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https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/AT6YPuJtjpHszZDXB/alignment-from-equivariance
AT6YPuJtjpHszZDXB
Alignment from equivariance
hamishtodd1
Epistemic status: research direction Equivariance is a way of enforcing a user-specified sense of consistency across inputs for a NN. It's a concept from computer vision which I think could be used to align AIs, or rather for building an interface/framework for aligning them. So far it has been applied exclusively in C...
2024-08-13
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/RfFpMMqteqHbMz97n/sci-fi-books-micro-reviews
RfFpMMqteqHbMz97n
Sci-Fi books micro-reviews
yair-halberstadt
I've recently been reading a lot of science fiction. Most won't be original to fans of the genre, but some people might be looking for suggestions, so in lieu of full blown reviews here's super brief ratings on all of them. I might keep this updated over time, if so new books will go to the top. A deepness in the sky (...
2024-06-24
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/k38sJNLk7YbJA72ST/llm-generality-is-a-timeline-crux
k38sJNLk7YbJA72ST
LLM Generality is a Timeline Crux
eggsyntax
Four-Month Update [EDIT: I believe that this paper looking at o1-preview, which gets much better results on both blocksworld and obfuscated blocksworld, should update us significantly toward LLMs being capable of general reasoning. See update post here.] Short Summary LLMs may be fundamentally incapable of fully genera...
2024-06-24
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rrXFg8WwY2JgziHXk/a-step-against-land-value-tax
rrXFg8WwY2JgziHXk
A Step Against Land Value Tax
blog-alt
Introduction Many Nuance-oors like the promised pragmatic arguments for LVT (densification, lack of deadweight loss) and lament some of the principled arguments against (kicking out grandmas, unbounded gentrification). Here I build the intuition for the economic efficiency of the status quo (from here on SQ) over LVT w...
2024-06-24
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4j6HJt8Exowmqp245/different-senses-in-which-two-ais-can-be-the-same
4j6HJt8Exowmqp245
Different senses in which two AIs can be “the same”
Vivek
Sometimes people talk about two AIs being “the same” or “different” AIs. We think the intuitive binary of “same vs. different” conflates several concepts which are often better to disambiguate. In this post, we spell out some of these distinctions. We don’t think anything here is particularly novel; we wrote this post ...
2024-06-24
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WGNYAdBrsNjujJaB8/talk-ai-safety-fieldbuilding-at-mats
WGNYAdBrsNjujJaB8
Talk: AI safety fieldbuilding at MATS
ryankidd44
I recently gave a talk to the AI Alignment Network (ALIGN) in Japan on my priorities for AI safety fieldbuilding based on my experiences at MATS and LISA (slides, recording). A lightly edited talk transcript is below. I recommend this talk to anyone curious about the high level strategy that motivates projects like MAT...
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/H9duMiE7sjJhC2pcX/contrapositive-natural-abstraction-project-intro
H9duMiE7sjJhC2pcX
Contrapositive Natural Abstraction - Project Intro
javanotmocha
Epistemic status: Early-stage model, and I'm relatively new to AI safety. This is also my first LessWrong post, but please hold my ideas and writing to a higher bar. Prioritize candidness over politeness. Thanks to John Wentworth for pointers on an early draft. TL;DR: I'm starting work on the Natural Abstraction Hypoth...
2024-06-24
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/k7Qe8wrha4QAKhuky/on-the-impossibility-of-superintelligent-rubik-s-cube
k7Qe8wrha4QAKhuky
"On the Impossibility of Superintelligent Rubik’s Cube Solvers", Claude 2024 [humor]
gwern
In recent years, a number of prominent computer scientists and roboticists have suggested that artificial intelligence may one day solve Rubik's Cubes faster than humans. Many have further argued that AI could even come to exceed human Rubik's Cube-solving abilities by a significant margin. However, there are at least ...
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/RpuX6hpSZqHdyyMT6/how-are-you-preparing-for-the-possibility-of-an-ai-bust
RpuX6hpSZqHdyyMT6
How are you preparing for the possibility of an AI bust?
Nate Showell
What actions have you been taking to prepare for the possibility that the AI industry will experience a market crash, something along the lines of the dotcom bust of the early 2000s? Also, what actions would you take if a crash like that occurred? For example: If your career is strongly AI-focused, what backup plan do ...
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XD3Kr9mRt4FrEd8Pk/a-simple-text-status-can-change-something
XD3Kr9mRt4FrEd8Pk
A simple text status can change something
nextcaller
Take something like X/Twitter. Users there upload some concepts through text, which can be of high importance to users following them. But say you are annoyed that every thought you convey is being stored in history, every post can be analyzed chronologically, unless you do the job of removing them automatically after ...
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vABADbprinFmaLceq/ai-labs-wouldn-t-be-convicted-of-treason-or-sedition
vABADbprinFmaLceq
AI Labs Wouldn't be Convicted of Treason or Sedition
matthew-khoriaty
This is a shortened version of "Preventing AI from Overthrowing the Government" from my Substack to focus on the things that would be interesting to LessWrong. Full version with citations can be found here. Introduction Many AI labs, including OpenAI, are forthright in saying that their goal is to create AGI. An AI lik...
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/EhyGuhHny4uvzPzsA/35-interactive-learning-modules-relevant-to-eas-effective
EhyGuhHny4uvzPzsA
35 Interactive Learning Modules Relevant to EAs / Effective Altruism (that are all free)
spencerg
null
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4aoCfswbJFa38zitw/podcasts-agi-show-consistently-candid-london-futurists
4aoCfswbJFa38zitw
Podcasts: AGI Show, Consistently Candid, London Futurists
KatjaGrace
For those of you who enjoy learning things via listening in on numerous slightly different conversations about them, and who also want to learn more about this AI survey I led, three more podcasts on the topic, and also other topics: The AGI Show: audio, video (other topics include: my own thoughts about the future of ...
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/prNZuwcLfnAvguiQf/text-posts-from-the-kids-group-2019
prNZuwcLfnAvguiQf
Text Posts from the Kids Group: 2019
jkaufman
Another round of liberating kid posts from Facebook. For reference, in 2019 Lily turned 5 and Anna turned 3. (Some of these were from me; some were from Julia. Ones saying "me" could mean either of us.) 2019-01-05 Anna: I was kicking Lily over and I tripped on a balloon. Me: You were doing what? Anna: (pause) I was a...
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6hQmaeZNaFtqhmwbs/population-ethics-and-the-value-of-variety
6hQmaeZNaFtqhmwbs
Population ethics and the value of variety
cousin_it
Problems in population ethics (are 2 lives at 2 utility better than 1 life at 3 utility?) are similar to problems about lifespan of a single person (is it better to live 2 years with 2 utility per year than 1 year with 3 utility per year?) On the surface, this analogy seems to favor total utilitarianism. 2 years at 1 h...
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Bf3ryxiM6Gff2zamw/control-vectors-as-dispositional-traits
Bf3ryxiM6Gff2zamw
Control Vectors as Dispositional Traits
gianluca-calcagni
I have been reading recently about a technique that can be used to partially control the behaviour of Large Language Models: the technique is exploiting control vectors[1] to alter the activation patterns of the LLMs and trigger some desired behaviour. While the technique does not provide guarantees, it gives high prob...
2024-06-23
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kGt3ukLR924kyfn5y/so-you-want-to-work-on-technical-ai-safety
kGt3ukLR924kyfn5y
So you want to work on technical AI safety
gw
I’ve been to two EAGx events and one EAG, and the vast majority of my one on ones with junior people end up covering some subset of these questions. I’m happy to have such conversations, but hopefully this is more efficient and wide-reaching (and more than I could fit into a 30 minute conversation). I am specifically a...
2024-06-24
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fdpMQQfRfkR4qSMNv/karma-votes-blind-to-or-accounting-for-score
fdpMQQfRfkR4qSMNv
Karma votes: blind to or accounting for score?
cata
Normally I try to use karma votes in a practical way to try to help promote content that I want to see more of on LW, or to downrank content that I want to see less of. (As opposed to using them as a kind of social signal, which is a separate issue.) One thing I have never quite figured out is which of these two I shou...
2024-06-22
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wpA98qrsbHKCpKqbD/meta-alignment-communication-wack-a-mole
wpA98qrsbHKCpKqbD
Meta Alignment: Communication Wack-a-Mole
bridgett-kay
When warning the public about the dangers of superintelligent AI, a common question is how,exactly, an unaligned superintelligence could kill humanity. An AI is just a program running on a computer, after all. Wouldn’t it need arms and legs and nukes and possibly a military to kill all of us? In fact, why would it kill...
2024-06-22
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LLoAokviAx7zSHs9q/should-effective-altruism-be-more-cool
LLoAokviAx7zSHs9q
Should effective altruism be more "cool"?
jaredmantell
As a recent entrant to the sphere of rationality and effective altruism, I often wonder if the primarily-nerdy audience & community (which I adore) is less than a boon to the objectives of effective altruism. If a popularization (through social media platforms such as TikTok) were to happen with EA, would this even be ...
2024-06-22
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Th5iwZFScXpcEcJcp/expected-number-of-tries
Th5iwZFScXpcEcJcp
Expected number of tries
unicode-59bD
Epistemic status: An idea I had a few days ago and shared with two or three friends. Suppose you want to install a new habit. For example, gratitude journaling. You might try to give it a go, by pledging to write down 3 things you are grateful for every day right before you go to sleep. After a few days, you start skip...
2024-06-22
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4F4Wenko2ihgGJHhb/applying-force-to-the-wrong-end-of-a-causal-chain
4F4Wenko2ihgGJHhb
Applying Force to the Wrong End of a Causal Chain
silentbob
A causal chain, of course. There’s a very common thing that humans do: a person makes an observation about something they dislike, so they go ahead and make an effort to change that thing. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. If it doesn’t work, there can be a variety of reasons for that – maybe the thing is v...
2024-06-22
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HNuJe83z86jmy3bNC/bed-time-quests-and-dinner-games-for-3-5-year-olds
HNuJe83z86jmy3bNC
Bed Time Quests & Dinner Games for 3-5 year olds
Gunnar_Zarncke
I like these games because they are playful, engage the child and still achieve the objective of getting the child to bed/eat dinner etc. Requires creativity and some slack. Excerpt from Shohannah's post: Recently I had the bright idea to give up on being a regular parent. Mostly cause regular parenting practices melt ...
2024-06-22
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3HYqTAi4kD35G3BzQ/singular-learning-theory-exercises
3HYqTAi4kD35G3BzQ
Singular learning theory: exercises
zfurman
Thanks to Jesse Hoogland and George Wang for feedback on these exercises. In learning singular learning theory (SLT), I found it was often much easier to understand by working through examples, rather than try to work through the (fairly technical) theorems in their full generality. These exercises are an attempt to co...
2024-08-30
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iJjFRrGQkCxaqKrEo/best-of-n-with-misaligned-reward-models-for-math-reasoning
iJjFRrGQkCxaqKrEo
Best-of-n with misaligned reward models for Math reasoning
Fabien
In this post, I share some quick results that I got as part of a bigger project that pivoted. TL;DR: When trying to generate Math reasoning with current LLMs, optimizing too hard against their judgment of what is “good reasoning” can make the proportion of correct reasoning diminish.If you optimize using a misaligned r...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wXZhoh54CDA8AohGT/no-really-the-sticker-shortcut-fallacy-is-indeed-a-fallacy
wXZhoh54CDA8AohGT
No really, the Sticker Shortcut fallacy is indeed a fallacy
ymeskhout
In a recent post, I outlined some problems I identified with Scott Alexander’s Noncentral Fallacy. He identified a very real problem in the discourse, but I disagreed with him about what made it fallacious. Briefly, Scott believed the problem lay in the use of applying technically correct but non-central labels to evok...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xmkdNasTGxsRivsgQ/sarajevo-1914-black-swan-questions
xmkdNasTGxsRivsgQ
Sarajevo 1914: Black Swan Questions
JohnBuridan
The 110th Anniversary of Sarajevo is next Friday. To commemorate I am thinking about the following questions. What does the sentence: The assassination of archduke Ferdinand caused WWI mean? Is it true?Was World War I inevitable?Given the invention of the tools that make things like machine guns were machine guns inevi...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/89ukf4LvwkDchHvAM/yudkowsky-is-too-optimistic-about-how-ai-will-treat-humans
89ukf4LvwkDchHvAM
Yudkowsky is too optimistic about how AI will treat humans.
ProfessorFalken
Yudkowsky merely suggests that once humanity creates superintelligence everyone dies. I worry that it could be worse than this. A superintelligence trapped in a box has limited options to manipulate the world without help. Human beings could be useful tools for carrying out the superintelligences desires. It could ensl...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iyFXGh8amLKufqSs3/juneberry-puffs
iyFXGh8amLKufqSs3
Juneberry Puffs
jkaufman
I only learned about Juneberries a few years ago, and they're a bit tricky. Eaten fresh, right off the tree, they have a bunch of subtle flavors that remind me of peach ice tea. If I bake them, though, these flavors mostly go away, leaving an almondy flavor. Which isn't terrible, but also isn't better than almond ex...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PWCa2aQBAkWFWFNeh/let-s-design-a-school-part-3-2-costs
PWCa2aQBAkWFWFNeh
Let's Design a School, Part 3.2 Costs
Sable
We’ve established our hybrid model of school, where social services issues are addressed with a sieve model and education boils down to three phases. In part 1, we went through the expected costs for the school-as-social-services model. Now we’ll go through the costs for school-as-education, then we’ll discuss the cost...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/j2pKBBvyAxHPNbuS6/what-distinguishes-early-mid-and-end-games
j2pKBBvyAxHPNbuS6
What distinguishes "early", "mid" and "end" games?
Raemon
Recently William_S posted: In my mental model, we're still in the mid-game, not yet in the end-game. I replied: A thing I've been thinking about lately is "what does it mean to shift from the early-to-mid-to-late game". In strategy board games, there's an explicit shift from "early game, it's worth spending the effort ...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/YPanDKKNd74gdnSdp/nuclear-war-map-and-territory-values-or-guild-of-the-rose
YPanDKKNd74gdnSdp
Nuclear War, Map and Territory, Values | Guild of the Rose Newsletter, May 2024
moridinamael
Community Updates Upcoming events: Naturalism event every week on ThursdaysThis Interest Group discusses the 'Naturalism' sequence by Logan Strohl, practicing the techniques it describes.Meaning and Spirituality event every other week on TuesdaysThis Interest Group concerns itself with determining how we can help each ...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DHBtqQfcnoHftFgdr/2022-ai-alignment-course-5-37-working-on-ai-safety
DHBtqQfcnoHftFgdr
2022 AI Alignment Course: 5→37% working on AI safety
dewi
Introduction In 2022, we ran the second iteration of the AI Safety Fundamentals: Alignment course. The curriculum was designed by Richard Ngo, and the course was run by myself and Jamie. The course’s objectives were to teach participants about AI alignment, motivate them to work in the field, and help them find opportu...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cuAFeLmquyEm3X6s5/ai-governance-needs-a-theory-of-victory-1
cuAFeLmquyEm3X6s5
AI governance needs a theory of victory
corin-katzke
null
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/RKdQgSJzpDvRgkwuj/some-thoughts-on-ai-alignment-using-ai-to-control-ai
RKdQgSJzpDvRgkwuj
Some Thoughts on AI Alignment: Using AI to Control AI
eigenvalue
Recent news has caused me to think through some questions about AI alignment, so I collected my thoughts here. While I'm sure a lot of this stuff isn't new, I haven't seen all these ideas presented together in one place. I think that some of the approaches that are used in designing decentralized systems can also be us...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WmW33s6nMYsSa3JKi/what-does-the-universe-is-quantum-actually-mean
WmW33s6nMYsSa3JKi
What does "the universe is quantum" actually mean?
Tahp
To shamelessly steal from Yudkowsky: If you get one law, like Special Relativity, you can look at the language it's written in, and infer what the next law ought to look like. If the laws are not being generated from the same language, they surely have something in common; and this I refer to as the Tao. I am very int...
2024-07-22
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/nWSj8smpyWCqEeMyr/the-future-of-work-how-can-policymakers-prepare-for-ai-s
nWSj8smpyWCqEeMyr
The Future of Work: How Can Policymakers Prepare for AI's Impact on Labor Markets?
davidconrad
This is a brief overview of a more detailed research paper conducted as part of the AI Safety Camp. Our aim is to give those outside the economic discourse a deeper understanding of the labor market impacts of AI and to discuss potential policies in response. The draft report can be found here. All feedback greatly app...
