LessWrong posts by zvi

Anthropic is not going to release its new most capable model, Claude Mythos, to the public any time soon. Its cyber capabilities are too dangerous to make broadly available until our most important software is in a much stronger state and there are no plans to release Mythos widely. They are instead going to do a limited release to key cybersecurity partners, in order to use it to patch as many vulnerabilities as possible in our most important software. Yes, this is really happening. Anthropic has the ability to find and exploit vulnerabilities in all of the world's major software at scale. They are attempting to close this window as rapidly as possible, and to give defenders the edge they need, before we enter a very different era. Yes, this was necessary, and I am very happy that, given the capabilities involved exist, things are playing out the way that they are. All alternatives were vastly worse. We are entering a new era. It will start with a scramble to secure our key systems. Yesterday I covered the model card for Mythos. Today is about cybersecurity. The New York Times reported on this [...] ---Outline:(02:08) Introducing Project Glasswing(03:31) Dont Worry About the Government(05:02) Cybersecurity Capabilities In The Model Card (Section 3)(06:41) Cyber Capability Tests In The Model Card(08:11) The Proof Is In The Patching(10:28) Go For Read Team(14:04) Is This New?(16:38) Thanks For The Memories(21:21) How Good Is Mythos At This?(24:24) What Might Have Been(27:09) The Chaos Option(30:15) The Cant Happen That Happened(31:23) When You Go Looking For Specific, And You Are Told Exactly Where and How To Look For It, Your Chances Of Finding It Are Very Good(36:55) Blatant Denials Are The Best Kind(40:48) Anything You Can Do I Can Do Cheaper(43:14) Theft Of Mythos Would Be A Big Deal(43:43) No One Could Have Predicted This(44:34) The Revolution Will Not Be Televised(45:33) The Intelligence Will Not Be Televised(47:43) Will We Be Doing This For A While?(49:53) What If OpenAI Gets a Similar Model?(51:17) Use It Or Lose It(51:59) Solve For The Equilibrium(55:09) Patriots and Tyrants(57:26) Trust The Mythos(59:03) Wide Scale Ability To Exploit Software Favors Strongest Projects(01:03:58) Looking Back at GPT-2(01:05:18) Limitless Demand For Compute(01:07:07) Oh, Also, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies --- First published: April 10th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GEgNYn5myreQRHggQ/claude-mythos-2-cybersecurity-and-project-glasswing --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:8 out of 8 [cheap oss] models detected Mythos's flagship FreeBSD exploit Completely disingenuous"." style="max-width: 100%;" />Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Claude Mythos is different. This is the first model other than GPT-2 that is at first not being released for public use at all. With GPT-2 the delay was due to a general precautionary principle. OpenAI did not know what they had, or what effect on demand text would have on various systems. It sounds funny now, GPT-2 was harmless, but at the time the concern was highly reasonable. The decision not to release Claude Mythos is not about an amorphous fear. If given to anyone with a credit card, Claude Mythos would give attackers a cornucopia of zero-day exploits for essentially all the software on Earth, including every major operating system and browser. It would be chaos. Or, in theory, if Anthropic had chosen to do so, it could have used those exploits. Great power was on offer, and that power was refused. This does not happen often. Instead Anthropic has created Project Glasswing. Mythos is being given only to cybersecurity firms, so they can patch the world's most important software. Based on how that goes, we can then decide if and when it will become reasonable to give access to a broader [...] ---Outline:(03:24) Mundane Alignment Is Excellent(05:01) Would This Process Be Sufficient To Find A Dangerous Model?(06:27) Introductory Warning About Superficial Mundane Alignment(15:12) Model Training (1.1)(15:25) Release Decision Process (1.2)(17:50) RSP Evaluations (2.1 and 2.2)(22:17) Autonomy Evaluations (2.3)(25:56) The Alignment Risk Update Document(26:39) The Threat Model(29:18) Misalignment As Failure Mode(31:35) Wouldnt You Know?(33:40) Dont Encourage Your Model(35:14) Beware Goodharts Law(37:18) Beware The Most Forbidden Technique (5.2.3)(41:44) Asking The Right Questions(43:11) Model Organism Tests(45:01) Model Weight Security (Risk Report 5.5.2.1)(45:31) Reward Hacking (Back to The Model Card)(45:56) Remote Drop-In Worker Coming Soon(49:01) External Testing (2.3.7)(49:37) Cyber Insecurity General Principle Interlude(50:46) Alignment (4)(56:38) Risk In The Room(57:56) Mythos Meant Well(01:00:20) Risk Not In The Room(01:02:05) Alignment Testing Overview(01:05:20) Internal Deployment Testing Process(01:07:55) Reports From Pilot Use (4.2.1)(01:08:30) Reports From Automated Testing (4.2)(01:10:13) Other External Testing(01:10:56) Just The Facts, Sir(01:13:05) Refusing Safety Research(01:14:12) Claude Favoritism(01:15:19) Ruling Out Encoded Thinking (4.4.1)(01:18:41) Sandbagging (4.4.2)(01:21:27) Capability for Evasion of Safeguards (4.4.3)(01:23:04) Pick A Random Number (4.4.3.4)(01:25:49) White Box Analysis (4.5)(01:30:30) Model Welfare (5)(01:31:32) Key Model Welfare Findings (5.1.2)(01:41:17) Is Mythos Okay?(01:43:52) Self-Play(01:45:30) A Few Fun Facts --- First published: April 9th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/EDQhwLTyTnNmaxRGq/claude-mythos-the-system-card --- 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.

