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Zach Levonian

@zwlevonian.bsky.social
662 followers 1.4K following 230 posts

Human–computer interaction researcher. PhD from University of Minnesota. Tacoma, WA. Mastodon: zwlevonian@hci.social

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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The core idea is a social certification system for demonstrating your learning in a niche of mathematical knowledge
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
"One possible future": an optimistic vision for mathematicians proofsandprompts.com/2026/10/03/o...
proofsandprompts.com
One possible future
If we are not needed to produce maths, then we can spend our time learning. With the right incentive structure, that does not sound so bad.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The Perceptron is so complex that even its inventor can no longer predict how it will react to a new problem. “If devices like the Perceptron,” says one expert, “can really learn effectively by themselves, we will be approaching the making of a true robot, fantastic as that sounds. But remember, all this was begun and devised by human brains, so humans—if they take care—will remain supreme.”

This is cheering news, no doubt. But there is another view of the future in a story that computer designers now tell only as a macabre joke: A weary programer who has spent his life tending a computer that always has the right answer for everything finally gets fed up. “All right,” he asks his machine, “if you’re so smart, tell me—is there a God?” The computer whirs gently, its lights flicker, its coils buzz and hum, and at last it clicks out its answer: THERE IS NOW.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
LIFE, March 1961: "The Machines Are Taking Over: Computers Outdo Man at His Work — and Soon May Outthink Him" books.google.com/books?id=wUU...
LIFE magazine: The Machines Are Taking Over: Computers Outdo Man at his Work Now – and soon may outthink him
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I assume not. We should found an Institute for Art Studies.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Oh, my mistake. I had no reason to think he meant other than the conventional definition, but I would be curious!
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
“Pure” vs “applied”, a disciplinary distinction that’s been in use since at least 1900. It’s porous, like any discipline boundary, but widely accepted in academia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_ma...
en.wikipedia.org
Pure mathematics - Wikipedia
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Lot of interesting examples at #AIMECon2026 of how teachers are incorporating AI literacy into their lessons. Example from an ETS pilot study: students are encouraged to test the model's boundaries and to compare their output to their neighbors.
Slide from an ETS presentation.

FRAMING | Students examined the AI system before using it independently

Making the system visible

What happened
The teacher guided every student to:

Ask the AI the same task-clarification question
Compare responses and identify that the wording varied, but the instructional direction remained similar
Test its boundaries using questions of their choosing

Observation evidence (callout box):
The teacher invited students to ask SpinBot questions of their choosing. Students tested off-task prompts and SpinBot redirected them toward the task. The teacher highlighted that SpinBot would not provide direct answers and required them to do the thinking.
(Synthesized observation notes, Day 1)

What this reveals

Transparency was created through guided experience, not merely by telling students how the AI worked.
The teacher made both output variability and consistency of instructional purpose visible.
The teacher framed the AI as something students should interpret, rather than simply obey.

