iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 23h

In our Nature paper, we introduce the first superhuman Stratego AI, which we built using general techniques that we developed for RL & test-time compute under imperfect information. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Scalable decision-making for games of imperfect information - Nature

Ataraxos, an AI for the board wargame Stratego, establishes a design pattern for reinforcement learning and search that is effective under large amounts of hidden information, a longstanding desiderat...

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Abel @abeliansoup.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

I asked Claude who'd be dumb enough to invent a dumb fruit like guava and it made me this

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"Despite the seemingly novel power these tech oligarchs wield in the space sector, their position today does not reflect a break from the space industry of the past but is a direct result of foundational decisions made at the origins of the US space programme." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

Dictators of the future: the tech oligarchy in outer space

Published in Science as Culture (Vol. 35, No. 3, 2026)

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"According to the tenets of rational choice theory, you can answer [any question] by forecasting a dollar value and probability of every outcome. … This is ludicrous if you think about it for two seconds. And yet it’s become a standard social convention..." www.argmin.net/p/pricing-co...

argmin.net

Pricing Commensurability

On the origins of cost-benefit analyses in governmental decision making

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Hilarious anecdote at the end of "Patterns, Predictions, and Actions": Since an income tax appeared too unpopular, King William III created a property tax based on the number of windows in one's house. This worked at first... until people started to brick up their windows. 🙈

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Stella Biderman @stellaathena.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

A common issue with position papers is that they leave the reader wondering “okay, but what should I actually do”? To address this we provide open problems on a wide variety of topics throughout to illustrate our perspectives and guide future research

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Seva @seva.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

claude code is fucking insane i know literally NOTHING about Hegel. ZERO. and it just built me a complete system of German idealism

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Fascinating story: 1. Fear-mongering about peanut allergies multiplies in the late 90s. 2. AAUP advises "no peanuts til age 3", despite NO evidence. 3. This advice CAUSES a massive spike in peanut allergies! 4. They had to do a large study just to undo the damage & convince everyone it was safe!

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Astonishing: the default behavior of Chrome's "Listen to this page" feature is NOT to simply read you the page, LIKE YOU WOULD EXPECT, but instead to make one of those goofy NotebookLM AI podcasts... and I had to search the Help docs to figure out how to change it. Thanks, Google.

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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

MAORL (Multi-Agent Olof RL) arxiv.org/abs/2512.16705

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

This is a travesty!! Also I have questions... for the branches that aren't terminated, where will they move? Will they be in the same building, under a different name? In which case, will it all be functionally the same thing (but with lots of political disruption)?

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Random observation: did you know this?! I knew about how Einstein's general relativity is required to make GPS navigation work, but I'm not as familiar with how quantum mechanics factors into semiconductor technology. Remarkable.

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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

In applying AI to material science, biology, etc, capitalism is trying to shed science. The point is to substitute the engineering of a machine that can generate what science has hitherto done, but without having people know things. Knowledge ultimately residing in private property is the dream.

nytimes.com

Jeff Bezos Creates A.I. Start-Up Where He Will Be Co-Chief Executive

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

[In considering candidates] "I actually view publication volume completely negatively... I've learned, from experience, that those with a really high volume [don't have a depth of knowledge]." —@abeirami.bsky.social #slowscience FTW

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

I thought this was a fascinating way to motivate model merging: to be able to *interpolate* between model classes, rather than be forced into discrete choices. (models trained on different datasets, models of different sizes, etc.) "Interpolation and alignment are two sides of the same coin."

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

Did you know that you could create hybrids across different neural net architectures—*without* updating the weights?? Come check out my poster at the UniReps @unireps.bsky.social workshop at 3:45pm today at #NeurIPS! (Or you can already browse the posters on the wall in 20D throughout the day.) 😃

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UniReps @unireps.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Join us this Saturday at @neuripsconf.bsky.social 2025 for the @unireps.bsky.social Workshop.

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Me, at people with #NeurIPS badges walking away from the convention center right now: "Don't they know that Rich Sutton is speaking in 10 minutes??? 😨"

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UniReps @unireps.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

🔵🔴 Join us for the UniReps Workshop: Unifying Representations in Neural Models at @neuripsconf.bsky.social 2025! 📍 Ballroom 20D, San Diego Convention Center Dec 6 Don’t forget to fill out the participation form. Joining in person or remotely? We welcome your questions for the panel. 🔗 unireps.org

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

So stoked to be going to my first #NeurIPS!! It’s crazy that in 10+ years of robotics and AI, I've never been to the great Lollapalooza of Machine Learning. 🥳🎆 I’m presenting my Frankensteinian efforts to stitch together parts of different neural networks! 🧪

Abstract for the paper, "Bridging Large Gaps in Neural Network Representations with Model Stitching".

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shimon8282.bsky.social @shimon8282.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Check out our new work on using low-rank perturbations to make evolution strategies work for billion-parameter models.

