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In this episode of Process Transformers, Lukas Egger engages with Samuel Hammond, a senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, to explore the significant implications of AI on business transformation and economic structures. They discuss the crucial differences between first-order and second-order effects of disruptive technologies, emphasizing how AI not only impacts immediate tasks but also reshapes entire industries and governance frameworks. Hear how AI is eliminating traditional agency barriers, enhancing productivity, and enabling new opportunites for value creation. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone invested in the future of technology and business, filled with actionable strategies to navigate the evolving economic landscape. Let's dive right in!
Sam's theory of (some of) Trump's tariffs ... The bad scenario and the less bad scenario ... Scott Bessent's radicalism ... Will Trump display the art of the deal? ... China's trade-war strengths ... An intentional end to American hegemony? ... Sam's defense of chip restrictions ... Heading to Overtime ...
Sam's theory of (some of) Trump's tariffs ... The bad scenario and the less bad scenario ... Scott Bessent's radicalism ... Will Trump display the art of the deal? ... China's trade-war strengths ... An intentional end to American hegemony? ... Sam's defense of chip restrictions ... Heading to Overtime ...
In the face of what is inarguably bad governance and fake—but spectacular!—technocracy (the list goes on and on, but we'll stop at AI-generated tariffs), we thought we'd take a moment to join the conversation about what good governance looks like. A couple of weeks ago, one of us reviewed Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's new book, Abundance, for the New York Times, and then the other one of us reviewed the review. So we figured: let's work it out on the pod? No guests on this episode, just the two of us in a brass-tacks, brass-knuckles discussion of the abundance agenda and the goals of twenty-first century economic policy.We dive right into what the abundance agenda is and who its enemies are: innovators and builders against NIMBYs and environmentalists on David's account; techno-utopians who discount the environment and politics on Sam's. We agree that housing policy, at least, has helped the better-off create a cycle of entrenching their position through stymieing construction and production. We find another point of agreement on how Klein and Thomson's abundance agenda attempts to harness the power of the state to build, and that certain left-wing critiques are off base, but disagree about whether their proposal is a break from the neoliberal era of governance and what that even was. In some ways, we end up right where we started, disagreeing about whether the abundance agenda seeks to unleash a dammed-up tide that can lift all boats, or whether the abundance agenda leaves behind everyone but a vanguard of “innovators” in the technology and finance sectors. Let us know if you've got a convincing answer.This podcast is generously supported by Themis Bar Review.Referenced ReadingsWhy Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back by Marc DunkelmanStuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity by Yoni AppelbaumOn the Housing Crisis: Land, Development, Democracy by Jerusalem DemsasOne Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matthew Yglesias“Kludgeocracy: The American Way of Policy” by Steven TelesThe Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War by Robert GordonThe Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era by Gary GerstlePublic Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism by Paul Sabin“The State Capacity Crisis” by Nicholas Bagley and David SchleicherRed State Blues: How the Conservative Revolution Stalled in the States by Matt GrossmannThe Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality by Brink Lindsey and Steven Teles“Why has Regional Income Convergence in the U.S. Declined?” by Peter Ganong and Daniel Shoag“Exclusionary Zoning's Confused Defenders” by David Schleicher“Cost Disease Socialism: How Subsidizing Costs While Restricting Supply Drives America's Fiscal Imbalance” by Steven Teles, Samuel Hammond, and Daniel Takash”On Productivism” by Dani Rodrik
Sam's place on the AI accelerationist-pauser spectrum ... Predicting AI's near-term impact ... Is regulating AI a fool's errand? ... Does strong AI governance court authoritarianism? ... Can Trump and Elon be trusted on AI? ... How Sam thinks AI should be regulated ... Heading to Overtime ...
Sam's place on the AI accelerationist-pauser spectrum ... Predicting AI's near-term impact ... Is regulating AI a fool's errand? ... Does strong AI governance court authoritarianism? ... Can Trump and Elon be trusted on AI? ... How Sam thinks AI should be regulated ... Heading to Overtime ...
Samuel Hammond, senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, discusses Donald Trump's election victory, the rise of a conservative populism/big tech counter-establishment personified by incoming vice president JD Vance, and the policy implications of the nascent alliance between conservative populism and Silicon Valley elites. The Hub Dialogues features The Hub's editor-at-large, Sean Speer, in conversation with leading entrepreneurs, policymakers, scholars, and thinkers on the issues and challenges that will shape Canada's future at home and abroad. If you like what you are hearing on Hub Dialogues consider subscribing to The Hub's free weekly email newsletter featuring our insights and analysis on key public policy issues. Sign up here: https://thehub.ca/join/.
In this special episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan shares his thoughts on the upcoming election and its potential impact on AI development. He explores the AI-forward case for Trump, featuring an interview with Samuel Hammond. Nathan outlines his reasons for not supporting Trump, focusing on US-China relations, leadership approach, and the need for a positive-sum mindset in the AI era. He discusses the importance of stable leadership during pivotal moments and explains why he'll be voting for Kamala Harris, despite some reservations. This thought-provoking episode offers a nuanced perspective on the intersection of politics and AI development. Be notified early when Turpentine's drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess SPONSORS: Weights & Biases RAG++: Advanced training for building production-ready RAG applications. Learn from experts to overcome LLM challenges, evaluate systematically, and integrate advanced features. Includes free Cohere credits. Visit https://wandb.me/cr to start the RAG++ course today. Shopify: Shopify is the world's leading e-commerce platform, offering a market-leading checkout system and exclusive AI apps like Quikly. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. Get a $1 per month trial at https://shopify.com/cognitive Notion: Notion offers powerful workflow and automation templates, perfect for streamlining processes and laying the groundwork for AI-driven automation. With Notion AI, you can search across thousands of documents from various platforms, generating highly relevant analysis and content tailored just for you - try it for free at https://notion.com/cognitiverevolution LMNT: LMNT is a zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix that's redefining hydration and performance. Ideal for those who fast or anyone looking to optimize their electrolyte intake. Support the show and get a free sample pack with any purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/tcr CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) About the Show (00:00:22) Sponsors: Weights & Biases RAG++ (00:01:28) About the Episode (00:13:13) Introductions (00:14:22) The Case for Trump (00:16:32) Trump: A Wildcard (00:26:10) Sponsors: Shopify | Notion (00:29:06) Ideological AI Policy (00:33:47) Republican Ideologies (00:40:31) Sponsors: LMNT (00:42:11) Trump and Silicon Valley (00:47:49) Republican Nuance (00:53:36) Elon Musk and AI (00:55:43) Utilitarian Analysis (00:58:01) Internal Consistency (01:00:31) Trump's Cabinet (01:05:53) Immigration Reform (01:15:30) Creative Destruction (01:22:29) Racing China (01:32:51) The Chip Ban (01:44:20) Standard Setting (01:48:36) Values and Diplomacy (01:52:50) American Strength (01:55:56) Red Queen Dynamic (01:59:23) Interest Groups & AI (02:08:32) Concluding Thoughts (02:17:45) Outro SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai Twitter (Podcast): https://x.com/cogrev_podcast Twitter (Nathan): https://x.com/labenz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanlabenz/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CognitiveRevolutionPodcast
