Archive for AI
90 years ago…
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags AI, anniversary, antifacism, Falange, Francisco Franco, French politics, Frente Popular, Front populaire, Jean Renoir, June 1936, Léon Blum, Parti Communiste Français, Parti Socialiste, PCF, poster, Radical-Socialist Republican Party, Republican Spain, SFIO, socialist realism on May 3, 2026 by xi'anNature’s menu [12 March 2026]
Posted in Kids, pictures with tags Agent Orange, AI, diabetes, ethical machine learning, funding, health, Jeffrey Epstein, microbiome, moisturizer, Nature, NIH, nutrition, Pokemon, potatoes, proteins, rationing, starch, Stop the War, sugar, sunscreen, Trump 2.0, Veganuary, WWII on March 26, 2026 by xi'an
In this issue with a nutrition highlight, some recommendations for healthier options, not particularly surprising:
- “Morning coffee seems best for heart health“, based on a large longitudinal US study, even though “relationship between coffee consumption and health is unclear”, and especially since this does not impact all-day coffee (and tea?) drinkers.
- “Go vegan for the gut microbiome“, again based on a relatively large metagenomics study (in the US, the UK, and Italy). Omnivorous get the most diverse microbiomes, but red-meat eaters produce some species linked with IBD and cancers, while vegans host more beneficial bacteria with anti-inflammatory impact. Dairy eaters are also (unsurprisingly) associated with healthier microbiomes. And a connected article in this volume on how changes in the microorganisms in the guts contribute to cognitive decline.
- “The quest for proteins“, associating the hormone FGF21 as an endocrine signal of protein deprivation, and hence justifying our craving for protein-loaded food. Without concluding at its health consequences.
- “Sugar rationing reduced diabetes and high blood pressure“, really?! Reminiscing of the post-war (WWII) years in the UK when sugar was rationed. And surveying people born before and after the rationing about their diabetes and hypertension patterns. (Guess what?!)
- “Ditch the fries, not the mash” as a recommendation to eat potatoes despite the high sugar content of this starchy root (which I very rarely consume, even less in the fried format!). Again based on a huge longitudinal study of 5.2 million people years! The conclusion is still that “replacing total potatoes (…) with whole grains was associated with a lower risk of [type 2 diabetes],”
And a shorter list of recommendations for skin care, away from influencers! Like applying sunscreen, eating a nutrient-dense diet, using a simple, well-balanced moisturizer. Apart from these servings, a continuation of themes met in previous issues
- an editorial on the three recipients of the 2026 Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature, as part of a series of remarkable women scientists, on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, Xiwen Gong at the University of Michigan, Ellen Roche at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Zhen Xu at the University of Michigan, with a rather un-international location
- yet another tribune on Epstein!, calling for stricter rules on private funding of research,
- and yet another on stopping the use of AI in war, which has about as much chance to be heeded as a call to stop the wars (alas!),
- two further wishful opinion articles calling for action against Trump 2.0, with lots of must and can, but little consideration for the negligence of the rule of law by Agent Orange and his administration…
And an article on how Pokémons inspired future scientists, especially those involved in collecting and classifying.
Nature tidbits [11 Dec 2025]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags @ScientistTrump, AI, book review, coffee, cover, dinosaur, farming, food insecurity, Manhattan, Nature, The Guardian, Trump 2.0, Trump administration, tyranosaurus, ultraprocessed food, US politics on January 25, 2026 by xi'anThis issue of Nature features dinosaurs on its cover, as in old-time science magazines, yay! In association with a new (tiny) species of tyrannosaurus.
On the Trump 2.0 disaster scene, a reflection on the dangers of the Genesis Mission, which directed by the US Department of Energy to create AI scientists–and give AI companies access to federal datasets. Trump’s attempt to have his own (obviously Big & Beautiful) Manhattan Project?! Unsurprisingly, sounds very messy at this stage.
ICLR 2026 being exposed having 21% of the reviews are fully AI generated using tools from Pangram Labs, in New York. (And around 10% of the submissions being mostly written by AIs as well.) The inevitable evolution of the machine learning conference reviewing process?! Plus a review of the impact of Alphafold for its fifth anniversary. And a discussed paper by Oh & al. on meta-learning, conceiving reinforced learning algorithms that learn how to create learning algorithms. Without engaging with the paper per se I wonder at the degree of incrementality of the proposal. And hence find the catastrophic warning reproduced below rather over-the-top.
“In conclusion, it seems probable that AI will have an increasing role in the design of AI algorithms, a trend for which Oh et al.’s work is a harbinger. It is both exciting and worrying; the potential for intellectual discovery is vast, but the possible acceleration of a technology that already has an outsized societal impact is concerning in a world that is almost certainly not ready for the field’s dizziest possibilities to be realized ahead of schedule.” Joel Lehman
Also a book review of Belluz & Hall’s Food Intelligence, on the harms of processed food and the many myths that come with obesity and diets. Along a comment on diminishing investments on agricultural science being partly to blame for high food prices. And a concentration of the countries involved in R&D. But not helping (me) with the paradox that developed countries struggle to keep farming profitable enough for the farmers. As shown by the perpetual unrest of heavily subsidised farmers in the EU.
