{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"36 - Adam Shai and Paul Riechers on Computational Mechanics","description":"Sometimes, people talk about transformers as having &quot;world models&quot; as a result of being trained to predict text data on the internet. But what does this even mean? In this episode, I talk with Adam Shai and Paul Riechers about their work applying computational mechanics, a sub-field of physics studying how to predict random processes, to neural networks. Patreon: https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/axrpodcast Ko-fi: https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/axrpodcast The transcript:  https:\/\/axrp.net\/episode\/2024\/09\/29\/episode-36-adam-shai-paul-riechers-computational-mechanics.html &amp;nbsp; Topics we discuss, and timestamps: 0:00:42 - What computational mechanics is 0:29:49 - Computational mechanics vs other approaches 0:36:16 - What world models are 0:48:41 - Fractals 0:57:43 - How the fractals are formed 1:09:55 - Scaling computational mechanics for transformers 1:21:52 - How Adam and Paul found computational mechanics 1:36:16 - Computational mechanics for AI safety 1:46:05 - Following Adam and Paul's research &amp;nbsp; Simplex AI Safety: https:\/\/www.simplexaisafety.com\/ &amp;nbsp; Research we discuss: Transformers represent belief state geometry in their residual stream: https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2405.15943 Transformers represent belief state geometry in their residual stream [LessWrong post]:  https:\/\/www.lesswrong.com\/posts\/gTZ2SxesbHckJ3CkF\/transformers-represent-belief-state-geometry-in-their Why Would Belief-States Have A Fractal Structure, And Why Would That Matter For Interpretability? An Explainer:  https:\/\/www.lesswrong.com\/posts\/mBw7nc4ipdyeeEpWs\/why-would-belief-states-have-a-fractal-structure-and-why &amp;nbsp; Episode art by Hamish Doodles:&amp;nbsp;hamishdoodles.com ","author_name":"AXRP - the AI X-risk Research Podcast","author_url":"https:\/\/axrp.net","html":"<iframe title=\"Libsyn Player\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/33247517\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/forward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/88AA3C\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"600\" scrolling=\"no\"  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe>","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/assets.libsyn.com\/secure\/content\/178812522"}