Is AI a miracle? A threat? Will it free us? Enslave us? Both? Neither? What's the future of AI and governance? AI and art? AI and elections? AI and social media? AI and the economy? AI and the world?Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcast: AI and Everything. On this special episode, we present highlights from more than a year of conversations with leading experts on the state of the AI revolution.Featuring Adam Thierer, Samuel Hammond, Liza Lin, Arnold Kling, Brian Frye, Joseph Tainter, James Pethokoukis, Robert Atkinson, Alice Marwick, and Ari Cohn.Links:Tech Policy Podcast 327: The Collapse of Complex SocietiesTech Policy Podcast 337: China and Domestic SurveillanceTech Policy Podcast 346: Who's Afraid of Artificial Intelligence?Tech Policy Podcast 355: Conservative FuturismTech Policy Podcast 361: AI, Art, Copyright, and the Life of BrianTech Policy Podcast 363: AI and ElectionsTech Policy Podcast 369: AI and State CapacityTech Policy Podcast 375: Tech Facts and FallaciesTech Policy Podcast 377: AI and Wicked Problems
In this episode of Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg is joined by Samuel Hammond (@hamandcheese), a senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation and AI Scout/ Cognitive Revolution podcast host Nathan Labenz (@labenz). From drug innovation to nuclear risk, they discuss the impact of AI on policy and governance, exploring the challenges and opportunities of a Trump vs. Harris presidency. From drug innovation to nuclear risk, they dissect the impact of AI on policy and governance, exploring the challenges and opportunities of a Trump vs. Harris presidency. --
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: AI #67: Brief Strange Trip, published by Zvi on June 7, 2024 on LessWrong. I had a great time at LessOnline. It was a both a working trip and also a trip to an alternate universe, a road not taken, a vision of a different life where you get up and start the day in dialogue with Agnes Callard and Aristotle and in a strange combination of relaxed and frantically go from conversation to conversation on various topics, every hour passing doors of missed opportunity, gone forever. Most of all it meant almost no writing done for five days, so I am shall we say a bit behind again. Thus, the following topics are pending at this time, in order of my guess as to priority right now: 1. Leopold Aschenbrenner wrote a giant thesis, started a fund and went on Dwarkesh Patel for four and a half hours. By all accounts, it was all quite the banger, with many bold claims, strong arguments and also damning revelations. 2. Partly due to Leopold, partly due to an open letter, partly due to continuing small things, OpenAI fallout continues, yes we are still doing this. This should wait until after Leopold. 3. DeepMind's new scaling policy. I have a first draft, still a bunch of work to do. 4. The OpenAI model spec. As soon as I have the cycles and anyone at OpenAI would have the cycles to read it. I have a first draft, but that was written before a lot happened, so I'd want to see if anything has changed. 5. The Rand report on securing AI model weights, which deserves more attention than the brief summary I am giving it here. 6. You've Got Seoul. I've heard some sources optimistic about what happened there but mostly we've heard little. It doesn't seem that time sensitive, diplomacy flows slowly until it suddenly doesn't. 7. The Problem of the Post-Apocalyptic Vault still beckons if I ever have time. Also I haven't processed anything non-AI in three weeks, the folders keep getting bigger, but that is a (problem? opportunity?) for future me. And there are various secondary RSS feeds I have not checked. There was another big change this morning. California's SB 1047 saw extensive changes. While many were helpful clarifications or fixes, one of them severely weakened the impact of the bill, as I cover on the linked post. The reactions to the SB 1047 changes so far are included here. Table of Contents 1. Introduction. 2. Table of Contents. 3. Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. Three thumbs in various directions. 4. Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility. Food for lack of thought. 5. Fun With Image Generation. Video generation services have examples. 6. Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon. The dog continues not to bark. 7. They Took Our Jobs. Constant AI switching for maximum efficiency. 8. Get Involved. Help implement Biden's executive order. 9. Someone Explains It All. New possible section. Template fixation. 10. Introducing. Now available in Canada. Void where prohibited. 11. In Other AI News. US Safety Institute to get model access, and more. 12. Covert Influence Operations. Your account has been terminated. 13. Quiet Speculations. The bear case to this week's Dwarkesh podcast. 14. Samuel Hammond on SB 1047. Changes address many but not all concerns. 15. Reactions to Changes to SB 1047. So far coming in better than expected. 16. The Quest for Sane Regulation. Your random encounters are corporate lobbyists. 17. That's Not a Good Idea. Antitrust investigation of Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI. 18. The Week in Audio. Roman Yampolskiy, also new Dwarkesh Patel is a banger. 19. Rhetorical Innovation. Innovative does not mean great. 20. Oh Anthropic. I have seen the other guy, but you are not making this easy. 21. Securing Model Weights is Difficult. Rand has some suggestions. 22. Aligning a Dumber Than Human Intelligence is Still Difficult. What to do? 23. Aligning a Smarter Than Human Inte...
Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: AI #67: Brief Strange Trip, published by Zvi on June 7, 2024 on LessWrong. I had a great time at LessOnline. It was a both a working trip and also a trip to an alternate universe, a road not taken, a vision of a different life where you get up and start the day in dialogue with Agnes Callard and Aristotle and in a strange combination of relaxed and frantically go from conversation to conversation on various topics, every hour passing doors of missed opportunity, gone forever. Most of all it meant almost no writing done for five days, so I am shall we say a bit behind again. Thus, the following topics are pending at this time, in order of my guess as to priority right now: 1. Leopold Aschenbrenner wrote a giant thesis, started a fund and went on Dwarkesh Patel for four and a half hours. By all accounts, it was all quite the banger, with many bold claims, strong arguments and also damning revelations. 2. Partly due to Leopold, partly due to an open letter, partly due to continuing small things, OpenAI fallout continues, yes we are still doing this. This should wait until after Leopold. 3. DeepMind's new scaling policy. I have a first draft, still a bunch of work to do. 4. The OpenAI model spec. As soon as I have the cycles and anyone at OpenAI would have the cycles to read it. I have a first draft, but that was written before a lot happened, so I'd want to see if anything has changed. 5. The Rand report on securing AI model weights, which deserves more attention than the brief summary I am giving it here. 6. You've Got Seoul. I've heard some sources optimistic about what happened there but mostly we've heard little. It doesn't seem that time sensitive, diplomacy flows slowly until it suddenly doesn't. 7. The Problem of the Post-Apocalyptic Vault still beckons if I ever have time. Also I haven't processed anything non-AI in three weeks, the folders keep getting bigger, but that is a (problem? opportunity?) for future me. And there are various secondary RSS feeds I have not checked. There was another big change this morning. California's SB 1047 saw extensive changes. While many were helpful clarifications or fixes, one of them severely weakened the impact of the bill, as I cover on the linked post. The reactions to the SB 1047 changes so far are included here. Table of Contents 1. Introduction. 2. Table of Contents. 3. Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. Three thumbs in various directions. 4. Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility. Food for lack of thought. 5. Fun With Image Generation. Video generation services have examples. 6. Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon. The dog continues not to bark. 7. They Took Our Jobs. Constant AI switching for maximum efficiency. 8. Get Involved. Help implement Biden's executive order. 9. Someone Explains It All. New possible section. Template fixation. 10. Introducing. Now available in Canada. Void where prohibited. 11. In Other AI News. US Safety Institute to get model access, and more. 12. Covert Influence Operations. Your account has been terminated. 13. Quiet Speculations. The bear case to this week's Dwarkesh podcast. 14. Samuel Hammond on SB 1047. Changes address many but not all concerns. 15. Reactions to Changes to SB 1047. So far coming in better than expected. 16. The Quest for Sane Regulation. Your random encounters are corporate lobbyists. 17. That's Not a Good Idea. Antitrust investigation of Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI. 18. The Week in Audio. Roman Yampolskiy, also new Dwarkesh Patel is a banger. 19. Rhetorical Innovation. Innovative does not mean great. 20. Oh Anthropic. I have seen the other guy, but you are not making this easy. 21. Securing Model Weights is Difficult. Rand has some suggestions. 22. Aligning a Dumber Than Human Intelligence is Still Difficult. What to do? 23. Aligning a Smarter Than Human Inte...
