Piper Welch

Computer Science & Evolution & Biochemistry

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

.@KamBielawski just showed @ALifeConf that evolving things with "insides" which can evolutionarily change, neutrally, creates plateaus along which evolution can walk to escape from local optima.

https://t.co/iufw6758Mi

Photo credit: @HirokiSayama. #ALIFE2024

[Thomas F. Varley @ThosVarley]

Hot off the presses at Chaos -

"Evolving higher-order synergies reveals a trade-off between stability and information-integration capacity in complex systems" w/ @DoctorJosh 1/n

https://t.co/PiTJMgTDol

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

Looking to hire a postdoc to do AI-designed biology with @drmichaellevin and myself.

Please RT; DM if interested.

Here's what happened the last time we teamed up:

https://t.co/A8UPW2Ft1a

[Michael Levin @drmichaellevin]

Really excited about this paper, featuring brand new PhD @GizemGumuskaya 🎉, collaborator @sjmgarnier, & undergrad students P. Srivastava, B. Cooper, H. Lesser, B. Semegran:
https://t.co/n97pauMp5M

What I personally think it means: https://t.co/HUevhqdi5u

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

#xenobots were made from frog cells (Xenopus laevis).

Now introducing "anthrobots".

Guess what they're made from.

https://t.co/dkJThXXtLv

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

AI can now generate images, whole movies, proteins, xenobots...

...how about mathematical descriptions of the world?

Lab member Amanda Bertschinger presented on why "neural symbolic regression" is so difficult at @ECMLPKDD yesterday.

Well done Amanda!

https://t.co/rdLgTcilRB

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

@NewYorker article out today about the great work of my colleague Mark Blumberg.

Featuring cameo appearances from myself and our "dreaming" robot, the Evil Starfish (past work w/ Victor Zykov and @hodlipson).

https://t.co/wSAg0xtu0g
or
https://t.co/Xxoecb5xEO

[Hiroki Sayama @HirokiSayama]

Susan Stepney: "Is ChatGPT conscious?"

Anil Seth: "No."

Ted Chiang: "No."

(Applause)

#ALIFE2023 @ALifeConf

[Piper Welch @PiperRWelch]

@PigozziFederico branching into philosophy at #ALIFE 💻

[Jitka Cejkova @CejkovaJitka]

@DoctorJosh @PiperRWelch @csgrasso10 @GizemGumuskaya @drmichaellevin It was a great talk!

[Piper Welch @PiperRWelch]

@CejkovaJitka @DoctorJosh @csgrasso10 @GizemGumuskaya @drmichaellevin Thank you! Look forward to your workshop!

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

#xenobots are AI-designed organisms.

But what if next-gen biobots can't be designed by AI?

Introducing ADS's: AI-designed swarms!

@PiperRWelch will be presenting this, her new work, at #ALife2023 on Tuesday.

Joint work w/ @csgrasso10, @GizemGumuskaya and @DrMichaelLevin.

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

@PiperRWelch -- new lab member, @NSF GRFP recipient, and #xenobot team member -- was just profiled by our university.

She'll be presenting her work at the #ALIFE2023 conference in Japan this week. If you're there, check it out!

https://t.co/C18i5QYaal

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

Think you know what intelligence is?

Computation?

AI?

Embodied cognition?

Think again.

Take this red pill, and let @ParsaAtoosa , presenting Tuesday at @GECCOConf, show you how deep the rabbit hole of embodiment really goes...

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

AI must understand the world to act safely within it.

To that end, @PigozziFederico will describe a robot at #GECCO2023 this week that uses its body to learn about the world in a new way:

Each body part "votes" about what is/isn't possible, at all times.
https://t.co/hvN2OMuK9b

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

How can #robot swarms work together safely?

@csgrasso10 has found that they need to push against their neighbors in diverse ways, and get pushed back by them in reliable ways, *quickly*.

Come see her describe this at @GeccoConf today.

And vote for this, a best paper contender!

[Michael Levin @drmichaellevin]

With the publication of several of the Xenobot papers, a lot of ideas were brought up that were too hard to properly discuss in short format. @DougBlackiston, @Kriegmerica, @DoctorJosh, and I put our thoughts on the most interesting open issues here:
https://t.co/vdyY29zml0

[John Odum @jodum]

Open World Chat! Geek science episode 2! @PiperRWelch and @kamtb28 talk cutting-edge AI and biobots with @jim_dandeneau while I kind of drool glazy-eyed and scratch my ass because science is hard. #AI #biobots #Apocalypse https://t.co/USYfB7enV8

[Josh Bongard @DoctorJosh]

Embodied AI, and @uvmvermont, on the front page of the @nytimes today.

https://t.co/LbwZtNebD5

[Piper Welch @PiperRWelch]

@Kriegmerica @DoctorJosh @uvmvermont Thank you (uncle? cousin?) Sam!