Andrew Carr 🤸(@andrew_n_carr):The usual picture of machine learning is that a neural network learns a function. I think that picture is now actively misleading. The most important neural networks learn how to construct a function from context. Universal function approximators haven't really taken the shape I expected. But whatever circuits work is happening in context really does feel like a function factory that operates sans gradients

Andrew Carr 🤸

@andrew_n_carr

co-founder leading science @getcartwheel co-founder advisor @arcade_ai Past: Codex @OpenAI, Brain @GoogleAI, world ranked Tetris player

Joined July 2015

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Andrew Carr 🤸@andrew_n_carr

2026.07.12 17:25

The usual picture of machine learning is that a neural network learns a function. I think that picture is now actively misleading. The most important neural networks learn how to construct a function from context. Universal function approximators haven't really taken the shape I expected. But whatever circuits work is happening in context really does feel like a function factory that operates sans gradients