Samuel Hammond, senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, joins James Poulos as a tech innovation expert. They discuss what effective accelerationism (e/acc) is and its oppositional defiance to effective altruism. Artificial intelligence continues to develop and tends to favor a globalist society. Will our future look more like Nick Land's digital utopia or Ray Kurzweil's transhumanist singularity? Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has warned us about the merging of man and machine. Can we slow down innovation enough to regulate it? Or will that push us toward globalization and eventually to hyper-globalization? The EU has already tried to step in and slow AI's progress, but the U.S. has been in gridlock trying to pass legislation. We could be leaning toward centralization through the rise of populism, but it seems Silicon Valley has its own agenda accelerating tech to reach a blend of transhumanism and Marxism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 1968, a peaceful civil rights protest turned deadly in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Known as the Orangeburg Massacre, it became known as one of the most violent events of the civil rights movement, but details aren't widely known. Host Nat Cardona is again joined by subject matter expert Dr. William Heine to discuss how peaceful protestors were met with violence, what happened to the victims, and who was- or wasn't- held responsible for the bloodshed. The two also discuss how the victims are remembered today. Listen to Episode 1 of the Orangeburg Massacre Read more here and here and here. Episode transcript Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically: Welcome to Late Edition Crime Beat Chronicles. I'm your host Nat Cardona. In the last episode, we discuss the climate leading into the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre in Orangeburg, South Carolina. If you haven't listened to that episode, please go back and listen. There's a link in the show notes to help make it easier for you to find. In this week's episode, I'm again joined by Dr. William Heine. He's a former history professor at South Carolina State University. We discuss in detail how the peaceful protest by students was met with violence from law enforcement. We also go into who was or wasn't held responsible for the deaths of three students and the wounding of more than 20 others. And with that, let's get to it. So you have this pressure cooker of tensions for the handful of years nights before the actual event happens. What's the tipping point? What's the the other shoe that drops to turn from. You know, a lot of tension to violence. What were the what was the thing that happened that night? That's that's that's it. There was nothing. I mean, they were they're they're fronted each other and went back and forth or time. As I mentioned, there was a bonfire that was was put out. People continued to throw things at one point and officer of the highway patrol, a man named Shelly, got it. Looked like he'd been shot almost literally between the eyes. He went down at least semi-conscious for a period of time, bleeding profusely, and it appeared as if he had been been shot from the direction of the students. As it turned out, he had not been shot. He'd been hit with a heavy piece of timber. It had opened a wound on his forehead. They took him off after the hospital and at least another 10 minutes or more elapsed after Shelly was hit with the with the timber. A lot of people were at the time and sense under the mistaken impression, well surely got hit and then the highway patrolman opened fire. It didn't happen. It did not happen that way. They opened fire with no announcement that they were going to fire. Nobody said lock and load or know you have one minute or and 80 seconds to retreat or we're going to open fire. It wasn't announced. They just simply started shooting. Not all the highway patrolman shot. There were 66 of them aligned along the embankment and kind of curled around at right angles toward an unoccupied house next next door to the campus there. Some opened fire, some did not. Most of the students were hit in the back as they turned to run from the shotgun blast and more than 30 were were hit and three were killed and at least 28 were injured, some superficially, some very seriously. Note that there was no ready, aim, fire. It was just a spontaneous opening of a fire. The later it was, it was determined that apparently one of the highway patrol officers had fired a warning shot into the air with his sidearm and others not realizing that opened fire. You're hearing a a weapon go off. That's been about the best determination of how the highway patrolman came to open fire that night, roughly 10:30, 10:45 on February eight. Okay. So you have a bunch of these young people wounded. Three young men ultimately are massacred or killed. Can you talk a little bit about those three young men, if you don't mind? Well, two of them were college students. One was a high school student and they were there as much out of curiosity as a determination that they're going to be involved in protests. Henry Smith was probably the most active of the students. He wanted to be there. He did consider himself an activist. He was upset with conditions in the community and on the campus. And there's no question of his involvement, his determination to be a part of this. And the other college student was a freshman football player named Samuel Hammond from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was there are of interest and curiosity. He was there with several other football players and athletes as well. He was shot and died shortly after that. Then there was Delano Middleton, who was the high school student. His mother worked on the campus and he kind of came up to see what was happening on the front of the campus. And he was ahead and fatally injured as well that night. He was he was local. He was from the Orangeburg area and Smith was from Marion, now probably 100 miles. He came from a poor family over there. And as I mentioned, Samuel Hammond was an athlete from Fort Lauderdale, although his parents, his father was from are down the road from Orangeburg and Bamberg, South Carolina. And so but they had connections and roots to the local area as well. Okay. Unfortunately, they're killed and other people are wounded. And then what? Like what is the what does that rest of the night like what happens pretty much immediately after? Well, it was chaos initially on the campus. I mean, there was fear, one, that this was just a prelude to an invasion by law enforcement that were going to head head on and through the campus and maybe continue shooting or occupy the campus. No one knew what was going on. There was a absence of communication of any time. They were taking wounded students out the back side of the campus and going to the to the hospital by a back route. The college infirmary was filled with bleeding students of was great fear, anger, trepidation about what? What, what, what's next. I hear and it took a number of hours for this to settle down in the meantime, that the accounts that were out through the media were, well, incomplete and false as it turned out as well. Associated Press tape sent out an account that there had been an exchange of gunfire on the campus with students shooting at highway patrolman and patrolman shooting back. And that was absolutely incorrect. And it was it was never a corrected by AP either. So the headlines, such as they were that appeared the next day, was that there had been an exchange of gunfire and the governor and the local authorities were pretty well convinced that they'd saved Orangeburg from some kind of massive black nationalist uprising. And as regrettable as it was that students got shot, that this was necessary to protect the community, protect the lives and property of people in Orangeburg. And the governor maintained that and continued to maintain that as the days and weeks and then months and even years went by. After that, he was convinced that he'd acted properly and that he had helped to preserve the security and preserve what threatened to become a much worse situation from exploding into that. And that is, to a large extent our the conventional story that was heard in the aftermath of the massacre, except for the black press that did cover the black newspapers at the time, the Baltimore Afro-American, the Pittsburgh Courier and our Defender, Jet magazine. I mean, they covered it, But as far as most people in the black community were concerned, that was just cold blooded murder by armed highway patrolman, all white who shot into a crowd of black young men protesting on their own campus unarmed at the time. So there are two versions that prevailed for many days, weeks and months, even years to the present day about what actually happened that night in 1968. Sure. We needed to take a quick break, so don't go too far. Just so listeners understand, there were out of the 70 or so patrolmen, nine were charged with shooting at protesters, but ultimately none were convicted of anything, totally just wiped clean. No one held accountable for the murders or the shootings. Anything, correct? That is correct. The U.S. Department of Justice tried to indict the nine highway patrolman who did admit shooting into the crowd of students. A federal grand jury in Columbia in the fall of 1968 refused to indict them on felony charges and the Department of Justice and ended them on misdemeanor charges, criminal information. And they went on trial the following spring of 1969 in federal court in Florence, South Carolina. And a jury of ten white people and two black people found them not guilty and that they felt their lives were in danger and therefore they were justified in shooting into this crowd of students, even if the students weren't armed with weapons. And so the nine Howard patrolmen were indeed acquitted. And then a year after that, Cleveland Sellers was brought to the bar of justice in Orangeburg, and he was charged with an assortment of charges, including inciting a riot. There. As it turned out, most of the charges were abandoned and he was finally convicted, not for what happened on the night of February, but on the night of February six at the bowling alley of inciting the crowd down there. And he was sentenced to a year in state prison in the Bradford River Federal Byrd River State Correctional Institution. He served nine months. He was released early on our good behavior. So he's the only one who was penalized for the events surrounding the Orangeburg Massacre in 1968. And I should point out that he was one of the people shot and wounded that night as while he was hit in the upper arm by a shotgun pellets there. So he had to face the indignity of going to jail and being shot as well. I'm