Mel Andrews
@bayesianboy.bsky.social
I’m not like the other Bayesians. I’m different.
Thinks about philosophy of science, AI ethics, machine learning, models, & metascience. postdoc @ Princeton.
Thinks about philosophy of science, AI ethics, machine learning, models, & metascience. postdoc @ Princeton.
Pinned
Mel Andrews
@bayesianboy.bsky.social
· Nov 17
The reanimation of pseudoscience in machine learning and its ethical repercussions
The present perspective outlines how epistemically baseless and ethically pernicious paradigms are recycled back into the scientific literature via ma…
www.sciencedirect.com
A thread of my papers. The first was recently published with Cell Press, coauthored with Andy Smart and Abeba Birhane. It tackles the connections between epistemic deficiencies in deployed ML and ethical consequences. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Mel Andrews
girls just wanna emit an intense pulse of neutron radiation
December 25, 2025 at 4:18 AM
girls just wanna emit an intense pulse of neutron radiation
only reason I would ever consider buying a christmas tree: free bat
they don’t tell you when you buy a christmas tree at the christmas tree farm that you could take it home, decorate it, and then be relaxing in your living room seven nights later when A BAT suddenly flies out and starts CRASHING AROUND YOUR HOUSE
December 25, 2025 at 12:09 AM
only reason I would ever consider buying a christmas tree: free bat
you know you’ve reached adulthood when your first ‘happy birthday’ comes from the Ivy League Supplied Retirement Account You Will Certainly Never Live to Benefit From.
December 23, 2025 at 9:21 PM
you know you’ve reached adulthood when your first ‘happy birthday’ comes from the Ivy League Supplied Retirement Account You Will Certainly Never Live to Benefit From.
Reposted by Mel Andrews
close observations of my most traditionally successful peers suggests much academic productivity is driven by a desire to be seen as really smart
this has put me at a profound career disadvantage, because, more like a normal person, I just want people to think I'm hot and a good cook
this has put me at a profound career disadvantage, because, more like a normal person, I just want people to think I'm hot and a good cook
December 22, 2025 at 12:03 AM
close observations of my most traditionally successful peers suggests much academic productivity is driven by a desire to be seen as really smart
this has put me at a profound career disadvantage, because, more like a normal person, I just want people to think I'm hot and a good cook
this has put me at a profound career disadvantage, because, more like a normal person, I just want people to think I'm hot and a good cook
Reposted by Mel Andrews
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
December 16, 2025 at 11:31 PM
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
Reposted by Mel Andrews
It's astonishing how a technology called artificial intelligence has revealed the actual stupidity of so many people. This tweet hasn't been bettered
December 17, 2025 at 6:40 PM
It's astonishing how a technology called artificial intelligence has revealed the actual stupidity of so many people. This tweet hasn't been bettered
Reposted by Mel Andrews
'whether LLMs can make “scientific discoveries” is no more interesting a question than whether Galileo’s telescope “really saw.” The better question is whether LLMs can be usefully integrated in the processes by which scientific knowledge gets made, validated, and disseminated.'
If you have to read anything about the prospect of “automating scientific discovery,” “agents for science,” or integrating LLMs into scientific pipelines, please let it be this essay by Kevin T. Baker: artificialbureaucracy.substack.com/p/context-wi...
December 16, 2025 at 9:49 AM
'whether LLMs can make “scientific discoveries” is no more interesting a question than whether Galileo’s telescope “really saw.” The better question is whether LLMs can be usefully integrated in the processes by which scientific knowledge gets made, validated, and disseminated.'
Reposted by Mel Andrews
Princeton's AI Lab is advertising positions for AI Postdoctoral Fellows in two areas: studying natural and artificial minds, and designing, understanding or engineering large AI models. We are also searching for a Lead Research Software Engineer! ai.princeton.edu/ai-lab/emplo...
