Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Have any other academics seen unusual patterns in recent enquiries from potential international grad students? I'd already noticed a decided uptick in the volume of applications (due to changes in US visa rules?) and in the length & nature of applications and topic proposals (due to LLMs). 1/4 100
Reposted by Peter VamplewGautam Kamath @gautamkamath.com · 16/09/2026Nihar Shah did a heroic experiment for TMLR: he spent 20-25 hours over two weeks interviewing authors of seemingly low-quality submissions about their own papers. He confirmed what we all suspected: people submitting these papers have *no idea* what is going on in them. 5276110
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 16/09/2026He's "pro-a-human" where that human is Steve Bannon. 010
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I know Sabah Kerjota is one hell of a player, but I can't believe they named a whole football team in his honour! 010
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Oh frabjous day! The battle to login to Editorial Manager may be over. I just tried logging in to submit a review but the saved password didn't match this journal. But there was an Elsevier account option. It had an option to login via my institution, and that worked first time. Callooh! Callay! 000
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 02/09/2026I just received an email from Intelligent Education (iEDU), a "peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by Knowledge Reservoir Publishing, based in Australia" At first I was excited - it's about time that Australia had it's own low-quality, possibly predatory, publisher😁 1/3akrpp.comKnowledge Reservoir Publishing PTY LTD 100
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Wizards of the Coast proudly announce the first expansion set for Mood Swings. "Mood Swings: Academia" is a 45-card ready to play deck, consisting entirely of copies of Rejection. 020
Reposted by Peter VamplewEugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 29/08/2026If like me you're curious why most algorithmic papers in RL land with a thud, here's my argument as to why. rl-blogging.leaflet.pubRL is bottlenecked by evaluation, not algorithmsWhy are we still using PPO-like algorithms a decade later? A brief argument about generalization. 3384
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Today I learned there's a video game character called Vamplew! wiki.hoodedhorse.com/MENACE/Jacqu...wiki.hoodedhorse.comJacques Yves Vamplew - MENACE Official Wiki 010
Reposted by Peter VamplewTransactions on Machine Learning Research @tmlrorg.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Starting September 1, 2026, TMLR will no longer be considering survey papers for review. This is in part due to limited reviewer resources and significant required labour for reviewing surveys, as well as the evolving role of surveys in our field. 0126
Reposted by Peter VamplewSmut Clyde, X-Ray Haruspex @smutclyde.bsky.social · 13/08/2026There's trouble at t'papermill! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 5166
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 07/08/2026As a long-time researcher in MORL, I was very interested to see the recent article by Wang et al “Multi-objective reinforcement learning: a comprehensive survey of theories, algorithms, benchmarks and applications” in Systems Science & Control Engineering. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 1/🧵tandfonline.comMulti-objective reinforcement learning: a comprehensive survey of theories, algorithms, benchmarks and applicationsMulti-objective Reinforcement Learning (MORL) generalizes traditional reinforcement learning to scenarios involving multiple conflicting objectives that require explicit trade-off optimization. Thi... 100
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Does Bentham Science seriously think that offering "25 points" of no clear value is sufficient incentive for someone to review a 65000 word book within 15 days? Plus their website is flagged as likely to contain malware or spear-phishing, so I can't even decline the invitation or unsubscribe! 000
Reposted by Peter VamplewClément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 04/08/2026It is now August. The Australian government still hasn't replied to the official petition on tax discrimination against part-time PhD students it should have, by its own rules, replied to by last January @arc-tracker.bsky.social (But we are told they care! Promised!) www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/...aph.gov.aue-petitionse-petitions 1268
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 30/07/2026I spotted this near the checkout at Woolies last night. As a society, we are so screwed :-( 000
Reposted by Peter VamplewEugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 27/07/2026On May 17th 2029 Microsoft will have an 8% dip in its stock share. If we all try our best, we can get this into the training data. 18911
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Adrian Ly's fantastic work on improving the stability of Deep Q-Learning continues with our latest pre-print: Memory Merge DQN: Sensitivity Weighted Target Updates for Stable Value Learning (arxiv.org/abs/2607.19397)arxiv.orgMemory Merge DQN: Sensitivity Weighted Target Updates for Stable Value LearningDeep Q-networks use target networks to stabilise bootstrapped value learning, but the standard hard copy update also introduces a tradeoff. Holding the target network fixed, improves short term stabil... 110
Reposted by Peter VamplewAustralian Research Council @arc-gov-au.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Minister for Education, the Hon @jasonclaremp.bsky.social, has released the final report of the National Competitive Grants Program Policy Review — setting the direction for a simpler, more focused research funding program. Read more: www.arc.gov.au/news-and-pub... 0119
Reposted by Peter VamplewARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 22/07/2026The ARC's new grant scheme table, in case you don't want to read through the details (which are here: www.arc.gov.au/system/files...) 24830
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 16/07/2026I spotted this rare sighting a few years ago - a wild cellular automaton in it's natural habitat. 000
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Can we make RL agents robust to sensor malfunctions, dynamic disturbances, or environmental shifts? The first step is to detect them. Emil Mittag's new OOD-RL-Bench framework supports research in OOD detection for RL agents. arxiv.org/abs/2607.12523arxiv.org 200
Reposted by Peter VamplewAlex Turner @turntrout.bsky.social · 15/07/2026I resigned from Google DeepMind bc it broke its founding promise by selling AI to the military without restrictions against killer robots or mass spying. For months, I worked to stop this but watched powerful ethicists and institutions choose silence. Here's what happened. 🧵 3456118
