About. I’m a researcher with wide-ranging interest across AI and machine learning. I am based at Microsoft Research working with the Game Intelligence team (Cambridge), Machine Learning Group (Beijing), & AI Frontiers (NYC).

Previous. I completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge, spending time at the Alan Turing Institute, and then did a postdoc at Tsinghua University. In my previous life I qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young (EY), building forecasting and valuation models for clients across London finance. I also spent one year in Taiwan studying 中文.

Research. I have deep expertise in scaling laws, imitation learning, world modeling, generative modeling, and uncertainty estimation. My PhD centered around Bayesian deep learning (e.g. ensembling and priors), I then moved focus to applying ideas from generative modeling to embodied settings (e.g. using diffusion to imitate humans and game environments). My work (and dataset) on behavioral cloning for video games has been widely shared. Recently I have helped understand the science of scaling in AI, such as reconciling conflicting scaling law coefficients.

My research aims to build and understand AI systems that are scalable, robust and human-like. My philosophy incorporates several elements. 1) I adopt a probabilistic view of neural networks to help understand today’s algorithms and design those of tomorrow. 2) I believe that the agent-environment framework, with sequential decisions and interactive learning, is the correct setting to be studying to make long-term progress in AI. 3) My research places equal weighting on theory and empirics.

Get in Touch. If you’d like to chat about research, collaborating together, or other opportunities, reach me via email at $x$@microsoft.com, where, $x=\text{v-timpearce}$. I’m more active on Twitter than here, so for up-to-date news, follow me.

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