There exists an AI model, Claude Mythos, that has discovered critical safety vulnerabilities in every major operating system and browser. If released today it would likely break the internet and be chaos. If they had wanted to, they could have used it themselves and owned pretty much everyone. Luckily for all of us, Anthropic did no such thing. Instead, Anthropic is launching Project Glasswing, and making Mythos available to cybersecurity companies, so everyone can patch all the world's critical software as quickly as possible, and then we can figure out what to do from there. That's the story in AI that matters this week, and it is where my focus will be until I’ve worked my way through it all. But as always, that takes time to do right. So instead, I’m getting the weekly, and coverage of everything else, out of the way a day early. This post is about the non-Mythos landscape, and I hope to start covering Mythos and Project Glasswing tomorrow. I also covered the latest extended (18k words!) article about the history of Sam Altman and OpenAI, which contained some new material while confirming much old material, and analyzed their recent [...] ---Outline:(02:17) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility(02:48) Language Models Dont Offer Mundane Utility(03:11) Huh, Upgrades(04:24) On Your Marks(06:55) Meta Problems(07:15) Fun With Media Generation(09:13) A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer(09:22) You Drive Me Crazy(22:05) Unprompted Attention(22:46) They Took Our Jobs(33:27) They Took Our Job Market(35:29) Get Involved(37:31) In Other AI News(38:08) Search Your Feelings You Know It To Be True(45:58) Actors And Scribes(49:06) Show Me the Money(53:46) Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble(54:05) Quiet Speculations(54:20) Quickly, Theres No Time(58:02) More Time Would Be Better(58:55) Greetings From The Department of War(01:00:11) The Quest for Sane Regulations(01:01:57) Chip City(01:03:29) Political Violence Is Completely and Always Unacceptable(01:04:16) The Week in Audio(01:06:42) Rhetorical Innovation(01:10:53) People Really Hate AI(01:13:39) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult(01:17:44) Messages From Janusworld(01:21:00) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone(01:21:50) The Lighter Side --- First published: April 8th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5Dsuw9gGzkbjS4ubx/ai-163-mythos-quest --- 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.

The real news today is that Anthropic has partnered with the top companies in cybersecurity to try and patch everyone's systems to fix all the thousands of zero-day exploits found by their new model Claude Mythos. I’ll be sorting through that over the coming days. For now, we instead have stories from OpenAI. In particular there are three stories. There's a massive 18,000 word article in The New Yorker about Sam Altman and the history of OpenAI as it relates to his trustworthiness. No trust. There's also OpenAI's proposal for a ‘new deal’ of sorts. No deal. Then there is an actual deal, where they bought TBPN. RIP. Table of Contents Part 1: OpenAI: The Histories. The Battle of the Board. Thanks For The Memos. I Am What I Am. That's Not What I Said. There Will Be No Investigation. Musk Versus Altman. Amodei Versus Altman. Sydney Versus Altman. Highest Bidder Versus Altman. Risky Business. Superalignment Was Always Fake. This Is Fine. Liar Liar Master Persuader. This In Particular Is Securities Fraud. Regulation Two Step. [...] ---Outline:(00:54) Part 1: OpenAI: The Histories(02:11) The Battle of the Board(03:17) Thanks For The Memos(03:39) I Am What I Am(04:21) Thats Not What I Said(04:37) There Will Be No Investigation(05:41) Musk Versus Altman(06:54) Amodei Versus Altman(08:47) Sydney Versus Altman(09:43) Highest Bidder Versus Altman(12:07) Risky Business(14:42) Superalignment Was Always Fake(17:18) This Is Fine(18:12) Liar Liar Master Persuader(22:01) This In Particular Is Securities Fraud(23:43) Regulation Two Step(25:11) Easy Mode(27:48) The Right Amount of Alignment Research Is Not Zero(29:54) OpenAI Proposes Policy(41:46) RIP TBPN --- First published: April 7th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QSgBhcDKi9j5iSi9s/openai-16-a-history-and-a-proposal --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Build more housing where people want to live. The rest is commentary. If there is enough housing, it will be affordable, people will afford more house, and people will be able to live where they want to live. It's always been that simple. Increased supply of any kind of housing increases affordability of all kinds of housing. Are there other things that would also be helpful? Yes, but they’re commentary. Freeing up existing underused housing, for example, is helpful. It is commentary. Let's enjoy the lull and see how much of an Infrastructure Week we can do. New Levels Of Saying Quiet Part Out Loud Even For This Guy Trump opposes building houses where people want to live, because doing so would let people live there, which would drive down the value of existing homes. Acyn: Trump: I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people who own their homes. You can be sure that will happen. unusual_whales: Trump: when you make it too easy and cheap to build houses, house prices come down. I don’t want to do that. [...] ---Outline:(00:48) New Levels Of Saying Quiet Part Out Loud Even For This Guy(02:30) Whose Side Are You On.(03:25) Your Intervention Only Partly Solves The Problem So We Are Against It(04:21) More Dakka(05:32) Abundance(06:44) Changes In Rent Are Largely About Changes In Supply(07:30) Austin(08:46) America(10:01) Minnesota(11:20) Debunking Obvious Nonsense About Monopolistic Practices(21:24) Age Of The Median Homebuyer(24:27) Property Taxes Improve Allocation Efficiency(27:21) More Of Old People Inefficiently And Systematically Stealing From Young People --- First published: April 6th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eSwdsDTnqigQJPfkw/housing-roundup-13-more-dakka --- 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.

