Ruminations on our relationship with technology
Christopher Cocchiarella How can addictive social media do so much damage? The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the United States. It also marks the 20th anniversary for social media’s most popular platform, since Facebook went from a college network to a publicly available one—followed by Instagram, TikTok, and others. Little did we know that the … Read more
Do chatbots help students learn? Many teachers are aware of the disruption that large language models (LLMs), the technology behind chatbots, have brought to education. There are obvious concerns about cheating and plagiarism, as well as a pedagogical worry about using LLMs to do schoolwork. If teachers allow classes to use LLMs for tests and … Read more
Although chatbots are unlikely to replace writers, they can provide useful automation for creatives Another article of mine was published on Vanguard Creative (formerly Vanguard UX), where I argued that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) chatbots are unlikely to replace writers or other creatives. Despite the hype, GenAI chatbots don’t understand human language like we do. … Read more
Will GenAI chatbots lead to genius or superintelligent AI? Conversations with generative AI (GenAI) chatbots are becoming more commonplace. Many of these bots are sounding more human. Some may even seem pretty intelligent. Hence, there’s speculation that this technology might lead to a kind of genius or superintelligent AI. Of course, what counts as ‘genius’ … Read more
Why do some chatbots turn into sycophants? One of the most valuable contributions from the media ecology tradition is that technologies are extensions of human capabilities, such as our sense perceptions or thought processes. For example, screens and speakers extend our capacity to see and hear. Algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) extend our ability to … Read more
What does the network effect of social media really scale? A common argument about the value of platforms like Facebook revolves around what’s called the network effect of social media. To start, let’s define what we mean by the network effect. The network effect: The value of a network increases as more and more people … Read more
Every technology entails a Faustian bargain! Ever since I learned about Neil Postman years ago, I’ve found myself continually coming back to his writings and insights. The founder of media ecology, Postman remains one of my main influences when it comes to thinking about technology. For me, one of his most perceptive observations is that … Read more
Marshall McLuhan’s speculations on post-literate technology Marshall McLuhan was well known for his almost prophetic speculations about technology, culture, and literacy. In the book The Gutenberg Galaxy, he thought about how newer forms of multimedia would affect traditional modes of literacy. At times, he described this interaction as being “caught between the Scylla of a … Read more
What’s zero shot learning performance in AI? Zero-shot learning performance in artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive automation is getting more scrutiny. So, I thought I’d take time to look at what zero-shot learning is, as well as review research on it. To understand zero-shot learning, however, we have to understand machine learning in AI. Machine … Read more