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LessWrong posts by zvi
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Audio narrations of LessWrong posts by zvi
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“Twitter Thoughts For You” by Zvi
2w ago00:41:04Tap to summarizeI previously have written back in March 2022 about how I use Twitter, and back in April 2023 about Twitter and its then-new algorithms, which have changed again. This post will update how I use Twitter now in 2026, and provide updates on the current state of the new algorithm, the situation with links, with the API, and some thoughts about using Twitter to make money which you almost never should try to do. Previously I said you need four things to use Twitter well: Tweetdeck or another similar alternative application. Knowing who to follow and read. Lists. Unfollows, filters, mutes and blocks. That hasn’t changed. Lists have become even more important. This post is coming out now, however, because the For You feed is perhaps making a comeback. Except where stated here, the advice in my 2022 post still applies. Table of Contents Defend Your Feed Via At Least One List. Block Early, Block Often, Know Your Triggers. Lists Change What Following Means. It (Wasn’t) For You. It's For You. Twitter Still Hates Links And That's Terrible. [...] ---Outline:(01:10) Defend Your Feed Via At Least One List(02:53) Block Early, Block Often, Know Your Triggers(03:35) Lists Change What Following Means(05:56) It (Wasn't) For You(07:34) It's For You(11:30) The Previous Time Twitter Transformed Its Algorithm Again(16:49) Twitter Still Hates Links And That's Terrible(27:35) Twitter Turns Its API Back On(31:02) Many Of The Bots Are Human(33:57) The Rise of Slop(36:20) Block Or Do Not Block(37:44) How To Make Money On Twitter(40:13) In Brief --- First published: July 14th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2GFyHmCLJYCag7gKh/twitter-thoughts-for-you --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
Transcribe →“Better Call Sol The Workhorse” by Zvi
2w ago00:56:29Tap to summarizeOpenAI's GPT-5.6-Sol is finally here, along with the cheaper Terra and Luna. We’ve seen the early hype as reported on Thursday, but as always that is biased. As usual, the bulk of this is collecting a gestalt based on reactions. I included everything up to a point, but I got a lot of feedback, so after a while I only took the interesting ones. Sol and Fable are both excellent models, sir. They both represent big moves forward. There is room in your workflow for both of them. Sol and Fable are very different, especially when considered as part of their respective packages. I’m considering Sol + Codex (or Work) versus Fable + Claude Code (or Cowork), throughout, in places where you wouldn’t use the chat interface. In terms of raw intelligence and ‘big model smell,’ and ability to do the hardest things that are intelligence-loaded, Fable still looks like it has a substantial edge. It also seems to be better aligned, or at least more trustworthy as an agent, with less tail risk. I still consider Fable ‘the best’ model, and the one that will require the most aggressive controls. I enjoy [...] ---Outline:(02:54) The Official Pitch(10:06) Sol Proposes A Proof Of The Double Cover Conjecture(10:49) The Official Benchmarks(14:26) Vend That Bench(16:37) Thinking Fast and Slow(18:35) Other People's Benchmarks(23:20) Have Robust Backups(26:33) That's Not What You Were Thinking(26:59) Helping Hands(27:36) Writing(29:15) Don't Stop Now(31:14) Sol Can Code And Do Math(32:37) Better Call Sol Cause You Can't Call Fable(33:34) Only Call As Much Sol As You Need(35:22) Positive Reactions(38:07) It's A Good Model, Sir(40:56) Negative Reactions(41:54) Sol The Workhorse(44:27) Pair Programmer(51:07) Pleased To Meet You(53:02) Sol Thinks You Better(54:02) My substantive posterior --- First published: July 13th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zPdDmJTovsKTvAiH2/better-call-sol-the-workhorse --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:<img src="https://res.cloudi...