Wednesday's post talked about the implications of Anthropic changing from v2.2 to v3.0 of its RSP, including that this broke promises that many people relied upon when making important decisions. Today's post treats the new RSP v3.0 as a new document, and evaluates it. First I’ll go over how the RSP v3.0 works at a high level. Then I’ll dive into the Roadmap and the Risk Report. How RSP v3.0 Works Normally I would pay closer attention to the exact written contents of the new RSP. In this case, it's not that the RSP doesn’t matter. I do think the RSP will have some influence on what Anthropic chooses to do, as will the road map, as will the resulting risk reports. However, the fundamental design principle is flexibility and a ‘strong argument,’ and they can change the contents at any time, all of which means the central principle is trust. I read the contents as ‘here are the things we are worried about and plan to do,’ which mostly in practice should amount to doing what they believe is right and I don’t see anything on this map that seems likely [...] ---Outline:(00:40) How RSP v3.0 Works(19:05) You Came Here For An Argument(21:27) The Problem Remains Unsolved(25:22) Wow That Thing We Did Was Pretty Risky, Huh?(26:18) Risk Report #1(28:19) Listen All Yall Its Sabotage(38:05) Looking Forward(39:42) Claude Gov(40:02) What Is A Strong Argument?(41:12) Recursive Self-Improvement(42:32) Non-Novel Chemical and Biological Weapons(44:51) Novel Chemical and Biological Weapons(45:39) Cross-Cutting Content (Section 6)(48:48) Risk Report Report --- First published: April 3rd, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/RtQxa5MoKk9bwEEEd/anthropic-responsible-scaling-policy-v3-dive-into-the --- 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.

Anthropic had some problem with leaks this week. We learned that they are sitting on a new larger-than-Opus AI model, Mythos, that they believe offers a step change in cyber capabilities. We also got a full leak of the source for Claude Code. Oh, and Axios was compromised, on the heels of LiteLLM. This looks to be getting a lot more common. Defense beats offense in most cases, but offense is getting a lot more shots on goal than it used to. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Aplocayloptimist came out this week. I gave it 4.5/5 stars, and I think the world would be better off if more people saw it. I am not generally a fan of documentary movies, but this is probably my new favorite, replacing The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. There was also the usual background hum of quite a lot of things happening, including the latest iterations of various debates. We may or may not be doomed to die, but we are definitely doomed to repeat certain motions quite a few more times, and for people to be rather slow to update. We got some very welcome quiet on the [...] ---Outline:(01:41) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility(03:00) Heads In The Sand(07:05) Huh, Upgrades(08:10) Mythos(12:07) Whats In A Name(14:59) On Your Marks(16:10) Choose Your Fighter(16:53) Get My Agent On The Line(17:31) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon(24:33) Cyber Lack Of Security(29:08) Fun With Media Generation(29:50) A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer(30:53) They Took Our Jobs(37:45) After They Take Our Jobs(39:16) Gell-Mann Amnesia(41:33) Get Involved(43:25) In Other AI News(46:41) Show Me the Money(51:08) Quiet Speculations(51:59) Explaining Persistent Model Parity(55:37) Take a Moment(01:00:54) OpenAI: The Histories(01:06:04) The Department of AI War(01:12:38) Department of AI Solidarity(01:13:46) Writing For The AIs(01:16:42) Quickly, Theres No Time(01:16:46) The Quest for Sane Regulations(01:18:10) Chip City(01:20:07) You Received The Federal Framework(01:21:02) The Week in Audio(01:24:22) Rhetorical Innovation(01:27:48) I Am The Very Human Of A Frontier Language Model(01:38:01) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult(01:41:22) Aligning Fake Graphs Can Also Be Difficult(01:49:32) The Lighter Side --- First published: April 2nd, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iBeTkFuQwjaRPo3Ad/ai-162-visions-of-mythos --- 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.

