Rob Voigt
@robvoigt.bsky.social
using computational methods to understand the linguistic mechanisms of social problems | NLP, socioling, discourse-pragmatics | asst prof at UC Davis Linguistics
https://robvoigt.faculty.ucdavis.edu/
https://robvoigt.faculty.ucdavis.edu/
I was just watching this video earlier today which makes a really similar point (youtu.be/SKTsNV41DYg?...). At the end of the day the buck has to stop with a human, and for researchers we have to stand behind our work. Doing so using AI code tools might be (much?) more work than just coding it!
After two years of vibecoding, I’m back to writing by hand
YouTube video by Mo Bitar
youtu.be
January 31, 2026 at 12:49 AM
I was just watching this video earlier today which makes a really similar point (youtu.be/SKTsNV41DYg?...). At the end of the day the buck has to stop with a human, and for researchers we have to stand behind our work. Doing so using AI code tools might be (much?) more work than just coding it!
Reposted by Rob Voigt
This major release of my lab's annotation tool, Potato 2.0, was a long time in the making but I'm really excited by all the new features (and quality of life improvements). If you're doing data annotation of any kind, check it out. Need any other features? We'd love to hear from you too!
Super proud that today we're releasing Potato 2.0 - the biggest update yet to our open-source annotation platform www.potatoannotator.com 🥔
Major UI/UX improvements. Support for image, audio & video annotation. AI-powered assistance/hints/labeling. And still free 🤩
Here's some of what's new:
Major UI/UX improvements. Support for image, audio & video annotation. AI-powered assistance/hints/labeling. And still free 🤩
Here's some of what's new:
Potato - AI-Powered Annotation Tool
From zero to annotating in minutes. Configuration-first annotation with AI features.
www.potatoannotator.com
January 29, 2026 at 9:27 PM
This major release of my lab's annotation tool, Potato 2.0, was a long time in the making but I'm really excited by all the new features (and quality of life improvements). If you're doing data annotation of any kind, check it out. Need any other features? We'd love to hear from you too!
Reposted by Rob Voigt
The second new class I'm teaching is a very experimental graduate level seminar in CSE: "Building Small Language Models". I taught the grad level NLP class last semester (so fun!) but students wanted more—which of these new ideas work, and which work for SLMs? jurgens.people.si.umich.edu/CSE598-004/
CSE 598-004 - Building Small Language Models
jurgens.people.si.umich.edu
January 19, 2026 at 9:29 PM
The second new class I'm teaching is a very experimental graduate level seminar in CSE: "Building Small Language Models". I taught the grad level NLP class last semester (so fun!) but students wanted more—which of these new ideas work, and which work for SLMs? jurgens.people.si.umich.edu/CSE598-004/
After a multi-year effort led by my brilliant PhD advisee Ruth Bagley, this exciting work documenting large-scale racial disparities in media representations of gun violence is out today in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
January 16, 2026 at 9:42 PM
After a multi-year effort led by my brilliant PhD advisee Ruth Bagley, this exciting work documenting large-scale racial disparities in media representations of gun violence is out today in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Very excited this work is out, many great chapters including a version of the fantastic MA thesis work of my former student Michael Senko (msenko1.github.io)!
December 17, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Very excited this work is out, many great chapters including a version of the fantastic MA thesis work of my former student Michael Senko (msenko1.github.io)!
Reposted by Rob Voigt
💪 Congratulations to @burscott.bsky.social and Francesca Vigo on the publication of their impressive collection!
👉 Details here: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111351568/html#overview
@montreallx.bsky.social @kleonichka.bsky.social @helensauntson.bsky.social @robvoigt.bsky.social
👉 Details here: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111351568/html#overview
@montreallx.bsky.social @kleonichka.bsky.social @helensauntson.bsky.social @robvoigt.bsky.social
December 17, 2025 at 3:16 PM
💪 Congratulations to @burscott.bsky.social and Francesca Vigo on the publication of their impressive collection!
