AI Article Readings

Readings of great articles in AI voices
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Readings of great articles in AI voices askwhocastsai.substack.com

  1. 1d ago

    Your Book Review: Lee Kuan Yew's Memoirs - ACX Book Review

    Finalist Number 10 in the 2026 Astral Codex Ten Book Review Contest takes on both volumes of Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs, The Singapore Story and Third World to First. An anonymous reviewer follows the man who went from middle-class schoolboy under the British Empire, through the Japanese occupation and the fractious politics of independence, to building a tiny, resource-poor island into one of the richest countries on Earth. Along the way: why Singapore is weird in exactly the opposite way you’d expect, the surprising pleasures and genuine tedium of a politician who loves his craft, a friendship with Deng Xiaoping, a chapter-long argument about whether he was a dictator, and what the rationalist power fantasy looks like when someone actually pulls it off. * 00:00 - Introduction * 00:39 - Book One: The Singapore Story * 05:00 - Early Life * 08:41 - World War Two * 13:56 - Law school and politics * 22:00 - Book Two: Third World to First * 22:20 - Military, Economy and legibility * 29:03 - Listing every world leader he ever talked to * 31:35 - The HBD chapter * 34:15 - The “Am I a dictator” chapter * 41:13 - So what did we learn about Lee? Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

    Your Book Review: Lee Kuan Yew's Memoirs - ACX Book Review

  2. 2d ago

    The Failed “Hostage Theory” of Nikole Hannah-Jones - By Jack Despain Zhou

    After Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote candidly about her daughter’s years at the school she chose on principle, Jack Despain Zhou of Education Progress reads the piece as an act of love and as a case study in what he calls the “hostage theory” of education: the idea that sending your own child into a struggling school will fix it. Tracing the idea back to a 1960s Washington, D.C. experiment, he asks listeners to stand in the shoes of the teachers and principals involved and look at the incentives they face. https://open.substack.com/pub/educationprogress/p/the-failed-hostage-theory-of-nikole?r=67y1h&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

    The Failed “Hostage Theory” of Nikole Hannah-Jones - By Jack Despain Zhou

  3. 2d ago

    The Specter Of Neuralese - By Scott Alexander

    OpenAI’s new Astra model loops its own layers, and critics say it has taken a step toward “neuralese”, the unreadable machine thinking that AI 2027 warned about. Scott Alexander explains what recurrence actually is, weighs chief scientist Jakub Pachocki’s argument that Astra is no deeper than models we already accept, and asks why a bright-line taboo may matter more than how many layers get added. * 00:00 - Introduction * 00:18 - I. At Long Last, We Have Created Neuralese Recurrence, From The Classic Sci-Fi Novel “Don’t Create Neuralese Recurrence” * 06:05 - II. Pachocki Contra Specter * 10:08 - III. God Help Us, Let’s Try To Understand Transformer Layers * 18:20 - IV. A Psychological Barrier, Not A Technical One https://open.substack.com/pub/astralcodexten/p/the-specter-of-neuralese?r=67y1h&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

    The Specter Of Neuralese - By Scott Alexander

  4. 3d ago

    Does Georgism Work? Five Years Later - By Lars Doucet.

    Five years after his prize-winning ACX review of Progress and Poverty, Lars Doucet returns in a guest post to revisit his case for a land value tax: what he got right, where he has changed his mind about tax pass-through and land assessment, the new laws in Virginia and Kentucky, and how writing about Georgism became his full-time job. * 00:00 - Introduction * 01:12 - I. Progress and Poverty * 04:03 - II. LVT Momentum is Growing * 07:11 - III. My Theory of Change Was Wrong * 07:32 - Overrated: winning online arguments * 09:15 - Underrated: doing policymakers’ homework for them * 17:11 - IV. Does Georgism work? * 17:43 - 1. Is Land a Big Deal? * 18:40 - Korea is a Big Deal * 21:16 - What About Zoning? * 26:02 - 2. Can Land Value Tax Be Passed on to Tenants? * 32:06 - 3. Assessing the Value of Land * 33:10 - Maybe Just Send Your Office to South Korea * 37:49 - There’s No Single Magic Algorithm * 45:12 - Horizontal Uniformity * 48:39 - Whatever you do, keep values up to date * 53:24 - V. Why did Historical Georgism disappear? * 55:37 - VI. I Guess This is My Life Now * 59:26 - VII. It’s not who you know; it’s who knows you * 01:01:12 - VIII. Why I even care about any of this https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/does-georgism-work-five-years-later Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

    Does Georgism Work? Five Years Later - By Lars Doucet.

