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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

Jessy Li @jessyjli.bsky.social · 1h

Think your LLMs “understand” words like although/but/therefore? Think again!

They perform at chance for making inferences from certain discourse connectives expressing concession

Kanishka Misra 🌊 @kanishka.bsky.social · 2h

"Although I hate leafy vegetables, I prefer daxes to blickets." Can you tell if daxes are leafy vegetables? LM's can't seem to! 📷

We investigate if LMs capture these inferences from connectives when they cannot rely on world knowledge.

New paper w/ Daniel, Will, @jessyjli.bsky.social

Title page of the paper: WUGNECTIVES: Novel Entity Inferences of Language Models from Discourse Connectives, with two figures at the bottom

Left: Our figure 1 -- comparing previous work, which usually predicted the connective given the arguments (grounded in the world); our work flips this premise by getting models to use their knowledge of connectives to predict something about the world.

Right: Our main results across 7 types of connective senses. Models are especially bad at Concession connectives.

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · 10h

Open PhD position in embodied AI, Edinburgh - applications closing soon!

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Aug 14

PhD position available ! - Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents (eg. robots :) - Please distribute

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Jun 18

PhD position in Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents: #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML #PhD @heriotwattuni.bsky.social - please contact me ASAP if you are interested !
sites.google.com/site/hwinter...

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · 13d

PhD positions in AI/Robotics/NLP -- deadline Friday, 14 November 2025 ! Edinburgh, Scotland 🤖🗣️ -- please share!
www.cdt-d2air.uk

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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Jan 27

Looking to do PhD in AI? Our CDT program AI for Robotics (CDT-D2AIR) offers funding & a supportive research environment -- september 2025 intake now open!
#GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML #PhD @heriotwattuni.bsky.social
Learn more & apply here: www.edinburgh-robotics.org/apply

Applying to CDT-D2AIR | Edinburgh Centre for Robotics

We are now accepting applications for the September 2025 cohort in the UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Dependable and Deployable AI for Robotics (CDT-D2AIR), a 4-year PhD programme jointly off...

www.edinburgh-robotics.org

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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 13d

Why iRobot’s founder won’t go within 10 feet of today’s walking robots

Rodney Brooks says humanoid robots pose hidden safety challenges and won’t learn dexterity from video alone.

arstechnica.com

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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

ELLIOT Project @elliot-eu.bsky.social · 22d

🚀 Shape the future of European AI! The @ellis.eu PhD Programme is opening for applications.

🧠 Work with top researchers, join joint supervision 🤝 and benefit from networking 🌐 & training 🎓

Info session: Oct 1, 16:00 CET.

Everything you need to know is one click away 👉 ellis.eu/news/ellis-p...

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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

Tom Silver @tomssilver.bsky.social · Sep 14

This week's #PaperILike is "Hi Robot: Open-Ended Instruction Following with Hierarchical Vision-Language-Action Models" (Shi et al., ICML 2025).

I'm often asked: how might we combine ideas from hierarchical planning and VLAs? This is a good start!

PDF: arxiv.org/abs/2502.19417

Hi Robot: Open-Ended Instruction Following with Hierarchical Vision-Language-Action Models

Generalist robots that can perform a range of different tasks in open-world settings must be able to not only reason about the steps needed to accomplish their goals, but also process complex instruct...

arxiv.org

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Aug 14

PhD position available ! - Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents (eg. robots :) - Please distribute

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Jun 18

PhD position in Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents: #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML #PhD @heriotwattuni.bsky.social - please contact me ASAP if you are interested !
sites.google.com/site/hwinter...

The Interaction Lab - PhD position in Embodied AI

PhD Position: Multimodal Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Interaction Lab and National Robotarium , Heriot-Watt University Collaboration with Toshib...

sites.google.com

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Aug 4

"Learnings" and "advancements", both common in AI papers

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Jun 18

PhD position in Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents: #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML #PhD @heriotwattuni.bsky.social - please contact me ASAP if you are interested !
sites.google.com/site/hwinter...

The Interaction Lab - PhD position in Embodied AI

PhD Position: Multimodal Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Interaction Lab and National Robotarium , Heriot-Watt University Collaboration with Toshib...

sites.google.com

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Jun 16

Full Professor position in AI/CS -- Deadline for applications 23rd June!

