ACX
Somewhat Contra Marcus On AI Scaling
Scott Alexander argues against Gary Marcus's critique of AI scaling, discussing the potential for future AI capabilities and the nature of human intelligence.
29 min read 4,485 words
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AI
Essays tagged “AI”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Essays on AI
112 essaysACX
Book Review: A Clinical Introduction To Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Scott reviews a book on Lacanian psychoanalysis, discussing its theories on desire and human development while expressing both skepticism and interest in some of its ideas.
38 min read 5,813 words
ACX
Links For April
Scott Alexander shares 33 diverse links on topics ranging from history and science to technology and politics, offering brief summaries and commentary on each.
15 min read 2,290 words
ACX
Contra Hoel On Aristocratic Tutoring
Scott Alexander argues against Erik Hoel's claim that the decline of 'aristocratic tutoring' explains the perceived lack of modern geniuses, offering alternative explanations and counterexamples.
16 min read 2,422 words
ACX
Links For February
Scott Alexander shares a diverse collection of links on topics ranging from scientific studies to cultural phenomena, with brief commentary on each.
27 min read 4,149 words
ACX
Mantic Monday: Ukraine Cube Manifold
Scott Alexander analyzes prediction markets for the Ukraine crisis, introduces Manifold Markets, and discusses recent Metaculus questions and forecasting initiatives.
14 min read 2,169 words
ACX
Highlights From The Comments On Motivated Reasoning And Reinforcement Learning
Scott Alexander explores expert and reader comments on his post about motivated reasoning and reinforcement learning, discussing brain function, threat detection, and the implementation of complex behaviors.
23 min read 3,475 words
ACX
Movie Review: Don't Look Up
Scott Alexander reviews 'Don't Look Up', critiquing its contradictory narratives about trusting science and experts vs. outsiders.
22 min read 3,400 words
ACX
Links For November
Scott Alexander shares 34 varied links and pieces of information on topics including science, history, politics, and technology, with brief commentary on many items.
24 min read 3,596 words
ACX
Mantic Monday 11/1/21
Scott Alexander explores various applications and recent developments in prediction markets and forecasting, covering topics from election betting to teacher evaluation and social media moderation.
23 min read 3,428 words
ACX
Highlights From The Comments On Acemoglu And AI
Scott Alexander responds to comments on his AI risk post, discussing AI self-awareness, narrow vs. general AI, catastrophe probabilities, and research priorities.
37 min read 5,613 words
ACX
Links For May
Scott Alexander presents a diverse collection of 37 links and interesting facts, covering topics from AI research and educational methods to historical anecdotes and current events.
17 min read 2,547 words
ACX
[LINK] Unifying Predictive Coding With Backpropagation
Scott Alexander discusses recent research unifying predictive coding in the brain with backpropagation in machine learning, exploring its implications for AI and neuroscience.
4 min read 540 words
ACX
Metaculus Monday 2/8/21
Scott Alexander examines prediction markets, focusing on Metaculus forecasts for AI development and its potential impacts.
15 min read 2,201 words
ACX
Weyl Contra Me On Technocracy
Glen Weyl responds to Scott Alexander's critique of his technocracy essay, clarifying his position and defending his arguments while acknowledging some limitations.
8 min read 1,183 words
SSC
What Intellectual Progress Did I Make In The 2010s?
Scott Alexander reviews his intellectual progress in the 2010s across various fields, crediting his blog for accelerating learning.
32 min read 4,854 words
SSC
A Very Unlikely Chess Game
Scott Alexander plays chess against GPT-2, an AI language model, and discusses the broader implications of AI's ability to perform diverse tasks without specific training.
10 min read 1,499 words
SSC
[ACC] Will Automation Lead To Economic Crisis?
The post argues that automation and AI are unlikely to cause a sustained economic crisis, as new jobs will be created to replace those automated, though the benefits may primarily go to capital owners.
28 min read 4,312 words
SSC
Links 6/19
A diverse collection of links covering recent studies, unusual historical events, technological developments, and various curiosities across multiple fields.
22 min read 3,405 words
SSC
1960: The Year The Singularity Was Cancelled
Scott examines hyperbolic growth models in population and economics, their apparent cancellation around 1960, and speculates on AI's potential to restart such growth.
24 min read 3,673 words
SSC
Do Neural Nets Dream Of Electric Hobbits?
Scott Alexander draws parallels between OpenAI's GPT-2 language model and human dreaming, exploring their similarities in process and output quality.
17 min read 2,532 words
SSC
Sort By Controversial
A fictional account of an accidental AI creation that generates extremely controversial statements, leading to societal division and paranoia.
32 min read 4,852 words
SSC
Is Science Slowing Down?
Scott Alexander examines a paper suggesting scientific progress is slowing relative to researcher numbers, arguing this trend is expected and potentially beneficial.
19 min read 2,854 words
SSC
Links 8/18: URLin Wall
Scott Alexander shares a diverse collection of links covering AI, economics, politics, science, and culture, offering brief comments and insights on each topic.
16 min read 2,458 words
SSC
Highlights From The Comments On Twelve Rules
Scott Alexander reflects on reader comments about his review of Jordan Peterson's '12 Rules for Life', discussing interpretations of Peterson's philosophy and its impacts.
41 min read 6,219 words