The Art of Letting Go: Why AI Needs to Unlearn

Ability for AI to learn is being matched by an equally critical requirement: the ability to unlearn. Whether driven by the “Right to be Forgotten,” biosecurity mandates, or the removal of poisoned data, Machine Unlearning (MU) has moved from a theoretical concept to an essential engineering discipline.

Inspiration for this post came from today’s class on Machine Unlearning and my own deep dive into how these techniques apply to the diverse model types I work with every day.

The Complexity of Letting Go: Unlearning isn’t a “one size fits all” process. Because knowledge is woven into the very architecture of a model, the approach changes based on what the AI does:

• LLMs: Recommended techniques include Gradient Ascent to “steer” the model away from specific PII or copyrighted data.
• World Models: Scrub 4D spatiotemporal trajectories to protect private geometry or unsafe behaviors.
• Protein Models: Use repulsion guidance to ensure the model “forgets” how to design harmful toxins or pathogens.

The Risks of a “Digital Vacuum”: One of the most fascinating challenges I learnt is the “Ghosting” effect. In spatial or protein models, removing a specific data point can leave a physical “vacuum” in the model’s logic. This can lead to:

• Glitched Physics: Where a world model hallucinations unstable environments.
• Structural Collapse: Where a protein model generates “unfolded” or physically impossible outputs.

I do not recall the actual paper or author whom I met at IIT Jodhpur during CODS COMAD 2024. But he suggested something akin to setting up a decision boundary that differentiates what’s learnt and what’s unlearnt of sorts.

Inspired from poetry: Learning about model convergence, context and nuances

Model builders chase a very high degree of accuracy, would like to keep optimising the results and waiting for a process to be “perfect” before moving on to the next stage. 

Yesterday when the music player queued up and played a 90s Hit, penned by Vairamuthu and set to a tune by A R Rahman “Oru Poyyavadhu Sol Kanne”. It is a plea for a beautiful lie between Probability and Certainty. 

Whether it is a lyricist crafting a verse or an engineer tuning a hyper parameter, both are trying to find a “meaningful output” in a world full of noise. We stigmatise inaccuracies as Hallucination, there is a need to learn to trade off for everyday use in production. Models could be trained to accept a “Soft label”. Stop early instead of reaching a global minimum. Accept a good enough result to ensure system latency is low. A hopeful lie (a predicted label with a disclaimer) over a null response that offers no further insight. This helps handling uncertainty. False positive is cheaper than a timeout – where is the threshold for tradeoff. 

Song also has a verse that goes “paalukkum, kallukkum vannam ondru thaan, pakkum kangal ondruthaan anaal rendum veru thaan”. Translates to “Milk and toddy (alcohol) are of the same colour, the eyes that see them are the same, yet the two are different”. How does one tell apart which is milk and which is alcohol? An important problem when you view it from a vision intelligence perspective. Seeing alone is not sufficient. Vision powered by cameras has a limitation. Bottleneck of this information is not the sensor (camera), but the interpretation. Where is this glass of milk or alcohol, what is around them? Who are around them? All that would make a difference. 

Another line in the song that deals with the delicate challenge of setting a decision boundary when things are very fluid. Truth and Lie are adjacent, there is a very fine line between them and yet are poles apart. In a high dimensional space when the values are nearly indistinguishable, the tiniest margins tell apart a True and False classification. Instead of staring at the vectors, it would help build the context definition that can aid the programs sift good enough truth. Embrace the nuance of the environment.

కలలు మరియు కళల ప్రచురణ

కలలు ఎక్కడ నుండి వస్తాయో మీరు ఆలోచించారా? కళకు ప్రేరణ ఎక్కడ నుండి వస్తుంది? మనసు. మీరు చెప్పింది అదేనా? లేక అది మెదడునా? మీ చుట్టూ ఉన్న వ్యక్తులు మరియు సమాజమా?

ప్రతి సాయంత్రం భోజనం తర్వాత నేను మెట్రోలో నా ఆఫీసుకు వెళ్తాను. ఏ పనా? ఈ నగర వాసుల కోసం నిర్మించిన అన్ని కలలకు నేను బాధ్యత వహిస్తాను.

మీరు నన్ను నమ్మలేదా? అది నిజమే! నన్ను నమ్మండి. పరవాలేదు. చింతించకండి. ఈ రాత్రి మీ కలకి నేను పీడకల పంపను.