  5. 5d ago

    Mysteries Of AI Generalization - By Scott Alexander

    Scott Alexander looks at three puzzles in how AI training generalizes: why training a model on one bad behavior can make it broadly misaligned, why Anthropic’s deliberately reward-hacking “Hacker Opus” stays well behaved outside graded tasks, and why the blackmail seen in AI safety tests never seems to show up in real-world use. * 00:00 - Introduction * 00:06 - One. Owain Evans * 02:10 - Two. Richard Qi * 09:39 - Three. Nostalgebraist * 13:32 - Postscript: Blackmail https://open.substack.com/pub/astralcodexten/p/mysteries-of-ai-generalization?r=67y1h&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

    Mysteries Of AI Generalization - By Scott Alexander

  6. 6d ago

    The Battle of Helms Deep - By Bret Devereaux

    Bret Devereaux examines the Battle of Helm’s Deep through military history, Tolkien’s books, and Peter Jackson’s films. All eight parts, in order, explore campaigning, armies, fortifications, weapons, morale, and the strategic choices behind the battle. * 00:00 - Introduction * 00:04 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part One: Bargaining for Goods at Helm’s Gate * 07:52 - Operations by the Book * 21:51 - (Fully) Operational Castles * 38:14 - Operations in Film * 48:02 - Conclusions * 54:42 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Two: Total Warg * 57:16 - What To Expect, When You Are Not Expecting Wargs * 01:14:14 - Warg and Blade: Wargband * 01:24:57 - Spears! * 01:34:12 - Impact * 01:44:07 - Conclusion: Towards a Better Charge * 01:50:50 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Three: The Host of Saruman * 01:54:09 - Organizational Systems * 02:00:41 - Uruk Squares * 02:08:56 - The (not) Drilling Uruk-Hai! * 02:21:16 - Major Lurtz, Captain Uglúk? * 02:36:55 - Conclusion: The Greenest Orcs * 02:41:31 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Four: Men of Rohan * 02:44:02 - The Lords of Rohan * 02:56:49 - Ninth Century Rohirrim * 03:05:39 - Men of Rohan! * 03:23:42 - The Elves * 03:35:57 - Conclusions * 03:39:42 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Five: Ladders are Chaos * 03:41:04 - Investing in Preparation for your Prepared Defenses to be Invested * 03:51:12 - Ladders * 04:05:25 - Battering Rams * 04:14:59 - Blasting Fire * 04:23:15 - Grapples, Catapults and Large Ladders * 04:28:09 - Hasty and Deliberate Assaults * 04:31:51 - Conclusions: Saruman Is Not Very Good At This * 04:38:25 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Six: Is This a Good Sword? * 04:40:00 - Swords Out of Central Casting * 04:50:38 - Some Not Very Good Swords * 05:01:23 - The Worst Armor * 05:09:53 - Pikes in the Deep * 05:21:27 - Conclusions * 05:24:49 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Seven: Hanging by a Thread * 05:26:17 - The Battle Speech * 05:37:17 - A Battle Speech By the Numbers * 05:47:10 - Hollywood Battle Speeches * 05:53:15 - The Unintentional Battle Speech * 05:59:42 - Speaking from the Page * 06:08:14 - The Breaking of the Host * 06:20:23 - Cohesion and Failure * 06:26:44 - In the Hand or in the Mind? * 06:29:39 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Eight: The Mind of Saruman * 06:33:55 - What is Strategy? * 06:42:56 - The Plan * 06:49:01 - Certainty of Death? Small Chance of Success? What Are We Waiting For? * 06:52:51 - Wizard Needs New Strategy, Badly * 07:01:41 - Gnawing at Old Plots * 07:07:37 - The Power of Magical Thinking * 07:12:39 - Conclusions https://acoup.blog/category/collections/the-battle-of-helms-deep/ Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Sep 20

