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Reggie McLean

@reggiemclean.bsky.social
399 followers 1.1K following 106 posts

Reinforcement learning 🍒, machine learning. He/him. reggiemclean.ca

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Reposted by Reggie McLean
James MacGlashan @jmac-ai.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Some people seem to think that ML wasn't originally considered AI and are criticizing labeling ML as AI as something recent. That's not right. ML is a subfield of AI. Not all AI is ML, but ML is AI. The history on this relationship is clear; they've always been associated this way.
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Marlos C. Machado @marloscmachado.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I am so excited about this paper. Wayfarer fulfills a vision I had 10 years ago when I wrote Learning Purposeful Behaviour in the Absence of Rewards. It fulfills the promise of options, maybe for the first time. End of thread. 9/9 arXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2610.03604
arxiv.org
Mastering Atari 2600 Games with Discovered Options
Temporal abstractions, often instantiated as options, have long been regarded as a mechanism for accelerating credit assignment, facilitating exploration, and enabling generalisation in reinforcement ...
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Marlos C. Machado @marloscmachado.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I'm excited to share Erik Lintunen's work! Mastering Atari 2600 Games with Discovered Options We have a general-purpose option-discovery method that works w/ high-dimensional observations, tabula rasa, using a single stream of experience! It outperforms DreamerV3, Rainbow, and IQN! 1/9
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Micah @rincewind.run · 02/10/2026
getting mad at the pope for not thinking the chatbot has a soul is easily the funniest thing I've read all week
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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
GOOD NEWS! A new cancer treatment has demonstrated unprecedented results in a large trial for cancer patients whose disease has become resistant to chemotherapy AND immunotherapy. Tumors shrank in OVER a third of participants, with 15 patients experiencing COMPLETE eradication of their tumors.
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Mina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Straight up: As a woman in football, this sucks to listen to. This week in particular.
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Claas Voelcker @cvoelcker.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
⏰ More time to submit! ⏰ We hope your drafts are getting into shape and we got good news! The #oopsiedata workshop @ #CoRL2026 🤖 deadline is now October 5th. Polish up your work and send it our way! We are looking forward to all the excellent submissions!
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Kosta Derpanis @csprofkgd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Modelled after the Mila program, Vector has launched a grad app portal. I’m a participating faculty member and am looking for PhD students to join my group starting Fall 2027. Check it out!
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Partners In Health Canada 🇨🇦 @pihcanada.org · 01/10/2026
In this time of manufactured scarcity for those who have the least, we need to keep proving it is possible to deliver on that ambition by working for a better distribution of global resources. And we will never build a world free of cancer, or free of any other disease, until we address this.
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 01/10/2026
I'm not sure if y'all saw a CNN report on how the US had almost started WW3 with China based on fabricated information generated by a chatbot, claiming that a Chinese vessel was carrying components of nuclear weapons. That was an "existential threat" to humanity www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Forget ‘superintelligence’: error-prone AI nearly sparked world war three this month | Timnit Gebru and Emily M Bender
The risks of AI aren’t what we think they are, as a recent security incident between China and the United States reveals
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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
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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Maria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm recruiting 1-2 PhD students to join our lab in Fall 2027, through either Computer Science or Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder! Looking for people with interests in NLP plus [healthcare | literary studies | narratives | social media | etc.]. Join us! 🏔️☀️
cls-lab.com
CLS Lab — Culture, Language, & Systems | University of Colorado Boulder
The Culture, Language, & Systems Lab at CU Boulder studies the language systems that transmit and shape modern culture, from internet platforms to literary archives to language models.
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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
GOOD NEWS! Researchers have discovered a new antibiotic, known as manikomycin, that may be a bulwark in the fight against drug-resistant superbugs. By attacking the ribosome in a never-before-seen way, manikomycin can evade the existing mechanisms pathogens have developed to resist antibiotics.
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Kosta Derpanis @csprofkgd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
t’s that time of year again: graduate admissions season. Inspired by @phillipisola.bsky.social post on doing a PhD in the age of AI (highly recommended!), I share some thoughts on how to email a professor about joining their lab. 1/2
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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
WELL NOW, would you look at that? A massive, 26-YEAR-LONG study of MORE THAN 2.4 MILLION people in Sweden found NO EVIDENCE to support a causal link between acetaminophen (the API in Tylenol) use during pregnancy and increased risk of autism, ADHD, OR intellectual disability in children.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's hilarious that Huang things not knowing his address, zip-code and phone number are a mark of how he is cognitively off-loading to technology and Klein doesn't seem to press him that what he's actually obviously doing is using the fact that he's rich to off-load onto other humans.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
over the past few weeks several AI evaluation/cybersecurity experts have explained how what's happening is a result of human incompetence rather than "AI going rogue". I'm begging the media to show a shred of journalistic integrity and stop parroting what altman or amodei say
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Claas Voelcker @cvoelcker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Reducing the current flood of papers requires us to take a loooong and hard look at the incentive structure beneath it all. Limits etc feel good, but will probably barely move the needle based on authorship stats. The problem is a simple RoI calculation. AI papers are tickets to two of the most ...
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mr. TIM @timkellogg.me · 19/09/2026
FelonyBench update
felonybench plot, Ant=10, oai=8, gdm=3, meta=1
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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Weird request; we've had a fairly big breakthrough that we've been mostly keeping a lid on for the past year. We're looking to talk to some science / AI writers about this and I know a lot of y'all are out here on bsky...
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Gautam Kamath @gautamkamath.com · 16/09/2026
Nihar 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.
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James MacGlashan @jmac-ai.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Rogue all-powerful AI predictions are not scientific and should not be trusted. People struggle to accept that because this prediction comes from some AI scientists. Sadly, scientists often make bogus unscientific predictions that should be ignored. Let's use another AI prediction as an example.
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ℳatt @matttomic.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Worth noting, as Macklemore was banned by NFL owners in what will be dubbed "fighting antisemitism", that Kanye, who - sold merch with swastikas - said on Alex Jones that he idolizes Hitler - tweeted he was "going Defcon 3 on Jewish people" is currently on a multi-city tour of NFL stadiums
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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
May I remind everyone that there is currently NO cure for rabies. May I also remind everyone there is absolutely NO scientific proof connecting ANY vaccine that we produce today with autism. This is true regarding vaccination in both humans AND in dogs. Vaccinate your pets please.
Worries about vaccination rates in dogs
As rabies seems to be spreading more in wildlife, veterinarians are especially worried about vaccine hesitancy spreading among pet owners, a dangerous trend that could lead to more dogs - and their owners
- becoming infected. A 2023 study published in the journal Vaccine found in nationally representative
sample of Americans that nearly 40% believed canine vaccines were unsafe and 37% believed that vaccines could lead their dogs to develop cognitive issues, such as autism.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 12/09/2026
New York: Heavy rain and possible flooding are expected beginning late tonight and continuing through tomorrow morning.

