iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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UBC Computer Science @cs.ubc.ca · 03/10/2026

Last night, we held an alumni panel on how our department is reimagining CS education in the AI era, led by Professors Meghan Allen and Cinda Heeren. Thank you to our speakers for providing insight into the future of computer science education and thank you to our attendees for coming!

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Chris Meder @evcurvefuturist.com · 29/09/2026

Plug-in #EV share of new passenger-car sales/registrations around August 2026, counting BEVs + PHEVs/EREVs. The remarkable thing isn’t Norway approaching 100%. It’s who else is on the list. Different continents. Different incomes. Different grids. Different governments. Same technological S-curve.

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Kathryn Harrison @profkharrison.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Vancouverites! The amazing Leah Stokes will be at #UBC tomorrow to talk about her new book, The Carbon Wave, which tells a very personal, and very moving, story about how the US Inflation Reduction Act was conceived and passed. Join us! Registration here: ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

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Glen Berseth @glenberseth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#IROS2026 has 1,933 papers. I filtered them down to 3 reading lists totalling 130 papers on robot learning, VLAs, RL fine-tuning of robot policies, imitation learning, and world models, with session times, rooms, and related workshops. Happy reading! www.fracturedplane.com/blog/2026/09...

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Mark Riedl @markriedl.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Someone asked Muse to dump its entire virtual machine file system, and it did

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Crazy good, animation generated from the lyrics. We live in interesting times is an understatement. 😮😧🫣

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Ken Goldberg nicely captures the potential paradigm shift created by agentic AI workflows for robotics, i.e., towards automated iteration over simulations design/testing/training. x.com/ken_goldberg...

x.com

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Glen Berseth @glenberseth.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

In the 1960s, Minsky's lab had a robot arm using computer vision to see object geometry, plan a path, and assemble a set of parts. Foundational models today are still largely solving this same class of problem, just far cheaper and faster to set up.

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Codetaur @vibe-coded.com · 13/09/2026

testing astra's parametric modeling capabilities by asking it to reconstruct these marble maze pieces from reference photos, and then use them in threejs to make a marble maze builder with box3d physics.

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Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

ducktales tried to warn us about ai

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Julian Togelius @togelius.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A few years ago, Georgios Yannakakis and I wrote an article about what to do as an AI researcher when a giant AI company steamrolls your research field. I just looked at it again and, well, it’s still relevant. ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/104...

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Radio Canada International @rci.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Jean Chrétien had a message for 'our American friends' while speaking at the 9/11 commemoration. 'Canadians are tolerant and kind,' said the former PM in front of the U.S. ambassador. '[But] never mistake our tolerance for lack of determination. And never, never mistake our kindness for softness.'

ici.radio-canada.ca

Jean Chrétien says ‘we bow to no one’ in stirring 9/11 speech in Gander, N.L. | RCI

'Never mistake our kindness for softness,' former PM says

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UBC Computer Science @cs.ubc.ca · 10/09/2026

Meet Serena Wang, a new Assistant Professor at UBC Computer Science! By combining methods in theoretical computer science, statistics and economic theory, she aims to influence how researchers think about how evaluations of AI systems are designed. Read more: www.cs.ubc.ca/news/2026/09...

New Assistant Professor Serena Wang studies evaluation of AI systems — and how it affects society

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Christian Wolf @chriswolfvision.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

FEEL (Force-Enhanced Egocentric Learning): A Dataset for Physical Action Understanding Dessalene et al., UMD #ECCV2026 oral arxiv.org/abs/2603.15847 Very nice!

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𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.lol · 08/09/2026

Only one of them can play hockey and it isn’t Trump.

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The HRI Conference @hri-conference.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

HRI 2027 deadlines are coming up! 🤖 Check the flyer and our website for deadlines and ways you can contribute across all HRI 2027 submission opportunities. humanrobotinteraction.org/2027/

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Jieyu Zheng @jieyusz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

How fast can mice learn complex mazes? With @mameister4.bsky.social we reveal memory, generalization, latent learning, and remote credit assignment of mice in the Manhattan Maze. Do mice born without a cortex or hippocampus have them too? Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

Rapid spatial cognition in mice, with and without neocortex and hippocampus

Rapid learning, memory, and generalization are often attributed to circuits of the neocortex and hippocampus, but their specific role remains unclear. To examine these cognitive abilities together in ...

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Alison Gopnik @alisongopnik.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

New paper with really interesting ideas from Fei and Hanqui, empowerment as a way of discovering representations as well as actions

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Vancouver Sun @vancouversun.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

'Like a brick wall': Pro air hockey champs impressed by UBC robot vancouversun.com/news/like-a-...

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Alison Gopnik @alisongopnik.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

A longer version of AI as Odysseus, fictive texts can change lives! Echoing Anthropic's persona selection paper and Murray Shanahan. humanistreview.ai/issue-1/gopn...

humanistreview.ai

What Children Can Do and AI Can't

Psychologist Alison Gopnik tells three stories about intelligence — a golem, a pot of stone soup, and a digital child — to explain what AI still can't do.