👉 Details here: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111351568/html#overview
@montreallx.bsky.social @kleonichka.bsky.social @helensauntson.bsky.social @robvoigt.bsky.social
👉 Details here: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111351568/html#overview
@montreallx.bsky.social @kleonichka.bsky.social @helensauntson.bsky.social @robvoigt.bsky.social
For everyone working on the intersections between linguistic and computational research, consider submitting to the upcoming SCiL! We're very excited that it will be co-located with ACL 2026 as a workshop, and we've also received NSF funding to help cover costs.
sites.google.com/view/scil2026
sites.google.com/view/scil2026
SCiL 2026
SCiL 2026 July 3rd and 4th San Diego, CA
sites.google.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:41 PM
For everyone working on the intersections between linguistic and computational research, consider submitting to the upcoming SCiL! We're very excited that it will be co-located with ACL 2026 as a workshop, and we've also received NSF funding to help cover costs.
sites.google.com/view/scil2026
sites.google.com/view/scil2026
Reposted by Rob Voigt
New work to appear @ TACL!
Language models (LMs) are remarkably good at generating novel well-formed sentences, leading to claims that they have mastered grammar.
Yet they often assign higher probability to ungrammatical strings than to grammatical strings.
How can both things be true? 🧵👇
Language models (LMs) are remarkably good at generating novel well-formed sentences, leading to claims that they have mastered grammar.
Yet they often assign higher probability to ungrammatical strings than to grammatical strings.
How can both things be true? 🧵👇
November 10, 2025 at 10:11 PM
New work to appear @ TACL!
Language models (LMs) are remarkably good at generating novel well-formed sentences, leading to claims that they have mastered grammar.
Yet they often assign higher probability to ungrammatical strings than to grammatical strings.
How can both things be true? 🧵👇
Language models (LMs) are remarkably good at generating novel well-formed sentences, leading to claims that they have mastered grammar.
Yet they often assign higher probability to ungrammatical strings than to grammatical strings.
How can both things be true? 🧵👇
Reposted by Rob Voigt
Tenure-track phonology position at UChicago!
Jobs: English; Phonetics, Phonology, Semantics: Assistant Professor in Phonology, The University of Chicago
Jobs: English; Phonetics, Phonology, Semantics: Assistant Professor in Phonology, The University of Chicago
Description:
Position Title: Assistant Professor in Phonology
Location: Chicago, IL
Position Type: Faculty - Tenure Track/Tenured
Position URL: apply.interfolio.com/174988
Position Description:
The Department of Linguistics invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Phonology with an expected start date of July 1, 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter. The selected candidate will pursue their own research agenda, collaborate with faculty in the Department
dlvr.it
October 4, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Tenure-track phonology position at UChicago!
Reposted by Rob Voigt
UC Davis is looking to appoint a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the Sociology of Gender recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07293
Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Sociology of Gender
University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!
recruit.ucdavis.edu
August 29, 2025 at 10:48 AM
UC Davis is looking to appoint a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the Sociology of Gender recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07293
Reposted by Rob Voigt
Now that school is starting for lots of folks, it's time for a new release of Speech and Language Processing! Jim and I added all sorts of material for the August 2025 release! With slides to match! Check it out here: web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/sl...
Speech and Language Processing
Speech and Language Processing
web.stanford.edu
August 24, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Now that school is starting for lots of folks, it's time for a new release of Speech and Language Processing! Jim and I added all sorts of material for the August 2025 release! With slides to match! Check it out here: web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/sl...
congrats - this looks really exciting and powerful Michael, looking forward to reading it!!
August 21, 2025 at 9:33 PM
congrats - this looks really exciting and powerful Michael, looking forward to reading it!!
Reposted by Rob Voigt
Four papers accepted at the #EMNLP2025 main conference!
1️⃣ Thinking Out Loud: Do Reasoning Models Know When They’re Right?
2️⃣ Seeing is Believing, but How Much? A Comprehensive Analysis of Verbalized Calibration in Vision-Language Models
In these two papers, we look into...
1️⃣ Thinking Out Loud: Do Reasoning Models Know When They’re Right?
2️⃣ Seeing is Believing, but How Much? A Comprehensive Analysis of Verbalized Calibration in Vision-Language Models
In these two papers, we look into...
August 20, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Four papers accepted at the #EMNLP2025 main conference!
1️⃣ Thinking Out Loud: Do Reasoning Models Know When They’re Right?
2️⃣ Seeing is Believing, but How Much? A Comprehensive Analysis of Verbalized Calibration in Vision-Language Models
In these two papers, we look into...
1️⃣ Thinking Out Loud: Do Reasoning Models Know When They’re Right?
2️⃣ Seeing is Believing, but How Much? A Comprehensive Analysis of Verbalized Calibration in Vision-Language Models
In these two papers, we look into...