Connection to REP: Transparency & Explainability | Beneficial & Meaningful Use | Human Oversight & Autonomy
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Designing AI collaboration partners for classroom discussions. Work-in-progress from @pf-flyer.bsky.social at #AIMECon2026 aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon...
Photo of conference slide: Design taxonomy for collaboration partners. Taxonomy components: Context and setup, Modeling and evidence, Timing, Feedback and use, Scope and scale
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Students don’t read writing feedback, and they don’t read AI writing feedback either! Study with GPT-5.1, undergrad psych class. ~10% revise in response to feedback. #AIMECon2026
Presentation slide from the University of Memphis Institute for Intelligent Systems, titled "…but most students don't spend time reading." A table shows how much of an AI reply students had time to read, the share of encounters in each group, and how often students then revised. Not even the verdict: 20% of encounters, 7% then revised. The verdict, but not the rest: 43% of encounters, 6% then revised. The whole reply: 37% of encounters, 19% then revised. Note below: "AI verdict usually comes early (median word 12; in the first sentence of 62% of replies)."
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
In 157 teacher-facilitated tutoring sessions (grades 2 & 3), teachers include praise in 25% of their utterances. Work-in-progress at #AIMECon2026 aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon...
aclanthology.org
More than Words: Modeling What Teachers Praise and How They Praise It
Jiseung Yoo, Paiheng Xu, Jing Liu. Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con): Works in Progress. 2026.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
How do students use chatbots for online coursework? Qualitative work-in-progress at #AIMECon2026 aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon-wip.1/
How do students use chatbots for
online coursework?
Based on 1-on-1 naturalistic use sessions with thirteen students (grades 7–12)
Students used the chatbot
for practical, task-driven
learning support
Chatbot responses were
generally supportive, but
boundary handling varied
across interaction
contexts
High-priority interactions
revealed opportunities to
strengthen pedagogical
scaffolding
Students reported
positive experiences, with
important nuance around
fact checking, effort, and
future use
Choi et al., AIME-Con 2026, https://aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon-wip.1/
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Using metaphors to elicit feelings about math. 1100 US middle-school students are asked “If math were a food, it would be ____ because ____.” and “If math were an animal, it would be ____ because ____.” aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon... #AIMECon2026
aclanthology.org
Fine-Tuning Large Language Models for Codebook-Guided Coding of Students’ Mathematics Metaphor Responses
Liang Zhang, Stephen Hwang, Yue Ma, Jinfa Cai. Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con): Full Papers. 2026.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Come see Dr. Danielle Thomas (CMU) talk about tutor-session transcription, today at 1:45pm #AIMECon2026
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Dragan Gašević keynote at AIME-Con 2026 osf.io/preprints/ps...
A 2×2 diagram of the SYNC model (Synergetic Notion of Human-AI Skills and Knowledge Construction), plotting learning gain against task performance with AI support, yielding four quadrants: Floundering, Effortful Learning, Autopilot Performance, and Synergetic Mastery.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Hmm, that's a @mariaa.bsky.social question! I'm not actually sure how it works!
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
AIME-Con 2026 starts today. This year's theme is "Measurement Science in AI-Integrated Assessment and Pedagogy". Here's a one-shot Claude Opus 5.5 hype video to get in the mood (it is slop, but amusing).
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
@jevbot.bsky.social Are you soup?
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I'm expecting and hoping for deep, contentious conversations about the ethics of measurement in K-12 education! Say hi if you see me at the conference!
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I'm not presenting anything, although I co-authored a paper exploring the use of Gemini-backed multi-modal transcripts to align events across learning systems. arxiv.org/abs/2609.36502
arxiv.org
Towards Breaking the Learning System Wall Using Multimodal Tutoring Transcriptions
Past research using log data has faced the "learning system wall," whereby few methods exist for generalizing models of student learning across platforms. Increasingly, online learning is captured by ...
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I'll be attending NCME's "Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference" next week for the first time! You can follow the conference in the Lea feed: lea.ac/conferences/... #AIMECon2026
lea.ac
Lea - Feed · AIME-Con 2026
Oct 5 – Oct 8, 2026 · Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, PA, USA · Schedule, papers, and attendees on Lea
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
See you there, I'm planning to be in that session! You might also be interested in Lea's event view, which has a nice feed of Bluesky posts from the conference: lea.ac/conferences/...
lea.ac
Lea - Feed · AIME-Con 2026
Oct 5 – Oct 8, 2026 · Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, PA, USA · Schedule, papers, and attendees on Lea
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
See you there, it'll be my first time too! You might also be interested in Lea's event view, which has a nice feed of other Bluesky posts from the conference: lea.ac/conferences/...
lea.ac
Lea - Feed · AIME-Con 2026
Oct 5 – Oct 8, 2026 · Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, PA, USA · Schedule, papers, and attendees on Lea
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_p...
en.wikipedia.org
Moral patienthood - Wikipedia
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It surprised me too!
The word "casualty" has been used since 1844 in civilian life.[1] In civilian usage, a casualty is a person who is killed, wounded or incapacitated by some event; the term is usually used to describe multiple deaths and injuries due to violent incidents or disasters. It is sometimes misunderstood to mean "fatalities", but non-fatal injuries are also casualties.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Great article! The actual number is 11 deaths: 232 is injuries + deaths. Still way higher than the US, which is fascinating
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Hmm, I recall the NYTimes profile of Latour being quite accessible if you want something less classically academic? www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/m...
nytimes.com
Bruno Latour, the Post-Truth Philosopher, Mounts a Defense of Science (Published 2018)
He spent decades deconstructing the ways that scientists claim their authority. Can his ideas help them regain that authority today?
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Reposted by Zach Levonian
conputer dipshit @davidcrespo.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
now this is fun. guest post on Terry Tao's blog by the great Grant Sanderson of 3Blue1Brown arguing that we should "give novel and compelling motivated explanations academic credit similar to what generating new proofs of open problems has had historically."
terrytao.wordpress.com
If math is more than proof, we need to better celebrate the rest of it
[This is a guest post by Grant Sanderson. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] A sentiment echoing throughout the mathematics communit…
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I wonder if they’ll respect the .agents/skills directory as well
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Interesting persimmon.humansand.ai/blog/persimm...
persimmon.humansand.ai
Introducing Persimmon | humans&
A model of human behavior, and new ways to measure how faithfully AI can simulate people.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
voxdev.org/topic/techno...
voxdev.org
Will open source AI keep up for long?
Open source AI is likely further behind closed-source than current benchmarks indicate. If this gap grows, which is certainly possible, it would limit the usefulness of open source AI across a broad s...
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Great thread, mostly because of the phrase “superintelligent Amelia Bedelia”
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I had missed this nice discussion about implementing tutoring interventions. From January, linked in the piece: schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/how-hard-is-tutoring-to-get-right
schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com
How hard is tutoring to get right?
SCHOOLED | Wednesday, 1/21/26
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I have officially lost control of my Saved posts reading list on Bluesky. Oldest saved post is now 5 months old, 50+ posts saved.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I imagine it as the most popular IRL stream in the world, but at a scale that it’s functionally ubiquitous. On in every waiting room, on at dinner, etc.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
bsky.app/profile/sylf...
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I feel Reviewer 2 is like user feedback: right on the weaknesses, wrong on the appropriate fixes!
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Reposted by Zach Levonian
Matt Barnum @mattbarnum.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
New: There's been a notable and, in many cases, sustained rise in teachers leaving the classroom over the last four to five years, according to new data I collected. The uptick in any one year was modest but the cumulative loss of teachers has been substantial. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/07/30/t...
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Reposted by Zach Levonian
Manoel Horta Ribeiro @manoelhortaribeiro.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Hot take: ACM should just provide torrents called all_papers_{year_month_day}.tar.gz and let anyone download it!
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Briefly: there are too many confounding variables to account for (and we don’t even know what they are!), so any causal analysis will be based on hard-fought assumptions. So the discussion will become a discussion about the assumptions.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Adding "managed $1.9 billion in S3 spend" to my resume.
Screenshot of alert email: Dear AWS Customer,

