Human/AI interaction. ML interpretability. Visualization as design, science, art. Professor at Harvard, and part-time at Google DeepMind.https://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3micxcch6lc2fEveryone's talking about AI sycophancy and meanwhile ChatGPT just called my writing "very salvageable"31 Mar 2026 00:47 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3micxcch6lc2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3mgicxhmsx22iI want to talk about why AI-based mass surveillance is so dangerous, and why I would oppose it no matter which party or president is in office.07 Mar 2026 17:09 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgicxhmsx22ihttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3ma2xlzxst22pIn 2025, AI left its imprint on everything—even names! If you've ever asked an AI to tell you a story, you've probably seen the Elara-Elena-Clara nexus... [contains quote post or other embedded content]16 Dec 2025 01:10 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3ma2xlzxst22phttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3m732vhakzk2gI want to play with this clever book myself! [contains quote post or other embedded content]03 Dec 2025 08:44 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m732vhakzk2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3m6auzqcuu22wI asked for a caricature of myself in the style of Al Hirschfeld, and Gemini knew to hide a NINA in my hair 😲22 Nov 2025 22:49 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6auzqcuu22whttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3loy3ntstak25A wonderful visualization for those of us obsessed by sunlight and geography! [contains quote post or other embedded content]12 May 2025 13:36 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3loy3ntstak25https://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3llf3ndniuk2tAn incredibly rich, detailed view of neural net internals! There are so many insights in these papers. And the visualizations of "addition circuit" features are just plain cool! [contains quote post or other embedded content]27 Mar 2025 20:00 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3llf3ndniuk2thttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3ll5jfpdkhk2pNow that we have vibe coding, we need vibe testing!24 Mar 2025 19:45 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3ll5jfpdkhk2phttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3ljgtx22mnc2zThe wind map at hint.fm/wind/ has been running since 2012, relying on weather data from NOAA. We added a notice like this today. Thanks to @cambecc.bsky.social for the inspiration. [contains quote post or other embedded content]03 Mar 2025 01:57 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3ljgtx22mnc2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3lizjgd72gc2nNeat visualization that came up in the ARBOR project: this shows DeepSeek "thinking" about a question, and color is the probability that, if it exited thinking, it would give the right answer. (Here yellow means correct.)25 Feb 2025 18:44 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lizjgd72gc2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3lineteeoh22kGreat thread describing the new ARBOR open interpretability project, which has some fascinating projects already. Take a look! [contains quote post or other embedded content]20 Feb 2025 22:50 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lineteeoh22khttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3lin32i4eqc2jToday we're launching a multi-lab open collaboration, the ARBOR project, to accelerate AI interpretability research for reasoning models. Please join us! https://github.com/ARBORproject/arborproject.github.io (ARBOR = Analysis of Reasoning Behavior through Open Research)20 Feb 2025 19:55 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lin32i4eqc2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3lg4lqkwxc22mOut: rectangular maps of the globe In: rectangular maps of butterfly wings! [contains quote post or other embedded content]19 Jan 2025 19:48 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lg4lqkwxc22mhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3lfwsow7tgs2eI'm realizing that many people hear "generative art" (a term going back at least to the 60s!) as synonymous with generative AI. Is this how cryptographers feel about the new meaning of "crypto"?17 Jan 2025 12:36 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfwsow7tgs2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3lfrwlxhxhk2qIdle question: Are there any papers from legit math journals using emoji as notation? We already use every symbol on the keyboard, musical sharps and flats, and even weird made-up fonts (what is that Weierstrass P??). A smiley is easy to draw with chalk and put into LaTeX, so why not?15 Jan 2025 14:03 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfrwlxhxhk2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3lezbkvhbpc2qI tried asking AI for writing advice and it was so sarcastic I'm never going to ask again05 Jan 2025 18:43 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lezbkvhbpc2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3leypzoz5ek2bIf you're the kind of person who likes thinking about the sky (and I am!) this is a wonderful visualization to explore. So many patterns, each with its own story. [contains quote post or other embedded content]05 Jan 2025 13:29 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3leypzoz5ek2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3leuden3svk2wIn art and literature, "criticism" doesn't mean "pointing out flaws." It's something bigger and more interesting than a referee calling fouls. I think we should have the same ambitions for data visualization criticism!03 Jan 2025 19:32 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3leuden3svk2whttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3letwzuc7ls2tReading this 1954 court case, and am wondering if English professors are ever called as expert witnesses to testify whether a character is a mere "chessman" in a story https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1515611761969355340203 Jan 2025 15:51 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3letwzuc7ls2thttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3leibplaaxc2iMade good progress on my to-do list, with the exception of "One (1) new idea"30 Dec 2024 00:30 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3leibplaaxc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3lecvzcksh22cA book recommendation! I just finished "Get the Picture" by Bianca Bosker, a dive into the extremely peculiar world of contemporary art. Amazingly well-observed, well-written, and just plain fun to read. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602064/get-the-picture-by-bianca-bosker/27 Dec 2024 21:17 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3lecvzcksh22chttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3ldy4xnrdak2yThe math benchmarks I want: 1. OopsBench: given a faulty proof with numbered steps, which step contains an unfixable logical flaw? 2. DunnoMath: half the problems are taken from FrontierMath, half are almost certainly unsolvable. Major points off for guessing an answer to an unsolvable problem.23 Dec 2024 14:22 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldy4xnrdak2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3ldpg6vwrdc24Fractions can be weirdly beautiful, for something so mundane. This visualization just plots points of the form (a/b, c/d). Bigger dots mean smaller denominators. The biggest dot is (0, 0).20 Dec 2024 03:13 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldpg6vwrdc24https://bsky.app/profile/wattenberg.bsky.social/post/3ldogizozz223You can fry ChatGPT's circuits by asking a question in Morse code and telling it to answer only in Morse code. Yet Claude doesn't even blink. Huh. The question: "Which character in the movie Groundhog Day do you identify with the most, and why?" First translated result is ChatGPT; second is Claude.19 Dec 2024 17:46 +0000at://did:plc:gfhaa5a4ozmdy4kj62rxtldd/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldogizozz223