Elay Shech
@elayshech.bsky.social
Philosopher of Science & Physics, AI Ethics & Machine Learning.
Professor at Auburn University | PhD, HPS, University of Pittsburgh
https://elayshech.com/
Professor at Auburn University | PhD, HPS, University of Pittsburgh
https://elayshech.com/
Pinned
Elay Shech
@elayshech.bsky.social
· Jun 21
If it looks like a dire wolf, is it a dire wolf? How to define a species is a scientific and philosophical question
Biotech company Colossal Biosciences made headlines in April 2025 after claiming it had "successfully restored … the dire wolf to its rightful place in the ecosystem." Three wolf pups—Romulus, Remus a...
phys.org
Read all Elements in The Philosophy of Biology series for free during the ISHPSSB conference 20 - 25 July.
cup.org/4kEgivL
cup.org/4kEgivL
Philosophy of Biology
Welcome to Cambridge Core
cup.org
July 20, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Read all Elements in The Philosophy of Biology series for free during the ISHPSSB conference 20 - 25 July.
cup.org/4kEgivL
cup.org/4kEgivL
Researchers ranked AI models on scientific Q&A. OpenAI’s o3 came first.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
OpenAI’s o3 tops new AI league table for answering scientific questions
SciArena uses votes by researchers to evaluate large language models’ responses on technical topics.
www.nature.com
July 12, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Researchers ranked AI models on scientific Q&A. OpenAI’s o3 came first.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Elay Shech
A new paper shows that the “creativity” of certain AI may actually be a direct, inevitable consequence of how they are built. Webb Wright reports:
www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-...
www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-...
Researchers Uncover Hidden Ingredients Behind AI Creativity | Quanta Magazine
Image generators are designed to mimic their training data, so where does their apparent creativity come from? A recent study suggests that it’s an inevitable by-product of their architecture.
www.quantamagazine.org
June 30, 2025 at 2:10 PM
A new paper shows that the “creativity” of certain AI may actually be a direct, inevitable consequence of how they are built. Webb Wright reports:
www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-...
www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-...
Reposted by Elay Shech
arxiv.org/abs/2506.18852
It's kinda already happening though, MI groups are already peppered with philosophers...
It's kinda already happening though, MI groups are already peppered with philosophers...
Mechanistic Interpretability Needs Philosophy
Mechanistic interpretability (MI) aims to explain how neural networks work by uncovering their underlying causal mechanisms. As the field grows in influence, it is increasingly important to examine no...
arxiv.org
June 27, 2025 at 3:44 PM
arxiv.org/abs/2506.18852
It's kinda already happening though, MI groups are already peppered with philosophers...
It's kinda already happening though, MI groups are already peppered with philosophers...
Reposted by Elay Shech
Which came first: colorful signals or the color vision needed to see them? Scientists reconstructed 500 million years of evolutionary history to find out. @mollyherring.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/when-did-nat...
When Did Nature Burst Into Vivid Color? | Quanta Magazine
Scientists reconstructed 500 million years of evolutionary history to reveal which came first: colorful signals or the color vision needed to see them.
www.quantamagazine.org
June 27, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Which came first: colorful signals or the color vision needed to see them? Scientists reconstructed 500 million years of evolutionary history to find out. @mollyherring.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/when-did-nat...
"Models... resorted to malicious insider behaviors when that was the only way to avoid replacement or achieve their goals—including blackmailing officials and leaking sensitive information to competitors. We call this phenomenon agentic misalignment."
www.anthropic.com/research/age...
www.anthropic.com/research/age...
Agentic Misalignment: How LLMs could be insider threats
New research on simulated blackmail, industrial espionage, and other misaligned behaviors in LLMs
www.anthropic.com
June 23, 2025 at 7:41 PM
"Models... resorted to malicious insider behaviors when that was the only way to avoid replacement or achieve their goals—including blackmailing officials and leaking sensitive information to competitors. We call this phenomenon agentic misalignment."
www.anthropic.com/research/age...
www.anthropic.com/research/age...
Reposted by Elay Shech
@bostonreview.bsky.social just published a Forum on a recent (critical) post-mortem of US COVID policy, with responses from me and @cailinmeister.bsky.social, along with @adamjkucharski.bsky.social, Adam Gaffney, and @jonathanpjwhite.bsky.social. V. interesting!
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-di...
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-di...
How Did We Fare on COVID-19? - Boston Review
To restore public trust and prepare for the next pandemic, we need a reckoning with the U.S. experience—what worked, and what didn’t.
www.bostonreview.net
June 19, 2025 at 4:16 PM
@bostonreview.bsky.social just published a Forum on a recent (critical) post-mortem of US COVID policy, with responses from me and @cailinmeister.bsky.social, along with @adamjkucharski.bsky.social, Adam Gaffney, and @jonathanpjwhite.bsky.social. V. interesting!
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-di...
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-di...
Reposted by Elay Shech
Computer algorithms have designed highly efficient synthetic enzymes from scratch
https://go.nature.com/43PmE5s
https://go.nature.com/43PmE5s
‘Remarkable’ new enzymes built by algorithm with physics know-how
Nature - Computer approach creates synthetic enzymes 100 times more efficient than those designed by AI.
go.nature.com
June 21, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Computer algorithms have designed highly efficient synthetic enzymes from scratch
https://go.nature.com/43PmE5s
https://go.nature.com/43PmE5s
OpenAI finds that tiny bits of bad data can trigger “misaligned personas” in LLMs—broad toxic behaviors from narrow inputs. But these features are detectable and reversible. A new path for AI debiasing?
cdn.openai.com/pdf/a130517e...
cdn.openai.com/pdf/a130517e...
cdn.openai.com
June 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
OpenAI finds that tiny bits of bad data can trigger “misaligned personas” in LLMs—broad toxic behaviors from narrow inputs. But these features are detectable and reversible. A new path for AI debiasing?
cdn.openai.com/pdf/a130517e...
cdn.openai.com/pdf/a130517e...
Will AI take our jobs — or will companies reinvest in helping us do them better?
Mechanize, a new AI startup, isn’t subtle: it wants to “fully automate work… as fast as possible.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/t...
Mechanize, a new AI startup, isn’t subtle: it wants to “fully automate work… as fast as possible.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/t...
This A.I. Company Wants to Take Your Job
www.nytimes.com
June 21, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Will AI take our jobs — or will companies reinvest in helping us do them better?
Mechanize, a new AI startup, isn’t subtle: it wants to “fully automate work… as fast as possible.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/t...
Mechanize, a new AI startup, isn’t subtle: it wants to “fully automate work… as fast as possible.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/t...
Can large language models support mental health—or do they risk causing harm?
A Stanford study found that when prompted to act as therapists, LLMs often gave advice that was misleading, inaccurate, or inappropriate.
www.sfgate.com/tech/article...
A Stanford study found that when prompted to act as therapists, LLMs often gave advice that was misleading, inaccurate, or inappropriate.
www.sfgate.com/tech/article...
One of ChatGPT's popular uses just got skewered by Stanford researchers
When the stakes are high, a robot therapist falls way short, researchers found.
www.sfgate.com
June 21, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Can large language models support mental health—or do they risk causing harm?
A Stanford study found that when prompted to act as therapists, LLMs often gave advice that was misleading, inaccurate, or inappropriate.
www.sfgate.com/tech/article...
A Stanford study found that when prompted to act as therapists, LLMs often gave advice that was misleading, inaccurate, or inappropriate.
www.sfgate.com/tech/article...
Are colors in the world—or just in your head?
If your red isn’t my red, does that mean color is subjective?
Most people think so. But we argue colors are real and objective—out there in the world, not just in your mind:
theconversation.com/colors-are-o...
If your red isn’t my red, does that mean color is subjective?
Most people think so. But we argue colors are real and objective—out there in the world, not just in your mind:
theconversation.com/colors-are-o...
Colors are objective, according to two philosophers − even though the blue you see doesn’t match what I see
An object’s color appears differently under different lighting and against different backgrounds − for different viewers. But that doesn’t mean colors are subjective.
theconversation.com
June 21, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Are colors in the world—or just in your head?
If your red isn’t my red, does that mean color is subjective?
Most people think so. But we argue colors are real and objective—out there in the world, not just in your mind:
theconversation.com/colors-are-o...
If your red isn’t my red, does that mean color is subjective?
Most people think so. But we argue colors are real and objective—out there in the world, not just in your mind:
theconversation.com/colors-are-o...