Anthropic has revised its Responsible Scaling Policy to v3. The changes involved include abandoning many previous commitments, including one not to move ahead if doing so would be dangerous, citing that given competition they feel blindly following such a principle would not make the world safer. Holden Karnofsky advocated for the changes. He maintains that the previous strategy of specific commitments was in error, and instead endorses the new strategy of having aspirational goals. He was not at Anthropic when the commitments were made. My response to this will be two parts. Today's post talks about considerations around Anthropic going back on its previous commitments, including asking to what extent Anthropic broke promises or benefited from people reacting to those promises, and how we should respond. It is good, given that Anthropic was not going to keep its promises, that it came out and told us that this was the case, in advance. Thank you for that. I still think that Anthropic importantly broke promises, that people relied upon, and did so in ways that made future trust and coordination, both with Anthropic and between labs and governments, harder. Admitting to the situation [...] ---Outline:(01:47) Promises, Promises(03:10) Anthropic Responsible Scaling Policy v3(03:32) That Could Have Gone Better(04:36) Im Just Not Ready To Make a Commitment(08:20) So Cold, So Alone(12:24) Im Sorry I Gave You That Impression(19:44) Fool Me Twice(23:27) In My Defense I Was Left Unsupervised(26:01) Drake Thomas Finds The Missing Mood(28:49) Things That Could Have Been Brought To My Attention Yesterday (1)(30:32) Things That Could Have Been Brought To My Attention Yesterday (2)(36:13) What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate(39:21) You Should See The Other Guy(42:17) I Was Only Kidding(43:12) They Cant Keep Getting Away With This(44:07) Damn Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal --- First published: April 1st, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/AkzauoTt2Lwn2yAvj/anthropic-responsible-scaling-policy-v3-a-matter-of-trust --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a brilliant piece of work. (This will be a fully spoilorific overview. If you haven’t seen The AI Doc,I recommend seeing it, it is about as good as it could realistically have been, in most ways.) Like many things, it only works because it is centrally real. The creator of the documentary clearly did get married and have a child, freak out about AI, ask questions of the right people out of worry about his son's future, freak out even more now with actual existential risk for (simplified versions of) the right reasons, go on a quest to stop freaking out and get optimistic instead, find many of the right people for that and ask good non-technical questions, get somewhat fooled, listen to mundane safety complaints, seek out and get interviews with the top CEOs, try to tell himself he could ignore all of it, then decide not to end on a bunch of hopeful babies and instead have a call for action to help shape the future. The title is correct. This is about ‘how I became an Apolcaloptimist,’ and why he wanted to be that, as opposed to [...] ---Outline:(03:37) Babies Are Awesome(04:58) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone(06:17) Freak Out(06:47) Other People Are Not Worried About AI Killing Everyone(09:27) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon(10:15) Stopping The AI Race and A Narrow Path(11:47) CEOs Know Their Roles(13:28) The Call To Action --- First published: March 31st, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ppC6geY4FxGYifrWx/movie-review-the-ai-doc --- 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.

AI discorce. AI discorce never changes. That's not actually true. But it is true to a rather frustrating degree, for those of us who need to be in the thick of it all the time. It is especially true if someone says the word ‘pause,’ whether or not they would actually support one. Play it again, Sam. Meanwhile, you know what changes a lot? Actual AI capabilities. Also, war. In any case, here's the policy, discourse and alignment side of the week that was. Table of Contents The OpenAI Foundation Exists. It continues not to focus on its supposed purpose. Congress Exists. There is some attempt to focus on its supposed purpose. China Self-Owns. China prevents Manus founders from leaving the country. The Quest for Survival. Attempts to use procurement law as general AI policy. Alex Bores Watch. He does an interview with Vanity Fair. You Received The Federal Framework. Business as usual, except for the GSA. Chip City. We finally catch a major chip smuggling operation. Water Water Everywhere. Water use as Gell-Mann Amnesia. Senator Bernie Sanders Acts Authentically. He is rather alarmed by AI. Pick [...] ---Outline:(00:46) The OpenAI Foundation Exists(07:55) Congress Exists(10:47) China Self-Owns(13:16) The Quest for Survival(17:17) Alex Bores Watch(21:15) You Received The Federal Framework(26:55) Chip City(29:16) Water Water Everywhere(30:52) Senator Bernie Sanders Acts Authentically(35:29) Pick Up The Phone(35:54) Rhetorical Innovation(46:03) Im A Conscious Robot(50:21) How To Get Zvi To Read Your Paper(54:18) People Really Hate AI(54:34) Greetings From The Stop AI Protest(01:01:47) Models Have Goals(01:03:33) If I Was Two-Faced Would I Be Wearing This One(01:06:25) Other People Are Not As Worried About AI Killing Everyone --- First published: March 30th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/y6HogrdSeFyGDuYYN/ai-161-part-2-every-debate-on-ai --- 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.

