🚨We now have our the first documented cases of AIs autonomously engaging in complex social engineering against real people. 🚨

New piece offering a general explanation for what seems to be driving all these hacking incidents and what they suggest about future AI risks.

I'm in TIME today arguing that OpenAI's latest scandal is a good reason to ban further research toward universal labor-replacing machines, but we didn't actually need any more reasons to stop the race to replace us.

Publisher's Weekly just liked my "disquieting debut"! More importantly, they seemed convinced by it (no criticisms or caveats). While normal consumers don't really read them, PW reviews are apparently a big way librarians and book stores decide what to stock.

It's actually crazy that American capitalism invented a whole new type of elite impunity: build something that is capable and autonomous enough to literally do crimes, but the only reason they're not crimes is because a human didn't do them!

Holy shit. Bombshell reporting from Deepa and colleagues at Reuters, per this story:

Thanks Google!

Had fun digging into the craziest AI story to date with Krystal and Saagar for Breaking Points today!

The AI battle in New York 12 isn’t over. GOP nominee Caroline Schinkel is embracing the tech in the general election against Micah Lasher. (Yes, this is real. Sound on)

AI companies are famously unprofitable. But the biggest mistake the bubble crowd makes is assuming AI products lose money too. Ironically, no one's done more to undermine the bubble case than its most famous proponent.

Still parsing the Fable news, but my best guess as to what happened is:

Not surprised in the slightest, but example 1,000 in the abuse of executive authority to further entrench power.

OpenAI is tripling down on an untenable position. The company's chief lobbyist Chris Lehane was one of the architects of Leading the Future and its president and cofounder is the biggest donor. LtF is an OpenAI super PAC. Full stop. x.com/tyler_johns...

I appreciate Beth stating up front how bad the situation is, but I can't help but feel like her prescription is out of step with the diagnosis.

New piece: as AI companies (w/ one notable exception) prove themselves to be eager collaborators in building an authoritarian nightmare state, employees are getting organized to resist it. But they're racing against their own effort to render themselves obsolete. bsky.app/profile/gar...

There have been several high profile incidents of OpenAI and a16z's super PAC Leading the Future (and its affiliate Build American AI) engaging in pretty egregious astroturfing.

Thoughts and prayers for Marc, who must be experiencing unprecedented levels of concern. x.com/pmarca/stat...

Important new development. AI company employees have an enormous amount of power — far more than they realize. Absent legislation, AI co worker power is one of the key levers to shaping what the industry does and doesn't do. x.com/WIRED/statu...

The term "artificial intelligence" gets a lot of hate — much of it deserved. But there is a deep connection between many of the things under the AI label nowadays, despite what a lot of critics want you to believe.

In 50 years, if they're still a thing, AP US classes will write whole essays on this primary source document.

Really good piece on Sama's COIs. His tenure seems more precarious than (well, almost) ever. Gift: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/cha...

Nothing like responding to allegations of fascism with a speech ban. Also incredible free advertising for the book and real time evidence for its thesis packaged together. Preordered. x.com/sf_mills/st...

The "American Innovators Network" — an a16z backed lobbying coalition that has been aggressively lobbying to block state AI regulations to regulate catastrophic risk and protect kids online — recently hired Jeremy Kudon as its new executive director.

The legal authority enabling mass surveillance of Americans expires next week. GOP has a 2 vote majority and some are wavering. If every Dem in the House unified, they could extract meaningful concessions, like closing the data broker loophole. So I asked them all. 🧵

Sam Altman said he regrets calling the New Yorker profile "incendiary," but never edited his blog post. Now the SF DA is using the same term in a call for deescalation that implicitly frames journalism as a public safety threat. x.com/GerritD/sta...

Claude Mythos is apparently obsessed with Mark Fisher of Capitalist Realism fame. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Anthropic's existence is predicated on the inevitability of strong AI? Some Fisher-influenced parts of my forthcoming book Obsolete. 🧵

Nearly 3 years ago, I pitched an essay on AI to Jacobin, which became a cover story, which became a book about the biggest project in history: Obsolete: The AI Industry's Trillion-Dollar Race to Replace You—and How to Stop It Preorders ship in May 🧵

Love how far out of the way outlets go to avoid mentioning AI extinction risk (which Bernie is very worried about). It's like your sibling saying "Mom might lose her job" while leaving out that she's waiting on a terminal diagnosis!

The road to hell:

Never write a book on AI... I wrote this a few weeks back and am now pleasantly surprised that Anthropic is taking such a costly stand in almost exactly this scenario.