Identifying the Building Blocks of Attention in Deep Learning

With ChatGPT all over the news right now, many are focused on the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning — including Pierre Baldi, long an expert in the field. Yet the Distinguished Professor of computer science in UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) is also closely examining the theoretical side of AI. His recently co-authored paper in the journal Artificial Intelligence, “The Quarks of Attention: Structure and Capacity of Neural Attention Building Blocks,” is one of the first theoretical papers on the topic of attention, which is playing a big role in today’s application of AI.

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Faculty Spotlight: Jennifer Wong-Ma and the Power of Community

Whether she’s meeting a colleague for coffee, asking students to perform a skit in class, or trying to pair IT professionals with computer science majors, Associate Professor of Teaching Jennifer Wong-Ma is bringing people together. “I keep coming back to that idea of community,” she says of her work to engage with faculty and students and bridge the gap between academia and industry.

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Computer Science Ph.D. Candidate Takami Sato Named Public Impact Fellow

UCI Graduate Division named computer science doctoral candidate Takami Sato as a 2022-2023 Public Impact Fellow.

Sato is a Ph.D. candidate in UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), whose research interests include system security, machine learning security, optimization and data mining. He is advised by Qi Alfred Chen within the Department of Computer Science.

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Irani Builds New Collaborations as Associate Director of the Simons Institute

Computer Science Professor Sandy Irani has a bit of a commute these days, given that her main office has temporarily moved from the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) at UC Irvine to the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley. In August 2022, she started a two-year appointment as the new associate director at Simons, commuting to Berkeley each week from her home in Southern California.

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The Lawfare Podcast: Chris Inglis (Bryan Cunningham Interviewed)

Chris Inglis, former National Cyber Director in the White House, sat down for his first interview as a private citizen with David Kris, Lawfare contributor and former assistant attorney general for the National Security Division, and Bryan Cunningham, Lawfare contributor and executive director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute. They talked about a wide range of cyber topics, including the newly minted National Cyber Strategy, protection of critical infrastructure, cyber insurance, competition in the international front, and more.

Listen to the podcast: https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-podcast-chris-inglis

Singh Gives the Lowdown on ChatGPT in Popular Mechanics Article

Are you worried ChatGPT will take your job overnight? “It’s not happening,” says Computer Science Professor Sameer Singh of UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS). 

A recent Popular Mechanics article, “ChatGPT Is a ‘Very Sophisticated Guessing Engine’ That Probably Won’t Steal Your Job,” outlines how ChatGPT works. To gauge the prospects of the Open AI chatbot threatening people’s job security, author Matt Crisara reached out to Singh, an expert in machine learning and natural language processing.

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UC Irvine alumni Paul and Jo Butterworth pledge $35.5 million to Donald Bren School

Record gift will support programs fostering ICS student success and achievement

“I was considering not going to the university unless I received financial aid, because I didn’t have any money. But when UCI came through with a package to help out, that made all the difference in the world,” says alumnus Paul Butterworth, shown here with his wife, Jo Butterworth, also a UCI graduate. “This is what inspired us to pledge support for students – so they can follow their dreams despite their financial situations.” Roland Lane
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Singh Talks ChatGPT and More on Popular Machine Learning Podcast

The TWIML AI Podcast, originally launched by Sam Charrington in 2016 as This Week in Machine Learning & AI, is a popular podcast highlighting the “top minds and ideas from the world of ML and AI to a broad and influential community of ML/AI researchers, data scientists, engineers, and tech-savvy business and IT leaders.” On Jan. 23, 2023, Charrington sat down with a faculty member of UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) for a podcast titled, “AI Trends 2023: Natural Language Proc — ChatGPT, GPT-4 and Cutting Edge Research with Sameer Singh.”

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