AI Article Readings

For three decades, India sold the world its labor without anyone having to move: from a Detroit hospital’s COBOL job whose code had to be physically shipped to America, through the Y2K gold rush, to TCS, Infosys and millions of jobs as “the world’s back office.” In this essay for Asterisk’s Work issue, David Oks traces how a disastrous 1978 policy decision, undersea cables and the 1991 reforms built one of the great development stories, and asks what becomes of it now that AI can write code, answer calls and process claims for less than even the cheapest engineer.
* 00:00 - Introduction
* 08:49 - India, the world’s back office
* 21:13 - The dimming of the IT dream

https://asteriskmag.substack.com/p/what-will-happen-to-indian-it?r=67y1h&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web


Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

Steven Pinker declined a public debate on AI and wrote an open letter instead. Scott Alexander replies with one of his own. He takes Pinker’s four arguments against superintelligence in turn, then sets out an itemized list of fifteen years of disagreements, from p(doom) and expert consensus to model welfare and Omohundro’s basic AI drives. He closes with an appeal to a hero he still hopes to win over. Courteous, cutting, and occasionally armed.
* 00:00 - Introduction
* 03:08 - Four Arguments Against Superintelligence
* 27:03 - An Itemized List Of Fifteen Years Of Disagreements
* 01:11:09 - Though Cowards Flinch And Traitors Sneer, We’ll Keep The Pink Flag Flying Here

https://open.substack.com/pub/astralcodexten/p/an-open-letter-to-steven-pinker-on?r=67y1h&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web


Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

ozymandias examines the pull of an imagined inner circle of effective altruists, and the uneasy mix of friendship, career ambition, and wanting to belong. A wry look at what social status promises, how communities and hiring actually work, and the goals hiding behind the search for an invitation.
* 00:00 - Introduction
* 01:22 - That Is Not How Anything Works
* 04:57 - We Would Not Want It To Be How Anything Works
* 09:06 - There Are Better Ways To Achieve Your Goals
* 12:57 - You Will Never Join The Secret Inner Circle of Cool Effective Altruists
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uKtPmGFjSPxim5FRi/you-can-t-join-the-secret-inner-circle-of-cool-effective


Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

John Psmith reviews Andrei Lankov’s The Real North Korea, exploring the strategic logic behind a state whose public institutions and hidden markets coexist in startling ways. The essay considers how famine changed everyday life, why reform can threaten a ruling elite, and what emerging technology might mean for the future of totalitarian power.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thepsmiths/p/review-the-real-north-korea-by-andrei?r=67y1h&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web


Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

For more than two thousand years, readers have looked for Odysseus’ home on an island, and modern Ithaki doesn’t match what Homer describes. Classicist Honor Cargill-Martin follows a geologist and a Cambridge Greek scholar through boreholes, Strabo and the fine print of Homeric vocabulary to a surprising candidate, and an epithet that may have been hiding the answer in plain sight.
https://allancienthistory.substack.com/p/has-homers-ithaca-been-found-at-last?r=67y1h&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web


Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe