Jonathan Cornford
@repromancer.bsky.social
Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Computational Neuroscience at Leeds University School of Computer Science.
Combining insights from biological and artificial intelligence to develop resource-efficient AI.
Combining insights from biological and artificial intelligence to develop resource-efficient AI.
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
🚨 I’m excited to say that my CIHR Project Grant was funded! My NHP lab is now full-speed-ahead, and I’m hiring experimentalists (postdoc, PhD student, and/or a tech/manager). We’ll do multi-region ephys during reaching/grasping in macaques, with behavioral and spinal perturbations.
August 13, 2025 at 4:23 PM
🚨 I’m excited to say that my CIHR Project Grant was funded! My NHP lab is now full-speed-ahead, and I’m hiring experimentalists (postdoc, PhD student, and/or a tech/manager). We’ll do multi-region ephys during reaching/grasping in macaques, with behavioral and spinal perturbations.
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Trying to train RNNs in a biol plausible (local) way? Well, try our new method using predictive alignment. Paper just out in Nat. Com. Toshitake Asabuki deserves all the credit!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com
July 23, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Trying to train RNNs in a biol plausible (local) way? Well, try our new method using predictive alignment. Paper just out in Nat. Com. Toshitake Asabuki deserves all the credit!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Fabulous day at UK Neural Computation 2025!
Thanks to today’s invited speakers Jonathan Cornford, Jenny Bizley, Petr Znamenskiy and Flavia Mancini
Congratulations to ECR speakers Ian Hawes and Andrea Colins Rodriguez, selected from 80+ outstanding abstract submissions
Roll on Day 3!
#UKNC25
Thanks to today’s invited speakers Jonathan Cornford, Jenny Bizley, Petr Znamenskiy and Flavia Mancini
Congratulations to ECR speakers Ian Hawes and Andrea Colins Rodriguez, selected from 80+ outstanding abstract submissions
Roll on Day 3!
#UKNC25
July 11, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Fabulous day at UK Neural Computation 2025!
Thanks to today’s invited speakers Jonathan Cornford, Jenny Bizley, Petr Znamenskiy and Flavia Mancini
Congratulations to ECR speakers Ian Hawes and Andrea Colins Rodriguez, selected from 80+ outstanding abstract submissions
Roll on Day 3!
#UKNC25
Thanks to today’s invited speakers Jonathan Cornford, Jenny Bizley, Petr Znamenskiy and Flavia Mancini
Congratulations to ECR speakers Ian Hawes and Andrea Colins Rodriguez, selected from 80+ outstanding abstract submissions
Roll on Day 3!
#UKNC25
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Together with @repromancer.bsky.social, I have been musing for a while that the exponentiated gradient algorithm we've advocated for comp neuro would work well with low-precision ANNs.
This group got it working!
arxiv.org/abs/2506.17768
May be a great way to reduce AI energy use!!!
#MLSky 🧪
This group got it working!
arxiv.org/abs/2506.17768
May be a great way to reduce AI energy use!!!
#MLSky 🧪
Log-Normal Multiplicative Dynamics for Stable Low-Precision Training of Large Networks
Studies in neuroscience have shown that biological synapses follow a log-normal distribution whose transitioning can be explained by noisy multiplicative dynamics. Biological networks can function sta...
arxiv.org
July 9, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Together with @repromancer.bsky.social, I have been musing for a while that the exponentiated gradient algorithm we've advocated for comp neuro would work well with low-precision ANNs.
This group got it working!
arxiv.org/abs/2506.17768
May be a great way to reduce AI energy use!!!
#MLSky 🧪
This group got it working!
arxiv.org/abs/2506.17768
May be a great way to reduce AI energy use!!!
#MLSky 🧪
Really like this work!
Pleased to say that our story of how a theory of self-supervised learning in cortical layers accounts for several experimental observations is now out 🎉
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Self-supervised predictive learning accounts for cortical layer-specificity - Nature Communications
How the cortex learns an internal representation of the world and why the cortex relies on a layered structure remain poorly understood. Here, the authors propose a computational theory in which the n...
www.nature.com
July 4, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Really like this work!
