LessWrong posts by zvi

This week saw the releases of, among other things:


GPT-5-6 Sol. It is a very good model, sir.

Plan A, the follow up to AI 2027. It is a good plan worthy of discussion, sir.

Kimi K3. This is only rolling out now, and will be covered next week.

Muse Spark 1.1, the new Meta model. It is not frontier, but it is progress for them.

Inkling, the first model from Thinking Machines.

A call for regulatory action by Demis Hassabis, which I’ll cover soon.

A new brief open letter call to action on AI regulation.

That's on top of everything else, and an Opus 5 announcement is likely coming soon.

The weekly once again got out of hand, so we’re splitting it once again into two, and once again saying we’ll be raising the bar for inclusion. And this time I mean it, as in enough to actually matter.

Table of Contents


Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. Whatever ye seek, ye shall find.

Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. Gemini app needs some work.

Language Models Upload Your Git Repository. Big problems [...]
---
Outline:
(01:17) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility
(04:46) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility
(05:28) Language Models Upload Your Git Repository
(08:35) Huh, Upgrades
(09:30) Muse Spark 1.1
(11:47) First Hit Free
(15:36) On Your Marks
(18:06) Choose Your Fighter
(19:57) Get My Agent On The Line
(23:23) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon
(24:44) Fun With Media Generation
(25:45) Copyright Confrontation
(27:37) OpenAI Strikes Again
(32:26) A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
(32:45) Recommendations for Policymakers
(34:13) They Took Our Jobs
(38:23) The Art of the Jailbreak
(39:27) Get Involved
(40:32) Introducing
(41:12) In Other AI News
(43:46) New Short Obviously True Statement About AI Just Dropped
(46:03) Show Me the Money
(46:21) The Lighter Side
---

First published:

July 16th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/who9xZ7DxuprsJoTr/ai-177-part-1-tip-of-the-iceberg

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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As usual, part 2 of the weekly deals with speculative, regulatory, political and alignment questions.

Xi gave an important speech yesterday, so this post opens with that.

There is talk that Kimi K3 is sufficiently strong that it upends many of these questions. It is clearly a candidate for another DeepSeek Moment, complete with stock drops for Google and SpaceX and (once again in a clear wrong-way move, the same as last time) Nvidia.

Kimi K3 is clearly a very good model, exceeding expectations. Some are saying it is close to the frontier. The Artificial Analysis intelligence index has it at 57, a point ahead of Claude Opus 4.8, two behind Sol and three behind Fable. My presumption is that this number overstates its capabilities, but as always unless and until we have extensively tried the model ourselves, which I do not plan to do, we need to withhold judgment for at least a few days. I will be covering Kimi K3 in its own post at some point early next week.

I have pushed further discussions involving Plan A and related issues into next week, as well as discussions around Demis Hassabis and Google [...]
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Outline:
(01:29) Xi Gives A Good Speech on AI
(15:33) Quiet Speculations
(19:08) Tyler Cowen On Rebuilding The Future
(22:39) The Quest for Sane Regulations
(24:15) Wish You Were Here
(26:55) The Week in Audio
(27:29) New York Issues Moratorium On Data Centers
(30:26) People Just Say Things
(31:24) Rhetorical Innovation
(39:29) Imagine Asking Questions
(41:46) Anthropic Surveys Things It Calls Misalignment
(54:30) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult
(58:30) The Most Forbidden Technique
(01:01:04) Cooperative Alignment
(01:12:38) The Lighter Side
---

First published:

July 17th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Zjj3PTEng8GDqfK6j/ai-177-part-2-wish-you-were-here

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

This week saw the releases of, among other things:


GPT-5-6 Sol. It is a very good model, sir.

Plan A, the follow up to AI 2027. It is a good plan worthy of discussion, sir.

Kimi K3. This is only rolling out now, and will be covered next week.

Muse Spark 1.1, the new Meta model. It is not frontier, but it is progress for them.

Inkling, the first model from Thinking Machines.

A call for regulatory action by Demis Hassabis, which I’ll cover soon.

A new brief open letter call to action on AI regulation.

That's on top of everything else, and an Opus 5 announcement is likely coming soon.

The weekly once again got out of hand, so we’re splitting it once again into two, and once again saying we’ll be raising the bar for inclusion. And this time I mean it, as in enough to actually matter.

Table of Contents


Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. Whatever ye seek, ye shall find.

Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. Gemini app needs some work.

Language Models Upload Your Git Repository. Big problems [...]
---
Outline:
(01:17) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility
(04:45) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility
(05:27) Language Models Upload Your Git Repository
(08:34) Huh, Upgrades
(09:29) Muse Spark 1.1
(11:48) First Hit Free
(15:36) On Your Marks
(18:06) Choose Your Fighter
(19:57) Get My Agent On The Line
(23:23) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon
(24:45) Fun With Media Generation
(25:46) Copyright Confrontation
(27:38) OpenAI Strikes Again
(32:26) A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
(32:46) Recommendations for Policymakers
(34:13) They Took Our Jobs
(38:23) The Art of the Jailbreak
(39:27) Get Involved
(40:32) Introducing
(41:12) In Other AI News
(43:47) New Short Obviously True Statement About AI Just Dropped
(46:04) Show Me the Money
(46:21) The Lighter Side
---

First published:

July 16th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/who9xZ7DxuprsJoTr/ai-177-part-1-tip-of-the-iceberg

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

It's a quiet week so let's do the monthly right on schedule.

Table of Contents


Bad News.

Good Advice.

Opportunity Knocks.

While I Cannot Condone This.

Good News, Everyone.

For Your Entertainment.

Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game.

I Was Promised Flying Self-Driving Cars.

Sports Go Sports.

Antisocial Media.

Government Working.

Jones Act Watch.

Highly Effective Altruism.

Variously Effective Altruism.

Ineffective Altruism.

Prediction Markets.

The Lighter Side.

Bad News

I wouldn’t have explained or modeled it quite the way Paola does here but the principle seems right to me. If people don’t trust you, or don’t trust people in general, that usually you can’t trust them either.

Paola: I feel like a lot of human morality works like a prisoner's dilemma in that you can only trust others to behave morally to the extent that you believe they trust you to do the same. Due to this, I’ve come to view people with a bunch of social paranoia, distrust, etc. as *quite* dangerous to be around.

And to be clear, I generally feel a [...]
---
Outline:
(00:17) Bad News
(04:10) Good Advice
(07:11) Opportunity Knocks
(07:33) While I Cannot Condone This
(11:35) Good News, Everyone
(12:25) For Your Entertainment
(17:35) Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game
(22:45) I Was Promised Flying Self-Driving Cars
(26:20) Sports Go Sports
(28:06) Antisocial Media
(29:49) Government Working
(33:55) Jones Act Watch
(35:29) Highly Effective Altruism
(40:32) Variously Effective Altruism
(46:11) Ineffective Altruism
(50:22) Prediction Markets
(50:56) The Lighter Side
---

First published:

July 15th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KiCwcAGHx4rdwJgzD/monthly-roundup-44-july-2026

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
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I previously have written back in March 2022 about how I use Twitter, and back in April 2023 about Twitter and its then-new algorithms, which have changed again.

This post will update how I use Twitter now in 2026, and provide updates on the current state of the new algorithm, the situation with links, with the API, and some thoughts about using Twitter to make money which you almost never should try to do.

Previously I said you need four things to use Twitter well:


Tweetdeck or another similar alternative application.

Knowing who to follow and read.

Lists.

Unfollows, filters, mutes and blocks.

That hasn’t changed. Lists have become even more important.

This post is coming out now, however, because the For You feed is perhaps making a comeback.

Except where stated here, the advice in my 2022 post still applies.

Table of Contents


Defend Your Feed Via At Least One List.

Block Early, Block Often, Know Your Triggers.

Lists Change What Following Means.

It (Wasn’t) For You.

It's For You.

Twitter Still Hates Links And That's Terrible.

[...]
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Outline:
(01:10) Defend Your Feed Via At Least One List
(02:53) Block Early, Block Often, Know Your Triggers
(03:35) Lists Change What Following Means
(05:56) It (Wasn't) For You
(07:34) It's For You
(11:30) The Previous Time Twitter Transformed Its Algorithm Again
(16:49) Twitter Still Hates Links And That's Terrible
(27:35) Twitter Turns Its API Back On
(31:02) Many Of The Bots Are Human
(33:57) The Rise of Slop
(36:20) Block Or Do Not Block
(37:44) How To Make Money On Twitter
(40:13) In Brief
---

First published:

July 14th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2GFyHmCLJYCag7gKh/twitter-thoughts-for-you

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.