@davpoole.bsky.social
AI Educator, researcher, author. Professor Emeritus in CS at University of British Columbia. One of the founders of Statistical Relational AI. https://www.cs.ubc.ca/~poole/
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David Poole - Research
www.cs.ubc.ca
I have created a list of open research problem from my work and from writing our textbook. Something to work on for the new year! Comments please! #relationallearning #causality #AI #aifca #starAI www.cs.ubc.ca/~poole/resea...
"Generating text from LLMs can be seen as plagiarism, one word at a time." is a way to explain stochastic parrots of @emilymbender.bsky.social @timnitgebru.bsky.social Angelina McMillan-Major and @mmitchell.bsky.social
Why AI can’t take over creative writing theconversation.com/why-ai-cant-...
Why AI can’t take over creative writing theconversation.com/why-ai-cant-...
Why AI can’t take over creative writing
As a computer scientist, I would hope that human creativity is more than regurgitating what others have written.
theconversation.com
April 10, 2025 at 3:55 PM
"Generating text from LLMs can be seen as plagiarism, one word at a time." is a way to explain stochastic parrots of @emilymbender.bsky.social @timnitgebru.bsky.social Angelina McMillan-Major and @mmitchell.bsky.social
Why AI can’t take over creative writing theconversation.com/why-ai-cant-...
Why AI can’t take over creative writing theconversation.com/why-ai-cant-...
I wrote this piece on AI and creative writing after reading articles by creative writers lamenting the impact of AI theconversation.com/why-ai-cant-...
Why AI can’t take over creative writing
As a computer scientist, I would hope that human creativity is more than regurgitating what others have written.
theconversation.com
April 2, 2025 at 3:56 PM
I wrote this piece on AI and creative writing after reading articles by creative writers lamenting the impact of AI theconversation.com/why-ai-cant-...
Reposted
The 2024 Turing Prize winners announced this morning: Barto & Sutton for "developing the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of reinforcement learning". Well deserved. Built on 1959 Donald Michie's idea; matchboxes and colored beads learning tic-tac-toe. awards.acm.org/about/2024-t...
Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton are the recipients of the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award for developing the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of reinforcement learning.
Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton as the recipients of the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award for developing the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of reinforcement learning. In a series of papers beginning...
awards.acm.org
March 5, 2025 at 3:18 PM
The 2024 Turing Prize winners announced this morning: Barto & Sutton for "developing the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of reinforcement learning". Well deserved. Built on 1959 Donald Michie's idea; matchboxes and colored beads learning tic-tac-toe. awards.acm.org/about/2024-t...
Reposted
AI is like plastic — a lot of people hate it because it often comes across as fake and tacky, but it’s flexible and it’s cheap and there’s so many things that would be impossible or impractical without it.
And yes, a lot of AI will be junk. Just like everything else. (cf Sturgeon’s Law.)
And yes, a lot of AI will be junk. Just like everything else. (cf Sturgeon’s Law.)
January 17, 2025 at 5:23 AM
AI is like plastic — a lot of people hate it because it often comes across as fake and tacky, but it’s flexible and it’s cheap and there’s so many things that would be impossible or impractical without it.
And yes, a lot of AI will be junk. Just like everything else. (cf Sturgeon’s Law.)
And yes, a lot of AI will be junk. Just like everything else. (cf Sturgeon’s Law.)
Reposted
The "Real World" is unfair. It is biased. And when it comes to estimating treatment effects, the "Big Data" can't fix a bias that's baked into how the data are collected (I would say "design", but there is usually no design involved). So pardon me if I prefer boring old "Useful Evidence".
January 14, 2025 at 5:48 AM
The "Real World" is unfair. It is biased. And when it comes to estimating treatment effects, the "Big Data" can't fix a bias that's baked into how the data are collected (I would say "design", but there is usually no design involved). So pardon me if I prefer boring old "Useful Evidence".
Reposted
I’m sorry, this might be a great investigation, but “as it was never intended” is obscene. This is precisely how many people specifically and repeatedly told us — warned us — it would be used.
January 13, 2025 at 10:22 PM
I’m sorry, this might be a great investigation, but “as it was never intended” is obscene. This is precisely how many people specifically and repeatedly told us — warned us — it would be used.
Reposted
Explanation of how the myth of the market being "the natural expression of human freedom" is well a myth.
As Right-Wing Libertarians enjoy spreading this myth, we thought it's important to share this explanation.
As Right-Wing Libertarians enjoy spreading this myth, we thought it's important to share this explanation.
January 14, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Explanation of how the myth of the market being "the natural expression of human freedom" is well a myth.
As Right-Wing Libertarians enjoy spreading this myth, we thought it's important to share this explanation.
As Right-Wing Libertarians enjoy spreading this myth, we thought it's important to share this explanation.
Reposted
I genuinely cannot believe Google is now showing Gemini-generated medical snippets including *drug summaries and medical advice* to treatserious health conditions.
I checked. It does. With barely a tiny disclaimer about GenAI. How can a (formerly?) trusted company be so incredibly reckless?
I checked. It does. With barely a tiny disclaimer about GenAI. How can a (formerly?) trusted company be so incredibly reckless?
January 11, 2025 at 12:57 PM
I genuinely cannot believe Google is now showing Gemini-generated medical snippets including *drug summaries and medical advice* to treatserious health conditions.
I checked. It does. With barely a tiny disclaimer about GenAI. How can a (formerly?) trusted company be so incredibly reckless?
I checked. It does. With barely a tiny disclaimer about GenAI. How can a (formerly?) trusted company be so incredibly reckless?
Reposted
This passage from the book, Bullshit Jobs, is worth a read.
January 11, 2025 at 12:08 AM
This passage from the book, Bullshit Jobs, is worth a read.
Reposted
Autonomous vehicles accelerate the trend begun by cars of isolating travellers from their neighbourhoods, reducing neighbors to mere obstacles our sensors try to avoid, and hence dissolving the social bonds that hold together communities
January 3, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Autonomous vehicles accelerate the trend begun by cars of isolating travellers from their neighbourhoods, reducing neighbors to mere obstacles our sensors try to avoid, and hence dissolving the social bonds that hold together communities
Reposted
🎊 Happy new year folks! 🎊
👀 ready to start working on that paper deadline? 👀
👀 ready to start working on that paper deadline? 👀
The 41st Conference on #Uncertainty in #AI will be held in Rio de Janeiro 🇧🇷, July 21-25!
The CfP is out 👉 www.auai.org/uai2025/call...
🚨 Feb 10: Paper submission
🗣️ Apr 3-10: rebuttal period
🎉/💀 May 6: Author notification
#UAI2025 #ML #stats #learning #reasoning #uncertainty
The CfP is out 👉 www.auai.org/uai2025/call...
🚨 Feb 10: Paper submission
🗣️ Apr 3-10: rebuttal period
🎉/💀 May 6: Author notification
#UAI2025 #ML #stats #learning #reasoning #uncertainty
January 3, 2025 at 9:27 AM
🎊 Happy new year folks! 🎊
👀 ready to start working on that paper deadline? 👀
👀 ready to start working on that paper deadline? 👀
I have created a list of open research problem from my work and from writing our textbook. Something to work on for the new year! Comments please! #relationallearning #causality #AI #aifca #starAI www.cs.ubc.ca/~poole/resea...
David Poole - Research
www.cs.ubc.ca
December 31, 2024 at 7:16 PM
I have created a list of open research problem from my work and from writing our textbook. Something to work on for the new year! Comments please! #relationallearning #causality #AI #aifca #starAI www.cs.ubc.ca/~poole/resea...
Reposted
Google AI reporting “no drug interactions” for two drugs that definitely have drug interactions. When can we collectively decide the AI experiment is over?
December 24, 2024 at 10:46 PM
Google AI reporting “no drug interactions” for two drugs that definitely have drug interactions. When can we collectively decide the AI experiment is over?
Reposted
The UK is consulting on plans to favour AI firms over creators when it comes to copyright. For @newscientist.bsky.social, I wrote about what that means www.newscientist.com/article/2461...
UK plans to favour AI firms over creators with a new copyright regime
One of the biggest uncertainties in the ongoing AI revolution is whether these systems can legally be trained on copyrighted data. Now, the UK says it plans to clarify the matter with a change to the ...
www.newscientist.com
December 17, 2024 at 11:55 AM
The UK is consulting on plans to favour AI firms over creators when it comes to copyright. For @newscientist.bsky.social, I wrote about what that means www.newscientist.com/article/2461...
Reposted
Pleased to share the latest version of my paper with Arthur Spirling and @lexipalmer.bsky.social on replication using LMs
We show:
1. current applications of LMs in political science research *don't* meet basic standards of reproducibility...
We show:
1. current applications of LMs in political science research *don't* meet basic standards of reproducibility...
December 17, 2024 at 7:50 PM
Pleased to share the latest version of my paper with Arthur Spirling and @lexipalmer.bsky.social on replication using LMs
We show:
1. current applications of LMs in political science research *don't* meet basic standards of reproducibility...
We show:
1. current applications of LMs in political science research *don't* meet basic standards of reproducibility...