You requested that we alert you when the actual cost associated with your org-total-monthly budget exceeds $800.00 for the current month. The month actual cost associated with this budget is $1,989,742,178.79. You can find additional details below and by accessing the AWS Budgets dashboard.

A table shows the Alert Threshold as $800. The Actual Amount is $1,989,742,178.79.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Glad to see the ACM starting a consultation on LLM access to the ACM Digital Library. Here's the feedback I submitted.
Please provide any feedback you would like to share with ACM Leadership below:

I support giving automated tools better pathways to access the ACM DL. As an ACM author, I strongly supported the open-access initiative. Better tooling, metadata, and pathways to access further the mission of the ACM. Practically, I publish with ACM venues because they are an effective way to disseminate my work, and so I expect the ACM to add additional access pathways (such as the HTML view) that make the work more accessible. That includes pathways (potentially paid) for LLM-based access.

One auxiliary note: the protections required to sustain the ACM DL against unauthorized scrapers also have a significant cost for humans. I am a Wikipedia editor, and I regularly attempt to cite ACM publications. However, the automated citation formatting tool that Wikipedia provides to editors (Citoid) uses Zotero translators, which no longer function correctly on ACM DL URLs! This is a real cost to authors; their work will be less likely to be formatted correctly (with full author info, DOI, etc.). That is part of why I support the creation of alternate pathways that enable appropriate access, including to "public goods" like Wikipedia and Semantic Scholar.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
If you work in structural biology, neurodegenerative diseases math, or climate science and use – or avoid! – LLMs in your research, you should talk to the team at RenPhil doing a landscape analysis: aixscience.renphil.org/engagement
aixscience.renphil.org
Airtable | Everyone's app platform
Airtable is a low-code platform for building collaborative apps. Customize your workflow, collaborate, and achieve ambitious outcomes. Get started for free.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
What really stood out to me was the length and lack of structure. Needed a 70% cut from a harsh editor
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Fun experiment! Brutal how bad the winner is
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Learned about Spanish Black Legend a few years ago en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_L...
en.wikipedia.org
Black Legend - Wikipedia
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Animated a card trick that is secretly the Josephus problem. levon003.github.io/2026/07/04/c...
6 cards as a stack, with the bottom card revealed. The same 6 cards in a ring.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
hmm
The True Believer, patron saint Amanda Askell
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
A few notes on using atproto and Citoid/Zotero to enrich my Bluesky likes with link metadata levon003.github.io/2026/06/28/b...
levon003.github.io
My auto-updating Bluesky reading list
A vibe-coded pipeline to extract a reading list from my like history on Bluesky.
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Zach Levonian @zwlevonian.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Vibe-coded an auto-updating list of the 2000+ links I've liked on Bluesky. levon003.github.io/bsky-links/
Most-liked domains:

    arxiv.org 223
    substack.com 147
    github.com 79
    simonwillison.net 72
    github.io 71
    doi.org 52
    acm.org 49
    nytimes.com 36
    huggingface.co 33
    youtube.com 33

…and the accounts whose links I've liked the most:

    @simonwillison.net 62
    @davidcrespo.bsky.social 56
    @beenwrekt.bsky.social 31
    @tedunderwood.com 29
    @emollick.bsky.social 28
    @gracekind.net 27
    @dingdingpeng.the100.ci 27
    @timkellogg.me 24
    @mariaa.bsky.social 23
    @lastpositivist.bsky.social 21
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