Thomas Steinke
@stein.ke
Computer science, math, machine learning, (differential) privacy
Researcher at Google DeepMind
Kiwi🇳🇿 in California🇺🇸
http://stein.ke/
Researcher at Google DeepMind
Kiwi🇳🇿 in California🇺🇸
http://stein.ke/
Pinned
Thomas Steinke
@stein.ke
· Nov 14
I'm going to slowly repost my math notes from the other site🐦 here🦋; it's the only thing I posted over there that I think may have some long-term value & worth not deleting.
These started out as notes for myself, but people seem to appreciate them. 😅
I'll keep track of all of them in this thread.
These started out as notes for myself, but people seem to appreciate them. 😅
I'll keep track of all of them in this thread.
Reposted by Thomas Steinke
Nearly-Optimal Private Selection via Gaussian Mechanism
Ethan Leeman, Pasin Manurangsi
http://arxiv.org/abs/2511.06871
Ethan Leeman, Pasin Manurangsi
http://arxiv.org/abs/2511.06871
November 11, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Nearly-Optimal Private Selection via Gaussian Mechanism
Ethan Leeman, Pasin Manurangsi
http://arxiv.org/abs/2511.06871
Ethan Leeman, Pasin Manurangsi
http://arxiv.org/abs/2511.06871
As a parent, half my phone contacts are like "Ecthelion, father of Denethor" or "Elrond (Arwen's dad)". It feels a bit backwards.
November 9, 2025 at 7:27 PM
As a parent, half my phone contacts are like "Ecthelion, father of Denethor" or "Elrond (Arwen's dad)". It feels a bit backwards.
The city I live in banned gasoline-powered leaf blowers because they are too loud.
This morning at 5am the city showed up with gasoline-powered chainsaws and a gasoline-powered wood chipper to remove a tree at 5am right outside my window at 5am.
This morning at 5am the city showed up with gasoline-powered chainsaws and a gasoline-powered wood chipper to remove a tree at 5am right outside my window at 5am.
November 6, 2025 at 3:33 PM
The city I live in banned gasoline-powered leaf blowers because they are too loud.
This morning at 5am the city showed up with gasoline-powered chainsaws and a gasoline-powered wood chipper to remove a tree at 5am right outside my window at 5am.
This morning at 5am the city showed up with gasoline-powered chainsaws and a gasoline-powered wood chipper to remove a tree at 5am right outside my window at 5am.
I can't remember where I saw this, but this is a great question to challenge someone's understanding of physics:
Why are left and right reversed in a mirror but not top and bottom?
Why are left and right reversed in a mirror but not top and bottom?
November 5, 2025 at 9:40 PM
I can't remember where I saw this, but this is a great question to challenge someone's understanding of physics:
Why are left and right reversed in a mirror but not top and bottom?
Why are left and right reversed in a mirror but not top and bottom?
This kind of extreme position is detached from reality and only serves to reduce the credibility of real concerns.
The same applies to the other extreme -- i.e., the skynet p(doom)ers.
The same applies to the other extreme -- i.e., the skynet p(doom)ers.
i’ve said this before but lemme say it again. it makes absolutely 0 sense to talk about “misuse” of llms because there is no clear use or purpose for llms to begin with. genAI is a purposeless tech floating around looking for uptake
1/
1/
November 3, 2025 at 8:27 PM
This kind of extreme position is detached from reality and only serves to reduce the credibility of real concerns.
The same applies to the other extreme -- i.e., the skynet p(doom)ers.
The same applies to the other extreme -- i.e., the skynet p(doom)ers.
"Sorry we're late. Uh, daylight savings..."
"Shouldn't daylight savings make you early today??"
"Yes, um, but I, er, wasted time thinking I had an extra hour, which didn't account for the fact that we are usually running late."
"Shouldn't daylight savings make you early today??"
"Yes, um, but I, er, wasted time thinking I had an extra hour, which didn't account for the fact that we are usually running late."
November 2, 2025 at 5:37 PM
"Sorry we're late. Uh, daylight savings..."
"Shouldn't daylight savings make you early today??"
