AI Researcher Lists the Reflexes to Check Before Reacting to Every New AI Thing
joshua_saxe · x · 2026-10-15
AI researcher Joshua Saxe catalogues the reflexive thought patterns to guard against whenever a new AI development drops:
- Claiming expertise: How do I make myself the expert, or make my subfield the entire frame?
- Defensive denial: "This is uncomfortable—let me convince myself it's not new."
- Hero narratives: Casting a lab's marketing-research blog post as proof we're "heroes on the hinge of history."
- Pre-existing framing: Making everything about alignment, or sandboxing, or whatever you already care about.
- Tribal dunking: Turning the news into ammunition against a caricatured outgroup your followers love to mock.
- Headline-driven priors: Strong gut feelings based only on a headline, and confidently debating consciousness without knowing what it means.
A self-aware critique of discourse habits in the AI community.
Related event: AI community self-critique over cognitive biases and double standards(2 posts)→
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