ChatGPT’ed Monte Carlo exam
Posted in Books, Kids, R, Statistics, University life with tags AI, ChatGPT, final exam, graduate course, LaTeX, LLM, Monte Carlo Statistical Methods, multilevel Monte Carlo, R, unbiased MCMC, Université Paris Dauphine on January 22, 2026 by xi'anThis semester I was teaching a graduate course on Monte Carlo methods at Paris Dauphine and I decided to experiment how helpful ChatGPT would prove in writing the final exam. Given my earlier poor impressions, I did not have great expectations and ended up definitely impressed! In total it took me about as long as if I had written the exam by myself, since I went through many iterations, but the outcome was well-suited for my students (or at least for what I expected from my students). The starting point was providing ChatGPT with the articles of Giles on multi-level Monte Carlo and of Jacob et al on unbiased MCMC, and the instruction to turn them into a two-hour exam. Iterations were necessary to break the questions into enough items and to reach the level of mathematical formalism I wanted. Plus add extra questions with R coding. And given the booklet format of the exam, I had to work on the LaTeX formatting (if not on the solution sheet, which spotted a missing assumption in one of my questions). Still a positive experiment I am likely to repeat for the (few) remaining exams I will have to produce!
Nature tidbits [06 Nov 2025]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags 5 year plan, @ScientistTrump, AI, Amazon, brain model, Brazil, CDC, China, Chinese politics, civet coffee, climate change, coal mining, coffee, coral reefs, cover, DNA helix, EPA, evidence, Florida, Francis Crick, India, James Watson, koti luwak, LLM, Margaret Thatcher, minerals, mining, MRC, NASA, Nature, NIH, Nobel Prize, non-fossil energy, non-fossil fuels, NOOA, pangolin, PhD scholarship, proteins, rare earths, renewable energy, Singapore, Trump administration, US politics on January 3, 2026 by xi'anIn this issue of Nature (I read on my way to Warwick), a pre-COP30 tribune, to be opposed to later issues!, with a positive take on the impact of the Trump Administration ignoring the conference, with the advances made by China and India (with a surprising 50% of “installed electricity generation capacity coming from non-fossil sources”, if more critical on Brazil’s efforts than the subsequent tribune by the Brazilian undersecretary for ecological transformation for environment, plus a tribune on the ambiguous terms used by countries to secure access to “critical” minerals, in tune with the on-going muscle-flexing attitudes of China and the US. Although the comment is more focussing on the universal access to minerals than to the protection of the workers extracting it and to the environmental impact of it. Followed though by another comment on the climate impact(s) on mining as (no longer) extreme weather events hinder mining all over the (mining) world.
A reflection on China’s 5y plan for science and its reaching a $500 billion annual investment in R&D, predicting (with a large confidence margin) that it will become the #1 power in sciences and technology in the coming decade. I am actually surprised that China has not yet achieved this goal for semi-conductors. And a tribune on the mixed signal of Takaichi Sanae becoming Japan’s first female prime minister, for science as a whole and for gender equity. (My take being that her having UK’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, as a role-model is not particularly promising. Just like the projection of Marine Le Pen on the verge of becoming France’s first female president does not carry any optimistic message!)
A light entry on a chemical analysis of the specifics of koti luwak (or civet coffee) that does not tell much, beside civet digestion adding caprylic and capric acids making beans lower in proteïns and higher in fat. Not yet reaching the goal of “leaving the animals out” from producing this luxury coffee ($75 a cup!).
An article on the shrinking number of US PhD admissions (in some colleges) conflicting with another article in a later issue of a stable influx. And a rather shallow article on the creativity or lack thereof of AI, along with the high sycophancy of LLMs, to be opposed to a thoughtful reflection on how AI is radically changing the PhD experience and focus, if almost shelving statistics as a thing from the past! But insisting on graduates keeping their ability to check for the validity of their (AI’s) statistical conclusions!! And another entry on the systematic dismantling of US federal scientific agencies like EPA, CDC, NASA, NOOA, NIH, &tc., by Trump -2.0, which beyond terminating staff contracts in huge proportions is culling the independence of these agencies. With generational impacts on science, training, and evidence-based policies.
A Where I work column featuring a pangolin treated by a Singapore vet, Charlene Yeong. (Unfortunately said pangolin was euthanised after the surgical intervention.) And a book review on the background and motivations of Francis Crick, just prior to his collaborator James Watson passing away. As noted by the author, Cobb, as MRC staff and later non-resident fellow of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, “Crick never had to teach or grapple with university administration: he applied for a grant only once in his life.” And concludes that he was not a saint or a hero but “an extraordinarily clever man with limits to his interests and perception”.
Xi'an's Og