really, really hoping to still hear back from him, to hear just his retelling of everything that happened. But thanks for laying out all out. So, yeah, ultimately, he's the only one who's punished for anything that had happened that night. And at the end of the day, no justice was served for the three young men that were killed. And, you know, here we are today. It's going on. What if we're 55, 56 years later? Like, how did we get here to where this major event that actually was so integral to the civil rights movement and so violence on top of it? How did we get to the point where this is just a blip on the radar in history, especially in terms with this? Do you have any input on that? Well, the circumstances under which it happened in in 1968 was not well covered at that time. And 1968 was a very tumultuous year in American history. At the time of the year of the massacre in early February, the Tet Offensive was breaking out in Vietnam. The Vietnam War absorbed the attention of many, many Americans and the media shortly before that, and in January, an American naval vessel, the Pueblo, had been captured by North Korea and its crew taken hostage. And then only weeks after the massacre, the sitting president, Lyndon Johnson, announced that he would not be running for reelection in 1968. And days after that, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was shot in Memphis, Tennessee. And then a couple of months after that, Robert Kennedy was shot after the Democratic primary in California, shot in Los Angeles, and he died a day or so later. And the the the massacre got lost in this series of events. And to that, it happens in a small rural town in South Carolina. And then most importantly, there was a group of black students and it simply did not draw the attention or the coverage of most people, especially most white people. It did, as I mentioned, draw the coverage of the black press and black students at other HBCU, other historically black colleges, universities, North Carolina, and to Morehouse, Howard in Washington DC. But it was largely overlooked and there was no story in Time magazine. There was a short story in Newsweek at the time, the media, in terms of television, I gave that very, very little attention. And what little attention it did give, it disappeared a very quickly. So most people never even heard of it. It didn't get into most of the history books. And two years later, when the shootings occurred in at Kent State, it just exploded across the front pages of newspapers and on all of the major networks, CBS and NBC and ABC at that time. And so virtually everyone in the aftermath of Kent State knew about the shootings of the four students at Kent who were all white and hardly anyone had heard of the students who had been shot at South Carolina State who were black, which and thank you for bringing that up, because with your affiliation with the College, for my understanding, student organizations have done a pretty good job of remembering what had happened there. I understand that there are their statues of the three young men on campus, or is that just sort now that's on campus. There's a memorial plaza there the year after the massacre in 1969, a small granite marker was placed there with the names of the three young men. And then 30 plus years after that, and there were bronze tablets established around that granite marker with the names of the 28 young men who were wounded there. And then three years ago or so, a a brick monument was created, built there, and then two years ago, there were busts of the three young men placed within that brick and lighted monument, the bust and Smith and Delano Middleton and Samuel Hammond are there. So there is a monument on campus that has expanded over the years. Okay. That's good to know. Thank you for clarifying all that. One of the last things here is, you know, we can't we can't change the past in how it was covered and portrayed and how no justice was done and all of that. But what would your, you know, the take away? You would hope for our listeners to get out of this or for people to learn from this? Do you have anything that you'd like to kind of part with? Well, you would hope that people would learn that you don't have law enforcement shoot into a crowd of unarmed people. But the fact of the matter is they did it and do it again and then shot into a crowd of protesting, protesting students at Kent State in May of 1970. And unfortunately, too often our law enforcement officers have taken it upon themselves to not only enforce the law, but apparently act as a jury and convict and punish those who they see protesting, demonstrating, are breaking the law in front of them. So that's one lesson that has regrettably not been learned very much, if at all, in the years and decades since then. The other regret as far as I'm concerned, and many other people were involved with the massacre and those who survived it, I there was never any formal investigation of what happened and why it happened. There was a presidential commission formed after they can say, killings on campus violence. Richard Nixon appointed the former governor of Pennsylvania, William Scranton, and they did a thorough investigation of what happened at Kent State, what happened at Jackson State that pretty much ignored Orangeburg to try to get at the problems that led to the shootings at Jackson State and Kent State in May of 1970. There's been other state investigations of of racially involved incidents everywhere from Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1923 to Rosewood, Florida, in 1922. More recent developments, but there was never a state or federal investigation of what happened in Orangeburg. And our effort to try to get into the underlying factors that contributed to this to try to bring some increased clarity. I don't know that would bring closure to this. It might it might help it might assist in that. But it has never happened. And I in terms of the foreseeable future, it doesn't look like it's going to happen, but it does. But in theory, it could still happen. That would be the. certainly. Okay. It's never too late. No, I mean, they investigated Tulsa almost 100 years after it happened. And Rosewood right, as well. Tulsa was 1921 and Rosewood was 1923. And state of Florida and state of Oklahoma did investigate those appointed people. They set aside relatively small amounts of money on this and then tried to undertake a thorough examination of the events that had occurred many decades before. Now we're more than a half century since Orangeburg. There's still no investigation, and there seems to be little inclination on the part of the political leaders to undertake such an investigation, even though it would be of of modest cost. The attitude seems to be, well, we don't need to bring that up again. I don't don't let us put the scab on that wound again. Let's just let it let it go. We can move on. And I will live in a better, happier future without digging into the past and stirring up the animosity and hard feelings once again. So we don't need no, we don't need an investigation like that and quit harping on it and quit suggesting that we do. And in fact, it's about time you stopped having those ceremonies in February 8th to commemorate this. That only inflames people in the community and people get upset with this and would rather not. It happened, I should say that I helping with that has been the local newspaper, the The Times and Democrat. They have done a lot in recent years to try to bring about some some healing and some effort to recognize what happened in the community as a serious, serious tragedy and loss of life and the injuries that occurred. And they've tried to bring people together in terms of healing with efforts to try to bring community leaders together, to agree, at least not to be so emotionally invested in this, that they that they have a hard time even speaking with each other. So The Times and Democratic Kathy Hughes and Lee Harder have have helped a lot there. Is there anything that you would like to add before we parted ways? You know, I would I would repeat the what I've almost repeated over the years ad nauseum now about the need for an investigation. We're losing people. In the past year, two of the young men who were wounded in 1968 have have died since the fall of 1922. And that's regrettable. But as the cliche goes, better late than never. So I would I repeat, a call for an investigation won't answer all the questions. It won't satisfy everyone. But I think it will help bring about an understanding of one of the most traumatic events that occurred in South Carolina in the 20th century. So on that note, I would would close and that's a great note to close on. I really appreciate your time this was honestly a way more information than I actually expected. So huge. I really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. And that's where we'll end the show for today. If you're interested in more details of how the victims of the massacre are being memorialized, please check out the articles linked in our show notes. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss what's coming next on Crime Chronicles. Thanks for listening.
For the end of the year, we're going to repost a few of Nathan's favorite AI scouting episodes from other shows. Today: Samuel Hammond joins the Future of Life Institute podcast to discuss how AGI will transform economies, governments, institutions, and other power structures. If you need an ecommerce platform, check out our sponsor Shopify: https://shopify.com/cognitive for a $1/month trial period. Samuel Hammond is a Canadian-born, DC-based senior economist for the Foundation for American Innovation, a think tank focused on bridging the cultures of Silicon Valley and DC. This conversation is super wide ranging, covering the most likely default path to AGI, the economic and institutional transformations that AI will beget, the critical distinction between thinking about AI in isolation versus as part of a dynamic system, the proposal for a Manhattan or Apollo like megaproject for AI safety, and lots more. You can subscribe to Future of Life Institute here: https://futureoflife.org/project/future-of-life-institute-podcast/ You can read Samuel Hammond's blog at https://www.secondbest.ca --- SPONSORS: Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of ALL eCommerce in the US. And Shopify's the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries.From their all-in-one e-commerce platform, to their in-person POS system – wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With free Shopify Magic, sell more with less effort by whipping up captivating content that converts – from blog posts to product descriptions using AI. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/cognitive MasterClass https://masterclass.com/cognitive get two memberships for the price of 1 Learn from the best to become your best. Learn how to negotiate a raise with Chris Voss or manage your relationships with Esther Perel. Boost your confidence and find practical takeaways you can apply to your life and at work. If you own a business or are a team leader, use MasterClass to empower and create future-ready employees and leaders. Moment of Zen listeners will get two memberships for the price of one at https://masterclass.com/cognitive Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off www.omneky.com NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you're looking for an ERP platform ✅ head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/cognitive and download your own customized KPI checklist. X/SOCIAL: @labenz (Nathan) @hamandcheese (Sam) @FLIxrisk (Future of Live Institute) @gusdocker (Gus) @CogRev_Podcast (Cognitive Revolution) TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro: End of year and bonus episodes (04:24) Discussion on AI Timelines (14:08) Insights from Information Theory (15:11) Sponsors: Shopify | MasterClass (32:12) AI Progress and Hard Steps in Evolution (34:21) Sponsors: NetSuite | Omneky (39:12) Government Preparedness for Advanced AI (46:16) The Internet's Role in Mass Mobilization and Erosion of Trust (49:16) AI's Impact on the Economy and Job Market (01:05:47) The Role of AI in Monitoring and Surveillance (01:27:18) The Potential Dangers of Open-Sourcing AI (01:30:13) AI's Impact on Government Power (01:36:24) The Influence of AI on Society and Privacy (01:42:21) The Future of Government Services in a Techno-Feudalist Society (01:53:58) The Future of AI in Robotics (02:15:25) The Role of AI in the Future of Financial Markets
Many thanks to Samuel Hammond, Cate Hall, Beren Millidge, Steve Byrnes, Lucius Bushnaq, Joar Skalse, Kyle Gracey, Gunnar Zarncke, Ross Nordby, David Lambert, Simeon Campos, Bogdan Ionut-Cirstea, Ryan Kidd, Eric Ho, and Ashwin Acharya for critical comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this agenda, as well as Philip Gubbins, Diogo de Lucena, Rob Luke, and Mason Seale from AE Studio for their support and feedback throughout. TL;DR Our initial theory of change at AE Studio was a 'neglected approach' that involved rerouting profits from our consulting business towards the development of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology to dramatically enhance human agency, better enabling us to do things like solve alignment. Now, given shortening timelines, we're updating our theory of change to scale up our technical alignment efforts.With a solid technical foundation in BCI, neuroscience, and machine learning, we are optimistic that we'll be able to contribute meaningfully [...]The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: December 18th, 2023 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qAdDzcBuDBLexb4fC/the-neglected-approaches-approach-ae-studio-s-alignment --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The 'Neglected Approaches' Approach: AE Studio's Alignment Agenda, published by Cameron Berg on December 18, 2023 on LessWrong. Many thanks to Samuel Hammond, Cate Hall, Beren Millidge, Steve Byrnes, Lucius Bushnaq, Joar Skalse, Kyle Gracey, Gunnar Zarncke, Ross Nordby, David Lambert, Simeon Campos, Bogdan Ionut-Cirstea, Ryan Kidd, Eric Ho, and Ashwin Acharya for critical comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this agenda, as well as Philip Gubbins, Diogo de Lucena, Rob Luke, and Mason Seale from AE Studio for their support and feedback throughout. TL;DR Our initial theory of change at AE Studio was a 'neglected approach' that involved rerouting profits from our consulting business towards the development of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology to dramatically enhance human agency, better enabling us to do things like solve alignment. Now, given shortening timelines, we're updating our theory of change to scale up our technical alignment efforts. With a solid technical foundation in BCI, neuroscience, and machine learning, we are optimistic that we'll be able to contribute meaningfully to AI safety. We are particularly keen on pursuing neglected technical alignment agendas that seem most creative, promising, and plausible. We are currently onboarding promising researchers and kickstarting our internal alignment team. As we forge ahead, we're actively soliciting expert insights from the broader alignment community and are in search of data scientists and alignment researchers who resonate with our vision of enhancing human agency and helping to solve alignment. About us Hi! We are AE Studio, a bootstrapped software and data science consulting business. Our mission has always been to reroute our profits directly into building technologies that have the promise of dramatically enhancing human agency, like Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). We also donate 5% of our revenue directly to effective charities. Today, we are ~150 programmers, product designers, and ML engineers; we are profitable and growing. We also have a team of top neuroscientists and data scientists with significant experience in developing ML solutions for leading BCI companies, and we are now leveraging our technical experience and learnings in these domains to assemble an alignment team dedicated to exploring neglected alignment research directions that draw on our expertise in BCI, data science, and machine learning. As we are becoming more public with our AI Alignment efforts, we thought it would be helpful to share our strategy and vision for how we at AE prioritize what problems to work on and how to make the best use of our comparative advantage. Why and how we think we can help solve alignment We can probably do with alignment what we already did with BCI You might think that AE has no business getting involved in alignment - and we agree. AE's initial theory of change sought to realize a highly "neglected approach" to doing good in the world: bootstrap a profitable software consultancy, incubate our own startups on the side, sell them, and reinvest the profits in Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) in order to do things like dramatically increase human agency, mitigate BCI-related s-risks, and make humans sufficiently intelligent, wise, and capable to do things like solve alignment. While the vision of BCI-mediated cognitive enhancement to do good in the world is increasingly common today, it was viewed as highly idiosyncratic when we first set out in 2016. Initially, many said that AE had no business getting involved in the BCI space (and we also agreed at the time) - but after hiring leading experts in the field and taking increasingly ambitious A/B-tested steps in the right direction, we emerged as a respected player in the space (see here, here, here, and here for some examples). Now, ...
Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The 'Neglected Approaches' Approach: AE Studio's Alignment Agenda, published by Cameron Berg on December 18, 2023 on LessWrong. Many thanks to Samuel Hammond, Cate Hall, Beren Millidge, Steve Byrnes, Lucius Bushnaq, Joar Skalse, Kyle Gracey, Gunnar Zarncke, Ross Nordby, David Lambert, Simeon Campos, Bogdan Ionut-Cirstea, Ryan Kidd, Eric Ho, and Ashwin Acharya for critical comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this agenda, as well as Philip Gubbins, Diogo de Lucena, Rob Luke, and Mason Seale from AE Studio for their support and feedback throughout. TL;DR Our initial theory of change at AE Studio was a 'neglected approach' that involved rerouting profits from our consulting business towards the development of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology to dramatically enhance human agency, better enabling us to do things like solve alignment. Now, given shortening timelines, we're updating our theory of change to scale up our technical alignment efforts. With a solid technical foundation in BCI, neuroscience, and machine learning, we are optimistic that we'll be able to contribute meaningfully to AI safety. We are particularly keen on pursuing neglected technical alignment agendas that seem most creative, promising, and plausible. We are currently onboarding promising researchers and kickstarting our internal alignment team. As we forge ahead, we're actively soliciting expert insights from the broader alignment community and are in search of data scientists and alignment researchers who resonate with our vision of enhancing human agency and helping to solve alignment. About us Hi! We are AE Studio, a bootstrapped software and data science consulting business. Our mission has always been to reroute our profits directly into building technologies that have the promise of dramatically enhancing human agency, like Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). We also donate 5% of our revenue directly to effective charities. Today, we are ~150 programmers, product designers, and ML engineers; we are profitable and growing. We also have a team of top neuroscientists and data scientists with significant experience in developing ML solutions for leading BCI companies, and we are now leveraging our technical experience and learnings in these domains to assemble an alignment team dedicated to exploring neglected alignment research directions that draw on our expertise in BCI, data science, and machine learning. As we are becoming more public with our AI Alignment efforts, we thought it would be helpful to share our strategy and vision for how we at AE prioritize what problems to work on and how to make the best use of our comparative advantage. Why and how we think we can help solve alignment We can probably do with alignment what we already did with BCI You might think that AE has no business getting involved in alignment - and we agree. AE's initial theory of change sought to realize a highly "neglected approach" to doing good in the world: bootstrap a profitable software consultancy, incubate our own startups on the side, sell them, and reinvest the profits in Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) in order to do things like dramatically increase human agency, mitigate BCI-related s-risks, and make humans sufficiently intelligent, wise, and capable to do things like solve alignment. While the vision of BCI-mediated cognitive enhancement to do good in the world is increasingly common today, it was viewed as highly idiosyncratic when we first set out in 2016. Initially, many said that AE had no business getting involved in the BCI space (and we also agreed at the time) - but after hiring leading experts in the field and taking increasingly ambitious A/B-tested steps in the right direction, we emerged as a respected player in the space (see here, here, here, and here for some examples). Now, ...
