Chris Tsvetkov
Chris Tsvetkov
@ctsvetkov.bsky.social
Looking for a new position! Former postdoc in Sampling lab in Uni of Warwick. Into cognitive science, modelling, neural nets, philosophy of science. Dad.
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
I wrote a Gist on this last time:

www.thegist.ie/the-gist-a-b...

“It was only when the Dutch spy agency actually came out and warned their own government it threatened the country's own cybersecurity that they flipped from support to abstain and the Hungarian plan lost its majority.”
September 9, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
🧠 New preprint: Why do deep neural networks predict brain responses so well?
We find a striking dissociation: it’s not shared object recognition. Alignment is driven by sensitivity to texture-like local statistics.
📊 Study: n=57, 624k trials, 5 models doi.org/10.1101/2025...
September 8, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Academic writing tip: if you can’t explain it clearly, just say it’s complex, layered, and theoretically rich
August 29, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Exciting news! We're thrilled to announce the appointment of Professor Hugo Larochelle as Mila's new Scientific Director! A deep learning pioneer and former head of Google's AI lab in Montreal, Hugo's leadership will be pivotal in advancing AI for the benefit of all.

mila.quebec/en/news/hugo...
Hugo Larochelle becomes the new Scientific Director of Mila | Mila
Montreal (Quebec), September 2, 2025 – Mila, the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, announces the appointment of Hugo Larochelle—Adjunct Professor at the Université de Montréal and former head ...
mila.quebec
September 2, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Very happy to announce that our paper “Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision” is now out as a target article in BBS!! @smfleming.bsky.social and I present a new theory of the evolution and functions of visual consciousness. Article here: doi.org/10.1017/S014.... A (long) thread 🧵
Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision
doi.org
April 21, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
I wrote a whole book about how that hasn't worked and why it won't work and what we need to do instead. (Yes, I have strong feelings). So naturally I was very curious to see whether that figure had been removed from the 2025 edition. And guess what?

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Elusive Cures
A neuroscientist’s bold proposal for tackling one of the greatest challenges of our time—brain and mental illnesses
press.princeton.edu
September 2, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Apparently Guillermo Del Toro has ruined Frankenstein by… being relatively faithful to the source material.

Oh my.
September 2, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
EPFL, ETH Zurich & CSCS just released Apertus, Switzerland’s first fully open-source large language model.
Trained on 15T tokens in 1,000+ languages, it’s built for transparency, responsibility & the public good.

Read more: actu.epfl.ch/news/apertus...
September 2, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Margaret Boden, giant of Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of AI, is one of the people whose lives will be remembered on BBC Radio 4’s Last Word programme tomorrow at 4pm UK time. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - Last Word, Dame Cleo Laine, Hulk Hogan, Margaret Boden, Tom Lehrer
Matthew Bannister on a singer, a wrestler, a cognitive scientist and a satirist.
www.bbc.co.uk
July 31, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
This is unfortunate:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...
I wrote to the president of Harvard. I hope other faculty will speak their conscience, even if it means more struggle ahead.
July 29, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Sad to hear that Margaret Boden, pioneer in cognitive science and artificial intelligence, has passed away.

Just a few days ago, someone reactivated the post below. I warmly recommend watching the video.

Thank you Margaret for founding and shaping our field.

www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/re...
July 28, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Finally published:
“Explosive neural networks via higher-order interactions in curved statistical manifolds”
nature.com/articles/s4146…

Enhancing the capabilities of recurrent neural networks by deforming their geometry!
July 25, 2025 at 6:31 AM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
The Commission is pushing for a massive increase in funding for Horizon Europe 2028-2034. If I understand correctly, Pillar I, which includes @erc.europa.eu and Marie Sklodowska Curie fellowships, would go from the current €25 billion to €44 billion. Let's hope it happens!
July 23, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
"The great irony of vaccines is that populations become complacent about a disease and the need for immunisation largely because a successful vaccine made it feel as though the threat was consigned to the past" excellent stuff by Francis Ryan on the rise of measles across the globe
Look at the rise of measles in England and ask yourself: have we learned a single thing from Covid? | Frances Ryan
People grow complacent about vaccines precisely because they are so effective. What happened to collective responsibility, asks Guardian columnist Frances Ryan
www.theguardian.com
July 23, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Better version of the meme.
July 23, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Increasingly convinced the main damage cell phones have done to creativity isn't decreased attention spans or what not but the elimination of productive boredom. Inspiration comes from the mind filling the void inside. Hard to make art when you're constantly silencing the silence with "content."
July 22, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Super excited to have the #InfoCog workshop this year at #CogSci2025! Join us in SF for an exciting lineup of speakers and panelists, and check out the workshop's website for more info and detailed scheduled
sites.google.com/view/infocog...
July 22, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
🧵Introducing the Trump Action Tracker website!

Today I’m launching www.trumpactiontracker.info - a live, searchable list of authoritarian‑style actions from Trump’s second term (over 740 actions so far). 1/14
July 21, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
IU has the oldest Folklore Department in the country--no longer a major. Cognitive Science? gone! PhD programs also sacrificed. Full list here: www.in.gov/che/files/In...
www.in.gov
June 30, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
Alert! ... for the child development world!

@fluxsociety.bsky.social @fitngin.bsky.social

The Healthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study has released its first data wave - it’s massive.

Check here:
docs.hbcdstudy.org

and here:
nbdc-datahub.org

Here’s why it matters 🧠🍼
June 29, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. It tries to provide guidance to ...
sks.to
June 19, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
And I will fight to the death to retain this right
Academic freedom mostly means freedom to work on something for 10 years and still not submit it
June 23, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
"manuscript under review"
June 17, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Reposted by Chris Tsvetkov
🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬

Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
June 16, 2025 at 3:14 PM