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The Daily Triptych058 / 365

27 FEB 2026

Day 58

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

Pablo Picasso · Interview, 1923
A colossal marble statue of a standing male figure, draped in heavy robes, missing both arms and damaged at the lower legs. The head is slightly oversized relative to the body, with deeply carved features and a full beard.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Statue of Mausolus

Carian / Greek · 351 BC · Halicarnassus

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus stood for fifteen centuries before earthquakes brought it down. What remains are fragments — including this figure, perhaps the man whose name the building made permanent.

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

Written before source checking was enforced · facts in this lesson are unverified

A seated figure in white robes with a transparent veil, against a dark ground, with a halo and jewellery rendered in gold that glows softly through the silk.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Goryeo Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara

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

The transparent robe was painted as actual transparency. The gold was drawn on the back of the silk so it would shine through the fabric, not sit on top of it.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

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