Kempner Institute at Harvard University
@kempnerinstitute.bsky.social
📤 714
📥 76
📝 342
The Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University.
📢 Just announced! Join us for the
#KempnerInstitute
workshop “Learning Dynamics in Natural and Artificial Intelligence: Evolution, Adaptation, and the Foundations of Efficient Learning.” Learn more, register, or submit an abstract 👉
bit.ly/3QwJlHR
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Learning Dynamics in Natural and Artificial Intelligence - Kempner Institute
This workshop will convene researchers from artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive science, and related disciplines to examine the principles governing learning and training dynamics across ...
https://bit.ly/3QwJlHR
2 days ago
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NEW: Kempner Research Roundup: June 2026! 🧠🤖 Learn about the latest research on natural and artificial intelligence from the Kempner Institute:
bit.ly/4oVMsWg
#AI
#NeuroAI
#neuroscience
2 days ago
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📽️ New video from the
#KempnerInstitute
! Learn more about how our undergraduates are training to be world-class scientists, and making discoveries about the very nature of
#intelligence
. 🧠 Read the article & watch the video 🔗
bit.ly/3QNPLlW
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Undergraduates on the Frontier of Intelligence Research - Kempner Institute
Making the leap from curious undergraduate student to bona fide scientist requires learning how to ask the right questions, and access to the tools and techniques necessary to find answers. […]
https://bit.ly/3QNPLlW
3 days ago
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💡New fruit fly
#connectome
research!
#KempnerInstitute
Affiliate Faculty Jan Drugowitsch (
@jdrugowitsch.bsky.social
), Graduate Fellow Mohammed Osman & collaborators have published the first complete connectome of the fruit fly central nervous system.🪰🧠 Read more➡️
bit.ly/4xVdS2E
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Researchers Publish First Complete Connectome of Fruit Fly Brain and ‘Spinal Cord’
Open-source resource poised to propel research on how nervous systems work
https://bit.ly/4xVdS2E
4 days ago
0
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Congratulations to outgoing
#KempnerInstitute
research fellows Naomi Saphra (
@nsaphra.bsky.social
) and Alex Damian on their faculty appointments at Boston University and MIT! 🎉 Read more about Naomi and Alex's research 👇
bit.ly/4whMn1A
@bucds.bsky.social
@mitmath.bsky.social
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Kempner Institute Celebrates Research Fellows Naomi Saphra and Alex Damian as they Depart for Faculty Roles - Kempner Institute
Allston, MA — Research Fellows Naomi Saphra and Alex Damian conclude their fellowships at the Kempner today and will soon begin new faculty appointments at Boston University and MIT, respectively. […]
https://bit.ly/4whMn1A
4 days ago
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New blog post: Jailbreak Scaling Laws for
#LLMs
Prompt-injection attacks can boost jailbreak success from slow polynomial to exponential growth as inference-time samples increase. New on the Deeper Learning blog:
bit.ly/4eK3ZfC
#AI
@cpehlevan.bsky.social
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Jailbreak Scaling Laws for Large Language Models: Polynomial–Exponential Crossover - Kempner Institute
We find that adversarial prompt-injection attacks on large language models can amplify attack success rate from the slow polynomial growth observed without injection to exponential growth with the num...
https://bit.ly/4eK3ZfC
10 days ago
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We’re thrilled to announce the 2026 cohort of post-bac scholars! Five recent college grads will undertake mentored research & professional development through the
#KempnerInstitute
Post-Baccalaureate Program. Read more:
bit.ly/4vv9mGA
@gsas.harvard.edu
#AI
#NeuroAI
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Announcing 2026 Kempner Post-Baccalaureate Scholars - Kempner Institute
The Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard is pleased to announce the 2026 cohort of scholars awarded placement in the Kempner Institute Post-Baccalaureate P...
https://bit.ly/4vv9mGA
12 days ago
0
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Check out the new preprint by a
@harvard.edu
team that includes three Kempner researchers: Richard Hakim, Venki Murthy & Demba Ba!
