Ahmad Beirami
@abeirami.bsky.social
stealth // Gemini RL+inference @ Google DeepMind // Conversational AI @ Meta // RL Agents @ EA // ML+Information Theory @ MIT+Harvard+Duke // Georgia Tech PhD // زن زندگی آزادی
📍{NYC, SFO, YYZ}
🔗 https://beirami.github.io/
📍{NYC, SFO, YYZ}
🔗 https://beirami.github.io/
Pinned
Ahmad Beirami
@abeirami.bsky.social
· Jun 2
After three incredible years, today is my last day at Google DeepMind!
I am truly grateful to the amazing colleagues who made the journey 1000x more fruitful and enjoyable! I am forever indebted to my collaborators who showed me how to be better at everything via demonstrations.
I am truly grateful to the amazing colleagues who made the journey 1000x more fruitful and enjoyable! I am forever indebted to my collaborators who showed me how to be better at everything via demonstrations.
Once you see a math concept geometrically, it becomes much easier to think about, and it’s hard to go back to any other way of seeing it.
November 5, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Once you see a math concept geometrically, it becomes much easier to think about, and it’s hard to go back to any other way of seeing it.
I am sorry for what many of my excellent former colleagues are going through.
Layoffs can be emotionally challenging for everyone, whether you are directly affected or not.
Layoffs can be emotionally challenging for everyone, whether you are directly affected or not.
October 24, 2025 at 12:25 PM
I am sorry for what many of my excellent former colleagues are going through.
Layoffs can be emotionally challenging for everyone, whether you are directly affected or not.
Layoffs can be emotionally challenging for everyone, whether you are directly affected or not.
The math that LLMs can do today is novel enough to be considered publishable, but it's not the kind of math that would be consequential.
September 24, 2025 at 9:42 PM
The math that LLMs can do today is novel enough to be considered publishable, but it's not the kind of math that would be consequential.
Let's regress from here to AGI!
Kernel regression is the only way to achieve AGI
September 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Let's regress from here to AGI!
This is the conclusion slide of a talk I gave more than a year ago on RL/Alignment! It still holds true today.
September 10, 2025 at 1:07 PM
This is the conclusion slide of a talk I gave more than a year ago on RL/Alignment! It still holds true today.
This also applies to telling your story (e.g., in a CV, bio, interview, etc).
Focus on what you have accomplished and what you are excited about doing next; not just where you did it!
Focus on what you have accomplished and what you are excited about doing next; not just where you did it!
I occasionally get messages asking how to follow my path and get into Meta, DeepMind, or similar places. That is the wrong question. Do not focus on the brand! Focus on what you want to work on, then find the opportunity that fits your goals best.
September 9, 2025 at 2:07 PM
This also applies to telling your story (e.g., in a CV, bio, interview, etc).
Focus on what you have accomplished and what you are excited about doing next; not just where you did it!
Focus on what you have accomplished and what you are excited about doing next; not just where you did it!
Reposted by Ahmad Beirami
The actual unpopular opinion is that the notion of senior and junior authors should be abolished. It has completely diluted the notion of scientific authorship and created this entire industry of free-riding, head-in-the-clouds, incompetent PIs/managers. List down exact contributions instead. [+]
Unpopular opinion:
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
September 7, 2025 at 6:49 PM
The actual unpopular opinion is that the notion of senior and junior authors should be abolished. It has completely diluted the notion of scientific authorship and created this entire industry of free-riding, head-in-the-clouds, incompetent PIs/managers. List down exact contributions instead. [+]
I occasionally get messages asking how to follow my path and get into Meta, DeepMind, or similar places. That is the wrong question. Do not focus on the brand! Focus on what you want to work on, then find the opportunity that fits your goals best.
September 9, 2025 at 1:31 PM
I occasionally get messages asking how to follow my path and get into Meta, DeepMind, or similar places. That is the wrong question. Do not focus on the brand! Focus on what you want to work on, then find the opportunity that fits your goals best.
Reposted by Ahmad Beirami
Related to this if a paper turns out to have a major error in it, you’re supposed to throw yourself under the bus not your students.
