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An inference cooperative for academic AI
Universities, like other institutions, are currently being confronted with a dilemma: embrace the AI tools currently available from big-name tech companies, and be part of the future, or reject the miraculous machines and stick your head in the sand. This dilemma is a false one, on several counts. It is far from clear what role…
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Three questions on AI for you, from Pope Leo
Tonight at my church we had a discussion about Pope Leo’s recent encyclical on AI and human dignity. It was packed, and very meaningful to hear people from so many walks of life reflect together on this challenge we’re all facing. Afterward, one of the elders asked if I could write down one of the…
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Toward a durable writing stack
I have benefited over the years from others who have documented their writing setups, and so I feel some obligation to pay the favor forward by doing so with my own. The stack I’ll describe here is one I’ve been iterating on for about twenty years, starting from when I began discovering the pleasures of…
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Magnifica Humanitas takes
Compendium of my Magnifica Humanitas takes: The Dueling A.I. Apocalypses—and What Pope Leo Has to Say about Both https://www.americamagazine.org/short-take/2026/05/29/the-dueling-a-i-apocalypses-and-what-pope-leo-has-to-say-about-both/ Pope Leo XIV Compares AI to the Industrial Revolution—as New Alternatives to Big AI Firms Take Shape https://theconversation.com/pope-leo-xiv-compares-ai-to-the-industrial-revolution-as-new-alternatives-to-big-ai-firms-take-shape-283249 Three Questions on AI for You, from Pope Leo https://nathanschneider.info/2026/06/three-questions-on-ai-for-you-from-pope-leo/
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Pope Leo and the AI apocalypses
New in America, I argue that a central thread of Pope Leo’s encyclical is to counter the secular apocalypses that have spread in AI culture: https://www.americamagazine.org/short-take/2026/05/29/the-dueling-a-i-apocalypses-and-what-pope-leo-has-to-say-about-both/
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Deadline extended: “Why We Come Together”
Deadline extended to May 30! Submit your abstracts for “Why We Come Together: Media, Religion, and Community” and come visit us in Boulder this October, along with Fred Moten, Jen Deerinwater, and more: https://www.colorado.edu/cmrc/2026/03/26/why-we-come-together-media-religion-and-community
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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.…