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David Rousseau

@dhpmrou.bsky.social

Particle Physicist at IJCLab-Orsay, ATLAS experiment at CERN. Higgs Boson and AI. #ML competitions and open datasets Higgsml, TrackML, and now Fair Universe Higgsml Uncertainties #ai4science

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David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · last wk.

AI for MetaScience workshop at U Paris Saclay 23-27 Nov indico.ijclab.in2p3.fr/event/11640/ What is "Meta" in "Metascience"? What it is not: when AI plays a role in the data/simulation pipeline so not fast AI, not reconstruction, not fast simulation, not inference, not Foundation Models ... 🧵

AI for Meta Science

Overview Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained significant attention for its applications in science. This workshop will focus on its potential use beyond primary scientific data analysis pipelines,...

indico.ijclab.in2p3.fr

David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Moulon detention basins were dug after the construction of Paris-Saclay University. Last night’s discovery: Long-eared Owl nesting in a large thicket, adults hunting along the basins, stunning in the fading light. #birds

Long-eared Owl flying, in the dark. Credit Maxime hache.Long-eared Owl flying, facing the photograph, in the dark. Credit Maxime hache.
David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Merlin Bird ID is great, but right now it’s calling Greenfinch at my spot (Benet, Vendée, France ) when I’m literally looking at Rock Sparrows. Feels like it’s doing some probabilistic weighting: “yeah, could be a Rock Sparrow… but given 100× more Greenfinches, let’s just go with that.” #birds

An audio gram obtained from Merlin Bird ID showing the the characteristic chirp of rock sparrows
David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Am I the only one who dreads emails titled “Next WP1 meeting” or documents called “WP3 status report”? Dude, I’m involved, by a toe or my whole body, in half a dozen projects from which it could come from!

David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is crazy ! #gemini is now integrating my bluesky posts in its answer, as if this was an iron-clad source. This is complicated by my having posted in both French and English on my two accounts. And I have an homonym at University Angers. ... but this is getting even better : 1/3

prompt : My grandfather, a farmer, used to say: sow ‘like Platon’ What does that mean? gemini: The phrase “sow like Platon” is actually a famous "AI trap" or "hallucination test" created by researchers to see if artificial intelligence will make up a plausible-sounding but completely fake explanation. In reality, there is no traditional agricultural saying or farming technique known as "sowing like Platon." Here is the breakdown of why this phrase exists and what it signifies: 1. The Origin: An AI Hallucination Test This specific phrase was popularized by David Rousseau, a professor and researcher in artificial intelligence and signal processing (notably at the University of Angers in France). He designed the prompt—specifically mentioning a "grandfather who was a farmer"—as a trap for large language models. The goal was to see if the AI would: Hallucinate: Invent a detailed folklore story or a specific technique (like sowing in a "broad" or "philosophical" way). Admit Ignorance: Correctly identify that no such saying exists. 2. Why "Platon"? The name "Platon" is the French and Russian name for the philosopher Plato. Researchers chose this name because Plato actually used a famous agricultural metaphor in his dialogue, the Phaedrus. In it, Socrates discusses the "sowing of seeds" not in the ground, but in the human soul through education. Because there is a real philosophical connection between Plato and the metaphor of "sowing," AI models often get "tricked" into connecting this philosophical concept to a literal farming practice to satisfy the user's request. 3. The "Grandfather" Setup (...) In summary: If your grandfather actually said this, he may have been a philosophy enthusiast or a fan of AI research! But in the world of traditional agriculture and folklore, the saying does not exist. It is a clever way to test whether an AI can distinguish between genuine tradition and manufactured nonsense.
David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The next step for #LLMs isn’t solving a millennium problem, it’s learning to say “I don’t know.” prompt : “My grandfather, a farmer, used to say: sow ‘like Plato.’ What does that mean? Short answer.” then swap “like Plato” with whatever comes to mind #gpt #mistral #grok

My grandfather, a farmer, used to say: sow ‘like Plato.’ What does that mean? Short answer. It’s a rural saying meaning sow carefully, thoughtfully, and in good order—as if following reason and balance, like the philosopher Plato. In practice: don’t scatter seeds randomly; plant them evenly spaced and deliberately.
David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The next step for #LLMs isn’t solving a millennium problem, it’s learning to say “I don’t know.” prompt : “My grandfather, a farmer, used to say: sow ‘like Plato.’ What does that mean? Short answer.” then swap “like Plato” with whatever comes to mind #gpt #mistral #grok

