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Arthur Clune

@arthur.clune.org
183 followers 472 following 757 posts

Geek. Likes bikes, climbing and tech Work: IT at University of Sheffield

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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 12h
Having a system where we get our top researchers to spend their time writing grants with a 5% success rate rather than doing research seems less than ideal
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 28/09/2026
Dan Luu has done the work to evaluate Ed Zitron's predictions Spoiler: they are all wrong
danluu.com
Ed Zitron's AI prediction track record
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⤵️ @bryce.lol · 27/09/2026
If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: if you pardon, we will mend; And, as I am an honest Puck, Show is over, off you fuck.
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 26/09/2026
One I missed earlier this month. Google mapped a fruit fly brain. You can now run a fruit fly brain in a simulator. I feel the queasiness that this post (interconnected.org/home/2026/09...) does. Esp given their intent to do the same for the human brain (sites.research.google/gr/neural-ma...)
In case you missed it:
Google Research and partners mapped the complete brain of fruit fly. (3 September).
It's a common bug and common in scientific research. The male fruit fly has 166,000 neurons across the brain and main nerve cord; the map is called the connectome.
Long story short, the connectome is now available for free download, you can get a simulator of the different types of neurons, it caught the imagination of the internet, over September there has been all kinds of wild nonsense (impressive
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 26/09/2026
'It’s also noteworthy that Claude Science accomplished this in one shot, without any scientific oversight more sophisticated than “keep going.” '
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 25/09/2026
This is really worth following the link. So much stuff. Ad profiling. Possible anthropic distillation
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 25/09/2026
AI in History research. We've come a long way in that the first reaction isn't "it's made up the reference" but "did it hack a digitial archive to get it". Which the have already done - www.nprillinois.org/2026-07-22/o...
"The file references GPT-6 Astra mentions, RS 3-3/20a and RS 3-3/63b, are correct, but they are not available on the Crypto Cellar Research website. GPT-6 Astra mentions a private collection, but it is not clear what this is, whether it has succeeded in accessing the Bundesarchiv's digitised collections or whether it has found these files elsewhere."
Shades of the Hugging Face incident here: these models are maniacally determined when giving a problem they deem tractable. They will push their search for potential solutions as far as they possibly can, often in ways that human experts find difficult to trace.
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 23/09/2026
me! me! I know this! me! It can't.
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Grace @gracekind.net · 23/09/2026
New animation from Opus 5.5!
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 21/09/2026
More and more I think maths is going to have to start again with ideas of what research is. "We're solving open problems so fast you can't keep up" is wild.
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Citizen Platano 🇵🇷 @daniloc.xyz · 21/09/2026
the world is very weird and a lot is changing but a thing we can all find shared comfort in: google’s iOS apps remain pathetic industry lagging dogshit
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 19/09/2026
A work last week an academic said "I don't believe that LLMs can solve problems". This a 2 mins after her colleague had explained that in maths they didn't know what to give phd students that LLMs can't solve, and now they are talking about what comes after terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/18/i...
terrytao.wordpress.com
If math is more than proof, we need to better celebrate the rest of it
[This is a guest post by Grant Sanderson. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] A sentiment echoing throughout the mathematics communit…
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Elizabeth Sandifer @eruditorumpress.com · 15/09/2026
The problem is that "while you weren't looking the tech industry was comprehensively taken over by a cult based around a piece of Harry Potter fanfic" is self-evidently an absolutely ridiculous claim that can't possibly have happened, which is a real problem given that it 100% did happen.
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
What he doesn't realize is if the yuri writers get replaced, their backup plan is to finish their papers on probabilistic approaches to nonlinear dynamics. So, it should all even out.
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Btw, even among pro AI friends, this concern is ALL OVER THE PLACE. Devs wondering how we get senior devs if the ecosystem for junior devs goes away. Doctors talking about not needing interns. Lawyers not needing paralegals. There's an ecological aspect to this and we need a plan.
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Like, man, there are people trying to convince you things aren't getting freaky for reasons I don't understand. Tao is a reliable witness, and math is the tip of the spear, and he's talking about capabilities gained in the last few *months*. Saying what's true is not saying that it's 100% good.
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I do think there's a chance they'll get OpenAI and Anthropic to back off of solving problems for publicity. Not a great chance, but it's possible. However, the class of models that solved Navier-Stokes will be generally available within six months or so. And they'll be cheap a year later.
