LessWrong posts by zvi

Even in a relatively quiet period, AI is out there creating new knowledge. The new knowledge in question is OpenAI getting us the first truly impressive math result that comes from an AI, a solution to the unit distance problem.

We’re about to learn a different kind of knowledge later today when the White House issues its executive order, or when the judges rule in Anthropic's DC case.

And then there's the other kind of new knowledge, which is the knowledge that things are fake slop, such as a particular formerly supposedly prestigious literary prize.

Meanwhile, METR issued a risk report on frontier models, concluding that they don’t yet have the means, motive and opportunity to cause the big issues, but that this would not obviously last so much longer.

Andrej Karpathy has joined Anthropic, explicitly to do recursive self-improvement. He plans to later return to his education work, but if he succeeds at his new task there might not be anything left to return to. Congratulations to both sides, but also yikes.

Elon Musk's case against OpenAI has been dismissed, because he waited too long.

Table of Contents


Language Models [...]
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Outline:
(01:18) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility
(02:57) Do The Math
(03:58) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility
(04:34) Huh, Upgrades
(04:50) The Prior Restraint Era Begins
(06:47) On Your Marks
(07:16) METR Frontier Risk Report
(11:03) Choose Your Fighter
(11:51) Overcoming Bias
(12:29) Get My Agent On The Line
(13:42) Your Prize Is Slop
(20:44) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon
(24:19) Cyber Lack of Security
(26:06) Copyright Confrontation
(26:17) A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
(28:34) Unprompted Attention
(28:53) They Took Our Jobs
(34:23) Get Involved
(35:20) Introducing
(36:06) In Other AI News
(37:43) Show Me the Money
(40:09) Show Me The Compute
(41:29) Quiet Speculations
(45:26) Time's Up
(46:46) People Just Say Things
(49:49) OpenAI PACs Just Say Things
(53:11) The Quest for Sane Regulations
(56:26) Chip City
(01:00:05) Pick Up The Phone
(01:00:34) The Week in Audio
(01:00:52) Rhetorical Innovation
(01:07:11) Missing Mood
(01:13:22) Americans Really Hate AI
(01:15:55) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult
(01:20:53) Greetings From The Department of War
(01:25:31) Messages From Janusworld
(01:25:51) The Lighter Side
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First published:

May 21st, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xWsBwrboYDEMdj8TC/ai-169-new-knowledge

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I cannot emphasize enough the need to let kids be kids. In Childhood and Education #16: Letting Kids be Kids, I went over exactly how insane we have gotten about destroying the lives of children and along with them the lives of parents and others forced to devote endless hours to actively destructive supervision.

I’ll go over a refresher of that, some related new anecdotes, and then some other related questions.

People Don’t Let Kids Do Things

As a refresher, here are some quotes and statistics from last time, because I really do think exposure to this type of thing needs to involve spaced repetition to sink in:


A third of people, both parents and non-parents, responded in a survey that it is not appropriate to leave a 13 year old at home for an hour or two, as opposed to when we used to be 11 year olds babysitting for other neighborhood kids.

A third of people said in that same survey that if a 10-year-old is allowed to play alone in the park, there needs to be an investigation by CPS.

Harris Poll: More than half of the kids [...]
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Outline:
(00:37) People Don't Let Kids Do Things
(03:37) Half The People Are Worse Than Average
(04:42) Let Your Children Play
(06:09) Don't Fear The CPS
(10:52) Daycare
(14:06) Daycare Costs
(16:29) Lying
(18:56) Iterated Games
(19:40) Different Kids Are Different
(20:35) Punishments
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First published:

May 20th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ytoLzgKHutaKxkRZr/childhood-and-education-19-letting-kids-be-kids-2

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So many are under the strange belief that there is something terrible about not owning the house in which you live.

So we massively subsidize home ownership, and try to actively interfere with renting.

Except when we do rent control, which turns renting into a form of owning, and allows us to take real property and de facto give it to current renters.

A lot of this is pure attempts to punish and exclude the poor. If you can’t afford a downpayment, we don’t want you living here. Go away.

Some of it is the belief that when you rent, you are being ‘taken advantage of’ and that such a deal could not possibly be fair.

Some of it is that if you don’t own, you don’t have the incentive to drive up property values. Which means you won’t properly work to ‘improve’ your local area, especially that you won’t conspire to block housing.

The result of this is that if you’re not willing to commit to living in one place for years, or you can’t afford a down payment, you get punished, and punished hard.

