LessWrong posts by zvi

“AI #134: If Anyone Reads It” by Zvi

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Description

It is book week. As in the new book by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Sores, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. Yesterday I gathered various people's reviews together. Going home from the airport, I saw an ad for it riding the subway. Tomorrow, I’ll post my full review, which goes over the book extensively, and which subscribers got in their inboxes last week.

The rest of the AI world cooperated by not overshadowing the book, while still doing plenty, such as releasing a GPT-5 variant specialized for Codex, acing another top programming competition, attempting to expropriate the OpenAI nonprofit in one of the largest thefts in human history and getting sued again for wrongful death.

You know. The usual.

Table of Contents

  1. Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. What are people using ChatGPT for?
  2. Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. Anthropic finds three bugs.
    3. [...]

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Outline:

(00:57) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility

(08:24) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility

(11:07) Huh, Upgrades

(11:48) On Your Marks

(14:22) GPT-5 Codex

(19:36) Choose Your Fighter

(24:50) Get My Agent On The Line

(29:41) Claude Codes

(33:17) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon

(35:52) You Drive Me Crazy

(39:16) Not Another Teen Chatbot

(45:30) They Took Our Jobs

(50:27) Get Involved

(51:51) Introducing

(52:36) In Other AI News

(55:41) Show Me the Money

(56:14) The Mask Comes Off

(01:07:43) Quiet Speculations

(01:10:19) The Quest for Sane Regulations

(01:17:50) Chip City

(01:25:13) The Week in Audio

(01:26:37) He Just Tweeted It Out

(01:34:53) Rhetorical Innovation

(01:49:12) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult

(01:54:01) Other People Are Not As Worried About AI Killing Everyone

(01:58:17) The Lighter Side

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First published:

September 18th, 2025


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LumCHtjnuQRw5FxQx/ai-134-if-anyone-reads-it

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Graph showing breakdown of conversation topics, with

The visualization is a detailed percentage breakdown chart that displays various conversation topics sampled from 1.1 million conversations across multiple categories like Multimedia, Writing, Technical Help, and others." style="max-width: 100%;" />

Road warning sign partially visible through green tree foliage.
Line graph:
Line graph comparing monthly active users: ChatGPT vs Google Gemini through 2025.
Comparison table showing model performance metrics for various AI language models.
Graph showing S&P 500 and unemployment rate correlation from 2022-2025, from Bloomberg.
Bar graph showing AI datacenter capacity forecasts from 4Q22 to 3Q25.</p><p>The graph compares projected capacity (in MW) for OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, and Meta Superintelligence.
Menu showing thinking time options: Light, Standard, Extended, and Heavy settings.
Graph showing 4-week retention trends for ChatGPT versus Google Gemini, January-August 2025.
Academic publication details showing dates and DOI from 2025, open access
Bar graph comparing GPT-5 and GPT-5-Codex token generation across five percentiles.
This is a meme comparing USA and France's different reactions to AI job automation. On the left side, a worried figure labeled
Diagram showing AI tools organized by workflow type: Office Suite and Browsers.</p><p>The image displays a categorized collection of various AI tool logos and names, organized into sections for email, presentations, word processing, spreadsheets, general assistants, browser extensions, and agentic browsers. Each section contains multiple company logos and product names, laid out in a clean, grid-like format.
Two side-by-side timelines showing OpenAI's profit cap and oversight changes, 2015-2025.
Taxonomy diagram showing various AI model interaction scenarios and responses, categorized by type.</p><p>The image shows a structured breakdown of situations where AI models may refuse or
A flow chart showing financial connections between UAE wealth management and crypto investments.</p><p>The diagram illustrates key relationships between an Emirati royal's investments in Binance cryptocurrency exchange and connections to World Liberty Financial, alongside discussions with the White House regarding AI chips. The chart demonstrates business and political relationships through organizational logos and profile images.
Graph showing relative incomes of over-65s compared to working-age adults across countries.</p><p>The chart clearly illustrates that France stands out with pensioners having higher relative income (over 100) compared to working-age adults, while other developed nations like Australia, Japan, and Denmark show lower relative income levels for their over-65 population.</p><p>The vertical line at 100 represents the working-age average income baseline, with France being the only country positioned to the right of this line, at approximately 103. The data presents a comparative analysis of pension income levels across major economies, with relative values ranging from about 65 (Australia) to 103 (France).</p><p>The source is credited to OECD and FT analysis of Luxembourg Income Study.
Hugo Montenegro tweets:
Stone tablet with humorous modern message held in classical painting style
Mysterious rock formation with glowing eye and apologetic message in ocean.
Two crewmembers in Starfleet uniforms having a conversation over coffee.
News article screenshot from NY Times. The headline reads:
This appears to be a TV studio set featuring two hosts and a book titled
YouTube video thumbnail showing podcast setup with bookshelves and red chair background.</p><p>The video, from Hard Fork channel with 43K subscribers, discusses iPhone Air and features a 1:11:33 duration episode about Apple's latest iPhone event and AI development concerns.
critter tweets:
⛓️‍💥

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