Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
Curve Detecting Neurons (distill.pub)
54 points by sdenton4 on June 30, 2020 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments


This is a really cool dive into the interpretability of intermediate-level neural network activations. I really like the way that they've identified a core debate in the ML conversation, and created a relatively simple test-space to better understand it and (hopefully) move the discussion forward.


Very nice. Was a bit confused by the jump to splines and fitting splines to butterflies, more explanation would be appreciated


They write about neurons having “meaning” without a strict definition. What’s the quantitative meaning of meaning?


They fulfill a task, if you want the short answer. No idea how to define 'task' here


This isn't immediately clear on whether it's discussing biological neurons or artificial neurons. I suppose it's the latter.


All the authors are part of OpenAI, and the very first sentence talks about computer vision and a parallel with real neurons. So "This isn't immediately clear" should be read as "I only read the title and didn't even try to understand what the article is about".




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: