Do you still find generative flow networks (GFlowNets) a mysterious, weird kind of method? Check out this interactive article about GFlowNets from collaborators at Johannes Kepler University Linz! gfn-playground.caleydoapp.org

I'm looking to recruit a post-doc to help push forward our growing interests in insect ecotoxicology. Apply here by Nov 30th! (thanks for reposting) career5.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/job...

Would you like to join Mila @mila-quebec.bsky.social as a MSc or PhD student? Application from now until Dec 1 for Fall 2026 admission! Mila is a vibrant institute for deep learning research and its applications. I am looking for students interested in active learning for scientific discoveries.

“If you share your knowledge outside the scientific community, then you’re already exerting societal influence, according to Judi Mesman. This isn’t problematic for the prestige of science: ‘Pretending to be neutral doesn’t make sense to me.’” www.nwo.nl/en/there-is-...

Very well matched couple of posts on my feed. Links to them: - bsky.app/profile/iris... - bsky.app/profile/jane...

Free translation: Carbon offset are unsurprisingly useless due to capitalism Or: The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house

Please join me in congratulating Woman on her appointment

Montreal gems

My favourite Jane Goodall quotes....so many, so to the point, so wise. How different the world would be if enough people listened to her.

I was part of a working group on AI and Fraternity assembled by the Vatican. We met in Rome and worked on this over two days. I am happy to share the result of that intense effort: a Declaration we presented to the Pope and other government authorities coexistence.global

🎤 This week I’ll participate at ALL IN 2025, Canada’s largest AI event! I’ll be in the panel: AI and Climate Change: Can AI Help Solve the Planet’s Biggest Challenges? I hope it will be a good opportunity to discuss the impacts and opportunities of AI on Climate. www.allinevent.ai #ALLIN2025

I'm attending the Climate Mis/Disinformation Summit at @uottawa.ca. The keynote by @katharinehayhoe.com was wonderful and the various panels are super interesting! I'll add my humble two cents this afternoon in the panel on Digital Platforms, AI and the Climate Information Environment.

I'm kind of done with the review culture and system in machine learning... - R1: good, accept! - R2: everything is well done, but I don't like that. Bad score. - R3: great, accept! - R4: great, accept! AC: One [loud] reviewer didn't like one thing, so reject.

If you are into materials discovery and happen to be looking for postdoc positions, the Institut Courtois in Montréal has an open call for applications to wonderful postdoctoral fellowships: institut-courtois.umontreal.ca/en/postdocto...

Like every September, it's nonsense time in Montreal, as the city dismantles the summer pedestrian streets and cars start to fill them and pollute them again, replacing people and life. I can't wrap my head around why after managing to arrange all the logistics we have to go back to car nonsense...

"It is a famine that asks ‘but what did you do?’ A famine that will and must haunt us all. It is a predictable and a preventable famine. A famine caused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity." www.unocha.org/news/un-reli...

How long is the world going to allow this horror to go on?

Sharing this AMAZING opportunity: A postdoc in AI for Materials Discovery at @mila-quebec.bsky.social, with @alexhergar.bsky.social & @drolnick.bsky.social -- the group that took me in during my PhD. Exciting research topic, fantastic Professors, climate change mitigation = strongly recommended :)

📣 Postdoc call! We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on machine learning research for materials discovery. All details here: assets-v2.circle.so/4htxv8ljrkzr...

This week I've participated as a mentor in the hackathon of @mutek.bsky.social AI Ecologies Lab. A wonderful experience which gives me hope that AI can be different than the big-tech-powered hype. Here, AI was seen and used through an ecological and artistic lens. forum.mutek.org/en/cohort-of...

In the recent Open Molecules 2025 (OMol25) paper, the authors boast that their work required 6 billion CPU core-hours of compute with Facebook's infrastructure. No more details are offered, but let's do a back-of-the-envelope estimate of the energy and carbon emissions:

Will the world really not stop the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel? Will we let thousands of children starve while tons of food ready to be delivered is halted by Israel a few kilometres away? Will the academic world stay silent and keep silencing us? I can't sleep.

more of this please www.japantimes.co.jp/business/202...

I signed this letter Affirming the Scientific Consensus on Bias and Discrimination in AI, because I think it is critical for researchers to bring policymakers' attention to this issue more. www.aibiasconsensus.org This is important, please share. #MLSky 🧪

📢 We have a new #NeuroAI postdoctoral position in the lab! If you have a strong background in #NeuroAI or computational neuroscience, I’d love to hear from you. (Repost please) 🧠📈🤖

The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear... using genAI reduces a person’s cognitive efforts and critical thinking, findings from Microsoft Research

Same here. My uni makes me use microsoft products and my other research institute makes me use google products. Compound pain. Academic institutions should be free of these corporate impositions.

This excellent interactive tutorial on misleading data visualizations explores the idea of a "counter chart" — the graph you draw in response to refute a misleading claims flowingdata.com/projects/dis...

Really nicely written pair of posts about what language models seem to actually learn.

🚨 Call for a POSTDOC in machine learning for drug discovery at @umontreal.ca 💊 This is a large collaboration with @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social @audurand.bsky.social @dom-beaini.bsky.social Anne Marinier @mila-quebec.bsky.social IRIC All details here: brunlab.com/jobs/open-po... Please repost 💜

This is a neat thread on how the current trend to mindlessly scale up AI models is both incredibly wasteful and unnecessary.

No, the world has not breached the 1.5C global warming target. It’s a climate target - which means it’s an average that must be sustained over at least a decade. We currently sit at 1.2 C. Which is already very bad. The science is clear: every bit of warming matters, every action matters.

I fully agree with this take about LLMs

Internship opportunity: Spatiotemporal Graph applications for Smart Buildings⚡⚡⚡ working closely with me, starting in early 2025. Considering applying or/and sharing this with your network please. Apply here: forms.gle/N3kwFxM3yEhS... LinkedIn ad here: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Interesting preprint on the energy consumption of LLM code assistants. One of the reasons I don't use any (yet) is precisely concerns about unnecessary energy usage. One conclusion is that a lot of compute is wasted in generation requests that are unused by developers. arxiv.org/abs/2411.11892

Great summary of the reasons why AI systems exacerbate bias and injustice, beyond training data. By Dr. Abeba Birhane.

I'm looking for PhD and MSc students for Fall 2025, at Mila and the Université de Montréal. Topics: machine learning for science, details in 🧵 I especially encourage applicants from under-represented groups and regions in conflict (Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar...) See 🧵 for how to apply.

Really cool to see a paper on this topic! I can't agree more with the messages. In our Counting Carbon paper, also with @sashamtl.bsky.social, we also observed little correlation between energy used by models and performance. arxiv.org/abs/2302.08476

The host of the 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP29): fossil fuels are "the gift of the god" [sic]. I have nothing more to add. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Hey there, I'm also migrating here! Quick intro: my name is Alex (he/il/él), I am a machine learning (ML) scientist, researching ways in which ML can be used to improve people's lives, especially regarding the climate crisis and health. I'm also into open science, music, anti-capitalism...