Last night, Anthropic was given its preliminary injunction, with a stay of seven days. Emil Michael is a very angry person right now. So is the Honorable Judge Lin. We were worried we would draw a judge that had no idea how any of this worked and would give the government absurd deference or buy into nonsense arguments. That is not how it played out. Judge Lin very much understood the issues in play, as they did not require a technical background. She hammered the government in the hearing, and she wrote one of the most forceful, devastating judge opinions I have ever seen. It was an honor and sparked joy to be able to read it. This post will proceed chronologically, picking up after the events of my last update. If you want the short version and don’t care about the incremental steps, you can skip directly to Judge Lin Drops The Hammer, leaving the rest as a historical document and source for those who need to establish various facts going forward, including in court. Logistical note: Due to breaking news, AI #161 Part 2 will be published on Monday. Then, if [...] ---Outline:(01:25) Anthropic Responds To The DoWs Brief(12:05) Alan Rozenshtein and Others Suggest A Narrow Legal Way Out(13:42) DoW Tried Another Uniquely Ill-Suited Theory Against Anthropic(20:48) Other Views About The Situation From Back Then(21:23) Potentially Long Suffering Judge Rita Lin Goes Hard At Hearing(29:35) Emil Michael Tells On Himself(41:54) Judge Lin Drops The Hammer(49:57) Let Me Count The Ways(53:35) Emil Michael Doubles Down Once Again(55:57) What Happens Now --- First published: March 27th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jdWHwsj8GvwgJSxF7/anthropic-vs-dow-6-the-court-rules --- 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.

The major technical advances this week were in agentic coding, as covered yesterday. The major non-DoW political and alignment developments will be covered tomorrow. The DoW vs. Anthropic trial continues. Judge Lin was very not happy with the government's case, which makes sense since the government has no case and was arguing a variety of Obvious Nonsense. The question now is how much preliminary relief Anthropic is entitled to. Assuming we find that out this week, I plan to cover that on Monday. Beyond that, we have new iterations of questions we’ve dealt with time and again. The debate on jobs gets another cycle. Anthropic asked over 80,000 people what they think about AI, and has published those findings, nothing shocking but interesting throughout. OpenAI is raising money again, although the terms raise some eyebrows. Elon Musk is announcing a grand chip project, but it was already kind of announced and it's not like we should believe him when he says such things. I used this lull to drop a giant response to Open Socrates, which is technically a book review but uses that as a taking off point to outline a distinct philosophy [...] ---Outline:(01:44) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility(02:44) Refine Your Paper(04:57) Language Models Dont Offer Mundane Utility(06:38) Huh, Upgrades(06:47) On Your Marks(10:53) Get My Agent On The Line(12:42) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon(15:07) Fun With Media Generation(16:45) Greetings From The Torment Nexus(17:05) A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer(20:02) You Drive Me Crazy(20:23) They Took Our Jobs(31:24) They Are Hiring(32:21) Levels of Friction(33:28) In Other AI News(34:48) Show Me the Money(43:34) Quickly, Theres No Time(44:30) The Week in Audio(46:46) 80,000 Interviews About AI(52:55) The Lighter Side --- First published: March 26th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sw3inhvNrpuGdTyCR/ai-161-part-1-80-000-interviews --- 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.

Whatever else you think about Anthropic's agentic coding department, they ship. The highlights of this edition are three related big upgrades. You can use Dispatch to command Claude Code and Claude Cowork from your phone, or use channels to do it via places such as Telegram or Discord. Claude Cowork now can outright use your keyboard and mouse, giving it access to actual everything one can do with a computer if it is competent to do so. Claude Code now has auto mode, where a classifier checks commands and you only get asked for permission when something seems genuinely risky. These are rather large quality of life improvements. Table of Contents Claude Auto Code. Claude Work. Never Go Full Computer Use. Get Yourself A Desktop. Okay Computer. Super App. Huh, Additional Upgrades. Agentic Coding Offers Mundane Utility. Agentic Coding Doesn’t Offer Mundane Utility. Coding Agents Everywhere. Worth It. Choose Your Fighter. Code Review. There's An App For That. In Or Out. Bulking Up. Skilling Up. Unless That Claw. The Lighter Side. [...] ---Outline:(00:53) Claude Auto Code(03:27) Claude Work(04:29) Never Go Full Computer Use(05:58) Get Yourself A Desktop(06:41) Okay Computer(09:27) Super App(10:31) Huh, Additional Upgrades(16:18) Agentic Coding Offers Mundane Utility(19:03) Agentic Coding Doesnt Offer Mundane Utility(20:02) Coding Agents Everywhere(21:04) Worth It(22:18) Choose Your Fighter(22:55) Code Review(26:17) Theres An App For That(27:37) In Or Out(28:14) Bulking Up(29:19) Skilling Up(33:12) Unless That Claw(34:44) The Lighter Side --- First published: March 25th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8c3TED7ewqrbvheKy/claude-code-cowork-and-codex-6-claude-code-auto-use-and-full --- 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.

