Weekly Top Picks #108
Grok vs. MAGA / AI vs. uni graduates / Reddit experiment / Zuck being Zuck / Who's never tried ChatGPT? / Gemini beats Pokémon / AI won
The week(s) in AI at a glance
Grok is the ultimate anti-MAGA: Elon Musk’s silicon child is truth-seeking enough to see through his manipulation.
Something alarming is happening to the job market: Young university graduates face an all-time low employment rate.
The AI experiment on Reddit is not about persuasion: If you make a good argument and someone buys it, you’re an argumentative genius.
Mark Zuckerberg on the Dwarkesh Patel podcast: Why is someone with such poor social skills so intent on fixing whatever’s wrong with human connection?
In case you’re wondering who’s left to try ChatGPT…: Jia Tolentino has never used ChatGPT, yet she’s shameless when it comes to criticizing it.
Gemini 2.5 Pro is the first AI to beat Pokémon: Benchmarks keep saturating, and companies keep playing with the claims.
AI won: AI won.
The week(s) in The Algorithmic Bridge
(PAID) Weekly Top Picks #107: Google optimizes AI for game-making / AI as normal technology / The cost of gratitude / Nvidia and the US vs. China war / Sampling is not enough / Clueless
(PAID) Everything Is Chatgptable: As AI models get better, the scope of usefulness grows. Allow yourself to imagine what’s possible.
(FREE) How OpenAI Plans to Capitalize on Your Growing Loneliness With AI Companions: OpenAI is repositioning ChatGPT to tap into the companions market: memory, emotionality, and sycophancy are key features.
(FREE) We Live a Hard Life in an Easy World: The modern malaise can be reduced to a mismatch between how easy the external world has become and how hard our inner lives remain.
(PAID) We Weren't Meant to Have This Many Opinions: People reject the value of expertise because we’ve seen it fail, but we need it. The public discourse against the experts must end.
(FREE) ChatGPT's Excessive Sycophancy Has Set Off Everyone's Alarm Bells: OpenAI is doing a worldwide social experiment with one obvious goal: transform ChatGPT into the most powerful engagement product ever created.
(PAID) 10 Things I Wish Were Not True: A quick overview of things going wrong with AI socially and economically as of late.
(FREE) The Misunderstood Role of AI Skeptics: It’s important to distinguish responsible opposition that steers optimism from useless opposition that tries to block it.
(PAID) OpenAI o3’s GeoGuessr Skills Reveal Something Deeply Unsettling About AI: If you’ve ever posted a picture of your home/street online, consider your address leaked.
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