Excited about this Duke AI conference + stoked to present new work on cultural AI. Grateful this high profile conference will include humanistic perspectives. Meaning, history, aesthetics, narrative etc are a part of the society centered AI question. Glad the humanities will be a part of the convo.

New paper in AI & Society w/ @hoytlong.bsky.social + @teddyroland.bsky.social! We simulated 101 "AI authors" to see how LLMs imagine creativity & cultural distinction + compared them to real historical authors. What do AI authors want & how do they pursue success? link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New article in AI & Society with @richardjeanso.bsky.social and @hoytlong.bsky.social 🎉 We wanted to know how AI might affect cultural fields like literary publishing. But cultural production is complex! So we piloted a new method we call “social simulation.” rdcu.be/eTkMy

Modern Fiction Studies is sponsoring a conference on “Cultural AI” at Purdue, to be followed by a special issue. @aarthivadde.bsky.social, @richardjeanso.bsky.social, N Katherine Hayles, @mattwilkens.bsky.social , @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, and I will be there later this week.

Web-based fandoms are intimate publics at scale. @richardjeanso.bsky.social and I use close reading/stats to study the narrative/rhetorical features of fanfic and commentary on AO3. Fandoms are part of literary history, and we show how to study these living archives of reader-response. No paywall!

I highlight recent reader/reception research on Goodreads reviews, tweets, & fanfiction Work by @jacquesanglais.bsky.social, @andrewpiper.bsky.social, @richardjeanso.bsky.social, @alexandermanshel.bsky.social, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @jdporter.bsky.social, @micahbateman.bsky.social, @quinnanya.me

Many thanks to @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social, and @richardjeanso.bsky.social for inviting us to be a part of this fantastic lineup in the "Hacking the Culture Industries" series. And of course to the incredible Public Books teams for their editorial support!

Here's a big one! Who wins fiction prizes & why—& who judges them? (Joy Williams, esp.) What is the relationship between the race of judges and that of finalists? Must read. @alexandermanshel.bsky.social + @mellymeldubs.bsky.social in @publicbooks.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/what-35-year...

This is the lead essay in the second round of the series Hacking the Culture Industries, edited by me, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social + @richardjeanso.bsky.social. We are so excited by the lineup on Netflix, TikTok, Goodreads + more from Aarthi Vadde, Hoyt Long, Jim English, Tess McNulty + others

Last year, @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I teamed up with @Richardjeanso.bsky.social for @publicbooks.bsky.social to launch HACKING THE CULTURE INDUSTRIES. This week, we’re back for round 2.