Owning Versus Renting

The graph [...]
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Outline:
(01:08) Owning Versus Renting
(03:12) Build To Rent Is Good Actually
(08:18) Elizabeth Warren, Full Supervillain
(09:46) The Better Case Against Corporate Housing Ownership
(11:52) The ROAD Act Bans Building And Then Renting Houses
(14:19) Rental Covenants
(15:10) Extended Eviction Delay After Nonpayment Is Mostly Bad
(16:54) Los Angeles Renting
(19:32) Sufficiently Advanced Rent Control Is Indistinguishable From Ownership
(23:07) England Tries To Ban Renting
(24:39) Claude Rental Discounts
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First published:

May 19th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7FH3EzsLdb7NxL785/housing-roundup-15-the-war-against-renters-1

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No more burying the sex stuff under an avalanche of other stuff so no one notices. Use the break while we have one. Let's go.

You’re Single Because You Suck At Kissing

Luckily this is first one is fixable and Critter is here to help. I find the advice here highly plausible. Like many skills, there are a lot of subtle skills, but a handful of basic principles matter a lot, especially paying attention and responding to what you’re getting back. Critter's theory is that a basic kiss is a bell curve of intensity, done at a slight angle. First kiss style is elongated with less pressure. French kissing is trickier and less structured, see the thread, and the big mistake is to try to force it.

It's not that simple, but like most things, there are some basic mistakes to avoid and first principles, then if you are genuinely paying attention and engaged you’ll be fine, and improve with practice. Seek deliberate practice and clear feedback, iterate.

I get the same sense with dancing. Yes, you need specific knowledge and practice, but if you use your human racial bonuses the remaining ‘cognitive core’ from [...]
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Outline:
(00:20) You're Single Because You Suck At Kissing
(01:25) You're Not Single But You're Sexually Incompatible
(02:56) You're Single Because You Aren't Into BDSM
(08:14) You're Single Because You Didn't Do The Work
(16:34) You're Single Because Being a Dominant Is Too Much Work
(23:41) You're Single And Would Rather Be Free Use
(26:35) You're Single Because You Wouldn't or Did Choke Her
(28:15) You're Single Because You Have Very Particular Preferences
(30:06) You're Single Because of Polygyny
(31:00) You're Single Because Polyamory Isn't Right For You
(35:11) You're Single And Call It Solo Polyamory
(38:49) You're Single Because You Didn't Go To Slutcon
(46:41) You're Single So Let's Marry Aella
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First published:

May 18th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/znzZyvxAvSSkep4tL/dating-roundup-12-sex-and-violence

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At least we probably won’t have another pandemic. And we still have a partial Jones Act waiver. For now.

Small victories.

Table of Contents


Hanta Hanta I Don’t Wanta.

Bad News.

Predictions Can Be Easy Even About The Future.

Good Advice.

The Efficient Market Hypothesis Is False.

There Are Four Skills.

While I Cannot Condone This.

Good News, Everyone.

For Your Entertainment.

Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game.

The Spire Sleeps And So Shall I.

I Was Promised Flying Self-Driving Cars.

Government Working.

Jones Act Watch.

Technology Advances.

I Said Woo Hoo.

Variously Effective Altruism.

The Lighter Side.

Hanta Hanta I Don’t Wanta

We have learned so much less than nothing from Covid. We’re actively stupider.

It's 2026, and here we are again, lying about the virus because we are worried that people exposed to it or from the wrong place might face stigma otherwise.

Envidreamz: A local news story highlights passengers on the hantavirus stricken MV Hondius cruise ship who are more worried about facing stigma and rejection back home than [...]
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Outline:
(00:22) Hanta Hanta I Dont Wanta
(04:25) Bad News
(08:45) Predictions Can Be Easy Even About The Future
(08:55) Good Advice
(11:52) The Efficient Market Hypothesis Is False
(13:58) There Are Four Skills
(16:27) While I Cannot Condone This
(20:57) Good News, Everyone
(21:42) For Your Entertainment
(22:14) Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game
(24:09) The Spire Sleeps And So Shall I
(29:13) I Was Promised Flying Self-Driving Cars
(31:53) Government Working
(35:40) Jones Act Watch
(41:10) Technology Advances
(42:12) I Said Woo Hoo
(43:36) Variously Effective Altruism
(44:07) The Lighter Side
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First published:

May 15th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gZHNLmHkQ7GjnWsYh/monthly-roundup-42-may-2026

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