Reposted by Rob Voigt
Robin Lakoff, Expert on Language and Gender, Is Dead at 82
www.nytimes.com
August 15, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Rob Voigt
UMich Ling is hiring for a cluster hire position in AI and Linguistics! Come work in a fabulous department with great grad students, supportive colleagues, and one overly school-spirited nut who will tell you where all the fun stuff is on campus.
apply.interfolio.com/171006
apply.interfolio.com/171006
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
August 15, 2025 at 1:45 PM
UMich Ling is hiring for a cluster hire position in AI and Linguistics! Come work in a fabulous department with great grad students, supportive colleagues, and one overly school-spirited nut who will tell you where all the fun stuff is on campus.
apply.interfolio.com/171006
apply.interfolio.com/171006
Reposted by Rob Voigt
I just gave a virtual presentation at ACL 2025 on our work about the production–interpretation asymmetry in reference processing in LLMs. If you’re into computational psycholinguistics or the LLMs x cognitive science space, give it a read!
aclanthology.org/2025.acl-sho...
@robvoigt.bsky.social
aclanthology.org/2025.acl-sho...
@robvoigt.bsky.social
Leveraging Human Production-Interpretation Asymmetries to Test LLM Cognitive Plausibility
Suet-Ying Lam, Qingcheng Zeng, Jingyi Wu, Rob Voigt. Proceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 2: Short Papers). 2025.
aclanthology.org
July 29, 2025 at 4:21 PM
I just gave a virtual presentation at ACL 2025 on our work about the production–interpretation asymmetry in reference processing in LLMs. If you’re into computational psycholinguistics or the LLMs x cognitive science space, give it a read!
aclanthology.org/2025.acl-sho...
@robvoigt.bsky.social
aclanthology.org/2025.acl-sho...
@robvoigt.bsky.social
Reposted by Rob Voigt
I'm hiring at least one post-doc! We're interested in creating language models that process language more like humans than mainstream LLMs do, through architectural modifications and interpretability-style steering. Express interest here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
NYU LLM + cognitive science post-doc interest form
Tal Linzen's group at NYU is hiring a post-doc! We're interested in creating language models that process language more like humans than mainstream LLMs do, through architectural modifications and int...
docs.google.com
June 21, 2025 at 3:13 PM
I'm hiring at least one post-doc! We're interested in creating language models that process language more like humans than mainstream LLMs do, through architectural modifications and interpretability-style steering. Express interest here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Rob Voigt
I'm hiring a postdoc to start this fall! Come work with me? recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07123
Post-Doctoral position - Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!
recruit.ucdavis.edu
May 30, 2025 at 1:30 AM
I'm hiring a postdoc to start this fall! Come work with me? recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07123
wow this looks super cool!! excited to check it out.
May 22, 2025 at 12:52 AM
wow this looks super cool!! excited to check it out.
Reposted by Rob Voigt
This statement from the NSF is insane.
Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false.
Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.
Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false.
Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.
April 18, 2025 at 8:51 PM
This statement from the NSF is insane.
Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false.
Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.
Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false.
Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.
Reposted by Rob Voigt
🚨Our paper `Reclaiming AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science' is now forthcoming in the journal Computational Brain & Behaviour. (Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...)
Below a thread summary 🧵1/n
#metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy
Below a thread summary 🧵1/n
#metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy
August 16, 2024 at 7:40 PM
🚨Our paper `Reclaiming AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science' is now forthcoming in the journal Computational Brain & Behaviour. (Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...)
Below a thread summary 🧵1/n
#metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy
Below a thread summary 🧵1/n
#metatheory #AGI #AIhype #cogsci #theoreticalpsych #criticalAIliteracy
Reposted by Rob Voigt
Cory Booker has taken the Senate floor and plans to filibuster as long as he’s physically able to protest the complete disregard for the rule of law by Trump and Musk.
Watch here: www.c-span.org/event/us-sen...
Watch here: www.c-span.org/event/us-sen...
March 31, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Cory Booker has taken the Senate floor and plans to filibuster as long as he’s physically able to protest the complete disregard for the rule of law by Trump and Musk.
Watch here: www.c-span.org/event/us-sen...
Watch here: www.c-span.org/event/us-sen...
Reposted by Rob Voigt
We have had nearly two decades of panic about Free Speech on Campus and not a single case, not even the ones they made up, were as bad as what's happening now
This is the text of the email just sent to hundreds of international students telling them that their visas have been revoked due to activism or social media posts.
March 29, 2025 at 2:24 PM
We have had nearly two decades of panic about Free Speech on Campus and not a single case, not even the ones they made up, were as bad as what's happening now