Alex Zhang

something new @stanford

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

@1Aadhav bros gonna catch a corgi badge if he continues these posts

[Marques Brownlee @MKBHD]

This iPhone duo animation

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

@startupoppa agree. don't understand it when people say messages is going to be the next paradigm of consumer interaction, if anything i'm more bullish on generative/interactive ui like monogram. or even text + miniapps like tomo does it

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

anyone else feel like if they knew a little less about certain things/was more uneducated in some respects that they’d be more successful

[Logan Kilpatrick @OfficialLoganK]

@alexandr_wang congrats on the Muse Spark progress!! cool to see

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

@startupoppa few understand

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

@Yngkvn @noahrshinn curious if you used poke, and if so how they compared?

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

@ericcouu @soarflights looking good!

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

in a taxi with 779629 km on the odometer, engine light on, battery warning on

absolute beast

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

@virtualkhoa i’ll see you there

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

how do i find someone to drag into my sf 1br and only leave at $50k mrr

[Dario Amodei @DarioAmodei]

1/2 Thanks Gavin for an especially thoughtful exchange. I don't usually spend much time on social media but I wanted to engage here because it really brings out the heart of an important conversation.

First, on regulation, I think that “either concentrate it in the hands of a chosen few companies and politicians via regulation or distribute it widely” is a false choice.  I know that there’s a sort of Silicon Valley shorthand where regulation = regulatory capture = concentration of power, but I’ve always found this to be an overly simplified picture of the world.  Many people outside this bubble think of regulation as something that constrains corporate power and benefits ordinary people.  I don’t necessarily agree with that perspective either, rather I think it’s complicated and really depends on what the “regulation” consists of.  But in particular I think that those in the “regulation = regulatory capture = concentration of power” frame often underrate the decentralizing power of objective and fair institutional processes.  A crude analogy is that the formal court system can sometimes feel stuffy and elitist, but it does a much better job of defending the rights of vulnerable individuals than the alternative, mob justice.  At their best, institutions can vest power in ideas rather than people, and thereby decentralize that power.

This is why Anthropic has always made its policy proposals very carefully.  We try very hard to make proposals that disadvantage (slow down) frontier AI companies while *advantaging* smaller competitors.  California’s SB53 (which we supported), and even the much-maligned SB 1047 (which we were ambivalent on), completely exempt any company below a certain amount of revenue or model training costs from being covered at all (it was $500M for SB 53, lower for 1047 but we objected to that).  More recently the testing process we’ve advocated for at CAISI and the White House involves more rigorous tests for frontier models than off-frontier models — something that differentially advantages challengers.  Similarly, the “Pacing the Frontier” letter envisions (or at least Anthropic’s preferred implementation of it envisions) modulating the pace of the very best models while not constraining those who are catching up.  This hurts the business interests of the frontier labs and helps challengers, including open-weights!

Overall my view is that AI is *structurally* a technology that tends to concentrate power, for reasons that have nothing to do with regulation (more to do with the extreme implications of the scaling laws).  Open-weights do help some with this but are nowhere near a sufficient solution because they simply shift the concentration somewhat to those with the most compute and chips (which are roughly the frontier labs plus maybe hardware providers).  By contrast I think the right “rules of the road” can simultaneously (a) address AI’s cyber/bio/alignment risks, (b) institutionally constrain the power of the frontier AI companies, and (c) leave room for open-weights models while also addressing the specific risks that they bring.

BTW I do not think that the events of the last few months have “failed to result in [my] preferred regulatory path”.  The approach that the Trump administration is reported to be taking — pre-deployment testing for frontier models, and also testing of open-weights models when they get closer to the frontier — is one that I am very supportive of, though of course I have to see the details to be sure.  I am also supportive of Demis Hassabis’ ideas around a FINRA-like entity.  This contrasts with six months ago when most of the industry was still pushing for preemption of all state regulation and no apparent federal approach either.

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

@tomas_boismene ugc

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

@NitinSub would love to try it out

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

spotify daylist is lowk a tough feature idk why ive just now been on this

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

@sujaldkl @a16z @speedrun goats

[sujal @sujaldkl]

I was born in Madrahani, a small village in Nepal, and immigrated to America not knowing what startups were.

Today I'm the first Nepali founder to join @a16z @speedrun, where I'm building https://t.co/ZlXRYLx9iV 🇳🇵

Here's my journey:

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

what if tesla had an auto park feature in cities where it would systematically circle around the destination in an optimal way and scan for parking spots for you

[Alex Zhang @alexzhang104]

who uses suno

is it just a niche group of musically oriented people that i’ve never met someone from

where is the hundreds of millions of arr from