I want to maintain my amazing once-per-year blogging streak, but I spent all my holiday break time on an a new but still secret project that won’t be unveiled until next year 😦

There were lots of exciting developments in 2023, most of which I’m sure I’ll miss.

• Information theoretic diffusion: this approach was introduced in ICLR 2023 and we explore some applications in an ICLR 2024 submission. I feel this perspective still has unique insights to offer (compared to the SDE/ODE/Score matching/VAE/Nonequilibrium thermodynamics perspectives on diffusion). The ICLR 2024 submission was partially inspired by a fun workshop with the small, but fantastic “information decomposition” community, DeMICS.
• It’s been exciting working on more causality stuff again with the smart and prolific Myrl Marmarelis.
• I’ve also spent more time on my role as an Amazon visiting academic. There have been two exciting research developments there that I can’t share until there is a public paper out.
• A few random (but not that personal) developments. (1) I made a cold tub to up the game on my Wim Hof practice (2) doubled my consecutive push-up number (3) I really like the new NYT Connections game.