Reposted
Dear computer vision researchers, students & practitioners🔇🔇🔇
Remi Denton & I have written what I consider to be a comprehensive paper on the harms of computer vision systems reported to date & how people have proposed addressing them, from different angles.
PDF: cdn.sanity.io/files/wc2kmx...
Remi Denton & I have written what I consider to be a comprehensive paper on the harms of computer vision systems reported to date & how people have proposed addressing them, from different angles.
PDF: cdn.sanity.io/files/wc2kmx...
December 16, 2024 at 4:52 PM
Dear computer vision researchers, students & practitioners🔇🔇🔇
Remi Denton & I have written what I consider to be a comprehensive paper on the harms of computer vision systems reported to date & how people have proposed addressing them, from different angles.
PDF: cdn.sanity.io/files/wc2kmx...
Remi Denton & I have written what I consider to be a comprehensive paper on the harms of computer vision systems reported to date & how people have proposed addressing them, from different angles.
PDF: cdn.sanity.io/files/wc2kmx...
Reposted
Josh Tenenbaum on scaling up vs growing up and the path to human-like reasoning #NeurIPS2024
December 15, 2024 at 6:14 PM
Josh Tenenbaum on scaling up vs growing up and the path to human-like reasoning #NeurIPS2024
Two things I learned from #neurips2024 1) transcriptions are still terrible. The simultaneous transcriptions of the talks didn't take into account the vocabulary of the papers being presented. It's probably the fault of one-size-fits-all language models. There were slides with the vocabulary... 2/
December 16, 2024 at 4:28 AM
Two things I learned from #neurips2024 1) transcriptions are still terrible. The simultaneous transcriptions of the talks didn't take into account the vocabulary of the papers being presented. It's probably the fault of one-size-fits-all language models. There were slides with the vocabulary... 2/
We are pleased to announce the latest version of AIPython.org: open-source, runnable pseudocode (in Python) for all your favorite AI algorithms, including search, CSPs, logic, planning, supervised machine learning, neural network, graphical models, unsupervised learning, causality, /2
AIPython
AIPython.org
December 10, 2024 at 3:23 AM
We are pleased to announce the latest version of AIPython.org: open-source, runnable pseudocode (in Python) for all your favorite AI algorithms, including search, CSPs, logic, planning, supervised machine learning, neural network, graphical models, unsupervised learning, causality, /2
Reposted
Human minds, intelligences and states of consciousness are beautifully diverse—I just don't buy that the right approach for AI is "all you need is more compute", pretending AI has an objective view from nowhere, and being owned by a small number of homogenously white-bread tech firms
December 7, 2024 at 8:40 PM
Human minds, intelligences and states of consciousness are beautifully diverse—I just don't buy that the right approach for AI is "all you need is more compute", pretending AI has an objective view from nowhere, and being owned by a small number of homogenously white-bread tech firms
Reposted
Truly the stupidest idea I have ever seen in journalism.
LA Times owner plans to add AI-powered ‘bias meter’ on news stories, sparking newsroom backlash. www.cnn.com/2024/12/05/m... "The reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story," says the owner.
If you think "critical of" equals "biased about" then you may enjoy this machine.
If you think "critical of" equals "biased about" then you may enjoy this machine.
LA Times owner plans to add AI-powered ‘bias meter’ on news stories, sparking newsroom backlash | CNN Business
Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who blocked the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and plans to overhaul its editorial board, says he will implement an artificial intelligence-power...
www.cnn.com
December 6, 2024 at 4:12 PM
Truly the stupidest idea I have ever seen in journalism.
Reposted
OpenAI and Anduril.
Unreliable generative AI for warfare.
What could possibly go wrong?
Unreliable generative AI for warfare.
What could possibly go wrong?
December 5, 2024 at 1:12 AM
OpenAI and Anduril.
Unreliable generative AI for warfare.
What could possibly go wrong?
Unreliable generative AI for warfare.
What could possibly go wrong?
Reposted
“Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents” (3rd Edition) by @davpoole.bsky.social and
@alanmackworth.bsky.social is available in hardcopy and with full, free, open access online: artint.info. Check out the endorsements: artint.info#endorsements
@alanmackworth.bsky.social is available in hardcopy and with full, free, open access online: artint.info. Check out the endorsements: artint.info#endorsements
November 18, 2024 at 10:20 PM
“Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents” (3rd Edition) by @davpoole.bsky.social and
@alanmackworth.bsky.social is available in hardcopy and with full, free, open access online: artint.info. Check out the endorsements: artint.info#endorsements
@alanmackworth.bsky.social is available in hardcopy and with full, free, open access online: artint.info. Check out the endorsements: artint.info#endorsements