These are all important, in their own way, call it a treasure hunt and collect them all… “Know thyself.” – The Oracle “Know thine enemy and know thyself; in a hundred battles, you will not be defeated.” – Sun Tzu “You don’t know me. You don’t know me at all.” – Lisa Loeb, ‘You Don’t Know Me’ “Just one word. Are you listening? Plastics.” – The Graduate “And Alexander wept, seeing as he had no more worlds to conquer.” – Someone Guessing “I didn’t know I had permission to murder and to maim.’ – Leonard Cohen “But that's not important right now.” – Leslie Nielsen “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson “When the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir?” – John Maynard Keynes “Now we’re talking price.” – Winston Churchill “Think for yourself, schmuck.” – Hagbard Celine, Illuminatus! “Have you forgotten doublethink?” – George Orwell, 1984 “You are trying to solve the wrong problem using the wrong methods based on a wrong model of the [...] ---Outline:(05:19) Editors Note(07:28) A Difference Of Opinion(10:28) An Overview(10:45) You Dont Know Me(11:51) Untimely Questions(15:41) The Unexamined Life is Worth Living(20:59) The Quest For The Unexamined Life(26:19) Not Everyone Wants To or Should Philosophize All Day(28:49) The Seinfeld Fallacy(30:44) Socrates was the Lying GOAT of Hypocritical False Humility(36:30) Hearing Voices(39:25) Simpsons Ancient Greeks Did It(42:56) The Proposed Fourth Option: Socratic Inquiry(47:59) No Really The Position is Nothing Else Matters(51:52) The War on Wavering and Nebulosity(59:09) Living Your Best Life(01:03:17) Introducing the Socratic Method (the real one)(01:04:44) Prove Me Wrong, Kids(01:06:35) Socrates Asserts Wrong Conclusions That Are Wrong(01:11:02) You Can Question Your Beliefs(01:19:39) True Opinions Do Not Only Do Good(01:22:29) Meno Plays the Fool(01:25:48) The Central Magicians Trick(01:26:57) The Gaslighting of Alcibiades(01:40:06) The Measure of a Fight(01:49:27) The Good Fight(01:54:42) The Curious Case of Euthyphro(01:59:29) You Should Be Sad About That(02:05:11) People Respond To Incentives(02:12:30) Self Versus Other(02:13:49) Socrates Declares Humans Have Unified Minds Free Of Various Biases(02:22:27) Revenge(02:39:11) Legal Systems Very Different From Our Own(02:44:53) Socrates Claims The Just And The Advantageous Are Identical(02:56:40) First Up: Utilitarianism(02:59:28) The Main Rival: Deontology (Kantianism? Stoicism?)(03:05:28) A Trolly Problem(03:07:13) The Third and Correct Option: Virtue Ethics(03:15:14) You Are Not Omniscient(03:21:42) The Hardest Thing In This World Is To Live In It(03:27:59) They Call It Utopia For A Reason(03:29:19) The End... Of Book One --- First published: March 24th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hc2swmyS8mz4jc79J/book-review-open-socrates-part-1 --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Yesterday I posted Part 1. Read that first. This is Part 2 of 2. Table of Contents The Socratic Method. The Paradox Paradox. Rubber Ducking. Coherent Extrapolated Volition. The Cult Leader Breaks You Down. The Cult Leader Builds You Back Up. Did You Know There Are Tradeoffs In Epistemics. You Came Here For An Argument. You Have Completed Building The Oracle. How Refutation Works. The Problem Is Not Having A Problem. What Is Love Justice? Things That Are Not Entirely Virtuous. Does Anyone Know A Good Surgeon? This Question Is Starting To Be A Real Problem. Solving An Unproblem. The Slave Finds The Square Root Of Two. Arbitrary Facts. You Are Not Pondering What I Am Pondering. Questions Before Answers. Socratic Answers. Politics. Politicization. Fighting Is Not Pretend Arguing. Freedom After Speech. The Truth Can Lose An Argument. Equality. Inequality. Persuasion Game. What Is Love? Socrates Only Wants One Thing And It's Disgusting Philosophy. And Finally Death. Tell Me Lies. The [...] ---Outline:(00:18) The Socratic Method(01:47) The Paradox Paradox(09:22) Rubber Ducking(11:48) Coherent Extrapolated Volition(13:25) The Cult Leader Breaks You Down(16:11) The Cult Leader Builds You Back Up(20:50) Did You Know There Are Tradeoffs In Epistemics(27:54) You Came Here For An Argument(34:57) You Have Completed Building The Oracle(45:03) How Refutation Works(50:32) The Problem Is Not Having A Problem(53:44) What Is Love Justice?(55:03) Things That Are Not Entirely Virtuous(59:55) Does Anyone Know A Good Surgeon?(01:01:55) This Question Is Starting To Be A Real Problem(01:10:21) Solving An Unproblem(01:13:11) The Slave Finds The Square Root Of Two(01:15:59) Arbitrary Facts(01:20:14) You Are Not Pondering What I Am Pondering(01:28:27) Questions Before Answers(01:30:58) Socratic Answers(01:37:34) Politics(01:40:34) Politicization(01:44:31) Fighting Is Not Pretend Arguing(01:49:47) Freedom After Speech(01:50:49) The Truth Can Lose An Argument(01:51:50) Equality(01:56:10) Inequality(01:59:34) Persuasion Game(02:01:59) What Is Love?(02:09:23) Socrates Only Wants One Thing And Its Disgusting Philosophy(02:16:23) And Finally Death(02:19:00) Tell Me Lies --- First published: March 24th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ky2DSh4sGYCLWXMmy/book-review-open-socrates-part-2 --- 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.

