When/where: E2-215 at 12pm

Presenter: Oskar Elek
Title: Monte Carlo Physarum Machine: Unconventional AI for astronomy and beyond

Abstract: Slime mold (Physarum Polycephallum) is a freak of the natural world that – out of decaying forest debris – builds near-optimal transport networks. We leverage a custom Monte-Carlo simulation of this organism to approximate such transport networks: both in terms of structure and their density (likelihood) in 3D space. I will discuss our analysis of the Cosmic Web using this hybrid model, as well as future prospects in training and adapting it to several other domains.

With luck this Zoom link will work.

When/where: E2-215 at 12pm

Presenter: Reuben Harry Cohn-Gordon (Stanford University)
Title: Bayesian Models of Pragmatics for Natural Language

Abstract: Emerging from work in Bayesian cognitive science and game theory, probabilistic models of pragmatic reasoning have been successful at modelling human inferences about linguistic meaning, on the basis of their interlocutor’s intentions and knowledge. However, they have largely been applied to idealized domains. Meanwhile, natural language processing systems have made significant progress at open-domain tasks requiring language understanding, but often struggle to behave in human-like ways. I describe work combining these approaches, with the aim of obtaining interpretable models of pragmatic reasoning for natural language.