Unpopular opinion:
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
September 7, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Related to this if a paper turns out to have a major error in it, you’re supposed to throw yourself under the bus not your students.
Corollary: If you lack bandwidth or expertise to act as the verifier, then you shouldn't sign up to be the senior author of a paper!
Unpopular opinion:
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
September 6, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Corollary: If you lack bandwidth or expertise to act as the verifier, then you shouldn't sign up to be the senior author of a paper!
Unpopular opinion:
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
September 6, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Unpopular opinion:
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
When a paper has a senior mentor and a junior mentee, the senior author must make sure the claims are correct and well supported. They must check every claim and gate the submission until it meets that bar.
This is the recipe for many provable claims:
Make enough assumptions and narrow down the claim, then prove a narrow result with caveats. Present it as broad, hide the caveats, and declare “XYZ is provable!”
Make enough assumptions and narrow down the claim, then prove a narrow result with caveats. Present it as broad, hide the caveats, and declare “XYZ is provable!”
September 6, 2025 at 3:27 PM
This is the recipe for many provable claims:
Make enough assumptions and narrow down the claim, then prove a narrow result with caveats. Present it as broad, hide the caveats, and declare “XYZ is provable!”
Make enough assumptions and narrow down the claim, then prove a narrow result with caveats. Present it as broad, hide the caveats, and declare “XYZ is provable!”
Today, Industry research is focused on short term (3-6months) bets. Academics have an opportunity to balance their portfolio with medium term (1-2 years) and long term (5-10 years) bets. Putting all academic efforts in short-term basket is suboptimal!
September 5, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Today, Industry research is focused on short term (3-6months) bets. Academics have an opportunity to balance their portfolio with medium term (1-2 years) and long term (5-10 years) bets. Putting all academic efforts in short-term basket is suboptimal!
When I worked in corporate, I was often first in the office because that routine worked for me. It was a personal preference, not a benchmark for anyone else.
We should not judge commitment by hours, especially in research. We should look for thoughtful work and steady progress.
We should not judge commitment by hours, especially in research. We should look for thoughtful work and steady progress.
September 2, 2025 at 1:39 PM
When I worked in corporate, I was often first in the office because that routine worked for me. It was a personal preference, not a benchmark for anyone else.
We should not judge commitment by hours, especially in research. We should look for thoughtful work and steady progress.
We should not judge commitment by hours, especially in research. We should look for thoughtful work and steady progress.
Common mistake in LLM prompting projects: jumping into full-scale pipelines (datasets and inference) without testing feasibility. Iterating at scale is expensive and time-consuming.
Start with ONE example to validate the hypothesis, verify context, debug the design, then scale.
Start with ONE example to validate the hypothesis, verify context, debug the design, then scale.
September 1, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Common mistake in LLM prompting projects: jumping into full-scale pipelines (datasets and inference) without testing feasibility. Iterating at scale is expensive and time-consuming.
Start with ONE example to validate the hypothesis, verify context, debug the design, then scale.
Start with ONE example to validate the hypothesis, verify context, debug the design, then scale.
Thoughts that are explained clearly are more respected. Clarity is a scarce skill. Many of us (me included) leave out key context and make people work too hard to understand us.
AI models should get better at this: not just reasoning, but communicating with the right amount of context.
AI models should get better at this: not just reasoning, but communicating with the right amount of context.
August 31, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Thoughts that are explained clearly are more respected. Clarity is a scarce skill. Many of us (me included) leave out key context and make people work too hard to understand us.
AI models should get better at this: not just reasoning, but communicating with the right amount of context.
AI models should get better at this: not just reasoning, but communicating with the right amount of context.
Enjoyed speaking with @DeltaInstitutes about going from information theory to ML, recent safety alignment/RL work, and lessons on RL for LLMs that stuck!
Check out the podcast episode here: lnkd.in/eb6dWHDv
Check out the podcast episode here: lnkd.in/eb6dWHDv
August 30, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Enjoyed speaking with @DeltaInstitutes about going from information theory to ML, recent safety alignment/RL work, and lessons on RL for LLMs that stuck!