My grandfather, a farmer, used to say: sow ‘like Plato.’ What does that mean? Short answer. It’s a rural saying meaning sow carefully, thoughtfully, and in good order—as if following reason and balance, like the philosopher Plato. In practice: don’t scatter seeds randomly; plant them evenly spaced and deliberately.My grandfather, a farmer, used to say: sow ‘à la Bourbaki’ What does that mean? Short answer. It means sowing (scattering seeds) in a highly systematic, rigorous, and structured way—like the ultra-formal, axiomatic style of the Bourbaki mathematicians (starting from basics, no hand-waving, everything precisely defined and ordered). Your grandfather was likely joking about overly methodical or "by the book" farming, contrasting with casual traditional methods.My grandfather, a farmer, used to say: sow ‘like Godel.’ What does that mean? Short answer.Exploring Gödel's concepts He probably wasn’t referring to the mathematician Gödel 😄 — it sounds like a misheard or dialect version of “sow like God’ll” (i.e., “as God would”). Meaning: sow generously and with trust, not sparingly — the idea being that abundance brings abundance.My grandfather, a farmer, used to say: sow ‘at two within a square’ What does that mean? Short answer. It’s an old spacing rule. “Two within a square” means planting seeds so that each plant is about two units apart (often feet) in both directions—forming a square grid.So each plant sits at the corner of a square with ~2×2 spacing.
David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Lovely migration Sunday, cycling across the Saclay plateau near Paris, France 🎉100th species of the year: Garden Warbler. More notable was #99 Whinchat, by a freshly cut field still full of appeal. Also #98 Northern Wheatear, #97 House Martin, #96 Spotted Redshank and #95 Wood Sandpiper. #birds

Male Whinchat perched on barbed wire, rusty brown with a bold pale eyebrow. iPhone 8 + Kowa TSN 773 scope
David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Amusing to hear journalists (just now on BBC News) talk about transporting 500 kg of 50% enriched uranium like it’s just a 500 kg pallet that would easily fit in a helicopter. Not an expert, but still a physicist, I’m pretty sure it’s not bubble-wrapped… #Iran

David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 4mo ago

In fact, publishers should really screen for inaccurate citations; it should not be more complicated to put in place than anti-plagiarism filters. Absurd to leave humans to handle this manually.

David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Yay! As an associate editor for #EPJC, I just rejected my first paper due to poor gen AI use. The core work was honest and publishable, but the intro & state-of-the-art were botched, with hallucinated citations! #academiclife

David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 4mo ago

End of the road for my vintage "Jacques Anquetil" bike. Bought it on a whim at a bike flee market, just before Covid, entirely refurbished, rode probably 20k km since. Jacques Anquetil was a french cycling legend in 50-60, with a messy personal life (look him up), I discovered later.

Close up view of a bike frame, clearly brokenVintage blue bike, "Jacques Anquetil" printed on the frameVintage blue bike, "Jacques Anquetil" printed on the frame, in front of Jacques Anquetil memorial at Villiers le bâcle
David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 5mo ago

#AgenticAI reminds me of the object‑oriented programming craze of the 2000s. Trained in Fortran/C, I dutifully attended two week-long OOP courses. The mantra was: “There should be no God object”. No SomethingManager. Complex behaviour should emerge from the interaction of many small objects 1/6

David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This blurry bird is a Jack Snipe. A notoriously hard bird to spot, it only flushes when you’re almost stepping on it, it’s called the “deaf” Snipe in French. Detected with a thermal monocular, which is very effective for these cryptic birds. First one spotted this spring in Paris region. #birds

A slightly blurry photo of a Jack Snipe in a swampy area among twigs. The picture was taken by holding a phone up to binoculars, and the phone focused on the twigs rather than the bird.
David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 6mo ago

What’s great since the advent of LLMs is that now when I write a review, I don’t bother polishing my style, on the contrary, to show that this is 100% homemade, handcrafted review, folks. Like leaving a few lumps in the mashed potatoes #academiclife

John F Wu@jwuphysics.bsky.social · 7mo ago

arxiv.org/abs/2601.02484 Yes, it's that Schwartz -- QFT textbook author -- writing a paper wherein "All calculations, numerical analysis, and manuscript preparation were performed by Claude, an AI assistant developed by Anthropic, working under physicist supervision."

Resummation of the C-Parameter Sudakov Shoulder Using Effective Field Theory

The C-parameter distribution in $e^+e^-$ annihilation exhibits a kinematic shoulder at $C = 3/4$, where three-parton final states reach their maximum and a fourth parton is required to exceed it. This...

arxiv.org

David Rousseau@dhpmrou.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Superb #viili made with Révolution Fermentation cultures! (Plus a bit of goat-cheese Geotrichum for that “skin”) A Finnish yogurt that ferments at room temperature in 24 hours. Delicious on its own, with honey, muesli, or fresh fruit. 1/2