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UniReps @unireps.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

The UniReps Workshop accepted papers are out! 🎉 Huge thanks to the authors, reviewers, and incredible AC committee for their dedication and effort in making this happen. 🙏 openreview.net/group?id=Neu...

openreview.net

NeurIPS 2025 Workshop UniReps

Welcome to the OpenReview homepage for NeurIPS 2025 Workshop UniReps

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Alex Komoroske @komorama.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

What if instead of buying software from a store, you could grow it in your garden?

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

What an incredible tool! I think I'll be returning to this a lot over the next month! The most interesting papers might be the ones that seem misclassified or out of place...

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

It's too easy to write garbage survey papers and get lots of citations. Over time, I've learned to ignore most survey papers and recognize some markers of quality.

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Peter Vamplew @amp1874.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

It's been 8 months since I notified @springernature.com of a clear-cut case of fake references in a book chapter which they published. They have still not taken any action as they claim to still be investigating. I will not review for Springer again until this matter is satisfactorily resolved.

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UBC Science @science.ubc.ca · 21/10/2025

UBC’s department of Computer Science invites applications for up to 2 full-time tenure-track positions. The department is particularly interested in researchers in: visualization, robotics, reinforcement learning, data management, and data mining. @cs.ubc.ca science.ubc.ca/about/careers

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Translation: You have no new messages.

LinkedIn email: "You have 1 new message"

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ALICE Workshop @aliceworkshop.org · 13/10/2025

This year's ALICE guest speakers 🧑‍🔬 - Angel Goñi-Moreno - @angelgm.bsky.social - Alyssa Adams - @alyssa-m-adams.bsky.social - Alexander Mordvintsev - Eric Medvet - @ericmedvetts.bsky.social - Kyrre Glette - @kyrre2000.bsky.social - Stefano Nichele - @stenichele.bsky.social - Susan Stepney

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

"Consider another human difference: financial solvency, which can be measured and quantified, just like IQ. It is heritable in twin studies and (less so) in SNPs. But would you bet that sooner or later we are going to know 'what’s going on' with your bank account at the level of genes?" Same for IQ.

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

GPT now has ads. 💀 They are voluntary... for now.

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Louis Barclay @louisbarclay.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Q. Who aligns the aligners? A. alignmentalignment.ai Today I’m humbled to announce an epoch-defining event: the launch of the 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.

alignmentalignment.ai

Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers

We align the aligners

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

At #AutoML25, Dr. Manuela Veloso calls for 3 major directions for AI research: 1) AI must know what it doesn't know (uncertainty). 2) AI must be able to continually improve (continual learning). 3) AI systems must include humans at all times to be more robust (automation is always only partial).

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Ecoopan @ecoopan.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

No mires pabajo

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Merely a day after I call out OpenAI for being so closed (bsky.app/profile/ntra...), they release an open weights GPT. Glad they're finally reading my skeets! 😏

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

With its focus on short term profitability, the US has forgotten how to make markets competitive. And companies have forgotten that they are only *vehicles* for the final product, not ends in themselves.

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Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

I’m very excited to announce that I’ve just signed a contract with @princetonupress.bsky.social for a new book, tentatively titled “The Genomic Code” 📖 😊

media.tenor.com

kermit the frog is using a typewriter in a messy room .

ALT: kermit the frog is using a typewriter in a messy room .

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

In reality, all environments are only partially observable, so this is the only regime in which RL should be evaluated.

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Send like a useful framework. Looking forward to reading this new position paper.

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

I just realized that all these hyped-up “AI scientist” concepts all concentrate on the idea of *discovery*—new algorithms, new materials, new products—without exception. Not a one of them focus on *understanding*—arguably the larger role of a scientist! 🧐

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Vermont Complex Systems Institute @vcsi.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Proud of our team's talks and posters at #IC2S2 in Norrköping Sweden - what a great week. We're excited to host next year in Vermont!

Team from the University of Vermont + External faculty posing for a picture by a river

VCSI executive director announcing location for the conference in 2026, standing on a large stage with colleagues

female scholar presenting a parallel talk, engaging with the audience

PhD student presenting a research poster

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 26/07/2025

We are going to spend the next few years finding out exactly *why* it was a horrible idea to unleash a tsunami of vibe-coded apps made by idiots and scammers on an unprepared world. Welcome to the Entirely Foreseeable AI Consequences Era.

404media.co

Women Dating Safety App 'Tea' Breached, Users' IDs Posted to 4chan

“DRIVERS LICENSES AND FACE PICS! GET THE FUCK IN HERE BEFORE THEY SHUT IT DOWN!” the thread read before being deleted.

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Neil Traft @ntraft.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Apparently Papers With Code was abruptly sunsetted for reasons that are unclear. 😢

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Paige Bailey (webpaige.dev) @dynamicwebpaige.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

😞 So sad to see paperswithcode is discontinued – but grateful that the @hf.co team is, as always, stepping up to support the community! It was an incredible resource for use cases, common themes in papers, and visualizing how models have improved on evals over time: huggingface.co/papers/trend...

huggingface.co