Elena Burceanu retweeted
1/9 Current optimizers are static during training. What if the optimizer could think and react while the network trains?
We let an agent watch the training dynamics and rewrite the optimizer's source code as training goes: a reactive optimizer.
In every language and image setting we tried that has no tuned recipe, it matches or beats the best recipe one can one-shot, and it guards against loss spikes and overfitting by itself. In the near future, optimization decisions may belong to agents, not humans.
๐ xingjianbai.com/reactive-optโฆ
๐ป Try it on your task: github.com/xingjian-bai/opal
๐งต
Elena Burceanu retweeted
We formally announced Mirendil less than 4 months ago. Today, I'm excited to share an important milestone for:
Pretraining at scale without a pretraining team.
Mirendil's mission is to solve Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI) and use it to democratize frontier AI development, ultimately accelerating science and technology. At Mirendil, when we think about RSI, we think holistically about the company as an intelligent entity that self-improves toward its goal. From that perspective, the most powerful notion of acceleration is reducing the time and resources (number of human experts, compute, and other costs) needed to achieve ambitious goals.
Given that pretraining is perhaps the most important yet most challenging part of frontier AI development, we decided to run an ambitious controlled experiment: Starting fully from scratch, can we significantly reduce the time, number of human experts, and compute resources needed to go all the way to successfully pretraining a strong coding model at scale?
Mirendil-Base is the result of this experiment. Our first pretrained model was built by one researcher in 3.5 months, with less than $10M in compute. This includes all the research and small-scale experiments it took to get there, as well as the final training run.
The recipe holds up as the models get bigger. For reference, Mirendil-Base is in the 100B-500B parameter range, Mirendil-Base-Large in the 500B-2T range, and Mirendil-Base-XL in the 2T-10T range.
We're beginning to see a world where a single researcher, empowered by AI, can take on work that once required an entire research organization. As these systems improve, the bottleneck shifts from the size of a team to the ambition and judgment of the people directing them. This has profound implications for who gets to build AI and, ultimately, who gets to push the frontiers of science and technology forward.
Weโll share independent evaluations, post-training benchmarks and API-access sooner than you think so stay tuned!
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Reading all those recent beautiful essays by Terry Tao, Kevin Buzzard and @wtgowers, I could not resist, but write up my deeply personal perspective on how I perceive and see things:
docs.google.com/document/d/eโฆ
Elena Burceanu retweeted
๐ข As #CoLLAs2026 comes to a close in Bucharest ๐ท๐ด, we want to send a massive THANK YOU to the team who made it happen! ๐
To our incredible Local Organizers, Elena Burceanu (Bitdefender, Politehnica University of Bucharest) & Traian Rebedea (NVIDIA, Politehnica University of Bucharest), and our dedicated General Chairs, Sarath Chandar (Mila - Quebec AI Institute, Polytechnique Montrรฉal) & Razvan Pascanu (Google DeepMind, Mila), thank you all so much for an unforgettable event!
See you at CoLLAs 2027 in Montreal ๐จ๐ฆ! ๐โค๏ธ
Elena Burceanu retweeted
๐ข Weโve just wrapped up Poster Session II at #CoLLAs2026! ๐
A huge thank you to everyone who presented and attended. We loved the insightful discussions and we hope everyone sparked some productive new connections! ๐๐ง
Elena Burceanu retweeted
๐ข Donโt prevent forgetting: FIX it! ๐ง
At #CoLLAs2026, we explored a refreshing take on Continual Learning in our second keynote of Day 1 in Bucharest. Instead of just fighting catastrophic forgetting, Joost van de Weijer showed us how drift compensation can correct representations after the fact. ๐
๐ ๏ธ Plus: Fascinating insights into Model Merging to effectively combine independently trained task models into one!
๐๏ธ Huge thanks to Joost for the very insightful talk!
Elena Burceanu retweeted
๐ข In our first keynote, Michael Bowling challenged the core foundations of Continual RL!
Are MDPs, optimal policies & ergodicity assumptions holding us back? ๐ค We explored alternative foundations & new algorithms for ever-changing worlds. ๐โจ
๐๏ธ Huge thanks for the inspiring talk!
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Join us July 1st at 10 am CET for our third talk where Zeynep Akata speaks on โExplainable and Adaptive Multimodal AIโ.
๐ Learn more: lifelong-ml.cc/seminar
๐ป Zoom link: polymtl-ca.zoom.us/j/8406671โฆ
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Only a few more days until the CoLLAs Early-Career Spotlight Program deadline on June 1st!
The CoLLAs Early-Career Spotlight Program is back! Showcasing early-stage scholars with an invited 30-min in-person talk & blog feature.
Submit your motivation letter, outline, & CV to [email protected] by June 1, 2026 (AoE).
lifelong-ml.cc/Conferences/2โฆ
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Too many @GoogleChrome tabs open? Try vertical tabs, rolling out now.
Just right-click any Chrome window and select โShow Tabs Verticallyโ to move your tabs to the side of the browser window, making it easier to read page titles and manage tab groups.
