On the origins of natural language processing and how corporations like IBM leaned into predictive algorithms.

References and suggested readings:

• Xiaochang Li. 2026. Divination Engines: Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and the Making of Algorithmic Culture. University of Chicago Press.
• Anil Seth. July 15, 2026. “Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts.” The Guardian.
• Paul Kockelman. 2024. Last Words: Large Language Model and the AI Apocalypse. Prickly Paradigm Press.
• Lief Weatherby. 2025. Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism. University of Minnesota Press.
• Carlo Ginzburg. 2026. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller, 50th anniversary edition. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Kate Crawford. 2022. Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. Yale University Press.
• Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones. 2024. How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms. W. W. Norton.
• Christopher Manning and Hinrich Schütze. 2026. Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing. MIT Press.
• Danial Jurafsky and James Martin. 2026. Speech and Language Processing.
• Xiaochang Li’s faculty page and @xiaochang@bsky.social

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References and suggested readings:

• Guy Standing. 2026. Human Capital: The Tragedy of the Education Commons. Penguin Press.
• “Linda McMahon slaps her daughter Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley: RAW IS WAR, Apr. 17, 2000”
• Nafeez Ahmed, Peter Jukes, and Hardeep Matharu. July 9, 2026. Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel and Reform UK’s Cambridge University Recruitment Pipeline Project Revealed. Byline Times.
• Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. 2011. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change. Bloomsbury.
• Ralph Wilson and Isaac Kamola. 2021. Free Speech and Koch Money: Manufacturing a Campus Culture War. Pluto Press.
• Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff. 2026. Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. Harper.
• Hannah Arendt. The Human Condition.
• Guy Standing. 2021. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class Special Covid-19 Edition. IB Taurus & Co.
• Guy Standing. 2023. The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea. Pelican.
• Guy Standing’s website

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References and suggested readings:

• Matthew C. Ehrlich. 2021. Dangerous Ideas on Campus: Sex, Conspiracy, and Academic Freedom in the Age of JFK. University of Illinois Press.
• Matthew C. Ehrlich. 2024. The Krebiozen Hoax: How a Mysterious Cancer Drug Shook Organized Medicine. University of Illinois Press.
• Pseudoscience and the ethics of academic medicine episode with Matthew C. Ehrlich
• Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth. 2022. It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Mary Anne Franks. 2024. Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment. Bold Type Books.
• Beware of FIRE (and institutional neutrality) episode with Mary Anne Franks
• Jacob Holmes. June 9, 2026. “Auburn board takes control of curricula, dissolves faculty senate.” Alabama Political Reporter.
• Thomas Milan Konda. 2019. Conspiracies of Conspiracies: How Delusions Have Overrun America. University of Chicago Press.
• John Durham Peters. 2020. Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition. University of Chicago Press.
• Jim Windolf. 2026. Where the Music Had to Go: How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other—and the World. Scribner.
• Matthew C. Ehrlich’s faculty page

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