Richie (@richie-phd) — bluesky.baby

Using Claude Code and Codex CLI for social science research – my learnings as they happen I divide my week between being the director of research at a social science research consultancy and being a data scientist at a climate NGO. Over the past three months I have pivoted to using Claude code and OpenAI's Codex CLI for nearly all of my research work. I have honestly never been this productive, and I think that eventually all scientists are going to be using these tools as their primary way of doing research.

I use Claude Code for all my research projects now, but it's built for programmers, not social scientists. Here's an ongoing log of learnings on how to use this hugely powerful tool for social science research. I'll update it weekly.

04.03.2026 13:54 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

How to automate your Plaud AI notepin using N8N I have had my Plaud AI notepin for about three months now and I absolutely love it. I can record my thoughts or ideas with the press of a button. It makes taking notes on all sorts of things in my life totally frictionless. I'm going to be writing a blog post on how I use it in a few weeks, so stay tuned!

How to automate your Plaud AI notepin using N8N

I have had my Plaud AI notepin for about three months now and I absolutely love it. I can record my thoughts or ideas with the press of a button. It makes taking notes on all sorts of things in my life totally frictionless. I'm going to be writing a…

17.02.2026 09:34 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Any academics out there who haven't played around with Claude code yet really gotta try it. I'd estimate recent past AI tools increased my research productivity by about 10-20%, Claude code feels like it will quickly reach 100-200%.

14.01.2026 20:57 👍 15 🔁 3 💬 4 📌 1

LLMs are exceptional programmers, but mediocre data scientists. In 2025, LLMs got terrifyingly good at software engineering. So why are they so unimpressive at data science? Data science doesn't really use tests that much LLMs are so powerful for software engineering is because of a 1-2 punch: As long as software tests are good, and code passes those tests, you can be confident that LLM code is good. You can have LLMs quickly produce vast amounts of code, and you don't have to review it line by line.

LLMs are exceptional programmers, but mediocre data scientists.

In 2025, LLMs got terrifyingly good at software engineering. So why are they so unimpressive at data science? Data science doesn't really use tests that much LLMs are so powerful for software engineering is because of a 1-2 punch: As…

10.02.2026 08:12 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Get a Google sheet of your Oura data that updates every day Here's how you can automate pulling your latest Oura Ring data into a Google Sheet every day To do this we are going to use something that most people don't know about but is insanely powerful: Google Apps Script. Google Apps Script is a way that you can create new features for Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets by writing JavaScript.

Get a Google sheet of your Oura data that updates every day

Here's how you can automate pulling your latest Oura Ring data into a Google Sheet every day To do this we are going to use something that most people don't know about but is insanely powerful: Google Apps Script. Google Apps Script is a…

05.02.2026 11:40 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

AI Could Fix School Examinations What if we fundamentally recreated exams from the ground up, with AI at the core? I see the potential to make a radically better way to do school exams. What's more, most of the technology already exists. Before we begin: I'm going to use the term "LLM" a lot. That stands for "large language model". Examples include ChatGPT, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot.

AI Could Fix School Examinations

What if we fundamentally recreated exams from the ground up, with AI at the core? I see the potential to make a radically better way to do school exams. What's more, most of the technology already exists. Before we begin: I'm going to use the term "LLM" a lot. That…

03.02.2026 08:52 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Offsetting meat consumption is likely to be more effective than offsetting carbon emissions The consensus is that overall, carbon offsetting hasn't worked at reducing or negating emissions. Does that mean offsetting meat consumption is a dead-end? I argue no. If we look at the 2 main reasons why carbon offsetting failed, we can see that meat offsetting does not have these problems. As a result, meat offsetting may be an effective strategy to reduce animal suffering.

Offsetting meat consumption is likely to be more effective than offsetting carbon emissions

The consensus is that overall, carbon offsetting hasn't worked at reducing or negating emissions. Does that mean offsetting meat consumption is a dead-end? I argue no. If we look at the 2 main reasons why…

27.01.2026 09:15 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Is AI our secret weapon against factory farming? (podcast appearance) I was recently on "The Vegan Report" podcast talking about AI and the animal movement. We discuss AI tips, how advocates are using AI in their activism, fears and concerns people have over AI, and even AI consciousness!

