language learning communities

A new research paper, Dust, reports a method for pretraining transformer models without using backpropagation, one of the core algorithms behind modern deep learning. The work has drawn attention in AI research circles, where replacing backpropagation could reduce the memory and compute costs of training large language models. Researchers are debating its performance and scalability relative to conventional training.

Speaker Mike Hamrick will present 'Learning an Ancient Language with an Ancient Text Editor' at SeaGL 2026 on October 23 at 2:00 PM in Room 250, on the Education track. The talk explores how the wealth of free Latin teaching material available online can be studied using a classic text editor, drawing a playful parallel between learning an ancient language and using long-established software.