LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

The second time Vellam uncovers the conspiracy underlying all of society, he approaches a Keeper.

Some of the difference is convenience. Since Vellam reported that he’d found out about the first conspiracy, he's lived in the secret AI research laboratory at the Basement of the World, and Keepers are much easier to come by than when he was a quality control inspector for cheese.

But Vellam is honest with himself. If he were making progress, he’d never tell the Keepers no matter how convenient they were, not even if they lined his front walkway every morning to beg him for a scrap of his current intellectual project. He’d sat on his insight about artificial general intelligence for two years before he decided that he preferred isolation to another day of cheese inspection.

No, the only reason he's telling a Keeper is that he's stuck.

Vellam is exactly as smart as the average human, a fact he has almost stopped feeling bad about. But the average person can only work twenty hours a week, and Vellam can work eighty-- a hundred, if he's particularly interested-- and raw thinkoomph can be compensated for with bloody-mindedness. Once he's found a loose end [...]

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First published:

April 4th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Fvm4AzLnoZHqNEBqf/dark-ilan

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Dateline SAN FRANCISCO, Ca., 24 March 2026— A hearing was held on a motion for a preliminary injunction in the case of Anthropic PBC v. U.S. Department of War et al. in Courtroom 12 on the 19th floor of the Phillip Burton Federal Building, the Hon. Judge Rita F. Lin presiding. About 35 spectators in the gallery (journalists and other members of the public, including the present writer) looked on as Michael Mongan of WilmerHale (lead counsel for the plaintiff) and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Hamilton (lead counsel for the defendant) argued before the judge. (The defendant also had another lawyer at their counsel table on the left, and the plaintiff had six more at theirs on the right, but none of those people said anything.)

For some dumb reason, recording court proceedings is banned and the official transcript won't be available online for three months, so I'm relying on my handwritten live notes to tell you what happened. I'd say that any errors are my responsibility, but actually, it's kind of the government's fault for not letting me just take a recording.

The case concerns the fallout of a contract dispute between Anthropic (makers of [...]

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First published:

March 25th, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CCDQ7PdYHXsJAE5bi/dispatch-from-anthropic-v-department-of-war-preliminary

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Is the US a ruthless cognitive meritocracy that reliably promotes outlier talent? VB Knives defended that claim in a Twitter argument against Living Room Enjoyer that got my attention.
[1]
Knives argued that if you have a 150 IQ, you'll be a National Merit Scholar, which "at a minimum" gets you a free ride at a state flagship university, from which you can proceed to law school, med school, etc. Enjoyer shot back: I'm a Merit Scholar, where's my free ride? Knives asked Grok, Elon Musk's AI; Grok recommended the University of Alabama, ranked #169.

How elite is elite?

About 1.3 million high school juniors take the PSAT each year. Around 16,000 become Semifinalists (top 1.2%), of whom about 95% become Finalists. Of those 15,000 Finalists, only about 6,930 receive any NMSC-administered scholarship at all. The best-known category is a one-time $2,500 payment; most other awards are corporate- or college-sponsored.

The prospect of a free ride comes from a handful of schools that use National Merit status as a recruiting tool. The University of Alabama (the example Grok cited in the thread) offers Finalists a package covering tuition for up to five years, housing, a $4,000/year [...]

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Outline:

(00:46) How elite is elite?

(08:20) What meritocracy was for

(11:36) The compliance pipeline

The original text contained 19 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

April 2nd, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tihhx7iy8C6yyHaC2/the-corner-stone

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

It's Summer of 2025. I’m standing in a grass covered field on the longest day of the year. A friend of mine walks towards me, holding his newborn son.

“Hey, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but you were pretty instrumental in this kid existing. We read your blog post on polygenic embryo screening back in 2023 and decided to go through IVF to have him as a result.”

He hesitates for a moment, then asks “Do you want to hold him?” I nod.

As I cradle this child in my arms, I look down at his face. It feels surreal to think I played a part in him being here. It's the first time I've met one of these children that I've worked so hard to bring into existence.

My mind wanders back to a summer five years before when I was stuck at home during COVID, working my boring tech job selling chip design software for a large company. I remember the feeling of awe I had upon learning that it was possible to read an embryo's genome and estimate its risk of conditions like diabetes, then choose to implant an embryo with a [...]

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Outline:

(03:59) How large are the benefits of embryo screening? Is it even worth going through IVF?

(07:29) When averages dont work

(09:31) How much does IVF cost?

(11:36) How to find an IVF clinic

(15:08) Which PGT company should I use? What are the advantages of each?

(16:32) Quick comparison table

(17:03) Price comparison

(17:09) Notes on the above graph

(18:46) What are the actual differences between the embryo selection companies?

(19:18) How Genomic Prediction reads a genome

(21:23) How Orchid reads a genome

(23:47) How Herasight reads a genome

(28:35) Genetic load testing, de novo mutations, and other differences between embryo screening companies

(31:34) Family history

(32:22) Expanded carrier screening and universal PGT-M

(35:37) Whats the deal with Nucleus?

(38:28) How do I do this? Where do I start?

(42:15) How to get cheap IVF medication

(44:55) Connecting with me and others in this process

(45:34) FAQ

(45:37) Is this post medical advice?

(45:43) Are IVF babies less healthy than naturally conceived babies?

(47:29) How do we know embryo selection actually works?

(48:54) If I want to use a cheaper clinic, do I need to spend 3 weeks traveling?

(49:20) Which clinics definitely offer polygenic embryo screening?

[... 10 more sections]

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First published:

April 2nd, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PPLHfFhNWMuWCnaTt/the-practical-guide-to-superbabies-3

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. T

Imagine Apple halting iPhone production because studies linked smartphones to teen suicide rates. Imagine Pfizer proactively pulling Lipitor because of internal studies showing increased cardiac risk, and not because of looming settlements or FDA injunction, just for the health of patients. Or imagine if in 1952, Philip Morris halted expansion and stopped advertising when Wynder & Graham first showed heavy smokers had significantly elevated rates of lung cancer.

It wouldn't happen. Corporations will on occasion pull products for safety reasons: Samsung did so with the Galaxy Note over spontaneous combustion concerns and Merck pulled Vioxx – but they do so when forced by backlash, regulation, or lawsuits. Even then, they fight tooth and nail. Especially for their mainstay, core, and most profitable products.

And yet, Anthropic has done exactly that.

On Monday, the company announced that it will be pausing development of further Claude AI models citing safety concerns. The company clarified that existing services, including the chatbot, Claude Code, and programmer APIs will not be impacted. However they are pausing the compute and energy-intensive training runs that are how new and more powerful AI versions are created. The company has not committed to a timeline for resumption.

[...]

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First published:

April 1st, 2026


Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/d8bZFuYba4KPtzzRY/anthropic-s-pause-is-the-most-expensive-alarm-in-corporate

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article: