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Using Cognitive Models to Reveal Value Trade-offs in Language Models - Kempner Institute

Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 19h

Research from
@soniakmurthy.bsky.social, @rosieyzh.bsky.social, @jennhu.bsky.social, @shamkakade.bsky.social, @mwulfmeier.bsky.social, @pqian.bsky.social, and @tomerullman.bsky.social

Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 19h

NEW on our #DeeperLearning blog

People balance being kind vs. being honest — and #LLMs should too.

New research shows training choices often favor informativeness over kindness, but prompting can induce sycophancy.

Read more: bit.ly/3Wqrtxl

People’s actions and words are the result of a balance of different goals. The authors use a leading cognitive model of this value trade-off in polite speech to systematically examine […]

Back to the Future – Data Efficient Language Modeling with Tatsunori Hashimoto

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 2d

In the latest Kempner Seminar Series talk, Tatsunori Hashimoto of @stanfordnlp.bsky.social discusses synthetic data and algorithmic approaches to data efficiency.

Watch the talk: youtu.be/pookfyF5Vu4

#KempnerInstitute #AI #scaling

YouTube video by Kempner Institute at Harvard University

youtu.be

Mental Programs in Humans and Machines with Kevin Ellis

Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 8d

In the latest Kempner Seminar Series talk, Kevin Ellis of Cornell University discusses how an AI system could acquire, transfer, and communicate its knowledge of how things work.

Watch the talk: youtu.be/b0_BXShGgno

#KempnerInstitute #AI

YouTube video by Kempner Institute at Harvard University

youtu.be

Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 13d

⌛️ Deadline approaching!

Applications for the #KempnerInstitute Research Fellowships close Oct. 1.

We welcome postdocs exploring the foundations of #intelligence or applications of #AI to apply.

👉 Learn more & apply: bit.ly/3UvpSpe
#LLMs #NeuroAI #ML

The Kempner brings leading, early-stage postdoctoral scientists to Harvard to work on projects that advance the fundamental understanding of intelligence.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-understand-ai-watch-how-it-evolves-20250924/

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 13d

NEW: #KempnerInstitute's Naomi Saphra and her work on #interpretability featured in @quantamagazine.bsky.social! Read the article by @benbenbrubaker.bsky.social here: t.co/40Tw1mmESe

t.co

Kempner Institute Welcomes Yonatan Belinkov and Daphna Weinshall as Visiting Scholars for the 2025-2026 Academic Year - Kempner Institute

Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 15d

News from the #KempnerInstitute!

We’re thrilled to welcome Yonatan Belinkov (expert in #NLP) and Daphna Weinshall (expert in human & machine vision) as visiting scholars for the 2025–26 academic year.

📖 Read more: bit.ly/47QkDID

#AI #MachineVision @boknilev.bsky.social

The Kempner Institute is pleased to welcome Yonatan Belinkov and Daphna Weinshall as visiting scholars for the 2025-26 academic year. Both are preeminent researchers in the field of intelligence, help...

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 19d

Happy #OpenScienceWeek!

Explore #KempnerInstitute #OpenScience resources:

📗HPC Handbook: bit.ly/4gtUzFj
💻GitHub: github.com/KempnerInsti...
💻HuggingFace: huggingface.co/KempnerInsti...
📽️Talks on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@KempnerInst...

Developing Intelligence: Insights from Spatial and Social Cognition with Moira Dillon

Reposted by Kempner Institute at Harvard University

Kanaka Rajan @kanakarajanphd.bsky.social · 25d

(1/8) New paper from our team!

Yu Duan & Hamza Chaudhry introduce POCO, a tool for predicting brain activity at the cellular & network level during spontaneous behavior.

Find out how we built POCO & how it changes neurobehavioral research 👇

arxiv.org/abs/2506.14957

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Reposted by Kempner Institute at Harvard University

Yonatan Belinkov ✈️ COLM2025 @boknilev.bsky.social · 19d

@robinjia.bsky.social
speaking at
@kempnerinstitute.bsky.social
on Auditing, Dissecting, and Evaluating LLMs

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 22d

In the first Kempner Seminar Series talk of the semester @moiradillon.bsky.social of New York University discusses the cognitive origins of spatial and social intelligence. Watch the talk: youtu.be/YcgOj1wZVkg

#psychology #cogsci #KempnerInstitute

YouTube video by Kempner Institute at Harvard University

youtu.be

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 22d

With collaborators: Andrew Lampinen, Sam Hall-McMaster, Honglak Lee, @gershbrain.bsky.social, Vikram Goddla, Ishaan Sinha, Hoon Shin, Kunal Jha

Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 22d

How can scientists apply efficient #AI tools to cognitive science? And what does it mean for how robots learn in new environments? #KempnerInstitute fellow Wilka Carvalho (@cogscikid.bsky.social l) + collaborators outline a new framework in 3 papers.
Read more: bit.ly/47Fk9F9
#NeuroAI

