Neil Lawrence
@lawrennd
Professor of Machine Learning, University of Cambridge, academic lead of ai@cam, Accelerate Science, author of The Atomic Human, proceedings editor for PMLR.
I wrote a short blog triggered by Yann LeCun's reported departure from FAIR and all the talk of superintelligence. inverseprobability.com/2025/11/12/t...
Close call at 39,000 ft. On the perils of 'vibe coding' through BA WiFi while flying to Nairobi ...
I first spoke at the #TheAISummit in 2022 at a panel session promoting the CDEI Federated Learning Sandbox. This year I'll be on the Headliners Stage on 11th of June talking about strategic decision making in the age of AI. london.theaisummit.com/speakers/nei...
Tomorrow, Tuesday 13th May I'll be on Radio 4 from 9 am for Life Scientific. It will also be available online via BBC Sounds from the first broadcast: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b... Thank you @jimalkhalili.bsky.social and #bbcradio4 for inviting me!
Well maybe there's scope creep but its original role was to update the risk register. Although note that the 1.5 billion announced was never allocated in the budget ... my understanding is the business case was rejected. www.gov.uk/government/p...
This is absolutely *shocking*. The coordination function is critical to getting UK AI policy right. Looks like we've wasted yet another year. From Communications and Digital Committee publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ld...
🎄 Day 7 of #12DaysOfChristmas for The Atomic Human ⚛️ From bicycle turns to AI systems - how do we bridge the gap between domains and AI? Understanding isn't just intellectual - it's about developing "affordances" that enhance us. the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/... #AtomicHuman
🎄 Day 6 of #12DaysOfChristmas for The Atomic Human ⚛️ @acceleratescience.bsky.social: Bridging the gap between ML expertise and scientific discovery 🔬🧬 From EDSAC to AlphaFold - how institutions evolve to meet the challenges of the AI era. the-atomic-human.ai/initiatives/... #AtomicHuman
🎄 Merry Christmas! 🎄 🔔 As Advent ends, the 12 Days of Christmas🎄begin! Join me for a deeper dive into the initiatives shown in this map - from Data Science Africa to @ai.cam.ac.uk - as we explore practical responses to AI challenges. the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
24/25 Playing in people's backyards Today we are inspired by John Tukey's quote to have a look at what it should mean for AI people to play in others' backyards (rather than what it does mean). the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
22/25 A retrospective on Digital Oligarchy Today another look back on a concept from nearly a decade ago, the digital oligarchy. How did it pan out in practice and how is it represented in the book? the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
21/25 Artificial General Nonsense Today we look at the flawed thinking behind the notion of artificial general intelligence. the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
20/25 The Great AI Fallacy (and how we're trying to address it). Today's post is a reflection on Dan Andrew's image for Chapter 9 which depicts the Great AI Fallacy ... and whether we're getting closer to fulfilling the implicit promises in AI. the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
18/25 A Retrospective on System Zero. Today we look at Dan Andrew's image from Chapter 8, System Zero and also take a look back at my original blog post from 9 years ago and see how its predictions bore out. the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
16/25 How do we manage the uncertainty? I think the answer is through balancing reflexive and reflective responses. Here's today's thoughts and Dan Andrew's capture of them for Chapter 7. the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
15/25 Keeping with the theme of uncertainty. Today's advent calendar entry is the game of Kappenball. the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
12/25 Two Types of Stochastic Parrot the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
8/25 It is exactly 11 years since the opening scene of the prologue. Yann used the term intelligence launch FAIR. I reflect a bit on how my thoughts on that word changed through the writing and how Dan Andrews captured them with another great illustration. the-atomic-human.ai/reflections/...
I'm looking forward to giving the Bennett public policy lecture on Tuesday December 3rd. I'll explore how AI’s potential is hindered by a disconnect from societal needs like health, education, & security and describe how we can bridge this gap. www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/events/mind-...
Keynote from @wellingmax.bsky.social introducing us to the term #ai2science2ai like it.
Looking forward to seeing Ciira next week, if you're in the Cambridge area. ai.cam.ac.uk/events/keyno... You can register for the talk here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...