Please take this seriously. Flash flooding can develop quickly anywhere in our city.

If you live in a basement apartment or an area that has flooded before, prepare now. If flooding begins, move to higher ground immediately. Stay out of flooded streets and never drive through floodwaters.

If you are trapped or in immediate danger, call 911. Report downed trees, blocked catch basins and other non-emergency hazards to 311.

Sign up for Notify NYC emergency alerts, including basement alerts, at nyc.gov/notify
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 13/09/2026
We are opening 51 safe overnight locations for New Yorkers, especially those living in basement apartments or low-lying areas who need a safe place to stay. Locations are listed at on.nyc.gov/SafeLocations and are also available by calling 311. Service animals and pets are welcome.
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eliza hamilton @eliza.vg · 12/09/2026
‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Frontier Lab Where This Regularly Happens
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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
GOOD NEWS! A personalized mRNA vaccine has SUCCEEDED in keeping melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, from returning. Phase III trial results in MORE THAN 1,100 patients shows the vaccine SIGNIFICANTLY extended the time patients lived without their melanoma returning AND reduced the risk of metastasis.
statnews.com
Moderna and Merck say mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in late-stage melanoma trial
A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in a late-stage melanoma study, results that could herald a new, powerful approach in oncology.
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Jeremy Morrell @jeremymorrell.dev · 10/09/2026
More of this please!
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Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 09/09/2026
For context, to ground the conversation and explain one of the issues. USD20M, which is a self-reported (likely low-balled) estimate of what OpenAI burned in *one week* in their scooping race, would fund 100 full-time postdoctoral positions for 2 years (including overhead). 100 postdocs. 2 years.
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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is seismic news for fisheries scientists. Northern cod is *the* iconic symbol of total fisheries collapse due to overfishing (and other factors) *and* the iconic symbol of a complete failure to recover for decades afterwards. This is like announcing the complete recovery of bison on land.
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N.S. Dolkart is gathering signatures @nsdolkart.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
1) OpenAI is stealing research and passing it off as its own. Tom Lehrer’s caricature of Lobachevsky would be proud. 2) imagine the pain of being *some other Stephen Miller* these days, on top of having your work stolen. Poor guy can’t catch a break.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 04/09/2026
Technology being everywhere doesn’t mean it belongs everywhere. The tech industry wants us to believe that AI in early education is not only inevitable, but necessary. We don't see it that way. This week, we announced a moratorium on generative AI for public school students in 2-K to 8th grade.
We’re eliminating AI use for students in 2-K through 8th grade for the upcoming school year.
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HHMI @hhmi-science.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
(1/2) When Janelia set out to map every neuron in the fly brain in 2008, many thought it couldn’t be done. Nearly 20 years later, a complete wiring diagram of the 166,000+ neurons of the adult male fruit fly is helping to reveal the brain’s secrets: bit.ly/4zT7jPf.
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How-Sen Chong @how-sen.com · 03/09/2026
It’s official: Yesterday’s storm in the Toronto area was a 100-year storm. That means that in the past fifteen years, Toronto’s been hit with a 100-year storm four times. We must end the burning of natural gas, gasoline, and other fossil fuels.
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Michele C. Hollow @michelechollow.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
There are books in every room of my house.
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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Nice to have a citation for the stuff we all sort of assume to be true but question if it's just our own biases making it look that way
Screenshot from the article in the quoted post, saying "Piff and his colleagues found that upper-class drivers were more likely to cut other cars off at junctions and ignore pedestrians at crossings. Wealthier people also appeared more willing to lie at work. In one experiment, volunteers were left alone with a jar of sweets ostensibly meant for children. When the researchers returned, upper-class people had snaffled nearly twice as many candies as lower-class people.

“The general pattern seems to be that with wealth and rising power, you become less engaged with the needs of others and less burdened by the needs of social relationships,” Piff said. “Taking candy from children might be the least of our worries but it’s emblematic of the tendency to prioritise one’s own needs over those of others.”
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Marcel Hussing @marcelhussing.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
🤖 Coming to CoRL 2026: The first workshop on imperfect robotics data! We’ll explore how to collect, curate & use failures 💢, OOD events❓, and unexpected human behavior 🤔 - data every lab produces but rarely documents, shares, or reuses. Check out workshop.oopsie-data.com
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Daphne Keller @daphnek.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
But don’t worry, every platform that has to do age verification will do it in a really robust, privacy-protective way.
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Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE) @shengokai.blacksky.app · 02/09/2026
We have a decade of research that says this is a bad idea. Beyond that, we have a decade of research that says this will absolutely fuck over marginalized folks.
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SANTA CLAUS @santaclausalaska.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
FUN FACT If we switched to all renewable energy, the number of ships crossing the ocean would fall almost in half, slashing global CO2 emissions. Because those ships are JUST carrying coal, oil and gas. ~ Bill McKibben SUPPORT ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES!
Fun Fact: If we switched to all renewable energy, the number of ships crossing the ocean would fall almost in half, slashing global CO2 emissions. Because those ships are just carrying coal, oil and gas.
- Bill McKibben, Climate Activist
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David Beard @dabeard.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
As our president tries to paint Canada as an enemy during the 25th anniversary of 9/11, it might be a good time to see "Come From Away," the story of a small Canadians town embrace of Americans stuck there after the terror attack. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af77...
youtube.com
Come From Away — Official Trailer | Apple TV
YouTube video by Apple TV
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Gautam Kamath @gautamkamath.com · 31/08/2026
As LLMs make things easier, we must raise our expectations on what researchers are expected to produce. This is particularly true for writing: clear writing was rarely a focus in scientific publication, and it's only got worse due to LLMs. We're trying to reverse this trend.
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Meant to post this two days ago, but it has been a year (and two days) since JD Vance said after a mass shooting that it's outrageous anyone thinks calls for prayer are a way to deflect responsibility for taking action against gun violence. Maybe action will come next year.
JD Vance tweets: "It is shocking to me that so many left wing politicians attack the idea of prayer in response to a tragedy.

