Sign in

Sadiq Jaffer

@sadiq.toao.com
256 followers 50 following 11 posts

Researcher @ Cambridge CL, OCaml hacker, fmr CEO at Opsian

PostsRepliesMedia
Sadiq Jaffer @sadiq.toao.com · 04/04/2026
Hardware performance counters are great but you usually only use them on one-off whole program debug runs. I've prototyped sampling them at every OxCaml Runtime Events span instead, at almost no cost. Eventually this could surface issues across a whole fleet of services. toao.com/blog/free-pe...
toao.com
Free Hardware Performance Counters in OxCaml Runtime Events - Sadiq Jaffer
051
Sadiq Jaffer @sadiq.toao.com · 21/01/2026
Last week Frank Feng and I joined Robin Cole on his satellite image deep learning podcast to talk about Tessera: how it works, how it differs from existing models, and our future plans. Thanks for hosting us, Robin! www.satellite-image-deep-learning.com/p/tessera-a-...
satellite-image-deep-learning.com
Tessera: A Temporal Foundation Model for Earth Observation
with Sadiq Jaffer and Frank Feng
062
Sadiq Jaffer @sadiq.toao.com · 15/01/2026
It still surprises me you can get good performance with even tiny models on top of TESSERA embeddings. Here's how to find solar farms in the UK with a small ~42k CNN: toao.com/blog/earth-o...
toao.com
Earth Observation on a Budget: Finding Solar Farms with a 42k-Parameter Model - Sadiq Jaffer
063
Sadiq Jaffer @sadiq.toao.com · 25/10/2025
There's relatively little LLM training data for niche languages and this causes poorer coding agent performance. I think this is an existential threat for smaller language communities like OCaml. My talk at the OCaml workshop gave some actionable steps to mitigate that: toao.com/blog/ai-exis...
toao.com
Three Steps for OCaml to Crest the AI Humps - Sadiq Jaffer
353
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 17/10/2025
Every OCaml talk needs a pun, and @sadiq.toao.com is no exception #icfpsplash25
082
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Programming for the Planet @propl.dev · 13/10/2025
Our lightning talks session opens with @sadiq.toao.com demonstrating TESSERA, their new geospatial foundation model that is FAIR and global #icfpsplash25
131
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 27/09/2025
Not how I expected to make my @arstechnica.com debut but I'll take it arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/c...
arstechnica.com
Can AI detect hedgehogs from space? Maybe if you find brambles first.
Cambridge researchers use satellite-based bramble detection as a proxy for mapping hedgehog habitats.
171
Sadiq Jaffer @sadiq.toao.com · 24/09/2025
Fun field trip today trying to validate a colleague's bramble detecting model: toao.com/blog/can-we-... with @anil.recoil.org
toao.com
Can a model trained on satellite data really find brambles on the ground? - Sadiq Jaffer
020
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 15/07/2025
Some fun OCaml GC projects here with @sadiq.toao.com and @kcsrk.info if any students are looking for projects involving programming languages toao.com/blog/ocaml-0...
toao.com
Last three months in OCaml (July 2025) - Sadiq Jaffer
1176
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 08/07/2025
The most incredibly fun part of this Nature comment on evidence synthesis we published today is that the cartoonist (David Parkins) also did Beano and Dennis the Menace (!) A true legend. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Will AI speed up literature reviews or derail them entirely?
The publication of ever-larger numbers of problematic papers, including fake ones generated by artificial intelligence, represents an existential crisis for the established way of doing evidence synth...
063
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Cambridge Computer Science @cst.cam.ac.uk · 08/07/2025
The rapid rise in AI-generated fraudulent academic papers is "poisoning" scientific literature, say Cambridge researchers in Nature magazine today. But though AI is the problem, it could also help in ensuring the integrity of scientific discovery... buff.ly/AuSNcGd @anil.recoil.org @sadiq.toao.com
032
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Yaron Minsky @yminsky.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
I'm pleased to announce OxCaml! OxCaml is Jane Street's branch of OCaml. We've given it a new name and a snazzy logo, and done a bunch of work to make it easy for people to try.
510840
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 16/05/2025
New paper out today on how the careful design of LLMs is crucial for expert-level evidence retrieval in conservation (but with implications for any evidence synthesis pipeline across other fields) 🌍 doi.org/10.1371/jour... and anil.recoil.org/news/2024-ce... for a summary
doi.org
Careful design of Large Language Model pipelines enables expert-level retrieval of evidence-based information from syntheses and databases
Wise use of evidence to support efficient conservation action is key to tackling biodiversity loss with limited time and resources. Evidence syntheses provide key recommendations for conservation deci...
184
Sadiq Jaffer @sadiq.toao.com · 07/05/2025
Just how good are locally hostable code models on Cambridge first year OCaml assignments? @anil.recoil.org , @jon.recoil.org and I wanted to find out, so ran some tests. TL;DR Qwen3 means we might need new assignments. toao.com/blog/ocaml-l...
toao.com
Qwen3 Leads the Pack: Evaluating how Local LLMs tackle First Year CS OCaml exercises - Sadiq Jaffer
282
Sadiq Jaffer @sadiq.toao.com · 30/01/2025
If you are using llama.cpp, here's a workaround using grammars for getting JSON structured output from Deepseek R1 and distills: toao.com/blog/json-ou...
toao.com
JSON output from Deepseek R1 and distills with llama.cpp - Sadiq Jaffer
010
Sadiq Jaffer @sadiq.toao.com · 18/12/2024
Part of our @ai.cam.ac.uk project on AI in Conservation was published in TREE today. We gathered conservation scientists and AI experts and looked at the key conservation areas AI could revolutionise: www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
cell.com
The potential for AI to revolutionize conservation: a horizon scan
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging tool that could be leveraged to identify the effective conservation solutions demanded by the urgent biodiversity crisis. We present the results of our horizon scan of AI applications likely to significantly benefit biological conservation. An international panel of conservation scientists and AI experts identified 21 key ideas. These included species recognition to uncover 'dark diversity', multimodal models to improve biodiversity loss predictions, monitoring wildlife trade, and addressing human–wildlife conflict. We consider the potential negative impacts of AI adoption, such as AI colonialism and loss of essential conservation skills, and suggest how the conservation field might adapt to harness the benefits of AI while mitigating its risks.
050
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Neil Lawrence @lawrennd.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Working to surface challenges faced by folks at the coal face. Data in research contributions from @orbenamy.bsky.social @sadiq.toao.com @scotthosking.bsky.social Stefan Scholtes, Vasco Carvalho, Mireia Crispin and a foreward with Jess Montgomery @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social @ginasue.bsky.social
1104
Reposted by Sadiq Jaffer
Anil Madhavapeddy @anil.recoil.org · 16/11/2024
New preprint from our work on using LLMs to accelerate conservation evidence synthesis across millions of papers. We crosscheck 3 retrieval strategies against 10 LLMs and benchmark against human experts and find quite a bit of variance www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-5…
051