Sign in

David Pfau

@davidpfau.com
10K followers 548 following 953 posts

So far I have not found the science, but the numbers keep on circling me. Views my own, unfortunately.

PostsRepliesMedia
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 20/09/2026
Having a seeded bagel on unceded land
110
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 20/09/2026
We spent $100m building a robot that can pirouette at 5000 rpm and performs Swan Lake beginning to end in 30 seconds. Ballet is solved.
14311
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 14/09/2026
Ok, it's time to coin a law of social media discourse: when something happens that is legitimately worth getting angry about, social media will drive people to get angry about it for the wrong reason.
283
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 10/09/2026
Do the Zoomers know about the Y2K bug?
130
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 10/09/2026
I can't believe how many of my normie friends I had to explain superintelligence, AI safety, rationalism and x-risk to today.
291
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 15/08/2026
Are people on here aware that on The Other Site all the remaining left wing people are talking about "Woke 1" as some wild thing that is very definitively in the past? Has that discourse made it over here at all, or does everyone here believe Woke is still alive and well?
230
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 06/04/2026
Using AI to cure cancer or fight climate change makes as much sense as using neuroscience to figure out AI. It's all yak shaving. If your goal is to "solve X" just go solve X, don't try to solve Y then use Y to solve X.
5322
Reposted by David Pfau
Chris Simms @chrisnsimms.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
This is an awesome discovery: A single-celled organism with no brain called Stentor seems capable of Pavlovian learning. Yes, it can actually learn to associate two things despite having no neurons. My latest for @newscientist.com. 🧪 #science #memory #learning www.newscientist.com/article/2519...
newscientist.com
Single-celled organism with no brain is capable of Pavlovian learning
A trumpet-shaped, single-celled organism seems able to predict one thing will follow another, hinting that such associative learning emerged long before multicellular nervous systems
826084
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 03/03/2026
I miss when ideas mattered in machine learning.
3532
Reposted by David Pfau
Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 12/02/2026
NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months * Down in 2025 * Still below Mar 2024 * Clean energy wave a key factor If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far… www.carbonbrief.org/...
201075436
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 30/01/2026
This you, @truebe.horse ? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexand...
en.wikipedia.org
Alexander Abian - Wikipedia
110
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 20/01/2026
One year, and we're on the brink of war with the rest of NATO. God help us after three more years of this.
0110
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 09/01/2026
I'm not really sure how to square this with the US spending 1% of GDP on datacenter construction.
230
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 08/01/2026
If anyone DMed me recently - to use DMs for this app in the UK, I have to go through age verification, which I have not done yet on principle. If you are trying to reach me privately, email or Twitter DM works.
220
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 07/01/2026
I'm starting to think The Blob might not have been such a bad thing after all.
160
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 22/12/2025
Excited to share our latest preprint, on using deep learning to extract the weird fractional quantum statistics of 2D topological materials: arxiv.org/abs/2512.15872
arxiv.org
Extracting Anyon Statistics from Neural Network Fractional Quantum Hall States
Fractional quantum Hall states host emergent anyons with exotic exchange statistics, but obtaining direct access to their topological properties in real systems remains a challenge. Neural-network wav...
2344
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 09/12/2025
Not sure why they bother asking for my age on this app, everyone knows everyone on Bluesky is exactly 39.
0100
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 04/12/2025
I am not at NeurIPS.
2120
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 01/12/2025
The first recorded case of COVID-19 was on November 30, 2019. ChatGPT launched to the public on November 30, 2022. What new horror was unleashed on the world yesterday?
0151
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 20/11/2025
I'm a bit surprised that in the era of conversational LLMs, there hasn't been a revival of interest in the art world in Cohen, Frank and Ippolito's "Argument Drawings" www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/2/ric...
cabinetmagazine.org
Utterance Is Place Enough | Frances Richard
Mapping conversation
0110
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 13/11/2025
New (sort of) preprint on arXiv today: a generalized bias-variance decomposition for Bregman divergences! arxiv.org/abs/2511.08789
arxiv.org
A Generalized Bias-Variance Decomposition for Bregman Divergences
The bias-variance decomposition is a central result in statistics and machine learning, but is typically presented only for the squared error. We present a generalization of the bias-variance decompos...
1284
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 13/11/2025
Trump's approval rating is now roughly comparable to what it was in mid-2020, at the height of COVID unemployment and George Floyd protests.
070
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 08/11/2025
I think that we should all strive to live our lives in such a way that, when we die, our greatest accomplishments are not overshadowed by constant bickering about exactly how racist or sexist we were.
0220
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 07/11/2025
I think every one of my ML colleagues from a decade ago who stayed in academia and avoided the AGI/LLM race is now doing "AI for science". Really feels like those are the only two options left.
3200
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 02/11/2025
I feel like these Catholic converts who think they can argue with the Pope just did not do their research. If they want a religion where they can argue nonstop with everyone, up to and including God, they would obviously be better served by converting to Judaism.
3321
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 02/11/2025
