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Alex Shtoff
11.5K posts
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Alex Shtoff
@AlexShtf
Ph.D. Principal Scientist @ TII. Ex @YahooResearch. I do machine learning ∩ numerical methods ∩ SW dev. Author of github.com/alexshtf/torch…
Israel
alexshtf.github.io
Joined August 2012
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  • Pinned
    user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Jul 1
    New post in my "Eigenvalues as models" series. The series explores a simple but weird predictive model: build a learned symmetric matrix from the input features, then use one of its eigenvalues as the non-linearity. This time I look at converence speed during training, which we
    When Eigenvalues Collide
    From alexshtf.github.io
    3.9K
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Jan 12, 2025
    Replying to @lefticus
    Floating point arithmetic
    19K
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Jan 22, 2024
    Recently, I learned something that I believe many #MachineLearning practitioners will find surprising about polynomial features. We're all taught to avoid high degree polynomials. We're taught that they oscillate and overfit! Turns out, it's a myth.
    “Are polynomial features the root of all evil?”
    From alexshtf.github.io
    65K
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Aug 15, 2025
    Replying to @old_alexeykrol and @svpino
    There is a huge difference between building an initial version of software ("build something") and maintaining it and its complexity as it evolves over time, while keeping it working. This gap is, at least in the foreseeable future, hard to close with AI.
    24K
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Mar 25, 2025
    Replying to @JeffWeniger
    The average human has one breast and one testicle. Average is one if the least informative summarizes of wage. Never use average. Use median. Or some other robust centrality measure. Average is easily skewed by a small number of very rich ppl. You're deceiving your readers.
    6.6K
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Jan 6, 2022
    Replying to @Idaneretz
    כי הוא רץ על לינוקס
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Aug 18, 2024
    Looking for research scientists with ML and optimization background? I'm again on the job market - our entire lab is being let go. DM me if relevant :)
    84K
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Aug 22, 2022
    Replying to @KozakSich and @IAPonomarenko
    The battle of Kyiv was wom before any western aid. In fact, this was the trigger for the aid to arrive - western countries saw how weak Russia is.
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Jun 30, 2024
    Replying to @FreyaHolmer
    Here is not an email, but a tweet. Thank you for your phenomenal tutorial on cubic splines.
    6.2K
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    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Jan 30, 2024
    A week ago I published a post about polynomial features often being as useful in #MachineLearning as other nonlinear features, and being easy to control via regularization. Now it's time to tell about controlling the shape of the fit polynomial! alexshtf.github.io/2024/01/25/Ber… Enjoy!
    GIF
    12K
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Jan 23, 2025
    I'm happy / thrilled / delighted / excited / passionate to share that our paper "A Stochastic Approach to the Subset Selection Problem via Mirror Descent" will appear in @iclr_conf this year. Selecting a good subset of objects is fundamental not only in CS, but also in ML, i.e.
    10K
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    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Jul 18, 2024
    I am the only one on #ML twitter who doesn't like the name 'softmax' for exp(x) / sum(exp(x)) , and instead prefers the name 'soft-argmax'? Softmax is LogSumExp!
    58K
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    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    Mar 21, 2024
    The reason there's so much Russophobia is the continual Russian invasion of its neighbors, and increases with every uncovered atrocity, such as Bucha.
    664
  • user avatar
    Alex Shtoff
    @AlexShtf
    May 18, 2024
    Replying to @HadiNasrallah
    This is what's happening to your "real men". By the way - no uniforms! Innocent civilians!
    00:00
    2.1K