Strange Loop

Is my Large Language Model a Strange Loop?

Large Language Models aren't just the new hotness - they also offer fascinating glimpses of an alternative approach to software which is evolved instead of written.  We'll explore emergent representations and composition of concepts from the inside outwards; and then turn around and consider some emergent behaviors and feedback loops from the outside of the training process.  Whether you're curious about superposition, induction, self-evaluation or self-correction... by the end of the talk you'll have more questions than you started with!

Zac Hatfield-Dodds

Assurance Team Lead @ Anthropic

Zac (zhd.dev) is an Australian software engineer and researcher working in San Francisco, on AI safety research by day and on property-based testing by night.  He co-maintains open-source projects such as Hypothesis, Trio, and Pytest; has been elected a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation; and swears that he'll finish writing his dissertation someday. If he's not at a computer, Zac is probably some combination of camping in a national park, reading a book or three, and munching on dark chocolate.