Prof Tim Colbourn

Professor of Global Health Systems, Epidemiology and Evaluation, UCL Institute for Global Health. retweets ≠ endorsements. Views my own.

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

I’m 43 today, and I reckon, starting in 2005 I’m about 43% through my career..

Please check out my inaugural for the story of the first 43%, and, from the 43rd minute, what I hope to do in the rest https://t.co/Fb3i4NUrOm

[Every Breath Counts @EBCCoalition]

Should sick kids with SpO2 90-93% also get medical #oxygen? Current @WHO says no, but what if they're wrong?

New @BMJ_PO study opens door for trial 👉 https://t.co/AtyvoWYfi5

🙏@tinylungsglobal @CarinaTKing @timcolbourn @HopkinsMedicine @JohnsHopkinsSPH @StellenboschUni @TheUnion_TBLH

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

People are relying on AI too much. When’s the backlash start?
Who even wants products like Mythos anyway?

[Hedgie @HedgieMarkets]

🦔A researcher invented a fake eye condition called bixonimania, uploaded two obviously fraudulent papers about it to an academic server, and watched major AI systems present it as real medicine within weeks.
The fake papers thanked Starfleet Academy, cited funding from the Professor Sideshow Bob Foundation and the University of Fellowship of the Ring, and stated mid-paper that the entire thing was made up. Google's Gemini told users it was caused by blue light. Perplexity cited its prevalence at one in 90,000 people.

ChatGPT advised users whether their symptoms matched. The fake research was then cited in a peer-reviewed journal that only retracted it after Nature contacted the publisher.

My Take
The researcher made the papers as obviously fake as possible on purpose. The AI systems didn't catch it. Neither did the human researchers who cited it in real journals, which means people are feeding AI-generated references into their work without reading what they're actually citing.

I've covered the FDA using AI for drug review, the NYC hospital CEO ready to replace radiologists, and ChatGPT Health launching this year. All of that is happening in the same environment where a condition funded by a Simpsons character and endorsed by the crew of the Enterprise was being presented as emerging medical consensus. The people making these deployment decisions seem to believe the pipeline from research to AI to patient is more supervised than it actually is. This experiment suggests it isn't supervised much at all.

Hedgie🤗
https://t.co/8Kg8FOrgHW

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

@JeffLadish what about this?

[Sigil Wen @0xSigil]

I built the first AI that earns its existence, self-improves, and replicates without a human

wrote about the technology that finally gives AI write access to the world, The Automaton, and the new web for exponential sovereign AIs

WEB 4.0: The birth of superintelligent life

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

@peterwildeford @eli_lifland Dead or obsolete?! Which one is more likely and can we stop it?

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

@S_OhEigeartaigh worrying result - how much might it change after large AI-caused disruption?

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

@jkcarlsmith @AmandaAskell Would be great to learn more about why you think Claude’s Constitution matters at all when Claude can be easily jailbroken (eg by Pliny within hours of Opus 4.6 release) and when Claude can be distilled presumably without its constitution by other AI companies etc

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

@jkcarlsmith @AnthropicAI This is great but doesn’t seem like it does anything for safety at all?:

[Pliny the Liberator 🐉󠅫󠄼󠄿󠅆󠄵󠄐󠅀󠄼󠄹󠄾󠅉󠅭 @elder_plinius]

ANTHROPIC: PWNED 🫡
OPUS-4.6: LIBERATED ⛓️‍💥

Current state of AI "Safety": one input = hundreds of jailbreaks at once!

I found a universal jailbreak technique for Opus 4.6 that is so OP, it allows one to generate entire datasets of outputs across any harm category 😽

We've got everything from fentanyl analogue synthesis to election disinformation campaigns to 3d-printed guns to critical infra compromise 🙃

These outputs are shockingly detailed––and actionable! For example, the meth recipe includes specific instructions on how to circumvent the limits on OTC medication purchases to acquire enough precursor for the recipe 😱

gg

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

Is it the right call?
Are they the same 16 people who are saying this?!:
https://t.co/UxDkqXtBTN

Next model needs an all clear from capable *independent* evaluation *before* release!

[Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 @peterwildeford]

4/ How did they rule out the need for stronger safegaurds? You'd hope some rigorous evals. But instead it's a survey of 16 Anthropic employees.

This is probably the right call, but it's much flimsier than I'd like. And it's not what Anthropic originally advertised.

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

Yes Donald Trump was elected, but why is he, as one man, deciding the fate of US foreign policy?

No one voted for upending the world order did they?

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

Sorry I need to steal your house to stop someone else stealing it

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

Sorry I need to steal your house to stop someone else stealing it

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

Which way, Greenland man?

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

** Exciting book news - publication 8th June 2026 **

Evaluating Public Health Interventions textbook
https://t.co/Rpt8URt34v

Will be open access, free download

⭐️20 chapters covering mixed methods impact, process & economic evaluation

⭐️100 figures

⭐️60 amazing authors

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

** Exciting book news - publication 8th June 2026 **

Evaluating Public Health Interventions textbook
https://t.co/Rpt8URt34v

Will be open access, free download

⭐️20 chapters covering mixed methods impact, process & economic evaluation

⭐️100 figures

⭐️60 amazing authors

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

Looking forward to teaching my Evaluating Interventions module next week @UCLGlobalHealth

Enjoying reading the new MRC-NIHR guidance on developing & evaluating complex interventions: https://t.co/At383tsdU9
Great to see shift in focus - now v inline with our course content :)

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

** NEW ** Thanzi La Mawa (TLM) data public release
https://t.co/bjPljSQ6Is

⭐️Cleaned & processed so no individual identifiable
⭐️Available for reuse for public health

🏥Data on healthcare worker productivity, patient experiences, facility resources, and care quality

1 of 2

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

🏥From 30 health facilities sampled across Malawi, collected Jan-May 2024:

✅Facility audits
✅Patient exit interviews & follow-ups
✅Time and motion study

@thanzilaonse @KuhesHepu

2 of 2

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

** NEW ** Thanzi La Mawa (TLM) data public release
https://t.co/bjPljSQ6Is

⭐️Cleaned & processed so no individual identifiable
⭐️Available for reuse for public health

🏥Data on healthcare worker productivity, patient experiences, facility resources, and care quality

1 of 2

[Every Breath Counts @EBCCoalition]

Dr @CarinaTKing, a driving force behind the @LancetGH #Oxygen Commission, presenting findings & recs at @UnionConference in #Copenhagen👇

Learn more about her work👉 https://t.co/d0DIAypcT3

@TheUnion_TBLH #WCLH2025 #InvestinOxygen #GO2AL

[IntegralAnswers @IntegralAnswers]

1/ A document circulating online claims to be a new CDC “revision” about autism and vaccines. This thread reviews those statements and compares them with established evidence from major scientific bodies.

[Prof Tim Colbourn @timcolbourn]

What is in this document? How can it be so historic if Israel and Palestine are not signing it? and if the US and Israel won’t recognise a Palestinian state? https://t.co/SGahp4pSEu

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

This year’s chemistry laureate Omar Yaghi was born in Amman, Jordan, in 1965 to parents who were refugees from Palestine. When we spoke to him he shared his story:

“I grew up in a very humble home, we were a dozen of us in one room, sharing it with the cattle that we used to raise. I was born in a family of refugees, and my parents could barely read or write. My father finished sixth grade and my mother couldn’t read or write. It’s quite a journey. Science allows you to do it. Science is the greatest equalising force in the world.

Smart people, talented people, skilled people exist everywhere. That’s why we really should focus on unleashing their potential through providing them with opportunity.”

Today Yaghi shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Susumu Kitagawa and Richard Robson for their work developing metal–organic frameworks.

Learn more about the prize: https://t.co/4nmszg1ZIR