Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

2/2 "So how about getting rid of [self & goals] and minimizing [affordances] to its simplest possible form." @yoshuabengio.bsky.social's Richard M. Karp talk at the Simons Institute on "Superintelligent Agents Pose Catastrophic Risks." Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0lj...

YouTube video by Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing Superintelligent Agents Pose Catastrophic Risks — ... | Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture

1/2 "You could have bad goals and you could be smart, but if you can’t do anything in the world, then you can’t do a lot of harm. The trio is the thing that kills us." @yoshuabengio.bsky.social, at his Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture at the Simons Institute: www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0lj...

2/2 Soledad Villar of @jhu.edu identified three types of symmetries: those that come from observed regularities of physics; symmetries that come from choice of mathematical representations; and symmetries in the parameter space. Simons Institute talk video: simons.berkeley.edu/talks/soleda...

1/2 "Symmetries play a fundamental role in machine learning." Soledad Villar of @jhu.edu speaking at the Simons Institute workshop on Randomness, Invariants, and Complexity. Video: simons.berkeley.edu/talks/soleda...

AI’s Models of the World, and Ours | Theoretically Speaking When we see someone performing at the top of their craft, we often marvel at both their observable achievements and the hidden internal expertise that they’ve accumulated. Something similar is true, i...

Join us next Tuesday, 12/9 for Jon Kleinberg's talk in our Theoretically Speaking public lecture series. Registration is required.

simons.berkeley.edu/events/ais-m...

3/3 "The only thing...we can manage is to make sure they don’t have bad intentions. Of course, intentions can come from malicious humans, or ... from the AI themselves." @yoshuabengio.bsky.social at his Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture at the Simons Institute. www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0lj...

2/3 "It needs to have the capability to cause the harm: the intelligence and the affordance. And it needs to have the intention," said @yoshuabengio.bsky.social at the Simons Institute. "It’s very unlikely that we’ll stop the train of capability." Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0lj...

YouTube video by Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing Superintelligent Agents Pose Catastrophic Risks — ... | Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture

1/3 "What are the conditions for an AI system in the future to cause catastrophic harm?" Turing Award winner @yoshuabengio.bsky.social asked, during his Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture at the Simons Institute earlier this year. www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0lj...

2/2 "The general belief is that networking is not working efficiently." Chen Avin of @bengurionuni.bsky.social at the Simons Institute workshop on Managing Specialized and Heterogeneous Architectures. simons.berkeley.edu/talks/chen-a...

1/2 Networks are creating bottlenecks for AI. There's "a separation between the growth of computation for [AI] and the growth of networking infrastructure...We must make our networks more efficient." Chen Avin of @bengurionuni.bsky.social at the Simons Institute. simons.berkeley.edu/talks/chen-a...

Join us for Jon Kleinberg's Theoretically Speaking lecture, 12/9! This is an in-person event, and registration is required.

simons.berkeley.edu/events/ais-m...

2/2 "As much as we'd think that LLMs are everywhere, I'd also say graphs are everywhere...If you squint, [LLM reasoning] is a graph learning problem." Mikhail Galkin of @googleresearch.bsky.social at the Simons Institute's workshop on Graph Learning Meets Theoretical Computer Science. Link above.

1/2 "What are graph foundation models? How are they different from language models? Or maybe not," asked Mikhail Galkin of @googleresearch.bsky.social at the Simons Institute's workshop on Graph Learning Meets Theoretical Computer Science. Video: simons.berkeley.edu/talks/mikhai...

We were delighted to host Simons Institute Industry Day 2025 today, full of lively exchanges and talks by partner companies, program organizers, and postdoctoral-level research fellows.

2/2 "We're used to making guarantees to within the limits of the assumptions of [our] models...How do we now think about using these state-of-the-art techniques in safety critical control?." Claire Tomlin at the Simons Institute's workshop on Theoretical Aspects of Trustworthy AI.

1/2 "In control and automation, the big change is the advent of foundation models and the potential use of those in automating systems...The challenge is of course for safety." Claire Tomlin of @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social on AI for Safety Critical Control. simons.berkeley.edu/talks/claire...

2/2 Multiplying 2 n x n matrices requires O(n^w) arithmetic operations, where w=3 for the brute force algorithm. Strassen's method was the first big improvement in '69 (w=2.81), followed by two big jumps in the '80s. The world record today is w=2.3714. simons.berkeley.edu/talks/virgin...

1/2 "It seems silly, but it's a very important problem." Virginia Vassilevska Williams (@mit.edu) on the progress in matrix multiplication algorithms during her Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture On Matrix Multiplication Algorithms at the Simons Institute. simons.berkeley.edu/talks/virgin...

Ever wondered about graph learning? Watch Ameya Velingker and Haggai Maron give a masterful introduction at the Simons Institute's workshop on Graph Learning Meets Theoretical Computer Science. Video: simons.berkeley.edu/talks/ameya-...

Also joining the consortium are Imperial College London, Institute for Advanced Study, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES), and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

Accelerating discovery with the AI for Math Initiative The AI for Math Initiative brings together five of the world's most prestigious research institutions.

We’re delighted to be supported by the Google DeepMind x Google.org AI for Math Initiative, which was launched today. The new generation of AI tools will transform research on the foundations of computing, and this new initiative is poised to accelerate that.

blog.google/technology/g...

Today at 3:30 p.m. PT. Join us!

simons.berkeley.edu/events/matri...

Join us next Tuesday!

simons.berkeley.edu/events/matri...

2/2 There are matrix multiplication algorithms that can do better than Strassen's but only for astronomically large matrices, making them impractical, said Oded Schwartz at the Simons Institute's workshop on Complexity and Linear Algebra Boot Camp. Video: simons.berkeley.edu/talks/oded-s...

1/2 Should have paid attention to matrices during linear algebra classes! In 2026, AI will use ~1% of global electricity, of which ~45-90% will be for matrix multiplications, said Oded Schwartz of Hebrew University of Jerusalem at the Simons Institute. simons.berkeley.edu/talks/oded-s...

Asynchronous Concurrency in Data Structures | Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture This talk will explore the question of whether and by how much operations on data structures can be sped up by using multiple unsynchronized processes. Taking advantage of concurrency in this setting ...

Join us for Robert Tarjan's Richard M. Karp Distinguished Lecture on "Asynchronous Concurrency in Data Structures," Tuesday, October 21 at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time.

simons.berkeley.edu/events/async...

2/2 For multiplying two n x n matrices, the arithmetic complexity of the standard method is of O(n^3); Strassen's method is of O(n^2.81). Prof. Olga Holtz spoke at the Simons Institute's workshop on Complexity and Linear Algebra Boot Camp. Video: simons.berkeley.edu/talks/olga-h...

1/2 Matrix multiplications are central to machine learning. UC Berkeley Professor Olga Holtz's analyzed, from scratch, the arithmetic complexity of matrix multiplication using Strassen's fast algorithm. She spoke at the Simons Institute. Video: simons.berkeley.edu/talks/olga-h...

Join us!

simons.berkeley.edu/events/async...

It was a pleasure chatting with Yael and Daniele about several developments in #cryptography! Thank you @simonsinstitute.bsky.social for this opportunity!