LessWrong posts by zvi

Whatever else you think about Anthropic's agentic coding department, they ship.

The highlights of this edition are three related big upgrades.

You can use Dispatch to command Claude Code and Claude Cowork from your phone, or use channels to do it via places such as Telegram or Discord.

Claude Cowork now can outright use your keyboard and mouse, giving it access to actual everything one can do with a computer if it is competent to do so.

Claude Code now has auto mode, where a classifier checks commands and you only get asked for permission when something seems genuinely risky.

These are rather large quality of life improvements.

Table of Contents

[...]

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Outline:

(00:53) Claude Auto Code

(03:27) Claude Work

(04:29) Never Go Full Computer Use

(05:58) Get Yourself A Desktop

(06:41) Okay Computer

(09:27) Super App

(10:31) Huh, Additional Upgrades

(16:18) Agentic Coding Offers Mundane Utility

(19:03) Agentic Coding Doesnt Offer Mundane Utility

(20:02) Coding Agents Everywhere

(21:04) Worth It

(22:18) Choose Your Fighter

(22:55) Code Review

(26:17) Theres An App For That

(27:37) In Or Out

(28:14) Bulking Up

(29:19) Skilling Up

(33:12) Unless That Claw

(34:44) The Lighter Side

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These are all important, in their own way, call it a treasure hunt and collect them all…

“Know thyself.” – The Oracle

“Know thine enemy and know thyself; in a hundred battles, you will not be defeated.” – Sun Tzu

“You don’t know me. You don’t know me at all.” – Lisa Loeb, ‘You Don’t Know Me’

“Just one word. Are you listening? Plastics.” – The Graduate

“And Alexander wept, seeing as he had no more worlds to conquer.” – Someone Guessing

“I didn’t know I had permission to murder and to maim.’ – Leonard Cohen

“But that's not important right now.” – Leslie Nielsen

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir?” – John Maynard Keynes

“Now we’re talking price.” – Winston Churchill

“Think for yourself, schmuck.” – Hagbard Celine, Illuminatus!

“Have you forgotten doublethink?” – George Orwell, 1984

“You are trying to solve the wrong problem using the wrong methods based on a wrong model of the [...]

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Outline:

(05:19) Editors Note

(07:28) A Difference Of Opinion

(10:28) An Overview

(10:45) You Dont Know Me

(11:51) Untimely Questions

(15:41) The Unexamined Life is Worth Living

(20:59) The Quest For The Unexamined Life

(26:19) Not Everyone Wants To or Should Philosophize All Day

(28:49) The Seinfeld Fallacy

(30:44) Socrates was the Lying GOAT of Hypocritical False Humility

(36:30) Hearing Voices

(39:25) Simpsons Ancient Greeks Did It

(42:56) The Proposed Fourth Option: Socratic Inquiry

(47:59) No Really The Position is Nothing Else Matters

(51:52) The War on Wavering and Nebulosity

(59:09) Living Your Best Life

(01:03:17) Introducing the Socratic Method (the real one)

(01:04:44) Prove Me Wrong, Kids

(01:06:35) Socrates Asserts Wrong Conclusions That Are Wrong

(01:11:02) You Can Question Your Beliefs

(01:19:39) True Opinions Do Not Only Do Good

(01:22:29) Meno Plays the Fool

(01:25:48) The Central Magicians Trick

(01:26:57) The Gaslighting of Alcibiades

(01:40:06) The Measure of a Fight

(01:49:27) The Good Fight

(01:54:42) The Curious Case of Euthyphro

(01:59:29) You Should Be Sad About That

(02:05:11) People Respond To Incentives

(02:12:30) Self Versus Other

(02:13:49) Socrates Declares Humans Have Unified Minds Free Of Various Biases

(02:22:27) Revenge

(02:39:11) Legal Systems Very Different From Our Own

(02:44:53) Socrates Claims The Just And The Advantageous Are Identical

(02:56:40) First Up: Utilitarianism

(02:59:28) The Main Rival: Deontology (Kantianism? Stoicism?)

(03:05:28) A Trolly Problem

(03:07:13) The Third and Correct Option: Virtue Ethics

(03:15:14) You Are Not Omniscient

(03:21:42) The Hardest Thing In This World Is To Live In It

(03:27:59) They Call It Utopia For A Reason

(03:29:19) The End... Of Book One

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Yesterday I posted Part 1. Read that first. This is Part 2 of 2.

Table of Contents

The [...]

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Outline:

(00:18) The Socratic Method

(01:47) The Paradox Paradox

(09:22) Rubber Ducking

(11:48) Coherent Extrapolated Volition

(13:25) The Cult Leader Breaks You Down

(16:11) The Cult Leader Builds You Back Up

(20:50) Did You Know There Are Tradeoffs In Epistemics

(27:54) You Came Here For An Argument

(34:57) You Have Completed Building The Oracle

(45:03) How Refutation Works

(50:32) The Problem Is Not Having A Problem

(53:44) What Is Love Justice?