సినిమా నిర్మాణం ఖచ్చితంగా సరళంగా ఉండాలి. చాలా మంది కళాకారులు, సాంకేతిక నిపుణులు, కళాకృతులు మరియు చాలా డబ్బు! ఇంకా వారు మూడు గంటల సినిమాని రూపొందించడానికి సంవత్సరాలు పడుతుంది. మరియు ఇది అందరికీ ఒకే కథ. మాలా కాదు! ప్రతి రాత్రి ఒక కొత్త కథ. ప్రతి వ్యక్తికి వేరే కథ. కొత్త పాత్రలు. కొత్త ప్లాట్ లైన్లు.

ప్రతి రాత్రి ఒకే కల లేదా పీడకల గురించి ఆలోచించే వ్యక్తుల సమూహం ఉన్నప్పుడు కొన్నిసార్లు మాకు ఉపశమనం లభిస్తుంది. అది ఎప్పుడు అని మీరు నన్ను అడుగుతారా? పరీక్ష సమయం. ఇటీవల కోవిడ్ సమయం. హమ్మయ్య అని అనిపిస్తుంది.

మాకు యూనియన్లు లేదా మద్దతు వ్యవస్థ లేదు. అతి పెద్ద సమస్య ఏమిటంటే, మీలాంటి వ్యక్తులు మా ఉద్యోగాలను నమ్మరు. మా సమస్యలు ఇక పేరుగుతూనే ఉంటాయి! కారు కొనడానికి బ్యాంకు రుణాలు ఎలా పొందాలి? ఇల్లు ఎలా కొనాలి? విదేశాలకు ఎలా వెళ్లాలి? మరియు ఇవన్నీ మీ కలలు! ప్రతి రాత్రి మీ కలలను నిర్మించడం మాకు ఎంత కష్టమో ఇప్పుడు మీకు అర్థమవుతుందా? దయచేసి మీ ఉద్యోగ నిరాశ గురించి మాట్లాడకండి.

స్పెక్ట్రం యొక్క మరొక చివర ఏమిటంటే, మీరు అదే కలలను పదేపదే చూసినప్పుడు మీలో కొందరు వైద్య సహాయం కోరుకుంటారు. దాన్ని “పరిష్కరించడానికి“ మందులు తీసు కుంటారు. ఆపై మా ప్రొడక్షన్ షెడ్యూల్ మొత్తం అయొమయం అయిపోతుంది! మేము ఇలాంటి ఇబ్బందులను అధిగమించాలి.

ఇలా అయితే.. ప్రతిరోజూ పని చేయడానికి మమ్మల్ని ఏది ప్రేరేపిస్తుంది? మీలో కొందరే! మీ కలలో మీరు గుర్తించిన ఒక ఆలోచనను మీరు ఎంచుకుంటారు. మేము మీ రోజు మరియు మీ జీవితాన్ని విశ్లేషిస్తాము మరియు మీ కలలలో కొన్ని ఉపయోగకరమైన స్ఫూర్తిని అందిస్తాము. మా తపనంతా.. మీరు ఆ ఆలోచనను గుర్తించడమే. మీరు అలా చేసిన తర్వాత, ఆ కలను సాకారం చేసుకునే శక్తి మీలో ఉందని మాకు తెలుసు.

మా కలలు గురించి అడుగుతున్నారా? తదుపరిసారి కలిసినప్పుడు ఓక కప్పు కాఫీతాగుతూ మనం చర్చిద్దాం.

Dreams and Art Productions

Translated it to English..

Have you ever wondered where dreams come from? Where does the inspiration for art come from? Mind. Did you say that? Or is it the brain? Are the people and community around you? Every evening after a light meal I go to my office on the metro. What work you ask? I am responsible for all the dreams built for the inhabitants of this city.

Can’t you believe me? That’s true! Trust me. Never mind. Don’t worry. I will not send a nightmare to your dream tonight.

The filmmaking should definitely be simple. Lots of artists, technicians, artifacts and a lot of money! Yet they take years to make a three-hour movie. And it’s the same story for everyone. Unlike us! A new story every night. Each person has a different story. New characters. New plot lines.

Sometimes we find relief when there is a group of people who think about the same dream or nightmare every night. Oh! You ask me when does that happen? Exams time. Recently Covid time. Felt like a well deserved short break.

We have no unions or support system. The biggest problem is that people like you do not trust our jobs. Our problems continue to grow! How to get a bank loan to buy a car? How to buy a house? How to go abroad? And all these are your dreams! Do you understand now how difficult it is for us to build your dreams every night? Please do not talk about your job frustration.

The other end of the spectrum is that some of you seek medical help when you see the same dreams over and over again. Medications are taken to “fix” it. And then our production schedule gets totally confused! We must overcome such hassles.

