LessWrong posts by zvi

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March 31, 2026 “Movie Review: The AI Doc” by Zvi
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a brilliant piece of work.
(This will be a fully spoilorific overview. If you haven’t seen The AI Doc,I recommend seeing it, it is about as good as it could realistically have been, in most ways.)
Like many things, it only works because it is centrally real. The creator of the documentary clearly did get married and have a child, freak out about AI, ask questions of the right people out of worry about his son's future, freak out even more now with actual existential risk for (simplified versions of) the right reasons, go on a quest to stop freaking out and get optimistic instead, find many of the right people for that and ask good non-technical questions, get somewhat fooled, listen to mundane safety complaints, seek out and get interviews with the top CEOs, try to tell himself he could ignore all of it, then decide not to end on a bunch of hopeful babies and instead have a call for action to help shape the future.

The title is correct. This is about ‘how I became an Apolcaloptimist,’ and why he wanted to be that, as opposed to [...]
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Outline:
(03:37) Babies Are Awesome
(04:58) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone
(06:17) Freak Out
(06:47) Other People Are Not Worried About AI Killing Everyone
(09:27) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon
(10:15) Stopping The AI Race and A Narrow Path
(11:47) CEOs Know Their Roles
(13:28) The Call To Action

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First published:
March 31st, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ppC6geY4FxGYifrWx/movie-review-the-ai-doc

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16min
March 30, 2026“AI #161 Part 2: Every Debate on AI” by Zvi
AI discorce. AI discorce never changes.
That's not actually true. But it is true to a rather frustrating degree, for those of us who need to be in the thick of it all the time. It is especially true if someone says the word ‘pause,’ whether or not they would actually support one. Play it again, Sam.
Meanwhile, you know what changes a lot? Actual AI capabilities. Also, war.
In any case, here's the policy, discourse and alignment side of the week that was.
Table of Contents
The OpenAI Foundation Exists. It continues not to focus on its supposed purpose.
Congress Exists. There is some attempt to focus on its supposed purpose.

China Self-Owns. China prevents Manus founders from leaving the country.
The Quest for Survival. Attempts to use procurement law as general AI policy.
Alex Bores Watch. He does an interview with Vanity Fair.
You Received The Federal Framework. Business as usual, except for the GSA.
Chip City. We finally catch a major chip smuggling operation.
Water Water Everywhere. Water use as Gell-Mann Amnesia.
Senator Bernie Sanders Acts Authentically. He is rather alarmed by AI.
Pick [...]

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Outline:
(00:46) The OpenAI Foundation Exists
(07:55) Congress Exists
(10:47) China Self-Owns
(13:16) The Quest for Survival
(17:17) Alex Bores Watch
(21:15) You Received The Federal Framework
(26:55) Chip City
(29:16) Water Water Everywhere
(30:52) Senator Bernie Sanders Acts Authentically
(35:29) Pick Up The Phone
(35:54) Rhetorical Innovation
(46:03) Im A Conscious Robot
(50:21) How To Get Zvi To Read Your Paper
(54:18) People Really Hate AI
(54:34) Greetings From The Stop AI Protest
(01:01:47) Models Have Goals
(01:03:33) If I Was Two-Faced Would I Be Wearing This One
(01:06:25) Other People Are Not As Worried About AI Killing Everyone

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First published:
March 30th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/y6HogrdSeFyGDuYYN/ai-161-part-2-every-debate-on-ai

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1h 8min
March 27, 2026 “Anthropic vs. DoW #6: The Court Rules” by Zvi
Last night, Anthropic was given its preliminary injunction, with a stay of seven days.
Emil Michael is a very angry person right now. So is the Honorable Judge Lin.
We were worried we would draw a judge that had no idea how any of this worked and would give the government absurd deference or buy into nonsense arguments.
That is not how it played out. Judge Lin very much understood the issues in play, as they did not require a technical background. She hammered the government in the hearing, and she wrote one of the most forceful, devastating judge opinions I have ever seen. It was an honor and sparked joy to be able to read it.
This post will proceed chronologically, picking up after the events of my last update.
If you want the short version and don’t care about the incremental steps, you can skip directly to Judge Lin Drops The Hammer, leaving the rest as a historical document and source for those who need to establish various facts going forward, including in court.
Logistical note: Due to breaking news, AI #161 Part 2 will be published on Monday. Then, if [...]

