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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 3d

Merci Gilles,
On a de la chance d'avoir des sacrés marqueurs de buts, dans les équipes en question (comme toi, par exemple)

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 3d

The full text is here: I kept it short, but it is deeply meaningful to me
gael-varoquaux.info/personnal/a-...

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 3d

Neither lines of code nor equations will be enough to make a better world. They are only useful if society embraces them.

Today, I have only one dream: that our children live in the best possible world. To overcome the rise of fascism and climate warming, we must inspire the right causes.

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 3d

The medal I received rewards the collective battles, and I am wary of individual distinctions. Yet, such a symbol can help drive the collective narrative.
Both science and open source must fight no to be invisible, unheard, and powerless.

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 3d

Science and open source need economic ambitions, as money gives power and control.
But some motivations lie beyond economic rational, and have driven open source to incredible success and value with few resources.

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 3d

But what good will this free software, these algorithms, have been if an Elon Musk can buy their vector of action and transform it into a fascist machine. This victory is bitter.

Science, open source, come to play within a societal context, mediated by norms and means of action.

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 3d

My first battle, my first dream, was that of science, to understand and improve the world.
It led to a second dream: democratizing science and digital tools with open source, also for a better world.

Two decades later, we have won. Open source is everywhere. Statistical algorithms raise billions

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 3d

A speech about what drives me, how science and open source are bitter victories, unable to make improve the world if society does not embrace them for the better:
gael-varoquaux.info/personnal/a-...

A national recognition; but science and open source are bitter victories

I have recently been awarded France’s national order of merit, for my career, in science, in open source, and around AI. The speech that I gave carries messages important to me (French below;...

gael-varoquaux.info

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Reposted by Gaël Varoquaux

Pierre Beyssac @pierreb.bsky.social · 4d

Pétition "non à #ChatControl" à signer sur le site de l'assemblée nationale. petitions.assemblee-nationale.fr/initiatives/...

Non à Chat Control, outil de surveillance de masse - Non à Chat Control, outil de surveillance de masse - Plateforme des pétitions de l’Assemblée nationale

Chers Représentants, Je vous écris pour exprimer mes graves préoccupations concernant la proposition de législation Chat Control (Règlement CSAM) actuellement reconsidérée sous la Présidence danoise ...

petitions.assemblee-nationale.fr

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Reposted by Gaël Varoquaux

Emilien Schultz @emilienschultz.bsky.social · 12d

What a banger is skrub @skrub-data.bsky.social !

Big thumbs up for the sklearn team & the maintainer of this package

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Reposted by Gaël Varoquaux

Signal @signal.org · 9d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Reposted by Gaël Varoquaux

David Cayla @davidcayla.bsky.social · 9d

2/3
L'État, à la base, ce n'est pas juste d'être une immense tirelire qui collecte des impôts et reverse des subventions aux entreprises et des allocations aux ménages.

Sa fonction première c'est d'assurer la production de services non marchands de qualité.

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

Slides are here: bsky.app/profile/gael...

Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

Normative framework of bigger tech

(aka, me trolling the tech audience)

Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 12d

Come to my lightning talk
At @pydataparis.bsky.social in a few minutes

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Reposted by Gaël Varoquaux

Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 12d

In 2016 Hinton predicted that AI would replace all radiologists in five years. Ten years later, why hasn't it happened? This post is a great explainer.

www.understandingai.org/p/ai-isnt-re...

AI isn't replacing radiologists

Radiology combines digital images, clear benchmarks, and repeatable tasks. But demand for human radiologists is at an all-time high.

www.understandingai.org

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

For more details, @sashamtl.bsky.social , @meredithmeredith.bsky.social and myself wrote a paper about the bigger-is-better narrative in AI, documenting its fragile grounding and the consequences:
dl.acm.org/doi/full/10....

Hype, Sustainability, and the Price of the Bigger-is-Better Paradigm in AI | Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency

dl.acm.org

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

Let's keep in mind that we can redefine what is cool, and not play in others' game.

Define what we're proud of:

Bigger is not better
Simplicity is a virtue
Tech for the many

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

Clouds natural bring improved infrastructure. But also enable spying and control.

We need to be careful whom we platform. Tech lords have sometimes the wrong political connections.

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

More efficient computing won't suffice.

Efficiency improvements are super useful. But demand will increase more, and catch up. Such a rebound effect is very classic with technology, eg with transportation or energy.

It's really the behaviors that condition resource usage (eg bike > SUV)

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

The good news is: tech keeps improving.
Software and algorithms keep getting better, as well as large compute and data infrastructures.

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

There are financial considerations indeed. AI actors are burning a crazy amount of money.

But high costs are not always a bad thing (if you own nvidia stock)

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

It's thanks to Moore's law, right? Computation is getting more effective....

Well, the cost has been exploding (exponentially indeed).

So it's really about pouring more and more money

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

The story is that we're getting there by waiting for faster GPUs and bigger datasets

and indeed, the compute used has explode, in a super-exponential growth, going way beyond the daily compute of the biggest computers

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

It's cool because is promises really amazing, very great, awesome productivity gains

(look at those studies by microsoft, IBM, Google...)

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

So, what's cool in tech?

Well, AI is cool...

it's all over the news, the people on the pictures look healthy and happy (and also white and male), and there is always a big amount of dollars associated

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Gaël Varoquaux @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social · 11d

A normative framework is the set of implicit rules and values that define the normal

What is "normal" is cultural by nature

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