In all this .. what motivates us to work every day? Some of you! We analyze your day and your life and provide some useful inspiration in your dreams. You choose an idea that you find in your dream. Our quest .. is for you to realize that idea. Once you do that, we know you have the power to make that dream come true.

You’re asking me about our dreams? Next time we meet we will discuss over a cup of coffee.

Sleepy Unicorn Series| eXtraORdinary- EPISODE 8 | The One With The Realist Dreamer

Listen to the weekly Sunday podcast by Sleepy Unicorn
Series| eXtraORdinary- EPISODE 8 | The One With The Realist Dreamer
…
Today’s eXtra ORdinary personality is Miss Hafsa Sadiya, 12 year old based in Chennai, India. She is a budding writer, an avid reader, youtuber and also has been part of Ted Ed Student Talks.
She recently published a book called ‘One Night’. She loves writing poems, travelling and shows keen interest towards photography.
…
Host today : Jyothsna Sravanthi

@__sleepy_unicorn

anchor
https://anchor.fm/sleepyunicorn/episodes/eXtraORdinary-EPISODE-8-The-One-With-The-Realist-Dreamer-e158707

Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7uNEZDkM0mH7lLvxxwgRJK?si=T-z8ZuIAQYK6gYl6wD77aw&dl_branch=1

CastBox
https://castbox.fm/vd/409826855

GooglePodcast
https://podcasts.google.com?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy80ZTI2NWZhNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw%3D%3D&episode=ZjY1NDE5YTEtMjc5Zi00Nzc2LThkYWMtN2RiMmU0YmI0MTg3

Gaana
Listen to Ep 08: The One With The Realist Dreamer from the album Sleepy Unicorn – The eXtra in the Ordinary – season – 1 On Gaana!
https://gaana.com/song/ep-08-the-one-with-the-realist-dreamer

Growing up today

New age education where kids are deprived of all the banter, fights and battles at school and playground. They just doze through classes. Makes me wonder if it was worth going to an instructor led classroom based education for 16-20 years of my life? It is a different argument that I too dozed off at desk when the session got boring or it was a class just after a meal break. It is a challenging time for younger ones who are zealous to try more. How every object at home becomes a thing one can climb and leap off from – balcony grills, cupboards and shelves? How some children are coping with a 1 hour play time… can life be timeboxed as that? The generation of young graduates who are seeking out means of gainful employment are now called pandemials. They have seen two major global crises that have influenced their choice of study or careers and life. Yet again those who are employed aren’t spared as well. Rate at which value of any thing is depreciating is quite high.

How are your relationships growing up in these times? As the boundaries of you-me-us and work-family-self is way too blurred to think clearly. Monotonous regime of make, clean and repeat does take its toll. For the fear of having to clean up after many hesitate to try. And many more have shed their fatigue of having to clean up and embraced the opportunity to explore as many outlets for creative expression: cooking, writing, poetry, singing, art, speaking, teaching. Have you been able to cope with this fatigue? What fears did you let go these past 12 months?

In one of classes I attended the teacher instructed kids aged six to eight not to get stressed. It caught me off guard, I didn’t expect a child to fully comprehend the term stress. I barely can wrap my head around the idea of stress and find means to do nothing. I might have first heard the term sometime in college. Looking back I might have heard the word: “tension”. At most “don’t strain yourself..”: this must have been in late teens. “No problem” was popularised by Tamil movie song and an ad campaign for a vehicle. That’s about it. Couldn’t fetch anymore words from memory. What do you think is the case here: Good thing that kids know the term “Stress” and fully understand its implications or are they being forced to grow up faster than ever before? Does that mean adults can celebrate being a child longer..?

CONNECT 2020 – ICT and EM event – Tamil Nadu

Vanakkam _/|\_ .

Here’s inviting all of you to register and participate in CONNECT 2020 (Information Technology, Communication Technology and Electronics Manufacturing). It has been an incredible learning experience this year again in contributing to this event. Being virtual this time it has all the more scale and impact. Looking forward to the next 5 days and evenings of Vitamin Tech. Vitamin Tamil Nadu.

100+ Speakers at CONNECT 2020

Personally am keen on the sessions with Nappinai N S from CyberSaathi, author of Technology Laws Decoded on ethics, trust, privacy and security, Megha Tata from Discovery India on Digitial Disruption in Media and Entertainment, Banmali Agrawala (Tata Sons – Defense) and Sivathanu Pillai (BrahMos) on Defense & Aerospace. Further key sessions on launching of SkillTech university blueprint, discussion on Core ICT issues and opportunities for India by Prof. Paulraj and Prof. Ramamurthi. Also Make in India – Atmanirbhar Bharat scope for designing and making smart phones E2E.

ciiconnect.org that’s the place to check out all the latest info on this event.

