Peyman Milanfar
@docmilanfar.bsky.social
Distinguished Scientist at Google. Computational Imaging, Machine Learning, and Vision. Posts are personal opinions. May change or disappear over time.
http://milanfar.org
http://milanfar.org
I was invited to give this plenary talk at the Electronic Imaging Symposium this past February. The recording is now available on YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59U...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59U...
April 14, 2025 at 12:57 AM
I was invited to give this plenary talk at the Electronic Imaging Symposium this past February. The recording is now available on YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59U...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59U...
Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons have been hacked to hilarious effect
April 13, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons have been hacked to hilarious effect
ruined by tariffs
April 12, 2025 at 9:15 PM
ruined by tariffs
Most people don't understand that volatility alone can kill your investments
start with capital P
lose 5% one week: (1-0.05)*P
gain 5% the next week: (1+0.05)*(1-0.05)*P.
repeat the pattern for 1yr (52 weeks):
(1+0.05)^26 *(1-0.05)^26 *P = 0.88P
You lost 12% of your money.
start with capital P
lose 5% one week: (1-0.05)*P
gain 5% the next week: (1+0.05)*(1-0.05)*P.
repeat the pattern for 1yr (52 weeks):
(1+0.05)^26 *(1-0.05)^26 *P = 0.88P
You lost 12% of your money.
April 12, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Most people don't understand that volatility alone can kill your investments
start with capital P
lose 5% one week: (1-0.05)*P
gain 5% the next week: (1+0.05)*(1-0.05)*P.
repeat the pattern for 1yr (52 weeks):
(1+0.05)^26 *(1-0.05)^26 *P = 0.88P
You lost 12% of your money.
start with capital P
lose 5% one week: (1-0.05)*P
gain 5% the next week: (1+0.05)*(1-0.05)*P.
repeat the pattern for 1yr (52 weeks):
(1+0.05)^26 *(1-0.05)^26 *P = 0.88P
You lost 12% of your money.
bias-variance tradeoff
April 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM
bias-variance tradeoff
It's a cruel irony that those who orchestrated this stock market crash are already insulated from its effects. They will be fine.
The real tragedy is that it's the ordinary person – the retiree, the small investor, the hardworking individual – who will suffer the most.
The real tragedy is that it's the ordinary person – the retiree, the small investor, the hardworking individual – who will suffer the most.
April 7, 2025 at 12:20 AM
It's a cruel irony that those who orchestrated this stock market crash are already insulated from its effects. They will be fine.
The real tragedy is that it's the ordinary person – the retiree, the small investor, the hardworking individual – who will suffer the most.
The real tragedy is that it's the ordinary person – the retiree, the small investor, the hardworking individual – who will suffer the most.
"That Mr. Musk has come to hold so many of the same beliefs about social engineering and economic planning as his grandfather is a testament to his profound lack of political imagination, to the tenacity of technocracy and to the hubris of Silicon Valley."
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/o...
Opinion | The Rise and Fall of Elon Musk (Gift Article)
His belief that liberal democracy has failed and that technologists should lead can be traced to the unusual life of his grandfather.
www.nytimes.com
April 4, 2025 at 11:35 PM
"That Mr. Musk has come to hold so many of the same beliefs about social engineering and economic planning as his grandfather is a testament to his profound lack of political imagination, to the tenacity of technocracy and to the hubris of Silicon Valley."
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/o...
Every profession has its personality types. In my experience the most difficult people to work with are cynics - no matter how talented they may be.
Healthy skepticism is positive and curious. Cynicism is not - it's judgmental. The difference is under-appreciated.
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Healthy skepticism is positive and curious. Cynicism is not - it's judgmental. The difference is under-appreciated.
1/2
April 4, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Every profession has its personality types. In my experience the most difficult people to work with are cynics - no matter how talented they may be.
Healthy skepticism is positive and curious. Cynicism is not - it's judgmental. The difference is under-appreciated.
1/2
Healthy skepticism is positive and curious. Cynicism is not - it's judgmental. The difference is under-appreciated.
1/2
Autoregressive models have become more popular recently. Speaking to people, I get the sense most folks are unaware of the history of the topic in signal processing. In particular, AR across scale got a lot of attention in the 90s. There are a lot of great papers on the subject but one stand out…..
April 3, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Autoregressive models have become more popular recently. Speaking to people, I get the sense most folks are unaware of the history of the topic in signal processing. In particular, AR across scale got a lot of attention in the 90s. There are a lot of great papers on the subject but one stand out…..
A cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption - the foundation of all of cryptography research and practice.
Not widely appreciated is that the word cipher has its direct origin in the arabic word صفر (sifr) meaning zero.
Andصفر itself roots to sanskrit शून्य (śūnya)
Not widely appreciated is that the word cipher has its direct origin in the arabic word صفر (sifr) meaning zero.
Andصفر itself roots to sanskrit शून्य (śūnya)
March 30, 2025 at 11:45 PM
A cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption - the foundation of all of cryptography research and practice.
Not widely appreciated is that the word cipher has its direct origin in the arabic word صفر (sifr) meaning zero.
Andصفر itself roots to sanskrit शून्य (śūnya)
Not widely appreciated is that the word cipher has its direct origin in the arabic word صفر (sifr) meaning zero.
Andصفر itself roots to sanskrit शून्य (śūnya)
give this kid a PhD
March 28, 2025 at 3:30 AM
give this kid a PhD
A man walks into a library and asks whether they have a book on Pavlov’s dog and Schrodinger’s cat. The librarian thinks for a moment and says “it rings a bell, but I’m not sure if it’s in or not”
March 27, 2025 at 6:15 AM
A man walks into a library and asks whether they have a book on Pavlov’s dog and Schrodinger’s cat. The librarian thinks for a moment and says “it rings a bell, but I’m not sure if it’s in or not”
I posted this thread four months ago. To my knowledge not a single one of these 10 basic features has been implemented on this website. It can’t be that hard.
Here’s why this website is not ready - I’ll start a list:
1. Notifications take for ever to load
2. The mobile - in particular tablet - apps are clunky
3. Since number of views of a post are not shown, it’s impossible to gauge level of engagement with a post
4. Can’t save drafts, let alone threads
1. Notifications take for ever to load
2. The mobile - in particular tablet - apps are clunky
3. Since number of views of a post are not shown, it’s impossible to gauge level of engagement with a post
4. Can’t save drafts, let alone threads
March 26, 2025 at 3:04 AM
I posted this thread four months ago. To my knowledge not a single one of these 10 basic features has been implemented on this website. It can’t be that hard.
Model Distillation
March 24, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Model Distillation
In some ways it's harder than ever to land a research job these days - both in academia and in industry.
As you prepare for a job talk, consider giving it the following structure - it's hard to give a bad talk that's built like this.:
0/n
As you prepare for a job talk, consider giving it the following structure - it's hard to give a bad talk that's built like this.:
0/n
March 21, 2025 at 2:11 AM
In some ways it's harder than ever to land a research job these days - both in academia and in industry.
As you prepare for a job talk, consider giving it the following structure - it's hard to give a bad talk that's built like this.:
0/n
As you prepare for a job talk, consider giving it the following structure - it's hard to give a bad talk that's built like this.:
0/n
Reposted by Peyman Milanfar
The Power of Context: How Multimodality Improves Image Super-Resolution
Kangfu Mei, Hossein Talebi, Mojtaba Ardakani, Vishal M. Patel @docmilanfar.bsky.social Mauricio Delbracio
tl;dr: condition SR model on RGB+depth+segmentation (which you can predict from RGB)-> PROFIT
arxiv.org/abs/2503.14503
Kangfu Mei, Hossein Talebi, Mojtaba Ardakani, Vishal M. Patel @docmilanfar.bsky.social Mauricio Delbracio
tl;dr: condition SR model on RGB+depth+segmentation (which you can predict from RGB)-> PROFIT
arxiv.org/abs/2503.14503
March 19, 2025 at 9:58 AM
The Power of Context: How Multimodality Improves Image Super-Resolution
Kangfu Mei, Hossein Talebi, Mojtaba Ardakani, Vishal M. Patel @docmilanfar.bsky.social Mauricio Delbracio
tl;dr: condition SR model on RGB+depth+segmentation (which you can predict from RGB)-> PROFIT
arxiv.org/abs/2503.14503
Kangfu Mei, Hossein Talebi, Mojtaba Ardakani, Vishal M. Patel @docmilanfar.bsky.social Mauricio Delbracio
tl;dr: condition SR model on RGB+depth+segmentation (which you can predict from RGB)-> PROFIT
arxiv.org/abs/2503.14503
Reposted by Peyman Milanfar
Tweedie's formula is super important in diffusion models & is also one of the cornerstones of empirical Bayes methods.