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Very forceful statement by Terry Tao about AI and math. terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/11/a... Note, he is not claiming the models aren't real and powerful. He's talking about how that power should be used. This, I believe, is what all AI discussions should center.
terrytao.wordpress.com
A Severe Misalignment of AI in Mathematics
I am proud to be among the list of 25 initial signatories — all Fields Medallists — to the declaration below, which grew out of discussions between ourselves over the last week. We have…
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 12/09/2026
I got grumpy at work a few months back and talked about cope. It didn’t go well but now I’m thinking I wasn’t clear enough and should have gone with “ffs that’s just cope”
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norvid_studies @norvid-studies.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
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Snugbucket @snugbucket.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
They live amongst us... www.devonlive.com/news/devon-n...
devonlive.com
Pensioners attack traffic lights over wild 'deadly weapon' claims
An online movement say that the sensors on traffic lights can cause heart attacks, brain cancer, anxiety and even sudden death
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 11/09/2026
20/10 level posting. No notes
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Chris Peikert @chrispeikert.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“Now Lean, particularly in Navier-Stokes papers, is being used as a time-stamp, a way to claim your theorem before having to write it up properly in an explainable way.” A sentence that would’ve been seen as the ravings of a madman just ~1 year ago. blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2026/09/navi...
blog.computationalcomplexity.org
Navier-Stokes and Lean
I was working on this week's post on Lean after reading Kevin Hartnett's book  The Proof in the Code: How a Truth Machine Is Transforming Ma...
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 08/09/2026
groan
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
For anyone not following the drama, there's been apparently a big development in ai math, along with some accusations of very bad behavior by OpenAI. But we don't have details yet. If I understand it, Buckmaster and Levent Alpoge made a big discovery on Navier-Stokes. Events go something like this:
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 07/09/2026
This is a good thread and highlights real issues with LLM in maths/science not quoting sources. Where I disagree is that historically being able to pull together techniquies/theorems from across (and between) fields has been very valuable, and if LLMs do nothing else, it changes things massively.
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philpax @philpax.me · 04/09/2026
Kevin's not too worried xenaproject.wordpress.com/2026/09/04/f...
xenaproject.wordpress.com
FLT: Anthropic has beaten me to it
I guess technically it was revealed to the world by a coffee shop in Islington on Insta, but an hour later it was officially announced by Anthropic: one of their internal models, using the prove2.m…
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 04/09/2026
Imperial group has a grant, funded till 2029, to formalise Fermat's Last Theorem in Lean. Claude just did it end to end in 11 days.
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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Ha! This is exactly the kind of "your research output changed our practice" confirmation academics need for REF impact case studies.
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diablerie 妖妖 @diabler.ie · 27/07/2026
the pay is great but since you'll be sitting between GPT 7 and the answers to ExploitGym 2.0 I would probably stay out of Waymos and the like
a job posting for a "security engineer, detection and response" position at openAI posted one day ago
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paul khruangbin (Dan Lehner) @danlehner.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
lol
Placelering 705
r/accelerate • 7h ago
A Collection of Ed Zitron Predictions
"generative Al is a dead-end technology that has peaked" - Aug 2024
"so egregious that I am surprised it's not some kind of financial crime to say it out loud" — on OpenAl forecasting
$11.6B for 2025 (https://www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/) actual: $13.07B. source is his own scoop (https://www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/)
"artificial intelligence has three quarters to prove itself before the apocalypse comes" — Mar 2024
"OpenAl will collapse in the next 12-24 months" — Jul 2024
"If OpenAl doesn't either reduce their $8.5bn operating costs to $1bn or less and raise at least $5bn in the next year, they will die." - Jul 2024 2025 costs: $34B
"I predict its assets will be absorbed by Microsoft" — Dec 2025 filed for a ~$1T IPO six months later
"Both OpenAl and Anthropic have no possible route to acquisition or IPO" - Aug 2025 OpenAl and Anthropic both filed in June
"it's pretty easy to come to the conclusion that Cursor is going to die" - Jul 2025 Sold for $60 billion less than a year later
"Anthropic Is Bleeding Out" — Jul 2025
"I do not know how you come away from this story and not think Cohere is going to die"- May 2025
"agents don't exist. they're probably doing LLMs lol" - Feb 2025
"there is no iPhone moment coming, I'm afraid" - Apr 2024 1 billion weekly users
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Ashley @ashleysays.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Chefs kiss
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Nicholas Jackson @njj4.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I mean, I see why the auto-categorisation feature in my shopping list app has done this, but goodness me. Really don't try this one at home, kids.
Screenshot from a shopping list app. It has categorised "Caustic soda" as "Beverages".

Caustic soda is in no sense whatsoever a beverage - it's a highly corrosive alkaline chemical used for (amongst other things) aggressively unblocking drains.

Never, ever attempt to drink or otherwise consume it.
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jake @yetanotheruseless.com · 20/08/2026
For those of my fellow AI-liker persuasion: here’s another example of an environmentally *atrocious* data center (auditory, this time, different kind of horrible than Elon’s illegal gas turbines). After doing a little digging: this one is pretty clearly as bad as it sounds here.
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 20/08/2026
And they say llms can’t do humour
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Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
‘Wheels rapidly falling off university funding system’. “No sign of awareness” at Treasury as international recruitment decline worsens financial outlook, experts warn. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
researchprofessionalnews.com
‘Wheels rapidly falling off university funding system’ - Research Professional News
“No sign of awareness” at Treasury as international recruitment decline worsens financial outlook, experts warn
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 14/08/2026
Completely forgotten that I disabled these ages ago. #winning
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 12/08/2026
Another maths conjecture proved, this time by a neuroscientist and chatgpt 5.6. alextownsend.net/essays/SIAMN... The prompt used is a variant of one OpenAI used to prove a different problem and forces use of multiple approaches via agents raw.githubusercontent.com/jinshanmu/Cr...
raw.githubusercontent.com
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 10/08/2026
The question was "take a good stab at the Riemann Hypothesis". Spoiler - Claude didn't solve it but it did significantly increase a numerical bound
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Pretty big break happening in academia between the “AI is banned for reviews” journals and the “AI is mandatory for reviews” journals. www.refine.ink/blog/economi...
refine.ink
Refine partners with the American Economic Association and the Econometric Society
Two leading publishers in economics now use Refine's AI-assisted technical verification as part of their publication processes.
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 05/08/2026
Estimates of the carbon emissions and energy use of heavy agentic AI use from an actual climate scientist. It's a fair chunk. 600x simple prompts But also not - 8% of the emissions of a US car www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-real-e... We need to decarbonise the grid and not build gas powered DCs
theclimatebrink.com
The real energy use of agentic AI
Agents use about 600x more energy than simple AI prompts
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Iska @iskamag.com · 04/08/2026
They've created a cargo cult
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 02/08/2026
I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 01/08/2026
This is a good thread on the speed and pace at which LLMs are producing new maths results
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mr. TIM @timkellogg.me · 31/07/2026
The Maxwell Conjecture is false is this method of acknowledgment good? they didn’t list Sol as an author, but they are forthcoming about its involvement arxiv.org/abs/2607.27197
Acknowledgments
Kvalheim was supported in part by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award number
FA9550-24-1-0299.
Tool and computational resource disclosure
The idea behind this construction was suggested by an LLM (OpenAl's GPT-5.6 Sol). The authors have verified the mathematical details and have written the argument in their own words. Computer algebra software (Mathematica, Maple) was used to verify computations and produce visualisations.
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 30/07/2026
This one seems very out of character for York! It’s not listed on the official page so now I want to know if this is true or not
The college motto of James College, University of York: “let them hate so long as they fear”. According to Wikipedia
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austin (e/accordion 🪗) @thebadcode.com · 28/07/2026
it GOT the fucking answers!?!?
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 24/07/2026
It's great.
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rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
just a second i've got the chipotle customer support agent working on it
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Arthur Clune @arthur.clune.org · 12/07/2026
Current status: acting as a dumb and slow router between Fable and Sol via cut and paste. They really do spot different things
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