Hi everyone! I’ve been staying in San Francisco and Berkeley since my last update and I’ve really been enjoying it! I’ve been doing some research on improving natural language autoencoders, specifically on making “matryoshka NLAs” which are truncation-robust because you randomly truncate the activation verbalizer’s explanation during RL. I’m hoping to finish a LessWrong post on that later this week. I’m still pretty unsure about matryoshka NLAs, but it seems like they might be useful? It’s been really great finally have Fable 5 back. I’ve also been thinking about ways to redesign my website to make it more visually interesting; for now I’ve created a new page that shows you what city I’m currently in.

I’ve been at Mox a lot while doing this research this month; it’s been a great co-working space to do stuff from. I’ve also ended up at Lighthaven several times this month for events and visiting people.

I’m going to be in the SF bay area until approximately August 4, when I’m going to return to Toronto for a bit (at least a few weeks). I’ve been considering stopping in Seattle and Victoria, BC on my way back but I haven’t decided yet. Not sure where I’ll go after that; I’ve been considering staying in the bay area for longer (maybe through a J-1 sponsorship route?) or visiting London, England for a bit. I might also visit Halifax, NS for a bit; I’ve heard it’s a good place to visit.

Please let me know if you have any feedback for me, or have suggestions for what I should do while I’m in the bay area!