Chris Summerfield
@summerfieldlab.bsky.social
Neuronerd, Prof, head of HIP lab in Experimental Psychology, Oxford. Researcher, UK AI Safety Institute. https://humaninformationprocessing.com/.
great opportunity to work with Marco using exciting new methods!
📢 Job announcement: Two (!) 3-year postdoc jobs in our lab at UCL 📢
🧠💫🔊 We are looking for postdocs interested in the abstract mechanisms underlying social cognition. Modelling, fMRI and non-invasive ultrasound, a new deep-brain stimulation method.
Please RT
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
🧠💫🔊 We are looking for postdocs interested in the abstract mechanisms underlying social cognition. Modelling, fMRI and non-invasive ultrasound, a new deep-brain stimulation method.
Please RT
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
www.ucl.ac.uk
August 8, 2025 at 6:28 PM
great opportunity to work with Marco using exciting new methods!
in Oxford, a grade 7 (entry-level) postdoc costs about £180K for 3 years, including fringe. For UKRI grants, the university now adds **£460K** in overheads. is that normal? do other UK universities impose such outlandish FEC?
July 17, 2025 at 8:41 AM
in Oxford, a grade 7 (entry-level) postdoc costs about £180K for 3 years, including fringe. For UKRI grants, the university now adds **£460K** in overheads. is that normal? do other UK universities impose such outlandish FEC?
AISI has published its research agenda...
www.aisi.gov.uk/research-age...
There is so much amazing work going on at AISI. Expect much more in the way of published outputs over the coming months!
www.aisi.gov.uk/research-age...
There is so much amazing work going on at AISI. Expect much more in the way of published outputs over the coming months!
Research Agenda
View AISI grants. The AI Security Institute is a directorate of the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology that facilitates rigorous research to enable advanced AI governance.
www.aisi.gov.uk
May 7, 2025 at 7:02 AM
AISI has published its research agenda...
www.aisi.gov.uk/research-age...
There is so much amazing work going on at AISI. Expect much more in the way of published outputs over the coming months!
www.aisi.gov.uk/research-age...
There is so much amazing work going on at AISI. Expect much more in the way of published outputs over the coming months!
Reposted by Chris Summerfield
I am SO excited to share my latest #preprint with
@robbrutledge.bsky.social, Chongyu Qin, Zeb Kurth-Nelson, Martin Chadwick, @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, and others from DeepMind:
"Increasing happiness through conversations with artificial intelligence"
arxiv.org/abs/2504.02091
A short 🧵
1/7
@robbrutledge.bsky.social, Chongyu Qin, Zeb Kurth-Nelson, Martin Chadwick, @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, and others from DeepMind:
"Increasing happiness through conversations with artificial intelligence"
arxiv.org/abs/2504.02091
A short 🧵
1/7
Increasing happiness through conversations with artificial intelligence
Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) have rapidly become a significant part of everyday life, with over a quarter of American adults using them multiple times per week. While these tools o...
arxiv.org
April 4, 2025 at 1:33 PM
I am SO excited to share my latest #preprint with
@robbrutledge.bsky.social, Chongyu Qin, Zeb Kurth-Nelson, Martin Chadwick, @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, and others from DeepMind:
"Increasing happiness through conversations with artificial intelligence"
arxiv.org/abs/2504.02091
A short 🧵
1/7
@robbrutledge.bsky.social, Chongyu Qin, Zeb Kurth-Nelson, Martin Chadwick, @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, and others from DeepMind:
"Increasing happiness through conversations with artificial intelligence"
arxiv.org/abs/2504.02091
A short 🧵
1/7
getting this paper published was a bit painful but I am proud of it: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... We use deep RL to find mechanisms that help (real) people sustain the commons. Well done to Raphael Koster and Miruna Pislar (not on BlueSky). non-paywalled version on arxiv.
Deep reinforcement learning can promote sustainable human behaviour in a common-pool resource problem - Nature Communications
Koster et al introduce a deep reinforcement learning (RL) mechanism designed to manage common-pool resources successfully encourages sustainable cooperation among human participants by dynamically adj...
www.nature.com
March 24, 2025 at 8:22 AM
getting this paper published was a bit painful but I am proud of it: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... We use deep RL to find mechanisms that help (real) people sustain the commons. Well done to Raphael Koster and Miruna Pislar (not on BlueSky). non-paywalled version on arxiv.
I really, really enjoyed Coming of Age by @lucyfoulkes.bsky.social. it's wise and poignant in equal measure. tinyurl.com/4e82na8v.
Coming of Age
Adolescence is the most misunderstood period of our lives. Coming of Age draws on a decade of expert research to get beneath the stereotypes, expose the myths and reveal the real reasons why teens beh...
tinyurl.com
March 18, 2025 at 9:09 PM
I really, really enjoyed Coming of Age by @lucyfoulkes.bsky.social. it's wise and poignant in equal measure. tinyurl.com/4e82na8v.
