James MacGlashan
@jmac-ai.bsky.social
Ask me about Reinforcement Learning
Research @ Sony AI
AI should learn from its experiences, not copy your data.
My website for answering RL questions: https://www.decisionsanddragons.com/
Views and posts are my own.
Research @ Sony AI
AI should learn from its experiences, not copy your data.
My website for answering RL questions: https://www.decisionsanddragons.com/
Views and posts are my own.
Pinned
James MacGlashan
@jmac-ai.bsky.social
· Nov 10
Reinforcement learning in #AI is hard, so I’ve made a website to collect answers I’ve given to common RL questions.
It's named Decisions & Dragons. It’s launching with 8 questions and answers, but I will add to it in the future.
A 🧵 to give a preview with the link below.
It's named Decisions & Dragons. It’s launching with 8 questions and answers, but I will add to it in the future.
A 🧵 to give a preview with the link below.
Reposted by James MacGlashan
NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
November 16, 2025 at 11:43 PM
NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
I hope that a silver lining of researchers getting frustrated by crappy LLM-generated reviews is that the community realizes that publishing is systemically broken and needs a complete overhaul.
November 16, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I hope that a silver lining of researchers getting frustrated by crappy LLM-generated reviews is that the community realizes that publishing is systemically broken and needs a complete overhaul.
Reposted by James MacGlashan
When an insurance company is deciding whether to pay for your medical treatment, it generates a file, which should contain all records associated with your case, including documents explaining why the claim was denied.
You have a right to see this file.
(Published May 2023)
You have a right to see this file.
(Published May 2023)
Health Insurance Claim Denied? See What Insurers Said Behind the Scenes
Learn how to request your health insurance claim file, which can include details about what your insurer is saying about you and your case.
www.propublica.org
November 15, 2025 at 2:35 AM
When an insurance company is deciding whether to pay for your medical treatment, it generates a file, which should contain all records associated with your case, including documents explaining why the claim was denied.
You have a right to see this file.
(Published May 2023)
You have a right to see this file.
(Published May 2023)
Fellow AI researchers: do you think we've made substantial progress on any big open questions that were open in 2018?
My personal reaction is no. We've made tremendous progress scaling and improving distributional learning & other existing solutions, but not on cracking hard open problems.
My personal reaction is no. We've made tremendous progress scaling and improving distributional learning & other existing solutions, but not on cracking hard open problems.
November 14, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Fellow AI researchers: do you think we've made substantial progress on any big open questions that were open in 2018?
My personal reaction is no. We've made tremendous progress scaling and improving distributional learning & other existing solutions, but not on cracking hard open problems.
My personal reaction is no. We've made tremendous progress scaling and improving distributional learning & other existing solutions, but not on cracking hard open problems.
Reposted by James MacGlashan
Jasmine Crockett: "If people decide that they want to continue to support person who may be a pedophile themselves or a person who obviously is covering on pedophiles, that's on them. But they should at least know the devil they decided to pick."
November 13, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Jasmine Crockett: "If people decide that they want to continue to support person who may be a pedophile themselves or a person who obviously is covering on pedophiles, that's on them. But they should at least know the devil they decided to pick."
Democrats conceding to the republicans for a pinky promise is absolutely insane. Any democrat who votes for that needs to be primaried into oblivion and never allowed to hold any office any sort ever again.
November 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Democrats conceding to the republicans for a pinky promise is absolutely insane. Any democrat who votes for that needs to be primaried into oblivion and never allowed to hold any office any sort ever again.
Reposted by James MacGlashan
Emailed my senator, Dick Durbin.
November 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Emailed my senator, Dick Durbin.
Reposted by James MacGlashan
Agibot "Longcheer" real world reinforcement learning system. This will allow modern ai (meaning vision based autonomy) to be deployed at scale doing useful labor, at last
November 4, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Agibot "Longcheer" real world reinforcement learning system. This will allow modern ai (meaning vision based autonomy) to be deployed at scale doing useful labor, at last
Reposted by James MacGlashan
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
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🧵
The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵
🧵
Reposted by James MacGlashan
What's "one weird trick" that is actually real and useful?
October 23, 2025 at 11:18 PM
What's "one weird trick" that is actually real and useful?
Proposing we prohibit development on "superintelligence" is a meaningless statement.
No one knows how to build a "superintelligence." There are many open questions for how to build even dog-like intelligence.
So what exactly does this "prohibition" even mean/do beyond over-hype current tech?
No one knows how to build a "superintelligence." There are many open questions for how to build even dog-like intelligence.
So what exactly does this "prohibition" even mean/do beyond over-hype current tech?
October 22, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Proposing we prohibit development on "superintelligence" is a meaningless statement.
No one knows how to build a "superintelligence." There are many open questions for how to build even dog-like intelligence.
So what exactly does this "prohibition" even mean/do beyond over-hype current tech?
No one knows how to build a "superintelligence." There are many open questions for how to build even dog-like intelligence.
So what exactly does this "prohibition" even mean/do beyond over-hype current tech?
Reposted by James MacGlashan
We’re gaining ground!
October 22, 2025 at 3:20 PM
We’re gaining ground!