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Just finished this riveting, fact-based, storytelling book on how AI rose in the past 15+ years to where it is today, by @scmallaby, featuring @demishassabis and @GoogleDeepMind. Join Sebastian and me for a Ground Truths live podcast tomorrow 12N PT
erictopol.substack.com
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Introducing Project Glasswing: an urgent initiative to help secure the worldโs most critical software.
Itโs powered by our newest frontier model, Claude Mythos Preview, which can find software vulnerabilities better than all but the most skilled humans.
anthropic.com/glasswing
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Continual learning is the future of AI and @CoLLAs_Conf is the best venue to publish your state-of-the-art research in designing adaptive machine learning systems! Abstract deadline in 10 days and the conference is in Romania this year!
โฐ The CoLLAs abstract deadline is only 10 days away!
We invite researchers to explore all facets of ML adaptation, from incorporating new capabilities during continuous training to efficiently removing outdated or harmful data.
- ๐๐ฏ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ: April 10, 2026
- ๐ฆ๐๐ฏ๐บ๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ: April 15, 2026
- ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐: Sep 14โ17, 2026
๐ Accepted papers will be published in the Proceedings of Machine Learning Research (PMLR).
๐ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ณ๐๐น๐น ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐น๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐: lifelong-ml.cc/Conferences/2โฆ
CoLLAs 2026 is happening in Bucharest, Romania ๐๐ท๐ด, and the abstract deadline is only 10 days away ๐ฃโฐ. Consider submitting if you are working on lifelong learning or adaptive ML ๐ฅ .
โฐ The CoLLAs abstract deadline is only 10 days away!
We invite researchers to explore all facets of ML adaptation, from incorporating new capabilities during continuous training to efficiently removing outdated or harmful data.
- ๐๐ฏ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ: April 10, 2026
- ๐ฆ๐๐ฏ๐บ๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ: April 15, 2026
- ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐: Sep 14โ17, 2026
๐ Accepted papers will be published in the Proceedings of Machine Learning Research (PMLR).
๐ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ณ๐๐น๐น ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐น๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐: lifelong-ml.cc/Conferences/2โฆ
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Yann LeCun ๐ค Saining Xie
insane crossover of the 2 biggest visual representation researchers in the AI field
โBeyond Language Modeling: An Exploration of Multimodal Pretrainingโ
Right now, most multimodal models are basically a language model with a vision adapter bolted on, so they can describe images, but they donโt really think in images or video.
This paper shows what happens when you do it the hard way: train one model from scratch on text, images, and video with a unified setup.
They key idea is if you give the model a good visual internal format and it can use vision for both understanding and generating.
Additionally, multimodal data can improve language instead of distracting it, and mixture-of-experts lets you scale visionโs huge data intake without bloating everything else.
This paves the way towards changing the vision paradigm from โcaptioning add-onโ model to native multimodal foundation model.
Elena Burceanu retweeted
What Happens After We Solve Continual Learning? - Stephanie Chan
youtube.com/watch?v=Ri6HNMOmโฆ
As we look ahead to CoLLAs 2026, weโre revisiting last yearโs standout keynote sessions.
Call for papers:
๐ Abstract deadline: 10th April
๐
Conference: Sep 14โ17, 2026 in Bucharest, Romania
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Preparing for CoLLAs 2026, weโre revisiting last yearโs standout keynotes:
Non Stationarity Online Learning and Loss of Plasticity - Andras Gyorgy
youtube.com/watch?v=AtbstohOโฆ
Join us in Bucharest:
๐ Abstract deadline: 10th April
๐
Conference: Sep 14โ17 2026
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Preparing for CoLLAs 2026, weโre revisiting last yearโs standout keynotes:
Leveraging Traces for Continual Reinforcement Learning - Martha White
youtube.com/watch?v=Y6awtEKWโฆ
Join us in Bucharest:
๐ Abstract deadline: 10th April
๐
Conference: Sep 14โ17, 2026
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Preparing for CoLLAs 2026, weโre revisiting last yearโs standout keynotes:
Computational Building Blocks for Complex Cognition - Cristina Savin
youtube.com/watch?v=7gZCqrqmโฆ
Join us in Bucharest:
๐ Abstract deadline: 10th April
๐
Conference: Sep 14โ17, 2026 in Bucharest, Romania
Elena Burceanu retweeted
Sam: I support Dario.
Also Sam: I am negotiating with the Department of War to take his business.
Very. Same. Day.
BREAKING: Sam Altman told OpenAI employees at an all-hands meeting on Friday afternoon that a potential agreement is emerging with the Department of War to use the startupโs AI models and tools, according to a source present at the meeting and a summary of the meeting seen by Fortune. The contract has not yet been signed.
The meeting came at the end of a week where a conflict between Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and OpenAI rival Anthropic burst into public acrimony, ending with the apparent end of Anthropicโs contracts with the Pentagon and with the federal government in general.
Altman said the government is willing to let OpenAI build their own โsafety stackโโthat is, the layered system of technical, policy, and human controls that sit between a powerful AI model and real-world useโand that if the model refuses to do a task, then the government would not force OpenAI to make it do that task.
fortune.com/2026/02/27/openaโฆ

























