Alexander Kurz

Alexander Kurz
Home-educating parent, Professor of Computer Science at Chapman University
Researcher in logic, category theory, and computer science
Formerly University of Leicester, CWI Amsterdam, Masaryk University Brno, LMU Munich
Google Scholar, DBLP, Mathstodon, Nostr1
Reading List


LLMs cannot be more reliable and trustworthy than the data they are trained on. The fact that LLMs have emerged as powerful tools for programming is a testament to the half-century long collective efforts of the software engineering community to create robust open-source software.


AI is like sugar.

Humans craving sugar was good as long as calories were important for survival. In times where we are swamped by industrial sugar, this craving is a danger to our health (and to healthcare more generally). At least, we agreed on laws that the sugar content of food and drinks must be labelled.

Humans craving attention was good as long as this craving forced us to seek attention from other humans. In times were we are swamped by AI generated content, this craving is a danger to mental health (and to the fabric of our society more generally). Shouldn’t we agree on laws that AI generated content must be labelled?


Jaromil: “Are we developing tech for machines to perceive us or are we developing tech for people to understand machines?”

Jaron Lanier: “And so I can’t call these things social networks anymore. I call them behavior modification empires. … I don’t believe our species can survive unless we fix this. We cannot have a society in which, if two people wish to communicate, the only way that can happen is if it’s financed by a third person who wishes to manipulate them.”


In early 2021, the University of Leicester threatened with redundancy some of the best mathematicians and computer scientists I know, former colleagues of mine. By the end of the academic year, if I counted correctly, 16 academics in mathematics and computer science either left their job “voluntarily” or were made redundant … more

Ongoing Petitions: AberdeenKent


(research)

Projects
Publications
Talks
PhD students


(teaching)

Programming Languages (Fall 2023), Algorithm Analysis (Spring 2023), Compiler Construction (Spring 2022)
Software
Short Courses: Automata and Haskell and Monads in Mathematics and Haskell
Student Projects
Postgraduate teaching


(miscellanea)

Airquality in Orange, CA, aqmd.gov/aqimap Predatory Publishers
Mathematical Genealogy, see here and here
How to make the simplest possible webpage


  1. I am not much on social media, but I am interested in decentralized social media such as Mastodon, Solid, Nostr and others.