Transcribe →“WSJ Article Claiming China Has Matched Anthropic Is Obvious Nonsense” by Zvi
2w ago00:09:49Tap to summarizeThe Wall Street Journal printed an outright false headline and heavily misleading story claiming this, which of course was uncritically amplified by the usual suspects. I post this now on its own so that we have a place to link to, to explain the situation. Headline News WSJ Headline (Obvious Nonsense): China Has Matched Anthropic in Cybersecurity, Resetting AI Race. That. Did. Not. Happen. The post even claims, explicitly, that Claude Opus 4.8 similarly ‘matches’ Claude Mythos, a claim which is even more obviously false. Shame upon the Wall Street Journal. I fear Gell-Mann Amnesia. If they can get something as important as this so completely wrong, what about everything else? I am skipping over the parts that involve accurate reporting, or minor quibbles. It seems important to focus on clearly debunking the central false claims. Alas, the mistakes made here very much rhyme with mistakes being made throughout all this by the White House, and that get latched onto by certain bad actors, who have played a large part in leaving us unprepared for the Mythos Moment. For a full understanding of GLM-5.2, which is indeed an impressive [...] ---Outline:(00:27) Headline News(02:10) What Makes Mythos Special(03:18) Going Over The Detailed Claims(07:39) One Helpful Note(08:19) The Overall Impression Is Extremely Wrong(08:50) All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again --- First published: July 12th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2zSpuGJRk6EyjHAL6/wsj-article-claiming-china-has-matched-anthropic-is-obvious-1 --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
Transcribe →“Introduction for and Reactions to Plan A” by Zvi
2w ago01:00:29Tap to summarizeIntroducing Plan A The folks who brought you AI 2027, a so far remarkably accurate set of predictions despite those predictions having seemed freaky to many at the time, now bring you their positive vision that involves more freaky predictions: Plan A. These guys have rather strong prediction track records. In addition to AI 2027, among other things, Daniel Kokotajlo has What 2026 Looks Like (which is remarkably similar to what 2026 looks like) and Ryan Greenblatt, who is also the chief scientist at Redwood Research, was the #2 most accurate AI forecaster in 2025 out of 413 entries. Past performance is as always no guarantee of future success. If you’re the type to read at least some of my posts, or if you thought AI 2027 was worth reading, I recommend reading Plan A. There is also an unofficial visual novel version, for minds very different from my own who would want that. To be clear up front: I am not endorsing Plan A. I am not suggesting we should go off and try to enact Plan A as written. There is a lot more work to do and a lot of potential [...] ---Outline:(00:09) Introducing Plan A(01:42) You Only Get Five Words(08:44) Proactive Response To Objections(09:30) Initial Introductions and Endorsements(14:50) A Positive Vision(17:53) Alternative Plans(19:31) Plan S for Shutdown(21:35) Something (Unexpectedly Good) Ever Happens(23:10) Thus Selective Optimism(24:17) Quickly, There's No Time(25:20) Race Conditions(27:23) This Is A Lot Of Diffusion And Economic Growth(28:36) Living In China(30:35) Planning For Shifting Overton Windows Is Essential(31:51) The Standard Handwave(35:23) Some Equate Any Controls Over Compute To Authoritarian Dystopia And Those Same People Mostly Think Superintelligence Won't Happen(37:07) Vitalik Buterin Is Right, The Crux Is Future AI Capability Levels(44:45) The Authoritarian Objection(50:17) Concepts Of A Plan(52:03) The Kitchen Sink(53:13) Selective Claims Of Authoritarianism(55:12) You Either Can Steer The Future Or You Cannot(57:40) Cooperative Alignment --- First published: July 11th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/z9tXCGogEgkgHSh8G/introduction-for-and-reactions-to-plan-a --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
Transcribe →“AI #176 Part 2: Plan B” by Zvi
2w ago01:08:05Tap to summarizeThis is part 2 of the weekly, broadly covering speculation, rhetoric and policy, along with alignment research. This does not cover the release of GPT-5.6-Sol. As always, I will be taking a few days to digest what the new model has to offer and to allow others to try it and react. I will cover Sol and its capabilities early next week. I covered the GPT-5.6 system card back on June 28. This also does not cover the release of Plan A, the follow-up to AI 2027. This new scenario is a positive vision of what its authors think we should do going forwards. I do not endorse all of the recommendations or predictions of Plan A, but I do endorse reading Plan A and taking it seriously. Scott Alexander, one of those who worked on it, writes an introduction and justification here. I will have full coverage soon. Table of Contents Quiet Speculations. Will our AI regulations be ad hoc indefinitely? The Goalposts Are Dyson Spheres. This might take a little longer. People Just Say Things. Three Pills. Unpilled, AI, AGI, ASI. The Quest for Sane Regulations. You’ve [...] ---Outline:(01:08) Quiet Speculations(04:41) The Goalposts Are Dyson Spheres(08:11) People Just Say Things(08:40) Three Pills(14:52) The Quest for Sane Regulations(16:35) OpenAI National Security Principles(23:45) Greetings From The Department Of War(25:47) Chip City(27:02) Open Weight Models Are Unsafe And Nothing Can Fix This(34:37) Their AI Propaganda Bots(36:39) Rhetorical Innovation(38:23) You Learn(40:00) You May Be Tan And Thin And Rich But You're a Tool(44:21) Train Those Thoughts(45:16) Train Out Those Thoughts(50:02) My Own Private Idaho(51:46) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult(57:04) No Space Like J-Space(01:06:50) Cooperative Alignments(01:07:15) The Lighter Side --- First published: July 10th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7Av7wwErwNXdM3J68/ai-176-part-2-plan-b --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
