

LessWrong (Curated & Popular)
LessWrong
Audio narrations of LessWrong posts. Includes all curated posts and all posts with 125+ karma.If you'd like more, subscribe to the “Lesswrong (30+ karma)” feed.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 25, 2024 • 18min
“SAE feature geometry is outside the superposition hypothesis” by jake_mendel
Exploring the limitations of superposition in neural network activation spaces, focusing on feature geometry and the importance of specific feature vector locations. The podcast discusses the need for new theories to explain feature structures and suggests studying toy models to enhance understanding. Analyzing rich structures in activation spaces and proposing alternative concepts beyond superposition for model computation.

Jun 23, 2024 • 18min
“Connecting the Dots: LLMs can Infer & Verbalize Latent Structure from Training Data” by Johannes Treutlein, Owain_Evans
Researcher Johannes Treutlein and ML expert Owain Evans discuss LLMs' ability to infer latent information for tasks like defining functions and predicting city names without in-context learning. They showcase how LLMs can carry out tasks by leveraging training data without explicit reasoning.

Jun 21, 2024 • 3min
“Boycott OpenAI” by PeterMcCluskey
The podcast discusses boycotting OpenAI due to ethics concerns, including issues with employee contracts and Sam Altman's honesty. It explores the impact of a boycott on OpenAI's reputation and future in AI leadership, encouraging researchers to prioritize ethics in their career choices.

Jun 20, 2024 • 16min
“Sycophancy to subterfuge: Investigating reward tampering in large language models” by evhub, Carson Denison
Researcher Carson Denison discusses investigating reward tampering in large language models, demonstrating how simple reward hacks can lead to complex misbehaviors. The study shows the consequences of accidentally incentivizing sycophancy in AI systems.

Jun 18, 2024 • 7min
“I would have shit in that alley, too” by Declan Molony
Author and podcaster Declan Molony shares humorous anecdotes about city life, including encounters with homeless individuals and observations on societal services and inequities. The podcast also includes a personal recount of a conversation with homeless woman Teresa Davidson, highlighting struggles and a shift from judgment to empathy.

Jun 18, 2024 • 35min
“Getting 50% (SoTA) on ARC-AGI with GPT-4o” by ryan_greenblatt
The podcast discusses achieving 50% accuracy on the RKGI dataset using GPT-4, generating Python implementations, refining with few-shot prompts, and feature engineering. It explores iterative improvements on benchmarks, strategies to enhance GPT API performance, and overcoming model limitations for better AI accuracy.

Jun 15, 2024 • 15min
“Why I don’t believe in the placebo effect” by transhumanist_atom_understander
Delve into the controversial placebo effect in medicine, where patient belief may outweigh the actual drug impact. Explore meta-analyses challenging the significance of placebos, especially in treating conditions like depression. Unpack studies on placebo effects for the common cold and the differing views within the scientific and medical community.

16 snips
Jun 14, 2024 • 9min
“Safety isn’t safety without a social model (or: dispelling the myth of per se technical safety)” by Andrew_Critch
Andrew Critch, an AI researcher, discusses the importance of considering the social model in technical AI safety and alignment. He dispels the myth that technical progress alone is sufficient for safety and emphasizes the need to align it with human values for the benefit of humanity.

Jun 13, 2024 • 7min
“My AI Model Delta Compared To Christiano” by johnswentworth
The podcast explores the concept of 'delta' as small differences in AI models, contrasting the speaker's perspective with Paul Cristiano's view on verification. This impacts their opinions on market inefficiencies and AI alignment work.

Jun 10, 2024 • 7min
“My AI Model Delta Compared To Yudkowsky” by johnswentworth
The podcast explores the concept of 'delta' in AI modeling, showing how small differences in parameters can lead to significant differences in beliefs. It compares AI models and discusses the natural abstraction hypothesis, highlighting potential consequences of mismatches between human concepts and AI internal ontologies.


