Isabel MacGinnitie

ai alignment 🌱🤖 / incoming phd @uwcse & @nsf CSGrad4US fellow / prev @harveymudd

[Isabel MacGinnitie @isabelfyi]

I'm excited to share that I'm joining @uwcse as a PhD student in the fall! I'm looking forward to working on thoughtful AI alignment and experiencing the natural beauty of the PNW 🌸

[Isabel MacGinnitie @isabelfyi]

@etash_guha @uwcse Thank you!!!

[Isabel MacGinnitie @isabelfyi]

I'm excited to share that I'm joining @uwcse as a PhD student in the fall! I'm looking forward to working on thoughtful AI alignment and experiencing the natural beauty of the PNW 🌸

[Isabel MacGinnitie @isabelfyi]

@vit_bhandari @uwcse Thank you!!!!

[Lewis Bollard @Lewis_Bollard]

Pigs don't just feel fear themselves. They also feel the fear of other pigs — and try to comfort them.

In one study, pigs watching another pig in distress first showed fear themselves and then tried to comfort the distressed pig through snout-to-snout contact. Pigs who'd previously endured the same ordeal reacted even more intensely — they seemed to recognize what the distressed pig was going through. (Goumon & Špinka, 2016.)

On factory farms, pigs trapped in gestation crates aren't just feeling afraid themselves. They're feeling the fear of all the other pigs around them. But the crate's iron bars stop them from even turning toward their fellow pigs — let alone comforting them with their snout.

[Lewis Bollard @Lewis_Bollard]

Cool to see Claude's new constitution call out the "welfare of animals and of all sentient beings" as a value to consider.

I hope other AI labs follow suit in their guiding docs. Caring about animals is core to our humanity -- and should be core to the AIs we build too.

[Kehlani Fay @Kehlani_Fay]

What makes robot hands dexterous? 🤖🖐️

We generate robot hands + control, sim-to-real, in under 24 hours.

Paper: Cross-Embodied Co-Design for Dexterous Hands
🔥 Rapid evaluation w/ cross-embodied policies
🦾 Open-source modular hand platform
💡 Automated full-hand generation

[Isabel MacGinnitie @isabelfyi]

I'm thrilled to share that I received the @NSF CSGrad4US fellowship (3 years of full funding)! I'm applying to CS PhD programs this fall to work on AI alignment and safety research 🌱🤖