Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World

June 2023

“Lying” in computer-generated texts: hallucinations and omissions

There is huge excitement about ChatGPT and other large generative language models that produce fluent and human-like texts in English and other human languages. But these models have one big drawback, which is that their texts can be factually incorrect (hallucination) and also leave out key information (omission).

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Word Origins

Plain as day?

The Oxford Etymologist looks at the origin of the word “day” and its connections across the Indo-European language world.

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The Oxford Comment podcast

The great gun conundrum [podcast]

In this podcast episode, we discuss the history of the gun debate in the US with Robert J. Spitzer and how a reform of policing can deter gun violence with Philip J. Cook.

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"Language, Science, and Structure: A Journey into the Philosophy of Linguistics" by Ryan M. Nefdt, published by Oxford University Press

Real patterns and the structure of language

There’s been a lot of hype recently about the emergence of technologies like ChatGPT and the effects they will have on science and society. Linguists have been especially curious about what highly successful large language models (LLMs) mean for their business.

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Animal Frontiers published by Oxford University Press

Societal roles for meat: what does science tell us?

The blog post is based on an article published by Animal Frontiers which tackles meat consumption and whether it’s healthy or not, while also addressing societal and environmental elements as well. Explore these facets of the agriculture industry with an accompanying infographic.

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Finding purpose for the corporate office

When the pandemic occurred, a major shift to virtual work occurred out of necessity and those in corporate settings adapted magnificently to a new way of working. Where does this leave the corporate office and what are the long-term ramifications for hybrid and remote work?

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