Michael Saxon
@saxon.me
Postdoc at UW and Doctor of NLP/Vision+Language from UCSB
Evals, metrics, multilinguality, multiculturality, multimodality, and (dabbling in) reasoning
100% Product of public schools
https://saxon.me/
Evals, metrics, multilinguality, multiculturality, multimodality, and (dabbling in) reasoning
100% Product of public schools
https://saxon.me/
Pinned
Michael Saxon
@saxon.me
· Dec 8
The Science of Benchmarking Panel (NeurIPS 2025 Tutorial)
YouTube video by Michael Saxon (NLP & Generative AI research)
www.youtube.com
I have bootlegged our panel discussion from our NeurIPS "Science of benchmarking" tutorial to youtube!
Featuring @ofirpress.bsky.social @saining.bsky.social @idavidrein.bsky.social @efleisig.bsky.social and Wenda Xu
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_zX...
Featuring @ofirpress.bsky.social @saining.bsky.social @idavidrein.bsky.social @efleisig.bsky.social and Wenda Xu
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_zX...
All political influencers are bad except for the ones I like, who are beyond reproach
Broadly speaking: reality tv is bad for democracy, influencers are bad for democracy, streamers are bad for democracy, YouTubers are bad for democracy.
Exceptions to all categories exist, but it’s astonishing how absolutely clogged our political and media ecosystems are with low-info narcissists
Exceptions to all categories exist, but it’s astonishing how absolutely clogged our political and media ecosystems are with low-info narcissists
February 16, 2026 at 1:45 AM
All political influencers are bad except for the ones I like, who are beyond reproach
Reposted by Michael Saxon
The propensity of people talking about bullshit engines to themselves believe what looks like high probability bullshit is its own special problem. Anonymous stories that fit preconceptions exactly are their own kind of optimized slop.
lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard
February 15, 2026 at 2:03 PM
The propensity of people talking about bullshit engines to themselves believe what looks like high probability bullshit is its own special problem. Anonymous stories that fit preconceptions exactly are their own kind of optimized slop.
Based on these emails CITIZEN probably communicated with subversives in the 2020s.
*Thought for 8s*
That's right! I should request META PLATFORMS INC for all of CITIZEN's messages between 2019 and 2031!
Authorize tool SEND_SUBPOENA?
[Y|n]
*Thought for 89s*
Ah! There's a lot!
✨Inquisitioning...
*Thought for 8s*
That's right! I should request META PLATFORMS INC for all of CITIZEN's messages between 2019 and 2031!
Authorize tool SEND_SUBPOENA?
[Y|n]
*Thought for 89s*
Ah! There's a lot!
✨Inquisitioning...
February 14, 2026 at 5:27 AM
Based on these emails CITIZEN probably communicated with subversives in the 2020s.
*Thought for 8s*
That's right! I should request META PLATFORMS INC for all of CITIZEN's messages between 2019 and 2031!
Authorize tool SEND_SUBPOENA?
[Y|n]
*Thought for 89s*
Ah! There's a lot!
✨Inquisitioning...
*Thought for 8s*
That's right! I should request META PLATFORMS INC for all of CITIZEN's messages between 2019 and 2031!
Authorize tool SEND_SUBPOENA?
[Y|n]
*Thought for 89s*
Ah! There's a lot!
✨Inquisitioning...
Reposted by Michael Saxon
Remember when we all said Clearview was going to be a big problem down the road? Here we are.
NEW: CBP signs a new deal with Clearview AI to access its scraped image database for "tactical targeting," including efforts to “disrupt, degrade, and dismantle” networks of people labeled security threats.
CBP Signs Clearview AI Deal to Use Face Recognition for ‘Tactical Targeting’
US Border Patrol intelligence units will gain access to a face recognition tool built on billions of images scraped from the internet.
www.wired.com
February 11, 2026 at 6:38 PM
Remember when we all said Clearview was going to be a big problem down the road? Here we are.
Reposted by Michael Saxon
He got out after 3 months in an ICE gulag.
My electrician is a green card holder who's been here since he was a kid. He got married to a citizen, applied for citizenship, went to court for the papers and when he got there ICE kidnapped him and he's been locked up for a month.
February 11, 2026 at 6:56 PM
He got out after 3 months in an ICE gulag.