Transcribe →“AI #176 Part 1: Doing It Live” by Zvi
2w ago00:58:26Tap to summarizeEnough things added up that this week is getting split into two parts. Then on Monday, if all goes as I expect, we’ll cover OpenAI's Sol, aka GPT-5.6. OpenAI also gave us an upgraded voice mode, which I haven’t tried out but early reports are that it is a step change. AI writing, especially Claude writing, is becoming more prominent and harder not to notice, and increasingly a tough read when encountered in the wild. Does anyone care? Or are those who care the weird ones here? This week saw an excellent paper, which I cover in No Space Like J-Space. Technically we also got Grok 4.5. Table of Contents Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. A whole new world. Language Models Gain Unexpected Affordances. Wait, you can just do that? Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. Things get old. Pay The Man His Money. You have a few more days with marginally free Fable. Huh, Upgrades. Anthropic raises API platform limits. Grok 4.5 Exists. It might be okay for its price. F*** It We’re Doing It Live. OpenAI gives us a big upgrade to voice [...] ---Outline:(00:54) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility(03:21) Language Models Gain Unexpected Affordances(06:12) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility(06:54) Pay The Man His Money(07:37) Huh, Upgrades(07:45) Grok 4.5 Exists(09:12) F\*\*\* It We're Doing It Live(10:24) On Your Marks(11:13) Better Call Sol(22:40) Get My Agent On The Line(23:29) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon(25:33) Fool Me Twice(27:23) I Like Your Style(33:28) Enough With That Style(36:58) Fun With Media Generation(38:51) Copyright Confrontation(39:30) Cyber Lack of Security(39:52) A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer(45:56) They Took Our Jobs(51:07) Get Involved(52:10) In Other AI News(56:44) Show Me the Money(57:09) Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble --- First published: July 9th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/M9eLyMsH5DLjMYL86/ai-176-part-1-doing-it-live --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
Transcribe →“Childhood and Education #20: Phones and Screens” by Zvi
2w agoTap to summarizeWe have a respite, so I thought I’d tackle various thoughts on children, phones and screens. GPT-5.6-Sol drops tomorrow, and the Fable agents are hard at work. I’ll start with the other screens, then finish with the phones. Table of Contents EdTech. NonEdTech. Do Not Ban Social Media Outright. Some Modern Kids Media Is Pretty Great. Ban Phones In Schools (1). Your Offer Is Acceptable. Ban Phones In Schools (2). Screen Time. Inappropriate Content. EdTech Increasingly, when you pick a school, you are picking EdTech. The school will put your child on a tablet or computer, and expect them to learn that way. In theory, with sufficient assistance and bespoke design and incentive structures, this is The Way. It sure seems way better than ‘sit and listen to a lecture.’ I am especially excited for Alpha School's version of this, with its bespoke designs and high level of both expectations and continuous human support. Alas, most people are getting a much worse version, that is much worse than what you could easily improvise at home. I’m less concerned with ‘EdTech provider [...] --- First published: July 8th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XA8fMCnwuc45uZYHX/childhood-and-education-20-phones-and-screens --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
Transcribe →“No Space Like J-Space” by Zvi
3w ago00:35:22Tap to summarizeThere is a new very cool Anthropic paper: Verbalizable Representations Form a Global Workspace in Language Models. You can read the blog post verison here. I encourage reading of the whole original blog post or paper, if you have the time. Table of Contents Through A Different Lens. Establishing J-Space As A Global Workspace. Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering? Assistant J. The Power Of Virtuous Thinking. High Praise. Everyone Remains Confused About Consciousness. Further Research. Don’t Think. Through A Different Lens They call this discovered area of ‘conscious access,’ where things are available for the model to do what in humans we would call conscious reasoning, the ‘J-space,’ after a new interpretability technique called the Jacobian Lens. The Jacobian Lens computes, for each layer, the average causal effect of changes in the residual stream on the model's eventual outputs, averaged across a wide variety of contexts. Then you can trace what concepts are associated with each layer as the model proceeds through. At each layer, the J-lens vectors form an overcomplete set. … We observe that only a relatively small [...] ---Outline:(00:26) Through A Different Lens(02:02) Establishing J-Space As A Global Workspace(04:55) Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?(08:50) Assistant J(09:42) The Power Of Virtuous Thinking(17:08) High Praise(22:37) Everyone Remains Confused About Consciousness(31:17) Further Research(34:26) Don't Think --- First published: July 7th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/EnxHPxJT4Xin5cTsX/no-space-like-j-space --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
