Carsten Blank

Co-Founder and CEO of data cybernetics.

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

@Plinz I agree @Plinz and will think about how to support open weight models; whatever I can do may be small, however.

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

@petruccione Amazing!

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

I think most people in the community know what @skdh is saying: the facts are all correct.

However, many arguments have been brought forward for most of the technology we have now deployed.

Don’t bet on any platform nor application currently. But let research play out, I say.

[Sabine Hossenfelder @skdh]

Today I talk about how more quantum computing use cases are disappearing, and an unexpected problem with quantum computing in general. https://t.co/s6uzL4XooA

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

@Travis_Sch Congratulations!

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

@lexfridman Agreed.

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

@Travis_Sch I do not agree. First looks like a click bait to me. Second, I heard this thousands of times and these POVs look at status quo with challenges being automatically a road block. Innovation drives efficiency and cost reductions. For more than a century now. Just look at history.

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

@VictorGalitski You are telling my story of quitting academia. Reality is, in industry it is not much different. „Stay true what you want to do“ that is my advice to my younger self, now looking back.

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

@markmiodownik This topic really bugs me… how can I really support in the (scientific) solution? I always thought that direct air carbon capture would be part of a global solution. But why isn’t it?

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

@skdh @elonmusk Agreed.

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

If you are in the business of changing the world, you better have good leadership, don’t just break things and people.
Having women in tech is an investment into our children’s future. Why: because we need that extra talent and the female perspective, finally, to complete it.

[Sonia Joseph @soniajoseph_]

To the journalists contacting me about the AGI consensual non-consensual (cnc) sex parties—

During my twenties in Silicon Valley, I ran among elite tech/AI circles through the community house scene. I have seen some troubling things around social circles of early OpenAI employees, their friends, and adjacent entrepreneurs, which I have not previously spoken about publicly.

It is not my place to speak as to why Jan Leike and the superalignment team resigned. I have no idea why and cannot make any claims. However, I do believe my cultural observations of the SF AI scene are more broadly relevant to the AI industry.

I don't think events like the consensual non-consensual (cnc) sex parties and heavy LSD use of some elite AI researchers have been good for women. They create a climate that can be very bad for female AI researchers, with broader implications relevant to X-risk and AGI safety. I believe they are somewhat emblematic of broader problems: a coercive climate that normalizes recklessness and crossing boundaries, which we are seeing playing out more broadly in the industry today. Move fast and break things, applied to people.

There is nothing wrong imo with sex parties and heavy LSD use in theory, but combined with the shadow of 100B+ interest groups, leads to some of the most coercive and fucked up social dynamics that I have ever seen. The climate was like a fratty LSD version of 2008 Wall Street bankers, which bodes ill for AI safety.

Women are like canaries in the coal mine. They are often the first to realize that something has gone horribly wrong, and to smell the cultural carbon monoxide in the air. For many women, Silicon Valley can be like Westworld, where violence is pay-to-pay.

I have seen people repeatedly get shut down for pointing out these problems. Once, when trying to point out these problems, I had three OpenAI and Anthropic researchers debate whether I was mentally ill on a Google document. I have no history of mental illness; and this incident stuck with me as an example of blindspots/groupthink.

I am not writing this on the behalf of any interest group. Historically, much of OpenAI-adjacent shenanigans has been blamed on groups with weaker PR teams, like Effective Altruism and rationalists. I actually feel bad for the latter two groups for taking so many undeserved hits. There are good and bad apples in every faction. There are so many brilliant, kind, amazing people at OpenAI, and there are so many brilliant, kind, and amazing people in Anthropic/EA/Google/[insert whatever group]. I’m agnostic. My one loyalty is to the respect and dignity of human life.

I'm not under an NDA. I never worked for OpenAI. I just observed the surrounding AI culture through the community house scene in SF, as a fly-on-the-wall, hearing insider information and backroom deals, befriending dozens of women and allies and well-meaning parties, and watching many them get burned. It’s likely these problems are not really on OpenAI but symptomatic of a much deeper rot in the Valley. I wish I could say more, but probably shouldn’t.

I will not pretend that my time among these circles didn’t do damage. I wish that 55% of my brain was not devoted to strategizing about the survival of me and of my friends. I would like to devote my brain completely and totally to AI research— finding the first principles of visual circuits, and collecting maximally activating images of CLIP SAEs to send to my collaborators for publication.

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

Hear ye, hear ye. The submission deadline is the 15th of this month! Please share / repost as much possible!

https://t.co/6dbnOSlNI9

#quantumcomputing #quantumsoftware #research #conference #workshop #science #software

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

Check out my latest article: My German Funding Experience and why I am not positive about the EU&'s hope to be a major player in Quantum Technology https://t.co/xlumwUAdvY via @LinkedIn

[Alessandra Di Pierro @Alessdip]

Submission page: https://t.co/fXxJo2Waja
Information on this Collection can be found: https://t.co/qRiP9C8q3p

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

For quantum software enthusiasts the Workshop on Quantum Software (WQS 2024) is offering a chance to discuss all aspects of the implementation of algorithms on quantum hardware at @PLDI in June 2024. Please submit your work to https://t.co/rQkTd9C6Qc
#Software #QuantumComputing

[Alessandra Di Pierro @Alessdip]

For quantum software enthusiasts: the Workshop on Quantum Software (WQS 2024) is offering a chance to discuss all aspects of the implementation of algorithms on quantum hw at @PLDI in June 2024. Please submit your work to https://t.co/P85bc7fsaI

[Matt @MeMattLourens]

Our paper just got published!

It's all about automating quantum circuit design such that individuals or computers can leverage symmetries to build algorithms.
https://t.co/OugpbBiXtW
@Nature_NPJ @petruccione @BlankCarsten @daniel_kpark @BlankCarsten @ilsinay

[Francesco Petruccione @petruccione]

Thrilled to announce our new paper "Hierarchical quantum circuit representations for neural architecture search" in @npjQuantumInfo. We've introduced a novel framework leveraging NAS techniques for quantum circuit design. #QuantumComputing #MachineLearning https://t.co/9GbopmwFSW

[Zoe Holmes @qZoeHolmes]

👉 Keep getting your QTML submissions in - deadline extended to June 23rd 👈

@Alessdip @GrosQmichi

[Carsten Blank @BlankCarsten]

Really nice open-source miniature quantum simulator for 8-bit processors by my friend @IsraelFerrazde1:

https://t.co/W5wNdWZ2vO

[Zoe Holmes @qZoeHolmes]

CALL FOR PAPERS

QTML 2023: 7th International Conference on Quantum Techniques in Machine Learning

https://t.co/6hPgHk5OCA

🇨🇭CERN, Nov. 19-24, 2023.

Local organizers: @GrosQmichi, Sofia Vallecorsa & CERN Quantum Technology Initiative.
Program chairs: @Alessdip & myself.