I like to pretend every techie post about "advancing our species" or how "we need to build" was written by ants
February 11, 2026 at 4:16 AM
I like to pretend every techie post about "advancing our species" or how "we need to build" was written by ants
Clicked on two videos about the Muppets and now am on Muppet YouTube with Muppet fancasting videos and Muppet video essays and Muppets retrospectives and Muppet reactions
February 9, 2026 at 8:45 AM
Clicked on two videos about the Muppets and now am on Muppet YouTube with Muppet fancasting videos and Muppet video essays and Muppets retrospectives and Muppet reactions
People have been cheering in the streets
February 9, 2026 at 4:13 AM
People have been cheering in the streets
Hey this is really neat! My nearest neighbor is @andyliu.bsky.social
February 9, 2026 at 4:09 AM
Hey this is really neat! My nearest neighbor is @andyliu.bsky.social
Reposted by Michael Saxon
The cool thing about paleontology & archeology for knowledge eval is that the the fields get completely rewritten regularly, so a claim like "has a 1960s understanding of neanderthals" is coherent and assessable. Would be cool to scale this into a quantitative bmark
phys.org/news/2026-02...
phys.org/news/2026-02...
New study uses Neanderthals to demonstrate gap between generative AI and scholarly knowledge
Technological advances over the past four decades have turned mobile devices and computers into the world's largest library, where information is just a tap away. Phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatche...
phys.org
February 7, 2026 at 8:56 PM
The cool thing about paleontology & archeology for knowledge eval is that the the fields get completely rewritten regularly, so a claim like "has a 1960s understanding of neanderthals" is coherent and assessable. Would be cool to scale this into a quantitative bmark
phys.org/news/2026-02...
phys.org/news/2026-02...
Reposted by Michael Saxon
To clarify I agree 100% it is good to expose youngins to diverse people and diverse ideas; STEMmies absolutely should be learn humanities.
However
The problem with tech leaders is not a lack of this exposure. the "STEM👏bros👏need👏to👏read" meme is false, badness is orthogonal to wellreadness cf Karp
However
The problem with tech leaders is not a lack of this exposure. the "STEM👏bros👏need👏to👏read" meme is false, badness is orthogonal to wellreadness cf Karp
February 4, 2026 at 7:59 PM
To clarify I agree 100% it is good to expose youngins to diverse people and diverse ideas; STEMmies absolutely should be learn humanities.
However
The problem with tech leaders is not a lack of this exposure. the "STEM👏bros👏need👏to👏read" meme is false, badness is orthogonal to wellreadness cf Karp
However
The problem with tech leaders is not a lack of this exposure. the "STEM👏bros👏need👏to👏read" meme is false, badness is orthogonal to wellreadness cf Karp
Reposted by Michael Saxon
The notion that humanists are political missionaries is kind of one of my pet peeves. Does a study of the humanities *tend* to a higher-openness, more liberal mindset? Sure! But I mean, the father of Western Philosophy's notion of an ideal state was... idk, kind of iffy.
Alex Karp gives the lie to the meme that "what tech bros need to do is study humanities" no, actually many of the very worst did so
See also "they need to read more fiction to imagine"
The modal "good tech person" is probably a well adjusted CS grad from a top 100 uni with normal person hobbies
See also "they need to read more fiction to imagine"
The modal "good tech person" is probably a well adjusted CS grad from a top 100 uni with normal person hobbies
February 4, 2026 at 6:25 PM
The notion that humanists are political missionaries is kind of one of my pet peeves. Does a study of the humanities *tend* to a higher-openness, more liberal mindset? Sure! But I mean, the father of Western Philosophy's notion of an ideal state was... idk, kind of iffy.