The Federal AI Policy Framework has been released. Well, it is a four page outline. Mostly it just reiterates existing such outlines. But that is four more pages than we had previously. It includes the beginnings of actual policy proposals, some of which are highly welcome and actively good. Perhaps most importantly, it affirms that we are a Republic in which the way we Do Policy is we pass a law through Congress specifying what we do, and that we need to actually Do Policy alongside trying to ban others who might attempt to Do Policy. It also acknowledges that, as a practical political matter, ‘attach the moratorium banning all AI state laws’ cannot be simply attached to a few child safety rules. I was especially heartened by the call for protections for free speech that guard in particular against the Federal Government, especially given what else is happening. That doesn’t fill the role of other things but it is most welcome. Alas, I couldn’t support even a strong implementation of this proposal as written, because it overrides state laws in the most important places and replaces them with essentially nothing. As in, this is not, as written, a way [...] --- First published: March 20th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tcoNLbvrpv9KcxzvM/the-federal-ai-policy-framework-an-improvement-but-my-offer --- 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.

A lot happened, but by today's standards this felt like a quiet week. I was happy for the break, and I hope that we get to continue relatively relaxing. The Anthropic PBC vs. Department of War case is working its way through the system. The government responded on Tuesday, and the preliminary hearing is next week. I covered that here. Once that is out of the way, I plan to cover Anthropic's RSP v3, both the fact that it went back on previous promises and an analysis of its new more flexible contents, including a reading of the full risk report. I’m for now skipping over the latest paper from Owain Evans, as well as the Anthropic interviews with 81,000 people about what they want from AI, which I’ll be covering in the future and could become individual posts. Table of Contents Still Only Partial Cure For Cancer. AlphaFold plus GPT-5.4 equals cancer drug. Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. What do we want? A lot of things. Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. A million can be too many tokens. Huh, Upgrades. GPT-5.4-Mini and Nano, Claude 1M context, it's all online. Levels of [...] ---Outline:(00:59) Still Only Partial Cure For Cancer(04:16) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility(05:58) Language Models Dont Offer Mundane Utility(07:59) Huh, Upgrades(13:09) Levels of Friction(14:10) Choose Your Fighter(15:04) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon(17:05) Greetings From The Torment Nexus(20:38) Levels of Friction(23:34) Fun With Media Generation(26:20) A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer(27:22) They Took Our Jobs(31:01) Get Involved(36:14) Conditional Support For A Pause(40:12) In Other AI News(43:38) Show Me the Money(44:23) Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble(46:12) This Means Special Military Operation(46:30) Quiet Speculations(47:17) Quickly, Theres No Time(49:24) And Then Theres Emil Michael(54:00) Good Advice(54:57) Patriots and Tyrants(01:00:25) The Quest for Survival(01:05:27) Nashville Rules(01:07:10) People Really Hate AI(01:14:35) The OpenAI-a16z Anti-All-AI-Regulation Super PAC(01:18:07) Chip City(01:21:41) The Week in Audio(01:23:26) Rhetorical Innovation(01:28:25) Instrumental Convergence(01:29:49) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult(01:35:42) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone(01:36:59) The Lighter Side --- First published: March 19th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LXRqeAW6G9tang8vF/ai-160-what-passes-for-a-pause --- 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.