Find Sam:https://twitter.com/hamandcheeseMentioned in the episode:https://www.fromthenew.world/p/marc-andreesen-the-time-to-fight#detailshttps://thenetworkstate.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fromthenew.world/subscribe
In this episode:Sam Hammond, senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, joins the podcast to talk about artificial intelligence and its transformative aspects on modern societywhat AI offers human society to advance our economy and our society, and the potential dangers of AI run amokhow AI and super-intelligent machines that match or exceed human cognition will mean for human nature and what it means to be a human beingTexts Mentioned:“Attention is All You Need” by Ashish VaswaniScience, Scientism, and Society webinarJon Askonas Conservative Conversations episode“Common Sense on AI” by Sam Hammond and Jon Askonas“AI and Leviathan: Part I” by Sam Hammond“AI and Leviathan: Part II” by Sam Hammond“AI and Leviathan: Part III” by Sam HammondLeviathan by Thomas HobbesRevolt of the Public by Martin Gurrifai.org“Second Best” substack by Sam HammondBecome a part of ISI:Become a MemberSupport ISIUpcoming ISI Events
On this episode of Future of Freedom, host Scot Bertram is joined by two guests with different viewpoints about the need for government regulation of artificial intelligence. First on the show is James Broughel, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Later, we hear from Samuel Hammond, senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation. You can find James on X, formerly Twitter, at @JamesBroughel and Samuel at @hamandcheese. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/future-of-freedom/support
Samuel Hammond is a Canadian-born, DC-based senior economist for the Foundation for American Innovation, a think tank focused on bridging the cultures of Silicon Valley and DC. His research focuses on innovation and the institutional impact of disruptive technologies. He is an unconventional thinker and writer (Substack: https://www.secondbest.ca/) who participates in nuanced dialogue with different thinkers across economics, tech, policy, and philosophy. In this conversation we discuss Sam's views on AI, mental models for his worldview, polarization, and how political influence really works. We're proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1000 off Vanta with https://www.vanta.com/zen -- We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com. -- Please support our sponsors: Shopify | Vanta Shopify: https://shopify.com/torenberg for a $1/month trial period Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of all ecommerce in the US. And Shopify's the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries. From their all-in-one ecommerce platform, to their in-person POS system – wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/torenberg. -- Compliance doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, with Vanta it can be super simple. Vanta automates the pricey, time-consuming process of prepping for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. With Vanta, you can save up to 400 hours and 85% of costs. Vanta scales with your business, helping you successfully enter new markets, land bigger deals, and earn customer loyalty. Bonus? Upstream listeners get $1000 off Vanta. Just go to https://www.vanta.com/zen -- RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Every week investor and writer of the popular newsletter The Diff, Byrne Hobart, and co-host Erik Torenberg discuss today's major inflection points in technology, business, and markets – and help listeners build a diversified portfolio of trends and ideas for the future. Subscribe to “The Riff” with Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg: https://link.chtbl.com/theriff -- LINKS: thefai.org https://www.secondbest.ca/ -- X/ TWITTER: @hamandcheese @joinfai @eriktorenberg (Erik) @upstream__pod -- TIMESTAMPS (01:00) Episode Preview (03:00) How Sam characterizes his worldview (07:25) The great founder theory (11:47) Between AI safety concerns and e/acc beliefs, here does Samuel fall on AI? (15:24) What would Sam say to libertarians? (16:00) Sponsor: NetSuite (18:11) What can we learn from Mormonism about AI risks and regulations ?(21:19) AI is leveling the playing field (25:00) Instead of libertarian, AI is communitarian (27:10) Lessons of Mormonism for adapting to technological revolutions (30:00) Do right or left beliefs qualify as a religion, with their own institutions? (40:57) Humanism, grey goo, and why waste is good (44:40) Mental model for government dysfunction (48:09) The think tank ecosystem and how influence really works in DC? (50:53) Samuel's interesting disagreements with: Balaji Srinivasan, Robin Hanson, Tyler Cowen, Bryan Caplan (52:27) What's the best argument for pluralism? (52:48) Ezra Klein and Chris Caldwell actually make the same argument about polarization
In Today's episode of "Moment of Truth," Saurabh sits down with Jon Askonas, Assistant Professor of Politics at Catholic University of America and Senior Fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, and Samuel Hammond, Senior Economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, to discuss the state of artificial intelligence, the risks and rewards of its development, AI's impact on the economy and jobs, and whether or not AI will become the terminator and destroy us all.#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology #Innovation #FoundationforAmericanInnovation #JonAskonas #SamuelHammondJon Askonas is a senior fellow with FAI. He is an assistant professor of Politics at the Catholic University of America, where he works on the connections between the republican tradition, technology, and national security.Learn more about Dr. Jon Askonas's work:https://www.thefai.org/profile/askonashttps://twitter.com/JonAskonasSamuel Hammond is Senior Economist at FAI, where his research focuses on innovation and science policy and the institutional impact of disruptive technologies. He previously worked as the director of social policy for the Niskanen Center, where he remains a senior fellow.Learn more about Samuel Hammond's work:https://www.thefai.org/profile/Samuel-Hammondhttps://www.twitter.com/hamandcheese––––––Follow American Moment across Social Media:Twitter – https://twitter.com/AmMomentOrgFacebook – https://www.facebook.com/AmMomentOrgInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/ammomentorg/YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4qmB5DeiFxt53ZPZiW4TcgRumble – https://rumble.com/c/ammomentorgCheck out AmCanon:https://www.americanmoment.org/amcanon/Follow Us on Twitter:Saurabh Sharma – https://twitter.com/ssharmaUSNick Solheim – https://twitter.com/NickSSolheimAmerican Moment's "Moment of Truth" Podcast is recorded at the Conservative Partnership Center in Washington DC, produced by American Moment Studios, and edited by Jake Mercier and Jared Cummings.Subscribe to our Podcast, "Moment of Truth"Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/moment-of-truth/id1555257529Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/5ATl0x7nKDX0vVoGrGNhAj Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sam's Bloggingheads bona fides ... Is AI “interpretability” worth the trouble? ... Natural selection and artificial intelligence ... Are large language models absorbing human nature? ... What Sam thinks singularitarian AI doomers get wrong ... Is it time for an AI-safety Manhattan Project? ... Sam: Let a thousand GPT-4 (but not GPT-5) plug-ins bloom. ... Where are our AI safety blindspots? ...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit nonzero.substack.com(Overtime segment available to paid subscribers below the paywall.)0:00 Sam's Bloggingheads bona fides 2:39 Is AI “interpretability” worth the trouble? 13:38 Natural selection and artificial intelligence 19:47 Are large language models absorbing human nature? 29:53 What Sam thinks singularitarian AI doomers get wrong 36:36 Is it time for an AI-safety Manhattan Project? 51:12 Sam: Let a thousand GPT-4 (but not GPT-5) plug-ins bloom. 57:09 Where are our AI safety blindspots? Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Samuel Hammond (Foundation for American Innovation, Second Best). Recorded May 30, 2023. Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66231 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Sam's Bloggingheads bona fides ... Is AI “interpretability” worth the trouble? ... Natural selection and artificial intelligence ... Are large language models absorbing human nature? ... What Sam thinks singularitarian AI doomers get wrong ... Is it time for an AI-safety Manhattan Project? ... Sam: Let a thousand GPT-4 (but not GPT-5) plug-ins bloom. ... Where are our AI safety blindspots? ...
Samuel Hammond is the Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy at the Niskanen Center. His research focuses on the effectiveness of cash transfers in alleviating poverty, and how free markets can be complemented by robust systems of social insurance. Vance sits down with Samuel Hammond to discuss the impact of social insurance and social security on communities. In this engaging and informative podcast interview, Samuel shares his insights on how these policies affect individuals and society at large. Twitter: https://twitter.com/hamandcheeseLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-hammond-4b986955Website: https://www.niskanencenter.org/Blog: https://www.secondbest.ca/Book a Legacy Interview | https://legacyinterviews.com/ —A Legacy Interview is a two-hour recorded interview with you and a host that can be watched now and viewed in the future. It is a recording of what you experienced, the lessons you learned and the family values you want passed down. We will interview you or a loved one, capturing the sound of their voice, wisdom and a sense of who they are. These recorded conversations will be private, reserved only for the people that you want to share it with.Join the Articulate Ventures Network | https://network.articulate.ventures/ —We are a patchwork of thinkers that want to articulate ideas in a forum where they can be respectfully challenged, improved and celebrated so that we can explore complex subjects, learn from those we disagree with and achieve our personal & professional goals.Contact Vance for a Talk | https://www.vancecrowe.com/ —Vance delivers speeches that reveal important aspects of human communication. Audiences are entertained, engaged, and leave feeling empowered to change something about the way they are communicating. Vance tells stories about his own experiences, discusses theories in ways that make them relatable and highlights interesting people, books, and media that the audience can learn even more from. Join the #ATCF Book Club | https://www.vancecrowe.com/atcf-book-club
Emile, Helen, Micah, and Bradley discuss the latest escalatory move in the war in Ukraine: The United States and Germany have both agreed to send tanks to Ukraine in anticipation of a Spring offensive against Russian forces. Plus, there's a new chief of staff in the BIden White House, and Helen draws the ire of the Twitter mob for noticing the big increase in "fare jumping" on the DC Metro. Picks of the week: Emile: Pat's Pen, Scott McConnell Helen: Zelensky vs. the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Yevhen Herman Micah: Soviet Censorship, Katya Sedgwick Bradley: Unwinding the Long Great Society, Samuel Hammond
