This week I talked to AI researcher Nina Beguš. Nina completed her PhD in Comparative Literature at Harvard University where she began creating a new practice called “Artificial Humanities,” the idea that history, literature, film, myth, and other humanities can help add depth to AI development, including in the design and engineering process. Nina is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Cal Berkeley’s Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, & Society.

We had a wide ranging conversation including Nina’s early experiences with art and literature while growing up in Slovenia, AI and chess, large language model’s impact on writing, AI and human interpretations of the pygmalion myth — an area Nina has researched in depth — and more about Nina’s goal of an Artificial Humanities research agenda. For those who enjoyed this conversation you may be interested to know that Nina has a book coming out in 2024 called, “Artificial Humanities: A Fictional Perspective on Language in AI,” so be on the lookout for that.

A transcript and show notes are available here. I have augmented the transcript with an extensive set of notes, links, videos, pictures, and maps.