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Javier Cha

@javiercha.bsky.social
709 followers 275 following 601 posts

Canadian in Hong Kong. Work: digital historian @ HKU. Research: medieval Korea, Neo-Confucianism, historical networks, data centres, infrastructure studies, and historical applications of AI. Team: Big Data Studies Lab bigdatastudies.net

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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I've been brainstorming ways to change the interface so that LLMs work like a very advanced thesaurus. On the question of what percentage of the writing is to be done by humans, my personal take is that the final touches still need to be done by a human. The final task shouldn't be copy and paste.
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Opinion-havers! Historicists! Nerd friends! Leftists! All/none of the above! Submit a proposal to GENERATIVE DIGITAL HUMANITIES, a new volume on AI and DH to be edited by @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social @lnakamura.bsky.social @zentralwerkstatt.org and me! Deadline 11/1. Please share!
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is going to be an important volume, but you're going to face the same challenge the critical infrastructure studies volume faced: it'll be at least two years between the completion of the first draft and the actual publication of the chapters.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
You can do this in Python. codecarbon.io
codecarbon.io
Code Carbon
Open tools to measure the environmental footprint of computing and AI — CodeCarbon for local compute, EcoLogits for GenAI APIs.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Campus rape is really widespread; statistics suggest a significant percent of women who go to college will be raped there; feminism opened up a good conversation about it around 2012-13; it's weird when people treated Cornell like an isolated rather than dramatic example of a pervasive problem.
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Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I get this instinct, but in the world of AI, philosophy has been privileged for a long time. These aren’t questions with final answers, and we’ve had rigorous conversations about them for thousands of years. I find going to other parts of the humanities and social sciences more practical.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
100%. Give me more empirical research that helps us make sense of the messy world.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Not the first time we've seen academics engage in police roleplaying--and upon facing a serious academic misconduct case, a lot of them will be inclined to protect their own tribe. (I hope I wrote that in a clunky enough manner.)
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Artjoms Šeļa @artjomshl.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
it might be my bad mood speaking, but most universities on the planet are more involved in producing civil servants and managers than producing knowledge. It's kind of a wonder we still call all this "higher education", hire PhD students, deal grant money, run academic presses. for how long?
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Artjoms Šeļa @artjomshl.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
nothing is more devastating than hearing your colleague, for whom English might be, idk, fourth language, read out all those llm-speak americana cliches in a conference talk. It doesn't lead to more egalitarian spaces, or more just treatment of talent. It inevitably signals status.
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Artjoms Šeļa @artjomshl.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
use of LLMs is pervasive in academia, everyone is depressed about it. but who can afford ~not~ to rely on AI? those who already hold high social capital: good English, good schools, good networks. For everyone else the 'baseline' is already far out of reach without LLMs
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Revisit materials from the 1960s and 1970s. A few weeks ago, I revisited Isaiah Berlin's "scientific history" essay, for example. STEM students also seem to like John Gaddis.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In 4 years, we've come from whatever this was to... Claude Code.
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Transactions on Machine Learning Research @tmlrorg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Spoilers: all 10 ended up being desk rejected. - 1 paper withdrawn - 1 author was too busy for a call - 1 author no-showed - Authors of 3 papers couldn't answer basic qs - Authors of 3 papers could, but not technical qs - 1 author answered all qs, but paper had a major flaw
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Transactions on Machine Learning Research @tmlrorg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
TMLR has faced a deluge of submissions, necessitating stricter desk rejection policies due to limited reviewer capacity Co-EiC Nihar Shah reached out to authors of 10 papers slated for desk reject. Could they answer questions about their *own* submission? medium.com/@TmlrOrg/ask...
medium.com
Asking Authors About Their Own Papers
By Nihar B. Shah
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
After four weeks of nonstop coding, it's time to slow down a little and engage in some reflections. As I regularly remind my students and lab members, a digital humanities scholar who only engages in technical work without reading and reflecting isn't really in the humanities.
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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"LLMs are just n-dimensional classifiers" has a very similar flavor to "everything is just quantum mechanical interactions." www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
More Is Different
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Christof S. 🇪🇺 @christof.fedihum.org.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026
Time flies! I've arrived here in Hong Kong already a week ago. I'm here for a month as a first part o my two-year role as guest professor at the University of Hong Kong's Faculty or Arts, specifically in the context of their "Arts Tech Lab". See: www.atlab.hku.hk
Homepage of the Arts Technology Lab, with the name in big capital letters, black on white background, and the slogan: "Fostering Creativity, Innovation and Collaboration".
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ACL 2027 @aclmeeting.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
ACL Sustainable Reviewing Policy: We are introducing changes in the @ReviewAcl reviewing and submissions. The changes will cap authors and introduce changes in the reviewing to keep our community sustainable. #NLProc #NLP
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It's been way overpriced for some time now.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I also ask that journal editors and conference organizers please stop sending requests to review a manuscript or an abstract that obviously should've been desk-rejected or sent back to the author(s) for revision. I must be doing close to 40 reviews a year. This is unsustainable.
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Scott McGrath @smcgrath.phd · 04/09/2026
🧪 We are staring down a crisis with peer-review. Editors needed 4.5 invitations to secure a single peer reviewer in 2025, double the effort required back in 2018. Meanwhile, we have half of surveyed scientists admit to using AI to draft their reviews. This isn't sustainable. #AcademicSky
science.org
Can AI help solve the peer-review crisis? Here are its promises and pitfalls
Amid a shortage of human reviewers, tests indicate AI can assist—but is not a savior
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Seth Rudy @sethrudy.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Me: to study the humanities is to cultivate a fuller understanding of the mind as we seek to find meaning in the past, present, and future of our individual and collective existence Them: are you happy Me: god no
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Ted Underwood @tedunderwood.com · 03/09/2026
Imagine if we decided, since the humanities == the good life, we have to hire whatever theorists empirically make ppl happiest.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I love how I now have the ability to visually express my research philosophy. Over the years, I've experienced so much difficulty trying to convey this to my designers.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Thanks to AI agents, I've managed to completely redesign two of my existing websites and create a brand new one ... in 6 days. Brave new world. And I'm beyond pleased with the results. Check out: javiercha.com bigdatastudies.net samhan.ai
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
How dare they!
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Wow! Retro to the max. Brings back so many memories.
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Retro Tech Dreams @retrotechdreams.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Download dot com's most popular downloads at the end of 1996
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Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Truly, end of an era.
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Hillary Rodham Clinton @hillaryclinton.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It’s Lake Ontario.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Yayoi Kusama (1929-2026) RIP
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Internet Archive @archive.org · 27/08/2026
📚 What looks like the work of a solitary author can be the product of a system. In BIG FICTION, Emory professor Dan Sinykin argues books are shaped by a larger system: agents, editors, marketers & others whose decisions shape the page. 🎧Listen: futureknowledge.transistor.fm/episodes/big... 🧵
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Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) @adho-org.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
📢 AI and History Conference 2026 📍 October 15–16, 2026 | Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 🔗 The conference program is available at: proflouishyman.github.io/ai_conferenc... ⏰️ Registration closes September 15, 2026. 🔗 More info & registration: proflouishyman.github.io/ai_conferenc...
proflouishyman.github.io
AI and History Conference 2026
A practitioner-focused conference for historians using AI and computational methods, October 15–16, 2026 at Johns Hopkins University.
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Before Europeans arrived, these were some of the names for The Great Lakes: Superior: gichi-gami (great sea) Erie: erielhonan (long tail) Michigan: michigami (long body of water) Ontario: Ontarí'io\kanadario (great lake\beautiful water) Huron: karegnondi (fresh water sea)
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Brett Bobley @brettbobley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Highly recommended reading from my wonderful former colleague at NEH, Molly Hardy. (Related aside: I once asked one of the DOGE boys "who would ever want to work here after what you've done?" To which he replied, "oh, NEH will be so much better soon." Yeah, fuck off.)
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Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) @adho-org.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
📣Call for Papers: Hong Kong Association for Digital Humanities Annual Conference (HKADH) | Model/Making: Toward Generative Humanities ⏰️Submission deadline: September 1, 2026 🔗 More information: 2027.hkadh.org#cfp 🔗 Learn more about HKADH: hkadh.org
2027.hkadh.org
HKADH 2027
Model/Making: Toward Generative Humanities. 21-24 January 2027, Hong Kong.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I think I know that journal! I had a good laugh when it happened to me.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
CFP deadline is approaching! In my original post, I shared the wrong deadline. 🫣 Please submit your abstract by 1 September. #HKADH2027
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James Cummings @jamescummings.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Very happy that the Hong Kong Association of Digital Humanities (HKADH) has joined @adho-org.bsky.social! Announced at #DH2026.
Welcome HKADH!