Alex Karp gives the lie to the meme that "what tech bros need to do is study humanities" no, actually many of the very worst did so
See also "they need to read more fiction to imagine"
The modal "good tech person" is probably a well adjusted CS grad from a top 100 uni with normal person hobbies
See also "they need to read more fiction to imagine"
The modal "good tech person" is probably a well adjusted CS grad from a top 100 uni with normal person hobbies
February 4, 2026 at 6:21 PM
Alex Karp gives the lie to the meme that "what tech bros need to do is study humanities" no, actually many of the very worst did so
See also "they need to read more fiction to imagine"
The modal "good tech person" is probably a well adjusted CS grad from a top 100 uni with normal person hobbies
See also "they need to read more fiction to imagine"
The modal "good tech person" is probably a well adjusted CS grad from a top 100 uni with normal person hobbies
I wonder if Jeff Epstein and Deepak Chopra's Lady Gaga/Madonna reconciliation dinner ft. Max Tegmark ever happened
![An email from Deepak Chopra to Jeff Epstein discussing inviting Lady Gaga, Max Tegmark, Madonna, Frank Wilczek, and Woody Allen to a dinner to "have [Madonna and Lady Gaga] make peace with each other"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:yhpo4pagfroflgcj2czskvjn/bafkreieic26rr2ortxlurjviq22extwj53ozisi4ldmv5wezo6aay6qlza@jpeg)
February 4, 2026 at 4:23 AM
I wonder if Jeff Epstein and Deepak Chopra's Lady Gaga/Madonna reconciliation dinner ft. Max Tegmark ever happened
Reposted by Michael Saxon
organizing downloads is a great use case! Like the closest we'll get to AI folding laundry, putting away dishes etc
February 4, 2026 at 2:49 AM
organizing downloads is a great use case! Like the closest we'll get to AI folding laundry, putting away dishes etc
Reposted by Michael Saxon
fun fact: 99% of fun facts are neither fun nor a fact
February 2, 2026 at 8:35 PM
fun fact: 99% of fun facts are neither fun nor a fact
Ok, I spent some time with OpenClaw this weekend and I understand the hype.
Over the course of a few hours we put off an organizational task I had been procrastinating on for literally years, which is sorting 5 years of desktop and downloads detritus from 2 machines and merging into organized docs
Over the course of a few hours we put off an organizational task I had been procrastinating on for literally years, which is sorting 5 years of desktop and downloads detritus from 2 machines and merging into organized docs
February 1, 2026 at 11:53 PM
Ok, I spent some time with OpenClaw this weekend and I understand the hype.
Over the course of a few hours we put off an organizational task I had been procrastinating on for literally years, which is sorting 5 years of desktop and downloads detritus from 2 machines and merging into organized docs
Over the course of a few hours we put off an organizational task I had been procrastinating on for literally years, which is sorting 5 years of desktop and downloads detritus from 2 machines and merging into organized docs
The book "What Tech Calls Thinking - An inquiry into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley" is amazing. I just read the chapter on genius and the aesthetic of genius and it is just mic drop after mic drop. (about Ayn Rand)
January 30, 2026 at 8:02 AM
The book "What Tech Calls Thinking - An inquiry into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley" is amazing. I just read the chapter on genius and the aesthetic of genius and it is just mic drop after mic drop. (about Ayn Rand)
Yeah, the "mix generated with AI" feature in Youtube music isn't there yet... it generated me a "retro futurism dreams" playlist that had Surfin' USA on it lmao
January 28, 2026 at 10:44 PM
Yeah, the "mix generated with AI" feature in Youtube music isn't there yet... it generated me a "retro futurism dreams" playlist that had Surfin' USA on it lmao
I thought I was already radicalized 2 weeks ago.........
I thought I was already radicalized in 2025...
January 27, 2026 at 7:38 AM
I thought I was already radicalized 2 weeks ago.........
Reposted by Michael Saxon
Street art memorializing Alex Pretti in Seattle. Per r/Seattle, it was painted on a building facing Swedish Hospital in the First Hill neighborhood www.reddit.com/r/nursing/co...
January 27, 2026 at 4:01 AM
Street art memorializing Alex Pretti in Seattle. Per r/Seattle, it was painted on a building facing Swedish Hospital in the First Hill neighborhood www.reddit.com/r/nursing/co...
Reposted by Michael Saxon
brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
January 27, 2026 at 12:22 AM
brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
Reposted by Michael Saxon
*This is also a very second-quarter-of-21st-century remark
My UCSB colleague Gurusha Juneja wrote a python tool to auto-check your bibtex for hallucinated citations: pypi.org/project/harcx/
It supports papers, books, and
URLs.
Usage:
pip install harcx
harcx references.bib
It supports papers, books, and
URLs.
Usage:
pip install harcx
harcx references.bib
harcx
Verify .bib file citations against academic databases (Semantic Scholar, DBLP, Open Library)
pypi.org
January 26, 2026 at 5:27 AM
*This is also a very second-quarter-of-21st-century remark