playforest

making stuff

[Mary @MaryJackalope]

I’m late to the party but this is so cool

[Sam Bowman @s8mb]

This is, perversely, good news for Britain, Australia, Japan, Europe, and other countries being cut off that would once have seen themselves as close allies of the United States.

It shows us what the future may hold if AI is the strategically and economically decisive technology of the 21st century and is controlled by the US and China. It is good news because *it may be happening early enough to give us time to act.*

I think this will be rescinded pretty soon, but it’s a sign of things to come. In a future where frontier models cannot be used outside the US, our industries and economies will fall behind and American businesses may not be able to operate overseas. We won’t be able to defend ourselves militarily with defence systems built on obsolete software. Europe 2031 is a good scenario of what a future like this could mean: https://t.co/AMc5LrFJeS

Some of the things we need to do are ‘no regrets’ measures we should do anyway. But some are genuinely costly and risky.

We need cheap electricity – powered by gas, coal (this is costly, coal is very bad), deregulated nuclear fission – whatever can provide *cheap, reliable, 24/7* power. This almost certainly excludes wind power, which is enormously expensive and unreliable. We need projects to be able to connect to the grid in days rather than years by paying for fast-track connections.

We need to make it incredibly easy to build data centres, with the property taxes retained locally and hypothecated for local tax cuts so there is some direct benefit for locals. This doesn’t need to be nationwide.

We need to create new regulatory regimes for innovative businesses that give them the right to hire and fire staff with ease. The difficulty and cost of firing staff is one of the main reasons Europe has fallen behind so badly. We need to create a parallel employment regime that companies and workers can opt in to: https://t.co/YaNOXK1Po2

Even though I think it will probably fail, I think we should probably try to create a good, non-American frontier AI lab. I am quite pessimistic about this – even extremely well-resourced, innovative software companies are struggling to do this. But the stakes are so high that not trying seems foolish.

One thing that might work in our favour is the number of brilliant AI engineers who are not US citizens, who under the current export controls do not have access to Mythos/Fable even if they live and work in the US. What happens to Demis Hassabis, Ilya Sutskever, Andrej Karpathy, and the many other Europeans, Canadians, etc who are working on AI models in Britain and America who are affected by this?

I do not think we should force our own companies to use model, because this would exacerbate their economic weakness – this lab should have to compete on an even playing field. I am deeply sceptical that this can work, but we cannot rule it out. If we do it, it has to be able to pay US salaries, operate without political constraints. https://t.co/Um05rUF4Vq

It is cope to tell yourself that Trump is an aberration or that these export controls are a one-off. To repeat, I think these specific controls will be lifted quickly and it will be easy to move on and forget it happened. But this is a look into a potential future. Every one of us that is not a US citizen is at risk. The standard political divides do not apply here; the question is whether you grasp the enormity of AI as a technology. We have to act!

[Nabeel S. Qureshi @nabeelqu]

New essay, some notes on what makes art great:

https://t.co/5klrXN4C0C

[Will Manidis @WillManidis]

Craft Is the Antidote to Slop

[Michael Nielsen @michael_nielsen]

I was moved by @jkcarlsmith's "Thoughts on being mortal": https://t.co/m2YDG6729M

[rohit @krishnanrohit]

One of the most fun papers I've read in recent times. Excellent. Reminiscent of the good old days of science papers.

[Marko Jukic @mmjukic]

Ambient latent obsession with psychometrics obscures the fact that what mainly separates "normies" from the rest of us is not middling IQ but astounding and incurable cowardice. You have no idea how brave you are by just thinking your own thoughts in the safety of your own head.

[playforest @playforest_]

@Rowaida_Abdel lovely! where is this?

[Brie Wolfson @zebriez]

Call me one-note, or devoid of Real Values, or a masochistic Peter Pan...but I'm nostalgic for the time when we collectively agreed that really, really cool to devote ourselves fully to work.

https://t.co/O62ObXFZOZ

[playforest @playforest_]

@spakhm Looks like the low hanging fruits were already taken care of, but “Why Liberalism Failed” (Patrick Deneen) deserves a place here. deals with conservative values from a social standpoint and the corrosive effects of a progressive worldview to communities etc..

[playforest @playforest_]

@jacobsonandrew6 @simonsarris Thank you!

[playforest @playforest_]

@jacobsonandrew6 @simonsarris is there any extended reading you can recommend on this?

[playforest @playforest_]

@nope_its_lily orthogonal, nth order {anything}

[playforest @playforest_]

@FinanceLancelot where is this chart from?

[shako @cauchyfriend]

I want to talk abut my framework for how to evaluate thinkers, since most people are not very good at reasoning through how to do this.

people evaluate ideas from a person independently, rather than as a portfolio. and they get super emotional and personal about it.

[playforest @playforest_]

Wordle 311 2/6

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[playforest @playforest_]

@stianlud @Noahpinion Curious to know what you found frustrating? As a Melbournian who has been to Europe I can think of some good reasons but would be great to hear it from a European.

[playforest @playforest_]

@tommycollison Exhalation by Ted Chiang. It’s brilliant and would strongly recommend to anyone

[playforest @playforest_]

@paulsakkal @BenRothenberg @theage does anyone know if it’s a given he’ll be banned for the next 3 years if his visa is cancelled? Or is there more ambiguity here?

[playforest @playforest_]

@PajamaStew Beautifully written, thanks for sharing. I’m going to follow you in the off chance you publish a book some day - I’d be so down to read it :)