Samuel Hammond is the director of social policy at the Niskanen center and the author of the Second Best newsletter. We discuss religion, Peter Thiel, artificial intelligence, critical theory, industrial policy, Georgism, resource scarcity, bureaucracy, prisoner's dilemmas, care work, and Canada.https://secondbest.ca/Samuel at Niskanen:https://www.niskanencenter.org/author/samuel-hammond/Samuel on Twitter:https://twitter.com/hamandcheeseSamuel on AI:Samuel on Mormons:From the New World Episode with Richard Hanania: Get full access to From the New World at cactus.substack.com/subscribe
https://patreon.com/breaktherules (https://patreon.com/breaktherules) to help us grow + SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube: http://breaktherules.tv/ (http://breaktherules.tv/) https://linktr.ee/breakth3rules (https://linktr.ee/breakth3rules) Support Break The Rules ( + have your message show up during the show) via SuperChat Crypto: https://cointr.ee/breakth3rules (https://cointr.ee/breakth3rules) Paypal: https://streamlabs.com/breakth3rules (https://streamlabs.com/breakth3rules) DISCORD: https://discord.gg/hHTNg3M (https://discord.gg/hHTNg3M) ==================================================== 3 previous BTR guests of different political persuasions join BTR to cover the January 6th anniversary, as well as defining both left & right tyranny & the proper response to it. Ariel Pink https://twitter.com/arielxpink (https://twitter.com/arielxpink) Paul Town https://twitter.com/chinawarning (https://twitter.com/chinawarning) https://www.instagram.com/realpaultown/ (https://www.instagram.com/realpaultown/) Samuel Hammond - Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy at the Niskanen Center https://twitter.com/hamandcheese (https://twitter.com/hamandcheese) https://www.niskanencenter.org/ (https://www.niskanencenter.org/) Armand Domalewski https://twitter.com/ArmandDoma (https://twitter.com/ArmandDoma) http://armanddomalewski.substack.com/ (http://armanddomalewski.substack.com) Giovanni Pennacchietti https://twitter.com/Giantgio (https://twitter.com/Giantgio) https://www.youtube.com/c/GiantArtProductions (https://www.youtube.com/c/GiantArtProductions) Lev Polyakov https://twitter.com/Levpo (https://twitter.com/Levpo) https://youtube.com/levpolyakov (http://youtube.com/levpolyakov) ==================================================== FOLLOW US: Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/breaktherules (https://www.patreon.com/breaktherules) Twitter - https://twitter.com/breakth3rules (http://twitter.com/breakth3rules) Instagram - https://instagram.com/breakth3rules (http://instagram.com/breakth3rules) Facebook - https://facebook.com/breakth3rules (http://facebook.com/breakth3rules) Minds - https://www.minds.com/breaktherules (https://www.minds.com/breaktherules) Odysee - https://odysee.com/@breaktherules:f/live (https://odysee.com/@breaktherules:f/live) Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/breakth3rules/ (https://www.twitch.tv/breakth3rules/) DLive - https://dlive.tv/breakth3rules (https://dlive.tv/breakth3rules) Bitchute - https://www.bitchute.com/channel/JfUzQfuQpWc0/ (https://www.bitchute.com/channel/JfUzQfuQpWc0/) Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0yovF9Vo8n1fF1DGlMuWBh (https://open.spotify.com/show/0yovF9Vo8n1fF1DGlMuWBh) Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/break-the-rules/id1543233584 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/break-the-rules/id1543233584)
Today we're featuring excerpts from our Realignment conference in Miami. The James Madison Institute's Andrea O'Sullivan and Wired's Gilad Edelman on the tensions between centralization and decentralization will define tech and politics. American Affairs's Julius Krein, American Compass's Wells King, and the Niskanen Center's Samuel Hammond and the new right, populism, and the debate over neoliberalism. Subscribe to The Realignment's Substack Newsletter: https://therealignment.substack.com/ Visit The Realignment's Bookshop to support the show: https://bookshop.org/lists/the-realignment-bookshop
Key Insights:Yes, Americans are now in a selfish defensive crouch, but just wait 8 years—if we get a high-pressure economy for those years…We are finally getting back to normal politics, in which we slag each other because some claim we can afford to spend $3.5 and others that we can only afford to spend $1.5 trillion. And that is a very good sign…Hexapodia!References:Zach Carter: Why Are Moderates Trying to Blow Up Biden’s Centrist Economic Plan? Jonathan Cohn: Why Manchin & Democratic Leaders Might Not Be Quite So Far Apart: Todd Gitlin: Look What’s Inside The Bill, Please: the Details of the $3.5 Trillion Package Robert Greenstein: Budget Rconciliation: Calling It a ‘$3.5 Trillion Spending Bill’ Isn’t Quite Right Steven M. Teles, Samuel Hammond, & Daniel Takash: Cost-Disease Socialism David Cay Johnston: How $3 a Day Can Buy America a Rich Future Robert Kuttner: How the Budget Deal Could Make the Child Tax Credit Permanent Adam Jentleson: ‘Sinema’s approval rating has tanked, going from net +13 to 0 since the beginning of the year. But surely someone will be along soon to explain how actually this is brilliant politics…Jeet Heer: Dune Bugs +, of course:Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep Get full access to Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality at braddelong.substack.com/subscribe
Samuel Hammond is the Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy at the Niskanen Center. We had an excellent conversation on How policies actually get passed “libertarian think tanks exist for rich people to feel like they're smart and smart people to feel like they're rich” Nonprofits and the lack of market incentives His most controversial opinion on economics --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pradyumna-sp/message
Key Insights:Today’s meaning of “neoliberalism” is the result of the collision of two different applications of the term—to Margaret Thatcher, and to the Washington Monthly…Intermediary institutions are very suspicious to liberalism, at least in its pure form…Liberalism has a bias toward atomizing solutions to social problems…YIMBY vs. NIMBY is the fundamental political debate in America today…Sometimes the answer will be command-and-control, sometimes the answer will be deregulation…Yuval Levin is good…Detach liberalism from centrism or moderation…Liberals are thinking about things that are important and visionary about productivity, and Biden is listening…Hexapodia!References:Sam Hammond: The Free-Market Welfare State: Preserving Dynamism in a Volatile World Brink Lindsey: The Center Can Hold: Public Policy for an Age of Extremes Brink Lindsey & Steve Teles: The Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, & Increase Inequality Niskanen Center: Faster Growth, Fairer Growth: Policies for a High Road, High Performance Economy Steve Teles, Samuel Hammond, & Daniel Takash: Cost Disease Socialism: How Subsidizing Costs While Restricting Supply Drives America’s Fiscal Imbalance +, of course:Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep Get full access to Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality at braddelong.substack.com/subscribe
For Matt's last episode of The Weeds, Ezra Klein and Sarah Kliff return for a look at why health care and drug costs in the US keep rising, how subsidizing industries leads to higher consumer costs, and what both political parties can do about it. It gets real nerdy just as fast as the last time these three co-hosted. We also learn about the first print piece Matt ever published, and he shares some feelings about pseudo-Cyrillic. Resources: “How the US made affordable homes illegal” by Jerusalem Demsas (Vox Media; Aug 17, 2021) “Building housing — lots of it — will lay the foundation for a new future” by Matt Yglesias (Vox Media; Sep 23, 2020) “The true story of America's sky-high prescription drug prices” by Sarah Kliff (Vox Media; May 10, 2018) "The real reason American health care is so expensive" by Liz Scheltens, Mallory Brangan, and Ezra Klein (Vox Media; Dec 1, 2017) White Paper: “Cost Disease Socialism: How Subsidizing Costs While Restricting Supply Drives America's Fiscal Imbalance” by Steven Teles, Samuel Hammond, Daniel Takash (Niskanen Center; Sep 9, 2021) Guest: Ezra Klein (@ezraklein), Columnist, The New York Times Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff), Investigative Reporter, The New York Times Host: Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Slowboring.com Credits: Ness Smith-Savedoff, Producer & Engineer Erikk Geannikis, Producer, Talk Podcasts Sofi LaLonde, Producer, The Weeds Efim Shapiro, Engineer As the Biden administration gears up, we'll help you understand this unprecedented burst of policymaking. Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weeds-newsletter. The Weeds is a Vox Media Podcast Network production. Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts About Vox Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Follow Us: Vox.com Facebook group: The Weeds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In Today's "Moment of Truth," Saurabh and Nick sit down with Samuel Hammond, Director of Poverty & Welfare Policy at the Niskanen Center, to discuss the sorry state of pro-family policies in the United States (like the child tax credit), how to alleviate poverty nationwide, what if anything America can learn from Canadian welfare policies, and FDR's "New Deal." Particular attention is paid to the "child tax credit." So if you are a family policy wonk, this is the episode for you.Samuel Hammond is the Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy at the Niskanen Center. His commentary has been published in the Atlantic, the National Review, and the American Conservative. He has also been featured in New York Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Vox, and Slate.He previously worked as an economist for the Government of Canada specializing in rural economic development, and as a graduate research fellow for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. His research focuses on the effectiveness of cash transfers in alleviating poverty, and how free markets can be complemented by robust systems of social insurance.Learn more about Samuel Hammond's work at https://www.niskanencenter.org/author/samuel-hammond/––––––Follow American Moment on Social Media:Twitter – https://twitter.com/AmMomentOrgFacebook – https://www.facebook.com/AmMomentOrgInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/ammomentorg/YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4qmB5DeiFxt53ZPZiW4TcgRumble – https://rumble.com/c/c-695775BitChute – https://www.bitchute.com/channel/Xr42d9swu7O9/Check out AmCanon:https://www.americanmoment.org/amcanon/Follow Us on Twitter:Saurabh Sharma – https://twitter.com/ssharmaUSNick Solheim – https://twitter.com/NickSSolheimAmerican Moment's "Moment of Truth" Podcast is recorded at the Conservative Partnership Center in Washington DC, produced and edited by Jared Cummings. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
Yesterday our famously divided Senate passed a bill. Not just a bill to rename a post office but a bill that aims to help the US compete with China for world domination. We had the chance to sit down with Samuel Hammond of the Niskanen Center to discuss what exactly is in "The Endless Frontiers Act". We talk about where it hits the mark and where it misses. Spoiler alert, it mostly misses the mark.
