I have now tested this with Claude 4.5 Opus and it's as good as Gemini 3 Pro, nearly perfect transcriptions. And I've gotten a lot of email that they also work well on non-English-language transcriptions & have heard from some libraries/archives that AI has finally reached a state of usefulness here

New issue of my newsletter: "The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition" — One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved, and it's a good use of AI newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...

New issue of my newsletter: "The Index and the Vector" — Converting ambiguity into precision can help a broader audience discover and learn from collections newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...

Northeastern University Library has developed a server and plugin that work with any LLM or chatbot to improve search results and answer the question “What if we could combine the LLM’s better understanding of a student’s aims with the rigorous index and robust collection of a research library?”

New issue of my newsletter: “The Library’s New Entryway” — An interface that combines the advantages of the traditional index with the power of LLMs is the path forward newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...

@maxread.info re: your latest newsletter on a public-option AI, FYI: the Public Interest Corpus project we're working on: publicinterestcorpus.org more here: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/book... and here: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/huma...

New issue of my newsletter: "The Reboot of Digital Humanities Now" — Discover the latest work from across the field and around the world newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/the-...

My essay on the tense relationship between authors and AI, as embodied in a major lawsuit against Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now in the Chronicle of Higher Education: www.chronicle.com/article/what...

I have updated my in-depth analysis of Bartz v Anthropic to reflect this important and overlooked aspect of the proposed settlement: “In what may be a rude surprise for authors, partial or full payments for many books may go to publishers rather than authors.” newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/land...

@gruber.foo I thought you might appreciate this in-depth analysis of the Anthropic settlement—not only what it means for Anthropic and other big AI companies, but for authors and other creators: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/land...

best piece I've read on this because it actually engages with the existing material incentives instead of just doing moral grandstanding.

New issue of my newsletter: “Will a Landmark AI Settlement Make Authors Feel Whole?” — The remuneration from Bartz v. Anthropic may not provide what writers really want: respect, recognition, and readers

My take on the landmark $1.5 billion settlement between authors and Anthropic: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/land...

New issue of my newsletter: “The Stones of Newton” — A bell tower with a surprising name is in danger of falling

New issue of my newsletter: “AI and Libraries, Archives, and Museums, Loosely Coupled"—A new framework provides a way for cultural heritage institutions to take advantage of the tech with fewer misgivings, and to serve students, scholars, and the public better newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/ai-a...

New issue of my newsletter: “AI and Libraries, Archives, and Museums, Loosely Coupled”— A new framework provides a way for cultural heritage institutions to take advantage of the technology with fewer misgivings, and to serve students, scholars, and the public better

“When Information is Networked” — My tribute to Clifford Lynch, who sadly passed away last week. Cliff saw before anyone else how digital technology would enable new forms of research and learning, and completely transform the production and dissemination of knowledge

I took the history section of "Humanity's Last Exam" and got an F. But I learned something important about our current methods of assessing AI

New issue of my newsletter: newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/aski...

For those who might be interested in traveling to our archives and special collections at Northeastern University to do research for an extended period, there’s a fellowship from the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium (deadline: Feb 1, so act soon)

I've gotten a lot of responses from instructors struggling with the questions raised here. I probably should have also noted that students most likely to use AI in a way that truly improves their deep learning are the ones least likely to need that extra boost. This was true for MOOCs as well.

New issue of my newsletter: “The Unresolved Tension Between AI and Learning” — If education is accelerated using AI, will we lose some crucial aspects of learning that will prove to be problematic?

"What can book-informed AI do for the creation of library metadata and comprehensive search? How can AI help locate works for careful human reading rather than summarization?" @social.dancohen.org on a new Mellon-funded project about books and AI. newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/book...

The Catalog of Distinctive Type, a visual catalog of distinctive and damaged printing type originating in books published in England from 1660 to 1700

A periodic reminder that you can subscribe to my newsletter Humane Ingenuity on my website

New issue of my newsletter: “Books, AI, and the Public Good: A New Grant” — A Mellon-funded project to develop an ethical, public-interest way to incorporate books into artificial intelligence

New issue of my newsletter: “Synths and Sensibility” — From Beethoven to Kraftwerk, innovative artists have used new technology to make music more human, not less

New issue of my newsletter: “No Happy Medium for Books” — A court ruling curtails the circulation of the written word

Featuring a great new article by @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, @mariaa.bsky.social, and Anna Preus

New issue of my newsletter: “Break Expectations” — Where does the ability of AI to mimic human expression end? Poetry provides a helpful case study

New issue of my newsletter: “AI Comes for Music”—As the record labels sue AI companies for generating derivative songs, let us ask: What makes a song original and human anyway? (Includes non-spoiler references to Robin Sloan’s new novel Moonbound.)

I would like libraries to find a place between the oligopolies of AI and publishing. It’s good to see @social.dancohen.org RT Al. Making this point (expectedly) well: besides a public interest mission, libraries have a very special set of skills.

New issue of my newsletter: “Humane Ingenuity 53: Books are Big AI’s Achilles Heel”—AI companies may have the money and the data centers, but they are badly in need of what humble libraries have in abundance. (Co-authored with Dave Hansen of Authors Alliance)

One way of seeing the eclipse here in Boston: a graph of the electricity produced by the solar panel array on the roof of my library, with peak eclipse at 3:30pm

From the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections, a photo of viewers of the 1994 solar eclipse, when safety glasses were less advanced

New issue of my newsletter: “Humane Ingenuity 52: Is Science Becoming Conceptual Art?” — A combination of new technologies may represent a new era for science, but one in which the lone scientist may no longer need her lab mates. Is that a good thing?

My friends at the the American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning at CUNY Grad Center are looking for a new Assistant Director for Digital Projects, great position with great people, might be you!

How much does it cost to save a book for 100 years, or forever? What about a web page? I look at hidden long-term preservation issues for cultural artifacts, print and digital, in the new issue of my newsletter Humane Ingenuity. Plus: Apple’s vision (not the Vision Pro)

New issue of my newsletter: “Apple’s Vision + The Cost of Forever” — revisiting the original design documents for the Macintosh computer to understand why we’re in a love/hate relationship with Apple, and a comparison of how much it costs to save a book and a web page forever.

Just a test to check federation from good ol’ social.dancohen.org to @[email protected] on ActivityPub/Fediverse/Mastodon and @social.dancohen.org on AT protocol/Bluesky.