harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 30/05/2025Every week I write a short history of AI: a trend, person, or technology from AI or the fields that influenced it This week deals with the Mechanical Turk. I look at its tricks, second life, and games with Ben Franklin, Edgar Allan Poe, and Napoleon www.learningfromexamples.com/p/the-man-be...learningfromexamples.comPlease ignore the man behind the curtainAI Histories #5: The Mechanical Turk 110
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 18/03/2025A bit on AI in the Victorian imagination by way of the AI researcher’s favourite classic book, Erewhon, and what came before it www.learningfromexamples.com/p/the-coming...learningfromexamples.comThe Coming RaceBovril Among the Machines 020
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 04/03/2025www.learningfromexamples.com/p/a-verhoeve...learningfromexamples.comA Verhoevenian MomentIt’s a feature, not a bug 010
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 04/03/2025Definitional questions about AI can be tedious, but their staying power is curious. I argue that's because AI is the quintessentially Verhoevenian technology: an especially supple cypher for politics, values, beliefs, and biases Link below 120
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 18/02/2025www.learningfromexamples.com/p/ghosts-of-...learningfromexamples.comGhosts of GreenlandMyths, missiles, and memory 020
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 18/02/2025I wrote about the territory of the moment. Link below for a history of science essay about Greenland, by way of pulp sci-fi outposts, lost colonies, and Sherlock Holmes 🧊 130
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 04/02/2025New blog on something I've been wanting to write about for a while: historical parallels between AI and alchemy, where they hold & where they break www.learningfromexamples.com/p/the-econom...learningfromexamples.comThe Economy of MagicOn alchemy, imagination, and machine learning 140
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 14/12/2024extremely zoomable, super high resolution picture of de heem’s ‘flowers in a glass vase’ from 1660: tahpaul.github.io/deheem/ 020
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 30/11/2024A Turing test for poetry, copyright, and finetuning - three things I enjoyed writing about in this week’s newsletter. Check it out if you’re into that sort of thing www.learningfromexamples.com/p/conversati...learningfromexamples.comConversation Galante [TWIE]The Week In Examples #61 | 30 November 2024 030
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 29/11/2024in 1971 you could look like this and play a 29 year old 040
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 29/11/2024west point academy has identified civ vi as a promising training platform for the next generation of military strategists 040
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 29/11/2024guy who is sceptical of AI but supports export controls on GPUs 230
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 26/11/2024t.co/QPBuD9joppt.cohttps://www.aipolicyperspectives.com/p/a-new-golden-age-of-discovery 030
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 26/11/2024Colleagues at Google DeepMind wrote a new essay aiming to provide an overview of the AI for science opportunity, a nuanced take on the risks, insights on the ingredients needed to succeed, and an ambitious policy agenda. Read it below on our policy blog 🫡 170
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 17/11/2024Check it out if you’re interested in that sort of thing 020
harry law @harrylaw.bsky.social · 17/11/2024Every week I publish a newsletter about AI and society. This week I looked at: 🛣️ Calls for ‘AI highways’ 🌍 Safety implications of world models ✍️The first draft of the EU’s Code of Practice for AI www.learningfromexamples.com/p/my-w…learningfromexamples.comMy way or the highway [TWIE]The Week In Examples #59 | 16 November 2024 130