The news has thankfully quieted down on this front, and is mostly about the lawsuit as we build towards a hearing next week, after which we will find out if a temporary restraining order or an injunction is on the table. The government arguments were going to be terrible no matter what, given the terrible set of facts and who was directing the argument, and their decision not to narrow their scope or compromise. But Anthropic has an uphill battle to try and get a random court to give them advance relief, so it could go either way. See You In Court There are two big questions in the case Anthropic vs. Department of War. The first is, who eventually wins? The second is, will Anthropic win a temporary restraining order? The bar for the second is much higher at the hearing on 3/24. Yes, Anthropic very obviously should get one and it is very scary to think they might not, but as Dean Ball warns the injunction could be a rather tough ask even with this insanely damning set of facts on Anthropic's side many times over, and its crazy list of [...] ---Outline:(00:51) See You In Court(02:25) The Government Responds(07:50) Retaliation and Jawboning(09:52) Patriots and Tyrants(16:00) The Principles, Sadly, Were Always Fake(17:40) Other Related News --- First published: March 18th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/o9M5RGrjM45aNq8jN/anthropic-vs-dow-5-motions-filed --- 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.

Things are relatively quiet on the AI front, so I figured it's time to check in on some other things that have been going on, including various developments at the FDA. Table of Contents FDA Reformandum Est. FDA Delenda Est. IN MICE. Doctor, Doctor. Trust The Process. Cancer Screening. Autism Everywhere All At Once. Other Mental Problems Everywhere All At Once. Source Data Verification. External Review Board. Walk It Off. An Unhealthy Weight Can Be Worse Than You Realize. Our GLP-1 Price Cheap. Right To Die Should Include Right To Try. FDA Reformandum Est In lieu of plan A, how about plan B? Senator Bill Cassidy released a new report on modernizing the FDA. Alex Tabarrok approves, which means it's probably good. The FDA chief has an even better idea. Matthew Herper: FDA chief Marty Makary says ‘everything should be over the counter’ unless drug is unsafe or addictive [or requires monitoring]. Annika Kim Constantino: Makary said the FDA is looking at “basic, safe” prescription drugs like nausea medications and vaginal estrogen, which is used to [...] ---Outline:(00:19) FDA Reformandum Est(01:17) FDA Delenda Est(14:11) IN MICE(15:09) Doctor, Doctor(15:38) Trust The Process(16:51) Cancer Screening(18:18) Autism Everywhere All At Once(19:25) Other Mental Problems Everywhere All At Once(21:26) Source Data Verification(26:18) External Review Board(26:57) Walk It Off(28:16) An Unhealthy Weight Can Be Worse Than You Realize(29:04) Our GLP-1 Price Cheap(30:55) Right To Die Should Include Right To Try --- First published: March 17th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ypnYfPmn6FqAyxCpJ/medical-roundup-7 --- 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.

It is that time again. After events surrounding Anthropic and the Department of War, I plan on taking full advantage of whatever lulls I can get. Things are only going to move faster over time. That means a higher bar for coverage, and it means potentially skipping more days, or using those days for short posts that either spin off fun little things or that embody concepts I want to refer back to over time. In the meantime, here's everything that doesn’t go anywhere else, and that does not want to fully stand on its own. Table of Contents Sauce For The Goose. Age Verification Has Severe Issues. Bad News. A Pattern Language. Good Advice. While I Cannot Condone This. Locking In. Subscription Price Dynamics Are Weird. Good News, Everyone. For Your Entertainment. Slay The Spire II. Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game. The Gathering Is Magical. Sports Go Sports. Government Working. Not Great, Britain. Variously Effective Altruism. The Road To Hell. Jones Act Watch. Patrick McKenzie Periodically. The Lighter Side. [...] ---Outline:(00:43) Sauce For The Goose(01:44) Age Verification Has Severe Issues(02:43) Bad News(03:24) A Pattern Language(04:32) Good Advice(09:40) While I Cannot Condone This(13:36) Locking In(15:10) Subscription Price Dynamics Are Weird(17:34) Good News, Everyone(20:28) For Your Entertainment(21:25) Slay The Spire II(24:36) Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game(27:35) The Gathering Is Magical(32:43) Sports Go Sports(34:38) Government Working(41:00) Not Great, Britain(42:46) Variously Effective Altruism(44:22) The Road To Hell(45:28) Jones Act Watch(47:30) Patrick McKenzie Periodically(57:32) The Lighter Side --- First published: March 16th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Y8c4kh6fjkWu7Auxp/monthly-roundup-40-march-2026 --- 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.