Archon Fung

@lmstudio thanks for releasing the gemma-4 mlx models. Great on apple silicon. I think there is a problem with the 31b models you released. They take up too much space. "gemma-4-31B-MLX-4bit" is 28.85gig, whereas the mlx-community version of the same is 18.44gig.

@astoundconnects lots of outages in #Boston and nearby towns. Any idea when our internet is coming back?

@LocallyAIApp I just updated to the version of LocallyAI that you released today. Now, the app gets stuck when trying to load some of the larger models (Gemma QAT 12B in particular), but runs fine with the slightly smaller ones (8B models). I’m on iPadPro m5, 2tB.

The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. hrvd.me/ResearchFundin…

Not seeing posts about the ICE arrest at Columbia University of Mahmoud Khalil, evidently a legal permanent resident of the United States, who has been active in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Important news… nytimes.com/2025/03/09/nyr…

@henrythe9ths AI Guide

There's a shocking fact about AI that nobody tells you: You can catch up to the public AI research frontier in just 2 weeks. Yes, really. I've built a $150M annual revenue startup over the last 8 years and If I were to start a company today, I’d drop everything and go all-in on AI. But like many busy software builders, I felt lost—overwhelmed by the noisy, crowded and fast-moving modern AI landscape. And I wasn’t alone. So I spent my entire holiday diving deep into AI research—reading 30+ papers, watching hours of lectures, analyzing trends, and catching up to the research frontier. ✨ Here’s what I learned: - You don’t need months (or years) to catch up. - You don’t need a PhD or decades of ML experience. - You need fewer than 20 papers and 2 weeks to understand the major breakthroughs shaping AI today. It's because the technology is extremely nascent and most techniques that came before are no longer relevant: - ChatGPT is barely 2 years old and Transformers are only 7 years old. - Most game-changing discoveries happened within the last 4 years, driven by a few breakthrough ideas, scaling laws, and efficient matrix multiplication. The biggest secret? Many groundbreaking AI papers with thousands of citations are surprisingly simple and applied, like adding "let's think step by step" to the prompt, or simply asking the LLM over and over again to improve its answer (Self-Refine). I realized there are tons of founders and builders in the same boat—wanting to dive deeper into AI but unsure where to start. I've created an essential AI Guide that helped me catch up, in just 2 weeks, to the frontier of public AI research to figure out where the next opportunities and gaps were: - Curated list of only the most important papers - Simple explanations of key concepts - Clear pathway to understanding the frontier of modern AI It’s perfect for: - Founders expanding into AI - Builders wanting to innovate at the frontier of AI - Investors looking to separate the signal from the noise 👇 Want the full guide? - Like and Share this post - Comment "AI Guide" - I'll send you the complete guide (ps, I’m also teaming up with @VishalVasishth, co-founder of @obviousvc with @ev (focused on large-scale societal impact companies like Twitter, Medium, Beyond Meat), to host a small meetup to discuss what's working and needs to be solved in the AI stack in SF. Message me if you're interested)

About 50 years ago I submitted the dissertation which became the book Power and Powerlessness in an Appalachian Valley. I am delighted that @GabeSchwartzman and I have just submitted a new manuscript which picks up on where the previous book left off! @illionispress

In Minnesota, we double-check our vote counts for accuracy. Mandatory post-election reviews are happening now in every county. In randomly drawn precincts, paper ballots in key contests are re-counted by hand to verify that they match the Election Day count. And it’s all public.

Join the IOP & @HarvardAsh for an important conversation about the implications for U.S. democracy with a panel of experts: Jennifer Hochschild; @AlexKeyssar; @BenSchneer; & Archon Fung (@Arfung). RSVP (HUID required): ken.sc/d24-1120

I served as an election officer today in Boone Co. We had nonstop voting from 7am, when we opened, until 30 minutes after the scheduled 3pm closing in order to allow everyone in line at 3pm to vote. Our voters were friendly and patient. No one was rude. It was a good day.

Le Ly Hayslip tonight - first Vietnamese peasant girl I recall ever seeing in the Institute of Politics Forum. Her war story is worth reading and hearing. @HarvardIOP @HarvardAsh

Moving discussion of war from three perspectives - @DrewFaust28 (historian of the Civil War), Le Ly Hayslip (girl who survived the Vietnam War and author of a fantastic memoir), and @TheOliverStone (Vietnam Vet and filmmaker of that war) @HarvardAsh @HarvardIOP

The City Leader Guide on Civic Engagement helps design interaction between government and residents and identify opportunities for effective and equitable participation in public problem-solving: bit.ly/4eh8jAV. Authored by @hrgilman, Jorrit de Jong, @Arfung, Rebecca Rosen, and Gaylen Moore #cities #civicengagement #cityresearch #cityleaderguide #leadership #publicmanagement

Lessons for how to make elections more fair and participatory, from @Tovawang1 @HarvardAsh governing.com/policy/some-gr…

HKS Professors @Arfung and @EricaChenoweth say leaders can lower the political temperature without chilling democratic debate—but only if they speak with one voice against violence. bit.ly/3XfwcDf

The assassination attempt on President Trump has triggered fears that the U.S. may be entering an era of increased political violence. HKS's @Arfung & @AlexKeyssar discuss the context for this event, historical parallels, & how to protect American democracy ken.sc/3YIWU8E

Interesting speculative piece about what a Harris administration foreign policy might look like (re-post with correct link this time) @BostonReview @stephenWalt bostonreview.net/articles/the-h…

Interesting speculative piece about what a Harris administration foreign policy might look like @BostonReview @stephenWalt bostonreview.net

Today we launched “Here We Vote” - a voter education campaign challenging Minnesota to reclaim the #1 spot in voter turnout in America for 2024. Go to mnvotes.gov to find election info, a digital toolkit, and more.

We are thrilled to welcome @baileyflan to our Democracy Postdoctoral program! In her research, Bailey studies democratic processes that facilitate direct public participation / representation in policymaking. Learn more about Bailey here ⤵️ ash.harvard.edu/people/bailey-…