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · May 30

Prof position in CA/ AI -- Apply here ! www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...

Reposted by Oliver Lemon

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · May 30

Prof position in CA/ AI -- Apply here ! www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...

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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

SIGdial @sigdial.bsky.social · Jun 2

The regular submission deadline for SIGdial 2025 has now passed...

But we are still welcoming submissions through ACL Rolling Review 🎉

ARR Commitment Deadline: June 6th

Acceptance notifications will be on June 20th, and then SIGdial will be held in Avignon, France: August 25th - 27th

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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

David Schlangen @davidschlangen.bsky.social · May 29

Oh yes, here's the link to the actual pre-print: arxiv.org/abs/2504.08590

Playpen: An Environment for Exploring Learning Through Conversational Interaction

Interaction between learner and feedback-giver has come into focus recently for post-training of Large Language Models (LLMs), through the use of reward models that judge the appropriateness of a mode...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

David Schlangen @davidschlangen.bsky.social · May 29

🚨 New pre-print! (Well, new & much improved version in any case.) 🚨
If you're interested in LLM post-training techniques and in how to make LLMs better "language users", read this thread, introducing the "LM Playpen".

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · May 30

Prof position in CA/ AI -- Apply here ! www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...

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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · May 20

Job advert! Chair (full professor) in AI at Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML @heriotwattuni.bsky.social
Learn more & apply here: enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Chair of Artificial Intelligence

An exciting opportunity to join the Department of Computer Science during an exciting period of growth as our Chair of Artificial Intelligence. Our campus is home to the National Robotarium, a world-l...

enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · May 24

All aspects of AI are in scope, including NLP, multimodality, embodied AI... DM me with questions!

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · May 20

Job advert! Chair (full professor) in AI at Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML @heriotwattuni.bsky.social
Learn more & apply here: enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Chair of Artificial Intelligence

An exciting opportunity to join the Department of Computer Science during an exciting period of growth as our Chair of Artificial Intelligence. Our campus is home to the National Robotarium, a world-l...

enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · May 20

Job advert! Chair (full professor) in AI at Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML @heriotwattuni.bsky.social
Learn more & apply here: enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Chair of Artificial Intelligence

An exciting opportunity to join the Department of Computer Science during an exciting period of growth as our Chair of Artificial Intelligence. Our campus is home to the National Robotarium, a world-l...

enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com

2 1

Reposted by Oliver Lemon

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Apr 10

We are hiring ! new faculty positions in AI, NLP, interactive robotics #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML @heriotwattuni.bsky.social enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Assistant Professor - Computer Sciences

You will join the School of Mathematical & Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. The department of Computer Science within the School is internationally renowned for its ...

enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · May 6

In a nutshell — here’s what we are working on at Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and the National Robotarium - our Research Themes @heriotwattuni.bsky.social #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML #PhD thenationalrobotarium.com/research-the...

Research Themes - The National Robotarium

The National Robotarium is home to a diverse range of expertise in robotics and Artificial Intelligence.Researchers from Heriot-Watt University and The University of Edinburgh work across the followin...

thenationalrobotarium.com

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Reposted by Oliver Lemon

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Apr 15

New - PhD position in Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents: #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML #PhD @heriotwattuni.bsky.social
sites.google.com/site/hwinter...

The Interaction Lab - PhD position in Embodied AI

PhD Position: Multimodal Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Interaction Lab and National Robotarium , Heriot-Watt University Collaboration with Toshib...

sites.google.com

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Apr 16

Please can you post the arxiv link? Thanks!

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Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Apr 15

New - PhD position in Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents: #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML #PhD @heriotwattuni.bsky.social
sites.google.com/site/hwinter...

The Interaction Lab - PhD position in Embodied AI

PhD Position: Multimodal Generative AI for Embodied Collaborative Agents Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom, Interaction Lab and National Robotarium , Heriot-Watt University Collaboration with Toshib...

sites.google.com

1

Oliver Lemon @oliverlemon.bsky.social · Apr 10

We are hiring ! new faculty positions in AI, NLP, interactive robotics #GenAI #NLProc #HRI #ELLISforEurope #AI #ML @heriotwattuni.bsky.social enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Assistant Professor - Computer Sciences

You will join the School of Mathematical & Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. The department of Computer Science within the School is internationally renowned for its ...

enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com

1 1 4