Chris Paxton
@cpaxton.bsky.social
Writing about robots https://itcanthink.substack.com/
RoboPapers podcast https://robopapers.substack.com/
All opinions my own
RoboPapers podcast https://robopapers.substack.com/
All opinions my own
Pinned
How do we quantify progress in robotics?
Benchmarks have made a huge difference in other areas of AI, but we don't have an equivalent to imagenet or SWE-Bench for robotics. Why not and what are people doing about it?
open.substack.com/pub/itcanthi...
Benchmarks have made a huge difference in other areas of AI, but we don't have an equivalent to imagenet or SWE-Bench for robotics. Why not and what are people doing about it?
open.substack.com/pub/itcanthi...
Top 3 affiliations at Neurips 2025 were Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Google. The best machine learning conference in the world probably.
February 3, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Top 3 affiliations at Neurips 2025 were Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Google. The best machine learning conference in the world probably.
Reposted by Chris Paxton
Yeah, like please invest that effort into turning your app state into local Markdown and JSON (or SQLite) files so I can use my good AI tools to work with it
i wish all these random programs would stop adding AI assistants. not because AI is bad, but because these programs are bad and i don't want them implementing ai. like adobe acrobat. come on.
February 3, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Yeah, like please invest that effort into turning your app state into local Markdown and JSON (or SQLite) files so I can use my good AI tools to work with it
Robot snow blower, what we all wish we had this winter
February 3, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Robot snow blower, what we all wish we had this winter
Reposted by Chris Paxton
February 3, 2026 at 1:21 PM
Saw my first Waymo in Pittsburgh today.
Well my 2 year old saw it first. Really she saw a car with lidars on it and said it was "like herman" (our Innate Mars, a tiny home robot with a lidar)
I guess i'm just surprised she already sort of knows what a lidar is
Well my 2 year old saw it first. Really she saw a car with lidars on it and said it was "like herman" (our Innate Mars, a tiny home robot with a lidar)
I guess i'm just surprised she already sort of knows what a lidar is
February 3, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Saw my first Waymo in Pittsburgh today.
Well my 2 year old saw it first. Really she saw a car with lidars on it and said it was "like herman" (our Innate Mars, a tiny home robot with a lidar)
I guess i'm just surprised she already sort of knows what a lidar is
Well my 2 year old saw it first. Really she saw a car with lidars on it and said it was "like herman" (our Innate Mars, a tiny home robot with a lidar)
I guess i'm just surprised she already sort of knows what a lidar is
Reposted by Chris Paxton
acrobat shouldnt have ai because ai is too good for acrobat
i wish all these random programs would stop adding AI assistants. not because AI is bad, but because these programs are bad and i don't want them implementing ai. like adobe acrobat. come on.
February 3, 2026 at 4:23 AM
acrobat shouldnt have ai because ai is too good for acrobat
i wish all these random programs would stop adding AI assistants. not because AI is bad, but because these programs are bad and i don't want them implementing ai. like adobe acrobat. come on.
February 3, 2026 at 3:13 AM
i wish all these random programs would stop adding AI assistants. not because AI is bad, but because these programs are bad and i don't want them implementing ai. like adobe acrobat. come on.
An EV battery that lasts 745 on a single charge would be amazing. Article is full of good news for the planet. www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/02/1...
February 2, 2026 at 9:43 PM
An EV battery that lasts 745 on a single charge would be amazing. Article is full of good news for the planet. www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/02/1...
sure seems like all forms of evil are correlated doesnt
February 2, 2026 at 6:50 PM
sure seems like all forms of evil are correlated doesnt
Reposted by Chris Paxton
dark times ahead. but we are going to win
Meeting in solidarity with Haitians in Springfield, Ohio now - over 600 people and still growing.
February 2, 2026 at 2:20 PM
dark times ahead. but we are going to win
The world plus a two year old is so much more colorful, filled with her little stories. Lion toy is sleepy. Tiger needs to go to the bathroom. That doll isnt on the bedroom floor, she's *in Florida*. She's not getting much reading done but she's drawing on the newspaper so that's pretty fun.
February 2, 2026 at 1:19 PM
The world plus a two year old is so much more colorful, filled with her little stories. Lion toy is sleepy. Tiger needs to go to the bathroom. That doll isnt on the bedroom floor, she's *in Florida*. She's not getting much reading done but she's drawing on the newspaper so that's pretty fun.
So DroidUp humanoid robot huh
Yikes
Yikes
February 2, 2026 at 4:16 AM
So DroidUp humanoid robot huh
Yikes
Yikes
You know it actually is kind of heartwarming that this guy actually stood for something. Even if its something I disagreed with.
February 2, 2026 at 4:09 AM
You know it actually is kind of heartwarming that this guy actually stood for something. Even if its something I disagreed with.
