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Joni Salminen Posts

When to Defend Your Ideas (As a PhD Student)

Published by Joni on December 31, 2024

When to defend. Now, there’s a thing with being a PhD student and a supervisor. There’s some information asymmetry: the supervisor has more experience and knowledge. So, should the student do everything the supervisor asks? No. Definitely not, because the supervisor is still a fallible human being. The goal is to somehow surpass the supervisor! (it has to be 🙂…

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Concerns of Complexity as a Competitive Factor in CHI Conference

Published by Joni on September 23, 2024

CHI research has become more complex (but not more insightful). The reason? Complexity is a competitive factor: it helps separate your paper from others. Lengthy papers with more substudies and details are more likely to do better than short but insightful work that might have more relevance for HCI theory and/or practice. Reviewers are instructed to pay attention to HCI…

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Design Ideas for MMM SaaS Platforms

Published by Joni on September 18, 2024

Some ideas on directions toward which Marketing Mix Modeling Software-as-a-Service Platforms should be developed: So, an MMM SaaS tool should not only observe but it should actively suggest and, if suggested policy is accepted by the human manager, implement it in the ad platforms! I think this step from observations to interventions is necessary to unleash the potential of MMM.

The Cross-Sectionality Problem in Machine Learning Benchmarking Datasets

Published by Joni on September 1, 2024

(Written with Claude-3.5-Sonnet. I have checked and edited the content. -Joni) Summary of the Issue The holdout paradigm, commonly implemented as a train-test split, is a fundamental technique in machine learning for assessing model performance. However, when applied to cross-sectional data, it can lead to significant challenges in terms of model generalizability. Cross-sectional data, by its nature, provides a snapshot…

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The Agency Theory of Chat-Based AI Personas: Insights from Economics

Published by Joni on September 1, 2024

Written in collaboration with Claude-3.5.-Sonnet. All information checked by human author. Background Because of the utility and value of large language models (LLMs) in tasks supporting persona creation and users’ interaction with personas, chat-based AI personas are becoming increasingly prevalent. However, these personas present unique challenges that can be understood through the lens of agency theory (also known as the…

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The illusion of similarity (in academic research papers)

Published by Joni on August 30, 2024

The illusion of similarity: two papers (A and B) look the same.They have the same structure.They have the same number of words.Both use fluent, nearly flawless English.Both reference the same number of papers.They have the same number of tables and figures. For a layperson, both these papers look the same. Yet, one of them is the worst horsesh*t you’ve ever…

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List of Research Superpowers (Especially Useful for PhD Students)

Published by Joni on August 22, 2024

Observed myself citing various “superpowers” to my PhD students in occasional emails. So, thought of writing these down (the list might get updated). Currently, I can think of eleven research superpowers [updated: November 11, 2024]. Here they are, in no particular order. 1. SPECIFICITY Be specific. Applies pretty much to any form of communication: Being specific is one #researchsuperpower (but…

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What are the real benefits of human educators vs. ChatGPT?

Published by Joni on May 14, 2024

Hi! Saw some interesting claims in this presentation about teacher strengths relative to AI: https://sway.cloud.microsoft/CqKZjoSsoTvWoTMB?ref=Link I’m assessing each one by one below. (Btw, if you’re interested in GenAI for bachelor’s level education, take a look at my tips and experiences.) “Teacher Strengths in Relation to language model ChatGPT:” “Artificial intelligence is an efficient tool that can support teachers in many…

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