Walter Quattrociocchi @walter4c.bsky.social · 26/11/2025LLMs don’t form judgments. They skip straight to the answer. No evaluation. No grounding. Just fluent output. When generation bypasses judgment, knowledge becomes a performance. Welcome to Epistemia. PNAS commentary ⬇️ www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 0103
Reposted by Walter QuattrociocchiSander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 21/11/2025New study on LLMs shows that while LLMs & humans converge on similar judgments of reliability of news media, they rely on very different underlying processes. In delegating, are we confusing linguistic plausibility with epistemic reliability? The age of "epistemia" www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.... 26216
Reposted by Walter QuattrociocchiDan Vergano @danvergano.bsky.social · 20/11/2025How LLMs generate judgments www.nature.com/articles/s43... "driven by lexical and statistical associations rather than deliberative reasoning"nature.comHow LLMs generate judgments - Nature Computational ScienceNature Computational Science - How LLMs generate judgments 05214
Reposted by Walter QuattrociocchiNature Computational Science @natcomputsci.nature.com · 20/11/2025📢Research Highlights out today! We highlight work by @walter4c.bsky.social, @matteocinelli.bsky.social, and colleagues on how LLMs generate judgments about reliability and political bias, and how their procedures compare to human evaluation. www.nature.com/articles/s43... #csskynature.comHow LLMs generate judgments - Nature Computational ScienceNature Computational Science - How LLMs generate judgments 131
Walter Quattrociocchi @walter4c.bsky.social · 18/11/2025Data changed the info business model: confirmation → echo chambers → infodemics LLMs drop cost of “knowledge-like” content to zero. Result: Epistemia — when language sounds like knowledge. Outsourcing shifts decisions from evidence → plausibility PNAS:https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1517441113 030
Walter Quattrociocchi @walter4c.bsky.social · 29/10/2025#Grokipedia just launched. An AI-built encyclopedia, pitched as a “neutral” alternative to Wikipedia. But neutrality is not the point. What happens underneath is. 👇 140
Walter Quattrociocchi @walter4c.bsky.social · 29/10/2025timely, considering Grokpedia and all the related implications. 020
Walter Quattrociocchi @walter4c.bsky.social · 20/10/2025“LLMs don’t understand.” Of course. That was never the point. The point is: we’re already using them as if they do — to moderate, to classify, to prioritize, to decide. That’s not a model problem. It’s a systemic one. The shift from verification to plausibility is real. Welcome to Epistemia. 142
Reposted by Walter QuattrociocchiProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 16/10/2025LLMs can mirror expert judgment but often rely on word patterns rather than reasoning. A new study introduces epistemia, the illusion of knowledge that occurs when surface plausibility replaces verification. In PNAS: ow.ly/ry7S50Xcv9b 1137
Reposted by Walter QuattrociocchiCEU Department of Network & Data Science @ceu-dnds.bsky.social · 12/03/2025📢Join us for a public lecture by @walter4c.bsky.social about the impacts of social media on society. ⛓️💥For online attendants, please register here: bit.ly/3FomgkF 011
Walter Quattrociocchi @walter4c.bsky.social · 03/01/20251/ 🎉 First paper of 2025! In the quantitative study of the attention economy, we asked a key question: How much does a like—or a viral post—truly reverberate? Our new study, published in Scientific Reports, dives into this crucial topic. 🧵 130
Reposted by Walter QuattrociocchiComputational Social Science @com-soc-sci.bsky.social · 19/12/2024 A follow-up to this Nature paper (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) has just been published in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...pnas.orgPatterns of linguistic simplification on social media platforms over time | PNASUnderstanding the impact of digital platforms on user behavior presents foundational challenges, including issues related to polarization, misinfor... 011
Walter Quattrociocchi @walter4c.bsky.social · 06/12/2024Breaking News! Our latest paper has just been published in PNAS! 📄 We analyzed 34 years of data a cross 8 social media platforms to uncover how language has evolved in the digital age. 👉 Read the paper here www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 121
Walter Quattrociocchi @walter4c.bsky.social · 27/11/20241/ 🚨 New preprint on arXiv 🚨 "Characterizing the Fragmentation of the Social Media Ecosystem" arxiv.org/abs/2411.16826 @matteo_cinelli , @m_starnini edoardo di martino Alessandro Galeazzi #echoplatforms #fragmentation 132