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Closing soon! Register by July 1st for UK Neural Computation 2025
neuralcomputation.uk
ECR day: 9 July - careers, grants, starting a lab
Main meeting: 10-11 July - 13 speakers, 70+ posters, sandpit
Hosted by @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
Sponsors @aria-research.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk
neuralcomputation.uk
ECR day: 9 July - careers, grants, starting a lab
Main meeting: 10-11 July - 13 speakers, 70+ posters, sandpit
Hosted by @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
Sponsors @aria-research.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk
UKNC25 |
neuralcomputation.uk
June 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Closing soon! Register by July 1st for UK Neural Computation 2025
neuralcomputation.uk
ECR day: 9 July - careers, grants, starting a lab
Main meeting: 10-11 July - 13 speakers, 70+ posters, sandpit
Hosted by @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
Sponsors @aria-research.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk
neuralcomputation.uk
ECR day: 9 July - careers, grants, starting a lab
Main meeting: 10-11 July - 13 speakers, 70+ posters, sandpit
Hosted by @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
Sponsors @aria-research.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Excited for the UK Neural Computation Conference 2025 @ Imperial, 9th - 11th July! 🚀
World leading scientists working in brain computation - from experimental to modelling, mathematics & ML (+ all combinations thereof).
Registration closes 1st July! Plz share:
neuralcomputation.uk
World leading scientists working in brain computation - from experimental to modelling, mathematics & ML (+ all combinations thereof).
Registration closes 1st July! Plz share:
neuralcomputation.uk
June 18, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Excited for the UK Neural Computation Conference 2025 @ Imperial, 9th - 11th July! 🚀
World leading scientists working in brain computation - from experimental to modelling, mathematics & ML (+ all combinations thereof).
Registration closes 1st July! Plz share:
neuralcomputation.uk
World leading scientists working in brain computation - from experimental to modelling, mathematics & ML (+ all combinations thereof).
Registration closes 1st July! Plz share:
neuralcomputation.uk
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
1/6 Why does the brain maintain such precise excitatory-inhibitory balance?
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
May 27, 2025 at 7:49 AM
1/6 Why does the brain maintain such precise excitatory-inhibitory balance?
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
Our new preprint explores a provocative idea: Small, targeted deviations from this balance may serve a purpose: to encode local error signals for learning.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
led by @jrbch.bsky.social
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
New #NeuroAI #compneurosky preprint! To better understand how target-directed learning works in the brain, we sought to engineer an artificial neural network capable of solving complex image classification tasks that comprises only experimentally-supported biological building blocks. (1/15)
May 27, 2025 at 6:40 PM
New #NeuroAI #compneurosky preprint! To better understand how target-directed learning works in the brain, we sought to engineer an artificial neural network capable of solving complex image classification tasks that comprises only experimentally-supported biological building blocks. (1/15)
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Discussions around AI ethics and sustainability tend to happen in different circles, with different people and from different perspectives... but what if we had these important conversations together? 🤝
April 2, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Discussions around AI ethics and sustainability tend to happen in different circles, with different people and from different perspectives... but what if we had these important conversations together? 🤝
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Really enjoyed TAing for this tutorial, had great discussions with several attendees. Do check out `torch_brain` and the other packages here:
github.com/neuro-galaxy
github.com/neuro-galaxy
April 5, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Really enjoyed TAing for this tutorial, had great discussions with several attendees. Do check out `torch_brain` and the other packages here:
github.com/neuro-galaxy
github.com/neuro-galaxy
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Are you training self-supervised/foundation models, and worried if they are learning good representations? We got you covered! 💪
🦖Introducing Reptrix, a #Python library to evaluate representation quality metrics for neural nets: github.com/BARL-SSL/rep...
🧵👇[1/6]
#DeepLearning
🦖Introducing Reptrix, a #Python library to evaluate representation quality metrics for neural nets: github.com/BARL-SSL/rep...
