Denny Vrandečić

Elon Musk's SpaceX has become only the fifth, and by far the fastest company to ever lose more than one trillion dollars in market capitalization. #spcx #musk #spacex #finance $spcx

"Doom scrolling" heißt auf Deutsch Dummscrollen, and I think that's beautiful. #linguistics #translation #engdeu

@vrandecic.bsky.social founder of Wikidata shares the history of Wikipedia and Semantic Web. @iswc-conf.bsky.social This example from early days a nod to his beautiful HR

Wikidata has been recognized as a digital public good by the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) 🎉 Learn how Wikidata, which houses over 1.6 billion facts, advances education, innovation, and public institutions ➡️ wikimediafoundation.org/news/2025/10...

"it is essential that LLMs allow their mediating function to prevail over unfounded claims of authority, and develop an ethic of self-denial, consciously sought vulnerability, and service."

A great article on Wikipedia and some of the big problems it is facing these days, also within the context of former events. If you hear about Wikipedia being biased, this article offers a great discussion about that. www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

Imagine a world in which everyone can share in the sum of all knowledge. I am thankful to the Wikimedia Movement for this amazing vision, and to be able to work on this. And thankful to the MacArthur Foundation for choosing us as one of the finalists for their incredible 100&Change grant.

Entering my "academic publishing is broken, so why don't we all just edit Wikipedia" era

I am only 35 minutes into watching this but the things he has been saying for the last five minutes are such a stinging rebuke to the entire USCCB that I am now even more certain that schism that's been brewing for a while will happen in the next decade

Had a wonderful conversation with Larry, talking about Abstract Wikipedia, Wikidata, knowledge, and language barriers. Larry, thank you for having me over!

It seems that chatting with AIs can either cause or trigger psychotic episodes Please be careful. If you're using AI frequently, I suggest to tell someone you trust, ask them to keep an eye on you, and even allow them to access your chat log. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

Abstract Wikipedia was selected as a finalist for the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition. diff.wikimedia.org/2025/04/30/a...

On the latest episode of "Between the Brackets", Yaron Koren hosts me for a chat about Wikifunctions, Abstract Wikipedia, Wikidata, AI, and much more. I hope you enjoy the episode. Thank you, Yaron, for hosting! betweenthebrackets.libsyn.com/episode-180-...

"Knowledge in the Age of AI" - recording of a talk at King's College London youtu.be/2oFrs86xtco?...

I am honored to be a visiting professor at King's College London. Thank you for the opportunity, and I'm looking forward to our work together!

Today is the 30th anniversary of launching the first wiki by Ward Cunningham. A page that anyone could edit. Generally seen as a bad idea. Originally to support software design patterns, wikis were used for many other goals (even an encyclopedia!) Thank you, Ward! wikiindex.org/w/30th_WikiB...

Listen to experts @vrandecic.bsky.social and @esimperl.bsky.social as they discuss large language models, knowledge graphs, and how we can use these novel and complementing technologies. #Data #AI

Great talk by @vrandecic.bsky.social at the #Informatics departmental seminar today on #knowledge in the age of #ai @kingsnmes.bsky.social

Wikifunctions - Wikipedia's newest sister project Wikifunctions is a collaboratively maintained library of functions that anyone can use and contribute to. This talk will introduce the project. Where: Newspeak.House, London When: 10 March @ 7pm. lu.ma/4rtmw5ch

wikimedia commons

In meinem Wahlkreis gewann die Grüne Kandidatin (vorläufig) mit 16 Stimmen Vorsprung vor der Kandidatin der CDU. 16 Stimmen! Jede Stimme zählt. www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/bundestagswa...

Roberta Flack really saw the potential in the song "Killing me softly", turning it into a much better song. There is a great episode on "Strong Songs" about this. pca.st/episode/19ba... RIP Roberta Flack.

