Co-founder and CEO @lanyon_ai, making the universe computable. Part-time math/physics research @Princeton Previously @Cambridge_Uni @WolframResearch
Princeton, NJ
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FFS. Just be explicit about whether you mean:
1: "Computer" in the sense of an abstract machine that computes general recursive functions;
2: "Computer" in the sense of a finite physical approximation to (1);
3: "Computer" in the sense of the von Neumann implementation of (2).
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Jonathan Gorard retweeted
Using Lanyon to autonomously discover and verify new models and algorithms for continuum mechanics.
Simulating high-energy impact of a copper projectile on an elastoplastic plate, plus the resulting damage profile. The discovered model matches the experimental value for the effective plastic strain to within 5%.
Model discovery, formal verification, software implementation, and numerical simulation all completed in less than 5 minutes, from a single prompt.
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No. A concatenation of many matrix multiplications is… just a single matrix multiplication (that’s what linearity means).
Rather, a neural network is a concatenation of matrix multiplications *and* nonlinearities, i.e. a concatenation of arbitrary linear and nonlinear operations, i.e. an arbitrary operation.
So the relevant question is rather: can consciousness be instantiated by an arbitrary abstract operation?
I’d say it’s pretty clear which way round the burden of proof goes.
idk I think the burden of proof (or, if you like, the burden of persuasion) lies with those who think a concatenation of many matrix multiplications produces consciousness
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Jonathan Gorard retweeted
Math has a proof checker. Can physics get one? Physicist Jonathan Gorard @getjonwithit, cofounder of the Wolfram Physics Project and now CEO of Lanyon AI, thinks so: “We want to make physics executable in the same way that software is executable and that now increasingly mathematics is executable.” He also says, “I’m in a continual process of grief.” What does it mean to grieve a way of doing physics? And is there still a place for the physicist?
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Very proud to be sponsoring this fantastic event, and we’ll be providing early access to the @lanyon_ai API and CLI (plus unlimited compute) to all participants.
Should be great fun - see you there!
We’re organizing Vibecheck, a formal methods hackathon with some of the best folks in the space - @maxvonhippel, @qd_forall, @nolanlwin, @jessemhan, @emiyazono, and @workersio.
You’ll get a weekend to build real production software, and formally verify it.
We’ll have people who really know their stuff around to help, and you can come with a team, find one there, or just hack on something yourself.
We are glad to have a phenomenal group of sponsors, including @harmonicmath, @mathematics_inc, @theoremlabs, @thegp, @omnicom, @primeintellect, @astriolabs, @buildwithparty, @wearerandomlabs, and @lanyon_ai, as well as some more we will announce in the coming days!
If you’re a hacker, a formal methods person, or just someone who thinks “how do we know it works?” is an interesting question, we’d love to have you.
Signup Now: fmxai.org/vibecheck/
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Jonathan Gorard retweeted
It’s our pleasure to welcome Andrew "Tasman" Powis to the Lanyon AI team as Founding Member of Technical Staff, specializing in AI model development and advanced numerical algorithms.
Tasman joins us from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and brings deep expertise in artificial intelligence, algorithm design, and high-performance computing, with a particular interest in kinetic simulations, spacecraft propulsion and semiconductor manufacturing. Welcome Tasman!
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Hilbert's Entscheidungsproblem was solved. Hilbert's 6th problem never was.
As a result, we got formal verification for math and software, but not (yet) for physics and natural science. So no RLVR, no recursive AI improvement.
At @lanyon_ai, we're rapidly closing that gap.
Good question. I think part of the reason why there has not been any *major* impact on Physics yet can be boiled down to the following few points:
1. *Actual* Physics is not *that* dependent on math. Most of it is applying equations that have been derived a century plus ago to novel/particular problems.
2. More advanced mathematical Physics is still too hard to solve for AI and/or numerical solutions have been more than capable for decades to handle most *actual* Physics problems.
3. A lot of what passes for “advanced theoretical Physics” is just a form mathematical onanism with absolutely no relation to reality, so even if AI makes some kind of advancement there it will not make an iota of difference.
4. The *real hard* Physics breakthrough will require some deep insight that is not contained within the “convex hull” of current human knowledge, and thus largely invisible to the *current* AI systems.
Just my thoughts on the matter.
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It is an unfortunate reality that people who talk incessantly about themselves and their achievements really do get taken more seriously than those who consider such things to be gauche. I need to stop being surprised by this.
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Jonathan Gorard retweeted
It’s our pleasure to welcome Aanya Bhandari to the Lanyon AI team as a Research Fellow, specializing in frontier model architecture and training.
Aanya joins us following a research fellowship at Princeton University working with our CEO Jonathan Gorard on formal verification for transformer and recurrent neural network architectures. She brings expertise in frontier AI architectures, financial technology, and quantum computing. Welcome Aanya!
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Consequentialism doesn’t work because it neglects computational irreducibility.
Deontology doesn’t work because it neglects undecidability.
For any sufficiently rich moral world, only virtue ethics can prevail.
The funny thing about ethics is that everything inevitably returns to this basic question: can you solve both the Nazi-at-the-door AND the secret organ-harvesting trolley problem at the same time?
Surprising how often the answer is no.
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Jonathan Gorard retweeted
I am very excited to work with Chris and @getjonwithit on building a type system for all of the physical universe!
It’s our pleasure to welcome Chris Rugenstein to the Lanyon AI team as Founding Member of Technical Staff, specializing in type systems and formal verification.
Chris joins us from the Institute for Defense Analyses and the Department of Energy, and brings deep expertise in pure mathematics, theoretical computer science, and formal methods for type theory. Welcome Chris!
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Jonathan Gorard retweeted
It’s our pleasure to welcome Chris Rugenstein to the Lanyon AI team as Founding Member of Technical Staff, specializing in type systems and formal verification.
Chris joins us from the Institute for Defense Analyses and the Department of Energy, and brings deep expertise in pure mathematics, theoretical computer science, and formal methods for type theory. Welcome Chris!
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I wrote a few words about where I think humanity is right now, what has led us to this point, and what I think an optimistic vision for the future (at least for science, mathematics, and technology) might look like.
Link below. 👇
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Jonathan Gorard retweeted
A few words from @getjonwithit on the meaning of the present moment, and what a human-oriented outlook for science, mathematics, and technology may look like in a world of growing AI capabilities.
lanyon.ai/blog/vision/
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