Anupam Basu
@abasu.bsky.social
190 followers 530 following 150 posts
Collecting data about stories. Telling stories with data. Book: Shakespeare and Scale Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/25sentkx Cambridge UP: https://tinyurl.com/287ff98p
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abasu.bsky.social
Been in the works for a while, but delighted it's finally out in the world, especially in the current political environment. I contributed an essay on the demonization of migrants in early modern England, a phenomenon that bears dispiriting similarities to our time.
punctumbooks.com/titles/cross...
abasu.bsky.social
Been in the works for a while, but delighted it's finally out in the world, especially in the current political environment. I contributed an essay on the demonization of migrants in early modern England, a phenomenon that bears dispiriting similarities to our time.
punctumbooks.com/titles/cross...
abasu.bsky.social
Break it Down Again; Stand by Me; Shine on You Crazy Diamond; Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.
abasu.bsky.social
3/ All that talk of wanting to create an alliance with the non-college working class but accidentally waking up in bed with senior managers rings hollow. When a university rushes to fire cafeteria workers to protect the endowment, it creates a guide map showing fascists exactly where to squeeze.
abasu.bsky.social
2/ When it became normal to have tens of billions of dollars in endowments to run universities (and rankings basically became directly correlated with endowment size). Trump is only the visible symptom that knows how to exploit a longstanding malaise. It was a conscious self-serving ride to hell.
abasu.bsky.social
1/3 Obviously, much of this is spot on! But I'm skeptical of the "seize the means of knowledge production" flourish. That train left when we decided we were okay with universities being basically hedge funds with attached teaching/research units. When it became normal to pay >50k to get an education
annakornbluh.bsky.social
"the solution is still the one that can succeed: to build a new cultural order, a new civilization. To do so, academics must embrace an unusual new role: as knowledge workers, they must seize the means of knowledge production."

www.publicbooks.org/academics-mu...
Academics Must Seize the Means of Knowledge Production - Public Books
Trumpism has canceled the knowledge society.
www.publicbooks.org
abasu.bsky.social
"Al won't save dying languages but community efforts might"

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Reposted by Anupam Basu
justinhendrix.bsky.social
"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."
America is now one big bet on AI
It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy
www.ft.com
Reposted by Anupam Basu
wblau.bsky.social
Spot the North-American anomaly: only region where social media use is still growing.
Great work by the FT’s @jburnmurdoch.ft.com
www.ft.com/content/a072... “Have we passed peak social media?”
abasu.bsky.social
The AI representation of the murder victim "speaks from the heart" in court!!!

Judge Todd Lang said, "I loved that AI. Thank you for that." He added, "It says something about the family because ... you allowed Chris to speak from his heart."

www.npr.org/2025/05/07/g...
Family shows AI video of slain victim as an impact statement — possibly a legal first
AI experts say this is likely the first time that AI has been used in the U.S. to create an impact statement read by an AI rendering of the deceased victim
www.npr.org
abasu.bsky.social
Interesting survey of #AI research on humor.

Should we care if an algorithm "understands" a joke as long as it can classify or even explain it? I think we should, but would have a hard time defending that position because it entails clearly defining understanding.

www.ft.com/content/ee51...
Why is this funny? And why AI doesn’t know — yet
The longtime New Yorker cartoon ed who turned to writing papers about AI humour
www.ft.com
abasu.bsky.social
"One widely cited report ... found that 95% of 52 organizations surveyed had a zero return on their AI initiatives. This suggests AI has yet to make enough impact to raise the economy’s aggregate productivity."

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/behi...
Behind Job Weakness Are Hints of a Productivity Revival. Is AI the Reason?
The artificial intelligence investment boom resembles the tech spree that brought a productivity renaissance three decades ago.
www.wsj.com
abasu.bsky.social
Meanwhile, Bezos is talking up data centers in space. Yeah, not like the dotcom bubble at all.

"Bezos also compared the surge in artificial intelligence to the internet boom of the early 2000s, urging optimism despite the risk of speculative bubbles."

www.japantimes.co.jp/business/202...
Data centers in space? Jeff Bezos says it's possible
The Amazon founder predicted that gigawatt-scale data centers will be built in space within the next 10 to 20 years.
www.japantimes.co.jp
Reposted by Anupam Basu
ainowinstitute.bsky.social
. @smw.bsky.social joined joined Alix Dunn at “Computer Says Maybe" to discuss the economics of the AI bubble. Even as companies are realizing this tech isn’t as useful as they thought it would be, gov actors are signing lucrative contracts.

Watch it on YouTube: youtu.be/WvN1wQ_CBlY
Reposted by Anupam Basu
gbrumfiel.bsky.social
Well gang, it's happened: OpenAI has built a platform filled exclusively with fake, AI content.

I've been playing with it for a few days, and I think it's safe to say we're basically kissing reality goodbye.

Here's the story: www.npr.org/2025/10/03/n...

And some thoughts 🧵
abasu.bsky.social
"We can’t rely on the goodwill of AI companies to protect user safety. Their market incentives to increase engagement are too strong. Protecting users from predatory chatbots requires making it more profitable for an AI model to be safe than sycophantic."
www.wsj.com/opinion/i-ne...
Opinion | I Need a Chatbot That Won’t Drive Me Crazy
It’s no joke. Sycophantic AI models are pushing naive users toward acts of violence and self-harm.
www.wsj.com
abasu.bsky.social
Agree that current AI hype, infrastructure, and valuation are all probably overinflated, and once expectations are brought down to earth, the progress in AI can still be transformative.

www.fastcompany.com/91400857/the...
There isn’t an AI bubble—there are three
Here's how to capitalize on them.
www.fastcompany.com
abasu.bsky.social
This is actually a quite detailed and nuanced take. But I fear the AI industrial hype machine is AI's worst enemy. Without this zero-sum game of making humans redundant, our reaction to this could have been - wow, isn't it amazing what a #technology about a decade old can already do to assist us?
abasu.bsky.social
Kant make this shit up!

Interesting take. I get the critique of neoliberalism and technology, though somewhat reductive. But we should dismiss the other side as simply "stupid" - acting without long-term goals, however misguided - at our own peril.

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/oc...
A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0
If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live in a world-historical age of stupid, accelerated by big tech. But might th...
www.theguardian.com