🧵👇[1/6]
#DeepLearning
April 1, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Are you training self-supervised/foundation models, and worried if they are learning good representations? We got you covered! 💪
🦖Introducing Reptrix, a #Python library to evaluate representation quality metrics for neural nets: github.com/BARL-SSL/rep...
🧵👇[1/6]
#DeepLearning
🦖Introducing Reptrix, a #Python library to evaluate representation quality metrics for neural nets: github.com/BARL-SSL/rep...
🧵👇[1/6]
#DeepLearning
Come by Poster 068 to learn about why comp neuro studies should use exponentiated gradient descent!
March 29, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Come by Poster 068 to learn about why comp neuro studies should use exponentiated gradient descent!
Am I missing something? If language is an encoding of the world, just like pixel values are, and sensory input in general is, why can’t an llm in principle do all of the above just in an RL-like setting? And then we’re just debating how much of the cake the RL cherry is?
"AI models are passively absorbing patterns that have been produced by others. The humans who made those patterns, *they* interacted with the world, they had an understanding of the structure. But a passive system that just sort of absorbs this is not the same as understanding." - P. Cisek
Why are AI enthusiasts behaving like professional magicians who do not understand their own tricks? What's wrong with the dominant cognitive model of the mind? Neuroscientist Paul Cisek shares his thoughts with me here: open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...
March 20, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Am I missing something? If language is an encoding of the world, just like pixel values are, and sensory input in general is, why can’t an llm in principle do all of the above just in an RL-like setting? And then we’re just debating how much of the cake the RL cherry is?
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
The Clopath Lab has a fully funded PhD position open for Oct in Computational Neuroscience at Imperial College London. If you are interested, just send us an informal e-mail!
March 20, 2025 at 9:50 AM
The Clopath Lab has a fully funded PhD position open for Oct in Computational Neuroscience at Imperial College London. If you are interested, just send us an informal e-mail!
Sad to see in my opinion. AI Safety & Security was also possible.
I know everyone was hoping for a quiet Friday, but...
UK Gov has announced a step back from AI safety, by rebranding AISI as the AI 'Security' Institute.
Really thoughtful commentary from colleague @mbirtwistle.bsky.social here & short 🧵below on key changes
www.ukauthority.com/articles/ai-...
UK Gov has announced a step back from AI safety, by rebranding AISI as the AI 'Security' Institute.
Really thoughtful commentary from colleague @mbirtwistle.bsky.social here & short 🧵below on key changes
www.ukauthority.com/articles/ai-...
AI Safety Institute becomes AI Security Institute | UKAuthority
www.ukauthority.com
February 14, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Sad to see in my opinion. AI Safety & Security was also possible.
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
I'm giving an online talk tomorrow as part of UCL's NeuroAI series on neural architectures and our current line of research trying to figure out what they might be good for (including some philosophy: what might an answer to this question even look like?).
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ucl-neuroa...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ucl-neuroa...
February 11, 2025 at 5:12 PM
I'm giving an online talk tomorrow as part of UCL's NeuroAI series on neural architectures and our current line of research trying to figure out what they might be good for (including some philosophy: what might an answer to this question even look like?).
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ucl-neuroa...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ucl-neuroa...
Is there an agreed "this email was schedule sent" time? I'm thinking 8.49 am
January 28, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Is there an agreed "this email was schedule sent" time? I'm thinking 8.49 am
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Spiros Chavlis and I are very excited to share our latest #dendritic ANN research published in Nature Comms. @natureportfolio.bsky.social. We show that adopting the structure and sparse sampling features of biological #dendrites makes ANNs accurate, highly efficient and robust to overfitting.
🔬💻IMBB researchers @dendritesgr.bsky.social lab introduce artificial neural networks with characteristics of biological #dendrites.
▶️https://tinyurl.com/55tyur6m
@forth-ite.bsky.social
@yiotapoirazi.bsky.social
▶️https://tinyurl.com/55tyur6m
@forth-ite.bsky.social
@yiotapoirazi.bsky.social
January 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Spiros Chavlis and I are very excited to share our latest #dendritic ANN research published in Nature Comms. @natureportfolio.bsky.social. We show that adopting the structure and sparse sampling features of biological #dendrites makes ANNs accurate, highly efficient and robust to overfitting.