Check out the podcast episode here: lnkd.in/eb6dWHDv
Check out the podcast episode here: lnkd.in/eb6dWHDv
In 2009, a prominent signal processing professor said the market was tough and h-index ≥6 was needed just to get a faculty interview.
We now seem to be drifting toward the same bar for PhD program entrance.
We now seem to be drifting toward the same bar for PhD program entrance.
August 28, 2025 at 1:17 PM
In 2009, a prominent signal processing professor said the market was tough and h-index ≥6 was needed just to get a faculty interview.
We now seem to be drifting toward the same bar for PhD program entrance.
We now seem to be drifting toward the same bar for PhD program entrance.
Congratulations to the Google team on the release of the newest Gemini Image generation model! 🍌🍌
I am super impressed with what the model did here (no other model gets even close -- including Google's previous model). This is truly bananas!
I am super impressed with what the model did here (no other model gets even close -- including Google's previous model). This is truly bananas!
August 26, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Congratulations to the Google team on the release of the newest Gemini Image generation model! 🍌🍌
I am super impressed with what the model did here (no other model gets even close -- including Google's previous model). This is truly bananas!
I am super impressed with what the model did here (no other model gets even close -- including Google's previous model). This is truly bananas!
What are the founders going to own? 🤔
August 25, 2025 at 11:01 PM
What are the founders going to own? 🤔
Cannot believe this needs to be said loud:
Do not ride a motorized bike 30+ mph on a mixed-use trail. It’s beyond reckless and puts walkers and cyclists at grave risk!
P.S. “Electric” doesn’t make it safe at 30+ mph.
Do not ride a motorized bike 30+ mph on a mixed-use trail. It’s beyond reckless and puts walkers and cyclists at grave risk!
P.S. “Electric” doesn’t make it safe at 30+ mph.
August 24, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Cannot believe this needs to be said loud:
Do not ride a motorized bike 30+ mph on a mixed-use trail. It’s beyond reckless and puts walkers and cyclists at grave risk!
P.S. “Electric” doesn’t make it safe at 30+ mph.
Do not ride a motorized bike 30+ mph on a mixed-use trail. It’s beyond reckless and puts walkers and cyclists at grave risk!
P.S. “Electric” doesn’t make it safe at 30+ mph.
My thoughts on acceptance rate artificially kept low: If we focus on merit based acceptance with
-claims are substantiated with theoretical/empirical evidence
-claims push the science envelope by epsilon
Then we still end up with ~25% acceptance rate and won't need to artificially reject any papers
-claims are substantiated with theoretical/empirical evidence
-claims push the science envelope by epsilon
Then we still end up with ~25% acceptance rate and won't need to artificially reject any papers
August 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM
My thoughts on acceptance rate artificially kept low: If we focus on merit based acceptance with
-claims are substantiated with theoretical/empirical evidence
-claims push the science envelope by epsilon
Then we still end up with ~25% acceptance rate and won't need to artificially reject any papers
-claims are substantiated with theoretical/empirical evidence
-claims push the science envelope by epsilon
Then we still end up with ~25% acceptance rate and won't need to artificially reject any papers
Reposted by Ahmad Beirami
also works for teaching. when I taught information retrieval, lecture 1: The Information Access Problem, lectures 1-2: evaluation. the rest of the semester presents algorithms and methods leaning on those first lectures to analyze and compare. should work for many courses
August 23, 2025 at 5:52 PM
also works for teaching. when I taught information retrieval, lecture 1: The Information Access Problem, lectures 1-2: evaluation. the rest of the semester presents algorithms and methods leaning on those first lectures to analyze and compare. should work for many courses
Being yelled at by both sides of an argument often only means either of two things:
- You have a rational stance that balances all the nuances that either side is missing.
- You have gone completely crazy.
- You have a rational stance that balances all the nuances that either side is missing.
- You have gone completely crazy.
It is unfortunately more unpleasant to be yelled at by people you consider on your side than to be yelled at by people you dislike
August 23, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Being yelled at by both sides of an argument often only means either of two things:
- You have a rational stance that balances all the nuances that either side is missing.
- You have gone completely crazy.
- You have a rational stance that balances all the nuances that either side is missing.
- You have gone completely crazy.