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 26d

See the speakers for 2025-26 #KempnerInstitute Seminar Series!
bit.ly/46xphKq

@moiradillon.bsky.social @lisik.bsky.social @profsanjeevarora.bsky.social @kyunghyuncho.bsky.social @scychan.bsky.social @stellaathena.bsky.social @judithfan.bsky.social @engeltatiana.bsky.social @zdeborova.bsky.social

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · 29d

Here's to a new academic year! The #KempnerInstitute kicked off the semester at its opening Welcome Reception last Friday, bringing together almost 100 community members. See pictures from the event: bit.ly/4nrN44i

#AI #NeuroAI #ML

Kicking Off a New Academic Year at the Kempner - Kempner Institute

Cambridge, MA– On Friday September 5th, as the first week of classes wrapped up at Harvard, the Kempner Institute community gathered for its opening reception, celebrating the growing and vibrant […]

Research Roundup - Kempner Institute

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · Sep 2

Here's the August Research Roundup from the #KempnerInstitute, featuring recent papers and preprints. 🧠🤖

kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/kempner-comm...

#AI #NeuroAI #neuroscience #medtech

The Kempner Research Roundup compiles publications, preprints and announcements authored by members of the Kempner Institute community. We publish the Roundup approximately three times each academic y...

kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu

ChatGPT hates LA Chargers fans

Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 28

#KempnerInstitute researchers find #ChatGPT’s guardrails are biased against certain users based on contextual information and inferences about the user.

Research by Victoria Li, @yidachen.bsky.social & @nsaphra.bsky.social.

Check out @theregister.com's article: bit.ly/47eaANa
#AI #LLMs

: Harvard researchers find model guardrails tailor query responses to user's inferred politics and other affiliations

A feedforward mechanism for human-like contour integration

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 25

#KempnerInstitute researchers have a new paper out in PLOS CB that uses a feedforward network to mimic properties of human contour integration.

Check out the paper by Fenil R. Doshi, George Alvarez and @taliakonkle.bsky.social here:

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

#AI #NeuroAI

Author summary A central challenge in vision science is understanding how the visual system links fragmented local features into coherent object representations. One foundational process supporting th...

journals.plos.org

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Reposted by Kempner Institute at Harvard University

Kate Davidson @kathryndavidson.bsky.social · Aug 25

Linguists, encourage potential postdocs who are AI/computationally focused to apply to these fellowships at the Kempner Institute!

Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 15

Applications are now open for our #KempnerInstitute Research Fellowships!

Postdocs studying the foundations of #intelligence or applications of #AI are encouraged to apply.

Learn more and apply by Oct. 1:
bit.ly/3UvpSpe

#LLMs #NeuroAI #ML @shamkakade.bsky.social

The Kempner brings leading, early-stage postdoctoral scientists to Harvard to work on projects that advance the fundamental understanding of intelligence.

Simons Foundation Launches Collaboration on the Physics of Learning and Neural Computation

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 18

Congratulations to #KempnerInstitute associate faculty member @cpehlevan.bsky.social for joining the new
@simonsfoundation.org Simons Collaboration on the Physics of Learning and Neural Computation!

www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/08/18/s...

#AI #neuroscience #NeuroAI #physics #ANNs

Simons Foundation Launches Collaboration on the Physics of Learning and Neural Computation on Simons Foundation

www.simonsfoundation.org

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 18

Scaling up models has led to major advances in #AI & #machinelearning. Check out the latest installment in the #KempnerBytes series to learn more about #scalinglaws and other aspects of research on scale in artificial neural networks.

bit.ly/3UzgPUg

#KempnerInstitute

The Power of Scale in Machine Learning - Kempner Institute

AI is currently advancing at an unprecedented clip, but many of the mathematical methods that are enabling these advances were developed decades ago. The big breakthroughs in machine learning (ML) […]

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Reposted by Kempner Institute at Harvard University

Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · Aug 18

If you work on artificial or natural intelligence and are finishing your PhD, consider applying for a Kempner research fellowship at Harvard:
kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu/kempner-inst...

The Kempner brings leading, early-stage postdoctoral scientists to Harvard to work on projects that advance the fundamental understanding of intelligence.

kempnerinstitute.harvard.edu

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 15

Applications are now open for our #KempnerInstitute Research Fellowships!

Postdocs studying the foundations of #intelligence or applications of #AI are encouraged to apply.

Learn more and apply by Oct. 1:
bit.ly/3UvpSpe

#LLMs #NeuroAI #ML @shamkakade.bsky.social

The Kempner brings leading, early-stage postdoctoral scientists to Harvard to work on projects that advance the fundamental understanding of intelligence.

Computer Scientist Qianqian Wang, an Expert in Computer Vision, to Join Harvard’s Kempner Institute and SEAS - Kempner Institute

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Kempner Institute at Harvard University @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social · Aug 14

We are thrilled to share the appointment of @qianqianwang.bsky.social as an #KempnerInstitute Investigator! She will bring her expertise in computer vision to @harvard.edu.

Read the announcement: bit.ly/4mIghHy

#AI #ComputerVision

CAMBRIDGE, MA —The Kempner Institute announced today the appointment of Qianqian Wang, who will join Harvard as Kempner Institute Investigator and Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the John A...