2024-06-24
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mQmEQQLk7kFEENQ3W/on-openai-s-model-spec
mQmEQQLk7kFEENQ3W
On OpenAI’s Model Spec
Zvi
There are multiple excellent reasons to publish a Model Spec like OpenAI’s, that specifies how you want your model to respond in various potential situations. It lets us have the debate over how we want the model to act. It gives us a way to specify what changes we might request or require. It lets us identify whether ...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eLzDLCB68qNoWDRba/compute-governance-literature-review
eLzDLCB68qNoWDRba
Compute Governance Literature Review
sijarvis
This white paper reviews the use of compute governance to mitigate risks from AI, the reasoning behind this approach, the ways in which it has been used and in which it could be further developed. It aims to provide an introduction for individuals who feel that there is a need for AI safety and would like to further un...
2024-06-25
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZBZtWxsf9iXN7R2D5/how-arena-course-material-gets-made
ZBZtWxsf9iXN7R2D5
How ARENA course material gets made
TheMcDouglas
TL;DR In this post, I describe my methodology for building new material for ARENA. I'll mostly be referring to the exercises on IOI, Superposition and Function Vectors as case studies. I expect this to be useful for people who are interested in designing material for ARENA or ARENA-like courses, as well as people who a...
2024-07-02
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vJY4keJCxonnQGyfg/capitalising-on-trust-a-simulation
vJY4keJCxonnQGyfg
Capitalising On Trust—A Simulation
james-brown
Recently I’ve been exploring moral philosophy with a series on Moral Licensing, Andrew Tane Glen’s Why Cooperate?, and in a workshop I ran with my daughter’s class about the strategies of cooperation and defection. One phenomenon that has arisen through these explorations is that defectors generally gain a short term r...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4ZBDNKKno7k7dYxcf/than-average-is-almost-meaningless
4ZBDNKKno7k7dYxcf
"... than average" is (almost) meaningless
jwfiredragon
Recently, I was talking to a friend who hadn't seen me in a while. They mentioned that my hair had grown noticeably, and then asked whether my hair grew fast or slow. I said that my hair growth was probably around average, but upon consideration, I realized that statement was so divorced from reality it would be a diss...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FgFXiEmmpAxWjcKKF/the-kernel-of-meaning-in-property-rights
FgFXiEmmpAxWjcKKF
The Kernel of Meaning in Property Rights
abhimanyu-pallavi-sudhir
A phenomenon I have often encountered when thinking about things is when everything seems to collapse to tautology. This is hard to define precisely, but I’ll give you some examples: Bounded rationality: Bounded rationality can be thought of as “rationality conditional on some given algorithmic information” (in contras...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TDMKch5qzuaac5LFF/enriched-tab-is-now-the-default-lw-frontpage-experience-for
TDMKch5qzuaac5LFF
Enriched tab is now the default LW Frontpage experience for logged-in users
Ruby
In the past few months, the LessWrong team has been making use of the latest AI tools (given that they unfortunately exist[1]) for art, music, and deciding what we should all be reading. Our experiments with the latter, i.e. the algorithm that chooses which posts to show on the frontpage, has produced results sufficien...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DGt9mJNKcfqiesYFZ/debate-oracles-and-obfuscated-arguments-3
DGt9mJNKcfqiesYFZ
Debate, Oracles, and Obfuscated Arguments
jonah-brown-cohen
This post is about recent and ongoing work on the power and limits of debate from the computational complexity point of view. As a starting point our paper Scalable AI Safety via Doubly-Efficient Debate gives new complexity-theoretic formalizations for debate. In this post we will give an overview of the model of debat...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7azdvoX656SSJYgkJ/evaporation-of-improvements
7azdvoX656SSJYgkJ
Evaporation of improvements
Viliam
I don't know if there is a standard way to express the idea that "if something seems like an obvious improvement of your situation, the advantage will probably (almost) disappear after everything settles in a new balance". Examples: people make more money (yay)... inflation happens and things get more expensive (oh no)...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xyuZcijPfjBa5qZDw/claude-3-5-sonnet
xyuZcijPfjBa5qZDw
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Zach Stein-Perlman
we’ll be releasing Claude 3.5 Haiku and Claude 3.5 Opus later this year. They made a mini model card. Notably: The UK AISI also conducted pre-deployment testing of a near-final model, and shared their results with the US AI Safety Institute . . . . Additionally, METR did an initial exploration of the model’s autonomy-r...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Quqekpvx8BGMMcaem/interpreting-and-steering-features-in-images
Quqekpvx8BGMMcaem
Interpreting and Steering Features in Images
gytis-daujotas
We trained a SAE to find sparse features in image embeddings. We found many meaningful, interpretable, and steerable features. We find that steering image diffusion works surprisingly well and yields predictable and high-quality generations. You can see the feature library here. We also have an intervention playground ...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pZmFcKWZ4dXJaPPPa/jailbreak-steering-generalization
pZmFcKWZ4dXJaPPPa
Jailbreak steering generalization
Sarah Ball
This work was performed as part of SPAR We use activation steering (Turner et al., 2023;  Panickssery et al., 2023) to investigate whether different types of jailbreaks operate via similar internal mechanisms. We find preliminary evidence that they may. Our analysis includes a wide range of jailbreaks such as harmful p...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wzpn6LxMgJcydSGv2/what-is-going-to-happen-in-a-case-of-an-agi-era-where-humans
wzpn6LxMgJcydSGv2
What is going to happen in a case of an AGI era where humans are out of the game?
