What Neel Nanda thinks about neural networks

@neel-nanda · 17 positions · On ppll ↗

Runs the mechanistic interpretability team at Google DeepMind; worked on interpretability at Anthropic before that.

Neel Nanda did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

Filter neural networks · Newest first

Topic

All 17neural networks 1ambition 3behavioural science 2AGI 1benchmarks 1education 1hiring 1management 1mathematics 1

4 more topics

motivation 1Psychotherapy 1simplicity 1taste 1

Sort

NewestOldest

Only Neel Nanda on neural networks. See everyone on neural networks

1 dated position, 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Neel Nanda has said — not written or endorsed by them.

1 position so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

1. 19 Aug 2025

   Our readingComplete reverse-engineering of neural networks is a less promising research direction than studying model biology and applying interpretability usefully

   Their wordsI'm now fairly pessimistic about ambitious interpretability (i.e. complete reverse-engineering), and I'm excited about model biology (studying qualitative high-level properties of models) and applied interpretability (rigorously doing useful things with interp).

   ↗MATS Applications Open (Due Aug 29)neelnanda.io 1st of 3 in this piece