How to Harness a “Weird and Scary” Technology

"I'm really excited about Brian's work," commented Associate Professor of Economics Daniel Stone, who taught Brian as a student and who attended his workshop. "I'm proud he was an econ major, and I love the idea of what he's doing, providing empirical researchers with tools to easily follow standardized, best practices." Among the tools Kim shared was an open-source framework called Data Analyst Augmentation Framework (DAAF) that accelerates data analysis while strictly enforcing transparency, reproducibility, and rigor. "I hope DAAF is widely adopted and think it could yield huge improvements in the quality of data-based research," added Stone.

Fellow economist Erik Nelson also found the workshop useful, helping to add perspective to the "doomer versus optimistic" narrative that frames a lot of the current discussion around AI. "As a teacher, I feel it will be important for me to search for and then demonstrate the positive aspects of agentic AI," he said, referring to autonomous AI systems that can independently create their own action plans without constant human oversight. Nelson said he has leaned heavily on Claude over the spring semester while writing a research paper. "I have treated Claude as a colleague, a coauthor. It is exciting to have a colleague on call 24/7 that can help me think through some economic theory, to review referee comments, and to suggest some very effective code. In some ways, my bespoke Claude agent is the PhD student that I can never have in real life, given I teach at a liberal arts college."

As someone who studies human memory, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology Erika Nyhus has a particular interest in how LLMs compare to the human brain. "Some of the tools Kim was demonstrating can do pretty sophisticated research, achieving in one hour what could otherwise take weeks, months, or even years to do." Nyhus said she was also reassured by Kim's assertion that LLMs are no substitute for grey matter. "He really emphasized the need for the human in the loop, a genuine expert to check everything and make sure it's accurate."

"I have treated Claude as a colleague, a coauthor. It is exciting to have a colleague on call 24/7... In some ways, my bespoke Claude agent is the PhD student that I can never have in real life, given I teach at a liberal arts college." Erik Nelson, economics.

"Part of the Hastings Initiative's mission is to help the Bowdoin community engage with AI substantively, and bringing Brian to campus was a natural fit for this work," said Adrienne Kinney, a postdoctoral associate in AI and humanity who works on the Hastings team.

"He's a Bowdoin alum building real-world AI tools for the common good, and the workshop he led gave faculty, staff, and students a chance to explore advanced AI capabilities and experiment with these tools in their own work. More opportunities like this are on the way," she said.