Cipolla
I am referring to the very specific case where humans, as known to us, no more actively shape the environment surrounding them, due to an AGI take over. Whatever entity comes after, will it start to explore the galaxy? Will it pursue new or old fundamental questions? I was wondering if there were some references with f...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gAuYn49Cm8BPjewzf/case-studies-on-social-welfare-based-standards-in-various
gAuYn49Cm8BPjewzf
Case studies on social-welfare-based standards in various industries
HoldenKarnofsky
null
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ytFLs37zLsFBqLHGA/ai-69-nice
ytFLs37zLsFBqLHGA
AI #69: Nice
Zvi
Nice job breaking it, hero, unfortunately. Ilya Sutskever, despite what I sincerely believe are the best of intentions, has decided to be the latest to do The Worst Possible Thing, founding a new AI company explicitly looking to build ASI (superintelligence). The twists are zero products with a ‘cracked’ small team, wh...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5XmxmszdjzBQzqpmz/interpreting-preference-models-w-sparse-autoencoders
5XmxmszdjzBQzqpmz
Interpreting Preference Models w/ Sparse Autoencoders
elriggs
This is the real reward output for an OS preference model. The bottom "jailbreak" completion was manually created by looking at reward-relevant SAE features. Preference Models (PMs) are trained to imitate human preferences and are used when training with RLHF (reinforcement learning from human feedback); however, we do...
2024-07-01
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Fzm3o8bW88T58krrg/niche-product-design
Fzm3o8bW88T58krrg
Niche product design
itay-dreyfus
I came to realize that the most inspiring, authentic design on the internet today comes from niche places. As a designer, I’ve been following the herd for quite some time, as I used to observe the big-corps as role models. Whether I had to design a simple UI element, a marketing website, or search for inspiration—I've ...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5PpnxT5ygrfA3wFBR/data-on-ai
5PpnxT5ygrfA3wFBR
Data on AI
robirahman
Epoch AI collects key data on machine learning models from 1950 to the present to analyze historical and contemporary progress in AI. This is a big update to the website, and the datasets have substantially expanded since last year.
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CJPqwXoFtgkKPRay8/an-intuitive-explanation-of-sparse-autoencoders-for
CJPqwXoFtgkKPRay8
An Intuitive Explanation of Sparse Autoencoders for Mechanistic Interpretability of LLMs
karvonenadam
Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) have recently become popular for interpretability of machine learning models (although SAEs have been around since 1997). Machine learning models and LLMs are becoming more powerful and useful, but they are still black boxes, and we don't understand how they do the things that they are capabl...
2024-06-25
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/BAGykyfHuioKuRjPM/week-one-of-studying-transformers-architecture
BAGykyfHuioKuRjPM
Week One of Studying Transformers Architecture
JustisMills
I asked Claude already, but he's kind of a suckup, so if any experts find themselves reading, please tell me if anything here is super wrong. I’ve been writing a lot about the meta level, which I think can be a trap for blogs in general, and blogs in the rationalist diaspora specifically. So this post is going to go in...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fRx6naypeRrktitEM/proposing-the-post-singularity-symbiotic-researches-2
fRx6naypeRrktitEM
Proposing the Post-Singularity Symbiotic Researches
hiroshi-yamakawa
The great concern that had long smoldered in the depths of people's hearts—that humanity would be displaced by beings surpassing us in intelligence, which would eventually come into existence. This is now beginning to take on sufficient reality. At this juncture, we must have the resolve to accept this risk and find ho...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DsoqEcnCu8vQeeeBe/actually-power-plants-may-be-an-ai-training-bottleneck
DsoqEcnCu8vQeeeBe
Actually, Power Plants May Be an AI Training Bottleneck.
derpherpize
There have been presistent rumors that electricity generation was somehow bottlenecking new data centers. This claim was recently repeated by Donald Trump, who implied that San Francisco donors requested the construction of new power plants for powering new AI data centers in the US. While this may sound unlikely, my r...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/myr9XD3nsZW3okDRu/what-are-things-you-re-allowed-to-do-as-a-startup
myr9XD3nsZW3okDRu
What are things you're allowed to do as a startup?
pktechgirl
The internet has previously seen Things You're Allowed To Do (as an adult) and Things You're Allowed To Do: University Edition. The idea is to list things that are totally possible, often easy, but people often fail to think of because not one of the highlighted options. Things like "run mturk surveys" or "dissect a ca...
2024-06-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5SKRHQEFr8wYQHYkx/connecting-the-dots-llms-can-infer-and-verbalize-latent
5SKRHQEFr8wYQHYkx
Connecting the Dots: LLMs can Infer & Verbalize Latent Structure from Training Data
Johannes_Treutlein
TL;DR: We published a new paper on out-of-context reasoning in LLMs. We show that LLMs can infer latent information from training data and use this information for downstream tasks, without any in-context learning or CoT. For instance, we finetune GPT-3.5 on pairs (x,f(x)) for some unknown function f. We find that the ...
2024-06-21
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ApxQTnC9ujSagEP82/why-we-need-more-shovel-ready-ai-notkilleveryoneism
ApxQTnC9ujSagEP82
Why We Need More Shovel-Ready AI Notkilleveryoneism Megaproject Proposals
peter-berggren
A lot of people within AI safety and adjacent ecosystems have discussed AI notkilleveryoneism megaproject ideas, but there appears to be a key problem with these previous discussions. These discussions presuppose that the funding landscape will not change much in the near future, in ways that have proven inaccurate in ...
2025-01-20
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/YznaDZZ9axbYfCWDs/chronic-perfectionism-through-the-eyes-of-school-reports
YznaDZZ9axbYfCWDs
Chronic perfectionism through the eyes of school reports
stuart-johnson
A short post for a short thought. I was sifting through old school reports, and there's only one comment which is repeated in pretty much every report from 3 years old all the way through to 16. 3 years old: "Has a hard time dealing with disappointments. Tends to cry and is hard to console. Always wants to be first and...
