Dean P. Foster

LLMs

• COLM 2025 talk (slides, arXiv).
• We want to make LLMs into excellent tutors (blog post, arXiv).
• A game theory / evolutionary look at alignment (slides).
• Picking the right batch size.
• A TCS / statistical look at LLMs (slides).
• Checking is a bit easier than generating answers (arXiv).

Research

• Vita
• arXiv
• Google Scholar
• Obsolete research page
• COVID work

Mortality

Over the years, I have worked on several mortality calculators:

• Classic first version: Mortality
• The newest one works for people over 50. It will tell you your optimal weight.
• A phone friendly version.
• Heart disease prediction by ACC. (Not mine!)

Family & Photos

• Old photos (old photos on facebook).
• My Dad shot a movie about India called The future for Ram (youtube). I only recently saw Apu and realized how much my dad's film is an homage to it.
• My parents created this picture book about Tibirita, Colombia. My sister Shanti scanned and translated it into Spanish.
• My grandfather built a lake (map) in upstate NY (picture: youtube, mushrooms, bubbles).

Talks

• RL for supply chain (NYC Ops day slides, arXiv: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025a, 2025b).
• Calibration: Simons, Calibeating, AMLC.
• CMU talks: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
• Older talks: Falsifiability, calibration (handout), linear (shorter).
• bio, head shot
• Teaching: Old teaching materials are still on line.

Rants

Some 20 year old rants and raves.