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LessWrong (30+ Karma)

LessWrong

Audio narrations of LessWrong posts.

technology philosophy

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0:42

[Linkpost] “Talking With People Who Speak to...

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/14

This is a linkpost for https://www.thebayesianconspiracy.com/2023/12/202-the-center-for-ai-policy-talks-government-regulation/A conversation with Jason Green-Lowe and Jakub Kraus of the Center for AI Policy. They've met with 50+ congressional staffers in DC about AI regulation efforts and are in the process of drafting a model bill. This is a somewhat entry-level conversation, good for getting an idea of what's going on over there without getting very wonky. --- First published:

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13:19

[Linkpost] “Bayesian Injustice” by Kevin Dorst

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/14

This is a linkpost for https://kevindorst.substack.com/p/bayesian-injustice(Co-written with Bernhard Salow)TLDR: Differential legibility is a pervasive, persistent, and individually-rational source of unfair treatment. Either it's a purely-structural injustice, or it's a type of "zetetic injustice"—one requiring changes to our practices of inquiry.Finally, graduate admissions are done. Exciting. Exhausting. And suspicious.Yet again, applicants from prestigious, well-known universities—the

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96:22

“AI #42: The Wrong Answer” by Zvi

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/14

With the year ending and my first Vox post coming out, this week was a natural time to take stock. I wrote my first best-of post in a long time and laid out my plans for my 501c(3). It was also another eventful week. We got a lot more clarity on the OpenAI situation, although no key new developments on the ground. The EU AI Act negotiators reached a compromise, which I have not yet had the opportunity to analyze properly. We got a bunch of new toys to play with, including NotebookLM and Grok, and

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16:37

“Some for-profit AI alignment org ideas” by Eric Ho

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/14

Summary. This is a brain dump of some for-profit AI alignment organization ideas, along with context for why I believe a for-profit alignment organization can make a big contribution to AI safety. This is far from a complete list, and I welcome ideas and feedback. Also, if anyone wants to or is working on any of these ideas, I’d be happy to support in any way I can! ContextI'm Eric, formerly co-founder of RippleMatch, an AI recruiting company with ~$80M raised, millions of users, and ~10% of the

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35:09

“Mapping the semantic void: Strange goings-on in GPT...

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/14

Note: As will be explained below, these findings are very likely to be relevant to GPT-3 (and possibly its descendants). However, this post focusses almost entirely on GPT-J, as its embeddings are publicly available for the kinds of experiments described here.TL;DR: GPT-J token embeddings inhabit a zone in their 4096-dimensional embedding space formed by the intersection of two hyperspherical shells. This is described, and then the remaining expanse of the embedding space is explored by using simple

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2:36

“Update on Chinese IQ-related gene panels” by Lao Mein

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/14

It turns out that Chinese 23-and-me-esque gene panel already include intelligence markers! For example, 23mofang uses Interleukin 3 as a proxy for brain volume, citing this paper. It's... only significant in women. Not a good sign. But the cited study notes a Danish gene-correlation study that included brain scans, from which they obtained brain volume. Apparently, the correlation is true across races.In any case, I've been reaching out to past coworkers, and they agree with my assessment that a

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20:35

[Linkpost] “Are There Examples of Overhang for Other...

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/13

This is a linkpost for https://blog.aiimpacts.org/p/are-there-examples-of-overhang-forTL;DR: No. What Do I Mean By ‘Overhang’? Hardware Overhang for AIOne major concern about pausing AI development, from a purely safety perspective, is the possibility of hardware overhang.[1] Here is the concern as I understand it:Suppose a policy were put in place tomorrow that banned all progress in AI capabilities anywhere in the world for the next five years.[2] Afterwards, the ban would be completely lifted

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23:30

“Is being sexy for your homies?” by Valentine

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/13

Epistemic status: Speculation. An unholy union of evo psych, introspection, random stuff I happen to observe & hear about, and thinking. Done on a highly charged topic. Caveat emptor!Most of my life, whenever I'd felt sexually unwanted, I'd start planning to get fit.Specifically to shape my body so it looks hot. Like the muscly guys I'd see in action films.This choice is a little odd. In close to every context I've listened to, I hear women say that some muscle tone on a guy is nice and abs are

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5:43

[Linkpost] “How bad is chlorinated water?” by bhauth

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/13

This is a linkpost for https://www.bhauth.com/blog/biology/chlorine.html chlorine disinfection Today, most water distributed to people for drinking is chlorinated. Bleach is also widely used for disinfection of surfaces. The exact ways chlorine kills microbes aren't fully understood, but the main reasons are believed to be: oxidation of thiols of enzymes ring chlorination of amino acids direct DNA damage Obviously, high levels of chlorine are bad for humans. Chlorine gas was used as a chemical

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16:54

“AI Control: Improving Safety Despite Intentional...

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/13

Crossposted from the AI Alignment Forum. May contain more technical jargon than usual.We’ve released a paper, AI Control: Improving Safety Despite Intentional Subversion. This paper explores techniques that prevent AI catastrophes even if AI instances are colluding to subvert the safety techniques. In this post: We summarize the paper;We compare our methodology to what the one used in other safety papers.The next post in this sequence (which we’ll release in the coming weeks) discusses what we mean

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24:51

“The Best of Don’t Worry About the Vase” by Zvi

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/13

Hello everyone! This is going to be a bit of a housekeeping post and a welcome to new subscribers. Note that this is not the primary version of my writing, which can be found on Substack, but it is a full copy of all posts found there. My writing can be intimidating. There is a lot of it, and it's often dense. As always, choose only the parts relevant to your interests, do not be afraid to make cuts. I attempt to make every post accessible as an entry point, but I also want to build up a

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1:25

“AI Views Snapshots” by Rob Bensinger

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/13

(Cross-posted from Twitter, and therefore optimized somewhat for simplicity.) Recent discussions of AI x-risk in places like Twitter tend to focus on "are you in the Rightthink Tribe, or the Wrongthink Tribe?". Are you a doomer? An accelerationist? An EA? A techno-optimist?I'm pretty sure these discussions would go way better if the discussion looked less like that. More concrete claims, details, and probabilities; fewer vague slogans and vague expressions of certainty.As a start, I made this image

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1:48

“Enhancing intelligence by banging your head on the...

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/12

The Sudden Savant Syndrome is a rare phenomenon in which an otherwise normal person got some kind of brain injury and immediately develops a new skill. The linked article tells the story of a 40-years old guy who banged his head against a wall while swimming, and woke up with a huge talent for playing piano (relevant video). Now, I've spend 15 years in formal music training and I can ensure you that nobody can fake that kind of talent without spending years in actual piano practice.Here's the story

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13:39

“Balsa Update and General Thank You” by Zvi

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/12

Wow, what a year it has been. Things keep getting crazier. Thank you for taking this journey with me. I hope I have helped you keep pace, and that you have been able to discern for yourself the parts of this avalanche of words and events that were helpful. I hope to have helped things make somewhat more sense. And I hope many of you have taken that information, and used it not only to be able to check Twitter less, but also to make better decisions, and, hopefully, to help make the world a

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67:54

“Significantly Enhancing Adult Intelligence With Gene...

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/12

In the course of my life, there have been a handful of times I discovered an idea that changed the way I thought about the world. The first occurred when I picked up Nick Bostrom's book “superintelligence” and realized that AI would utterly transform the world. The second was when I learned about embryo selection and how it could change future generations. And the third happened a few months ago when I read a message from a friend of mine on Discord about editing the genome of a living person.We’ve

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27:59

“OpenAI: Leaks Confirm the Story” by Zvi

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/12

Previously: OpenAI: Altman Returns, OpenAI: The Battle of the Board, OpenAI: Facts from a Weekend, additional coverage in AI#41. We have new stories from The New York Times, from Time, from the Washington Post and from Business Insider. All paint a picture consistent with the central story told in OpenAI: The Battle of the Board. They confirm key facts, especially Altman's attempted removal of Toner from the board via deception. We also confirm that Altman promised to help with the transition

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59:58

“Nonlinear’s Evidence: Debunking False and Misleading...

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/12

Recently, Ben Pace wrote a well-intentioned blog post mostly based on complaints from 2 (of 21) Nonlinear employees who 1) wanted more money, 2) felt socially isolated, and 3) felt persecuted/oppressed. Of relevance, one has accused the majority of her previous employers, and 28 people of abuse - that we know of. She has accused multiple people of threatening to kill her and literally accused an ex-employer of murder. Within three weeks of joining us, she had accused five separate people of abuse:

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10:52

“Funding case: AI Safety Camp” by Remmelt, Linda...

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/12

Project summaryAI Safety Camp is a program with a 5-year track record of enabling people to find careers in AI Safety.We support up-and-coming researchers outside the Bay Area and London hubs. We are out of funding. To make the 10th edition happen, fund our stipends and salaries. What are this project's goals and how will you achieve them?AI Safety Camp is a program for inquiring how to work on ensuring future AI is safe, and try concretely working on that in a team.For the 9th edition of AI

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9:38

“The likely first longevity drug is based on sketchy...

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/12

If you are interested in the longevity scene, like I am, you probably have seen press releases about the dog longevity company, Loyal for Dogs, getting a nod for efficacy from the FDA. These have come in the form of the New York Post calling the drug "groundbreaking", Science Alert calling the drug "radical", and the more sedate New York Times just asking, "Could Longevity Drugs for Dogs Extend Your Pet's Life?", presumably unaware of Betteridge's Law of Headlines. You may have also seen the

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21:36

“On plans for a functional society” by kave, Vaniver

LessWrong (30+ Karma) ·

2023/12/12

VaniverI'm going to expand on something brought up in this comment. I wrote:A lot of my thinking over the last few months has shifted from "how do we get some sort of AI pause in place?" to "how do we win the peace?". That is, you could have a picture of AGI as the most important problem that precedes all other problems; anti-aging research is important, but it might actually be faster to build an aligned artificial scientist who solves it for you than to solve it yourself (on this general argument,

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LessWrong (30+ Karma)

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