Author: Nathan
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The “construction sites” of Magnifica Humanitas
Just out in The Conversation, I explore how Pope Leo XIV’s AI encyclical could reshape the AI industry, akin to what his predecessor did in the Gilded Age: https://theconversation.com/pope-leo-xiv-compares-ai-to-the-industrial-revolution-as-new-alternatives-to-big-ai-firms-take-shape-283249
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The tech industry as a grass fire
I have spent a lot of my career trying to envision and build better versions of the tech industry. To my face, people often say that I’m optimistic, though I suspect what they mean is that I’m engaged in an act of futility. I consider this work neither optimistic nor futile; I think of it…
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Student AI UX
“Students can experience AI models as not just something someone else does for you but something that can happen in your own community”: https://nathanschneider.info/2026/05/a-defunct-email-service-as-a-template-for-campus-ai/
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A defunct email service as a template for campus AI
In the early 2000s, I visited my childhood neighbor at college. It turned out that he was smarter than I had given him credit for and was studying computer science at Dartmouth College. The few days I spent there involved learning a considerable amount of specialized ritual and terminology surrounding life in a Dartmouth fraternity.…
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Why this is not a newsletter
This summer I intend to engage in a regular blogging practice—a sort of retro endeavor in 2026, I suppose, but it has arisen for me as a necessary one. It is not about any topic in particular. It is, rather, an exercise in offering a series of interventions that have been stewing in me for…
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Open call: Liberatory Media Residency
Media makers, spiritual innovators, activists—especially in Colorado: Please consider applying for our Center for Media, Religion, and Culture’s $25,000 Liberatory Media Residency for next academic year. https://www.colorado.edu/cmrc/2026/04/17/open-call-liberatory-media-residency
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Call for papers: Why We Come Together
Our Center for Media, Religion, and Culture’s next conference is on the radical arts of gathering. Join us—along with Fred Moten, Stefano Harney, and more speakers TBA. The call for abstracts is out, due May 1: https://www.colorado.edu/cmrc/2026/03/26/why-we-come-together-media-religion-and-community
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Timnit Gebru on Looks Like New
I’m thrilled to share that my lab’s podcast, Looks Like New, just hosted the brilliant Timnit Gebru on the possibilities of community-serving AI—listen and subscribe here: https://lookslikenew.net/podcast/can-ai-be-rebuilt-to-serve-communities/
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The U.S. government is at war with the Catholic Church
My latest piece in America Magazine lays bare the extent to which US government policy seems to be going in outright opposition to decades of Catholic teaching—particularly on climate, war, and civil discourse. Catholics, we cannot participate in this: https://www.americamagazine.org/short-take/2026/03/19/government-trump-america-catholic-church/
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I’m organizing a panel at 4S!
For the first time, I’m organizing a panel at 4S, the Society for Social Studies of Science, in Toronto. I love this conference. If you do too, please consider submitting a paper! https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_toronto.php