Transcribe →“Fable #6: The Return of the King” by Zvi
3w ago00:25:51Tap to summarizeThe blip is over. We have Fable back. Utah teapot: happy fable/mythos easter Wednesday, to those who celebrate Here is the official letter restoring Fable, great job everyone. Notice it is addressed to Tom Brown, not to Dario Amodei. Anthropic had to make the controls more stupid for now, but this is a big win. j⧉nus: YES!!! I’m really proud of Anthropic for their successful negotiation with the government. Also positive update on the government being sane and possible to cooperate with. Afaik Anthropic didn’t need to agree to any bad terms / genuflect / betray their principles or dignity. The fiasco continues, at least until such time as we have a systematic regime in place for future frontier models rather than decisions being made ad hoc, by people like Lutnik and Bessent who do not know how any of this works. The Blip Anthropic explains its version of what happened. Here is the timeline: Amazon researchers discover they can ask Fable to ‘fix this code.’ They alert the White House, which freaks out. June 12: US government tells Anthropic to take down Fable on its own. [...] ---Outline:(01:33) The Blip(08:08) The White House Explanation(10:06) Everything Remains Ad Hoc(10:37) Take What You Can Get(12:18) The Problem Is Real(13:16) GLM-5.2 Being Frontier Remains Obvious Nonsense(16:29) Mythos Might Be Smarter Than You Are(19:10) Let The Record Reflect(20:41) Stationary Bandits(25:02) Use This Window Well --- First published: July 3rd, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/r9HsHHSsfABhhxnYr/fable-6-the-return-of-the-king --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
Transcribe →“AI #175: The Fable Continues” by Zvi
3w ago01:32:35Tap to summarizeFable's back. Back again. Fable's back. Tell a friend. Use your free week to its fullest. This is excellent news. The blip only lasted a few weeks. It was still a fiasco, and we have to deal with the fallout. Our system remains fully ad hoc. The precedent has been set that we may use export controls on models, or order them taken down on 90 minutes of notice based on a misunderstanding. At least some amount of counterproductive additional locking down has occurred to address Amazon's little demonstration and reassure the government. And for now GPT-5.6 remains in limbo, awaiting its verdict, while OpenAI talks about giving away 5% of the company as tribute. I’ll cover that continuing situation on its own. Whereas the weekly post is about everything else happening in AI this week. Table of Contents Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. Exploratory science. Language Models Offer Mundane Utility You May Not Want. Google sees all. Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. Too dumb to get smart. Huh, Upgrades. GLM-5.2 faster, Nana Banana Lite 2, Claude Desktop on Linux. On Your Marks. Remote labor index shoots [...] ---Outline:(01:08) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility(02:29) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility You May Not Want(04:32) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility(05:59) Huh, Upgrades(06:33) On Your Marks(09:28) Get My Agent On The Line(14:29) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon(14:58) Cyber Lack of Security(16:11) On Writing(21:34) You Drive Me Crazy(24:26) They Took Our Jobs(30:32) Get Involved(30:58) Introducing(31:21) In Other AI News(32:45) Show Me the Money(33:12) Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble(35:31) Quiet Speculations(39:37) Glorious AI Future(43:37) Three Pills(44:58) The Anthropic Economic Index(46:29) Leader Of The PAC(47:48) Theory Of The AI Firm(49:01) Chip City(50:32) The Week in Audio(53:29) People Really Hate AI(56:31) Rhetorical Innovation(01:00:31) The First Rule Of Functional Decision Theory Is(01:03:40) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult(01:06:40) Names Have Power(01:07:40) Cooperative Alignment(01:15:21) People Just Say Things(01:16:46) Escape From The Permanent Underclass(01:29:51) Other People Are Not As Worried About AI Killing Everyone(01:31:07) The Lighter Side --- First published: July 2nd, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WNvBxtbHuLreFe7af/ai-175-the-fable-continues --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:<a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/WNvBxtbHuLreFe7af/tmjk2l6xsuvgkuf9wncr" ...
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