Beth Hall PhD

Vision scientist by trade, multimodal by heart ❤️

[Genentech @genentech]

#Breaking: The @US_FDA has granted priority review for our treatment for thyroid eye disease (TED), an autoimmune disease that can lead to facial disfigurement and vision threatening complications if left untreated. Learn more: https://t.co/N2R9G2wVAn

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

The internet ruins everything 😞

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

@pmarca True hahahahahahahahahahaha

[Secretary Brooke Rollins @SecRollins]

Just joined @andy_weber_tv LIVE from FOX 46 Charlotte! @Queen_City_News

We discussed how the Trump Administration is rooting out SNAP fraud, fighting for a more affordable America, and MORE.

Tune in tonight for the full conversation!

[Department of War CTO @DoWCTO]

The @DeptofWar has announced the final FY2026 cohort of Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) awardees, rapidly delivering a new set of innovative technologies to the American warfighter.

With this round of awards, APFIT has now surpassed $2 billion in total awards and delivered 100+ unique capabilities to the Joint Force.

Through APFIT, the Department will continue to partner with emerging innovators and nontraditional companies to rapidly deliver mission ready technology at speed and scale.

[Claude @claudeai]

We're introducing Claude for Teachers: free access to premium Claude capabilities for verified K-12 educators in the US, with a library of teaching skills and a direct connection to evidence-based curricula, mapped to academic standards in all 50 states.

https://t.co/5hZZijVPCV

[Fei-Fei Li @drfeifei]

AI’s next chapter will be defined not only by technical progress, but by how responsibly and thoughtfully we bring it into the world.

I’m looking forward to be speaking on stage at Ai4 2026, Aug 4–6 in Vegas. Register here at https://t.co/iAWUZf994t

#Ai42026

[hardmaru @hardmaru]

How do physical systems achieve collective intelligence and self-repair without a central brain?

A new paper published today in Nature Communications by my Sakana AI colleague Sebastian Risi (@risi1979), along with co-authors from IT University of Copenhagen and Autodesk Research, presents a beautiful realization of biologically inspired robotics: Smart Cellular Bricks.

The team built a system of physical 3D cubic units that can collectively infer their global shape and autonomously guide their own damage recovery using purely local interactions.

Here is a deep dive into the paper’s key contributions:

1/ Neural Cellular Automata-based Architecture:
Modular robots usually rely on central processors. This system flips that paradigm. Every block independently runs the exact same neural network on local microcontrollers. With no master plan or global coordinates, they communicate only with immediate neighbors. By passing continuous state vectors, hundreds of bricks achieve global consensus on their shape in under 3 minutes.

2/ Emergent Biological Morphogens:
How does a block know it is part of a chair, not a table? The network’s internal memory automatically learns to establish continuous gradients across the structure. This beautifully mirrors how biological morphogens give positional info to developing cells. The bricks naturally form left-right, radial, and head-to-tail axes to align their identity.

3/ Performance and Generalization:
Validated in large-scale simulations, the networks transferred seamlessly to nearly 200 physical hardware bricks, achieving a 100% convergence rate. Instead of rigid template-matching, the system infers broad categories. Even when tested on unseen variations, like an asymmetric table with five random legs, the collective correctly classified the structure.

4/ Fault Tolerance and Autonomous Damage Recovery:
Hardware fails in the real world. This system easily tolerates up to 15% module failure without losing accuracy. By predicting spatial damage directions, the cells pinpointed missing components with 95% accuracy. They actively use these local signals to guide a self-repair process, regenerating back into the intended morphology.

I believe this is a significant piece of research, bridging collective intelligence and Physical AI.

This work represents the first successful physical realization of large-scale, decentralized 3D self-recognition and damage detection. By moving away from centralized control, this architecture paves the way for highly adaptive smart materials and resilient robotics that can survive and repair themselves.

Read the full open-access paper:
https://t.co/friVEdvfT6

Congratulations to the team on this achievement!

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

@blakeaburge Hmmmmm. But I like a man who puts on a cute outfit.

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

@WSJ @mims I like them. I listen to music and take pictures. Helps cuz I have light eyes so I almost always have to wear sunglasses outdoors.

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

@elonmusk Ewwwwwwwwww

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

@teaganyuen1 @bondhq_ I'll dance 💃🏼

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

@EmilyDreyfuss Yeah way above the postbac salary. Great for those post BS / BA degree who want to dip their toes in research

[Martin Hebart @martin_hebart]

We are excited to open the re:vision initiative, a community-driven initiative for replicating and generalizing findings in visual neuroscience, based on the LAION-fMRI dataset.
https://t.co/YBoBQhPw7R
Why this initiative and why would you want to participate? 🧵

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

@prof_kamilov Yeah, but you know that's the best part 😅 you've got 3 frenemies for life who will always give a shit about what you have to say

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

@1x_tech I don't know about this.... 😅

[Beth Hall PhD @BethHallPhD]

@kohjingyu Gather town was kind of fun though to be fair

[talia konkle @talia_konkle]

Humans sense the visual world with a super wide angle view (over 180 degrees!), with increasingly high resolution and precision at the center of gaze—we made a sensor interface so models can too! Proud of this work, and where it enables us to look next 😉 #neuroai

[CogCompNeuro @CogCompNeuro]

CCN began at Columbia in 2017. As #CCN2026 returns to NY, a special Back2NY event will feature a crowd-sourced panel discussion on how the community has grown, prior challenges, and future perspectives.

Share your experiences in the community survey: https://t.co/24RYQb1Czg

[Sean Ku Wang @SeanKuWang]

Thrilled to share that I'll be joining @Stanford as an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and retina specialist!

My lab will open September 2026 and aims to accelerate the development of safe and effective genetic therapies.