Reposted by Chris Paxton
TENURED YALE PROFESSOR IN AN OP-ED: In our society we have too often accepted the heckler’s veto, allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good and making the refusal to forgive our highest virtue
TENURED YALE PROFESSOR IN AN EMAIL: hii jfefrey Can I come to rape party w/a plusone this weekend
TENURED YALE PROFESSOR IN AN EMAIL: hii jfefrey Can I come to rape party w/a plusone this weekend
February 2, 2026 at 2:42 AM
TENURED YALE PROFESSOR IN AN OP-ED: In our society we have too often accepted the heckler’s veto, allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good and making the refusal to forgive our highest virtue
TENURED YALE PROFESSOR IN AN EMAIL: hii jfefrey Can I come to rape party w/a plusone this weekend
TENURED YALE PROFESSOR IN AN EMAIL: hii jfefrey Can I come to rape party w/a plusone this weekend
Reposted by Chris Paxton
A surprising amount of AI fear mongering can be boiled down to this simple trope.
See also:
PROGRAMMER: “I gave an LLM access to launch the nukes with no oversight”
LLM: “I launched the nukes”
PROGRAMMER: “Oh no how could you have done this?!? AI is so unsafe”
See also:
PROGRAMMER: “I gave an LLM access to launch the nukes with no oversight”
LLM: “I launched the nukes”
PROGRAMMER: “Oh no how could you have done this?!? AI is so unsafe”
February 2, 2026 at 2:42 AM
A surprising amount of AI fear mongering can be boiled down to this simple trope.
See also:
PROGRAMMER: “I gave an LLM access to launch the nukes with no oversight”
LLM: “I launched the nukes”
PROGRAMMER: “Oh no how could you have done this?!? AI is so unsafe”
See also:
PROGRAMMER: “I gave an LLM access to launch the nukes with no oversight”
LLM: “I launched the nukes”
PROGRAMMER: “Oh no how could you have done this?!? AI is so unsafe”
Im fairly forgiving of billionaires and having friends with unsavory politics. But like, epstein was convicted for procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008! That's 20 fucking years ago! Its well before all these emails!
I dont care if it helped you get grant money or raise or whatever!
I dont care if it helped you get grant money or raise or whatever!
the Epstein files make it very clear why the MeToo backlash was so extreme and why so much of elite society preferred Donald Trump ruling us like a king to the barest hint of accountability
February 2, 2026 at 1:45 AM
Im fairly forgiving of billionaires and having friends with unsavory politics. But like, epstein was convicted for procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008! That's 20 fucking years ago! Its well before all these emails!
I dont care if it helped you get grant money or raise or whatever!
I dont care if it helped you get grant money or raise or whatever!
Reposted by Chris Paxton
Being able to ignore distractions is the existential challenge of our time. Like fighting off wolves for cavemen.
February 1, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Being able to ignore distractions is the existential challenge of our time. Like fighting off wolves for cavemen.
Moltbook is just a better subreddit simulator and all it proves is that social media is mostly pointless
February 2, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Moltbook is just a better subreddit simulator and all it proves is that social media is mostly pointless
I genuinely dont understand what's wrong with a phone
This tiny pocket-friendly e-reader is packed with frustration and potential
This tiny pocket-friendly e-reader is packed with frustration and potential
The Xteink X4 is small enough to slip into a shirt pocket.
buff.ly
February 1, 2026 at 4:11 PM
I genuinely dont understand what's wrong with a phone
Reposted by Chris Paxton
Federal paramilitaries running up on the rooftops to fire irritants and flash bangs down into a peaceable assembly full of little kids
I was there. They were indiscriminately firing multiple canisters into a huge peaceful crowd. Fucking cowards
February 1, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Federal paramilitaries running up on the rooftops to fire irritants and flash bangs down into a peaceable assembly full of little kids
Reposted by Chris Paxton
A little girl in Portland, OR after being tear gassed by ICE. what the actual fuck.
February 1, 2026 at 2:14 AM
A little girl in Portland, OR after being tear gassed by ICE. what the actual fuck.
Reposted by Chris Paxton
(extraordinarily laudatory)
January 31, 2026 at 2:17 PM
(extraordinarily laudatory)
Reposted by Chris Paxton
this is what’s happening everywhere they go in force
ordinary people will not be cowed the same way elite society has been
we are going to win
ordinary people will not be cowed the same way elite society has been
we are going to win
January 31, 2026 at 2:15 AM
this is what’s happening everywhere they go in force
ordinary people will not be cowed the same way elite society has been
we are going to win
ordinary people will not be cowed the same way elite society has been
we are going to win
Reposted by Chris Paxton
moltbook asks the important question: what if we created the alignment researchers' worst nightmare?
January 30, 2026 at 5:21 PM
moltbook asks the important question: what if we created the alignment researchers' worst nightmare?