Grey Enlightenment

I saw this going viral: “An Open Letter to Scott Alexander,” by Steven Pinker He writes: I stand by my claim that most of the doomer scenarios are preposterous (beginning with the AI paperclip maximiser that consumes our bodies as raw materials). But as rationalists we should agree that attacking an idea should not be… Continue reading The Scott Alexander v. Steven Pinker AI debate

I didn’t expect the math vs AI debate to blow up as it has. Until very recently, math had always been a niche subject, even compared to physics. Hardly anyone cared about it online, although there would be the occasional viral post on “how to self-learn math,” which always circled back to the same advice… Continue reading AI Is the Uber Moment for Mathematics

I saw this This is like the infamous 1996 WWE “curtain call” incident, where the characters break kayfabe and hug each other, revealing the entire act to be a setup. The difference is today no one is even trying to hold character anymore, as no one cares that much. As it’s said, “it’s a big… Continue reading Breaking Kayfabe

With Bitcoin having crossed $86k a few days ago, there is talk of a “new cycle”: Fidelity analyst predicts new 4-year Bitcoin bull market Bitcoin Approaches A Decisive Zone: Is A New Bull Cycle About To Begin? Bitcoin price tags $86K as analysis sees crypto in ‘new bull market’ Bitcoin bull cycle could gain 3–5x,… Continue reading Meta and Bitcoin Recover: Why I’m Still Right

A common argument on Twitter or other social media is that computer science (CS) or math degrees will become obsolete due to AI. Therefore it’s a poor career choice, and you should choose another major or profession. As the narrative goes, getting a CS degree will be seen as foolish in an era of AI.… Continue reading Go ahead and major in computer science

I saw this post going viral, “Why You Should Almost Never Use AI to Write Anything Substantive.” I’ve defended the use of AI in writing here and here. My reasoning is that writing competently is hard for the vast majority of people, and although AI-generated writing is still obvious or inferior, (despite rapid progress at… Continue reading AI Helps People Get Past the Blank Page

There has been a lot of talk about “AI doom” or “AI crisis”. My position is the same now as it was years ago: despite exponential progress in AI, society remains mostly unchanged: No mass-unemployment, no collapse of social order. Over the longer-term, productivity goes up, but society itself does not change structurally aside from… Continue reading When it comes to AI job-loss forecasts, it’s time to put up or shut up

With “AI regulatory capture” dominating the headlines and discourse online, a smaller but still important story is the failure of the Clarity Act gain the necessary 60 Senate votes to pass to the next stage, effectively killing it: Washington — The Senate on Tuesday failed to advance a sweeping cryptocurrency bill known as the Clarity… Continue reading The Clarity Act dies–right again

With the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem apparently solved, and potential solutions to one or two of the remaining problems on the horizon, it’s an understatement to say AI is good at math. AI has gotten so good, it has even called into doubt if math a profession can survive, with a collective of Field Medalists… Continue reading The final frontier for AI: writing

A couple weeks ago, this tweet stood out to me: I think one thing Paul Graham underweights when he advises people on how to write is the fact that sometimes you need cleverness to earn status with the reader. Paul has earned status by making a ton of money. Him writing simply is like Zuckerberg… Continue reading How much of “write simply” is just survivorship bias?