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Computational Mechanics Hackathon (June 1 & 2)

by Adam Shai
24th May 2024
2 min read
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Alignment JamPIBBSSApart ResearchAI
Frontpage

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Computational Mechanics Hackathon (June 1 & 2)
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[-]Alex_Altair1y20

I'm curious if you knowingly scheduled this during LessOnline?

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[-]Adam Shai1y10

We've decided to keep the hackathon as scheduled. Hopefully there will be other opportunities in the future for those that can't make it this time!

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[-]Adam Shai1y10

No, thanks for pointing this out

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[-]Sodium1y10

It's also EAG London weekend lol it's a busy weekend for all

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[-]Adam Shai1y10

Also a good point. Thanks

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Join our Computational Mechanics Hackathon, organized with the support of APART, PIBBSS and Simplex. 


This is an opportunity to learn more about Computational Mechanics, its applications to AI interpretability & safety, and to get your hands dirty by working on a concrete project together with a team and supported by Adam & Paul. Also, there will be cash prizes for the best projects!
 

Read more and sign up for the event here. 

We’re excited about Computational Mechanics as a framework because it provides a rigorous notion of structure that can be applied to both data and model internals. In, Transformers Represent Belief State Geometry in their Residual Stream , we validated that Computational Mechanics can help us understand fundamentally what computational structures transformers implement when trained on next-token prediction - a belief updating process over the hidden structure of the data generating process. We then found the fractal geometry underlying this process in the residual stream of transformers.
 

This opens up a large number of potential projects in interpretability. There’s a lot of work to do!

Key things to know: 

  • Dates: Weekend of June 1st & 2nd, starting with an opening talk on Friday May 31st 
  • Format: Hybrid — join either online or in person in Berkeley! If you are interested in joining in person please contact Adam.
  • Program: 
    • Keynote Opening by @Adam Shai  and @Paul Riechers  —  Friday 10:30 AM PDT
    • Online Office Hours with  Adam and Paul on Discord — Saturday and Sunday 10:30 PDT 
    • Ending session — Sunday at 17:30 PDT
    • Project presentations — Wednesday at 10:30 PDT
  • Projects: 
    • After that, you will form teams of 1-5 people and submit a project on the entry submission page. By the end of the hackathon, you will submit: 1) The PDF report, 2) a maximum 10-minute video overview, 3) title, summary, and descriptions. You will present your work on the following Wednesday.
  • Sign up: You can sign up on this website. After signing up, you will receive a link to the discord where we will be coordinating over the course of the weekend. Feel free to introduce yourself on the discord and begin brainstorming ideas and interests.
  • Resources: 
    • You’re welcome to engage with this selection of resources before the hackathon starts. 
    • Check out our (living) Open Problems in Comp Mech document, and in particular the section with Shovel Ready Problems.
    • If you are starting a project or just want to express interest in it, fill out a row in this spreadsheet