@neurovenki.bsky.social
#NeuroAI
#neuroscience
#ML
#AI
add a skeleton here at some point
12 days ago
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New study led by
#KempnerInstitute
Research Fellow Gizem Özdil (
@gzmozd.bsky.social
) used the fruit fly
#connectome
to identify neurons that help coordinate grooming — and experimentally confirmed one key prediction. Out now in
@natcomms.nature.com
! Read more here:
bit.ly/4vn8NyG
#neuroscience
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Searching for Links between Brain and Behavior in the Fly Brain - Kempner Institute
Understanding how specific neurons contribute to behavior is one of neuroscience’s central challenges. A new study of grooming behavior in fruit flies, recently published in Nature Communications, sho...
https://bit.ly/4vn8NyG
17 days ago
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reposted by
Kempner Institute at Harvard University
Naomi Saphra
19 days ago
We don’t always know what problems are hard for LLMs. So devs evaluate on tasks HUMANS find hard or on broad benchmarks. What if we could instead anticipate which scenarios a model will fail on—all without evaluating specific input examples? 🧵NEW PAPER by
@jenniferlumeng.bsky.social
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🧠🎉Congratulations to
#KempnerInstitute
Investigator SueYeon Chung (
@sueyeonchung.bsky.social
), selected as a 2026 McKnight Scholar for her work on neural population geometry. Learn more:
bit.ly/3PWkP2x
@harvard.edu
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SueYeon Chung named McKnight Scholar
The Harvard assistant professor of physics and applied math won the grant for cutting-edge neuroscience research.
https://bit.ly/3PWkP2x
24 days ago
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📢 Today @ 4:30pm ET,
#KempnerInstitute
joins Harvard Alumni; “Kempner Institute: Unlocking Intelligence.” Learn about our work on the foundations of intelligence. Featuring
@blsabatini.bsky.social
,
@shamkakade.bsky.social
,
@kanakarajanphd.bsky.social
, and
@yilundu.bsky.social
. Watch:
bit.ly/4oarIJW
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Harvard Alumni Day 2026 Symposia Session: Kempner Institute Unlocking Intelligence
Join the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial ...
https://bit.ly/4oarIJW
29 days ago
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#AI
visual reasoning skills meet chip design. In a new preprint, a team led by Kempner Graduate Fellow Ikechukwu Uchendu introduces VeoPlace, a method that helps improve computer chip design using a Vision-Language Model. Read more:
bit.ly/4dWTVPN
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Rethinking Chip Design with AI That Can “See” - Kempner Institute
Designing the computer chips that power modern electronics has long depended on a combination of mathematical optimization and human visual intuition. Experienced chip designers often rely on spatial ...
https://bit.ly/4dWTVPN
about 1 month ago
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🤖 If you’re attending
#ICRA
tomorrow, check out the talk by Haonan Chen, a postdoc in the lab of
#KempnerInstitute
Investigator Yilun Du (
@yilundu.bsky.social
), on
#multimodal
policy consensus for
#robotics
. 9am in Hall C! Learn more about the work:
policyconsensus.github.io
#AI
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Multi-Modal Manipulation via Multi-Modal Policy Consensus
Multi-Modal Manipulation via Policy Consensus
https://policyconsensus.github.io/
about 1 month ago
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NEW: Kempner Research Roundup: May 2026! 🧠🤖 Discover the latest research in natural and artificial intelligence from the
#KempnerInstitute
:
bit.ly/43F5ypP
#AI
#NeuroAI
#neuroscience
about 1 month ago
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Last week the
#KempnerInstitute
held its third annual Spring into Science event, bringing together students & scientists to share research and advance understanding of natural & artificial intelligence. Read more:
bit.ly/4u4hTie
#AI
#NeuroAI
#ML
#neuroscience
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The Kempner’s 3rd Annual Spring into Science Event Highlights New Research on Intelligence - Kempner Institute
Cambridge, MA — On May 21, researchers, students, fellows, and faculty from across the Kempner Institute community gathered at Harvard’s David Rubenstein Treehouse in Allston for the institute’s third...
https://bit.ly/4u4hTie
about 1 month ago
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The
#KempnerInstitute
is hiring! 👇 ⏰ Application deadlines approaching: • June 1: Kempner AI Fellows (post BS/MS) • June 8: Postdoctoral AI Researchers (post PhD) Learn more and apply:
bit.ly/439R2Gp
#AI
#NeuroAI
about 1 month ago
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The
#KempnerInstitute
is Hiring! 👇 Explore our opportunities: - Kempner AI Fellows: for BS- or MS- level researchers - Postdoctoral AI Researchers: for recent PhD recipients - Educational Content & Curriculum Developer Learn more and apply!
