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Sep 27, 2026, 10:40 PM

A Critique of Demis Hassabis on AI and Creativity in Visual Art

Considering the future

By Joe Nalven. Initial critique by ChatGPT; review and drafting by Claude. Demis Hassabis runs Google DeepMind and shared a Nobel Prize for work on protein structure. Accepting the Royal Society of Arts' Albert Medal on September 11, 2026, introduced...

Sep 25, 2026, 5:52 AM

When We Demand More of AI Than We Demand of Ourselves

Whose surprise?

By Joe Nalven + ChatGPT + Claude I recently listened to a discussion about how artificial intelligence (AI) might change science. Much of it was familiar. AI may speed up discovery. It may find patterns in data that people cannot...

Sep 15, 2026, 9:07 PM

Cooperation Without Trust: What Trump and Xi Can Actually Agree On About AI

The nature of cooperation on AI

On September 24, Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit the White House. President Trump announced the date in July and said artificial intelligence would be on the agenda. The two leaders had already discussed AI when Trump...

Sep 15, 2026, 3:17 AM

Truth and Fiction about AI’s Recursive Self-Improvement

Self-improvement

And what a story about an alien zoo reveals about recursive self-improvement By Joe Nalven + Claude + Gemini Argument about recursive self-improvement is loud, and very little of it is about evidence. It is about process. Everyone in the argument...

Sep 7, 2026, 4:41 AM

Two Demons: Why “Is AI Conscious?” May Be the Wrong Question

What is the question

Bu Joe Nalven + Claude + Gemini Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? — Job 38:2 What This Essay Claims, and What It Does Not This is an argument from plausibility, not a proof. I am not going to...

Aug 29, 2026, 9:26 AM

Constructing Peace / Constructing Images: AI and Human Endeavors

Constructing Peace

By Joe Nalven + ChatGPT + Claude What follows is a catalogue essay for an exhibition that was never mounted. It places an AI-generated image of Gaza reconstruction beside the Board of Peace, a body with a charter, a chairman,...

Aug 16, 2026, 12:39 AM

AI and Teaching Jewish Civilization: Is an Enemy Needed?

Teaching Jewish Civilization

The Argument That Needs an Enemy: What happens when you forbid a machine to mention our enemies by Joe Nalven, with Claude Dara Horn reports that most American students, if they learn about Jews at all, learn only that Jews were...

Aug 3, 2026, 6:52 AM

Creativity: What Machines Lack Is Not Ecstasy But a Field to Play Against

Breaking Through

By Joe Nalven + Opus 5 + Gemini Machines have already been creative, and it is worth being precise about where. In 2016, a Go program played a move in the second game of its match against Lee Sedol that professionals...

Jul 29, 2026, 6:24 AM

Turning Aside: When Moses and AI Met the Burning Bush

Moses and The Burning Bush

Moses was at work. That is the first thing the story tells us, and the easiest thing to skip. He was tending another man's sheep, in a far country, for his father-in-law. He was not on retreat. He was...

Jun 24, 2026, 5:27 AM

Outside the AI Box: Networks, Orientation, and the Assumption of Consciousness

Do We Know What We See?

By Joe Nalven + Claude + Gemini + ChatGPT Introduction: The Disconnected World Model To understand the current impasse in defining machine consciousness, one must first look at the breakdown of biological presence. Consider a human being experiencing sudden, severe vertigo...

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About Me

Joe Nalven writes extensively on AI, drawing on his experience as a cultural anthropologist, lawyer and artist.