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Outline:
(01:25) Anthropic Responds To The DoWs Brief
(12:05) Alan Rozenshtein and Others Suggest A Narrow Legal Way Out
(13:42) DoW Tried Another Uniquely Ill-Suited Theory Against Anthropic
(20:48) Other Views About The Situation From Back Then
(21:23) Potentially Long Suffering Judge Rita Lin Goes Hard At Hearing
(29:35) Emil Michael Tells On Himself
(41:54) Judge Lin Drops The Hammer
(49:57) Let Me Count The Ways
(53:35) Emil Michael Doubles Down Once Again
(55:57) What Happens Now

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First published:
March 27th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jdWHwsj8GvwgJSxF7/anthropic-vs-dow-6-the-court-rules

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59min
March 26, 2026 “AI #161 Part 1: 80,000 Interviews” by Zvi
The major technical advances this week were in agentic coding, as covered yesterday.
The major non-DoW political and alignment developments will be covered tomorrow.
The DoW vs. Anthropic trial continues. Judge Lin was very not happy with the government's case, which makes sense since the government has no case and was arguing a variety of Obvious Nonsense. The question now is how much preliminary relief Anthropic is entitled to. Assuming we find that out this week, I plan to cover that on Monday.
Beyond that, we have new iterations of questions we’ve dealt with time and again. The debate on jobs gets another cycle. Anthropic asked over 80,000 people what they think about AI, and has published those findings, nothing shocking but interesting throughout.
OpenAI is raising money again, although the terms raise some eyebrows. Elon Musk is announcing a grand chip project, but it was already kind of announced and it's not like we should believe him when he says such things.
I used this lull to drop a giant response to Open Socrates, which is technically a book review but uses that as a taking off point to outline a distinct philosophy [...]

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Outline:
(01:44) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility
(02:44) Refine Your Paper
(04:57) Language Models Dont Offer Mundane Utility
(06:38) Huh, Upgrades
(06:47) On Your Marks
(10:53) Get My Agent On The Line
(12:42) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon
(15:07) Fun With Media Generation
(16:45) Greetings From The Torment Nexus
(17:05) A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer
(20:02) You Drive Me Crazy
(20:23) They Took Our Jobs
(31:24) They Are Hiring
(32:21) Levels of Friction
(33:28) In Other AI News
(34:48) Show Me the Money
(43:34) Quickly, Theres No Time
(44:30) The Week in Audio
(46:46) 80,000 Interviews About AI
(52:55) The Lighter Side

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First published:
March 26th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sw3inhvNrpuGdTyCR/ai-161-part-1-80-000-interviews

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56min
March 25, 2026“Claude Code, Cowork and Codex #6: Claude Code Auto Use and Full Cowork Computer Use” 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
Claude Auto Code.
Claude Work.
Never Go Full Computer Use.
Get Yourself A Desktop.
Okay Computer.
Super App.
Huh, Additional Upgrades.
Agentic Coding Offers Mundane Utility.
Agentic Coding Doesn’t Offer Mundane Utility.
Coding Agents Everywhere.
Worth It.
Choose Your Fighter.
Code Review.
There's An App For That.
In Or Out.
Bulking Up.
Skilling Up.
Unless That Claw.
The Lighter Side.
[...]

