27 FEB 2026

Day 58

Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.

Pablo Picasso · Interview, 1923

A large fragment of a standing male figure in Greek dress, missing the head and lower legs, carved in white marble with deep folds in the drapery.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Statue of Mausolus

Carian / Greek · 351 BC · Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey)

One of the seven wonders stood for sixteen centuries, then fell to earthquakes. What remains are scattered pieces of a building known mostly from ancient praise.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

DPO and Direct Preference Learning

Training and alignment · Rafailov et al., 2023 · Direct preference optimisation

Most alignment used to train two models: one to score answers, one to generate them. DPO collapses both into a single training pass, and the approach now underpins many instruction-tuned models.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

A vertical painting on pale silk. A graceful, androgynous figure in ornate robes sits on rocks by water, within a large pale disc. A thin, barely-there veil drapes over one shoulder, revealing gold patterns beneath. A tiny kneeling figure prays at the bottom edge.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Goryeo Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara

14th century · Korea, Goryeo period · Ink, colour and gold on silk

A bodhisattva sits before a moon disc, under a veil painted with such transparency you can see the gold lines drawn behind it glow through the silk.

Enter lesson 6 MIN