Blake Richards
@tyrellturing.bsky.social
Researcher at Google and CIFAR Fellow, working on the intersection of machine learning and neuroscience in Montréal (academic affiliations: @mcgill.ca and @mila-quebec.bsky.social).
Reposted by Blake Richards
Need something to feel good about? I sure do. Here are 7 fantastic science stores from 2025. Science will continue, even if The Regime tries to kill it at home. #Science 🧪
Seven feel-good science stories to restore your faith in 2025
Immense progress in gene editing, drug discovery and conservation are just some of the reasons to be cheerful about 2025.
www.nature.com
December 19, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Need something to feel good about? I sure do. Here are 7 fantastic science stores from 2025. Science will continue, even if The Regime tries to kill it at home. #Science 🧪
Reposted by Blake Richards
McGill is recruiting top-tier researchers working abroad through the federally funded Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program, addressing global and national challenges. The first round is due in early 2026.
Learn more and submit your candidacy: https://mcgill.ca/x/5Zh
Learn more and submit your candidacy: https://mcgill.ca/x/5Zh
December 18, 2025 at 9:02 PM
McGill is recruiting top-tier researchers working abroad through the federally funded Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program, addressing global and national challenges. The first round is due in early 2026.
Learn more and submit your candidacy: https://mcgill.ca/x/5Zh
Learn more and submit your candidacy: https://mcgill.ca/x/5Zh
Great to see this paper on sensory expectations in motor control from @jonathanamichaels.bsky.social and @andpru.bsky.social out in Nature today!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience 🧪
Sensory expectations shape neural population dynamics in motor circuits - Nature
Experiments with human volunteers and macaques show that expectations produced by probabilistic cueing of future sensory inputs shape motor circuit dynamics in order to increase the efficiency of move...
www.nature.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Great to see this paper on sensory expectations in motor control from @jonathanamichaels.bsky.social and @andpru.bsky.social out in Nature today!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience 🧪
I don't know what it is with my luck, but every time I say to myself "Maybe all these Mac enthusiasts are onto something, I should try it", I instantly regret it.
Can I connect my bluetooth headphones? No.
Is there a physical jack I can use anyway? Also no.
I literally find Linux easier to debug.
Can I connect my bluetooth headphones? No.
Is there a physical jack I can use anyway? Also no.
I literally find Linux easier to debug.
December 17, 2025 at 9:07 PM
I don't know what it is with my luck, but every time I say to myself "Maybe all these Mac enthusiasts are onto something, I should try it", I instantly regret it.
Can I connect my bluetooth headphones? No.
Is there a physical jack I can use anyway? Also no.
I literally find Linux easier to debug.
Can I connect my bluetooth headphones? No.
Is there a physical jack I can use anyway? Also no.
I literally find Linux easier to debug.
Reposted by Blake Richards
This is part of the reason why I teach & make YouTube videos on how AI is used in science: I don't want all the baggage from genAI & chatbots to prevent the public from supporting or trusting better & more grounded forms of AI.
Finally @mmitchell.bsky.social explains why generative AI hype can blind us to the AI breakthroughs that we should really celebrate. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/15/1...
Generative AI hype distracts us from AI’s more important breakthroughs
It's a seductive distraction from the advances in AI that are most likely to improve or even save your life
www.technologyreview.com
December 17, 2025 at 2:13 PM
This is part of the reason why I teach & make YouTube videos on how AI is used in science: I don't want all the baggage from genAI & chatbots to prevent the public from supporting or trusting better & more grounded forms of AI.
Reposted by Blake Richards
Why isn’t modern AI built around principles from cognitive science or neuroscience? Starting a substack (infinitefaculty.substack.com/p/why-isnt-m...) by writing down my thoughts on that question: as part of a first series of posts giving my current thoughts on the relation between these fields. 1/3
Why isn’t modern AI built around principles from cognitive science?
First post in a series on cognitive science and AI
infinitefaculty.substack.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Why isn’t modern AI built around principles from cognitive science or neuroscience? Starting a substack (infinitefaculty.substack.com/p/why-isnt-m...) by writing down my thoughts on that question: as part of a first series of posts giving my current thoughts on the relation between these fields. 1/3
Reposted by Blake Richards
How do biological agents learn for the future?
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
December 17, 2025 at 5:06 PM
How do biological agents learn for the future?
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Blake Richards
My team and I just published a new framework for AI social intelligence. By grasping self-other similarity and predicting how their actions affect others, models are encouraged to cooperate—solving the Prisoner’s Dilemma.
More on Embedded Universal Predictive Intelligence (MUPI) ⬇
More on Embedded Universal Predictive Intelligence (MUPI) ⬇
1/ Why does RL struggle with social dilemmas? How can we ensure that AI learns to cooperate rather than compete?