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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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First published:
March 25th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8c3TED7ewqrbvheKy/claude-code-cowork-and-codex-6-claude-code-auto-use-and-full

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36min
March 24, 2026 “Book Review: Open Socrates (Part 1)” by Zvi
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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First published:
March 24th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hc2swmyS8mz4jc79J/book-review-open-socrates-part-1

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...more
3h 31min
March 24, 2026“Book Review: Open Socrates (Part 2)” by Zvi
Yesterday I posted Part 1. Read that first. This is Part 2 of 2.
Table of Contents
The Socratic Method.
The Paradox Paradox.
Rubber Ducking.
Coherent Extrapolated Volition.
The Cult Leader Breaks You Down.
The Cult Leader Builds You Back Up.
Did You Know There Are Tradeoffs In Epistemics.
You Came Here For An Argument.
You Have Completed Building The Oracle.
How Refutation Works.
The Problem Is Not Having A Problem.
What Is Love Justice?
Things That Are Not Entirely Virtuous.
Does Anyone Know A Good Surgeon?
This Question Is Starting To Be A Real Problem.
Solving An Unproblem.
The Slave Finds The Square Root Of Two.
Arbitrary Facts.
You Are Not Pondering What I Am Pondering.
Questions Before Answers.
Socratic Answers.
Politics.
Politicization.
Fighting Is Not Pretend Arguing.
Freedom After Speech.
The Truth Can Lose An Argument.
Equality.
Inequality.
Persuasion Game.
What Is Love?
Socrates Only Wants One Thing And It's Disgusting Philosophy.
And Finally Death.
Tell Me Lies.
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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First published:
March 24th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ky2DSh4sGYCLWXMmy/book-review-open-socrates-part-2

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2h 28min
March 20, 2026 “The Federal AI Policy Framework: An Improvement, But My Offer Is (Still Almost) Nothing” by Zvi
The Federal AI Policy Framework has been released. Well, it is a four page outline. Mostly it just reiterates existing such outlines. But that is four more pages than we had previously. It includes the beginnings of actual policy proposals, some of which are highly welcome and actively good.
Perhaps most importantly, it affirms that we are a Republic in which the way we Do Policy is we pass a law through Congress specifying what we do, and that we need to actually Do Policy alongside trying to ban others who might attempt to Do Policy.
It also acknowledges that, as a practical political matter, ‘attach the moratorium banning all AI state laws’ cannot be simply attached to a few child safety rules.

I was especially heartened by the call for protections for free speech that guard in particular against the Federal Government, especially given what else is happening. That doesn’t fill the role of other things but it is most welcome.
Alas, I couldn’t support even a strong implementation of this proposal as written, because it overrides state laws in the most important places and replaces them with essentially nothing.
As in, this is not, as written, a way [...]
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First published:
March 20th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tcoNLbvrpv9KcxzvM/the-federal-ai-policy-framework-an-improvement-but-my-offer

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18min
March 19, 2026“AI #160: What Passes For a Pause” by Zvi
A lot happened, but by today's standards this felt like a quiet week.
I was happy for the break, and I hope that we get to continue relatively relaxing.
The Anthropic PBC vs. Department of War case is working its way through the system. The government responded on Tuesday, and the preliminary hearing is next week. I covered that here.
Once that is out of the way, I plan to cover Anthropic's RSP v3, both the fact that it went back on previous promises and an analysis of its new more flexible contents, including a reading of the full risk report.

I’m for now skipping over the latest paper from Owain Evans, as well as the Anthropic interviews with 81,000 people about what they want from AI, which I’ll be covering in the future and could become individual posts.
Table of Contents
Still Only Partial Cure For Cancer. AlphaFold plus GPT-5.4 equals cancer drug.
Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. What do we want? A lot of things.
Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. A million can be too many tokens.
Huh, Upgrades. GPT-5.4-Mini and Nano, Claude 1M context, it's all online.
Levels of [...]

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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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First published:
March 19th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LXRqeAW6G9tang8vF/ai-160-what-passes-for-a-pause

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1h 39min
March 18, 2026 “Anthropic vs. DoW #5: Motions Filed” by Zvi
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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First published:
March 18th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/o9M5RGrjM45aNq8jN/anthropic-vs-dow-5-motions-filed

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20min

FAQs about LessWrong posts by zvi:

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