Discussion
Forum
The SAIRC Discussion Forum is a space for AI enthusiasts to share what they're thinking about. No formal research paper required. Posts can be submitted anonymously and span a wide range of formats:
- Tutorials or deep-dives on AI topics
- Fresh perspectives: reframings or new ways of looking at something
- Novel research results communicated in plain language
- Resources and opportunities in AI (summer programs, tools, datasets)
- Thought experiments and speculative ideas
- Notes or study guides from courses
Recent Posts
How Are Students Using AI?
Republished with permission from Annette Vee and The Norton Newsletter. Is "everyone" really "cheating their way through college" as the recent New York Magazine article claims? Th…
What is Alignment in AI?
Republished with permission by Armand Ruiz, writer of Leaders AI.
AI alignment is the process of ensuring that AI systems act in ways that are consistent with human values and ethi…
Memory Is the Biggest Problem in Software Right Now
Republished with permission by Devansh, writer of AI Made Simple.
For decades, progress in the tech industry has been framed as a compute problem. Faster CPUs, more cores, bigger c…
ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude: The Best LLM Subscription You Should Buy
Republished with permission by Devansh, writer of AI Made Simple.
The question I hear most isn't 'Which AI is best?'—it's 'Which LLM subscription won't burn my budget?'…
Fine-Tuning LLMs is a Huge Waste of Time
Republished with permission by Devansh, writer of AI Made Simple.
Fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) is frequently sold as a quick, powerful method for injecting new knowledg…
How to Prompt Reasoning Models Effectively
Republished with permission by Devansh, writer of AI Made Simple.
Most people are still prompting reasoning models like it is 2023. That used to help. Now it often wastes money, ad…
The 'AI is a Bubble' Narrative is Stupid, Wrong, and Dangerous
Republished with permission by Devansh, writer of AI Made Simple.
The situation is a bit… odd. OpenAI signs a $300B deal with Oracle. Oracle buys tens of billions in GPUs from Nvid…
What Does It Mean to Use AI
Reposted with permission by The Important Work (https://theimportantwork.substack.com/) and Brett Vogelsinger (https://www.corwin.com/books/artful-ai-292671)
The Important Work is …
LLMs and World Models, Part 1
In the long-ago times, before large-scale generative AI came on the scene, machine-learning systems had some problems: often they didn't learn the general concepts we were trying t…
LLMs and World Models, Part 2
Perhaps the most widely cited evidence for emergent world models in LLMs is a pair of studies that focus on the simple board game Othello. This second installment examines research…
Inside the Black Box: A Practical Field Guide to Mechanistic Interpretability
Researchers argue that Mechanistic interpretability is the most effective technical strategy for ensuring AI alignment and safety. While traditional methods like reinforcement lear…
Do AI Reasoning Models Abstract and Reason Like Humans?
The Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (now called ARC-AGI-1) has become popular as a test of abstract reasoning ability in AI models. This post summarizes new research examining whe…
What My Students Had to Say About AI
Reposted with permission by Marcus Luther. Originally posted at the link referenced. Since there's also that pedagogical curiosity of mine—one that humbly recognizes that, at some …
An Interesting AI Conversation With My Students
At some point down the road I might try to pull together a full scope-and-sequence of the research path itself to share out, but for today's post I just wanted to highlight one int…
Teaching Against AI Sycophancy in the Research Writing Classroom
Republished with permission of author. Originally published at https://ruth.substack.com/
Two recent Science articles led me to rethink the impact of AI feedback in a research wri…