Oliver Maclaren
@omaclaren.bsky.social
I use mathematics, computation, statistics, & machine learning to help think about biology, engineering, & other things. University of Auckland, NZ. Research: http://tinyurl.com/ojmscholar, Teaching: https://tinyurl.com/ojmteaching
Any really good actually insightful or helpful articles or resources on teaching/learning in the age of LLMs?
September 6, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Any really good actually insightful or helpful articles or resources on teaching/learning in the age of LLMs?
Some misc observations on trying to use LLMs to help on a current research project…
June 24, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Some misc observations on trying to use LLMs to help on a current research project…
Reposted by Oliver Maclaren
Can we infer chemical reaction networks from time series data? Can we observe concentrations of substances over time and infer which substances react with each other? Learn if (and how much) this is possible from Yong See Foo, @adrianazanca.bsky.social and JenniferFlegg arxiv.org/abs/2505.15653
Quantifying structural uncertainty in chemical reaction network inference
Dynamical systems in chemistry and biology are complex, and one often does not have comprehensive knowledge about the interactions involved. Chemical reaction network (CRN) inference aims to identify,...
arxiv.org
May 29, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Can we infer chemical reaction networks from time series data? Can we observe concentrations of substances over time and infer which substances react with each other? Learn if (and how much) this is possible from Yong See Foo, @adrianazanca.bsky.social and JenniferFlegg arxiv.org/abs/2505.15653
Evolutionary algorithms are back maybe?
Announcing AlphaEvolve, our new LLM coding agent that has
- made new scientific discoveries
- discovered algorithms that are now deployed at Google (in Gemini, Transformers, TPU hardware design & data centers)
Blog: deepmind.google/discover/blo...
White paper:
storage.googleapis.com/deepmind-med...
- made new scientific discoveries
- discovered algorithms that are now deployed at Google (in Gemini, Transformers, TPU hardware design & data centers)
Blog: deepmind.google/discover/blo...
White paper:
storage.googleapis.com/deepmind-med...
AlphaEvolve: A Gemini-powered coding agent for designing advanced algorithms
New AI agent evolves algorithms for math and practical applications in computing by combining the creativity of large language models with automated evaluators
deepmind.google
May 14, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Evolutionary algorithms are back maybe?
I tried defining a simple ‘prompt script language’ that sort of works and is fun to play with gist.github.com/omaclaren/b5...
A simple 'prompt script language' (PSL) specification, giving instructions for an llm to allow prompting in a pseudocode-like way
A simple 'prompt script language' (PSL) specification, giving instructions for an llm to allow prompting in a pseudocode-like way - psl.md
gist.github.com
May 5, 2025 at 9:59 PM
I tried defining a simple ‘prompt script language’ that sort of works and is fun to play with gist.github.com/omaclaren/b5...
Reposted by Oliver Maclaren
I love you bluesky but I admit I don’t totally understand the rabid and uncritical AI hate that predominates here
January 26, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I love you bluesky but I admit I don’t totally understand the rabid and uncritical AI hate that predominates here
The voice mode for all the llms keeps trying to sound more human but I kinda just want my robot friends to sound like robots
April 15, 2025 at 9:17 PM
The voice mode for all the llms keeps trying to sound more human but I kinda just want my robot friends to sound like robots
I’ve got some students who wanna play around with eg 70B open llms. Can’t run locally obvs. What’re their best options in terms of ease of use and cost? Mainly just running for now but also maybe fine tuning at some point
April 4, 2025 at 1:30 AM
I’ve got some students who wanna play around with eg 70B open llms. Can’t run locally obvs. What’re their best options in terms of ease of use and cost? Mainly just running for now but also maybe fine tuning at some point
No matter how much beef you have with someone you don’t need to do this shit. Crediting people appropriately is allowed
April 1, 2025 at 8:14 PM
No matter how much beef you have with someone you don’t need to do this shit. Crediting people appropriately is allowed
Here’s a thing. A bit bitter sweet for a few reasons, and also my name is spelled wrong lol but still www.sciencedirect.com/journal/jour...
March 25, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Here’s a thing. A bit bitter sweet for a few reasons, and also my name is spelled wrong lol but still www.sciencedirect.com/journal/jour...
Claude Code is very cool and helpful but also
March 14, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Claude Code is very cool and helpful but also
Reposted by Oliver Maclaren
Smashing the endorse button as fast as I can
www.lesswrong.com/posts/oKAFFv...
www.lesswrong.com/posts/oKAFFv...
A Bear Case: My Predictions Regarding AI Progress — LessWrong
This isn't really a "timeline", as such – I don't know the timings – but this is my current, fairly optimistic take on where we're heading. …
www.lesswrong.com
March 9, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Smashing the endorse button as fast as I can
www.lesswrong.com/posts/oKAFFv...
www.lesswrong.com/posts/oKAFFv...
Considering switching to cursor solely because the grammarly desktop widget thing works in it but not vscode
February 26, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Considering switching to cursor solely because the grammarly desktop widget thing works in it but not vscode
Claude is back 🙏 but also even anthropic is still at this point
February 25, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Claude is back 🙏 but also even anthropic is still at this point
This came up recently but I’m not 100% sure how to think about it. Eg suppose you have a nonlinear function of two variables f(x,y) evaluated on a 2D grid. One apparently useful way to approximate it is to think of the values as entries in a matrix and use matrix factorisation. But why?
