Every music genre is ambient if you just vibe hard enough.
Reposted by Aaron Steven White
Cool project as part of an even cooler Collaborative Research Center, focused on "Common Ground"
What even is it? (Many takes abound)
Can there be a cohesive version which does what it has variously used for?
Can we square it with modern psycholing/cog psych theory?
Come help us figure out!
What even is it? (Many takes abound)
Can there be a cohesive version which does what it has variously used for?
Can we square it with modern psycholing/cog psych theory?
Come help us figure out!
Jobs: Cognitive Science, General Linguistics, Philosophy of Language, Pragmatics, Semantics: Postdoctoral Researcher (3.5 years) Philosophy of Language / Pragmatics / Logic / Cognitive Science, University of Tübingen
Jobs: Cognitive Science, General Linguistics, Philosophy of Language, Pragmatics, Semantics: Postdoctoral Researcher (3.5 years) Philosophy of Language / Pragmatics / Logic / Cognitive Science, University of Tübingen
Description:
We are looking for a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to support a large-scale interdisciplinary research initiative on the topic of "Common Ground" at the University of Tübingen. The project seeks to investigate the notion of common ground in linguistic communication by taking an interdisciplinary perspective, incorporating insights from, e.g., the philosophy of language, the cognitive language sciences, linguistic pragmatics, and/or formal logic or epistemology. The ide
dlvr.it
October 20, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Cool project as part of an even cooler Collaborative Research Center, focused on "Common Ground"
What even is it? (Many takes abound)
Can there be a cohesive version which does what it has variously used for?
Can we square it with modern psycholing/cog psych theory?
Come help us figure out!
What even is it? (Many takes abound)
Can there be a cohesive version which does what it has variously used for?
Can we square it with modern psycholing/cog psych theory?
Come help us figure out!
This feels like it should be so deeply obvious, and I don’t understand how an entire class of institutions obsessed with signaling prestige have not caught onto the fact that, e.g., one major way people now signal wealth is by their ability to consume and collect physical media.
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
October 17, 2025 at 12:53 PM
This feels like it should be so deeply obvious, and I don’t understand how an entire class of institutions obsessed with signaling prestige have not caught onto the fact that, e.g., one major way people now signal wealth is by their ability to consume and collect physical media.
Reposted by Aaron Steven White
The palpable relief of reading a syntactically awkward student paper nevertheless brimming with ideas they’re trying on after having to consume the stale cardboard generalities of a Chat GPT essay.
October 11, 2025 at 4:20 PM
The palpable relief of reading a syntactically awkward student paper nevertheless brimming with ideas they’re trying on after having to consume the stale cardboard generalities of a Chat GPT essay.
Reposted by Aaron Steven White
A company that believed it was in the verge of AGI or ASI wouldn’t capitulate to the government because it wouldn’t care about government contracts. They would soon BE the economy and the government would soon be capitulating to them.
The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”
OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT
GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.
www.theverge.com
October 11, 2025 at 8:57 PM
A company that believed it was in the verge of AGI or ASI wouldn’t capitulate to the government because it wouldn’t care about government contracts. They would soon BE the economy and the government would soon be capitulating to them.