Talkie: A Vintage Language Model from 1930
Event Details
Date
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Time
4-5:30 p.m.
Location
224 Memorial Library
Description
Join researchers Nick Levine and Alec Radford for a presentation on Talkie-LM, an AI language model trained strictly on pre-1931 books, newspapers, and archival print. Featured on the Hard Fork podcast, this talk explores how models reason without modern internet contamination, addressing key questions about historical simulation, data stewardship, and the ethics of digital archives.
Cost
Free
Contact
Accessibility
We value inclusion and access for all participants and are pleased to provide reasonable accommodations for this event. Please email brady.krien@wisc.edu to make a disability-related accommodation request. Requests should be made by Wednesday, September 23, 2026, though reasonable effort will be made to support late accommodation requests.