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Talk by Blake Richards at the Montreal AI and Neuroscience (MAIN) Conference on brain-like learning with exponentiated gradients.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awji... #neuroscience #neuroAI #AI #compneuro @tyrellturing.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awji... #neuroscience #neuroAI #AI #compneuro @tyrellturing.bsky.social
Blake Richards - Brain-like learning with exponentiated gradients
YouTube video by MAIN Conference
www.youtube.com
January 13, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Talk by Blake Richards at the Montreal AI and Neuroscience (MAIN) Conference on brain-like learning with exponentiated gradients.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awji... #neuroscience #neuroAI #AI #compneuro @tyrellturing.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awji... #neuroscience #neuroAI #AI #compneuro @tyrellturing.bsky.social
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Long time coming. A very cool project that showcases the advantages of single neuron adaptation in RNNs.
#PLOSCompBio: Neural networks with optimized single-neuron adaptation uncover biologically plausible regulari ... dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Props to V. Geadah and co-authors!
#PLOSCompBio: Neural networks with optimized single-neuron adaptation uncover biologically plausible regulari ... dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Props to V. Geadah and co-authors!
Neural networks with optimized single-neuron adaptation uncover biologically plausible regularization
Author summary Evolution has shaped neural circuits in the brain to support complex tasks and behavior. In doing so, single neurons have developed intriguing coding properties such as heterogeneous an...
dx.plos.org
January 9, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Long time coming. A very cool project that showcases the advantages of single neuron adaptation in RNNs.
#PLOSCompBio: Neural networks with optimized single-neuron adaptation uncover biologically plausible regulari ... dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Props to V. Geadah and co-authors!
#PLOSCompBio: Neural networks with optimized single-neuron adaptation uncover biologically plausible regulari ... dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Props to V. Geadah and co-authors!
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
🚨Our paper on how the cerebellum learns to drive cortical dynamics for rapid task learning and switching, which we propose can then be consolidated in the cortex @naturecomms.bsky.social
nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠 #compneuro
nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠 #compneuro
January 2, 2025 at 12:07 PM
🚨Our paper on how the cerebellum learns to drive cortical dynamics for rapid task learning and switching, which we propose can then be consolidated in the cortex @naturecomms.bsky.social
nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠 #compneuro
nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠 #compneuro
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
Today we’re launching the text challenge of the Frugal AI Challenge for the AI Action Summit: detecting climate misinformation in the media (Press, TV, Radio), sponsored by the French non-profit QuotaClimat.
The goal of the task is to detect climate-based misinformation and to categorize its type 📃
The goal of the task is to detect climate-based misinformation and to categorize its type 📃
December 18, 2024 at 8:17 PM
Today we’re launching the text challenge of the Frugal AI Challenge for the AI Action Summit: detecting climate misinformation in the media (Press, TV, Radio), sponsored by the French non-profit QuotaClimat.
The goal of the task is to detect climate-based misinformation and to categorize its type 📃
The goal of the task is to detect climate-based misinformation and to categorize its type 📃
Reposted by Jonathan Cornford
If you missed it at the #NeurIPS2024 posters! Work led by @leonlufkin.bsky.social on analytical dynamics of localization in simple neural nets, as seen in real+artificial nets and distilled by @aingrosso.bsky.social @sebgoldt.bsky.social.
Leon is a fantastic collaborator + looking for PhD positions!
Leon is a fantastic collaborator + looking for PhD positions!
December 13, 2024 at 4:20 AM
If you missed it at the #NeurIPS2024 posters! Work led by @leonlufkin.bsky.social on analytical dynamics of localization in simple neural nets, as seen in real+artificial nets and distilled by @aingrosso.bsky.social @sebgoldt.bsky.social.
Leon is a fantastic collaborator + looking for PhD positions!
Leon is a fantastic collaborator + looking for PhD positions!