Literally no one thinks prayer is a substitute for action. 

We pray because our hearts are broken and we believe that God is listening."
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jpicone @me.jamespicone.name · 30/08/2026
Stolen from discord memes channel
Nine-panel Calvin and Hobbes strip, edited.

Panel 1: A bespectacled doctor in a white coat leans over a desk, holding out a small box to Calvin. "Put your right hand in the box."

Panel 2: Calvin, clutching Hobbes, looks up warily. "What's in the box?" The doctor, hand resting on the box: "Pain."

Panel 3: Calvin howls, "Why are you doing this??" The doctor answers with eyes closed and a faint smile: "An animal in a trap will gnaw off its own leg to escape. What will you do?"

Panel 4: Cut to the waiting room. Calvin's mum sits in a chair reading a magazine. From off-panel: "No need to call for help. Your mother is behind that door. None will get past her."

Panel 5: Mum reads on, magazine raised. She whispers: "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration…"

Panel 6: A jagged burst of shouting from off-panel: "NO!! I'll never cooperate, you hideous bug-eyed freak! NEVER!!" Mum has not moved.

Panel 7: More shouting: "You can contain my BODY, but you can't chain my SPIRIT! Walls can't confine it! Laws can't restrain it! You can try to leave a message, but my spirit screens its calls!!" Mum is staring blankly ahead

Panel 8: Enormous block letters fill the panel — "AAAAAGHHHHHHHHH" — as mum is shocked out of the chair, which tips over backwards.

Panel 9: Outside, mum stands, looking down at Calvin. "What did the Reverend Mother say?" Calvin, striding in: "All history up to this point has been spent preparing the world for my presence."
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NeurIPS Europe @neuripseurope.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The first call for NeurIPS Paris 2026 volunteers is open! We are seeking for PhD students and postdocs to assit during the conference in exchange for complimentary registration. Application form: forms.gle/HGDUzS7y7yvq... 1st call deadline: September 10th
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Andrew Iwaniuk @evoneuro.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I know lots of Canadians want to celebrate this as a “win” but it isn’t. We have consistently underfunded our universities and research capacity for decades. Adding big names that eat up a lot of capital will not improve our science at all. #Canada www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/art...
ctvnews.ca
Canada recruits dozens of foreign scientists, researchers, poaching many from U.S.
Canadian universities have recruited dozens of foreign scientists and researchers, many of them poached from prestigious U.S. institutions.
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Mohamad Safa @mhdksafa.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Dolly Parton didn’t spend her dollars on space travel or a trip to the titanic because she was writing checks to put over 330 million books in the hands of children. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has confirmed it will continue to send out millions of books to children after her passing. R.I.P
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Dr. Becca @docbecca.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
My behavioral neuroscience lab at Northeastern is looking to recruit two new research techs! Job description and link to apply is here: northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/careers/job/...
northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
Laboratory Technician - The Shansky Lab
About the Opportunity Job Summary The Shansky Lab is seeking a full-time technician to conduct National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded behavioral neuroscience research. The position includes lab ma...
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