Henry Josephson

Abstract

Hi! I'm Henry. I'm finishing up my final year at the University of Chicago, where I study data science and philosophy. I'm also a footnote enthusiast. I make crosswords for the New York Times, and I'm working in emerging technology policy. After I graduate, I'm hoping to land a role in industry, a legislature, or a think tank, though I might end up in grad school. I'll keep you all updated on my progress! If you're interested in a more-substantial resume, you can click here or check my LinkedIn in the Socials section below.

If you, like me, want a website that looks like a LaTeX document, then you should check out the theme I'm using, which was made by Vincent Doerig.

I. What am I working on right now?

Right now (last updated on 2025-02-22), I'm:

Finishing up my second-to-last quarter at UChicago (time flies!)
Reading biographies of Robert Moses and George F. Kennan
Thinking about how to make AI capability useful, legible, and actionable for policymakers
Working on synthetic data and agents at Morningstar
Doing some vague stuff at a stealth civic tech startup
Researching the interaction between compute and algorithmic improvements, and the implications for policymakers
Finishing my philosophy BA thesis (decision theory for deontologists!)
Applying for jobs (let me know if you want to see the google doc with my five-year plan!)
TAing Computer Science for Data Science (old syllabus) and Introduction to Bayesian Epistemology (course page — I'm the first undergrad to TA for UChicago's Philosophy department)
Making crossword puzzles
Thinking about what to add to this site
Thoughts include:
- a script to convert my markdown drafts into final html-able versions to put here. Pandoc does most of the work, but there are a few tweaks that'd be nice to automate.
- a way to convert my firefox bookmarks to a nice html list that i can host here. maybe something like this?
- a random button on the 404 page. easy version would be a random page on this site, harder version would be a random article I've liked.

II. Writing

Here's a quick look through a few public-facing things I've written. I haven't finished consolidating everything here, so feel free to reach out and check if you're looking for a particular genre of writing that isn't below, there's a chance I have it anyway.

Nonfiction

NY Introduced Light-Touch Legislation to Keep AI Innovation Responsible! (Alex Bores RAISE Act) A quick response and analysis of Alex Bores's RAISE Act, introduced this morning, which I think looks like a good way to address risks from frontier AI without stifling startups or impeding innovation.
Paths to Congress — The New York Times had a really cool visual showing what congresspeople did before being elected. I replicated it, added some features, and incorporated data from more years than they did.
The AI Safety Institute Brings People Together — Don't Let Politics Tear It Apart — A slightly-polished version of an op-ed style piece I wrote in two hours for a work test.
NY Should Pass Light-Touch Law To Keep AI Innovation Responsible — Arguing that NY should pick up the torch that CA dropped after Newsom vetoed SB1047.
Electric Bikes Safety Report — A report I wrote while working for NY assemblymember Alex Bores on the state of e-bikes in NYC while I worked as a legislative aide for him during the summer of 2023.
A California Effect for Artificial Intelligence — A paper I wrote for XLab's summer research fellowship in 2022, exploring how California could structure potential AI regulations if it wanted those regulations to de facto apply in other states.
[forthcoming] A paper analyzing whether ShotSpotter's gunshot detection technology decreased the number of people who died from gunshot wounds in Chicago.

Fiction

Forthcoming!

Links

If you think you'd enjoy random snapshots of my tabs, you might like this linkpost.

III. Crosswords

I make crossword puzzles! You can solve some of them in the New York Times and the Chicago Maroon.

I'll also publish puzzles on this page — expect more once I've graduated and can no longer send non-NYT grids to the Maroon.

IV. Social Media & Contact Info

I'm on BlueSky at @henryjos.bsky.social and LinkedIn here. I haven't full-on deleted my twitter yet, but I only used it to lurk, anyway.

I'm not sure if github counts as a social network, but you can find mine at https://github.com/henryjosephson/.

I'm not on Instagram and only nominally have a Facebook.

If you want to email me, you can use my_first_name + "@" + my_last_name + ".net"

V. Leave me anonymous feedback!

I believe that I ought to be the best version of myself that I can. I aspire to change my mind as I see new evidence, and it's very important to me that I balance the knowledge that I could be totally wrong with the push to actually do the things I think are right. I draw inspiration here from Joe Carlsmith's excellent piece On Sincerity.

If there's any way you think I can be doing better, please let me know.