This episode features 17-year-old Su Tinghao, a high school student whose independent pretraining research on Attention mechanisms was accepted to ICML 2026. He shares his two-year journey of self-study, failed experiments, and emotional moments, advocating for prioritizing happiness in the face of AI's existential impact on youth and society.
Summarized by Podsumo
17-year-old Su Tinghao independently published pretraining research on Attention mechanisms, accepted to ICML 2026 MatTraC — a major venue.
He spent 6000+ yuan on GPU compute for his experiments, funded by supportive parents, after failing multiple runs (including one costly mistake costing 1500 yuan).
He advocates for happiness over existential dread: AI may surpass humans, but human connections and joy remain central.
He uses AI to skip homework, freeing time for deeper learning with tools like Anki, while teaching AI to his classmates and parents.
He sees AGI as both thrilling and terrifying — potentially creating a world with UBI and robots, or a dystopian cyberpunk future.
He balances AI research with volunteer teaching in rural China, intentionally disconnecting from tech to enjoy nature and people.
"I used to cry over wasting 1500 yuan for forgetting to save model checkpoints. But now I think: let AI develop, but not too fast. Focus on being happy."
"AI feels like a different creature—researching it is like biology: you tweak things and see what happens."
"Why worry about the future? Maybe it's sunny tomorrow. Just be with people you love, watch funny videos, play games. Step by step."