The Immune Organisation – Jaspreet Bindra

Man has long compared and mimicked nature to evolve and thrive.
Bird to a plane. Reptiles and fishes to submarines. Plants to regenerate soil and air. And so on! So it is only natural that we reflect on how nature responds and reacts to adapt in these uncertain times.

An early instance where in how antibodies function is reflected upon is in the Complex Systems and Cognitive Process by Robert Serra and Gianni Zanarini circa 1990. More so to understand how complex organisations self-organise themselves and reorganise themselves when constraints / variables / intruders get introduced. This is an extension of the idea : Life Game or Conway’s game of life.

One of our biggest quests coming from IT as a sector. Emulate nature and nature’s response. Basis of Artificial Intelligence.

Extending this premise to how to fend ourselves in the face of a crisis requires us to get have the setup to host an immune response, be vaccinated to build antibodies and fight head on with all the support when there’s an infection.

Responses have to be moderated to find the intersection point between employee and company well-being. Idea of being a locavore has been around for sometime. In that light, decisions too have to be localised to a given situation and yet aligned with the central theme at the organisation level.

Another theme through the book is recaliberating as the situation evolves. There is no standard one size fits all response today. We are dealing with unknown unknowns constantly.

These were the thoughts that the book triggered as I read through it. It is an easy read, short and apt for today’s conversations.

There is one antibody that I disagree with though.. that jobs are disappearing with new age tech. Just that value moves elsewhere in the money chain. It’s on us to train and fit ourselves where Vitamin M is available aplenty 😉

References:
Pandemic Workforce Principles and HT Review of the book – https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/immune-organisations-can-withstand-disruptions/story-F7ZJ3diop4K2YWB4pJ3pzI.html

Case of a misread question

One of the students was solving this seemingly complex problem.

I wondered why? As I didn’t recall giving any such question

After a few seconds I realised what the problem was and couldn’t help but appreciate the creativity of the student and the fact that I had a good laugh.

And awarded 1 mark to the student

Question was read as this.

Where as the original question was …

Updated the question paper after that

Simple joys and Many fears

Watched the sun set today .. it was beautiful. Walked further to catch a better view. The kid who was standing there facing the sun turned around just as I reached the viewpoint. And I realised that I missed the last few moments.

Couldn’t stop myself from enquiring how beautiful the sunset was? and he agreed. Shared the joy. He then went to assure me that I can catch the same sun setting again tomorrow evening. I nodded on.

For a moment thought to myself .. that youngsters are full of hope .. hopeful to catch the sunset tomorrow. And I was there doubting myself. Simple joys and the many fears in life.

Les joueurs d’echecs or The Chess Players by Arthur M

Short Story I read today – les joueurs d’echecs or The Chess Players by Arthur M.

The Chess Players by Arthur M. A Short Edition story. Was hoping it would have been about how people play chess. And how the game would go? May be a little bit of sci-fi here and there.. But never knew it would resurface the many memories of Paris, France, the people, the scents, sights and sounds of Paris. .
​
​Mahmoud was waiting for Bernard to join him for a game of chess. There he was waiting at 10.30 AM to play a game of chess at the park with two cups of coffee. And its 10.32 AM and Bernard has not turned up yet. They have this little routine going on playing chess. At one point he talked about Marseille and I was pulled in that .. ils sont francais .. Et puis .. a few lines further Mahmoud said he supported l’equipe de Paris St. Germain.. Mais oui .. naturellement ! As in no doubt 🙂 And how Bernard supports l’equipe d’Olympique de Marseille (… who are they !?) 😀
​
​And slowly it moved on to how Mahmoud moved to this town and how he finds his place in the town. C’est pas facile ca.. It is a challenge to feel belonged. Especially when you are displaced and then find your bearings again. ​It takes a conscious effort for the system or individuals in the system to be unbiased, not judge and make friends. And it takes immense courage to say yes to the opportunity you get to connect.. feel hinged.. feel belonged
​
​And then it slowly dawned on me as to Mahmoud was orphaned once again. But isn’t that way of life being a chess player – constantly dealing with chances of failing.. echec.. ? C’est l’essence d’etre un joueur d’echecs. .
​
Hope l’experience is just as emouvante for you ..

Read the story here : The Chess Players and Les Joueurs D’Echecs