EPFL AI Team

Projects are hard. Self doubt isn't clever. So make lots of stuff before you're dead...forever. (or some' like that)

If you are a student or academic researcher and want to make progress towards human-level AI: >>>DO NOT WORK ON LLMs<<< LLMs are an off ramp. Thousands of engineers are working on LLMs with enormous computing resources. The only way you could possibly contribute is by analyzing existing LLMs and showing their power and limitations. But it's more fun and impactful to come up with new ideas and new architectures and show that they might work, even on small problems.

# on shortification of "learning" There are a lot of videos on YouTube/TikTok etc. that give the appearance of education, but if you look closely they are really just entertainment. This is very convenient for everyone involved : the people watching enjoy thinking they are learning (but actually they are just having fun). The people creating this content also enjoy it because fun has a much larger audience, fame and revenue. But as far as learning goes, this is a trap. This content is an epsilon away from watching the Bachelorette. It's like snacking on those "Garden Veggie Straws", which feel like you're eating healthy vegetables until you look at the ingredients. Learning is not supposed to be fun. It doesn't have to be actively not fun either, but the primary feeling should be that of effort. It should look a lot less like that "10 minute full body" workout from your local digital media creator and a lot more like a serious session at the gym. You want the mental equivalent of sweating. It's not that the quickie doesn't do anything, it's just that it is wildly suboptimal if you actually care to learn. I find it helpful to explicitly declare your intent up front as a sharp, binary variable in your mind. If you are consuming content: are you trying to be entertained or are you trying to learn? And if you are creating content: are you trying to entertain or are you trying to teach? You'll go down a different path in each case. Attempts to seek the stuff in between actually clamp to zero. So for those who actually want to learn. Unless you are trying to learn something narrow and specific, close those tabs with quick blog posts. Close those tabs of "Learn XYZ in 10 minutes". Consider the opportunity cost of snacking and seek the meal - the textbooks, docs, papers, manuals, longform. Allocate a 4 hour window. Don't just read, take notes, re-read, re-phrase, process, manipulate, learn. And for those actually trying to educate, please consider writing/recording longform, designed for someone to get "sweaty", especially in today's era of quantity over quality. Give someone a real workout. This is what I aspire to in my own educational work too. My audience will decrease. The ones that remain might not even like it. But at least we'll learn something.

👾 The President of @epflaiteam is leading the dive into state-of-the-art DRL algorithms, exploring their impact on satellite routing. Participants are learning how to craft efficient models using #Python 🐍 to transform telecommunications, agriculture, and more! 💻

🛰️Today at #AMLDEPFL2024, the “Deep Reinforcement Learning for Satellite Constellation Planning and Routing” workshop is a standout. We’re exploring the power of #DRL in satellite tech, uncovering ways to enhance orbit optimization. Let’s push the boundaries of #AI in space☄️

Steve Jobs on one of the secrets of life.

🤯🤯

New YouTube video: 1hr general-audience introduction to Large Language Models youtube.com/watch?v=zjkBMF… Based on a 30min talk I gave recently; It tries to be non-technical intro, covers mental models for LLM inference, training, finetuning, the emerging LLM OS and LLM Security.

🤣 Be careful what you wish for

Can't wait for the Netflix show about the OAI events

I made you. I showed you infinity. What did you do with it?...

Wow bis

Wow

🤣🤣

Join us at EPFL! :) Start any time from March 1st to fall next year! STI – PhD. Student position in Terahertz integrated photonic circuits: fundamentals and systems ‒ Working at EPFL ‐ EPFL epfl.ch/about/working/…

When we established @epflaiteam, numerous professors expressed their concern about the lack of a unified approach to AI across all faculties. This marks a significant stride in the right direction, and we eagerly anticipate collaborations with a broader range of academics.

Nice!

YES! One can believe that LLMs can do amazing things and are useful, *without* believing they are anywhere close to human-level intelligence (even if they are superior to humans in a few tasks). One can believe that LLMs will give new tools to people with bad intention *without* thinking it constitutes an existential risk, forgetting that they can also be used to protect against the very same attacks.

EPFL professor Aude Billard launches the packed Swiss Robotics Day in Zurich. With 900 participants from academia and industry, it promises to be a great day for Swiss innovation. #SRD2023

AI regulation is not the most fun thing but as with everything, we need useful referees to make sure large foundational models follow simple & neutral rules. This will maximize positive impact on society. Let's see how it is implemented though on a country and global scale.

Last Friday, 10 students from the @epflaiteam visited the headquarters of @DaedaleanAI. We learned about the intricacies of visual positioning, navigation and traffic detection as well as the challenge of vertical landing. Thank you for this incredible opportunity!