Talk: On Language Models and the Dangers of an Algorithmic View From Nowhere, 12/1

On Language Models and the Dangers of an Algorithmic View From Nowhere

Dr. John Bai, University of Canterbury

2-3:00pm EST Monday, December 1, 2025, online

Large language models (LLMs) are stochastic text generators, trained using large scale, web-scrapped datasets. Uncritically accepting LLM outputs as "truthful" or "objective" risks perpetuating an algorithmic "view from nowhere", which hides the many human decisions involved in developing, training, and fine-tuning LLMs. This talk aims to demystify language modelling and support critical, de-colonial analyses of (human and artificial) knowledge systems.

Dr. John Bai works as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing at the University of Canterbury. He completed a PhD in Psychology at the University of Auckland and a Postdoc in the Department of Educational Sciences at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg. His research on artificial intelligence in education takes a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to examine educators' perspectives on the possible futures of education.

This webinar is part of a series on Decentering Intercultural Competence Research and Practice, organized by the Intercultural Competence Research and Practice Working Group (the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence) in collaboration with the UMBC Center for Intercultural Research and Practice.

Register here