Employment Opportunities
Find and learn more about our open positions.Join our team
ai.princeton.edu
December 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Princeton's AI Lab is advertising positions for AI Postdoctoral Fellows in two areas: studying natural and artificial minds, and designing, understanding or engineering large AI models. We are also searching for a Lead Research Software Engineer! ai.princeton.edu/ai-lab/emplo...
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) does not keep the trains and trams running. It will not retitle my vehicle. It does not plow the streets of Pennsylvania. If PennDOT maintains neither the public transit nor the vehicular transit infrastructure, does it actually exist?
December 15, 2025 at 9:36 PM
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) does not keep the trains and trams running. It will not retitle my vehicle. It does not plow the streets of Pennsylvania. If PennDOT maintains neither the public transit nor the vehicular transit infrastructure, does it actually exist?
Reposted by Mel Andrews
Important post: my colleague documents an “official, nationwide policy of intimidating and threatening people who attempt to observe and record DHS operations,” or who peacefully and without interference follow and protest them, even though the First Amendment broadly protects doing those things. /1
On Dec. 4, DOJ labeled people who impede or "dox" ICE agents "domestic terrorists." I document how DHS believes following, recording, and protesting agents is "impeding," and has a policy of threatening & arresting ICE observers. That's unconstitutional. www.cato.org/blog/dhs-pol...
December 15, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Important post: my colleague documents an “official, nationwide policy of intimidating and threatening people who attempt to observe and record DHS operations,” or who peacefully and without interference follow and protest them, even though the First Amendment broadly protects doing those things. /1
another and slightly less stupid reality is possible
December 14, 2025 at 11:35 PM
another and slightly less stupid reality is possible
If you have to read anything about the prospect of “automating scientific discovery,” “agents for science,” or integrating LLMs into scientific pipelines, please let it be this essay by Kevin T. Baker: artificialbureaucracy.substack.com/p/context-wi...
December 14, 2025 at 11:16 PM
If you have to read anything about the prospect of “automating scientific discovery,” “agents for science,” or integrating LLMs into scientific pipelines, please let it be this essay by Kevin T. Baker: artificialbureaucracy.substack.com/p/context-wi...
A nightmarish development. And flagrantly unconstitutional.
Trump has signed an Executive Order attempting to ban states and localities from regulating AI.
It comes after Big Tech announced a $100 million lobbying blitz.
Always follow the money. https://youtu.be/imtkNL4v2ks?si=LHG-GWoIO87c1Tyi
It comes after Big Tech announced a $100 million lobbying blitz.
Always follow the money. https://youtu.be/imtkNL4v2ks?si=LHG-GWoIO87c1Tyi
Big Tech's AI Power-Grab
Robert Reich
youtu.be
December 14, 2025 at 2:13 AM
A nightmarish development. And flagrantly unconstitutional.
This whole being an AI expert thing is exhausting, and for what payoff? Until now, none. I’m glad that I can finally say it’s all been worth it: finally, I can rub the AI into my eyeballs.
December 14, 2025 at 12:32 AM
This whole being an AI expert thing is exhausting, and for what payoff? Until now, none. I’m glad that I can finally say it’s all been worth it: finally, I can rub the AI into my eyeballs.
I created these Charles Darwin Greeting Cards for All Occasions (or for 4 very specific occasions) 9 years ago today
December 13, 2025 at 8:09 PM
I created these Charles Darwin Greeting Cards for All Occasions (or for 4 very specific occasions) 9 years ago today
Reposted by Mel Andrews
@bayesianboy.bsky.social An adult spherical cow!
December 12, 2025 at 5:16 PM
@bayesianboy.bsky.social An adult spherical cow!
This just an admission that you are biased against associating with extremely annoying and delusional women
This is a really good point. While there are men and women on the 'sceptic' side of all these debates, I don't know of any women on the AI 'booster' side. It's really a guy thing
When this "AI" bubble pops, the men pretending they weren't pushing the hype, like "critics" whose position is "AGI is real but LLMs aren't the way," who were in eugenicist and "AI existential risk"🙄 circles, will get specials discussing what they saw coming, when its the women who told you so.