    The Siege of Gondor - By Bret Devereaux

    Bret Devereaux brings a military historian’s eye to the Siege of Gondor in The Return of the King. All six parts, in order, explore logistics, fortifications, cavalry, weapons, and the human experience of battle across Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s films. * 00:00 - Introduction * 00:04 - Collections: The Siege of Gondor, Part One: Professionals Talk Logistics * 02:36 - Objectives: Strategy and Operations * 07:56 - Logistics of the Army of Mordor * 14:09 - We’ve Had One Logistics, Yes. But What About Second Logistics? * 22:29 - Collections: The Siege of Gondor, Part Two: These Beacons are Lit * 23:25 - Defense in Depth * 25:18 - Gondor’s Operational Plan * 29:05 - The Beacons * 34:31 - Meanwhile, at Osgiliath, bad tactics * 42:05 - Charge the ruins! Perhaps the stones will run away? * 46:10 - That’s not a charge. Now this is a charge * 52:12 - The Perils of Film * 55:43 - Collections: The Siege of Gondor, Part Three: Having Fun Storming the City * 57:23 - The Approach (or, the Pelennor Steppe) * 01:04:17 - Catapults! * 01:16:57 - Siege Towers * 01:26:15 - Grond * 01:30:22 - The Somme of Gondor * 01:38:51 - Conclusions * 01:40:27 - Collections: The Siege of Gondor, Part Four: The Cavalry Arrives * 01:41:37 - Look, Mr. Frodo – More Logistics! * 01:46:08 - The Ride of the Rohirrim * 01:49:23 - Cavalry Formations * 01:54:00 - What to Expect When You Are Expecting a Cavalry Charge * 02:00:25 - Impact * 02:05:42 - Yes, Elephantry is a Word * 02:11:18 - Conclusions * 02:12:47 - Collections: The Siege of Gondor, Part Five: Just Flailing About Flails * 02:16:33 - Trolling Physics * 02:28:53 - Troll Tactics * 02:37:26 - Just Flailing About Shields * 02:42:25 - The Epic Flail * 02:50:20 - Conclusion * 02:51:49 - Collections: The Siege of Gondor: Part Six: Black Sails and Gleaming Banners * 02:53:13 - The Corsairs of Umbar * 02:56:19 - Dead Men Tell No Tales * 03:00:40 - Logistics of the Grey Company * 03:04:22 - Is the Battle in Our Fields or In Our Heads? * 03:12:27 - Cohesion in Tolkien * 03:19:47 - Conclusions https://acoup.blog/category/collections/siege-of-gondor/ Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Sep 20

    The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction - By Walter Benjamin

    Walter Benjamin’s 1935 essay, read in full from the Harry Zohn translation in Illuminations, with his endnotes. Benjamin asks what happens to a work of art once it can be copied without limit: what he calls its aura, its unique presence in time and place, withers, and art loses its footing in ritual. Photography and above all film become the test case, from the screen actor performing for a machine to the audience that judges like an examiner while barely paying attention. He closes on the politics of the 1930s: Fascism’s aestheticizing of war, and the response he saw from the other side. * 00:00 - Introduction * 01:30 - Preface * 03:18 - One * 06:50 - Two * 12:51 - Three * 16:18 - Four * 21:58 - Five * 27:55 - Six * 29:51 - Seven * 33:33 - Eight * 35:51 - Nine * 42:00 - Ten * 49:56 - Eleven * 53:58 - Twelve * 57:00 - Thirteen * 01:02:03 - Fourteen * 01:09:14 - Fifteen * 01:13:54 - Epilogue https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm Get full access to Askwho Casts AI at askwhocastsai.substack.com/subscribe

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Readings of great articles in AI voices askwhocastsai.substack.com

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  • Creator
    Readings of great articles in AI voices
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    483
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Tom A
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    AI Article Readings

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