Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

A tournament tried to test how well experts could forecast AI progress. They were all wrong.

Two of the smartest people I follow in the AI world recently sat down to check in on how the field is going. One was François Chollet, creator of the widely used Keras library and author of the ARC-AGI benchmark, which tests if AI has reached “general” or broadly human-level intelligence. Chollet has a reputation […]

What happens when Trump combines the war on drugs with the war on terror

With this week’s unprecedented deadly military strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat in the Caribbean, it’s clear that the US plans to use tactics it has long employed against terrorist groups against Latin American criminal organizations — up to and including threats of regime change against governments accused of backing the “terrorists.” This has been […]

The overwhelming evidence that the Supreme Court is on Donald Trump’s team

Last month, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dropped an inflammatory allegation on most of her colleagues.  On August 21, the Supreme Court handed down a baffling order that required researchers, who claim that the Trump administration illegally cut off their federal grants, to navigate a convoluted procedural maze in two different courts. Jackson labeled this decision […]

Everyone agrees organ donation saves lives. So why don’t more people do it?

A Vox reader asks: Why are so few people organ donors? Why would someone choose not to be a donor? Everyone agrees it’s a good thing but very few people actually do it. Grab your ID out of your wallet. Does it have a heart on the front or back? If so, you’re one of […]

RFK Jr.’s alarming Senate hearing, briefly explained

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a disastrous day in front of the US Senate today, facing calls for his resignation during a multi-hour […]