December 12, 2025 at 3:56 AM
This just an admission that you are biased against associating with extremely annoying and delusional women
To anyone who may have been present at my talk today in which I intimated that you can just, you know, do this: you can just, you know, do this.
December 11, 2025 at 11:58 PM
To anyone who may have been present at my talk today in which I intimated that you can just, you know, do this: you can just, you know, do this.
I see your “Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness” and raise you my “Journal of Earth and Flatness”
December 10, 2025 at 8:56 PM
I see your “Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness” and raise you my “Journal of Earth and Flatness”
It would be impossible for me to stress the following enough: a statistical distillation of internet text is not an appropriate tool for military decision-making.
Sec. Hegseth rolled out the U.S. military’s new AI platform, GenAi.Mil, with a link to an empty website. trib.al/tbCJAkT
Predictably, the platform can’t actually be accessed from external networks, but the wonky rollout triggered eyerolls across the internet.
Predictably, the platform can’t actually be accessed from external networks, but the wonky rollout triggered eyerolls across the internet.
December 9, 2025 at 11:13 PM
It would be impossible for me to stress the following enough: a statistical distillation of internet text is not an appropriate tool for military decision-making.
Reposted by Mel Andrews
Sec. Hegseth rolled out the U.S. military’s new AI platform, GenAi.Mil, with a link to an empty website. trib.al/tbCJAkT
Predictably, the platform can’t actually be accessed from external networks, but the wonky rollout triggered eyerolls across the internet.
Predictably, the platform can’t actually be accessed from external networks, but the wonky rollout triggered eyerolls across the internet.
December 9, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Sec. Hegseth rolled out the U.S. military’s new AI platform, GenAi.Mil, with a link to an empty website. trib.al/tbCJAkT
Predictably, the platform can’t actually be accessed from external networks, but the wonky rollout triggered eyerolls across the internet.
Predictably, the platform can’t actually be accessed from external networks, but the wonky rollout triggered eyerolls across the internet.
Reposted by Mel Andrews
manuscript central wrapped (you can only see it after resetting your password)
December 7, 2025 at 7:45 AM
manuscript central wrapped (you can only see it after resetting your password)
A few years ago research in philosophy of machine learning was almost exclusively rubbish. That’s still the majority of what I am asked to review or see in print but I cannot express enough how refreshing it is that a modest percent of PhilML is now interesting and diligent work.
December 7, 2025 at 11:10 PM
A few years ago research in philosophy of machine learning was almost exclusively rubbish. That’s still the majority of what I am asked to review or see in print but I cannot express enough how refreshing it is that a modest percent of PhilML is now interesting and diligent work.
What strikes me over and over again about the reality we are currently creating with so-called “generative AI” is that it’s always pitched as saving human time and effort. But this is only true if you are a parasitic grifter. For anyone with principles, anyone who cares about reality
I mean we are absolutely in a place now where the only solution to this information disorder is for everyone to constantly evaluate the source of information. Never trust a chatbot, but also don't believe a video unless you know and trust where it comes from.
Unfortunately... that's a lot of work.
Unfortunately... that's a lot of work.
December 6, 2025 at 1:22 AM
What strikes me over and over again about the reality we are currently creating with so-called “generative AI” is that it’s always pitched as saving human time and effort. But this is only true if you are a parasitic grifter. For anyone with principles, anyone who cares about reality
Reposted by Mel Andrews
Shameless self promotion, but hopefully forgivable, given the moment we’re in right now. Military ethics is under grave threat. SecDef Hegseth is perverting the “warrior ethos” and putting the mental, moral, and spiritual health of all U.S. service members in jeopardy.
December 5, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Shameless self promotion, but hopefully forgivable, given the moment we’re in right now. Military ethics is under grave threat. SecDef Hegseth is perverting the “warrior ethos” and putting the mental, moral, and spiritual health of all U.S. service members in jeopardy.