A̱ẢÁ ȀAA̰ĂÁÂ ẢÂ A̱ÁÄĀÃA̧A̰ĂAÂA̱ ÃẢÂA̱ ÂẢA̧A̰Ā ẢA̱ÁAĂ A̋ÁĂAÄA̮ÁÂ! ȺȀAÂȺẢA̋ A̯ȂÅȺÁÂĀ ȦÁẢ A̱ÁȂ AA̮A̱ ẢÃĀ ÃA̧A̰ÁẢÃÃÁ. ÁĂÁA̧ĀẢÅÂ ȂÁÃÄĂĀÃ ẢÂ A̋ÁȂǍAÂA̦ ȀÁȂÁ A̮AȂ A̮ȂÅǍ ẢA̱ÁAĂ

Wikifunctions has you covered to translate to and from Scream: * To Scream www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z22725 * From Scream: www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z22728

Brilliant write-up by Luis Villa from a 2016 talk (almost ten years!): a reflection on freedom in free software. Instead of just saying "everyone can use this code", let's ask "can they really?" -- adopting the capability model towards Free Software and Open Source. lu.is/2016/03/free...

I am honored to present at King's College. If you have questions or ideas about the topic of Knowledge in the Age of AI, feel free to leave them here! I'll take a look as I refine the talk. I would be very happy to see you in London, if you're around, or for you to enjoy the stream or recording.

Beavers have built a dam where local authorities were planning to build a dam, which would have cost 1.2 million Euro. It took two days and had a bigger scope and better results than planned. Planning was going for several years. Thank you, nature! www.goodnewsnetwork.org/while-a-czec...

I wrote for Slate about how a conservative think tank plans to "identify and target" Wikipedia editors who it claims are abusing their position—a dangerous escalation that shifts the fight from debating edits to going after the editors themselves. slate.com/technology/2...

I honestly believe our most powerful position in a toxic time that feeds on cynicism, apathy,& despair is to genuinely care and act for a better world. Cynicism is our enemy. We should check it, incl. on the left. It’s not intellectually superior. It’s the virus they’re trying to infect us with. NO

The good thing about PhD level AI is that it still doesn't need any common sense.

How to combine LLMs, Knowledge Graphs and Search Engines? What are the strengths and limitations? Aidan Hogan @aidhog.bsky.social , Luna Dong, Gerhard Weikum, and I were invited to talks about this topic and now wrote a paper together to capture some of the ideas. arxiv.org/abs/2501.06699

What do I think about large language models? Let's use two quotes: "Our languages were made for telling stories, not for representing ideas very accurately." - Alan Kay "All models are wrong, but some are useful." - George Box

Logic is not a necessary condition for intelligence. I think it's the other way around. Language was necessary for logic, and intelligence was necessary for language. There is no logic in the world to begin with. It's something intelligence created.

Sincerely delighted to discover, 45 minutes into this nearly-wordless three-hour documentary about French monks who take vows of silence, that among the reasons they *can* talk is "to make sure the monastery cats know when it's mealtime by making little kitty-calling noises at them."

@oliverstorypunk.bsky.social @hadmar.bsky.social Ne, privat war das nicht

One of the best recent publications I read about Wikipedia: published in AMS, for and by mathematicians, insightful for the general public and quite funny Princ-wiki-a Mathematica: Wikipedia Editing and Mathematics by David Eppstein, Joel Brewster Lewis & Russ Woodroofe www.ams.org/journals/not...

I made a meme #Wikipedia

TIL: After the Rolling Stones published their first song, they had trouble deciding what to record next. The producer left the session and bumped into John Lennon and Paul McCartney. He told, and they agreed to come along and help, giving the Rolling Stones their second hit, "I Want To Be Your Man".

TIL: One reason why the Amazon rainforest is growing so vividly is that Sahara sand is being carried over the Atlantic, and falls as fertilizing rain into the Amazon basin. More than 20,000 tons of phosphorus fly over the ocean each year, picked up from Africa and deposited in South America.

Happy New Year

It is known that if you want to bury some news, publish it on a Friday. Especially, on the Friday before Christmas. I'm not sure what kind of narrative contains a major breakthrough on a difficult AI challenge that was announced on a Friday before Christmas. arcprize.org/blog/oai-o3-...

AI researchers are working hard on fixing that situation by publishing many many more papers.

Cory Doctorow wrote a short story in 2018 about a man who committed violence against health insurance executives. In the post linked below he struggles with rage as he describes his thoughts following the murder of the healthcare instance CEO in New York. pluralistic.net/2024/12/09/r...