Introducing our new framework: MUPI (Embedded Universal Predictive Intelligence) which provides a theoretical basis for new cooperative solutions in RL.
Preprint🧵👇
(Paper link below.)
Introducing our new framework: MUPI (Embedded Universal Predictive Intelligence) which provides a theoretical basis for new cooperative solutions in RL.
Preprint🧵👇
(Paper link below.)
December 16, 2025 at 5:36 PM
My team and I just published a new framework for AI social intelligence. By grasping self-other similarity and predicting how their actions affect others, models are encouraged to cooperate—solving the Prisoner’s Dilemma.
More on Embedded Universal Predictive Intelligence (MUPI) ⬇
More on Embedded Universal Predictive Intelligence (MUPI) ⬇
Reposted by Blake Richards
🧪 Over half of researchers now use AI for peer review, often violating confidentiality protocols. As third-party tools risk data security, publishers are moving toward closed internal systems to safely integrate AI assistance.
#AcademicSky #PeerReview
#AcademicSky #PeerReview
More than half of researchers now use AI for peer review — often against guidance
A survey of 1,600 academics found that more than 50% have used artificial-intelligence tools while peer reviewing manuscripts.
www.nature.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:29 PM
🧪 Over half of researchers now use AI for peer review, often violating confidentiality protocols. As third-party tools risk data security, publishers are moving toward closed internal systems to safely integrate AI assistance.
#AcademicSky #PeerReview
#AcademicSky #PeerReview
#AITestForTasks
If everyone's using AI to do X, then X is probably something we don't actually need to be wasting our mental energy doing... (at least not as often as we do).
If everyone's using AI to do X, then X is probably something we don't actually need to be wasting our mental energy doing... (at least not as often as we do).
🧪 Over half of researchers now use AI for peer review, often violating confidentiality protocols. As third-party tools risk data security, publishers are moving toward closed internal systems to safely integrate AI assistance.
#AcademicSky #PeerReview
#AcademicSky #PeerReview
More than half of researchers now use AI for peer review — often against guidance
A survey of 1,600 academics found that more than 50% have used artificial-intelligence tools while peer reviewing manuscripts.
www.nature.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:56 PM
#AITestForTasks
If everyone's using AI to do X, then X is probably something we don't actually need to be wasting our mental energy doing... (at least not as often as we do).
If everyone's using AI to do X, then X is probably something we don't actually need to be wasting our mental energy doing... (at least not as often as we do).
Reposted by Blake Richards
Though I don't use it myself, using AI to turn bullet point notes into a written summary I think is not technically against confidentially rules (as it doesn't require feeding in the manuscript itself). Other uses listed here certainly are though, and that is disappointing to see.
🧪 Over half of researchers now use AI for peer review, often violating confidentiality protocols. As third-party tools risk data security, publishers are moving toward closed internal systems to safely integrate AI assistance.
#AcademicSky #PeerReview
#AcademicSky #PeerReview
More than half of researchers now use AI for peer review — often against guidance
A survey of 1,600 academics found that more than 50% have used artificial-intelligence tools while peer reviewing manuscripts.
www.nature.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Though I don't use it myself, using AI to turn bullet point notes into a written summary I think is not technically against confidentially rules (as it doesn't require feeding in the manuscript itself). Other uses listed here certainly are though, and that is disappointing to see.
Reposted by Blake Richards
1/X Excited to present this preprint on multi-tasking, with
@david-g-clark.bsky.social and Ashok Litwin-Kumar! Timely too, as “low-D manifold” has been trending again. (If you read thru the end, we escape Flatland and return to the glorious high-D world we deserve.) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@david-g-clark.bsky.social and Ashok Litwin-Kumar! Timely too, as “low-D manifold” has been trending again. (If you read thru the end, we escape Flatland and return to the glorious high-D world we deserve.) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A theory of multi-task computation and task selection
Neural activity during the performance of a stereotyped behavioral task is often described as low-dimensional, occupying only a limited region in the space of all firing-rate patterns. This region has...
www.biorxiv.org
December 15, 2025 at 7:41 PM
1/X Excited to present this preprint on multi-tasking, with
@david-g-clark.bsky.social and Ashok Litwin-Kumar! Timely too, as “low-D manifold” has been trending again. (If you read thru the end, we escape Flatland and return to the glorious high-D world we deserve.) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
@david-g-clark.bsky.social and Ashok Litwin-Kumar! Timely too, as “low-D manifold” has been trending again. (If you read thru the end, we escape Flatland and return to the glorious high-D world we deserve.) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Blake Richards
métro, station préfontaine, montréal
December 14, 2025 at 10:46 PM
métro, station préfontaine, montréal
Reposted by Blake Richards
Incredible piece on Oliver Sacks. If you were ever awed at his supposedly true stories (I remember being stunned by the account of the autistic twins who rattled off large prime numbers), read this. He told wonderful stories, but they were in large part fiction.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Oliver Sacks Put Himself Into His Case Studies. What Was the Cost?
