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 [...]
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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
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First published:

July 16th, 2026


Source:

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

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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 [...]
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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
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First published:

July 15th, 2026


Source:

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

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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
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First published:

July 14th, 2026


Source:

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

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OpenAI's GPT-5.6-Sol is finally here, along with the cheaper Terra and Luna.

We’ve seen the early hype as reported on Thursday, but as always that is biased.

As usual, the bulk of this is collecting a gestalt based on reactions. I included everything up to a point, but I got a lot of feedback, so after a while I only took the interesting ones.

Sol and Fable are both excellent models, sir. They both represent big moves forward. There is room in your workflow for both of them.

Sol and Fable are very different, especially when considered as part of their respective packages. I’m considering Sol + Codex (or Work) versus Fable + Claude Code (or Cowork), throughout, in places where you wouldn’t use the chat interface.

In terms of raw intelligence and ‘big model smell,’ and ability to do the hardest things that are intelligence-loaded, Fable still looks like it has a substantial edge. It also seems to be better aligned, or at least more trustworthy as an agent, with less tail risk. I still consider Fable ‘the best’ model, and the one that will require the most aggressive controls.

I enjoy [...]
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Outline:
(02:54) The Official Pitch
(10:06) Sol Proposes A Proof Of The Double Cover Conjecture
(10:49) The Official Benchmarks
(14:26) Vend That Bench
(16:37) Thinking Fast and Slow
(18:35) Other People's Benchmarks
(23:20) Have Robust Backups
(26:33) That's Not What You Were Thinking
(26:59) Helping Hands
(27:36) Writing
(29:15) Don't Stop Now
(31:14) Sol Can Code And Do Math
(32:37) Better Call Sol Cause You Can't Call Fable
(33:34) Only Call As Much Sol As You Need
(35:22) Positive Reactions
(38:07) It's A Good Model, Sir
(40:56) Negative Reactions
(41:54) Sol The Workhorse
(44:27) Pair Programmer
(51:07) Pleased To Meet You
(53:02) Sol Thinks You Better
(54:02) My substantive posterior
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First published:

July 13th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zPdDmJTovsKTvAiH2/better-call-sol-the-workhorse

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The Wall Street Journal printed an outright false headline and heavily misleading story claiming this, which of course was uncritically amplified by the usual suspects.

I post this now on its own so that we have a place to link to, to explain the situation.

Headline News

WSJ Headline (Obvious Nonsense): ​China Has Matched Anthropic in Cybersecurity, Resetting AI Race.

That. Did. Not. Happen.

The post even claims, explicitly, that Claude Opus 4.8 similarly ‘matches’ Claude Mythos, a claim which is even more obviously false.

Shame upon the Wall Street Journal. I fear Gell-Mann Amnesia. If they can get something as important as this so completely wrong, what about everything else?

I am skipping over the parts that involve accurate reporting, or minor quibbles.

It seems important to focus on clearly debunking the central false claims.

Alas, the mistakes made here very much rhyme with mistakes being made throughout all this by the White House, and that get latched onto by certain bad actors, who have played a large part in leaving us unprepared for the Mythos Moment.

For a full understanding of GLM-5.2, which is indeed an impressive [...]
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Outline:
(00:27) Headline News
(02:10) What Makes Mythos Special
(03:18) Going Over The Detailed Claims
(07:39) One Helpful Note
(08:19) The Overall Impression Is Extremely Wrong
(08:50) All Of This Has Happened Before And Will Happen Again
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First published:

July 12th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2zSpuGJRk6EyjHAL6/wsj-article-claiming-china-has-matched-anthropic-is-obvious-1

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