https://ergosphere.blog/posts/the-machines-are-fine/ #professorproblems #cosmicthreat #studentignorance #researchchallenges #academichumor #HackerNews #ngated

We propose Zero-Error Horizon (ZEH) for trustworthy LLMs, which represents the maximum range that a model can solve without any errors. While ZEH itself is simple, we demonstrate that evaluating the ZEH of state-of-the-art LLMs yields abundant insights. For example, by evaluating the ZEH of GPT-5.2, we found that GPT-5.2 cannot even compute the parity of a short string like 11000, and GPT-5.2 cannot determine whether the parentheses in ((((()))))) are balanced. This is surprising given the excellent capabilities of GPT-5.2. The fact that LLMs make mistakes on such simple problems serves as an important lesson when applying LLMs to safety-critical domains. By applying ZEH to Qwen2.5 and conducting detailed analysis, we found that while ZEH correlates with accuracy, the detailed behaviors differ, and ZEH provides clues about the emergence of algorithmic capabilities. Finally, while computing ZEH incurs significant computational cost, we discuss how to mitigate this cost by achieving up to one order of magnitude speedup using tree structures and online softmax.
Thrilled to finally share the paper @deepseek and I cooked up: a formal framework where the Special Orthogonal Group of Existentialism determines whether youโre โ or โ.
Yes, thereโs a Dasein Potential. Yes, the math checks out. ๐
๐ https://www.johnmackay.net/grand-unified-theory-contextual-orientation.htm
An interesting study on humour in scientific talks (531 presentations, 870 jokes):
67% of jokes failed.
Only ~9% got real laughter.
Men joke slightly more, and native English speakers are more likely to succeed.
๐ https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.3000
O yes... Joking in a foreign language is hard, and even in your own, it only works if the audience truly gets it.
#AcademicHumor #ConferenceLife #AcademicLife #ResearchCulture #ScholarlyCommunication
Performance Review
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://warandpeas.com/2026/03/01/performance-review/
Happy Halloween, punks! Let's all take a moment to remember the year I made my confused husband dress up as a paywall so I could be Open Access Hero.
#OpenAccess #OA #OER #libraryLife #HigherEd #Elsevier #library #Halloween #AcademicHumor