(55:03) Things That Are Not Entirely Virtuous

(59:55) Does Anyone Know A Good Surgeon?

(01:01:55) This Question Is Starting To Be A Real Problem

(01:10:21) Solving An Unproblem

(01:13:11) The Slave Finds The Square Root Of Two

(01:15:59) Arbitrary Facts

(01:20:14) You Are Not Pondering What I Am Pondering

(01:28:27) Questions Before Answers

(01:30:58) Socratic Answers

(01:37:34) Politics

(01:40:34) Politicization

(01:44:31) Fighting Is Not Pretend Arguing

(01:49:47) Freedom After Speech

(01:50:49) The Truth Can Lose An Argument

(01:51:50) Equality

(01:56:10) Inequality

(01:59:34) Persuasion Game

(02:01:59) What Is Love?

(02:09:23) Socrates Only Wants One Thing And Its Disgusting Philosophy

(02:16:23) And Finally Death

(02:19:00) Tell Me Lies

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Table of Contents

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Outline:

(00:59) Still Only Partial Cure For Cancer

(04:16) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility

(05:58) Language Models Dont Offer Mundane Utility

(07:59) Huh, Upgrades

(13:09) Levels of Friction

(14:10) Choose Your Fighter

(15:04) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon

(17:05) Greetings From The Torment Nexus

(20:38) Levels of Friction

(23:34) Fun With Media Generation

(26:20) A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer

(27:22) They Took Our Jobs

(31:01) Get Involved

(36:14) Conditional Support For A Pause

(40:12) In Other AI News

(43:38) Show Me the Money

(44:23) Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

(46:12) This Means Special Military Operation

(46:30) Quiet Speculations

(47:17) Quickly, Theres No Time

(49:24) And Then Theres Emil Michael

(54:00) Good Advice

(54:57) Patriots and Tyrants

(01:00:25) The Quest for Survival

(01:05:27) Nashville Rules

(01:07:10) People Really Hate AI

(01:14:35) The OpenAI-a16z Anti-All-AI-Regulation Super PAC

(01:18:07) Chip City

(01:21:41) The Week in Audio

(01:23:26) Rhetorical Innovation

(01:28:25) Instrumental Convergence

(01:29:49) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult

(01:35:42) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone

(01:36:59) The Lighter Side

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The news has thankfully quieted down on this front, and is mostly about the lawsuit as we build towards a hearing next week, after which we will find out if a temporary restraining order or an injunction is on the table.

The government arguments were going to be terrible no matter what, given the terrible set of facts and who was directing the argument, and their decision not to narrow their scope or compromise. But Anthropic has an uphill battle to try and get a random court to give them advance relief, so it could go either way.

See You In Court

There are two big questions in the case Anthropic vs. Department of War.

The first is, who eventually wins?

The second is, will Anthropic win a temporary restraining order?

The bar for the second is much higher at the hearing on 3/24. Yes, Anthropic very obviously should get one and it is very scary to think they might not, but as Dean Ball warns the injunction could be a rather tough ask even with this insanely damning set of facts on Anthropic's side many times over, and its crazy list of [...]

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Outline:

(00:51) See You In Court

(02:25) The Government Responds

(07:50) Retaliation and Jawboning

(09:52) Patriots and Tyrants

(16:00) The Principles, Sadly, Were Always Fake

(17:40) Other Related News

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Things are relatively quiet on the AI front, so I figured it's time to check in on some other things that have been going on, including various developments at the FDA.

Table of Contents

FDA Reformandum Est

In lieu of plan A, how about plan B?

Senator Bill Cassidy released a new report on modernizing the FDA. Alex Tabarrok approves, which means it's probably good.

The FDA chief has an even better idea.

Matthew Herper: FDA chief Marty Makary says ‘everything should be over the counter’ unless drug is unsafe or addictive [or requires monitoring].

Annika Kim Constantino: Makary said the FDA is looking at “basic, safe” prescription drugs like nausea medications and vaginal estrogen, which is used to [...]

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Outline:

(00:19) FDA Reformandum Est

(01:17) FDA Delenda Est

(14:11) IN MICE

(15:09) Doctor, Doctor

(15:38) Trust The Process

(16:51) Cancer Screening

(18:18) Autism Everywhere All At Once

(19:25) Other Mental Problems Everywhere All At Once

(21:26) Source Data Verification

(26:18) External Review Board

(26:57) Walk It Off

(28:16) An Unhealthy Weight Can Be Worse Than You Realize

(29:04) Our GLP-1 Price Cheap

(30:55) Right To Die Should Include Right To Try

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It is that time again.

After events surrounding Anthropic and the Department of War, I plan on taking full advantage of whatever lulls I can get. Things are only going to move faster over time.

That means a higher bar for coverage, and it means potentially skipping more days, or using those days for short posts that either spin off fun little things or that embody concepts I want to refer back to over time.

In the meantime, here's everything that doesn’t go anywhere else, and that does not want to fully stand on its own.

Table of Contents

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Outline:

(00:43) Sauce For The Goose

(01:44) Age Verification Has Severe Issues

(02:43) Bad News

(03:24) A Pattern Language

(04:32) Good Advice

(09:40) While I Cannot Condone This

(13:36) Locking In

(15:10) Subscription Price Dynamics Are Weird

(17:34) Good News, Everyone

(20:28) For Your Entertainment

(21:25) Slay The Spire II

(24:36) Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game

(27:35) The Gathering Is Magical

(32:43) Sports Go Sports

(34:38) Government Working

(41:00) Not Great, Britain

(42:46) Variously Effective Altruism

(44:22) The Road To Hell

(45:28) Jones Act Watch

(47:30) Patrick McKenzie Periodically

(57:32) The Lighter Side

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The conflict between Anthropic and the Department of War has now moved to the courts, where Anthropic has challenged the official supply chain risk designation as well as the order to remove it from systems across the government, claiming retaliation for protected speech. It will take a bit to work its way through the courts.

Anthropic has the principles of law on its side, a maximally strong set of facts and absurdly strong amicus briefs. If Anthropic loses this case, there will be far reaching consequences for our freedoms.

Let us hope this remains in the courts and is allowed to play out there, and then ultimately that negotiations can resume and the parties can at least agree on a smooth transition to alternative service providers. If DoW wants an otherwise full deal more than it wants the right to use Claude to monitor Americans and analyze their data, a full deal is possible as well, but if they demand full ‘all lawful use,’ all trust has been lost or they are or always were out to hurt Anthropic, then there is no deal or ZOPA.

That has overshadowed what would normally be the main event [...]

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Outline:

(01:48) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility

(03:46) Language Models Dont Offer Mundane Utility

(07:11) Language Models Break Your Vital Internet Infrastructure

(08:02) Huh, Upgrades

(09:29) On Your Marks

(15:13) Choose Your Fighter

(15:40) Get My Agent On The Line

(16:55) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon

(19:08) A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer

(19:27) You Drive Me Crazy

(19:47) They Took Our Jobs

(23:10) Get Involved

(24:58) Introducing

(26:03) The Anthropic Institute

(28:13) In Other AI News

(29:14) The Rise of Claude

(33:31) Trouble At OpenAI

(35:21) Show Me the Money

(36:36) Thanks For The Memos

(37:36) A Contract Is A Contract Is A Contract

(40:09) Level of Friction

(41:10) Quiet Speculations

(41:46) Quickly, Theres No Time

(43:14) Apology Tour

(43:59) Well See You In Court

(50:41) Jawboning

(54:02) Executive Order

(54:53) The Acute Crisis Passes

(56:48) Others Cover This

(57:28) Dwarkesh Patel Gives Mixed Thoughts

(01:02:57) This Means A Special Military Operation

(01:03:25) Bernie Sanders Is Worried and Curious About AI

(01:06:10) The Quest for Survival

(01:09:25) The Quest For No Regulations Whatsoever

(01:10:44) Chip City

(01:11:07) The Week in Audio

(01:12:52) Rhetorical Innovation

(01:23:08) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult

(01:28:57) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone

(01:31:03) Other People Are Not As Worried About AI Killing Everyone

(01:32:52) The Lighter Side

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Benchmarks have never been less useful for telling us which models are best.

They are good for giving a general sense of the landscape. They definitely paint a picture. But if you’re comparing top models, like GPT-5.4 against Opus 4.6 against Gemini 3.1 Pro, you have to use the models, talk to the models, get reports from those who have and form a gestalt. The reports will contract each other and you have to work through that. There's no other way.

Thus, I try to gather and sort a reasonably comprehensive set of reactions, so you can browse the sections that make you most curious.

The gestalt is that GPT-5.4 is a very good model, sir. It's a substantial upgrade from GPT-5.2, and also from 5.3-Codex, and it puts OpenAI back in the game, whereas I felt like Opus 4.6 dominated OpenAI's previous offerings for all but narrow uses.

Each lab's models vary and things change over time, but they tend to have consistent strengths, weaknesses and personalities. From what I’ve seen this is very much an OpenAI model. It's highly capable, and it is especially seen as a big improvement by the whisperers and [...]

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Outline:

(01:42) The Big Take

(04:24) The Official Pitch

(08:43) Other Peoples Benchmarks

(12:44) The System Card

(17:22) Preparedness Framework

(19:15) Fun Experiments

(19:41) Early Poll Results

(21:48) Positive Reactions

(34:47) Vibe Coders Only

(37:26) Fill Out Your Roster

(37:51) Intent Wins

(40:41) Personality Clash

(45:44) Model Relations Department

(49:27) Stylistic Differences

(50:02) Some Will Always Be Unimpressed

(53:57) The Lighter Side

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