Ben Files

For Black Friday I’m giving a special 100% discount on all my papers on q-learning, reinforcement learning, generative AI, and RLHF eilab.gatech.edu/publications.h…

@DrKowert For me, that just means not skipping the last 20 slides in a huff.

When you find out what you thought was a 30 minute speaking slot is actually an hour speaking slot. 🫠

AI models are only optimized to minimize error on training data but true intelligence is optimized in multiple dimensions at once: - Accuracy - Robustness - Space - Time - Energy - Data - Adaptability to change This renders all of today's AI systems lacking in intelligence.

No matter how honest you are, when the norms break down around you and nobody is caught you can't help but feel you are a chump for not participating in the ubiquitous graft. When even good people get caught up in this it becomes epidemic.

🚨Vacancy for Assistant Professor: AI and Philosophy of Mind and Language Come work with us at @Radboud_Uni ! ru.nl/en/working-at/… (please RT for wider reach)

‘Hurriquake’ is a new one for us, too.

Truly, it is impossible to get a billionaire to understand something when his mega-yacht depends on his not understanding it. 13/

How many careful scientists lost job opportunities to him? How many honest scientists missed grants that he won? How many diligent students left the field because they couldn't replicate his findings? How many scienceminded startups lost money after following his recommendations?

A proposal (and some reflections on practice) related to how we define a decision in research on visualization-based or AI-advised human decisions statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2023/06/30/def…

I’m starting treatment for #breastcancer today. I’m feeling strong and am sharing this news in the hope that others will get their #cancer screenings done. A routine scan likely saved my life! Pls RT @UCLAHealth @dgsomucla

Toxic cultures exploit generosity. Takers impose extra work on givers, and no good deed goes unpunished. Healthy cultures reward generosity. People protect givers from takers, and cream rises to the top. Helpfulness is not a weakness to target. It's a strength to safeguard.

@day9tv Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid, by Douglas Hofstadter is fairly old, but it looks at incompleteness, self-reference, and paradoxes from several angles. And it has fun Wonderland-inspired interludes.

I absolutely loved "Fermat's Last Theorem" by Simon Singh. Its a great blend of math history, math in pop culture, and Andrew Wiles' journey to solve Fermat's Last Theorem. Anyone have any similar recs? Hungry for some non-fiction related to mathematics or science!

I was recently on a panel with several other professors and we were asked to give some tips to graduate students in machine learning. It got me thinking about why professors are so bad at giving advice. So here are some reasons why you should not take advice from professors.

I have just begun my annual re-read of John @Scalzi’s superb novel of future war, “Old Man’s War”. It is one of the few books that I re-read frequently (another is Clausewitz’s “On War”). I thought I would explain why in a thread that started short, but grew as I wrote. 1/15 🧵

Timberborn is now available on @humble, with 10% of the revenue going to charity! 🥳 AND, with Indie Hits Sale also live now, you can get our lumberpunk city builder with a 20% discount. What a steal! 🔥 humblebundle.com/store/timberbo… 🔃 RT & spread the word! 🔃

The STRONG Cycle 5 Opportunity Webinar will be Wednesday (15 February) from 4:00-5:00pm EST. This meeting will be conducted on MSTeams at the following link: dod.teams.microsoft.us/l/meetup-join/…

I love the Aura N95 masks but I am BEGGING @3M to produce them in colors other than "you are about to have a medical procedure" white

The program seeks applicants from a broad range of disciplines: machine learning, neuroscience, cognitive science, HCI, psychology, decision making, visualization, learning sciences, and more!

The program structure might be a little different from what you’re used to: start small, then grow with an interdisciplinary collaborative team. Check it out!

We’re looking for research proposals to understand how humans and intelligent systems can work together to solve complex problems. Check out the funding opportunity announcement: grants.gov/web/grants/vie…