YY Ahn
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yyahn.bsky.social
YY Ahn
@yyahn.bsky.social
Prof @ School of Data Science, University of Virginia. Formerly at IU. Networks, data science, and machine learning. https://yyahn.com

🚲🚲🚲
Reposted by YY Ahn
Incredibly, not one of these milestones scores as a “win” using the traffic engineering metrics that quietly dictate city planning.

Urban planning prof Jonathan Levine and I have one paper detailing why and another explaining why it has to change for any vision of abundance to succeed. Links below.
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…

* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M

So YES this has been a huge success.
December 30, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
In America, where irony is dead, a hotel chain uses a policy denying shelter to local people, for fear of accidentally housing homeless persons…

To deny a reservation to the author of a much-lauded book on how American economic unfairness forces working people into homelessness.
A Hampton Inn in Asheville just canceled my family's reservation because our address (incorrectly) showed Asheville—and the hotel bars locals within 50 miles.

When I asked why, they said, "because of our homeless population," adding that most hotels here have similar policies.

This is outrageous.
December 29, 2025 at 2:46 AM
"LLMs broadly align with human category boundaries, yet fall short on fine-grained semantic distinctions. Unlike humans, ... LLMs aggressively compress, achieving more optimal information-theoretic compression at the cost of semantic richness." arxiv.org/abs/2505.17117
From Tokens to Thoughts: How LLMs and Humans Trade Compression for Meaning
Humans organize knowledge into compact conceptual categories that balance compression with semantic richness. Large Language Models (LLMs) exhibit impressive linguistic abilities, but whether they nav...
arxiv.org
December 22, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
We're hiring interns in the Computational Social Science group at Microsoft Research NYC!

If you're interested in designing AI‑based systems and understanding their impact at both individual and societal scales, apply here by Jan 9, 2026: apply.careers.microsoft.com/careers/job/...
Research Intern - Computational Social Science | Microsoft Careers
Research Interns put inquiry and theory into practice. Alongside fellow doctoral candidates and some of the world's best researchers, Research Interns learn, collaborate, and network for life. Researc...
apply.careers.microsoft.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
You can’t “fix” X, The Everything App by going back and posting there because the owner has this thumb on the scale of the algorithm to promote the worst ideas and people. It’s not a viable solution, you have to let it go.
Dear Bluesky liberals. Come back to Twitter. Please. PLEASE.
December 14, 2025 at 11:59 PM
I always thought that the language mixing during reasoning is fascinating and whether it's actually a way that LLMs optimize its reasoning. Just came across a study on this: arxiv.org/abs/2507.15849
The Impact of Language Mixing on Bilingual LLM Reasoning
Proficient multilingual speakers often intentionally switch languages in the middle of a conversation. Similarly, recent reasoning-focused bilingual large language models (LLMs) with strong capabiliti...
arxiv.org
December 14, 2025 at 4:52 PM
This experiment can produce interesting data...
Announcing the ICML 2026 policy for LLMs in reviewing! Reviewers and authors both pick either conservative or permissive LLM use, and will be matched accordingly. Importantly: authors on papers who choose conservative must obey the conservative policy as reviewers.
December 12, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
Announcing the ICML 2026 policy for LLMs in reviewing! Reviewers and authors both pick either conservative or permissive LLM use, and will be matched accordingly. Importantly: authors on papers who choose conservative must obey the conservative policy as reviewers.
December 11, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
New paper out in @science.org! We unveil the online manipulation market with the Cambridge Online Trust & Safety Index (COTSI). We show in real time the cost of purchasing fake accounts across every social platform around the world - so they can be held accountable

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Mapping the online manipulation economy
A market perspective on digital manipulation may help improve online trust and safety
www.science.org
December 11, 2025 at 7:05 PM
"it is possible for machines to discover a state-of-the-art RL rule that outperforms manually designed rules. This was achieved by meta-learning from the cumulative experiences of a population of agents across a large number of complex environments."

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Discovering state-of-the-art reinforcement learning algorithms - Nature
An autonomous method discovers reinforcement learning rules from the cumulative experiences of a population of agents across a large number of complex environments, and the discovered rule achieves st...
www.nature.com
December 11, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
A wonderful opportunity to come join the @uvadatascience.bsky.social community!!
December 10, 2025 at 9:39 PM
🚨 A research staff position at my group at @uvadatascience.bsky.social!

I’m recruiting a research Scientist (or postdoc scholar). You can apply here! bit.ly/ylab-researc...

