Surya Ganguli

New Year’s resolution: more personal coding projects this year. Just finished pretraining and instruction fine tuning my own GPT2 scale LLM from scratch in PyTorch. Was so much fun!

It’s actually deep learning with a single weight layer, single output, linear unit, and squared loss. 😇

Feel free to quote and include my handle/name. Again, big fan!

Our new paper "High-capacity associative memory in a quantum-optical spin glass." Achieves 7-fold increased capacity thru a quantum optical analog of short term plasticity from neuroscience. Atoms (neurons) couple to motion and photons (synapses)!
arxiv.org/abs/2509.12202

Three reasons why universities are crucial for understanding AI There is a “fierce urgency” to understand how artificial intelligence works, says Stanford physicist Surya Ganguli, who is leading a project to bring the inner workings of AI to light through transpar...

In this Stanford news article, @stanfordhai.bsky.social Senior Fellow @suryaganguli.bsky.social argues that universities are essential for understanding how AI works. Here, he outlines three reasons why: news.stanford.edu/stories/2025...

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

Led by @stanford.edu's @suryaganguli.bsky.social, our Simons Collaboration on the Physics of Learning & Neural Computation will study AI's fundamental scientific principles: www.simonsfoundation.org/simons-foundation-launches-collaboration-on-the-physics-of-learning-and-neural-computation/ #science

A nice starter pack of researchers in the @simonsfoundation.org Collaboration on the Global Brain
go.bsky.app/66dLpPs

Open Faculty Position: Assistant or Associate (Untenured) Professor Application deadline: 11:55 PM on Wednesday, October 15, 2025 Sarafan ChEM-H is seeking candidates with research programs that exist at the interface between molecular science and computation. Click the link above to learn more & apply!

Open faculty position!
We're seeking applicants for a tenure-track faculty position at the junior level (Assistant or untenured Associate Professor) with research programs that exist at the interface between molecular science and computation. Apply here: stanford.io/45MF3Qa

Very excited to lead this new @simonsfoundation.org collaboration on the physics of learning and neural computation to develop powerful tools from physics, math, CS, stats, neuro and more to elucidate the scientific principles underlying AI. See our website for more: www.physicsoflearning.org

One delay is that they are fed lies that tariffs are paid for by other countries. But hopefully they will figure it out…

Recipients of a U.S. Climate Science Fellowship Are Put on Unpaid Leave

Under Trump, NOAA ran the most recent competition for their highly prestigious postdoc program in climate and global change — but funded no one, wasting huge amounts of applicant and reviewer time.

It gets a lot worse. Now current postdocs in the program are going unpaid.

Isn’t it just deep learning with a single layer, single output, and squared loss? 😉

Now you know how I feel about those brain is a computer discussions :)

I’m with @timothyoleary.bsky.social on this one :) and I’ll double down: every biologically plausible deterministic neuron model is a mean field dynamical system that averages out unobserved degrees of freedom 😉

A great @quantamagazine.bsky.social article on our theory of creativity in convolutional diffusion models lead by @masonkamb.bsky.social See also our paper with new results in version 2: arxiv.org/abs/2412.20292 to be presented as an oral at @icmlconf.bsky.social #icml25

Honored to have had my recent work with
@suryaganguli.bsky.social on the mechanisms behind creativity in diffusion models featured in this lovely article by
Webb Wright for Quanta magazine!

Wow - Bengali political ad in the US! I believe this is a first. খুব ভালো

So sorry! Hope everything will okay!

Love Cargese!

The best part of this job is seeing students graduate and launch their careers! Congrats to Feng Chen, Atsushi Yamamura, Tamra Nebabu, Linnie Wharton and Daniel Kunin. They are all going on to top positions across artificial intelligence, medicine, and physics. Proud of you!

Had fun presenting at @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social on Theories of rapid learning, creativity, and reasoning: of mice and machines.
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLmK...
Papers:
Learning: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Creativity: arxiv.org/abs/2412.20292
Math Reasoning: arxiv.org/abs/2502.07154

YouTube video by Kempner Institute at Harvard University Theories of Learning, Imagination and Reasoning: of Mice and Machines with Surya Ganguli

Next was an fascinating talk by @suryaganguli.bsky.social on theories of learning, with some incredible experiments with mice at the @kempnerinstitute.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLmK... (5/18)

Surya Ganguli of @stanford.edu‬ offers computational insights into the working of grid cells in entorhinal cortex.

@suryaganguli.bsky.social‬

#NeuroAI2025 #neuroscience

Exclusive: US veterans agency orders scientists not to publish in journals without clearance Move that seeks political control of doctors’ and scientists’ published research fits a pattern of censorship by the Trump administration, veterans advocates say

"Senior officials at the US Department of Veterans Affairs have ordered that VA physicians and scientists not publish in medical journals or speak with the public without first seeking clearance from political appointees of Donald Trump, the Guardian has learned."

OPT is the program that allows foreign students graduating with STEM degrees stay and work for up to three years. Because of the oversubscribed H-1B lottery, OPT is one of the main ways that foreign students manage to transition to jobs in the US.

Ending it would destroy a major STEM pipeline.

a man in a blue shirt and tie is sitting in front of a sign that says good point .. ALT: a man in a blue shirt and tie is sitting in front of a sign that says good point ..

:)

a close up of a man 's face with a flag in the background and a flag in the background . ALT: a close up of a man 's face with a flag in the background and a flag in the background .

I prefer to study the teleology and ontology of epistemology. ;)

What do you use? It’s prolly better :)

Yes iPad pencil with apple notes. It will snap the rectangles and lines to be straight - but I didn’t snap to position

Oh I just take all my notes in apple notes. Historical accident