Reposted by James MacGlashan
AOC: When one party wants the votes of another party. You negotiate, you come to a compromise and you pass a bill. That is schoolhouse rock. And that is how things should be
October 16, 2025 at 1:14 AM
AOC: When one party wants the votes of another party. You negotiate, you come to a compromise and you pass a bill. That is schoolhouse rock. And that is how things should be
Reposted by James MacGlashan
AOC: You're damn right that it's a Democratic priority to keep people from getting poisoned, from dangerous chemicals
You're damn right that it's a Democratic priority to bring down the cost of housing
If they want to say that that's a Democratic priority, they're right,
You're damn right that it's a Democratic priority to bring down the cost of housing
If they want to say that that's a Democratic priority, they're right,
October 16, 2025 at 1:46 AM
AOC: You're damn right that it's a Democratic priority to keep people from getting poisoned, from dangerous chemicals
You're damn right that it's a Democratic priority to bring down the cost of housing
If they want to say that that's a Democratic priority, they're right,
You're damn right that it's a Democratic priority to bring down the cost of housing
If they want to say that that's a Democratic priority, they're right,
One of my common uses for LLMs is asking what standard mathematical notation to use for common concepts.
There are often multiple options used by different communities. LLMs will typically present you those multiple choices and comment on which communities tend for favor them.
There are often multiple options used by different communities. LLMs will typically present you those multiple choices and comment on which communities tend for favor them.
October 15, 2025 at 4:18 PM
One of my common uses for LLMs is asking what standard mathematical notation to use for common concepts.
There are often multiple options used by different communities. LLMs will typically present you those multiple choices and comment on which communities tend for favor them.
There are often multiple options used by different communities. LLMs will typically present you those multiple choices and comment on which communities tend for favor them.
Reposted by James MacGlashan
Trump is saying the quiet part out loud: he sent a $20B taxpayer-financed bailout to help his far-right buddy Milei cling to power.
Meanwhile our government is shut down, public servants aren't getting paid & we're barreling toward a Trump-made health care crisis. Sounds like Argentina First to me.
Meanwhile our government is shut down, public servants aren't getting paid & we're barreling toward a Trump-made health care crisis. Sounds like Argentina First to me.
Trump on Milei: "If he loses, we will not be generous with Argentina."
October 14, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Trump is saying the quiet part out loud: he sent a $20B taxpayer-financed bailout to help his far-right buddy Milei cling to power.
Meanwhile our government is shut down, public servants aren't getting paid & we're barreling toward a Trump-made health care crisis. Sounds like Argentina First to me.
Meanwhile our government is shut down, public servants aren't getting paid & we're barreling toward a Trump-made health care crisis. Sounds like Argentina First to me.
Reposted by James MacGlashan
This may just be the best CS paper I’ve read this year. Just read the abstract and first para of the intro! The rest of the intro is really wild too, but very very good:
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
October 14, 2025 at 1:12 PM
This may just be the best CS paper I’ve read this year. Just read the abstract and first para of the intro! The rest of the intro is really wild too, but very very good:
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
Reposted by James MacGlashan
Rapid RL experimentation is great. But how do you catch silent errors before they slip by?
In this post, I share tools and habits that help me move quickly from idea to result without sacrificing reliability.
In this post, I share tools and habits that help me move quickly from idea to result without sacrificing reliability.
How to catch subtle RL bugs before they catch you
Tools and habits for reliable, fast RL experimentation and development
open.substack.com
October 13, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Rapid RL experimentation is great. But how do you catch silent errors before they slip by?
In this post, I share tools and habits that help me move quickly from idea to result without sacrificing reliability.
In this post, I share tools and habits that help me move quickly from idea to result without sacrificing reliability.
Guido's opinion that removing the GIL isn't good for Python on the whole is consistent with my opinion that Python is good, but a bad fit for AI.
Trying to force it to match AI's needs may be a mistake. AI should use another language (fingers crossed for Mojo).
www.odbms.org/blog/2025/10...
Trying to force it to match AI's needs may be a mistake. AI should use another language (fingers crossed for Mojo).
www.odbms.org/blog/2025/10...
October 12, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Guido's opinion that removing the GIL isn't good for Python on the whole is consistent with my opinion that Python is good, but a bad fit for AI.
Trying to force it to match AI's needs may be a mistake. AI should use another language (fingers crossed for Mojo).
www.odbms.org/blog/2025/10...
Trying to force it to match AI's needs may be a mistake. AI should use another language (fingers crossed for Mojo).
www.odbms.org/blog/2025/10...
Reposted by James MacGlashan
C-SPAN caller to Mike Johnson: "Hearing you say that 'everyone is smiling' in cities where troops have been rolled into feels dystopian and insane watching the response to it."
October 9, 2025 at 1:00 PM
C-SPAN caller to Mike Johnson: "Hearing you say that 'everyone is smiling' in cities where troops have been rolled into feels dystopian and insane watching the response to it."
What a catastrophic misunderstanding of science. I wish he was just a kook with no impact on the world. Instead he's affecting policy at the highest level.
RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."
October 9, 2025 at 7:50 PM
What a catastrophic misunderstanding of science. I wish he was just a kook with no impact on the world. Instead he's affecting policy at the highest level.
Reposted by James MacGlashan
I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
codec lab
codec-lab.github.io
October 6, 2025 at 2:26 PM
I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠
Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏
It's imperative that we begin having trusted digital signing of photo/video content and editors that allow you track original camera source and editors/encoders that are used to modify the content.
On top of that, we need tooling to verify signatures.
No, we don't need blockchain for that.
On top of that, we need tooling to verify signatures.
No, we don't need blockchain for that.
October 6, 2025 at 7:30 PM
It's imperative that we begin having trusted digital signing of photo/video content and editors that allow you track original camera source and editors/encoders that are used to modify the content.
On top of that, we need tooling to verify signatures.
No, we don't need blockchain for that.
On top of that, we need tooling to verify signatures.
No, we don't need blockchain for that.
Reposted by James MacGlashan
This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.
Community action works.
Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...
Community action works.
Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...
October 5, 2025 at 5:24 PM
This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.
Community action works.
Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...
Community action works.
Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...