Hong Kong Association for Digital Humanities

We are proud to welcome HKADH as the newest constituent organization of the Association for Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO).

Key Contributions & Focus Areas:

Fostering digital humanities research and collaboration in Hong Kong and East Asia

Supporting multilingual DH initiatives and local community engagement

Strengthening global networks of scholars, practitioners, and institutions

hkadh

#DH2026

hkadh.org
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Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) @adho-org.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
🎉 We are delighted to welcome the Hong Kong Association for Digital Humanities (HKADH) as the newest constituent organization of the Association for Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO)! Please join us in welcoming HKADH to the ADHO community! Learn more about HKADH: hkadh.org #DH #ADHO #HKADH
hkadh.org
Hong Kong Association for Digital Humanities
Advancing New Pathways in Digital Humanities in Asia’s World City
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Retro Tech Dreams @retrotechdreams.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Sid Meier's Civilization II (1996)
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Eventually, I'll look for a suitable local open-weight model to take GPT's place and release the entire source code online. Then others can fork it and continue customizing the web application according to their needs. A software paper, along with my methodological reflections, will soon follow.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This is how NER should be done. I used Claude Code to add LLM integration. For the time being, I'm using GPT-5.6 Luna, which costs literally just pennies to process these requests. Notice how this approach makes provenance visible and invites fellow historians to inspect the results.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Enzo to be sacked in the morning. 😁😁
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Are you Tottenham in disguise?
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
After human verification of all the records (though I don't expect to find many errors), I will release the whole thing so that you can use it for research or in class.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
There is an option to export this exactly visualization as PNG or SVG, so that I can include it to my book or article, as is, and I have the option to toggle between colour and black & white.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
If you know anything about premodern Korean history, this is truly mind-blowing. I'm still in disbelief that this whole thing is ready to be deployed after spending less than half a day working on it.
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Javier Cha @javiercha.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
After 5 minutes to produce the prototype and 5 hours of debugging and refining the features with my input, this is the result. It's called Sebo: Koryŏ Kinship Workbench. The name itself is Claude's own suggestion.
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