"Yes, um, but I, er, wasted time thinking I had an extra hour, which didn't account for the fact that we are usually running late."
"Shouldn't daylight savings make you early today??"
"Yes, um, but I, er, wasted time thinking I had an extra hour, which didn't account for the fact that we are usually running late."
November 1st is a good time to teach your kids about taxation.
November 1, 2025 at 6:29 PM
November 1st is a good time to teach your kids about taxation.
AI-written surveys are definitely a problem, but it feels so backwards for arXiv PREprints to require peer review first. Not sure what the solution is.
If a position paper is accepted at a decent venue (ICML, NeurIPS, ACM Computing Surveys, etc.), we will gladly release it on arXiv.
October 31, 2025 at 8:14 PM
AI-written surveys are definitely a problem, but it feels so backwards for arXiv PREprints to require peer review first. Not sure what the solution is.
It's not surprising that there are large outages of internet infrastructure. What's surprising (to me) it that the network itself seems quite resilient. There are local outages - e.g. due to a fibre being cut - but you rarely see major BGP failures taking the entire worldwide network down.
October 21, 2025 at 3:21 AM
It's not surprising that there are large outages of internet infrastructure. What's surprising (to me) it that the network itself seems quite resilient. There are local outages - e.g. due to a fibre being cut - but you rarely see major BGP failures taking the entire worldwide network down.
Got an email this morning saying the school busses were running late (and ours indeed was 15 mins late).
No reason was given. Could it be? 🤔
No reason was given. Could it be? 🤔
October 21, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Got an email this morning saying the school busses were running late (and ours indeed was 15 mins late).
No reason was given. Could it be? 🤔
No reason was given. Could it be? 🤔
Reposted by Thomas Steinke
The FORC 2026 call for papers is out! responsiblecomputing.org/forc-2026-ca... Two reviewing cycles with two deadlines: Nov 11 and Feb 17. If you haven't been, FORC is a great venue for theoretical work in "responsible AI" --- fairness, privacy, social choice, CS&Law, explainability, etc.
FORC 2026: Call for Papers
The 7th annual Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC) will be held on June 3-5, 2026 at Harvard University. Brief summary for those who are familiar with past editions (prior to 2…
responsiblecomputing.org
October 7, 2025 at 12:02 PM
The FORC 2026 call for papers is out! responsiblecomputing.org/forc-2026-ca... Two reviewing cycles with two deadlines: Nov 11 and Feb 17. If you haven't been, FORC is a great venue for theoretical work in "responsible AI" --- fairness, privacy, social choice, CS&Law, explainability, etc.
I'm excited to share this paper.
It answers a question that has bugged me for a long time: Can sample-and-aggregate be made more data-efficient? The answer is yes, but at a steep price in computational efficiency. See 🧵 for more details.
Also, it was a fun opportunity to add a new coauthor. 😁
It answers a question that has bugged me for a long time: Can sample-and-aggregate be made more data-efficient? The answer is yes, but at a steep price in computational efficiency. See 🧵 for more details.
Also, it was a fun opportunity to add a new coauthor. 😁
Privately Estimating Black-Box Statistics
Günter F. Steinke, Thomas Steinke
http://arxiv.org/abs/2510.00322
Günter F. Steinke, Thomas Steinke
http://arxiv.org/abs/2510.00322
October 4, 2025 at 4:05 PM
I'm excited to share this paper.
It answers a question that has bugged me for a long time: Can sample-and-aggregate be made more data-efficient? The answer is yes, but at a steep price in computational efficiency. See 🧵 for more details.
Also, it was a fun opportunity to add a new coauthor. 😁
It answers a question that has bugged me for a long time: Can sample-and-aggregate be made more data-efficient? The answer is yes, but at a steep price in computational efficiency. See 🧵 for more details.
