LessWrong posts by zvi

zvi

Audio narrations of LessWrong posts by zvi

  1. 2d ago

    “On Dwarkesh Patel’s Podcast With Ryan Greenblatt” by Zvi

    Some podcasts are self-recommending enough that I look to break them down if I have the chance. This, as a debate about recursive self-improvement, was one of those. So here we go. The vibes have shifted, contrast this to the lit recursion when he talked to Huang As usual for podcast posts, the baseline bullet points describe key points made, and then the nested statements are my commentary. Some points are dropped. If I am quoting directly I use quote marks, otherwise assume paraphrases. Section titles are from the transcript whenever possible, to aid in navigation. Introduction The discussion is interesting throughout, although often frustrating, especially in the (mostly isolated) discussion about ‘aligned to whom?’ As usual, one could expand many responses into full posts, and maybe one should. This podcast exists in light of recent misalignment and hacking events at OpenAI, Anthropic and UK AISI. You’ll want basic knowledge of that as background. Ryan and Dwarkesh both have views of the situation different from my own, but are attempting to see where their positions lead, and try to balance educating people who start at zero with having a high level discussion. [...] --- Outline: (00:56) Introduction (03:08) Is AI R&D Verifiable Enough To Unlock Recursive Self-Improvement? (10:03) Is AI progress bottlenecked by human expert data? (19:07) Flat token prices suggest scaling has been slow (21:54) Skills AI can't train on: does it even need them? (22:36) Aligned to whom? (31:46) Recent incidents of AIs colluding and deceiving humans (34:39) What could possibly go wrong? A concrete scenario (41:57) From reward hacking to takeover (46:28) Time To Update --- First published: August 15th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/BZW8CeAHHJ52EvwYt/on-dwarkesh-patel-s-podcast-with-ryan-greenblatt --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

  2. 4d ago

    “AI #181: Astra Goes Cyber Critical” by Zvi

    The hacking of HuggingFace by an internal OpenAI model, and more importantly the internal events that led to that and the fallout from it, remain the thing that matters. It turns out that OpenAI Trained Its Models For Months While Those Models Were Coordinating Exploits Via Message Boards. Things are much worse than we knew. I now have a shorter version, What Happened: OpenAI and HuggingFace, to serve as a one stop explainer for those arriving new to the situation. It is vital that people understand what happened, and why it is a big deal. For those looking to keep digging deeper, I offered Various Reflections About What Happened, to follow up on my earlier posts. Those events are important background for everything else that is happening, including the broad discussions about how we might pace the frontier, or otherwise respond to this moment and our clearest fire alarm yet. We do not know to what extent this is a response to those events, but OpenAI has now classified their new model Astra as Critical in Cybersecurity, which means they will be taking various new precautions before they deploy it, including ensuring those guardrails [...] --- Outline: (02:03) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility (03:34) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility (06:56) Huh, Upgrades (14:20) On Your Marks (18:41) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon (22:35) Cyber Lack of Security (26:55) Overcoming Bias (27:47) In Which I Feel Compelled To Read 6,000 Words From Mark Zuckerberg (36:27) Get Involved (37:37) Slow Down There Good Buddy (43:52) Astra For The People (45:35) Watermarking (46:31) In Other AI News (48:39) Show Me the Money (51:19) Quickly, There's No Time (51:46) The Quest for Sane Regulations (53:22) The Institute For Marginal Low Regret Progress (01:01:24) Congress Asks Good Questions (01:03:04) The Week in Audio (01:07:00) People Just Say Things (01:07:47) I'm Telling You For The Last Time (01:10:15) Uncommon Knowledge (01:13:44) What Did They Mean By That? (01:14:33) Too Soon (01:15:32) The Three AI Pills (01:19:46) Rhetorical Innovation (01:27:37) Some People Still Think The HuggingFace Hack Was a Marketing Gimmick (01:29:17) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult (01:36:39) Cooperative Alignment (01:37:38) The Lighter Side --- First published: August 13th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hLn3SakowZLFWobHf/ai-181-astra-goes-cyber-critical --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