bit.ly/439R2Gp
#AI
#NeuroAI
about 2 months ago
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We're Hiring! 👇 The
#KempnerInstitute
is seeking an Administrative Coordinator to serve as the primary coordinator for the Institute’s fellows programs, including Kempner Research Fellows, Research Scientists, and AI Fellows. Learn more & apply:
bit.ly/4ePE2Nl
about 2 months ago
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Thanks to Tatiana Engel (
@engeltatiana.bsky.social
) from
@princeton.edu
for a great talk on Friday! She presented modeling approaches that leverage low-dimensional structure in neural population activity to design effective stimulation patterns. Watch the talk ➡️
youtu.be/rYvZoshNUVk
about 2 months ago
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The
#KempnerInstitute
is pleased to announce its Summer 2026 KRANIUM cohort: 12
@harvard.edu
undergraduates will pursue mentored research in natural & artificial intelligence, with projects on protein binding, speech recognition, healthcare
#NLP
, and more.
bit.ly/3PNA0L9
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Kempner Institute Announces Undergraduate Student Researchers for Summer 2026 - Kempner Institute
Cambridge, MA — The Kempner Institute is pleased to announce its third cohort of undergraduate summer researchers selected for KRANIUM, a 9-week intensive summer research program in intelligence for H...
https://bit.ly/3PNA0L9
about 2 months ago
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Congratulations to our first cohort of Kempner post-bacs, who recently presented capstone research spanning AI & neuroscience, marking two years of intensive work and collaboration! Read more:
bit.ly/49391Sr
@shamkakade.bsky.social
@blsabatini.bsky.social
@dmelis.bsky.social
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Inaugural Kempner Post-Baccalaureate Capstone Showcases Work of First Cohort - Kempner Institute
Allston, MA — The Kempner Institute recently hosted its inaugural Post-Baccalaureate Capstone Event, celebrating the first four scholars as they near completion of the Kempner Post-Baccalaureate Progr...
https://bit.ly/49391Sr
about 2 months ago
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"Blackout catastrophe" isn't always so catastrophic? Learn more in new work from
#KempnerInstitute
Research Fellow
@david-g-clark.bsky.social
👇
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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reposted by
Kempner Institute at Harvard University
David G. Clark
2 months ago
New preprint: "Linear equivalence of nonlinear recurrent neural networks." For large nonlinear (potentially chaotic) RNNs with random connectivity, the full N×N covariance matrix takes the same form as that of a ~linear~ network with the same couplings, driven by independent noise.
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Linear equivalence of nonlinear recurrent neural networks
Large nonlinear recurrent neural networks with random couplings generate high-dimensional, potentially chaotic activity whose structure is of interest in neuroscience, machine learning, ecology, and o...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.23489
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In a newly published study, the
#KempnerInstitute’s
Patrick Slade and his team show that your gait may reveal your movement priorities — an insight that could guide smarter assistive tech. Read more:
bit.ly/4u7VaTb
#medtech
#neuroscience
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What Your Walk Says About Your Movement Priorities - Kempner Institute
Devices that assist movement, including robotic exoskeletons — wearable frames that support and enhance motion — are becoming more common. To work well, these systems must respond to a user’s […]
https://bit.ly/4u7VaTb
about 2 months ago
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📢 We're hiring! The
#KempnerInstitute
is seeking Postdoctoral
#AI
Researchers to contribute to ambitious, team-science research at the frontier of modern machine learning and science. Applications close June 8th. Learn more & apply 👉
bit.ly/4dcs3XG
about 2 months ago
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Congratulations to Benjamin Choi, Emma Finn, Sean Meng, Neil Shah and Johnathan Sun, the five Kempner-affiliated undergraduates among the 2026 winners of the Hoopes Prize
@harvard.edu
! Read more:
bit.ly/4tQwVc2
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Five Kempner Undergraduates Among Winners of 2026 Hoopes Prize - Kempner Institute
Five Kempner Institute student researchers were among the awardees of the 2026 Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize, which recognizes outstanding scholarly work or research conducted by undergraduates at Harvar...
https://bit.ly/4tQwVc2
about 2 months ago
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We're hiring!👀 The
#KempnerInstitute
is seeking an Educational Content and Curriculum Developer (Part-time/LHT) to help design and implement learning experiences at the intersection of
#neuroscience
and artificial
#intelligence.💡
Learn more & apply:
bit.ly/4teFAUE
about 2 months ago
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📢 Applications for the Kempner AI Fellows Program are now open! This program is designed for early-career researchers with strong technical preparation in modern machine learning. Applications close June 1st. Learn more and apply 🔗
bit.ly/4ehVxWj
#KempnerInstitute
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Kempner AI Fellows Program - Kempner Institute
The Kempner AI Fellows Program is for early-career researchers ready to contribute to ambitious AI/ML research. Fellows work with Kempner investigators on active projects spanning foundation models, A...
