Mikael Brunila
@mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
190 followers 270 following 14 posts
Postdoctoral researcher, author, and programmer. Most of my work is in #NLProc, #GIS, computational social science, and philosophy of technology. https://mikaelbrunila.com/
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mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
A convergence between AI & cryptography is necessary to break with AI as surveillance. The key metaphor is "tunneling": Cultivating many models & peer-to-peer training strategies, small models, encrypted models... How do we build this? How do we direct funds here?

www.e-flux.com/journal/151/...
Taking AI into the Tunnels - Journal #151
Mikael Brunila argues for a politics of opacity in the face of AI dominance.
www.e-flux.com
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
ncweaver.skerry-tech.com
Why is this horrible for Universities?

Just about everyone who isn't a citizen or green card holder already who's hired for a tenure track faculty position is hired through an H1B and then, after 3-5 years, applies for a green card.

This is literally "No more foreign professors can be hired"
gergely.pragmaticengineer.com
Those on an H1B cannot return to the US from tomorrow (Sunday) unless paying $100K. This is an out-of-the blue presidential action. We’ll see software engineers stranded abroad.

One easy to predict outcome: those on US visas will travel less… for work, for conferences etc.
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
melaniemitchell.bsky.social
In a stunning moment of self-delusion, the Wall Street Journal headline writers admitted that they don't know how LLM chatbots work.
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
nkalamb.bsky.social
IDF soldiers have now themselves admitted they have been ordered to murder aid-seekers in Gaza.

Truly an atrocity built on atrocity.

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid
IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes
mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
it seems like almost every Silicon Valley adjacent book needs to mention Dunbar’s number. Alex Karp’s (Palantir) ”The Technological Republic” was no exception
mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
the problem with most continental theory today is that it’s a lot of ”tell” and almost no ”show”. Incredibly tedious to read.
mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
I would ask if they're okay and if there's a friend or family member I can call
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
akhilrao.bsky.social
existence of tensors implies existence of relaxors
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
jburnmurdoch.ft.com
The key chart right now:

Usually US economic pain is cushioned by falling bond yields and a strengthening dollar, which mean lower interest rates and more spending power for consumers.

This time we’re seeing the opposite, meaning the pain will be amplified.
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
richvn.bsky.social
Evidence of US brain drain?

US scientists submitted 32% more applications for jobs abroad Jan-Mar 2025 than during same period in 2024.

US-based users browsing jobs abroad increased by 35%.

Data from Nature Careers global science jobs platform.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
10 yrs ago every euroleftist I knew was telling me to read Pettis
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
shengwuli.bsky.social
With all respect to the sanguine predictions from fellow economists: Standard quantitative trade models don’t seem to capture the loss of global public goods, such as the rules-based international order.
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
peligrietzer.bsky.social
I just don't think there's evidence that the direction of LLM ability-increase is towards human intelligence or a superset of human intelligence. Really seems like they are their own thing that partially overlaps with human intelligence
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
mauricejcasey.com
Being a historian, people ask me if I think the US is living through Germany 1933.

I answer no, analogies are always imperfect but to me it feels more like Russia 1999: a blatant theft of state assets and liberals in a fugue state, refusing to believe the arc of progress is bending against them.
mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
the mistake of Canada and Mexico was to think what he said he wanted was what he actually wanted
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
terevaden.net
Ennen: vapaa maailma
Nyt: vapaa pudotus
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
liandersson.bsky.social
Naamiot on riisuttu lopullisesti. Trump ja Vance osoittavat selvästi kenen puolella ovat - Putinin.

Tätä videota on vaikeaa katsoa, niin ala-arvoisesti käyttäytyvät.
Ukraina-seuranta | Reuters: Zelenskyi lähti Valkoisesta talosta etuajassa riitaisan tapaamisen jälkeen
HS seuraa Venäjän hyökkäyssotaa ja sen seurauksia hetki hetkeltä.
www.hs.fi
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
jdcmedlock.bsky.social
Now this is some unambiguously funny stove touching
Reposted by Mikael Brunila
bcmerchant.bsky.social
Just watched the Trump Gaza video and whoever wrote a couple weeks ago about generative AI being the new aesthetics of fascism could not have asked for a better case in point
Donald Trump shares bizarre AI-generated video of 'Trump Gaza'
YouTube video by Guardian News
youtu.be
mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
in the future, the most literate people will be inmates *with* access to a prison library but *without* access to smartphones or AI.
mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
Right, that's true. On the broader point of RStudio as an IDE falling behind the times I don't think that's a satisfactory option. I guess/hope this is something they're addressing in Positron.
mikaelbrunila.bsky.social
That looks promising, but afaict there's no support for Ollama or other local LLM frameworks. Or am I mistaken?