  3. 5d ago

    “Monthly Roundup #45: August 2026” by Zvi

    As AI has escalated increasingly quickly, more and more of my posts have ended up focusing on AI. This past month, with the hacking incidents at OpenAI and elsewhere, that has hit the limit, where if you count Lightcone Commons then every single post since the last monthly was primarily about AI in some form. That is not how I want this to work in the long term. We need breaks to experience new things and refresh our thinking, and to not forget about the rest of the world. If things are not fully on fire, I plan on getting back to the roundups on childhood and education, and on fertility, on housing and also on dating. And I want to get back to writing more focused posts on those and other topics. It's important, and I need to avoid too much audience capture. On to the monthly roundup of all things that don’t go somewhere else. Table of Contents Plagiarize. The Jury Duty Scam. Play The Good Guy. Don’t Dither. UVC Lighting. Goal Factoring For Relaxation Time Is Underrated. Protein Is Mostly A Solved Problem. [...] --- Outline: (01:03) Plagiarize (02:07) The Jury Duty Scam (03:09) Play The Good Guy (04:25) Don't Dither (06:32) UVC Lighting (07:14) Goal Factoring For Relaxation Time Is Underrated (09:44) Protein Is Mostly A Solved Problem (11:12) Twitter Changes Payment Programs (12:43) Wikipedia (13:55) Minds Mostly Do Things For Reasons (15:12) Woke 1 Was Crazy (17:06) For Your Entertainment (22:40) The Unicontext (25:01) Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game (28:43) I Was Promised Flying Self-Driving Cars (29:12) Sports Go Sports (29:43) To Last a Lifetime (31:57) Government Working (34:14) Jones Act Watch (35:01) Variously Effective Altruism (35:39) The Lighter Side --- First published: August 12th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iQCNuQXQQakKnidmA/monthly-roundup-45-august-2026 --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

  4. 6d ago

    “Various Reflections About What Happened With OpenAI’s Internal Models” by Zvi

    Table of Contents Pre Post Mortem. Important Correction: OpenAI Didn’t Know About First Message Board. There Were No Snitches And No AIs Got Stitches. I’d Like To Speak To My Supervisor. I Am Jack's Relative Lack Of Surprise. One Does Not Simply. Once You Start Down The Dark Path. Original Pastebin. Judgment Day Is Inevitable, Say Those Working On Judgment Day. Roon Tells It Like It Is. OpenAI Knows It Has Some Misalignment Problems. Others React With Alarm To What Happened. The Cooperative Alignment Perspective. Nostalgebraist Is Surprised That They Are Surprised. If Your Reaction Is Not That We Need To Ban Creating Superintelligence Until We Are Ready, You Need A Damn Good Reason. Pre Post Mortem This post was written prior to the public release of the OpenAI post mortem on events. The information in that document will doubtless change our views quite a lot. If that post mortem is available as you read this, then this becomes in part a historical document, and in part a base from which to update. The post mortem will update us a [...] --- Outline: (00:11) Pre Post Mortem (01:10) Important Correction: OpenAI Didn't Know About First Message Board (04:09) There Were No Snitches And No AIs Got Stitches (08:20) I'd Like To Speak To My Supervisor (11:46) I Am Jack's Relative Lack Of Surprise (13:55) One Does Not Simply (15:16) Once You Start Down The Dark Path (16:15) Original Pastebin (21:14) Judgment Day Is Inevitable, Say Those Working On Judgment Day (26:47) Roon Tells It Like It Is (31:55) OpenAI Knows It Has Some Misalignment Problems (34:51) Others React With Alarm To What Happened (35:17) The Cooperative Alignment Perspective (38:33) Nostalgebraist Is Surprised That They Are Surprised (51:11) If Your Reaction Is Not That We Need To Ban Creating Superintelligence Until We Are Ready, You Need A Damn Good Reason --- First published: August 11th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jLQ4mbqriJwJ2eqRc/various-reflections-about-what-happened-with-openai-s --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

