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LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

By: LessWrong
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© 2026 LessWrong (Curated & Popular) Hourly Philosophy Social Sciences
Episodes
  • "MIRI’s Position on the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026" by Aaron_Scher

    "MIRI’s Position on the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026" by Aaron_Scher
    Sep 24 2026
    By Aaron Scher; endorsed by Bourgon, Soares, and Yudkowsky on behalf of MIRI.

    MIRI has been warning about the extinction threat from superintelligent AI for over two decades. Only recently has this danger become known in the policy world, and the proposed policies for dealing with the threat have to date been piecemeal and insufficient.

    The Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026 is the first piece of legislation we’ve seen that stands a chance at stopping this threat. The Act is excellent but not perfect, and we discuss both what it gets right and what we'd tweak. We hereby endorse the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026 because it directly confronts the extinction threat that humanity is facing and would codify the primary policy goal we think the world needs: a ban on the development of superintelligence.

    What we like about the Act

    • Banning artificial superintelligence (ASI), or variants of such a plan, is the only effective solution to avoid the ASI threat, at least in the near term. Most other legislative proposals do not confront this threat head-on and thus would not be effective, even if implemented. For more on why we believe this, see [...]
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    First published:
    September 23rd, 2026

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jszKCKwvzfmsNetNZ/miri-s-position-on-the-ban-artificial-superintelligence-act

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    6 mins
  • "What if not Circuits?" by CarolusRenniusVitellius

    "What if not Circuits?" by CarolusRenniusVitellius
    Sep 24 2026
    This post was written as part of the Iliad Fellowship. Inspired by conversations with Richard Ngo, Dmitry Vaintrob, and Brianna Grado-White. To all of these, my thanks.

    Preface: I'm confused about how neural networks do and learn computations. In response to a friend's challenge, I'm writing up some interim thoughts. This essay has four parts: the first tries to track what I call the 'default ontology' of the mechinterp community over the years. The second part is about 'representational drift' as an important obstacle to weights-based approaches to circuits. The third part reflects on how 'universality' should shape our explanations of LLM function. The fourth part is a sketch of a 'co-selectionist' view of circuits I have been thinking about. These parts share a common theme but should be readable separately.

    I want to understand how neural networks, LLMs in particular, work. In my research I've spent a lot of time trying to think through what kinds of explanatory accounts are best suited to this. In thinking about comparisons between evolution, neuroscience, and deep learning, I've ended up with an intuition like the following:

    Large-scale learning processes like deep learning or the brain are different in [...]

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    Outline:

    (02:31) 1. What Might We Mean By "Circuits"?

    [... 9 more sections]

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    First published:
    September 21st, 2026

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mMERyrvEJ4xbiozie/what-if-not-circuits

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    28 mins
  • "Jensen Huang Says If We Cannot Align AI, Shut Down the AI Labs" by Ben Pace

    "Jensen Huang Says If We Cannot Align AI, Shut Down the AI Labs" by Ben Pace
    Sep 24 2026
    I was very surprised today on a podcast to hear Jensen Huang plainly state that if they cannot align the AIs, then the labs must shut down.

    The context I have on Huang is that he has run NVIDIA for 30+ years, which has become the most valuable company in the world due to the AI boom. My understanding is that he has repeatedly encouraged the US President (with whom he is on friendly terms) to continue to support AI, and dismissed AI talk as "sci-fi".

    If you haven't seen, his biographer has incredible quotes of him being pressed on risks from AI, where Jensen gets furious.

    “This cannot be a ridiculous sci-fi story,” he said. He gestured to his frozen PR reps at the end of the table. “Do you guys understand? I didn’t grow up on a bunch of sci-fi stories, and this is not a sci-fi movie. These are serious people doing serious work!” he said. “This is not a freaking joke! This is not a repeat of Arthur C. Clarke. I didn’t read his fucking books. I don’t care about those books! It's not– we’re not a sci-fi repeat! This company is not a [...]

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    First published:
    September 23rd, 2026

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cmdbNijFsopqfqEq7/jensen-huang-says-if-we-cannot-align-ai-shut-down-the-ai

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    5 mins
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