LessWrong posts by zvi

“AI #168: Not Leading the Future” by Zvi


Listen Later

This is what a lull looks like at this point. The government is having internal arguments. The models are getting improved internally. The coding agent improvements are all what we would expect. There's still a lot happening, including a bunch of cool papers, but I feel able to relax and to take care of some other work while I have the chance. You never know when that chance will be over.

Table of Contents

From yesterday: Cyber Lack of Security and AI Governance.

  1. Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. Fix everything now.
  2. Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. Travel is harder than it looked.
  3. Huh, Upgrades. Opus 4.7 fast mode, Claude Code /goal and agent view.
  4. Levels of Friction. AI for tax avoidance.
  5. On Your Marks. PrinzBench, ProgramBench and faster harmfulness checks.
  6. Get My Agent On The Line. Mona tries to run a cafeteria. Mistakes were made.
  7. Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon. Soon. But not quite yet.
  8. Fun With Media Generation. Monet does not seem that great.
  9. On AI Writing. AI is a hack writer using hack techniques.
  10. A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. How to make AI [...]
  11. ---

    Outline:

    (00:36) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility

    (02:25) Language Models Dont Offer Mundane Utility

    (03:26) Huh, Upgrades

    (04:02) Levels of Friction

    (05:11) On Your Marks

    (06:38) Get My Agent On The Line

    (09:42) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon

    (11:11) Fun With Media Generation

    (12:49) On AI Writing

    (16:05) A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer

    (18:35) You Drive Me Crazy

    (19:23) They Took Our Jobs

    (21:31) The Art of the Jailbreak

    (21:49) Introducing

    (22:29) Claude Has Its Limits

    (23:28) Show Me the Money

    (25:15) Show Me The Compute

    (26:58) Quiet Speculations

    (28:33) Quickly, Theres No Time

    (29:32) Chip City

    (30:37) Pick Up The Phone

    (31:15) The Week in Audio

    (31:41) Rhetorical Innovation

    (36:13) Not Leading the Future

    (42:24) Elon Musk v OpenAI

    (43:21) People Just Say Things

    (43:47) People Just Publish Things

    (44:37) OpenAI Endroses Kosa And SB 315

    (48:08) The LLMs All Believe Roughly Similar Things

    (50:45) I Learned It By Reading YOU

    (01:08:22) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult

    (01:18:45) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone

    (01:20:34) Messages From Janusworld

    (01:22:31) People Worried About AI For Other Reasons

    (01:23:06) The Lighter Side

    ---

    First published:

    May 14th, 2026

    Source:

    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/E4uEiMSpnYRotfzJX/ai-168-not-leading-the-future

    ---

    Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    ---

    Images from the article:

    Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    LessWrong posts by zviBy zvi

    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5

    5

    2 ratings


    More shows like LessWrong posts by zvi

    View all
    Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

    Making Sense with Sam Harris

    26,278 Listeners

    Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

    Conversations with Tyler

    2,448 Listeners

    The a16z Show by Andreessen Horowitz

    The a16z Show

    1,107 Listeners

    Future of Life Institute Podcast by Future of Life Institute

    Future of Life Institute Podcast

    108 Listeners

    ChinaTalk by Jordan Schneider

    ChinaTalk

    288 Listeners

    Politix by Politix

    Politix

    89 Listeners

    Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

    Dwarkesh Podcast

    564 Listeners

    Hard Fork by The New York Times

    Hard Fork

    5,554 Listeners

    Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg by Spencer Greenberg

    Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

    138 Listeners

    LessWrong (Curated & Popular) by LessWrong

    LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

    12 Listeners

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

    146 Listeners

    "Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg by Turpentine

    "Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg

    149 Listeners

    BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

    BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

    460 Listeners

    LessWrong (30+ Karma) by LessWrong

    LessWrong (30+ Karma)

    0 Listeners

    Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) by Patrick McKenzie

    Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)

    141 Listeners