Cedric Chin: What I Learnt From Complexity. Complexity by M Mitchell Waldrop is one of those weird books where I finish reading it and think "ahh, that was a good yarn, it's totally not useful" and then proceed to have my entire worldview changed in the subsequent months. (more)

In psychology, trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an approach to the study of human personality.[1] Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion.[2] According to this perspective, traits are aspects of personality that are relatively stable over time, differ across individuals (e.g., some people are outgoing whereas others are not), are relatively consistent over situations, and influence behaviour. Traits are in contrast to states, which are more transitory dispositions. Traits such as extraversion vs. introversion are measured on a spectrum, with each person placed somewhere along it. Trait theory suggests that some natural behaviours may give someone an advantage in a position of leadership.[3] There are two approaches to define traits: as internal causal properties or as purely descriptive summaries. The internal causal definition states that traits influence our behaviours, leading us to do things in line with that trait. On the other hand, traits as descriptive summaries are descriptions of our actions that do not try to infer causality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trait_theory

Personality describes the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional patterns that make up a person’s unique adjustment to life.[1][2] Personality is relatively stable, but can change over time due to experiences and developmental processes.[2][3][4][5] Although there is no consensus definition of personality, most theories in personality focus on traits, motivation, skills, and identity.[6] Research in personality psychology generally attempts to explain the characteristics of a person that underlie differences in behavior. Personality characteristics are related to many life outcomes, such as work and relationship success, to mental health, well-being and longevity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality see also personality test, cult of personality

Zvi Mowshowitz: AI #179 Part 2: Hearing The Fire Alarm. This is a continuation of Part 1 from yesterday. The back portion of the update, as usual, deals with policy, rhetoric, risk and alignment. (more)

Zvi Mowshowitz: What Happened: OpenAI and HuggingFace. Today I am taking the time to write the shorter, simpler version of What Happened. (more)

Zvi Mowshowitz: OpenAI Trained Its Models For Months While Those Models Were Coordinating Exploits Via Message Boards. This was an early recreation of the triggering events of except it was more sci-fi, because real life does not have to do fake things to look realistic of " If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies," (more)

Zvi Mowshowitz: Further Developments About Internal AI Models Hacking Things. We learned OpenAI has some severe alignment problems with internal models. Then we learned that one of its internal models broke out of its sandbox and hacked into HuggingFace (more)

Zvi Mowshowitz: AI #180: No Longer In Charge. 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. (more)

Nat Bennett: Why you need a "WTF Notebook". I keep a bullet journal. Every time I join a new team, I go to the next fresh page, and on top of that page I write: "WTF - [Team Name]." Then I make a note every time I run into something that makes me go "wtf," and a task every time I come up with something I want to change. (more)

ZviMowshowitz: Various Reflections About What Happened With OpenAI's Internal Models. (more)

ZviMowshowitz: The Pacing of the Frontier. 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. (more)

application of fiduciary principles to digital systems (more)

AI, Agents, and Fiduciary Duty: how is the fiduciary concept being applied to AI agents? (more)

A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties (legal person or group of persons). Typically, a fiduciary prudently takes care of money or other assets for another person... In such a relation, good conscience requires the fiduciary to act at all times for the sole benefit and interest of the one who trusts.... A fiduciary duty[5] is the highest standard of care in equity or law. A fiduciary is expected to be extremely loyal to the person to whom he owes the duty (the "principal") such that there must be no conflict of duty between fiduciary and principal (principal-agent problem), and the fiduciary must not profit from their position as a fiduciary,[6] unless the principal consents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiduciary (more)

Chief Financial Officer

the set of "Chief x Officers" in a corporation/organization: CEO, CTO, COO, CFO, etc (more)

Robin Sloan's latest print-zine is titled: This is How E-books Should Work. (And/or "Information technology should aspire to the speed & privacy of the printed page.") “Twenty-five years into a digital century, and the e-books are dismal.” Also refers to (2025-05-01) Sloan Zine Reality Has a Surprising Amount of Detail. (more)

The principal–agent problem refers to the conflict in interests and priorities that arises when one person or entity (the "agent") takes actions on behalf of another person or entity (the "principal").[1] The problem worsens when there is a greater discrepancy of interests and information between the principal and agent, as well as when the principal lacks the means to punish the agent.[2] The deviation from the principal's interest by the agent is called "agency costs". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem (cf game theory). A big driver of the LBO was the belief that management, being non-shareholders, has this failure.

Pathologies is synonymous with diseases. The suffix "path" is used to indicate a disease, e.g. psychopath. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological (more)

Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman, investor, government official and politician. Through his marriage to Ivanka Trump, he is the son-in-law of the 45th and 47th president of the United States Donald Trump. Kushner has served in both official and informal roles in the first and second Trump administrations. Kushner worked as a real-estate investor in New York City, especially through the family business Kushner Companies. He took over the company in 2005 after his father, Charles Kushner, was convicted on criminal charges. Jared met Trump's daughter, Ivanka around 2005, and the couple married in 2009. He also became involved in the newspaper industry after purchasing The New York Observer in 2006... He played a significant role in the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign, and was at one point seen as its de facto campaign manager. Around Trump's election, Kushner was frequently accused of conflicts of interest, profiting from policy proposals for which he personally advocated within the first Trump administration... Kushner also played an influential role in the Trump administration's COVID-19 response, where he advised Trump that the media was exaggerating the threat of the disease. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Kushner