Also, it was a fun opportunity to add a new coauthor. 😁
The fourth deadliest war in history killed 20-30 million people (more than WW1) and was a rebellion led by a man claiming to be the brother of Jesus Christ, and you've never even heard of it. 🤯
September 23, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The fourth deadliest war in history killed 20-30 million people (more than WW1) and was a rebellion led by a man claiming to be the brother of Jesus Christ, and you've never even heard of it. 🤯
Apps need to ask for permission to access the camera/microphone. The same should apply to the speaker. Some apps should never make a sound. 🔇
September 18, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Apps need to ask for permission to access the camera/microphone. The same should apply to the speaker. Some apps should never make a sound. 🔇
Why do we use "non-decreasing" as a synonym for increasing? The negation is confusing. E.g., the sine function is not decreasing. Is the distinction between strictly and non-strictly increasing meaningful?
September 11, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Why do we use "non-decreasing" as a synonym for increasing? The negation is confusing. E.g., the sine function is not decreasing. Is the distinction between strictly and non-strictly increasing meaningful?
On my way to work I saw a billboard that just said "caffeine" – as if that shit needs to advertise.
September 4, 2025 at 4:38 PM
On my way to work I saw a billboard that just said "caffeine" – as if that shit needs to advertise.
I just had to enter my birthdate using an interface that required me to click once for every month of my life. This is offensive on multiple levels.
August 29, 2025 at 1:59 AM
I just had to enter my birthdate using an interface that required me to click once for every month of my life. This is offensive on multiple levels.
🤦🤦🤦 this is not how two factor identification works 🤦🤦🤦🤦
![[Screenshot of an app]
Code Verification
Call customer service at 1-866-4220306 (outside the U.S. call 1-210-677-0065) to retrieve your One-time identification Code .](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:thfnaqgktdwqbm42radc322i/bafkreiffo5kk6fobzmxoz3dnfwonqj36xejsutsj6wh6kuv4eqwzijh3gi@jpeg)
August 13, 2025 at 2:29 AM
🤦🤦🤦 this is not how two factor identification works 🤦🤦🤦🤦
Reposted by Thomas Steinke
To reduce barriers to attendance, #FOCS2025 will try to facilitate childcare for attendees during the conference.
Information, how to register your interest, and how to apply for financial support: focs.computer.org/2025/childca...
Deadline (for the latter): ⏰ September 19th (AoE)
Information, how to register your interest, and how to apply for financial support: focs.computer.org/2025/childca...
Deadline (for the latter): ⏰ September 19th (AoE)
Childcare Support – FOCS 2025
focs.computer.org
August 11, 2025 at 9:23 AM
To reduce barriers to attendance, #FOCS2025 will try to facilitate childcare for attendees during the conference.
Information, how to register your interest, and how to apply for financial support: focs.computer.org/2025/childca...
Deadline (for the latter): ⏰ September 19th (AoE)
Information, how to register your interest, and how to apply for financial support: focs.computer.org/2025/childca...
Deadline (for the latter): ⏰ September 19th (AoE)
Today I wrote some code in which print("failed successfully") made perfect sense. 🙃
July 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Today I wrote some code in which print("failed successfully") made perfect sense. 🙃
The year is 2100. The verb "to coldplay" means to inadvertently confess by acting guilty when caught doing something otherwise innocuous. No one remembers the etymology.
July 21, 2025 at 3:21 PM
The year is 2100. The verb "to coldplay" means to inadvertently confess by acting guilty when caught doing something otherwise innocuous. No one remembers the etymology.
Amazon informs me that Prime day is expected to occur between July 8 and July 11. Does anyone know what the confidence level for that interval is? Is it 95%? When will we get more precise measurements?
July 8, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Amazon informs me that Prime day is expected to occur between July 8 and July 11. Does anyone know what the confidence level for that interval is? Is it 95%? When will we get more precise measurements?
I'm told IBM Almaden will close later this year. The people there will move to a nearby IBM office. It's a beautiful campus with an illustrious 40-year history. I have fond memories from working there 2016-2020.
July 5, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I'm told IBM Almaden will close later this year. The people there will move to a nearby IBM office. It's a beautiful campus with an illustrious 40-year history. I have fond memories from working there 2016-2020.
I think you would win the Nobel Prize in Architecture if you could design a garage that doesn't accumulate miscellaneous non-car stuff.
July 3, 2025 at 5:35 PM
I think you would win the Nobel Prize in Architecture if you could design a garage that doesn't accumulate miscellaneous non-car stuff.