Aaron Tay

@[email protected]
679 Followers
224 Following
437 Posts
Academic Librarian, Singapore. Blogger at musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com and now aarontay.substack.com
Bloghttps://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/
ORCIDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0159-013X
Google Scholar Profilehttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=F9_kHm0AAAAJ&inst=14102473421921925766
works atsmu.edu.sg
Aaron TayFeb 19
[Blogged] The Sycophancy Fallacy: Why You May be Worried About the Wrong Bias with Search https://open.substack.com/pub/aarontay/p/the-sycophancy-fallacy-why-you-may
The Sycophancy Fallacy: Why You May be Worried About the Wrong Bias with Search

AI search tools aren't "agreeing" with users—they are retrieval systems. Confusing the two is a category error that obscures the real risks.

Aaron Tay's Musings about Librarianship
Aaron TayFeb 19
[Blogged] Are AI Tools Killing Review Articles? Two Failure Modes Suggest Otherwise https://aarontay.substack.com/p/are-ai-tools-killing-review-articles
Are AI Tools Killing Review Articles? Two Failure Modes Suggest Otherwise

arXiv recently restricted review article submissions in computer science, requiring journal or conference acceptance before deposit. They noted specifically that the change was driven by an “unmanageable influx” and that LLMs made review/position papers “fast and easy to write,” and that many were “little more than annotated bibliographies.”

Aaron Tay's Musings about Librarianship
Show threadAaron TayFeb 11
@nyhan overall I dont think its anything special despite the nature paper claiming phds prefer its out put more
Show threadAaron TayFeb 11
@nyhan but just my impression. I didn't test it too much compared to Asta generate report (formerly ai2 Scholarqa) which came out after openscholar
Show threadAaron TayFeb 11
@nyhan personally I never had that good results with open Scholar and I see people who tried also were not too impressed. I think its behind the leading commercial ones
Show threadAaron TayFeb 11
@nyhan I know enough info retrieval to understand most of what is in the papera and you can see some minor differences in sources used, retrieval + gen mechanisms but its opaque to me how it works out in performance. The latest https://www.dr-tulu.org/ is at least distinct cos we know the 3 tools it uses 2 are general web while open Scholar and asta are purely academic search
DR-Tulu: Deep Research with Reinforcement Learning

DR-Tulu is the first open deep research model directly trained for open-ended, long-form research using Reinforcement Learning with Evolving Rubrics (RLER).

Show threadAaron TayFeb 11
@nyhan honestly its quite old work. I remember reading the preprint in 2024? Its confusing cos ai2 has asta generate report, openscholar and recently https://www.dr-tulu.org/. The papers are quite transparent so you can see the differences in how they work but....
DR-Tulu: Deep Research with Reinforcement Learning

DR-Tulu is the first open deep research model directly trained for open-ended, long-form research using Reinforcement Learning with Evolving Rubrics (RLER).

Aaron TayJan 31

[Blogged] Why It's Harder Than Ever to Know What to Type Into an AI Search Bar. https://open.substack.com/pub/aarontay/p/the-blank-box-problem-why-its-harder

Edit: An earlier version of this included a NotebookLM generated image with 2 text sections with minor issues. I've fixed it.

Sorry about that. This is a good reminder to check properly even for low-stakes situations.

Aaron TayJan 13
[Blogged] A 2025 Deep Dive of Consensus: Promises and Pitfalls in AI-Powered Academic Search https://aarontay.substack.com/p/a-2025-deep-dive-of-consensus-promises
A 2025 Deep Dive of Consensus: Promises and Pitfalls in AI-Powered Academic Search

The recent addition of Consensus Deep Search mode is a great boost to its retrieval capabilities. On top of that, it has one of the most appealing interfaces out there, with color-coded references, and the Consensus Meter, for all its methodological faults, is likely to appeal to undergraduates and less advanced users. Add advanced pre-filters and LibKey integration to institutional full-text, and it is easy to guess this will be a hit for many users doing narrative literature reviews.

Aaron Tay's Musings about Librarianship
Aaron TayJan 13
[Blogged] Scholar Labs Early Review: Google Scholar Finally Enters the AI Era
https://open.substack.com/pub/aarontay/p/scholar-labs-early-review-google?l
Scholar Labs Early Review: Google Scholar Finally Enters the AI Era

Generated by Nano-Banana Pro from text of this blog post

Aaron Tay's Musings about Librarianship