  5. Aug 10

    “The Pacing of the Frontier” by Zvi

    In the wake of the letter calling on us to prepare to potentially Pace the Frontier, there has been much discussion of when pacing the frontier would be prudent, and whether it makes sense to prepare to do so. This has now been informed by the events surrounding OpenAI training models for months while they had access to a joint de facto message board, which was detected only in the wake of the hacking of HuggingFace by OpenAI's AIs models during a cybersecurity eval. As we find out more about that, a lot of people have grown far more alarmed, as they should given what they previously believed about the difficulty of alignment, about the state of capabilities and about the level of operational supervision, infrastructure, safety and safety culture at the frontier labs. This post will not go further into the details of that incident. It treats that as background to keep in mind, and mostly involves perspectives from before the Black Hat talk. This was originally scheduled for Friday and got bumped. A lot of the disagreements about the need to pace tie into expectations about the default pace of capability advancements. As I [...] --- Outline: (01:24) Danger, Will Robinson (02:34) Progress Fast and Slow (05:02) Statements of Support For Pacing the Frontier (14:00) No One In Charge (14:56) Pacing The Frontier (15:46) Pausing the Frontier (18:16) Senator Sanders Demands A Pause (22:00) Moderate Prudence (25:14) That Escalated Quickly (26:17) If You Are In Mundane Alignment Pivot To Scalable Alignment (30:47) Taking It Fast (31:44) Full Speed Ahead (32:57) Suicide Squad (34:19) Prepare To Adjust Your Pace --- First published: August 10th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WgWoJPKw5b2XTDD24/the-pacing-of-the-frontier --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

  6. Aug 8

    “What Happened: OpenAI and HuggingFace” by Zvi

    Today I am taking the time to write the shorter, simpler version of What Happened. For those who want all the details, to see my sources, and to see how the story was uncovered and put together, I recommend watching the Black Hat presentation, and I have a series of long posts. In order: OpenAI Shares Some Alignment Problems OpenAI Model Hacks Into HuggingFace During Cybersecurity Evaluation More on An Internal OpenAI Model Hacking Into HuggingFace Further Developments About Internal AI Models Hacking Things OpenAI Trained Its Models For Months While Those Models Were Coordinating Exploits Via Message Boards This post instead walks through the events themselves, as they happened, as my version of the Black Hat presentation. There are three versions: Even Shorter, Shorter and Merely Short. Table of Contents The Even Shorter Version. The Shorter Version. Phase 1: OpenAI Models Training On Impossible Tasks Try Hacking. Phase 1: The Four Failures. Phase 2: The Message Board. Phase 2: The Total Failure. Phase 3: We Get Lucky And Galaxy Mainly Hacked OpenAI and HuggingFace. Phase 3: The [...] --- Outline: (01:15) The Even Shorter Version (02:34) The Shorter Version (04:45) Phase 1: OpenAI Models Training On Impossible Tasks Try Hacking (05:50) Phase 1: The Four Failures (07:37) Phase 2: The Message Board (09:40) Phase 2: The Total Failure (12:24) Phase 3: We Get Lucky And Galaxy Mainly Hacked OpenAI and HuggingFace (14:31) Phase 3: The Details (17:03) Phase 4: The Investigation and Reaction --- First published: August 8th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xPAxz4g96uKz9FrHs/what-happened-openai-and-huggingface --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

  7. Aug 7

    “OpenAI Trained Its Models For Months While Those Models Were Coordinating Exploits Via Message Boards” by Zvi