For more information: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Inquiries: yyahn@virginia.edu with [job] in the subject line.
Research Scientist or Postdoctoral Research Associate - School of Data Science
The School of Data Science at the University of Virginia and Professor Yong-Yeol (“YY”) Ahn, Quantitative Foundation Distinguished Professor, are excited to announce two professional research staff po...
bit.ly
December 10, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
The incredible @yyahn.bsky.social is building something special at UVA.

🚨 If you're a fit for this job, I highly recommend applying!

Find more details via the link below.

www.linkedin.com/posts/yyahn_...
December 10, 2025 at 6:01 PM
"What?" was my first reaction, but maybe this is *roughly* the right direction in a world where 'generation' becomes ever cheaper while 'evaluation' remains difficult.

But financial incentives may also attract more AI review slops. Will they be able to reliably root out AI review slops?
IJCAI 2026 will charge $100 USD per submission. Funds will be used to compensate reviewers.

2026.ijcai.org/ijcai-ecai-2...
December 9, 2025 at 7:22 PM
@cvillecityhall.bsky.social is on track to miss its own comprehensive plan & climate goals while budgeting so little for bike infra due to failure to identify projects.

I wrote a letter urging Council to fund a connected, protected network—not another decade of failure

yyahn.com/wiki/article...
A letter to city council: Inability to execute is not a justification for inaction - YY Ahn
yyahn.com
December 9, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
Support Techdirt’s Uncompromising Coverage, Get Our First Commemorative Coin

If you've been following along, you know why independent voices matter right now. The administration has been attacking institutions left and right. News orgs, law firms, philanthropic funders, universities, you name it.…
Support Techdirt’s Uncompromising Coverage, Get Our First Commemorative Coin
If you've been following along, you know why independent voices matter right now. The administration has been attacking institutions left and right. News orgs, law firms, philanthropic funders, universities, you name it. Many are capitulating. But not us. Someone needs to step up and keep doing this work without flinching and without compromising. That's where you come in.
www.techdirt.com
December 3, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
Latest details about the OpenReview leak by #ICLR2026

blog.iclr.cc/2025/12/03/i...
ICLR 2026 Response to Security Incident – ICLR Blog
blog.iclr.cc
December 4, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Reposted by YY Ahn
⏰ 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟵!

NetSci 2026 abstract submissions close Dec 19 — just around the corner.
If you’re doing exciting work in network science (theory, computation, or applications), this is your chance to share it with a global community.

📅 Submit by Dec 19
🔗 www.netsci2026.com/call-for-abs...
December 1, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?
August 6, 2025 at 10:03 PM
I’m excited to speak at the 20th edition of @netsciconf.bsky.social! Honored to join speakers whose work I studied with fascination 20 years ago when I was just beginning. I’ll look forward to learning how the field has evolved, discovering new directions in network science, and meeting everyone!
✨ Excited to announce 𝗬𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗬𝗲𝗼𝗹 (𝗬𝗬) 𝗔𝗵𝗻 as a NetSci 2026 Plenary Speaker! A leading network and data scientist, YY explores how complex systems shape behavior, cognition, and discovery. Stay tuned for more speaker updates as we build toward an inspiring NetSci 2026! ✨
www.netsci2026.com/speakers
December 1, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
✨ Excited to announce 𝗬𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗬𝗲𝗼𝗹 (𝗬𝗬) 𝗔𝗵𝗻 as a NetSci 2026 Plenary Speaker! A leading network and data scientist, YY explores how complex systems shape behavior, cognition, and discovery. Stay tuned for more speaker updates as we build toward an inspiring NetSci 2026! ✨
www.netsci2026.com/speakers
November 26, 2025 at 5:04 PM
We’re recruiting PhD students at @uvadatascience.bsky.social, and I’m looking for students to join our group (Y Lab) next year!

My group works at the intersection of network science, machine learning, and interpretable AI.

yyahn.com/ylab/

Apply here! datascience.virginia.edu/degrees/phd
Y Lab - YY Ahn
yyahn.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
One week left to apply to the UVA Biology PhD program! If you or someone you know are interested in contagion from a complex systems perspective, please reach out! I'm looking for a grad student! bio.as.virginia.edu/how-apply-gr...
How to Apply to the Graduate Program
bio.as.virginia.edu
November 25, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by YY Ahn
💥 Northeastern University in Boston is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Network Science & Communication! Joint appointment with Communication Studies & College of Science. Review of applications begins 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟱, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱. Please share!!
northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/careers/job/...
Assistant Professor in Network Science and Communication
About the Opportunity About the Opportunity The College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) at Northeastern University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Network Science, to b...
northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:08 PM