The scientist was famous for linking healing with storytelling. Sometimes that meant reshaping patients’ reality.
www.newyorker.com
December 12, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Incredible piece on Oliver Sacks. If you were ever awed at his supposedly true stories (I remember being stunned by the account of the autistic twins who rattled off large prime numbers), read this. He told wonderful stories, but they were in large part fiction.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by Blake Richards
Sakana AIでは、研究成果を社会実装につなげる「Applied Team」を急速に拡大しています。
世界最先端の自律型エージェント技術を駆使して、未踏のソリューション開発に挑むApplied Research Engineerを募集中です。技術の社会実装をさらに加速させる、コアメンバーとしての参画をお待ちしています🚀
sakana.ai/careers/#app...
（正社員・学生インターン問わず歓迎です✨）
世界最先端の自律型エージェント技術を駆使して、未踏のソリューション開発に挑むApplied Research Engineerを募集中です。技術の社会実装をさらに加速させる、コアメンバーとしての参画をお待ちしています🚀
sakana.ai/careers/#app...
（正社員・学生インターン問わず歓迎です✨）
December 12, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Sakana AIでは、研究成果を社会実装につなげる「Applied Team」を急速に拡大しています。
世界最先端の自律型エージェント技術を駆使して、未踏のソリューション開発に挑むApplied Research Engineerを募集中です。技術の社会実装をさらに加速させる、コアメンバーとしての参画をお待ちしています🚀
sakana.ai/careers/#app...
（正社員・学生インターン問わず歓迎です✨）
世界最先端の自律型エージェント技術を駆使して、未踏のソリューション開発に挑むApplied Research Engineerを募集中です。技術の社会実装をさらに加速させる、コアメンバーとしての参画をお待ちしています🚀
sakana.ai/careers/#app...
（正社員・学生インターン問わず歓迎です✨）
Reposted by Blake Richards
My thoughts on the matter: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
December 11, 2025 at 7:17 PM
My thoughts on the matter: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I'm more and more convinced that low-dimensional manifolds in the brain are just an artifact of the experimental designs and analyses we use...
🧠📈 🧪
🧠📈 🧪
Dimensionality reduction may be the wrong approach to understanding neural representations. Our new paper shows that across human visual cortex, dimensionality is unbounded and scales with dataset size—we show this across nearly four orders of magnitude. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
December 11, 2025 at 8:19 PM
I'm more and more convinced that low-dimensional manifolds in the brain are just an artifact of the experimental designs and analyses we use...
🧠📈 🧪
🧠📈 🧪
I'm with Andrew here. Most papers can simply be judged by those who would even care to read them.
Note: if peer review were only done to a smaller number of papers, then we could probably also have those reviews be more thorough so that shite like the slop in the OP wouldn't get through.
Note: if peer review were only done to a smaller number of papers, then we could probably also have those reviews be more thorough so that shite like the slop in the OP wouldn't get through.
Peer review is important and useful but we should focus our efforts on a small number of papers that matter (making big claims, using new approaches) and let the vast majority of work live on a preprint server to be judged by their utility over time to domain experts.
Springer-Nature statement
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
December 11, 2025 at 8:14 PM
I'm with Andrew here. Most papers can simply be judged by those who would even care to read them.
Note: if peer review were only done to a smaller number of papers, then we could probably also have those reviews be more thorough so that shite like the slop in the OP wouldn't get through.
Note: if peer review were only done to a smaller number of papers, then we could probably also have those reviews be more thorough so that shite like the slop in the OP wouldn't get through.
Reposted by Blake Richards
Peer review is important and useful but we should focus our efforts on a small number of papers that matter (making big claims, using new approaches) and let the vast majority of work live on a preprint server to be judged by their utility over time to domain experts.
Springer-Nature statement
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
“Whilst the details of peer review are confidential, we can confirm that the article underwent two rounds of review from two independent peer reviewers, supporting an accept decision.”
How am I now expected to believe that two people looked at the paper twice and DGAF?
Riding the Autism Bicycle to Retraction Town
Does anyone *really* know their Factor Fexcectorn?
nobreakthroughs.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Peer review is important and useful but we should focus our efforts on a small number of papers that matter (making big claims, using new approaches) and let the vast majority of work live on a preprint server to be judged by their utility over time to domain experts.
