(Dylan Foster and Alex Lamb both helped in creating this.) In thinking about what are good research problems, it’s sometimes helpful to switch from what is understood to what is clearly possible. This encourages us to think beyond simply improving the existing system. For example, we have seen instances throughout the history of machine learning …
The stark success of OpenAI’s GPT4 model surprised me shifting my view from “really good autocomplete” (roughly inline with intuitions here) to a dialog agent exhibiting a significant scope of reasoning and intelligence. Some of the MSR folks did a fairly thorough study of capabilities which seems like a good reference. I think of GPT4 …
I enjoyed my conversations with Timnit when she was in the MSR-NYC lab, so her situation has been on my mind throughout NeurIPS. Piecing together what happened second-hand is always tricky, but Jeff Dean’s account and Timnit’s agree on a basic outline. Timnit and others wrote a paper for FAccT which was approved for submission …
Continue reading “What is the Right Response to Employer Misbehavior in Research?”
I spent the last month becoming a connoisseur of digital contact tracing approaches since this seems like something where I might be able to help. Many other people have been thinking along similar lines (great), but I also see several misconceptions that even smart and deeply involved people are making. For the following a key …
Continue reading “Critical issues in digital contract tracing”
Disclaimer: I am not an epidemiologist, but there is an interesting potentially important pattern in the data that seems worth understanding. World healthcare authorities appear to be primarily shifting towards Social Distancing. However, there is potential to pursue a different strategy in the medium term that exploits a vulnerability of this disease: the 5 day …
Continue reading “What is the most effective policy response to the new coronavirus pandemic?”
I’ve been following the renamed COVID-19 epidemic closely since potential exponentials deserve that kind of attention. The last few days have convinced me it’s a good idea to start making contingency plans for machine learning conferences like ICML. The plausible options happen to be structurally aligned with calls to enable reduced travel to machine learning …
Continue reading “Coronavirus and Machine Learning Conferences”