Just checked on ClearSky and I'm not on a single blocklist and now I'm worried that I'm not influential enough.
5521
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 01/11/2025
Joel is on a mission to get the EA/rationalist set to embrace Rortyian pragmatism. It's a tough job but someone's gotta do it.
0141
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 01/11/2025
If things become so polarized that anything "AI", no matter how broadly construed, becomes knee-jerk associated with the Trumpian right wing, I should probably just kms. www.axios.com/2025/10/31/m...
axios.com
Behind the Curtain: Anti-AI socialism could be Democrats' future
This climate is ripe for an anti-AI socialist to emerge as a counter to Trump.
911511
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 24/10/2025
I can't believe how fast they went from "removing this cookie-cutter statue is erasing history" to "well, the East Wing was kind of shabby anyway".
051
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 24/10/2025
Even the Jacobins didn't tear down Versailles. They sold off the furniture and let it fall into disrepair, but they didn't just knock down a whole wing.
021
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 16/10/2025
Very excited to be able to talk about something I've been working on for a while now - we're working with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, IMO the leading fusion startup in the world, to take our work on AI and tokamaks and make it work at the frontier of fusion energy. deepmind.google/discover/blo...
deepmind.google
Google DeepMind is bringing AI to the next generation of fusion energy
We’re announcing our research partnership with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to bring clean, safe, limitless fusion energy closer to reality with our advanced AI systems. This partnership...
212925
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 12/10/2025
Obviously everyone on Bluesky is going to hate on this because it involves Musk, but the idea of using next-token-predictors (which LLMs are an instance of) to help the disabled communicate has a long history: www.inference.org.uk/dasher/Speci...
inference.org.uk
Inference Group: Dasher Project: Special Needs
5293
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 02/10/2025
Trump basically forgot about the whole annexing Canada thing after like three months and hasn't mentioned it in ages, but America's reputation in Canada has been destroyed for a generation. Just one of a million sad stupid pointless things from the last year.
2162
Reposted by David Pfau
Sung Kim @sungkim.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Even I’m not sure this will end well. Graphics courtesy of Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis.
44617
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 23/09/2025
The fate of the global economy hinges on whether the AGI race is the Manhattan Project or the Philosopher's Stone.
5625
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 22/09/2025
So IIUC, the position of the UK government is that Israel's actions in Gaza are so grave that there must be immediate recognition for a Palestinian state, but also that if you wear a shirt that says "Palestine Action" you are supporting a terrorist organization and should be arrested.
2152
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 21/09/2025
Ok maybe this site has the sauce.
0150
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 20/09/2025
Genuinely don't think I've ever seen a ratio this big. Certainly not on a post this obviously correct.
130
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 17/09/2025
I have friends who live next to this road-turned-park. The article doesn't even mention that there is a second major road literally right next to the park.
3120
Reposted by David Pfau
Kai Arzheimer @kai-arzheimer.com · 17/09/2025
Want some free career advice? #AcademicChatter
Two-panel meme. Top panel: A distressed, shadowy figure with the text “struggling in your field of work”. Bottom panel: A smiling figure with the text “struggling in multiple fields at once but your combination is unique enough so you’re still one of the interdisciplinary experts”.
331448
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 16/09/2025
Trump's approval rating has been fairly steady, but his favorables have been falling off a cliff. Not really sure what to make of this - people are just happy their 401(k) is going up but increasingly hate Trump himself? (Source: Real Clear Polling)
000
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 13/09/2025
The likely synthesis of "he's an antifascist" and "he's just a gamer" is "his understanding of what fascism is was entirely filtered through the lens of memes, gaming and obscure Discord servers."
2160
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 11/09/2025
These are not new, they've been around for over a decade. They're so old they've already been banned and removed in the UK.
030
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 09/09/2025
Really this should have been such a blinking red warning light about where a society driven by social media virality was taking us.
1758
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 06/09/2025
Here in the UK, Royal Mail has stopped shipping packages to the US entirely. Private companies like DHL will still do it though.
4816
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 06/09/2025
Can't wait for DARPA to rebrand as WARPA, relocate to London and start releasing critically-acclaimed electronic music.
1271
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 06/09/2025
Oh God they're gonna rename it WARPA aren't they.
1100
David Pfau @davidpfau.com · 04/09/2025
I'd missed this in the flood of insane news, but I guess this is good? There was never any reason to shut down the NIST spectroscopy group in the first place, but at least the work will continue elsewhere in the government (unless NASA gets gutted too). t.co/SBwBp6H9mr
t.co
https://www.callabmag.com/nist-group-finds-new-home/
251
Reposted by David Pfau
Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
A case study in how Cowen's uncritical use of GPT/o3 is causing him to spread misinformation on Marginal Revolution, from @pappubahry.com pappubahry.substack.com/p/misinforma...
pappubahry.substack.com
Misinformation on Marginal Revolution
A case study in o3 hallucination
1116443
Reposted by David Pfau
Sung Kim @sungkim.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Tencent, the world’s largest computer gaming company, released HunyuanWorld-Voyager as open-weight. The world’s first ultra-long-range world model with native 3D reconstruction, redefining AI-driven spatial intelligence for VR, gaming, and simulations.
25712