<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Sam Rodriques]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sam Rodriques]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2026 18:40:38 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.sam-rodriques.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[The Humanity Project]]></title><description><![CDATA[Disclaimer: I run Edison Scientific, a company building an AI Scientist to automate scientific research and development. Our AI Scientist supports partners in biotech and pharma across the entire pipeline of drug development, including hypothesis generation, target identification, and target validation as discussed here, among other things. GLP-1 agonists are revolutionizing humanity’s approach to weight loss. The odds are that there are very many other GLP-1-like treatments -- extremely...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/the-humanity-project</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6959721713d20d5a3d035eca</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:29:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_7be7b7fc9a6445b6a244384dd43e7b6f~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The end of benchmarks]]></title><description><![CDATA[Imagine a society of apes trying to play tic tac toe. One day, they meet a very good human player, who also has a computer that has a superintelligent AI on it, trained to play tic tac toe. From their perspective, both the human and the computer perform equally well; they can stalemate each other every time, and they often beat the apes. Even if the superintelligent AI is much better than the human at, stay, Go, the apes could not tell. This is an example of the problem of intelligence...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/the-end-of-benchmarks</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6929e3bacb45ab7844deb96c</guid><pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2025 18:03:29 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_bac962e732464e9cb75684c30ca1cf4e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Thoughts on Uploading]]></title><description><![CDATA[I have a background in neuroscience and currently work on AI, so people often ask me for my thoughts on uploading. I thought I would...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/thoughts-on-uploading</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68bdf866cb0467d4eabd8b93</guid><pubDate>Sun, 07 Sep 2025 21:40:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_0e708a040c13463e96f0e77c662defe2~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Grugbrained CEO]]></title><description><![CDATA[These words inspired by grugbrain.dev . If feel confuse, read grugbrain.dev  first. Give good idea on how make good code and be less...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/the-grugbrained-ceo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68335d3531c7b50b3b07267c</guid><pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2025 18:19:18 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rocket Ships and Yachts]]></title><description><![CDATA[Recently, we were courting an extraordinary candidate, who was deciding between joining FutureHouse or taking a job at one of the...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/rocket-ships-and-yachts</link><guid isPermaLink="false">67fce9e25143aa09700ddeed</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:01:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_743a12bf0c8b481181ceeaf60fc98afa~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Europe]]></title><description><![CDATA[Monday was my last day as a group leader at the Francis Crick Institute. I got my job at the Crick in 2020, almost exactly 5 years ago,...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/europe</link><guid isPermaLink="false">67f2b152946c1316426f31c8</guid><pubDate>Sun, 06 Apr 2025 16:54:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_eb979aa227fa4ea8b28706bdf668cde8~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[All-hypothesis research]]></title><description><![CDATA[First we had hypothesis-driven research. But our measurement techniques have become so high-throughput that investigating one hypothesis...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/all-hypothesis-research</link><guid isPermaLink="false">677e95e3a00727ce433c9c7f</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:12:37 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The essential role of natural language in representing biology]]></title><description><![CDATA[At the time of writing, it is December 2024, and I am at NeurIPS. The word of the day, at least in the AI for Biology community, is...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/the-essential-role-of-natural-language-in-representing-biology</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6766fe7f414039a202cfc126</guid><pubDate>Sat, 21 Dec 2024 17:48:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_69eb18113c684ecc87d38c422c68d06d~mv2.webp/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What does it take to build an AI Scientist?]]></title><description><![CDATA[What will it take to build an AI Scientist? I run FutureHouse, a non-profit AI-for-Science lab where we are automating research in...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/what-does-it-take-to-build-an-ai-scientist</link><guid isPermaLink="false">66be602919851f7751074d75</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Aug 2024 20:21:11 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_afafb754fc4c4c748669794e2b96d292~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[If it is true that consciousness is realistic, then quantum computers cannot be conscious]]></title><description><![CDATA[If you want to read what I have written about consciousness previously, see https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/can-we-build-a-consciousne...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/two-interesting-observations-about-the-physical-limits-of-consciousness</link><guid isPermaLink="false">667866830bdea112cc2c5b0d</guid><pubDate>Sun, 23 Jun 2024 18:28:45 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Some considerations on brain-computer interfaces]]></title><description><![CDATA[I was speaking recently to a friend who is interested in starting a brain-computer interfacing company about the challenges and...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/some-considerations-on-brain-computer-interfaces</link><guid isPermaLink="false">666f12623dfe04e4998601e6</guid><pubDate>Sun, 16 Jun 2024 16:42:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_7c1d3548486a494186a62fa96e2634af~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_500,h_270,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Protocols are long (and full of horrors)]]></title><description><![CDATA[I think the reason automating science is hard is that protocols often have 20+ steps; but each individual step will fail or require...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/protocols-are-long-and-full-of-horrors</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6632fcb984c02b32f00edda5</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2024 02:39:19 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Key problems to accelerate medicine]]></title><description><![CDATA[Progress in medicine is slow. Exact numbers depend on subfield and source, but it takes ~5-10 years to test a new drug, ~93% of drugs...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/key-problems-to-accelerate-medicine</link><guid isPermaLink="false">66131b141eae03ff73f9de04</guid><pubDate>Sun, 07 Apr 2024 22:22:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_c643fda8ef024b97b4cb9b873e7b1fb3~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Who follows Richard Ngo on Twitter?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Richard Ngo recently posted the following poll on Twitter. I bet him that the mode of the poll would be the 7+ option. I lost this bet,...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/who-follows-richard-ngo-on-twitter</link><guid isPermaLink="false">66098860188c087738e52657</guid><pubDate>Sun, 31 Mar 2024 16:13:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_b45c404b92d34c57a86f4f5840896474~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_574,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Things we learned starting FutureHouse #1: You can hire people who know more than you do*.]]></title><description><![CDATA[We launched FutureHouse in September. Prior to that, I was an academic. In academia, you are a teacher, and so you are always hiring...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/things-i-learned-starting-futurehouse-1-you-can-hire-people-who-know-more-than-you-do</link><guid isPermaLink="false">65e71cdcd7444ff01177ed6e</guid><pubDate>Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:24:21 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[New ideas]]></title><description><![CDATA[When people ask me what FutureHouse is doing, I tell them, FutureHouse is automating discovery. Scaling up biology research. Building AGI...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/new-ideas</link><guid isPermaLink="false">65ccdd1e27124774e7d405d6</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 Feb 2024 15:32:57 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Focus areas for accelerating early-stage biology research with AI]]></title><description><![CDATA[Acknowledgments to Cameron Roots, Adam Marblestone, Tony Kulesa, and Logan Graham. Background: Machine learning has extraordinary...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/focus-areas-for-accelerating-early-stage-biology-research-with-ai</link><guid isPermaLink="false">659fff46eb8f3964347f5116</guid><pubDate>Thu, 11 Jan 2024 14:52:32 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Some tips on starting a FRO]]></title><description><![CDATA[Lots of people have approached me recently to ask for advice about how to start a Focused Research Organization. Here are the most...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/some-tips-on-starting-a-fro</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6563780f468bce49d15b866a</guid><pubDate>Sun, 26 Nov 2023 16:57:03 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Questions to ask about building foundation models]]></title><description><![CDATA[I often hear proposals to build new foundation models for biology. Here is the list of questions I ask. I rarely get past question 1....]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/questions-to-ask-about-building-foundation-models</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64bd74be218030e1e22f75c4</guid><pubDate>Sun, 23 Jul 2023 18:44:56 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Optical Microscopy Provides a Path to a $10M Mouse Brain Connectome (if it eliminates proofreading)]]></title><description><![CDATA[In a recent article [1], the Wellcome Trust estimated that it would cost roughly $10B over 17 years to reconstruct a whole mouse brain,...]]></description><link>https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/optical-microscopy-provides-a-path-to-a-10m-mouse-brain-connectome-if-it-eliminates-proofreading</link><guid isPermaLink="false">64b2a2805d1df65b9ca45631</guid><pubDate>Sat, 15 Jul 2023 13:58:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/99215d_aeef38a2dc924919aa11b125abbddddf~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_730,h_493,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>samrodriques</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>