February 24, 2025 at 8:09 AM
This came up recently but I’m not 100% sure how to think about it. Eg suppose you have a nonlinear function of two variables f(x,y) evaluated on a 2D grid. One apparently useful way to approximate it is to think of the values as entries in a matrix and use matrix factorisation. But why?
Idle stats thought — calling them confidence subsets/subintervals instead of confidence sets/intervals would more honestly indicate that the coverage guarantees hold with respect to some set of initial of values considered
February 18, 2025 at 4:15 AM
Idle stats thought — calling them confidence subsets/subintervals instead of confidence sets/intervals would more honestly indicate that the coverage guarantees hold with respect to some set of initial of values considered
Reposted by Oliver Maclaren
Do large language models develop "emergent" models of the world? My latest Substack posts explore this claim and more generally the nature of "world models":
LLMs and World Models, Part 1: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...
LLMs and World Models, Part 2: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...
LLMs and World Models, Part 1: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...
LLMs and World Models, Part 2: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...
LLMs and World Models, Part 1
How do Large Language Models Make Sense of Their “Worlds”?
aiguide.substack.com
February 13, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Do large language models develop "emergent" models of the world? My latest Substack posts explore this claim and more generally the nature of "world models":
LLMs and World Models, Part 1: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...
LLMs and World Models, Part 2: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...
LLMs and World Models, Part 1: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...
LLMs and World Models, Part 2: aiguide.substack.com/p/llms-and-w...
Hello, here is some new work called ‘Invariant Image Reparameterisation: A Unified Approach to Structural and Practical Identifiability and Model Reduction’. See arxiv.org/abs/2502.04867
February 10, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Hello, here is some new work called ‘Invariant Image Reparameterisation: A Unified Approach to Structural and Practical Identifiability and Model Reduction’. See arxiv.org/abs/2502.04867
Shout out to this random book exchange setup I found while taking my daughter for a walk!
February 7, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Shout out to this random book exchange setup I found while taking my daughter for a walk!
A nice summary on the other site of RL self improvement by @ptrschmdtnlsn.bsky.social “we keep distilling what we conclude after a lot of thinking into what we conclude intuitively in a single step of thinking, which in turn improves what we conclude with a lot of thinking, and so on”
January 23, 2025 at 9:08 PM
A nice summary on the other site of RL self improvement by @ptrschmdtnlsn.bsky.social “we keep distilling what we conclude after a lot of thinking into what we conclude intuitively in a single step of thinking, which in turn improves what we conclude with a lot of thinking, and so on”
Just finished @melaniemitchell.bsky.social ‘s really nice book on AI. Just pre- chatgpt etc but good coverage of context leading up to recent explosion. Based on this quote I’d say at least 25 years to ‘AGI’. Will be interesting to see…
January 22, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Just finished @melaniemitchell.bsky.social ‘s really nice book on AI. Just pre- chatgpt etc but good coverage of context leading up to recent explosion. Based on this quote I’d say at least 25 years to ‘AGI’. Will be interesting to see…
Man still only o1 can solve this. Not Claude, not DeepSeek not Gemini … (DeepSeek app can’t even extract the words from the image correctly…had to pass manually)
January 21, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Man still only o1 can solve this. Not Claude, not DeepSeek not Gemini … (DeepSeek app can’t even extract the words from the image correctly…had to pass manually)
Reposted by Oliver Maclaren
We are advertising two PhD scholarships to work on models of the interaction between ethnicity and infectious disease dynamics at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Open to international students.
Please share!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
@iddjobs.bsky.social
Open to international students.
Please share!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
@iddjobs.bsky.social
Modelling the interaction between ethnicity and infectious disease dynamics at University of Canterbury on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Modelling the interaction between ethnicity and infectious disease dynamics at University of Canterbury, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
January 16, 2025 at 12:08 AM
We are advertising two PhD scholarships to work on models of the interaction between ethnicity and infectious disease dynamics at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Open to international students.
Please share!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
@iddjobs.bsky.social
Open to international students.
Please share!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
@iddjobs.bsky.social
Reposted by Oliver Maclaren
I have been trying to get more familiar with the basics and advances Reinforcement Learning.
I wonder if anyone have seen a paperthat use potential outcome notation within the RL world. This would make the life of many economists much easier.
Anyone?
All help is appreciated!
I wonder if anyone have seen a paperthat use potential outcome notation within the RL world. This would make the life of many economists much easier.
Anyone?
All help is appreciated!
January 12, 2025 at 5:49 PM
I have been trying to get more familiar with the basics and advances Reinforcement Learning.
I wonder if anyone have seen a paperthat use potential outcome notation within the RL world. This would make the life of many economists much easier.
Anyone?
All help is appreciated!
I wonder if anyone have seen a paperthat use potential outcome notation within the RL world. This would make the life of many economists much easier.
Anyone?
All help is appreciated!