Ben Lee
@bcgl.bsky.social
1.9K followers 790 following 57 posts
Assistant Professor @ the University of Washington iSchool | formerly an Innovator in Residence @ Library of Congress | essays in WIRED, Gawker, The New Republic, Current Affairs, etc. 🌐 www.bcglee.com
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bcgl.bsky.social
On Monday, my lab is running a co-design workshop surrounding serendipity for digital collections (3:30-4:30pm PT over zoom) for our study. We're looking for a couple more collection stewards to participate. If you're interested, feel free to email me at [email protected]!
bcgl.bsky.social
Thanks so much, Scott - very kind of you to say!
Reposted by Ben Lee
longreads.com
“For all its futuristic appeal, I felt myself turning to the past. I yearned to speak with my grandmother about her life.”

A scholar at the intersection of AI and Holocaust memory wrestles with technology that speaks with the dead.

By @bcgl.bsky.social: longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
Uncanny Testimony - Longreads
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
longreads.com
bcgl.bsky.social
I really appreciate your kind words, @dhutchinson.bsky.social!
Reposted by Ben Lee
jenserventi.bsky.social
Appreciated this thoughtful piece from @bcgl.bsky.social. Eloquently puts into words some of concerns about a particular use of AI that I've been grappling with.
longreads.com
“But what if, instead of resisting the deaths of the last survivors, we allow ourselves to accept their mortality?”

The grandson of an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor grapples with the use of AI to reanimate the dead.

A new essay on @longreads.com, by @bcgl.bsky.social: longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
bcgl.bsky.social
Thanks so much, @jenserventi.bsky.social - I truly appreciate it!
Reposted by Ben Lee
longreads.com
“But what if, instead of resisting the deaths of the last survivors, we allow ourselves to accept their mortality?”

The grandson of an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor grapples with the use of AI to reanimate the dead.

A new essay on @longreads.com, by @bcgl.bsky.social: longreads.com/2025/09/25/a...
bcgl.bsky.social
I’m incredibly grateful to @cherilucasrowlands.com for working with me on this piece and providing such thoughtful edits throughout the writing process!
Reposted by Ben Lee
bcgl.bsky.social
My lab is running a study to investigate how serendipity relates to information seeking in digital collections. We're looking for researchers & practitioners who have used, designed, or stewarded digital collections to participate in our survey (<10 min): forms.gle/zGJDZZ14vx2M...
Survey on Serendipity and Information Seeking in Digital Collections
Purpose of the Study We are seeking to understand the different methods of information seeking in digital collections. In addition, we would like to understand what the participants' perceptions of se...
forms.gle
bcgl.bsky.social
Thanks so much! Yes, we're planning to publish on the survey - we're hoping it'll be useful to the community!
bcgl.bsky.social
My lab is running a study to investigate how serendipity relates to information seeking in digital collections. We're looking for researchers & practitioners who have used, designed, or stewarded digital collections to participate in our survey (<10 min): forms.gle/zGJDZZ14vx2M...
Survey on Serendipity and Information Seeking in Digital Collections
Purpose of the Study We are seeking to understand the different methods of information seeking in digital collections. In addition, we would like to understand what the participants' perceptions of se...
forms.gle
Reposted by Ben Lee
lucylw.bsky.social
Pls help spread the word: We are hiring! 🌲☕✨
@ischool.uw.edu is recruiting two tenure-track assistant profs in AI. Areas include human-AI collaboration, AI & society, comp social science, NLP, and AI applications.

Apply by Nov 15, 2025: apply.interfolio.com/171020

Happy to answer questions!
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
Reposted by Ben Lee
dhquarterly.bsky.social
CFP - AI for DH: Research Problems and Critical Approaches.

DHQ seeks 500-word abstracts for a special issue on AI (research problems, critical approaches, responsible applications, case studies, etc.).

Deadline: Sept 15, 2025.

More details: dhq.digitalhumanities.org/news/news.html
DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly: News
dhq.digitalhumanities.org
bcgl.bsky.social
Excited to be co-editing a special issue of @dhquarterly.bsky.social on Artificial Intelligence for Digital Humanities: Research problems and critical approaches
dhq.digitalhumanities.org/news/news.html

We're inviting abstracts now - please feel free to reach out with any questions!
DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly: News
dhq.digitalhumanities.org
bcgl.bsky.social
Thanks so much! Really appreciate it!
bcgl.bsky.social
By all means - that sounds amazing! Really appreciate the kind words and interest. I’d love to catch up sometime soon over zoom - I’ll send you an email to find a time if that sounds good!
bcgl.bsky.social
Really appreciate it, Katie! And hope all is well with you!
bcgl.bsky.social
Thanks so much! Hope all is well with you!
bcgl.bsky.social
It was fantastic to collaborate with Ying-Hsiang on this project, who did such incredible work!
bcgl.bsky.social
The public demo (digital-collections-explorer.com) enables searching over 500,000 map images from the Library of Congress's API. For example, search for "tattered and worn map"
Search results for "tattered and worn map" showing that the results are accurate (most are tattered and worn).
bcgl.bsky.social
With our Digital Collections Explorer, a collection steward can spin up a local viewer with just a few lines of code. An overview of the Digital Collections Explorer architecture can be found in this overview figure.

The full codebase is available here: github.com/hinxcode/dig...
https://github.com/hinxcode/digital-collections-explorer
bcgl.bsky.social
Thanks so much, Heather!