Reposted by Blake Richards
The "AI Scientist will be a killjoy" argument is pretty funny. I, for one, would be happy to find joy in something less crucial if it means accelerating science harmlessly.
The idea that we want to prevent AI from finding cures for cancer because it would deprive scientists of the joy of discovery is, imo, absurd & selfish. The idea that human agency is paramount & thus humans should always be in the loop of scientific discovery is fine & good. These are separate ideas
December 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
The "AI Scientist will be a killjoy" argument is pretty funny. I, for one, would be happy to find joy in something less crucial if it means accelerating science harmlessly.
1/2) I've seen several posts dunking on data centres in space proposals, often by citing things like the cooling issue, radiation, power, etc.
Those are all valid concerns. But, Bluesky folks, the people making these proposals are not as dumb as you are assuming.
🧪 #MLSky
Those are all valid concerns. But, Bluesky folks, the people making these proposals are not as dumb as you are assuming.
🧪 #MLSky
December 10, 2025 at 9:58 PM
1/2) I've seen several posts dunking on data centres in space proposals, often by citing things like the cooling issue, radiation, power, etc.
Those are all valid concerns. But, Bluesky folks, the people making these proposals are not as dumb as you are assuming.
🧪 #MLSky
Those are all valid concerns. But, Bluesky folks, the people making these proposals are not as dumb as you are assuming.
🧪 #MLSky
Reposted by Blake Richards
We at COMPERE (www.compere.ca) have launched our 2026 funding round for Canadian-led motor neuroscience projects. Details here, contact me if you have questions. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Funding Call 2026
Funding Opportunity: Collaboration on Motor Planning, Execution, and Resilience With support from the Azrieli Foundation, the Collaboration on Motor Planning, Execution, and Resilience (COMPERE) is e...
docs.google.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:28 PM
We at COMPERE (www.compere.ca) have launched our 2026 funding round for Canadian-led motor neuroscience projects. Details here, contact me if you have questions. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Reposted by Blake Richards
"To secure Canada’s future in AI, we must out-smart, not out-spend"
New editorial by Valerie Pisano, President and CEO, Mila for CSPC's 2025 Canadian Science Policy Magazine:
https://sciencepolicy.ca/posts/to-secure-canadas-future-in-ai-we-must-out-smart-not-out-spend/
#CdnSci #CSPC2025
New editorial by Valerie Pisano, President and CEO, Mila for CSPC's 2025 Canadian Science Policy Magazine:
https://sciencepolicy.ca/posts/to-secure-canadas-future-in-ai-we-must-out-smart-not-out-spend/
#CdnSci #CSPC2025
December 10, 2025 at 8:30 PM
"To secure Canada’s future in AI, we must out-smart, not out-spend"
New editorial by Valerie Pisano, President and CEO, Mila for CSPC's 2025 Canadian Science Policy Magazine:
https://sciencepolicy.ca/posts/to-secure-canadas-future-in-ai-we-must-out-smart-not-out-spend/
#CdnSci #CSPC2025
New editorial by Valerie Pisano, President and CEO, Mila for CSPC's 2025 Canadian Science Policy Magazine:
https://sciencepolicy.ca/posts/to-secure-canadas-future-in-ai-we-must-out-smart-not-out-spend/
#CdnSci #CSPC2025
Reposted by Blake Richards
New paper out on @openmindjournal.bsky.social *
I propose balance is a core biophysical self-regulatory function, organisationally akin to thermo-regulation. Might seem radical off the bat, but by the end of the paper I hope you'll agree it seems pretty obvious.
doi.org/10.1162/OPMI...
I propose balance is a core biophysical self-regulatory function, organisationally akin to thermo-regulation. Might seem radical off the bat, but by the end of the paper I hope you'll agree it seems pretty obvious.
doi.org/10.1162/OPMI...
What is Balance? A Vital Mechano-Regulation Paradigm
Abstract. Within minutes of birth a newborn gnu or giraffe works to stand and walk, asserting postural balance and organised animate behaviour in an apparently goal-directed manner. In contrast, robot...
doi.org
December 10, 2025 at 11:03 AM
New paper out on @openmindjournal.bsky.social *
I propose balance is a core biophysical self-regulatory function, organisationally akin to thermo-regulation. Might seem radical off the bat, but by the end of the paper I hope you'll agree it seems pretty obvious.
doi.org/10.1162/OPMI...
I propose balance is a core biophysical self-regulatory function, organisationally akin to thermo-regulation. Might seem radical off the bat, but by the end of the paper I hope you'll agree it seems pretty obvious.
doi.org/10.1162/OPMI...