US version. thank you very much @vikingbooks.bsky.social. I like the black cover more!
ON SALE TODAY! 🧠💻
Christopher Summerfield's (@summerfieldlab.bsky.social) "brilliant" (@mustafasuleymanai.bsky.social) THESE STRANGE NEW MINDS charts the evolution of intelligent talking machines and helps us understand how they work and how we can use them.
Start reading now 👉 bit.ly/41WoPTB
Christopher Summerfield's (@summerfieldlab.bsky.social) "brilliant" (@mustafasuleymanai.bsky.social) THESE STRANGE NEW MINDS charts the evolution of intelligent talking machines and helps us understand how they work and how we can use them.
Start reading now 👉 bit.ly/41WoPTB
March 11, 2025 at 4:19 PM
US version. thank you very much @vikingbooks.bsky.social. I like the black cover more!
Amazing - there is still at least one senior academic who is not afraid to tell it how it is!
Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @brain1878.bsky.social If you agree with the sentiments please repost. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness
academic.oup.com/brain/articl...
academic.oup.com/brain/articl...
March 8, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Amazing - there is still at least one senior academic who is not afraid to tell it how it is!
Thank you so much Rebecca! it's been such a pleasure to work with you.
Happy Publication Day @summerfieldlab.bsky.social whose brilliant ‘THESE STRANGE NEW MINDS: How AI Learnt to Talk and What It Means’ is published by Viking Penguin today. It is an honour to work with such a dazzlingly human mind.
March 6, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Thank you so much Rebecca! it's been such a pleasure to work with you.
I am a bit bashful about sharing this profile www.thetimes.com/uk/technolog... of me in @thetimes.com, but will do so because it kindly refers to my new book which is coming out in early March. www.penguin.co.uk/books/460891.... The tech titans pictured seem to be decoration (and not my co-authors)
These Strange New Minds
Stunning advances in digital technology have given us a new wave of disarmingly human-like AI systems. The march of this new technology is set to upturn our economies, challenge our democracies, and r...
www.penguin.co.uk
February 22, 2025 at 2:41 PM
I am a bit bashful about sharing this profile www.thetimes.com/uk/technolog... of me in @thetimes.com, but will do so because it kindly refers to my new book which is coming out in early March. www.penguin.co.uk/books/460891.... The tech titans pictured seem to be decoration (and not my co-authors)
New paper led by the unstoppable @qingtianmi.bsky.social. We study how people learn a task that involves combining multiple sources of information. We work out which curricula work best, build a model, and use it to successfully discover new curricula. enjoy! osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
February 22, 2025 at 9:22 AM
New paper led by the unstoppable @qingtianmi.bsky.social. We study how people learn a task that involves combining multiple sources of information. We work out which curricula work best, build a model, and use it to successfully discover new curricula. enjoy! osf.io/preprints/ps...
BAMB! is happening again in 2025. Learn how to model your behavioural data, next to the beach in Barcelona! keynotes this year from @athenaakrami.bsky.social and Peter Dayan.
Our Barcelona-based summer school, BAMB! (bambschool.org) just opened applications! Come join us: 15-24th July, to learn how to model behavioral data using RL, Bayesian, latent variable models, RNNs, DDMs & more! #BAMB2025
BAMB!
Course philosophy
Our goal is to teach advanced techniques in model-based analysis of behavior (humans and other animals) to cognitive and computational neuroscientists at PhD and early career levels...
bambschool.org
February 11, 2025 at 11:19 AM
BAMB! is happening again in 2025. Learn how to model your behavioural data, next to the beach in Barcelona! keynotes this year from @athenaakrami.bsky.social and Peter Dayan.
Reposted by Chris Summerfield
(1/5) Very excited to announce the publication of Bayesian Models of Cognition: Reverse Engineering the Mind. More than a decade in the making, it's a big (600+ pages) beautiful book covering both the basics and recent work: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204941...
November 19, 2024 at 9:33 PM
(1/5) Very excited to announce the publication of Bayesian Models of Cognition: Reverse Engineering the Mind. More than a decade in the making, it's a big (600+ pages) beautiful book covering both the basics and recent work: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204941...
a CS department of a very prominent US university just asked me to write a reference letter for a candidate that they are *planning on* attempting to headhunt from a major tech firm, but whom they have not actually contacted yet. Is that a thing?? what a waste of everyone's time!
January 23, 2025 at 7:56 PM
a CS department of a very prominent US university just asked me to write a reference letter for a candidate that they are *planning on* attempting to headhunt from a major tech firm, but whom they have not actually contacted yet. Is that a thing?? what a waste of everyone's time!