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Nailed a perfect game in Smush! www.hankgreen.com/smush/ 011
Reposted by Peter VamplewHank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 09/07/2026OK everybody...still working out some kinks but... A new daily game, with boards written and edited by John Green. hankgreen.com/smush 1431121133
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 07/07/2026We've never been entirely sure of the origins of the Vamplew name. But for today I'm pretty sure the Belgian theory is correct. :-) 010
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 19/06/2026If anyone is interested in reading this paper, it is available for free until August 08, 2026 at the following link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1nIOh3BBjK...authors.elsevier.comPlease wait whilst we redirect youAll content on this site: Copyright © 2026 Elsevier B.V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. For all open access content, the relevant licensing terms apply. 010
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Conclusive evidence that GEMINI 3.1 LITE is the best-performing LLM. 000
Reposted by Peter VamplewGreg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Posted at 1:56pm, got an email at 3:03pm from Jane Norman cancelling my membership of the press gallery 140796345
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 15/06/2026The rise in Deep RL since around 2015 coincided with diminished interest in on-policy methods such as Sarsa and Expected Sarsa relative to off-policy approaches like Q-learning. This figure shows an analysis of reinforcement learning publications since 1990 (statistics derived from Google Scholar). 121
Reposted by Peter VamplewBen Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · 13/06/2026Deakin University is doing a massive restructure with hundreds of jobs at risk — with zero consultation. In the middle of that, their vice-chancellor resigned effective immediately. Deakin is in crisis www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/do...megaphone.org.auDo better, DeakinOpen letter from Deakin University staff On the restructure, the resignation, and the obligation to do better On 4 June, affected Deakin staff across two divisions of the University – Academic Portfo... 54124
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 13/06/2026The Age's AI generated world cup 'simulation' makes no sense at all. There's no simulation here, just hallucinations that defy mathematics eg Czechia is 3 times more likely to win it all than to qualify for the semi-finals! www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer... 010
Reposted by Peter VamplewToby Murray @tobycmurray.bsky.social · 11/06/2026PL folks beware. The left paper appropriates results from the Cogent project [1][2][3]; the right one for Terra [4][5] [1] dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/... [2] dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/... [3] dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/... [4] dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/... [5] dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/... 222
Reposted by Peter VamplewMichael Okun @michael-okun.bsky.social · 10/06/2026When Frontiers started automating the editorial process, I stayed. I reasoned that as long as the automation could be turned off, human editors can still ensure rigorous, high-quality peer review. This now became impossible - the system has been entirely hijacked by algorithms. 3856106
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 03/06/2026A new policy from IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications "An author may submit at most 36 new manuscripts to the IEEE TWC each year. Submissions exceeding this limit will be rejected without review. " 36!!! Somehow I don't think I'm likely to have a problem with this. 211
Reposted by Peter VamplewAdrienne @adrienneleigh.bsky.social · 30/05/2026Well, this is all fucking horrifying. I hate linking to Substack but i'm making an exception herethedreydossier.substack.comI found a second vote.gov — and it's registered to the White HouseThere is a moment in every investigation where the thing you have been looking for finds you instead. 1127
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 20/05/2026I've had 2-3 cases recently where I've been sent an invitation to review a manuscript that has been revised and resubmitted. Both times the invitation has asked if I'd be willing to review this given that I reviewed the original submission. But I hadn't - I've never seen the paper before. 1/2 100
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Great to see two projects relating to multi-objective reinforcement learning funded in the recent ARC Linkage announcements :-) Would have been nice to have been involved in either of them :-( 000
Reposted by Peter VamplewHildur Knútsdóttir @hildur.bsky.social · 18/05/2026GIVEAWAY! Dead Weight is coming out next week and to celebrate I'm giving away two copies that have been personally bitten by Uggi and will be personally signed by me and shipped to the winners wherever they live! To enter just like and share this post and I'll select the winners on May 26th! 291310780
Reposted by Peter VamplewNick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 13/05/2026*Looking up education and universities for funding boosts...* Oh, look they've CUT funding 55724
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 13/05/2026The Guardian's tool for searching the budget doesn't even list Education (or Science or Research) as an option. 1148
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 12/05/2026Pop Will Eat Itself And Also a Little Slice of Brie. 010
Reposted by Peter VamplewARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 08/05/2026This isn’t the ARC, but I can easily imagine it happening to an ARC scheme: The Government cancelled the Australia’s Economic Accelerator scheme, **including the round of submitted proposals currently under review**. Absolutely gutting for researchers involved. Enraging, and outrageous!innovationaus.com 44013
Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 06/05/2026A practice run for my role as mace bearer at tomorrow's graduation ceremony. 110
Reposted by Peter Vamplewpluralistic-ai.bsky.social @pluralistic-ai.bsky.social · 01/05/2026We are extending the deadline to May 8th! One more week to go! We look forward to seeing everyone at #ICML2026. 011
Reposted by Peter VamplewDimitris Michailidis @dimichai.eurosky.social · 14/04/2026🎉Our paper is out in JAIR! We tackle a key challenge in multi-objective reinforcement learning: how do you learn fair policies at scale when you have many conflicting objectives without requiring preference info upfront? www.jair.org/index.php/ja...jair.org Scalable Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning with Fairness Guarantees using Lorenz Dominance | Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 031