September 17, 2026 · Boaz Barak · Scribe notes by Daniel Schwartz, Dev Desai, and Ed Gerrard Lecture Video: https://youtu.be/Lp_e8Ts5-nE Slides: Presentation slides Authors’ Intro Daniel Schwartz: I’m a second-year MS/MBA student. I worked as a PM at multiple early-stage startups, most recently a startup focused on data privacy for AI use with sensitive … Continue reading CS 2881 Fall 26: Lecture 3: Modern LLM Training and Inference
CS 2881 Fall 26: Lecture 1: Introduction
Lecture Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4WSktB5Ni0 Authors’ Intro Hanjing: I’m a Junior studying Applied Mathematics & CS. I’ve worked on research utilizing LLMs and ML in a plethora of fields, including sentiment analysis, code generation, natural language processing, and interpretability. On the other hand, I’m also fascinated by the theoretical foundations of AI alignment – which is why … Continue reading CS 2881 Fall 26: Lecture 1: Introduction
Math after AI
For a very long time, my favorite activity was to sit and think about mathematical questions. Staring at a blank sheet of paper, trying to grasp in my mind abstract concepts, bouncing ideas off colleagues and students. There is nothing quite like the feeling that you are exploring the unknown by only using your mind. … Continue reading Math after AI
Michael Rabin Memorial Conference
As part of Mind-IL.- Israel's Science and Academia Week (which also is around the Israeli election) there would be a special conference in honor of Michael Rabin with some fantastic lecturers.
All Watched Over
I’ve recently been rereading Steven Levy’s “Hackers” with my daughter. Levy describes how Brautigan’s 1967 poem “All watched over by machines of loving grace” was inspiring to the California “Hardware Hackers” of the 1970s and organizations such as Community Memory. In 2026, the phrase “all watched over by machines of loving grace” conjures an image … Continue reading All Watched Over
It’s 2030 and we fucked up. How did it happen?
[Loosely based on a lecture I gave in the recursive conference with the same title. Don’t take “2030” literally¹—it could also be 2035 or 2040. As always, opinions are my own and do not represent OpenAI or Harvard.] It is quite possible that AI will usher in a golden age for humanity. As Amodei writes … Continue reading It’s 2030 and we fucked up. How did it happen?
Celebrating 100 Years: Avi 70 + CSDM 30 (June 14-18, 2027)
[Guest post by Amir Shpilka and Irit Dinur] https://www.ias.edu/math/events/celebrating-100-years-avi-70-csdm-30 The Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Mathematics is pleased to announce a conference celebrating Avi Wigderson’s 70th birthday and retirement, together with 30 years of the Computer Science and Discrete Mathematics program (CSDM) at IAS. The conference will honor both Avi’s extraordinary scientific legacy and … Continue reading Celebrating 100 Years: Avi 70 + CSDM 30 (June 14-18, 2027)
Call for workshop proposals: FOCS 2026
[Guest post by Sam Hopkins] We invite groups of interested researchers to submit workshop proposals for FOCS 2026 by July 31, 2026. The FOCS 2026 workshops provide an informal forum for researchers to discuss important research questions, directions, and challenges in the field. Workshops often serve the vital purpose of introducing researchers to new areas … Continue reading Call for workshop proposals: FOCS 2026
AI is a Meteor. Don’t be a Dinosaur.
This is a linkpost for my Harvard Crimson op-ed for its commencement issue. I will not reproduce the whole text here, but my advice to the class of 2026 is in the following parts: My advice for the Class of 2026 is to embrace AI as a technology, but treat it critically as citizens....Throughout your … Continue reading AI is a Meteor. Don’t be a Dinosaur.
The state of AI safety in four fake graphs
Here is a quick overview of my intuitions on where we are with AI safety in early 2026: So far, we continue to see exponential improvements in capabilities. This is most visible in the famous “METR graph”, but the trend is clear in many other metrics, including revenue. If you squint, you can even see … Continue reading The state of AI safety in four fake graphs
