Thoughts

The Agentic Web and Original Sin

Microsoft is putting forth compelling proposals for the Open Agentic Web. However, the proposal needs digital payments, which will be key to creating a new content marketplace for AI.

The False Choice Between Digital Regulation and Innovation

Judges Don’t Know What AI’s Book Piracy Means

AI Could Actually Help Rebuild The Middle Class

AI doesn’t have to be a job destroyer. It offers us the opportunity to extend expertise to a larger set of workers.

Automation Led to Economic Misery. AI Doesn’t Have To.

Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier

I think we have an answer on whether AIs will reshape work....

Climbing towards NLU: On Meaning, Form, and Understanding in the Age of Data

Could a Large Language Model be Conscious?

There has recently been widespread discussion of whether large language models might be sentient. Should we take this idea seriously? I will break down the strongest reasons for and against. Given mainstream assumptions in the science of consciousness, there are significant obstacles to consciousness in current models: for example, their lack of recurrent processing, a global workspace, and unified agency. At the same time, it is quite possible that these obstacles will be overcome in the next decade or so. I conclude that while it is somewhat unlikely that current large language models are conscious, we should take seriously the possibility that successors to large language models may be conscious in the not-too-distant future.

Fair Use and the Origin of AI Training

By Edward Lee. 63 Hou. L. Rev. 105 (2025)

Generative AI’s environmental costs are soaring — and mostly secret

First-of-its-kind US bill would address the environmental costs of the technology, but there’s a long way to go.

Is AI Making Us Lazy?

Last fall, I published a New Yorker essay titled, “What Kind of Writer is ChatGPT?”. My goal for the piece was to better understand how ... Read more

Minds, Brains, and Programs

Pausing AI Developments Isn't Enough. We Need to Shut it All Down

One of the earliest researchers to analyze the prospect of powerful Artificial Intelligence warns of a bleak scenario

Reclaiming Conversation in the Age of AI

Sherry Turkle on AI, empathy, and the fight for human connection

The AI Bubble Is No Ordinary Bubble

The Case for Phone-Free Schools

The research is clear: Smartphones undermine attention, learning, relationships, and belonging.

The Debate Over Understanding in AI's Large Language Models

We survey a current, heated debate in the AI research community on whether large pre-trained language models can be said to "understand" language -- and the physical and social situations language encodes -- in any important sense. We describe arguments that have been made for and against such understanding, and key questions for the broader sciences of intelligence that have arisen in light of these arguments. We contend that a new science of intelligence can be developed that will provide insight into distinct modes of understanding, their strengths and limitations, and the challenge of integrating diverse forms of cognition.

The Original Attention Crisis

I recently heard from a historian of science at All Souls College, Oxford. He forwarded me ​an essay​ he wrote about Nicolaus Steno, a seventeenth-century ... Read more

There Is Something We Have to Do Right Now About A.I.

Will AI accelerate or delay the race to net-zero emissions?

Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox

Amazon is the titan of twenty-first century commerce. In addition to being a retailer, it is now a marketing platform, a delivery and logistics network, a...

Dario Amodei — Machines of Loving Grace

How AI Could Transform the World for the Better

Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead

Leopold Aschenbrenner, June 2024 You can see the future first in San Francisco. Over the past year, the talk of the town has shifted from $10 billion compute clusters to $100 billion clusters to trillion-dollar clusters. Every six months another zero is added to the boardroom plans. Behind the scenes, there’s a fierce scramble to

The Bitter Lesson

The A.I. Disruption Has Arrived, and It Sure Is Fun

We're entering a new renaissance of software development. We should all be excited, despite the uncertainties that lie ahead.

AI Is Getting Scary Good at Making Predictions

How AI prediction models are catching up to and potentially surpassing human forecasters in accuracy and speed.

America Isn't Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs

An in-depth look at how AI is reshaping the economy and fundamentally transforming the labor market.

The Adolescence of Technology

Amodei examines the major risks posed by powerful AI systems expected within the next few years and proposes defenses to help humanity navigate this critical period.

How Fast Can A.I. Change the Workplace?

An opinion piece examining AI's accelerating impact on employment and what it means for the future of work.

Anthropic's Chief on A.I.: 'We Don't Know if the Models Are Conscious'

Ross Douthat interviews Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about the near-term future of AI and the risks that keep him up at night.