Friday Fodder #28
What's Trending? What's Transcendent?
Welcome back to the USA in February 2025! This is the time and place where private companies are developing boom-less supersonic flight but federal employee retirement data is stored in giant bins of paper at a limestone mine in the middle of a mountain. Somehow, both are true.
A lot happened again this week, but the biggest news was that a politician gave a coherent speech! JD Vance attended the AI Action Summit in Paris and regaled us with a refined, detailed, substantive, and thoughtful speech on the future of AI in America. It’s only 15 minutes, and you should definitely watch it.
Reviews depend on your pre-existing levels of p(doom). Zvi Mowshowitz has high p(doom) and he really didn’t like it, suggesting that AI safety is now completely out the window. On the other hand, Marc Andreesen and the rest of A16Z loved it. Marc thinks AI will save the world. Whichever side ends up right, this speech marks a turning point in sentiment: it’s time to build.
On to the reading!
Timely
How To Love Winter - February is my depressed time. Call it seasonal affective disorder if you must, or just call me a wuss but this is always a tricky time of year. Katherine Martinko reminds us of what’s in our locus of control: our attitude. Find some joy.
Half A Million Students Given ChatGPT As CSU System Makes AI History - What a terrifying headline. I see this going exactly as well as allowing unfettered phone access during high school, but sure let’s experiment. “AI literacy developed by students could position them for success in a workforce that is increasingly demanding AI skills.” Just as the parent of a 5 year old does not need to worry that they don’t know how to type, neither does any college student have an issue picking up AI skills as necessary.
It’s Later Than You Think - Hollis Robbins sees AI dividing the need for college even more starkly, and suggests every institution needs to reevaluate their value proposition and raison d’etre or risk being obsoleted.
This Rumor About GPT5 Changes Everything - A great breakdown of the (conspiracy) theory that the frontier labs already have more advanced models and are witholding them privately and using them for distillation to their public models. “They were giving us access to their best models because they needed our data. Not so much anymore. They’re not chasing our money either. That’s Microsoft but not them. They want AGI and then ASI. They want a legacy.”
Timeless
Love Grows - On Valentine’s Day, a reminder not to listen to the modern cultural buzz around love. It’s not something you find, it’s something you have to work on. “It exists primarily when someone chooses to grow it.” Choose to grow it.
Just Do What You Like - This is a beautiful appeal to some sort of oddly well-ordered hedonism, if that’s even a thing. It is amazing to me how often we stand in the way of our own happiness.
Why So Few Matt Levines? - Matt Levine is an exceptional and exceptionally funny financial writer. There’s nobody quite like him. Here, Gwern explains why that is. Incidentally, there’s nobody quite like Gwern either, and his monochrone site contains hidden wonders.
Should We Control AI Instead of Aligning It? - Jan Leike from Anthropic dives into the difference between control and trust.
Books
Dignity by Chris Arnade - Chris Arnade walks through the neighborhoods of the USA and shows us Back Row America and the poverty, drugs, and bad luck that I suddenly feel very fortunate not to encounter very often. In the very first chapter, he describes McDonalds as the center of Back Row America, and I scoffed for pages before he convinced me he’s right. The striking photography adds another haunting and emotional dimension to the book. This is a must read.
Tweets
Some good ones, so you don’t need to scroll!
🤣
The world is amazing. Cheers!