I never fail to learn something from Mark's excellent round up! thank you for doing this :)
Cutting it a bit fine, but here’s my review of the year in neuroscience for 2024
The eighth of these, would you believe? We’ve got dark neurons, tiny monkeys, the most complete brain wiring diagram ever constructed, and much more…
Published on The Spike
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
The eighth of these, would you believe? We’ve got dark neurons, tiny monkeys, the most complete brain wiring diagram ever constructed, and much more…
Published on The Spike
Enjoy!
medium.com/the-spike/20...
2024: A Review of the Year in Neuroscience
Feeling a bit wired
medium.com
January 3, 2025 at 1:08 PM
I never fail to learn something from Mark's excellent round up! thank you for doing this :)
new researcher positions at UK AI Safety Institute! a behavioural / cognitive scientist with AI research experience civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi... and a computational social scientist civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi... to work on the social / psychological impacts of AI
January 24, 2024 at 9:10 AM
new researcher positions at UK AI Safety Institute! a behavioural / cognitive scientist with AI research experience civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi... and a computational social scientist civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi... to work on the social / psychological impacts of AI
Research Scientist, Engineer and many other roles advertised at UK AI Safety Institute. tinyurl.com/5t32h2p6
Come and work at the cutting edge of AI research from within government! Message me if you want more information. Coming soon: more roles with cog sci / computational social science focus.
Come and work at the cutting edge of AI research from within government! Message me if you want more information. Coming soon: more roles with cog sci / computational social science focus.
January 10, 2024 at 9:02 AM
Research Scientist, Engineer and many other roles advertised at UK AI Safety Institute. tinyurl.com/5t32h2p6
Come and work at the cutting edge of AI research from within government! Message me if you want more information. Coming soon: more roles with cog sci / computational social science focus.
Come and work at the cutting edge of AI research from within government! Message me if you want more information. Coming soon: more roles with cog sci / computational social science focus.
Reposted by Chris Summerfield
Open letter to the Society for Neuroscience leadership (led by Rich Ivry) regarding the climate impact of the annual meeting: bit.ly/LetterToSfNL...
To_SFNLeadership_Nov2023.pdf
bit.ly
November 30, 2023 at 2:39 PM
Open letter to the Society for Neuroscience leadership (led by Rich Ivry) regarding the climate impact of the annual meeting: bit.ly/LetterToSfNL...
I've been using this book as reading for UG Cognition lectures in Oxford. It's marvellous - best textbook I've come across for a while. Steve and Marvin have done us all a service in writing this, strongly recommend.
Hello, Psychonomics! Not sure if Oxford University Press has a stall this year, but if you’re interested in checking out Marvin Chun’s and my new Cognition textbook, you can find sample chapters and other info here: pages.oup.com/he/us/cognit...
November 17, 2023 at 5:37 PM
I've been using this book as reading for UG Cognition lectures in Oxford. It's marvellous - best textbook I've come across for a while. Steve and Marvin have done us all a service in writing this, strongly recommend.
Wikipedia's own article about itself contains an editorial note complaining that it is excessively promotional in tone. That is really quite meta
November 16, 2023 at 12:30 PM
Wikipedia's own article about itself contains an editorial note complaining that it is excessively promotional in tone. That is really quite meta
round up of advances in AI from the other place. Anyone else excited by this new AI called MEG?
October 23, 2023 at 10:13 AM
round up of advances in AI from the other place. Anyone else excited by this new AI called MEG?
interesting vacancy for an RE to work at the intersection of AI and social science: www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...
October 15, 2023 at 7:19 AM
interesting vacancy for an RE to work at the intersection of AI and social science: www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...
authors claim GPT-4 provide human-quality reviews of Nature family journals *with no fine tuning*. This seems bonkers to me, if true can only tell us about the parlous state of human review, esp. at glam journals: arxiv.org/abs/2310.01427
October 5, 2023 at 7:28 AM
authors claim GPT-4 provide human-quality reviews of Nature family journals *with no fine tuning*. This seems bonkers to me, if true can only tell us about the parlous state of human review, esp. at glam journals: arxiv.org/abs/2310.01427
attention computational neuroscientists. Cosyne submissions are open for the 2024 meeting in Lisbon.
www.cosyne.org/abstracts-su...
www.cosyne.org/abstracts-su...
October 5, 2023 at 7:20 AM
attention computational neuroscientists. Cosyne submissions are open for the 2024 meeting in Lisbon.
www.cosyne.org/abstracts-su...
www.cosyne.org/abstracts-su...
I am looking forward to this event - thanks for organising Caswell
UCL annual NeuroAI meeting. 28th November. We’ve got cool speakers. Lightening talks. Posters. And it’s streamed for people who aren’t in London. What’s not to like?!
www.eventbrite.com/e/ucl-neuroa...
www.eventbrite.com/e/ucl-neuroa...
October 4, 2023 at 9:13 AM
I am looking forward to this event - thanks for organising Caswell