Given how easy it is to derive, it's surprising how recently it was discovered ('50s). It was published a while later when Tweedie wrote Stein about it
1/n
Given how easy it is to derive, it's surprising how recently it was discovered ('50s). It was published a while later when Tweedie wrote Stein about it
1/n
March 18, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Tweedie's formula is super important in diffusion models & is also one of the cornerstones of empirical Bayes methods.
Given how easy it is to derive, it's surprising how recently it was discovered ('50s). It was published a while later when Tweedie wrote Stein about it
1/n
Given how easy it is to derive, it's surprising how recently it was discovered ('50s). It was published a while later when Tweedie wrote Stein about it
1/n
Tweedie's formula is super important in diffusion models & is also one of the cornerstones of empirical Bayes methods.
Given how easy it is to derive, it's surprising how recently it was discovered ('50s). It was published a while later when Tweedie wrote Stein about it
1/n
Given how easy it is to derive, it's surprising how recently it was discovered ('50s). It was published a while later when Tweedie wrote Stein about it
1/n
March 18, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Tweedie's formula is super important in diffusion models & is also one of the cornerstones of empirical Bayes methods.
Given how easy it is to derive, it's surprising how recently it was discovered ('50s). It was published a while later when Tweedie wrote Stein about it
1/n
Given how easy it is to derive, it's surprising how recently it was discovered ('50s). It was published a while later when Tweedie wrote Stein about it
1/n
Don’t be fooled - SakanaAILabs has very likely already submitted dozens of manuscripts to various conferences to test out its model before productionizing in this sham “experiment”. It’s not an experiment, it’s arbitrage - a core expertise of David Ha from his finance days
1/n
1/n
March 16, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Don’t be fooled - SakanaAILabs has very likely already submitted dozens of manuscripts to various conferences to test out its model before productionizing in this sham “experiment”. It’s not an experiment, it’s arbitrage - a core expertise of David Ha from his finance days
1/n
1/n
1st one that we know of
March 15, 2025 at 9:21 PM
1st one that we know of
really, how can you
March 15, 2025 at 3:03 AM
really, how can you
The tech industry in Silicon Valley runs on the considerable talents and work ethic of folks who were not born here. Many of these folks were also trained in this country in our Universities. This is our strength.
If we mess with this virtuous cycle, it is at our own peril.
If we mess with this virtuous cycle, it is at our own peril.
March 12, 2025 at 4:00 AM
The tech industry in Silicon Valley runs on the considerable talents and work ethic of folks who were not born here. Many of these folks were also trained in this country in our Universities. This is our strength.
If we mess with this virtuous cycle, it is at our own peril.
If we mess with this virtuous cycle, it is at our own peril.
In the 50s a sophisticated theory of how to look for things was developed. Rooted in operations research, it was largely motivated by the loss of an H-bomb and a nuclear submarine in the middle of the ocean
Closely related to concepts in reinforcement learning
1/2
Closely related to concepts in reinforcement learning
1/2
March 11, 2025 at 5:38 AM
In the 50s a sophisticated theory of how to look for things was developed. Rooted in operations research, it was largely motivated by the loss of an H-bomb and a nuclear submarine in the middle of the ocean
Closely related to concepts in reinforcement learning
1/2
Closely related to concepts in reinforcement learning
1/2
With today's Turing, it's worth highlighting Barto & Sutton's view of "related work":
"In this book, we consider all of the work in optimal control also to be, in a sense, work in reinforcement learning"
It's an example of reframing & renaming in CS that's somehow both myopic & maximalist.
1/2
"In this book, we consider all of the work in optimal control also to be, in a sense, work in reinforcement learning"
It's an example of reframing & renaming in CS that's somehow both myopic & maximalist.
1/2
March 5, 2025 at 11:45 PM
With today's Turing, it's worth highlighting Barto & Sutton's view of "related work":
"In this book, we consider all of the work in optimal control also to be, in a sense, work in reinforcement learning"
It's an example of reframing & renaming in CS that's somehow both myopic & maximalist.
1/2
"In this book, we consider all of the work in optimal control also to be, in a sense, work in reinforcement learning"
It's an example of reframing & renaming in CS that's somehow both myopic & maximalist.
1/2
Breaking: Faced with a strong economy, peaceful neighbors, and loyal allies, the United States has tapped into its strategic wacky reserve to boost world mayhem.
March 5, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Breaking: Faced with a strong economy, peaceful neighbors, and loyal allies, the United States has tapped into its strategic wacky reserve to boost world mayhem.