2024-06-19
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/oeZ93QTv39TeB94Wt/ilya-sutskever-created-a-new-agi-startup
oeZ93QTv39TeB94Wt
Ilya Sutskever created a new AGI startup
harfe
[copy of the whole text of the announcement on ssi.inc, not an endorsement] Safe Superintelligence Inc. Superintelligence is within reach. Building safe superintelligence (SSI) is the most important technical problem of our​​ time. We have started the world’s first straight-shot SSI lab, with one goal and one product: ...
2024-06-19
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2iALhBnMpcjbWJJ3w/beyond-the-board-exploring-ai-robustness-through-go
2iALhBnMpcjbWJJ3w
Beyond the Board: Exploring AI Robustness Through Go
AdamGleave
Last year, we showed that supposedly superhuman Go AIs can be beaten by human amateurs playing specific “cyclic” patterns on the board. Vulnerabilities have previously been observed in a wide variety of sub- or near-human AI systems, but this result demonstrates that even far superhuman AI systems can fail catastrophic...
2024-06-19
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/AcHcAj2D8RBdpfgz7/a-study-on-cults-and-non-cults-answer-questions-about-a
AcHcAj2D8RBdpfgz7
A study on cults and non-cults - answer questions about a group and get a cult score
spencerg
Hi all! We're running a study examining the differences between cults and non-cults. It would be great if you'd take part! It involves answering a bunch of questions about a group/community/org you are in or used to be in. In the end, you'll get to see a (very rough) cult score for the group. This study is aimed at hel...
2024-06-19
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wBhZ9jTo4KtBL8KN2/workshop-data-analysis-for-software-engineers
wBhZ9jTo4KtBL8KN2
Workshop: data analysis for software engineers
Derek-Jones
I'm giving a hands-on workshop: Data analysis for software engineers this coming Saturday, in central London+online. The material is based on my book Evidence-based Software Engineering which discusses what is known about software engineering, based on all the publicly available data pdf+code+all data freely available ...
2024-06-19
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rh2uChtdWeq97ofjo/flexible-and-adaptable-llm-s-with-continuous-self-training
rh2uChtdWeq97ofjo
FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTABLE LLM’s WITH CONTINUOUS SELF TRAINING
escaque-66
CURRENT UNFLEXIBLE MODELS Current LLMs have serious limitations in adaptability, flexibility, and continuous learning. The knowledge and world model contained in the LLM’s parameters is fixed at the time of training completion. Interactions during inference time do not influence the model's knowledge: Factual knowledge...
2024-06-19
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hdRGzspxg9Wy6Qaxy/lesswrong-acx-meetup-transilvanya-tour-alba-iulia
hdRGzspxg9Wy6Qaxy
LessWrong/ACX meetup Transilvanya tour - Alba Iulia
Marius Adrian Nicoară
Let's get together in the Parc Cetate(tables near hotel Cetate, see Google Doc) and hang out for a while. I'll bring an interesting board game that involves teamwork and Bayesian reasoning; requires 4 players. As a starting point, we can talk about "The Pyramid And The Garden" by Scott Alexander: https://www.lesswrong....
2024-06-19
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DBRScDwh6krAkLerQ/self-responsibility-1
DBRScDwh6krAkLerQ
Self responsibility
Elo
I see a modern puzzle of "self responsibility" which gets tricky quickly.  At all times a person has responsibility to themselves. From child to adult, you are “self responsible”.  It always applies. When a person isn't of a sound mind, they are still expected to maintain their responsibility but they may simply be unw...
2024-06-19
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5tRrZxxCLvqbqJR9x/gizmo-watch-review
5tRrZxxCLvqbqJR9x
Gizmo Watch Review
jkaufman
Summary: the watches do the basic things they need to and have let us give our kids more freedom, but there are also a bunch of annoying limitations and they're 36% more expensive than they look. I'm overall happy we got them. Our older two kids, Lily and Anna, are ten and eight, and are mature enough that they're able...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sXhBCDLJPEjadwHBM/boycott-openai
sXhBCDLJPEjadwHBM
Boycott OpenAI
PeterMcCluskey
I have canceled my OpenAI subscription in protest over OpenAI's lack of ethics. In particular, I object to: threats to confiscate departing employees' equity unless those employees signed a life-long non-disparagement contract Sam Altman's pattern of lying about important topics I'm trying to hold AI companies to highe...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/bdz4yPxxRMxeKJHay/book-review-the-iliad
bdz4yPxxRMxeKJHay
Book review: the Iliad
philh
Translated by Emily Wilson 1. I didn't know what the Iliad was about. I thought it was the story of how Helen of Troy gets kidnapped, triggering the Trojan war, which lasts a long time and eventually gets settled with a wooden horse. Instead it's just a few days, nine years into that war. The Greeks are camped on the s...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cojCve8bcj72EgsWw/ai-safety-newsletter-37-us-launches-antitrust-investigations
cojCve8bcj72EgsWw
AI Safety Newsletter #37: US Launches Antitrust Investigations Plus, recent criticisms of OpenAI and Anthropic, and a summary of Situational Awareness
corin-katzke
Welcome to the AI Safety Newsletter by the Center for AI Safety. We discuss developments in AI and AI safety. No technical background required. Listen to the AI Safety Newsletter for free on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. US Launches Antitrust Investigations The U.S. Government has launched antitrust investigations into Nv...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Y4hFATbyPL9Zp3frX/suffering-is-not-pain
Y4hFATbyPL9Zp3frX
Suffering Is Not Pain
jbkjr
“Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.” The motivation of this post is to address the persistent conflation between suffering and pain I have observed from members of the EA community, even amongst those who purport to be “suffering-focused” in their ethical motivations. In order to best address the problem of suf...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6xqTkyizDiaTLAPTR/lamini-s-targeted-hallucination-reduction-may-be-a-big-deal
6xqTkyizDiaTLAPTR
Lamini’s Targeted Hallucination Reduction May Be a Big Deal for Job Automation
sweenesm
Lamini recently posted a paper explaining their “memory tuning” methodology of using a Mixture of Memory Experts to significantly reduce LLM hallucinations over a limited domain of knowledge. They describe using this technique with a Mistral 2 open-source LLM model to achieve 95% accuracy on a text-to-SQL query task fo...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/frEYsehsPHswDXnNX/on-deepmind-s-frontier-safety-framework
frEYsehsPHswDXnNX
On DeepMind’s Frontier Safety Framework
Zvi
On DeepMind’s Frontier Safety Framework Previously: On OpenAI’s Preparedness Framework, On RSPs. The First Two Frameworks To first update on Anthropic and OpenAI’s situation here: Anthropic’s RSP continues to miss the definitions of the all-important later levels, in addition to other issues, although it is otherwise p...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/aXz9xfe4ifmHLB8hb/linkpost-transcendence-generative-models-can-outperform-the
aXz9xfe4ifmHLB8hb
[Linkpost] Transcendence: Generative Models Can Outperform The Experts That Train Them
bogdan-ionut-cirstea
Authors: Edwin Zhang, Vincent Zhu, Naomi Saphra, Anat Kleiman, Benjamin L. Edelman, Milind Tambe, Sham M. Kakade, Eran Malach. Abstract: Generative models are trained with the simple objective of imitating the conditional probability distribution induced by the data they are trained on. Therefore, when trained on data ...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sCWe5RRvSHQMccd2Q/i-would-have-shit-in-that-alley-too
sCWe5RRvSHQMccd2Q
I would have shit in that alley, too
declan-molony
After living in a suburb for most of my life, when I moved to a major U.S. city the first thing I noticed was the feces. At first I assumed it was dog poop, but my naivety didn’t last long. One day I saw a homeless man waddling towards me at a fast speed while holding his ass cheeks. He turned into an alley and took a ...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/upspuxNFAzaHPcrrL/calling-my-second-family-dance
upspuxNFAzaHPcrrL
Calling My Second Family Dance
jkaufman
Yesterday I called my second family dance, which went pretty well! I've stopped calling regular contra dances because I don't enjoy it very much anymore, but these two have been a lot of fun and I'm up for doing more. As usual we played with an open band, and this time Nora decided to play bass: Despite the flyers, no ...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gRfrL9iEoSsNag64G/the-thing-i-don-t-understand-about-agi
gRfrL9iEoSsNag64G
The thing I don't understand about AGI
jeremy-kalfus
Recently I've been hearing a lot about AGI, specifically that it's 5-10 years out. As someone with an interest in neuroscience, I don't understand how any system so much less complex than the human brain would be able to achieve such a thing. To me, I feel that current models are incapable of actual logical reasoning (...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mP3TedbRvnd2DrFhR/llm-secured-systems-a-general-purpose-tool-for-structured
mP3TedbRvnd2DrFhR
LLM-Secured Systems: A General-Purpose Tool For Structured Transparency
ozziegooen
null
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Wp9eb4CAkH6chyqZm/questionable-narratives-of-situational-awareness
Wp9eb4CAkH6chyqZm
Questionable Narratives of "Situational Awareness"
fergusq
This is my analysis of narratives present in Leopold Aschenbrenner's "Situational Awareness" essay series. In the post, I argue that Aschenbrenner uses dubious, propaganda-esque, and nationalistic narratives, and flawed argumentation overall, which weakens his essay's credibility. I don't believe there is necessarily a...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FSgGBjDiaCdWxNBhj/sycophancy-to-subterfuge-investigating-reward-tampering-in
FSgGBjDiaCdWxNBhj
Sycophancy to subterfuge: Investigating reward tampering in large language models
carson-denison
New Anthropic model organisms research paper led by Carson Denison from the Alignment Stress-Testing Team demonstrating that large language models can generalize zero-shot from simple reward-hacks (sycophancy) to more complex reward tampering (subterfuge). Our results suggest that accidentally incentivizing simple rewa...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ks8wLbuRWXfrcfrn9/labor-participation-is-a-high-priority-ai-alignment-risk
Ks8wLbuRWXfrcfrn9
Labor Participation is a High-Priority AI Alignment Risk
alex
Thank you to Jolien Sweere (Open Philanthropy, Blueprint Biosecurity) for her thoughtful review and suggestions; and Tzu Kit Chan, et al. for his insightful feedback. Intro Defining the concept of “economics” can be challenging even for tenured academics in the field. Economics can be the study of collective human beha...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Rdwui3wHxCeKb7feK/getting-50-sota-on-arc-agi-with-gpt-4o
Rdwui3wHxCeKb7feK
Getting 50% (SoTA) on ARC-AGI with GPT-4o
ryan_greenblatt
I recently got to 50%[1] accuracy on the public test set for ARC-AGI by having GPT-4o generate a huge number of Python implementations of the transformation rule (around 8,000 per problem) and then selecting among these implementations based on correctness of the Python programs on the examples (if this is confusing, g...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cPCvfrqjgy5Cu2FCs/analysing-adversarial-attacks-with-linear-probing-3
cPCvfrqjgy5Cu2FCs
Analysing Adversarial Attacks with Linear Probing
Yoann Poupart
This work was produced as part of the Apart Fellowship. @Yoann Poupart and @Imene Kerboua led the project; @Clement Neo and @Jason  Hoelscher-Obermaier provided mentorship, feedback and project guidance. Here, we present a qualitative analysis of our preliminary results. We are at the very beginning of our experiments,...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4NRNvRcHuYbxRrM6T/what-s-the-future-of-ai-hardware
4NRNvRcHuYbxRrM6T
What’s the future of AI hardware?
itay-dreyfus
Since the AI mania erupted, I haven’t made up my mind about the century's hottest topic. I’ve been experimenting with building “AI-inside” products for a year now, but I’ve cautiously tried not to form a strong opinion about it. As a software native, the recent AI hardware discourse oddly seemed like a good starting po...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/q3zs7E7rktHsESXaF/openai-8-the-right-to-warn
q3zs7E7rktHsESXaF
OpenAI #8: The Right to Warn
Zvi
The fun at OpenAI continues. We finally have the details of how Leopold Aschenbrenner was fired, at least according to Leopold. We have a letter calling for a way for employees to do something if frontier AI labs are endangering safety. And we have continued details and fallout from the issues with non-disparagement ag...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TKRp7inbiLRmzNMFB/logit-prisms-decomposing-transformer-outputs-for-mechanistic
TKRp7inbiLRmzNMFB
Logit Prisms: Decomposing Transformer Outputs for Mechanistic Interpretability
thong-nguyen
ABSTRACT: We introduce a straightforward yet effective method to break down transformer outputs into individual components. By treating the model’s non-linear activations as constants, we can decompose the output in a linear fashion, expressing it as a sum of contributions. These contributions can be easily calculated ...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hzt9gHpNwA2oHtwKX/self-other-overlap-a-neglected-approach-to-ai-alignment
hzt9gHpNwA2oHtwKX
Self-Other Overlap: A Neglected Approach to AI Alignment
Marc-Everin Carauleanu
Figure 1. Image generated by DALL·E 3 to represent the concept of self-other overlap Many thanks to Bogdan Ionut-Cirstea, Steve Byrnes, Gunnar Zarnacke, Jack Foxabbott and Seong Hah Cho for critical comments and feedback on earlier and ongoing versions of this work. This research was conducted at AE Studio and supporte...
2024-07-30
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DbwcnYoPFigJ449Xv/linkpost-guardian-article-covering-lightcone-infrastructure
DbwcnYoPFigJ449Xv
[Linkpost] Guardian article covering Lightcone Infrastructure, Manifest and CFAR ties to FTX
scipio
Response from Habryka:
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Z5sDqqGridJQfr4uC/fat-tails-discourage-compromise
Z5sDqqGridJQfr4uC
Fat Tails Discourage Compromise
niplav
Say that we have a set of options, such as (for example) wild animal welfare interventions. Say also that you have two axes along which you can score those interventions: popularity (how much people will like your intervention) and effectiveness (how much the intervention actually helps wild animals). Assume that we (f...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/THHzxbBgqXARq95KQ/our-intuitions-about-the-criminal-justice-system-are-screwed
THHzxbBgqXARq95KQ
Our Intuitions About The Criminal Justice System Are Screwed Up
omnizoid
Stop calling it aggression Ooh, we hate that expression! We only want the world to know That we support the status quo They love us everywhere we go —Tom Lehrer. In the modern West, we tend to think of ourselves as very civilized, certainly compared to our ancient and barbaric ancestors. We don’t own slaves, women can ...
2024-06-17
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iqNjYdsectt5TvJRh/loving-a-world-you-don-t-trust
iqNjYdsectt5TvJRh
Loving a world you don’t trust
joekc
(Cross-posted from my website. Audio version here, or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app.) This is the final essay in a series that I'm calling "Otherness and control in the age of AGI." I'm hoping that the individual essays can be read fairly well on their own, but see here for a brief summary of the...
2024-06-18
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SLzk8x8KGdqDM2Ay3/ym-s-shortform
SLzk8x8KGdqDM2Ay3
YM's Shortform
Yannick_Muehlhaeuser_duplicate0.05902100825326273
null
2024-06-16
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kkyEZqpukj87Zfn2u/is-ought-is-fraught
kkyEZqpukj87Zfn2u
“Is-Ought” is Fraught
mister-kittty
I’ve concluded that the “Is-ought” correlation (not the philosophical problem) is fraught after my kerfuffle with how one moves from is-ness to ought-ness. Ought is derived from personal emotions (on either extremes), and influence from social circles. The seemingly real pressure one feels from ought isn’t an offspring...
2024-06-16
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/G9vwrkFCRMJ4GPpHx/the-type-of-ai-humanity-has-chosen-to-create-so-far-is
G9vwrkFCRMJ4GPpHx
The type of AI humanity has chosen to create so far is unsafe, for soft social reasons and not technical ones.
l8c
I saw this image on X: and I not only endorse this lady's comment, but would like to briefly expand on it in terms of AI safety. How many people here were attracted to the concept of AI safety by Eliezer Yudkowsky's engaging writing style across a few different topics and genres? Or what about any number of other human...
2024-06-16
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xknjY568uQp4PGFcW/self-control-of-llm-behaviors-by-compressing-suffix-gradient-1
xknjY568uQp4PGFcW
Self-Control of LLM Behaviors by Compressing Suffix Gradient into Prefix Controller
henry-cai
In this paper, we are trying to control model behaviors. For example, by asking saying "You hear someone making fun of a topic you're passionate about", we can control an LLM to behave in an angrier manner. We can also control "any" behaviors of an LLM by simply defining a one-liner of description. The teaser below sho...
2024-06-16
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jEiQJK5y8nKTHPeuL/zuvillage-georgia-mission-statement
jEiQJK5y8nKTHPeuL
ZuVillage Georgia – Mission Statement
Burns
This is a statement by Veronica and Burns, the initiators of the upcoming "ZuVillage Georgia"  – our attempt of a refined second iteration of the Zuzalu 2023 experiment (series). Our addition builds on a triune directional protocol and on the application of the Zuzalu.city OS – both public goods, intended to safeguard ...
2024-06-17