Monthly Archives: June 2023

Is debate worthwhile? That is a matter of some, ahem, disagreement. A lot of that was mainstream discussions of the whole Rogan-RFK Jr fiasco. In the context of AI, we had a real debate on whether AI is an existential … Continue reading →

Scott Winship argued recently that the ‘cost of thriving’ has fallen, pushing back once again against Oren Cass and his rather arbitrarily calculated ‘Cost of Thriving Index (COTI).’ Alex Tabarrok posted today on Marginal Revolution that Winship and coauthor Horpedahl … Continue reading →

The biggest news this week was on the government front. In the UK, Ian Hogarth of ‘We Must Slow Down the Race to Godlike AI’ fame was put in charge of a 100 million pound taskforce for AI safety. I … Continue reading →

It would make strategic sense, even from a selfish perspective, for essentially any nation to get more involved in sensible AI regulation, and to get more involved in capturing AI benefits and being the home to AI and AI-enabled economic … Continue reading →

Apple is offering a VR/AR/XR headset, Vision Pro, for the low, low price of $3,500. I kid. Also I am deadly serious. The value of this headset to a middle class American or someone richer than that is almost certainly … Continue reading →

“There is a single light of science. To brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.” – Isaac Asimov You cannot stand what I’ve becomeYou much prefer the gentleman I was beforeI was so easy to defeat, I was so … Continue reading →

The sky is not blue. Not today, not in New York City. At least it’s now mostly white, yesterday it was orange. Even indoors, everyone is coughing and our heads don’t feel right. I can’t think fully straight. Life comes … Continue reading →

This month’s roundup of non-AI things, with the good, the bad and the uncondoned, along with several additional individual topics. I’m also trying out running some blog-focused surveys near the end, right before the jokes.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” That is the entire text of the one-line open letter signed this week by what one could reasonably … Continue reading →