ML theory PhD: in three years, every theory friend has pivoted to LLMs
burny_tech · x · 2026-09-04
A PhD student who started in ML theory in 2023 writes that by NeurIPS 2025, many friends in theory had pivoted or planned to pivot to LLMs — and now all of them work on LLMs. Three years feels like a lifetime, capturing how quickly the LLM wave reshaped academic research priorities. Bilingual long-form article linked.
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