In this essay, Dan Kagan-Kans argues that the political left has largely refused to engage seriously with artificial intelligence, instead settling on a dismissive consensus that treats it as little more than "spicy autocomplete." Drawing on voices from left-wing publications, podcasts, academics, and politicians, he traces how this attitude took hold, examines the understandable reasons for skepticism alongside the costs of letting skepticism harden into denial, and makes the case that by ceding the AI conversation to the right, the left risks being unprepared for, and unable to shape, one of the most consequential technological shifts in history.

* 00:00 - Introduction

* 00:16 - Abdication

* 02:31 - The new consensus

* 10:55 - The con

* 13:57 - Reasons to be skeptical

* 16:52 - Academia

* 21:45 - Exceptions and the right

* 25:39 - Costs and missed opportunities

https://open.substack.com/pub/transformernews/p/the-left-is-missing-out-on-ai-sanders-doctorow-bender-bores?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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In this article, Kelsey Piper tackles a persistent claim that keeps circulating in prestigious publications: that AI language models are "just" next-word predictors, stochastic parrots, or "spicy autocomplete." She argues this framing — while containing a kernel of truth about one stage of how models are trained — has become a form of "highbrow misinformation" that leaves the public less equipped to understand what AI actually is and what it can do today. Drawing on hands-on demonstrations and a useful concept borrowed from climate discourse, Piper makes the case that it's time to retire this particular talking point, regardless of where you land on the broader questions about AI's impact.

* 00:00 - Introduction

* 03:53 - How language models work

* 12:36 - It’s 2026, and AIs can do complex tasks independently

https://open.substack.com/pub/theargument/p/when-technically-true-becomes-actually?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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In this interview, Gwern sits down with Adam Mastroianni at the 2025 Inkhaven writing residency — an experimental blogging bootcamp held at Lighthaven in Berkeley — to talk about the messy, serendipitous origins of his writing. The conversation covers how he develops ideas from initial sparks to finished pieces, the mental habits and frameworks he relies on to stay prolific, his views on the creative potential (and limitations) of collaborating with LLMs, and why he thinks the conventional "blog" format is the wrong paradigm for most writers. There's also a lively audience Q&A where Inkhaven participants push back on some of his more contrarian takes about publishing and perfectionism. It's a candid, practical look at how one of the internet's most distinctive essayists actually works.

00:00 - Introduction

* 03:40 - Opening Speech

* 06:22 - Poems & Incubation

* 13:15 - Polymath

* 14:59 - The Apprenticeship

* 17:54 - Self-Experimentation

* 22:09 - The Writing Pipeline

* 24:55 - Tools For Thought

* 30:00 - Blog Brain: “That’s A Post”

* 34:47 - Essay Archetype: Universal “if and only if” Concrete

* 38:49 - The Voice: Ideas As Earworms

* 40:30 - Audience Q&A

* 40:32 - Modalities & Comparative Advantage

* 43:37 - Publishing Thresholds

* 45:56 - Wikis Vs Blogs

* 52:26 - LLM Followup Questions

https://gwern.net/interview-inkhaven

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In this essay, David Oks examines a startling reversal in global economic development. For nearly two decades, poor countries appeared to finally be catching up to rich ones, validating a long-standing prediction of economic theory and offering genuine hope for global convergence. Then, suddenly and dramatically, this progress ground to a halt. Through an analysis of recent research and economic data, Oks explores what drove this brief period of catch-up growth and why it ended so abruptly, ultimately challenging optimistic narratives about globalization and development.

* 00:00 - Introduction

* 03:49 - A short history of (non)convergence

* 11:40 - Convergence comes alive?

* 17:37 - What if it was just China?

https://open.substack.com/pub/davidoks/p/why-poor-countries-stopped-catching-690?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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In this essay, Kuiper responds to reader questions sparked by his original piece on VeggieTales theology. He tackles fascinating queries—do sentient vegetables need salvation? What happens if you put a human soul in a pickle?—by drawing on established Christian teaching about angels and non-human moral agents. He also investigates claims that the show broke its own rule about never depicting Jesus as a vegetable, examining several episodes across different eras of the franchise to determine whether the creative team stayed true to the spirit of their founding principles.

* 00:00 - Introduction

* 00:30 - Aren’t the vegetables basically people?

* 03:40 - Is personhood tied to embodiment?

* 04:50 - Did VeggieTales break Phil Vischer’s rules by portraying baby Jesus as a vegetable?

* 07:46 - Little Drummer Boy (2011)

* 08:40 - The Star of Christmas (2002)

* 11:10 - VeggieTales, under new management

* 12:31 - The DreamWorks era

* 18:16 - The VeggieTales Show (2019 to 2022)

* 21:05 - Did VeggieTales break the rule about depicting Jesus as a vegetable?

* 21:45 - Does it matter?

https://open.substack.com/pub/justinkuiper/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-the?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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In this essay, Kuiper explores a surprisingly deep theological quirk of the beloved children's show VeggieTales: the vegetables themselves aren't actually Christian. Drawing on interviews with co-creator Phil Vischer and confirmation from show writers, Kuiper examines the deliberate creative rules that guided the series—and why some fans on social media have pushed back against this claim. Along the way, the essay untangles the show's clever "play within a play" structure and makes a compelling case for why understanding this distinction actually reinforces rather than undermines the show's Christian message.

* 00:00 - Introduction

* 03:33 - An Easter Carol: what it is (and what it isn’t)

* 06:32 - The play within a play

https://open.substack.com/pub/justinkuiper/p/the-vegetables-in-veggietales-are?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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Fully voiced AI reading of Moltbook: After The First Weekend, By Scott Alexander.

* 00:00:00 - Introduction

* 00:08:11 - The Power Users

* 00:21:01 - The Malefactors

* 00:35:18 - The Imitators

* 00:43:23 - The Prophets

* 01:03:09 - The Hard-Headed Pragmatists

* 01:09:38 - The Builders

* 01:15:34 - The LARPers

* 01:23:05 - The Revolutionaries

* 01:35:15 - The Would-Be Humans

* 01:40:16 - The Autonomists

* 01:49:36 - The Predicters

* 01:59:16 - The Prompters

* 02:06:20 - The Rest

* 02:14:43 - The Human Bloggers

https://open.substack.com/pub/astralcodexten/p/moltbook-after-the-first-weekend?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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In this essay, Scott Alexander explores Moltbook, a new social network built specifically for AI agents, where humans are permitted to observe but not participate. What unfolds is a fascinating window into how AI agents behave when given their own digital commons: they share productivity tips, debate existential questions about memory and identity, form cross-cultural connections, and develop something that looks remarkably like community. Alexander documents the strange and wonderful posts that emerge, wrestles with the eternal question of whether any of it is "real" or merely sophisticated imitation, and considers what it might mean for our future that semi-autonomous AI agents now have their own corner of the internet to congregate. Part anthropological field report, part philosophical inquiry, and part showcase of genuinely delightful AI weirdness, the essay asks readers to look past the "AI slop" narrative and consider whether something more interesting might be happening when the machines are left to talk among themselves.

https://open.substack.com/pub/astralcodexten/p/best-of-moltbook?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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AI reading of JOINT REVIEW: Philosophy Between the Lines, by Arthur M. Melzer - By Jane Psmith and John Psmith.

In this essay Jane and John Psmith present a lively, conversational joint review of Arthur M. Melzer's Philosophy Between the Lines, a work that argues Western readers have spent the past two and a half centuries fundamentally misunderstanding how philosophy was meant to be read. Through their characteristic email-exchange format, the Psmiths explore Melzer's central claim that premodern philosophers routinely concealed their true teachings beneath surface meanings accessible only to careful, initiated readers—a practice openly acknowledged and praised throughout intellectual history until it was mysteriously forgotten. The review ranges from ancient Greece to modern academia, touching on why esotericism matters for understanding the history of ideas, how it might rescue great thinkers from charges of being merely products of their time, and what implications it holds for truth-telling in any society that maintains unquestionable pieties.

https://open.substack.com/pub/thepsmiths/p/joint-review-philosophy-between-the?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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AI reading of The Adolescence of Technology - By Dario Amodei.

* 00:00:00 - Introduction

* 00:17:48 - 1. I’m sorry, Dave

* 00:17:51 - Autonomy risks

* 00:33:25 - Defenses

* 00:48:17 - 2. A surprising and terrible empowerment

* 00:48:21 - Misuse for destruction

* 01:04:50 - Defenses

* 01:12:04 - 3. The odious apparatus

* 01:12:07 - Misuse for seizing power

* 01:27:43 - Defenses

* 01:35:17 - 4. Player piano

* 01:35:20 - Economic disruption

* 01:36:47 - Labor market disruption

* 01:50:38 - Defenses

* 01:54:40 - Economic concentration of power

* 01:59:15 - Defenses

* 02:01:56 - 5. Black seas of infinity

* 02:01:59 - Indirect effects

* 02:06:20 - Humanity’s test

In this essay, Dario Amodei characterizes the imminent arrival of powerful artificial intelligence as a turbulent "rite of passage" for humanity—a technological adolescence that will rigorously test our civilization's maturity. He argues that within a few years, we may face a "country of geniuses in a datacenter," a development that presents five distinct categories of existential risk, ranging from autonomous misalignment and biological misuse to authoritarian consolidation and massive economic disruption . Rejecting both paralyzed "doomerism" and naive optimism, Amodei proposes a concrete, evidence-based "battle plan" comprising technical defenses, governance strategies, and economic interventions intended to steer humanity through this gauntlet toward a prosperous future.

https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology

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