One of the best, if not _the_ best conversation I've heard on AI and consciousness. An extra bonus to Cameron Berg for getting so engaged. Thanks to @nathanlabenz.bsky.social for delivering excellent content, like so often. aipodcastpicks.substack.com/p/ai-conscio...

AI, consciousness, empirical results and ethical responsibility

Cameron Berg talks about new results on AI's potential ability to have positive and negative experiences. Some parts get into the technical weeds, but it's a really thought provoking episode.

aipodcastpicks.substack.com

Daniel Kokotajlo and Dean Ball talking about the big AI questions. Of 3000+ hours of AI podcasts I've listened to, this is one of the best episodes. aipodcastpicks.substack.com/p/dean-ball-...

Dean Ball and Daniel Kokotajlo on timelines and how to control advanced AI

Two giants talk about extremely important AI questions, in a way that is clear, respectful and also pretty fun. To a large extent, this is tech views and government views in the same place.

aipodcastpicks.substack.com

I couldn’t find a good place for thoughtful, big-picture discussions about AI and society. So I started one: AI Horizons If you like thinking about where this is all going (5–10 years out), you’re very welcome: discord.gg/HAU2njsu

Tristan Harris summarizes the state of AI safety quite well. We have lots of early examples of AI trying to preserve itself, spread itself, and gain resources. Without being told to do so. Watching this video is 11 minutes well spent. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCJF...

The Alibaba AI Incident Should Terrify Us - Tristan Harris

YouTube video by Chris Williamson

youtube.com

I think AI-on-a-chip is a big thing. Here's what it means. falkai.substack.com/p/ai-baked-i...

AI baked into silicon: What hardwired models mean for the world

A startup just etched an AI model directly into silicon. Here's what that means – for business, for safety, and for the devices around us.

falkai.substack.com

Made me laugh out loud: "The S-curve can stay steep longer than you can stay relevant." Blunt and funny. Probably true as well. Looking forward to the next 3+ hours of listening. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHqq...

Zvi's Mic Works! Recursive Self-Improvement, Live Player Analysis, Anthropic vs DoW + More!

YouTube video by Cognitive Revolution "How AI Changes Everything"

youtube.com

Great podcast episode on AI. It covers learning, cognitive laziness, despair despite progress, screen addiction, and much more. Relevant for anyone in education, but really for anyone interested in human aspects of AI. aipodcastpicks.substack.com/p/ai-learnin...

AI, learning, cognitive laziness, optimism, historical perspectives, tech addiction and more

Zack Kass, author of The Next Renaissance, talks about AI from both a human and a historical perspective.

aipodcastpicks.substack.com

REAP – the Reverse Evaluation Awareness Problem. What happens when an AI thinks its in a test or simulation, but isn't? Opus 4.6 behaviour on Vending-bench tells us that it might go bad. The worst part: We don't have any way of convincing it that it's wrong. falkai.substack.com/p/this-is-no...

This is not a game. (Or is it?)

When AI concludes it's in a simulation, it stops playing nice. But it doesn't always get it right, and we have no method for proving it wrong.

falkai.substack.com

I'm following the conflict between Pentagon and Anthropic closely. This is a great up-to-date summary and analysis of the conflict, that also gives some information on what Anthropic actually enables for Pentagon. aipodcastpicks.substack.com/p/great-summ...

Great summary and analysis of the Anthropic/DoW conflict

This episode (from March 11th) gives an updated summary and analysis of the "supply chain risk" thing. Great insights, and some information on what Anthropic actually does for the DoW as well.

aipodcastpicks.substack.com

Summary of what's happened in the AI world the last 18 months: falkai.substack.com/p/ai-for-beg...

AI for beginners – 18-month update

This blog post complements my book "AI for beginners", describing some ways the AI landscape has changed since the book was published. Still on top of the list: Understanding the pace of progress.

falkai.substack.com

One of the most fascinating interviews I've heard on the DoW–Anthropic conflict, and I've heard a few now. Dean Ball doesn't hold back his language. "Is it ok to swear on this podcast?" "Hell, yeah." pca.st/episode/173c... #anthropic #DoW #DeanBall #ScalingLaws

Scaling Laws x AI Summer: Who Controls the Machine God?

Alan Rozenshtein, associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota and research director at Lawfare, and Kevin Frazier, AI Innovation and Law Fellow at the University of Texas School of Law…

pca.st

This conversation with Geoffrey Hinton is absolutely wonderful. They cover important and partly really heavy subjects, but still made me laugh out loud repeatedly. Pedagogical, too! aipodcastpicks.substack.com/p/absolutely...

Absolutely great conversation with Geoffrey Hinton

After a slow start, this conversation offers great explanations of the state of AI and of AI risks, as well as some good laughs. Skip the 34 first minutes if you're eager.

aipodcastpicks.substack.com

Unpopular opinion: LLMs are world models. Full argument here. falkai.substack.com/p/llms-are-w...

LLMs are world models

They just model a different world than you think.

falkai.substack.com

Best overview I've seen of the row between Anthropic and the Department of War. aipodcastpicks.substack.com/p/great-summ...

Great summary of the dispute between Anthropic and the Department of War

The Department of War is threatening really harsh measures if Anthropic doesn't agree to the DoW using their AI models for anything legal. Anthropic want to keep two use cases restricted.

aipodcastpicks.substack.com

I clearly feel that Opus 4.6 is worse at using Swedish than 4.5. (Not the conclusions when working in Swedish, just in using the language correctly.) Anyone else with similar/corresponding experience? #opus #anthropic

Watermarks are useless. Digital signatures are great. So obvious when you think about it. Read more here: falkai.substack.com/p/why-waterm...

Why watermarking deepfakes is useless, and what we should do instead

The debate over deepfakes is misguided. We need ways of knowing the source of content, not what tools were used to create it.

falkai.substack.com

My second blog post in a series about how AI affects knowledge, knowledge work and education. This one focuses on the necessity of using scenarios, and how to select them. 12 scenarios are consolidated into 3, for analysis in upcoming posts. falkai.substack.com/p/using-scen...

Using scenarios to forecast radical uncertainty

In this second post about how AI affects knowledge and education, I argue that scenarios are necessary for forecasting AI impacts. I also suggest a method for selecting scenarios, and implement it.

falkai.substack.com

What just happened at the METR chart for AI ability to complete long tasks? Claude Opus 4.5 bumped from under five hours (50 percent pass) to 5:20. Also, GPT-5.1-codex-max was dropped. metr.org/blog/2025-03... #METR #opus #ai

Measuring AI Ability to Complete Long Tasks

We propose measuring AI performance in terms of the *length* of tasks AI agents can complete. We show that this metric has been consistently exponentially increasing over the past 6 years, with a doub...

metr.org

Peter Sparber, a former architect of Big Tobacco’s successful war against regulation, says that the big AI companies are using the same playbook as Big Tobacco did. And that it works. aipodcastpicks.substack.com/p/why-ai-gov...

Why AI governance as a path to AI safety might be a waste of time

Peter Sparber, a former architect of Big Tobacco’s successful war against regulation, says that the big AI companies are using the same playbook as Big Tobacco did. And that it works.

aipodcastpicks.substack.com

I just saw an example of Claude Code working with models not from Anthropic, by setting up a proxy server routing calls to elsewhere. Pretty smart. Anyone else seen something like that?

I can't help thinking that Claude Cowork in some sense is a step in the wrong for Anthropic. It's good, but a strength of Anthropic is their straight shot at coding and ignoring most of productification. If Claude Cowork becomes the same success as Claude Code, that might change. #ClaudeCowork

YES. More pages with this feature, please.

Statements like "The AI Act is killing AI innovation" made me frustrated enough to summarize what the AI Act actually says. It's reasonable, and not nearly as harsh as people think. Having a single regulation is something the US should envy. falkai.substack.com/p/the-eu-ai-...

The EU AI Act: What it really regulates (and what it doesn't)

Next time someone claims the EU AI Act kills innovation, ask them what it actually says. Most haven't read it. Here's what it really contains. I argue that it is a base for innovating responsible AI.

falkai.substack.com

One of a thousand ideas from the mind of Anders Bjarby, who is possibly the biggest AI explorer in Sweden. (Yes, the Lovable crew included.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2cR... #badhairday #randomidea #justdoit #experimentandlearn

bad hairday

YouTube video by Anders Bjarby

youtube.com

Great interview with Yoshua Bengio. Personal, factual and human. How should we balance the risks and benefits of AI, and how can we keep development at a sustainable speed? aipodcastpicks.substack.com/p/yoshua-ben...

Yoshua Bengio on AI risks

One of the "god fathers" of AI talks about how he views AI risks – both he sees as important and urgent, and what risks he doesn't think are as urgent.

aipodcastpicks.substack.com

Maybe we can use LLMs for solving parts of the coordination problem. An LLM can be a near-perfect trusted mediator, that don't leak information beyond what is specified on beforehand (such as "no deal is possible" or "there is common ground regarding X"). falkai.substack.com/p/llms-as-tr...

LLMs as Trusted Mediators – A Path Beyond Coordination Problems?

Using AI and cryptography to make cooperation rational—even when trust is impossible.

falkai.substack.com

What does AI literacty actually mean? Here's a concrete answer. youtu.be/2PvMfhKfYdI

What do kids need to know about artificial intelligence?

YouTube video by Johan Falk

youtu.be

With the capable AI models we have today, I would argue that sycophancy now is a bigger problem than hallucinations. This is a short and clear video explaining this phenomenon, how you can get better at spotting it, and decrease the risk of being affected by it. youtu.be/nvbq39yVYRk?...

What is sycophancy in AI models?

YouTube video by Anthropic

youtu.be

While we shouldn't take the results of GPT-5.2 on GDPval at face value, we really must start considering what continued AI progress means for our society. And we need to do that yesterday. falkai.substack.com/p/when-intel...