Scott Alexander: Anthropic racing for RSI is 'illiberal' — but voters would shut you down first
slatestarcodex · x · 2026-11-07
Scott Alexander pushes back on the argument that a global vote would reject Anthropic racing for recursive self-improvement. He calls the framing illiberal: world-changing groups from abolitionists to LGBT activists started out hated, and he predicts the critic's own organization would fail the same test — if voters could pick, they'd keep Anthropic and ditch the critic's org (though both would beat polyamory, data centers, and SF apartment building).
Related event: Debate Erupts Over Whether Anthropic's RSI Race Defies Public Will(3 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- New framing: AI may commoditize work rather than automate jobs away — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-11-07
- Alignment thought experiment: treat utility functions as PII under a Kantian veil — jessi_cata · 2026-11-07
- Default to human-robot teams: why research should be judged on quality, not AI use — _akpiper · 2026-11-07
- Dozens of AI-discovered drugs in the clinic: rebutting Vertex chairman's claim that AI doesn't work — chaitjo · 2026-11-07
- 'We can befriend them, but they are not befriending us': NYRB revisits AI intimacy — _akpiper · 2026-11-07
- Gary Marcus mocks Anthropic: begged for regulation 6 months ago, now 'voters were actually listening?' — GaryMarcus · 2026-11-07