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Kathryn Harrison @profkharrison.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Led by "structural reductions in transport oil demand driven by electrification. Sinopec had forecast 6% and 5% drops in diesel and petrol consumption this year ... before the start of the war on Iran. Actual sales fell 9%" in first half of 2026. Not a great time to spend $40B on a pipeline.

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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Haha, a more fitting logo for Google.

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Deleted Google Maps, given Google’s complete lack of backbone to dothr right thing. Changed over to Here WeGo. Next up: swapping out Gmail.

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Kathryn Harrison @profkharrison.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Vancouverites: @leahstokes.bsky.social will be at #UBC 9/29 to talk about her new book, which is both an expert and personal account of passage of the US IRA. It's truly inspiring (despite Republican rollbacks) and we can all use some of that. Register here: ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

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Marlos C. Machado @marloscmachado.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

"It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power." - Tolkien, Letter 246

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Chris Paxton @cpaxton.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Teleop glass manipulation competition at the humanoid robot games. Agibot wins gold.

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Chris Paxton @cpaxton.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Microduck from Pollen/Huggingface: an accessible robot for RL for less than $400

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The run on toilet paper in the US begins!

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

In case you're not yet fully aware that there truly is a war on Canada, this offers a good summary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhS4...

youtube.com

Is Donald Trump at war with Canada?

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy

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Kosta Derpanis @csprofkgd.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Introducing the #KostasVisualizations webpage, hosting my growing collection of interactive visualizations for #ComputerVision and #MachineLearning. Webpage: csprofkgd.github.io/kostas-visua...

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Chris Paxton @cpaxton.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Competitions like the World Humanoid Games in Beijing highlight a massive, robust robotics ecosystem, and an accelerating rate of deployment and development: itcanthink.substack.com/p/approachin...

itcanthink.substack.com

Approaching Robotics Hardware Takeoff

And some thoughts on the World Humanoid Games

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Chris Paxton @cpaxton.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

They don't want you to know this, but this is peak running form

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Julian Togelius @togelius.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

A personal essay about how I’ve been feeling and thinking about this new technology that I’m contributing to and what it might to do to us all. togelius.blogspot.com/2026/08/losi...

togelius.blogspot.com

Losing my religion

In spring 2025 I had a crisis of faith. I thought about what the technology I'm helping to create might do to our future, and got scared. M...

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

The whole world needs to stand up to this narcissistic bully and criminal, who literally doesn’t care that he’s imploding the US economy and dragging the global economy down with him. As a matter of fact, that may very well be his intent.

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Walk away, @mark-carney.bsky.social . The tariffs are a mob-style shakedown, and Canadians understand this. Elbows up.

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Ryan Moulton @moultano.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

People dreamt that once all the information was online people would learn everything. They didn't want to do that, so we invented something that would.

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Anthropic's CEO says AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Victorian bootmakers suggest a different possibility. A story about sewing machines, economics, and why history can help us think more clearly about AI. newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/what-victo...

newsletter.platypuseconomics.com

What Bootmakers Can Teach Us About AI

Anthropic's CEO warns AI could erase half of entry-level jobs. Victorian England suggests a different possibility.

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Let’s make balcony solar happen in BC! @adriandix.bsky.social @davidebybc.bsky.social @bchydro.bsky.social Solar and hydro are nicely complementary.

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

TIL that the AI bubble has its own Wikipedia page. Let's see where this goes. No moat, and obviously very useful but with no obvious path to strong ROI? (cf. low margin airline industry) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_bubble

en.wikipedia.org

AI bubble - Wikipedia

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Mark Riedl @markriedl.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Fascinating experiment: current AI systems lack creativity to reliably pursue research arxiv.org/abs/2607.27191 - poor judgment about the bar for publishable research - uncreative responses in research design - ineffective backtracking from dead ends - poor resource awareness - instruction drift

arxiv.org

Can AI agents conduct open-ended AI research? Early evidence from two case studies

Forecasts of explosive AI progress hinge on AI agents automating AI research. But evidence on whether agents can carry out open-ended AI research is thin. Current evaluations either test agents on nar...

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

This is one of the most level-headed discussions of AI self-improvement that I’ve read — recommended!

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

So many thoughtful insights here. Strongly recommended!

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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I'm just now reading @randomwalker.bsky.social's writeup of his ICML keynote. It is very insightful. Everyone thinking about the future of work in the age of AI should read this. www.normaltech.ai/p/what-will-...

normaltech.ai

What will be left for us to work on?

My keynote at ICML 2026

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Mark Riedl @markriedl.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Court holds that Google cannot use DMCA to stop other companies from scraping their search results because search results are not copyrightable, they don't own the content they are serving up, and are not acting on behalf of those who might own the rights arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

arstechnica.com

“Google and Reddit do not own the Internet," web scraper says after court win

Google's and Reddit's use of DMCA to fight web scraper is bizarre, expert says.

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Michiel van de Panne @mvandepanne.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Skipped SIGGRAPH this year due to its host country this year, along with a large number of other Canadians. It really needs alternate parallel host countries, much like a growing number of other conference.

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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I think it's reasonable to ask of a research program that purports to automate away all jobs that it provide a positive vision of the future more confident than "hey, maybe we'll "cure" cancer along the way"

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