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
Author: Boaz Barak
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?
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.
Thoughts by a non-economist on AI and economics
Crossposted on lesswrong Modern humans first emerged about 100,000 years ago. For the next 99,800 years or so, nothing happened. Well, not quite nothing. There were wars, political intrigue, the invention of agriculture -- but none of that stuff had much effect on the quality of people's lives. Almost everyone lived on the modern equivalent … Continue reading Thoughts by a non-economist on AI and economics
CS 2881: AI Safety
The webpage for my AI safety course is on https://boazbk.github.io/mltheoryseminar/ including homework zero, video of first lecture and slides. Future blog posts related to this course will be posted on lesswrong since many people interested in AI safety visit that. Video of first lecture https://youtu.be/-NCiWaRS6So Some snapshots from slides:
AI Safety Course Intro Blog
I am teaching CS 2881: AI Safety this fall at Harvard. This blog is primarily aimed at students at Harvard or MIT (where we have a cross-registering agreement) who are considering taking the course. However, it may be of interest to others as well. For more of my thoughts on AI safety, see the blogs … Continue reading AI Safety Course Intro Blog
Machines of Faithful Obedience
[Crossposted on LessWrong] Throughout history, technological and scientific advances have had both good and ill effects, but their overall impact has been overwhelmingly positive. Thanks to scientific progress, most people on earth live longer, healthier, and better than they did centuries or even decades ago. I believe that AI (including AGI and ASI) can do … Continue reading Machines of Faithful Obedience
Windows On Theory 