Is AI our secret weapon against factory farming? (podcast appearance)

I was recently on "The Vegan Report" podcast talking about AI and the animal movement. We discuss AI tips, how advocates are using AI in their activism, fears and concerns people have over AI, and even AI consciousness!

21.01.2026 18:09 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Where will the next generation of world changers come from? AI can do much of the work that used to be reserved for interns and juniors. For cash-strapped, burnt-out workers in the NGO space, AI assistants are a tempting alternative to managing early career employees. But how can we reap these benefits without shutting out the world changers of the future? Will AI automate all of our jobs? Or will it create tons of new ones?

Where will the next generation of world changers come from?

AI can do much of the work that used to be reserved for interns and juniors. For cash-strapped, burnt-out workers in the NGO space, AI assistants are a tempting alternative to managing early career employees. But how can we reap these…

20.01.2026 10:25 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Be grateful for shit things Most people write gratitude journals about the good things in their life. I've done this, and while it feels good at first, it gets a bit repetitive. It cultivates a useful mindset, which is to just regularly be grateful for things in your life. However, I think we can cultivate a second, different mindset; A mindset of being grateful even for shit things.

Be grateful for shit things

Most people write gratitude journals about the good things in their life. I've done this, and while it feels good at first, it gets a bit repetitive. It cultivates a useful mindset, which is to just regularly be grateful for things in your life. However, I think we can…

12.01.2026 08:59 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

There are an overwhelming number of AI tools. Ignore all of them until you’ve tried these 5 If you're an AI power user, this post isn't for you. It's for the large number of people who see the hundreds of AI tools out there and feel totally overwhelmed. I know this is how people feel, because I just taught a 12-week AI course and this was common feedback. So I thought I would cut through the noise and give you 5 things to try.

Finding the number of AI tools overwhelming? Don't know where to go beyond ChatGPT?
Lots of people feel the same. This post is for you. No jargon, no advanced things, no list of 100 tools. Just 5. I am extremely confident that one of them will be useful to you.

16.12.2025 10:41 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I gave 3 talks on factory farming and food security this summer, watch them now on YouTube. This summer was a busy one! I gave 3 talks on a topic I have accidentally became an expert on over the last 2 years: Food security! How factory farming actually undermines food security, and how alternative proteins and other plant-based foods are the true answer. CARE, Warsaw This summer I had the pleasure of speaking at the 2025 Conference on Animal Rights in Europe (CARE)

This summer I gave 3 talks on food security which are all now on YouTube! I've collected them in this post. Enjoy!

09.12.2025 09:53 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

AI art is real art In 2023, I gave a talk on AI and art. In 2023! Feels like a lifetime ago. It was about how AI could affect the market for art and jobs for artists. Yet in the discussions after the talk, the question that generated the most discussion was: "Is AI art real art?" To me, the answer was a clear "yes".

Here I make the case that AI art is real and valid art.

08.12.2025 12:14 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The impacts of AI on Animals: mine and other expert opinions Recently, Animal Charity Evaluators interviewed me about how I use AI in my work, and how I think AI will affect the animal advocacy movement They also interviewed smarter people than me: Aaron Boddy, Shrimp Welfare Project Hannah McKay, Rethink Priorities Janire Castellano Bueno, Wild Animal Initiative Sagar Shah, Rethink Priorities We all independently came to the same conclusion: if the animal movement doesn't get serious about using AI for animal liberation, we risk being left behind! You can find the interview here:

The impacts of AI on Animals: mine and other expert opinions

11.11.2025 11:27 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Are LLMs good at making charts and graphs? People often ask me if AI can help them with data analysis and making graphs. To be honest, this isn't something that I have a huge amount of experience in, because I'm a data scientist who makes all of his own graphs. BUT, I have been reading some very interesting pieces by other people who do know about this kind of thing, so I thought I would collect together my 3 favourite, recent blog posts on Using LLMs for charts and graphs, and summarise the common themes.

Are LLMs good at making charts and graphs? I distilled insights from several excellent data visualisation blogs.

17.10.2025 09:41 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I’m teaching a free 12 week-course on AI Myself and 3 other AI consultants are teaching a free 12-week practical course in generative AI. You'll go from beginner to confident user. It's open to anyone working on fixing our food system: promoting plant-forward diets, increasing animal welfare, fighting factory farming or doing right by farmers. It's going well so far: We've had 1000 sign ups! We're actually about to start week 4, on how to spot and reduce AI hallucinations.

I’m teaching a free 12 week-course on AI

Myself and 3 other AI consultants are teaching a free 12-week practical course in generative AI. You'll go from beginner to confident user. It's open to anyone working on fixing our food system: promoting plant-forward diets, increasing animal welfare,…

12.10.2025 13:49 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

How will AI developments affect the animal advocacy movement? I built a curated chatbot to find out! AI is transforming everything. How will it transform animal advocacy? Is it going to supercharge our campaigns, or render some of them totally obsolete? Will it help or hurt factory farming? These seem like pretty big abstract questions, but given the pace of AI development, we need to be talking about them. And increasingly, people are! Mostly on the Effective Altruism forum…

How will AI developments affect the animal advocacy movement? I built a curated chatbot to find out, and you can use it too!

10.10.2025 08:33 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

AI makes me excited and scared and that’s ok Scroll through any thread about AI and you’ll see two loud camps: the cheerleaders and the haters. One side insists AI is pure excitement: innovation, breakthroughs, the future is here! The other insists it’s pure outrage: It's all hype, it ripped off artists, it's causing the climate crisis. Both act like their reaction is the only legitimate one, as if you have to pick a team: thrilled or furious.

Looking at AI conversations on socials you get the feeling that excitement and anger are the only two valid emotions to feel about AI.
In this very short post, I want to talk about fear.

05.09.2025 10:40 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The only AI concept that actually helps you use ChatGPT better "Do I need to learn about neural networks to understand ChatGPT?" I hear this all the time, and have been asked this a few times. I also see people making videos, courses and blog posts breaking down the technical details of how large language models (LLMs) work. People assume that by understanding the technical and theoretical concepts behind these models, they'll gain secret insight into how to use them better.

The only AI concept that actually helps you use ChatGPT better

"Do I need to learn about neural networks to understand ChatGPT?" I hear this all the time, and have been asked this a few times. I also see people making videos, courses and blog posts breaking down the technical details of how large…

04.08.2025 10:19 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

"Will AI take jobs and should we protect jobs?" is the wrong framing for 2 reasons:
- AI will automate *tasks* not whole jobs. All jobs will be impacted to some degree, but some way more than others
- No one cares about jobs, they care about people (and maybe the economy). Protect people, not jobs.

02.08.2025 14:14 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Does salsa dancing ruin my sleep? (Using my Oura ring and Python) I'm obsessed with dancing. Specifically, Salsa, Bachata and Kizomba. Dance is obviously good for me in a bunch of ways; it's mild cardio, it's a creative outlet, is a large part of my social life, and of course it's a lot of fun. But it does result in late nights! Just how bad is it for my sleep? Let's find out.

New post from me!
Combining 3 things I love: Latin dance, regressoin models, and my Oura Ring!

02.08.2025 08:34 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I tested the new ChatGPT agent on 11 use cases and it’s just ok ChatGPT agent has now come to people on the paid £20 a month plan. The shameless YouTube hype merchants are obviously impressed (must be hard having your mind BLOWN literally every few days...), others are disappointed, and others have found some decent use cases. I thought I'd put it to the test myself! Here I share my tests, and most importantly, the…

I tested the new ChatGPT agent on 11 use cases and it’s just ok

ChatGPT agent has now come to people on the paid £20 a month plan. The shameless YouTube hype merchants are obviously impressed (must be hard having your mind BLOWN literally every few days...), others are disappointed, and others…

30.07.2025 06:17 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

My new report with Good Growth and Faunalytics is out! Last year I completed a six month research contract with The Good Growth Co. They're a brilliant social science think tank that serves the animal advocacy movement and alternative protein sectors in East Asia. We analysed a ton of social media data on how people across Southeast Asia are talking about meat, meat reduction and plant-based diets. To do this, we pioneered the use of…

My new report with Good Growth and Faunalytics is out!

Last year I completed a six month research contract with The Good Growth Co. They're a brilliant social science think tank that serves the animal advocacy movement and alternative protein sectors in East Asia. We analysed a ton of social media…

27.07.2025 16:32 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Concerns about AI’s energy use are reasonable I feel like every week I see the same debate play out again and again. "Is AI bad for the environment?" It a question on a lot of people's minds. I use AI for basically everything and so do many of my friends, so you can probably guess what my take is. But I've been a bit uncomfortable with how some people dismiss, or outright ridicule honest concerns about AI's environmental footprint.

Concerns about AI’s energy use are reasonable

I feel like every week I see the same debate play out again and again. "Is AI bad for the environment?" It a question on a lot of people's minds. I use AI for basically everything and so do many of my friends, so you can probably guess what my take is.…

22.07.2025 12:12 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

4 Bold New Frontiers for Qual Research in the Gen-AI Era When ChatGPT can understand human language baffling well, qualitative research could be set for a revolution. In the last few years there has been a flood of papers investigating the potential for Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT to revolutionise qualitative research. It can help with a variety of steps, from thematic code generation, to code comparison and refinement. It can achieve agreement with human coders in a fraction of the time.

New Blog post from me!
I propose some pretty sci-fi ideas for how AI could create exciting new opportunities for qualitative researcher and their work.

15.07.2025 10:03 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The Deep Research Revolution: my talk at AI, Animals and Digital Minds London 2025 A few months ago I gave a talk at the AI, Animals and Digital Minds conference in London. It was on the exciting new possibilities that have been enabled by AI deep research tools (I've also written about them here). The talk had an interactive workshop component where I had people generating deep research reports for themselves. We discussed tips, tricks and experiences.

The Deep Research Revolution: my talk at AI, Animals and Digital Minds London 2025

A few months ago I gave a talk at the AI, Animals and Digital Minds conference in London. It was on the exciting new possibilities that have been enabled by AI deep research tools (I've also written about them…

13.07.2025 10:16 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Why Scheduling meetings with ChatGPT can give you breakthrough ideas Some people schedule meetings in order to avoid thinking. They have a problem at work and they either don't want to or can't figure out themselves. By scheduling a meeting with a bunch of other people, they can hash through it together. It gives them a kick up the arse to get something solved, that they put off on their own.

Why Scheduling meetings with ChatGPT can give you breakthrough ideas

Some people schedule meetings in order to avoid thinking. They have a problem at work and they either don't want to or can't figure out themselves. By scheduling a meeting with a bunch of other people, they can hash through it…

09.05.2025 12:20 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Talk recording – Show me the money: making economic arguments for animals, VARC 2025 Recently, I gave a talk at VARC in Manchester on how we can make economic arguments against factory farming and for a plant-forward food system. I discussed a few reports I've written, some written by my team at Bryant, and some great reports by others. The talk was pretty well attended; I actually got last-minute bumped up to the main stage because so many people signed up, which I'm pretty happy about. The talk is accessible to most people; it's basically all pictures, with ZERO equations and almost no economic jargon!

My recent talk at VARC2025 is on YouTube! I got great feedback from on this one, including many people with no economics background. Give it a watch!

03.05.2025 13:32 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Simple Ways To Make Better PowerPoint Slides Using Only IT-Approved AI Apps Let's cut the crap: You have to make slideshow presentations all the time for work. You don't like it and would rather be doing actual work. I'm going to show you how you can use AI to make presentations in the fraction of the time. Advice tailored to privacy-concerned professionals Whilst there are brilliant new-generation AI presentation makers like Gamma…

"I want to use AI to help with my presentations, but my IT team has a strict approved AI tools list, what can I do?"
I've got this request a few times from security-minded orgs, so I wrote a post on how you can revolutionise your slide decks with just ChatGPT or Gemini. No new tools needed.

28.04.2025 11:08 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

AI Culture: The Ultimate Accelerator for your organisation I don't want to be dramatic, but feel like most organisations are thinking about AI wrong. They ask me: "Should I be using ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek?" "What are the best words to use in my prompts for fundraising?" What's the best AI tool for my job? They focus on tools. Sure, tools are important. But what is more important is…

Probably the most useful piece of AI content I've ever written!

The secret to winning with AI is not better AI tools, it's AI culture!

23.04.2025 10:02 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Richie

Latest posts by Richie @richie-phd