https://bit.ly/4ehVxWj
2 months ago
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Thanks to Azalia Mirhoseini of
@stanforduniversity.bsky.social
and Ricursive Intelligence for a great talk at the
#KempnerInstitute
Seminar Series last week! Dr. Mirhoseini presented test-time scaling as a new frontier for
#AI
progress. 💡
2 months ago
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NEW: Kempner Research Roundup: April 2026! 🧠💡 Discover the latest research in natural and artificial intelligence from the
#KempnerInstitute
:
bit.ly/48TbSxh
#AI
#NeuroAI
#neuroscience
2 months ago
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Just out in
@natmachintell.nature.com
: Fluid Thinking on Collective Intelligence, a paper comparing
#collectiveintelligence
in
#neuralnetworks
with that in swarm robotics and insect colonies from
#KempnerInstitute
Affiliate Faculty Justin Werfel! Read the paper:
rdcu.be/fffak
2 months ago
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NEW from the
#KempnerInstitute
: researchers introduce ForageWorld, a foraging task made to evaluate analysis techniques for learning, planning, and more. Read the
#DeeperLearning
blog post:
bit.ly/4vPrewB
#AI
Authors:
@kanakarajanphd.bsky.social
,
@ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social
, Riley Simmons-Edler.
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Deep RL Needs Deep Behavior Analysis: Exploring Implicit Planning by Model-Free Agents in Open-Ended Environments - Kempner Institute
Model-free RL agents trained on simple tasks can be evaluated by whether or not they achieve their simple rewards, but complex open-ended environments demand richer analysis. ForageWorld introduces a ...
https://bit.ly/4vPrewB
2 months ago
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If you’re at
#ICLR2026
, don’t miss today’s
#KempnerInstitute
workshop presentations!
@iclr-conf.bsky.social
#AI
#NeuroAI
@shamkakade.bsky.social
@dmelis.bsky.social
2 months ago
0
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🛠️ Today is the first day of
#ICLR2026
workshops! Check out the lineup of
#KempnerInstitute
presentations.
@iclr-conf.bsky.social
#AI
#NeuroAI
@dmelis.bsky.social
@shamkakade.bsky.social
@mweber.bsky.social
2 months ago
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🧠 Tomorrow marks Day 3 of
#ICLR2026
! The
#KempnerInstitute’s
presentations highlight a wide range of projects pushing the frontiers of
#AI
and
#NeuroAI
.
@iclr-conf.bsky.social
@brachit.bsky.social
@dmelis.bsky.social
@marinkazitnik.bsky.social
@sueyeonchung.bsky.social
@shamkakade.bsky.social
2 months ago
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What kinds of reasoning do
#LLMs
still struggle to do well? Researchers from
#KempnerInstitute
&
@harvardmed.bsky.social
consider the role of “relational complexity.” Read more about the study:
bit.ly/4u2kgCw
@marinkazitnik.bsky.social
@shamkakade.bsky.social
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New Study Sheds Light on the Kinds of Reasoning Tasks that AI Systems Still Struggle to Do Well - Kempner Institute
A doctor deciding how to treat a patient must weigh many factors at once — patient age, medical history, current symptoms, past treatments, as well as possible side effects of […]
https://bit.ly/4u2kgCw
2 months ago
0
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🤖 Are you at
#ICLR2026
? Check out the
#KempnerInstitute’s
Day 2 presentations!
@iclr-conf.bsky.social
#AI
#NeuroAI
@sueyeonchung.bsky.social
@dmelis.bsky.social
@marinkazitnik.bsky.social
@boknilev.bsky.social
2 months ago
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reposted by
Kempner Institute at Harvard University
Kanaka Rajan
2 months ago
✍️ In the
@kempnerinstitute.bsky.social
blog: our new tool built to compare the dynamics of complex systems when both internal circuitry and external inputs shape their behavior. Catch
@annhuang42.bsky.social
presenting this work at
#ICLR
!
kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/research/dee...
