Dan Cohen

Open Syllabus Map the college curriculum across 27.6 million syllabi

This was built upon Syllabus Finder's approach, and is now a much bigger database, but is mostly for data mining rather than finding specific syllabi (disclosure: I'm on its nonprofit board) www.opensyllabus.org

A watercolor of a thin waterfall in the mountains, and an associated rainbow emerging from the mist

“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

Red dog lies on pillow with long legs outstretched

belated hello from Belle, Darth, she was also napping

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

Asking Good Questions Is Harder Than Giving Great Answers The tests we are using to assess the intelligence of AI are missing an essential aspect of human inquiry — the query itself

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.

A yellow neon sign that says “Teach your tongue to say “I don’t know”

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?

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

"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...

A grid of old typewritten letters, in different shapes and shades

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

Four colorful images of creative uses of physical and digital media, including a paper peacock and a digital boat at sea

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

A black and white photo of a patent model of a book sewing machine, with gears and a conveyor belt, made out of wood and metal.

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

The cover of the sheet music for the 1913 song “There’s a Wireless Station in my Heart,” showing a woman answering the phone while sitting on a yellow heart, with a transmission tower below

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

A colorful tower of books

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

My pleasure, you and your co-authors gave me much to think about!

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

A metal tray of roughly 100 books sits on a giant yellow arm of a machine that transports the books. Other metal trays of books are in the background. A caution sign notes that the equipment starts and stops automatically.

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

Oh wow, I am really looking forward to reading this! So glad you wrote it!

Two men at a keyboard stare at a computer monitor that is displaying musical notes and graphs.

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.)

Thanks! I don’t post to Bluesky directly, but use micro.blog with markdown, which embeds the link as it syndicates to other social media services

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.

A four-story old library with thousands of books and a glass ceiling.

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)

Northeastern Snell Library Solar PV System graph in blue on a lined background; the chart dips at 3:30pm

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

Two men with white shirts and ties hold boxes over their heads to look at the solar eclipse

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

A wall painting consisting of stripes of grey, yellow, blue, and red, bordered by black bands

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!

A drawing of the interior of the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

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.

Ah, that is very interesting!

Whoa, but this time it did do exactly the opposite! Ah, young protocols and code