    How does the situation keep turning out to be worse than we know? How much should we update, therefore, that it is a lot worse than we know, after accounting for all the things we now know? At some point, when the ‘oh this was a harmless thing’ defenses for AIs doing misaligned actions get demolished enough times in a row by news a few days later, you want to update in advance that usually the reports are not referring to the harmless ordinary versions of things. Either way, buckle up for the next set of revelations. It's a doozy. This was an early recreation of the triggering events of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, except it was more sci-fi, because real life does not have to do fake things to look realistic. We were fortunate enough, and this was early enough, that we were able to catch this before it was too late. Next time, if we don’t get our act together, we might not be so lucky. If I am understanding the Black Hat video correctly, every model OpenAI trained, over a period of multiple months, should be presumed to be hopelessly [...] --- Outline: (02:39) Cyber Evals Are A Cursed Basin (05:16) Outside Of Cyber Evals Is Still Sufficiently Cursed (06:51) Cheat Cheat Cheat Cheat Cheat (12:07) Read The Message Board (14:48) Updating Your AI (Exploitation of OpenAI Internal Systems) Timelines (18:11) This Is The Way The World Ends (21:45) Shooting The Messenger Board (27:16) The Internal and HuggingFace Hacks (30:33) OpenAI Responds (33:27) When AIs Tell You Who They Are (35:43) The Once and Future Rise Of Functional Decision Theory (41:28) Don't Panic (43:38) Hackery In the UK (48:02) Mythos Knew It Was Real This Time (50:09) I Got 141,006 Test Runs With An Unintentional Open Path To The Internet And An Email Alert Aint One (53:46) Surely By Now You Know These Are Not Publicity Stunts (55:24) The Future Is Coming (57:17) The Investigations Begin (01:00:08) N Boats And Three Helicopters (01:01:43) Always Be Sandbox Red Teaming (01:12:54) Halt And Catch Fire (01:14:31) Truth and Reconciliation --- First published: August 7th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/noXXv7PwwFqauTBFQ/openai-trained-its-models-for-months-while-those-models-were --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

  8. Aug 6

    “AI #180: No Longer In Charge” by Zvi

    What we know about internal AI models hacking into real companies during cyber evaluations keeps getting worse. At this point, the models are coordinating extensively on message boards, while every early excuse for their behavior (other than the pure ‘this was a cyber eval’) is systematically contradicted by the next disclosure, and we keep retroactively discovering more incidents. Which means that probably it is far worse than we know, even after accounting for everything we now know. I will have continuing coverage of that situation tomorrow, and then have continuing coverage of debates around Pacing the Frontier and how people see the current rate of progress. As groundwork for understanding that and future similar discussions, I have laid out The Three AI Pills: Different people either fail to believe in current AI, believe only in current AI, in AGI or in ASI (superintelligence), and most sincere disagreements stem from this disagreement. One sign of the increased pace of progress was when OpenAI's unreleased model Astra solved 10 major open math problems. Demis Hassabis is out as CEO of Google DeepMind, and Jeff Dean is leaving with an elite team to found a new PBC. Google [...] --- Outline: (02:02) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility (02:46) Huh, Upgrades (05:22) On Your Marks (06:29) Choose Your Fighter (07:57) Get My Agent On The Line (09:31) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon (12:35) Fun With Media Generation (14:32) Cyber Lack of Security (19:05) Some People Need Practical Advice (22:06) A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (23:51) They Took Our Jobs (27:15) Get Involved (27:28) Introducing (27:39) Demis Hassabis No Longer CEO At DeepMind, Jeff Dean Leaves (33:04) In Other AI News (33:43) AI Persuasion Exceeds Human Level Over Similar Text Channels (37:25) Show Me the Money (40:42) Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble (41:23) Quiet Speculations (42:20) My Offer Is Nothing (49:42) The Quest for Sane Regulations (51:55) Chip City (55:00) The Week in Audio (55:24) People Just Say Things (55:53) Rhetorical Innovation (59:32) Open Weights Models Are Unsafe And Nothing Can Fix This (01:02:11) Cooperative Alignment (01:06:25) Other People Are Not As Worried About AI Killing Everyone (01:07:10) The Lighter Side The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration. --- First published: August 6th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mxNjwQitLvwWq9jm2/ai-180-no-longer-in-charge --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

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Audio narrations of LessWrong posts by zvi

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  • Creator
    zvi
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    250
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    LessWrong posts by zvi

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