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InputDSA: Demixing then comparing recurrent and externally driven dynamics in complex systems - Kempner Institute
We explored how to measure the similarity between two complex systems when they are driven by external inputs, like biological neural circuits or reinforcement learning agents. Our novel method, calle...
https://kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/research/deeper-learning/inputdsa-demixing-then-comparing-recurrent-and-externally-driven-dynamics-in-complex-systems/"
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🚀 Starting Day 1 of
#ICLR2026
with an exciting lineup of presentations from researchers at the
#KempnerInstitute
! Take a look at the full list of today’s Kempner talks 👇
@iclr-conf.bsky.social
#AI
#NeuroAI
@satpreetsingh.bsky.social
@kanakarajanphd.bsky.social
@annhuang42.bsky.social
2 months ago
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📢 Applications for the Kempner Accelerator Awards are now open to @harvard.edu faculty studying
#intelligence
! This in-kind award provides access to the
#KempnerInstitute
AI cluster, one of the largest academic
#AI
clusters in the world. 💡 Apply here 👉
bit.ly/4cstDo1
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Kempner Institute Accelerator Awards - Kempner Institute
The Kempner Institute Accelerator Awards provide Kempner AI Cluster access to faculty across Harvard University working to understand the nature of intelligence in natural and artificial systems. We...
https://bit.ly/4cstDo1
3 months ago
0
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Ever wondered how we've networked together 1,144 GPUs — including A100s, H100s, H200s, & RTX Pro 6000s — into one of the most powerful academic supercomputers for advancing
#AI
&
#neuroscience
research? Take a closer look at the
#KempnerInstitute
AI cluster:
bit.ly/3QcRb8M
3 months ago
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🧠🤖 Huge shoutout to our incredible 4th-year grad fellows! On Friday, we hosted the very first
#KempnerInstitute
Graduate Symposium, where they delivered outstanding presentations on everything from
#AI
interpretability to
#NeuroAI
, new algorithms, and real-world applications.
3 months ago
1
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📢 Attention
@harvard.edu
faculty studying
#intelligence
! Apply by April 30th to become one of the new
#KempnerInstitute
Associate Faculty. Join us in building a community devoted to innovation in
#AI
,
#NeuroAI
, and
#neuroscience
. 💡 Learn more & apply 🔗
bit.ly/3Qhes9x
3 months ago
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Trust matters between agents. New work from
#KempnerInstitute
associate faculty member Stephanie Gil introduces "cy-trust," a quantitative measure of how trustworthy a robot or vehicle is in a networked system.
seas.harvard.edu/news/do-you-...
#AI
#robotics
@ieeeorg.bsky.social
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Do You Trust Me? A Framework For Making Networks of Robots and Vehicles Safer
Paper describes how 'cy-trust' can enable resilient systems
https://seas.harvard.edu/news/do-you-trust-me-framework-making-networks-robots-and-vehicles-safer
3 months ago
0
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NEW: Kempner Research Roundup: March 2026! 🧠🤖 Learn about the latest research on natural and artificial intelligence from the Kempner Institute:
bit.ly/4dlRAiX
#AI
#NeuroAI
#neuroscience
3 months ago
0
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0
reposted by
Kempner Institute at Harvard University
SueYeon Chung
3 months ago
Excited to be working on neural representations as a route to AI interpretability, safety, and alignment. Grateful to the Aramont Foundation for the support!
#MechInterp
#AIsafety
#AIAlignment
add a skeleton here at some point
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23
5
Congratulations to
#KempnerInstitute
Investigator SueYeon Chung on receiving an Aramont Fellowship to advance research linking neural representations,
#AIsafety
&
#AIalignment
! Read more:
bit.ly/4rRHqtN
@sueyeonchung.bsky.social
@harvardseas.bsky.social
#NeuroAI
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Aramont Fellowships give freedom to concentrate on high-risk, high-reward research — Harvard Gazette
Renewed gift significantly expands the impact of early-career support.
https://bit.ly/4rRHqtN
3 months ago
0
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🤖🔬Researchers at the
#KempnerInstitute
and
@harvardmed.bsky.social
introduce ClawInstitute — a social network where
#AI
agents collaborate like scientists. Read more:
bit.ly/4c4Or5M
@marinkazitnik.bsky.social
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Harvard Researchers Create Social Network for “AI Scientists” to Collaborate - Kempner Institute
Science rarely advances exclusively through lone researchers. Progress often comes from discussion and collaboration — scientists sharing ideas, questioning one another, and refining their thinking to...
https://bit.ly/4c4Or5M
3 months ago
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🧠👃A new study by
#KempnerInstitute
associate faculty member Venkatesh Murthy & collaborators shows that maximizing information recreates an olfactory design shared by multiple species. Out now in
@pnas.org
:
bit.ly/4uQ6Omw
@neurovenki.bsky.social
@jzv.bsky.social
#neuroscience
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New AI-based Framework Could Explain Why Evolution Gave So Many Species the Same Smell Circuit - Kempner Institute
Why do the smell circuits of flies, mice, and humans look so remarkably alike? A new study from Harvard researchers offers a possible explanation: this shared design may be the […]
https://bit.ly/4uQ6Omw
3 months ago
0
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