Humanities

"Unfortunately, the goal of creating artificial general intelligence isnt just a project that lives as a hypothetical in scientific papers. Theres real money invested in this work, much of it coming from venture capitalists," co-writes Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW.

Since 2014, The European Union has been crafting policy on the rights of disabled people with independent living as a key element. Officials noticed the law wasnt being followed in countries like Malta, so they moved these young people into their own apartments. But these were pretty much the only people in their 20s who...

The kingdom of Aksum was one of the most powerful empires in the world in the fourth century. It played a major role in the histories of Egypt, Persia and Rome, as well as the early days of Christianity and Islam. But Aksums accomplishments have long been overlooked because they are recorded in the ancient...

There is more to literature than the text itself. Anything that surrounds the text from the cover to chapter headings and author bios is known as paratext. This is what transforms text into a book.   Richard Wattss research focuses on this under-examined aspect of literature. In this episode, Watts, an associate professor...

When generative artificial intelligence, or AI, dropped into our lives two and a half years ago, educators around the world went into a panic. Suddenly there was a chatbot easily accessible to students that could help them cheat on tests and assignments and likely get away with it. Fast forward, and now students are complaining that teachers are using AI in their jobs, and they don't like it. Should they? Katy Pearce, associate professor of communication at the UW, is interviewed.

English, philosophy and comparative literature aren’t typically subjects that come to mind when thinking about big datasets. But the intersection between literature and data analysis is exactly where Anna Preus works. This is the first episode of Season 2 of Ways of Knowing, a podcast highlighting how studies of the humanities reflect everyday life.

Dont callChatGPTa chatbot. Call it a conversation simulator. Dont think ofDALL-Eas a creator of artistic imagery. Instead, think of it as a synthetic media extruding machine. In fact, avoid thinking that what generative AI does is actually artificial intelligence. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

Poet and teacher Martha Silano, ’93, died May 5, 2025, at the age of 63. A nationally renowned poet and beloved teacher, she captured the impacts of the climate crisis in her poetry. Martha received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the UW.

An AI leaderboard suggests the newest reasoning models used in chatbots are producing less accurate results because of higher hallucination rates. Experts say the problem is bigger than that. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

Because of its unique status in the modern world, myths and misunderstandings about Chinese characters abound. Where does this writing system, so different in form and function from alphabetic writing, come from? How does it really work? By exploring the spread and adaptation of the script across two millennia and thousands of miles, Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (University of Washington Press, 2025) by Dr. Zev Handel addresses these questions and provides insights into human cognition and culture.

Researchers in natural language processing tried to tame human language. Then came the transformer. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

Chatbots learned from human writing. Now its their turn to influence us. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

The large language models that power todays chatbots have gotten so astoundingly capable, AI researchers are hard pressed to assess those capabilities it seems that no sooner is there a new test than the AI systems ace it. But what does that performance really mean? Do these models genuinely understand our world? Or are they merely a triumph of data and calculations that simulates true understanding? Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

Bonobos grunts, peeps and whistles may share an advanced linguistic property with human language. Shane Steinert-Threlkeld, assistant professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

Rare survey of AI experts exposes deep divide with public opinion. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.