Eli Dourado (@elidourado) of the Center for Growth and Opportunity, joins Erik on this episode to discuss:- Why Eli wants to radically increase GDP per capita and the current bottlenecks to achieving that.- Why he thinks the 2020s will be the decade of atoms.- Why amazing scientific breakthroughs like CRISPR haven't translated into new products or treatments.- Why he's excited about geothermal power and how it could change geopolitics if its potential is realized.- His breakdown of his position as a technological optimist and cultural pessimist.- Where he agrees or disagrees with Tyler Cowen, Bryan Caplan, Peter Thiel, and Samuel Hammond.- Why entrepreneurs shouldn't shy away from areas with regulatory risk, since "that's where all the action happens."Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup
The Niskanen Center's Samuel Hammond joins to discuss improving Biden's child allowance and border policies. Plus: eliminate the filibuster? Special Guests: Bill Galston, Damon Linker, Linda Chavez, and Samuel Hammond.
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act is now law, and to quote then-Vice President Biden, it’s a “big f***ing deal.” President Biden signed it Thursday and addresssed the national about the return to normal. He announced he’s directing states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine by May 1. What’s actually in this giant law? Where will all that money go? There’s a big extension of unemployment that will help workers get through the summer. Direct payments will be distributed to Americans starting as soon as this weekend. There’s also a lot of spending that seems maybe only tangentially related to the pandemic. The panel talks with Samuel Hammond of the Niskanen Center about the big new payments to American parents that some may be surprised start getting as soon as July. The payments will significantly reduce child poverty, but for now, the payments are in effect for one year. President Biden would like to make it permanent. Should he?
"Faster Growth, Fairer Growth: Policies for a High Road, High Performance Economy" by Brink Lindsey and Samuel Hammond
This week features Part 1 of a two-part discussion with Samuel Hammond, Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy at the Niskanen Center. John and Sam discuss how free markets can be paired with more robust systems of social insurance to produce an economy that is more dynamic, prosperous, and rich in opportunity for all Americans. They […] The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/the-deep-dive-with-john-lettieri-sam-hammonds-vision-for-a-dynamic-free-market-welfare-state-part-1/ (The Deep Dive with John Lettieri: Sam Hammond's Vision for a Dynamic Free Market Welfare State (Part 1)) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
This week features Part 1 of a two-part discussion with Samuel Hammond, Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy at the Niskanen Center. John and Sam discuss how free markets can be paired with more robust systems of social insurance to produce an economy that is more dynamic, prosperous, and rich in opportunity for all Americans. They […]Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/aei-podcast-channel/the-deep-dive-with-john-lettieri-sam-hammonds-vision-for-a-dynamic-free-market-welfare-state-part-1/.Now become a Ricochet member for only $5.00 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/membership/.Subscribe to AEI Podcast Channel in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
Ash Milton and Samuel Hammond discuss America, China, and the future. Topics include tech optimism, whether the Bay Area can remake American politics, whether China thinks like Confucius or Marx, and more. Samuel Hammond is the director of poverty and welfare policy at the Niskanen Center. He can be found on Twitter @hamandcheese.
Samuel Hammond (@hamandcheese) joins Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) to discuss welfare policy and neo-medievalism.
Is open trade as simple as it seems? Current trade tensions with China indicate otherwise. Samuel Hammond joins the show to discuss it's hidden complexities and what they could say about the future of America's labor market The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/the-china-trade-shock-with-samuel-hammond/ (The China trade shock with Samuel Hammond) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).
Last month, Pastor Samuel Hammond from Ghana, West Africa, visited with the Crossroads team at our headquarters in St. Charles, Illinois. He is back in Ghana and planning to bring the Crossroads ministry there. Learn more about his story and his hopes for reaching children in Ghana in this episode. Please note that this was our first time trying to record outside of a studio environment, and we had some technical troubles. Please forgive the occasional buzzing during the episode.Support the show (https://crossroadskidsclub.com/make-a-gift/)
Samuel Hammond joins us to talk about the Niskanen Center, his ideas for a free market welfare system, and a little inside baseball about right of center think tanks. Hosted by Josiah Neeley of R Street Institute and Doug McCullough of Lone Star Policy Institute. Produced by Ray Ingegneri. Learn more about our organizations at www.rstreet.org and www.lonestarpolicyinstitute.org. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and GooglePlay.
Conversation with Samuel Hammond director of poverty and welfare policy at the Niskanen Center we talk about relationship of neoliberalism and social trust in issues like taxes, education and housing.
Conversation with Samuel Hammond the Poverty and Welfare Analyst at the Niskanen Center about his paper on the free market welfare state on the convergence between big government and market dynamism. We also discuss immigration, healthcare, socialism and neoliberalism.
Samuel Hammond is returning to the podcast today to discuss the relationship between capitalism and social justice. Sam was prompted to write about this by an insensitive Pepsi commercial that caused some controversy in April 2017. The controversial ad featured generic protesters and Kendall Jenner sharing a Pepsi with police. While the ad was insensitive and more than a little absurd, Sam pointed out that Pepsi has a history of promoting social justice and racial harmony through its marketing. Back in 1940, Pepsi was a small player compared to Coca-Cola; the latter selling 25 sodas for each one Pepsi sold. In order to compete, Pepsi's CEO Walter S. Mack Jr. decided to do something the other companies weren't doing: marketing specifically to African Americans: "In 1947, [Mack Jr.] hired Edward F. Boyd, an African-American adman who later became known as one of the fathers of niche-marketing. Boyd crafted ads for Pepsi that celebrated black cultural and professional achievements, and above all portrayed African-Americans as normal, middle-class consumers. It was this marketing push that ultimately drove Pepsi’s rise to the number two soda company in America." In pre-civil-rights America, this was a major achievement, and it served a deeper social purpose by extending social recognition to black Americans. We also discuss some other interesting niche marketing campaigns, like Subaru's marketing strategy targeting lesbians in the 1990s. Finally, we tie it all back to capitalism as a force promoting diversity and inclusion, with references to Becker's work on taste-based discrimination.
One of the most important lessons of the internet age is what happens when we give people -- including companies, developers, engineers, hobbyists, and yes, even a few bad (or dumb) actors -- a new platform, along with the freedom to innovate on top of it. For example, who could have predicted how profoundly the internet would change our economy, given how it started off as a research project -- one where commercial applications were actually frowned upon in the early days? Now, the U.S. is on the cusp of opening up another such platform for commercial and social innovation: airspace (think drones, the non-military kind). There's so many use cases for drones that we already know about, but what about new business use cases? And then, on the policy front, how do we calculate the risk of innovation on a platform made up of atoms (drones) vs. bits (the internet)? What are the pros and cons of registration? Because even though drones are like flying smartphones controlled by software, they're also hard objects that could fall out of the sky ... or go places where no one could go before, for better or worse. The guests on this episode of the a16z Podcast -- continuing our D.C. and tech/innovation/policy theme -- share their thoughts on safety, privacy, paper airplanes, and what they think are some of the most exciting things now possible in airspace. Joining the conversation are Washington, D.C.-based Mercatus Center tech policy lead Eli Dourado, along with graduate research fellow Samuel Hammond; Airware founder and CEO Jonathan Downey; and SkySafe CEO and co-founder Grant Jordan.