Beren's Blog

One of the key questions in safe-AI is that of value-learning. How to endow any potentially super intelligent AGI with a sufficient and robust notion of human values that results in safe behaviour (or considered as such by the vast majority of humanity) when potentially scaled up and executed by... [Read More]

Yesterday I was rereading Richard Suttons Bitter Lesson, especially in light of the enormous recent success of hugely powerful language models (such as GPT3) and RL agents such as Alpha-go, MuZero, Alphastar, and Agent 57 which all broadly fit the pattern predicted in the post. We take existing algorithms and... [Read More]

So, as regularly happens, Hackernews tied itself up in knots about the supposed 10x programmer. The usual conversation ensued. Some people point to John Carmack, Linus Torvalds, or whoever the programming hero of the day is. Surely, they exclaim, they must be 10x. Others have anecdotes about some programmer at... [Read More]

This book aims to apply Boyd’s strategic concepts, primarily the OODA loop, to business. It is a quick read. I read it on a flight to and from Madeira. In general it is well written and interesting, if a bit repetitive at parts. It contains a very clear and straightforward... [Read More]

Lots of people such as slatestarcodex are posting the intellectual progress they have made in the past decade, and I thought about doing a similar thing. However, the truth is that in 2010 I was a 15 year old moron who didn’t do anything except play Starcraft. Unlike a lot... [Read More]