iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Timothy B. Lee

NonZero @nonzeronews.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Is the AI Takeoff Starting? | Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits.bsky.social), author of the Understanding AI newsletter and host of the AI Summer podcast, joins @robertwrighter.bsky.social to discuss whether AI is a “normal technology” or something much, much more.

youtu.be

Is the AI Takeoff Starting? | Robert Wright & Timothy B. Lee

YouTube video by Nonzero

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Robert Wright @robertwrighter.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Really enjoyed this conversation with @binarybits.bsky.social.

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Kyle Serikawa @kyleserikawa.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

This piece ( open.substack.com/pub/understa...) by @binarybits.bsky.social made me think of something kind of similar @doctorow.pluralistic.net shared a little while ago about process knowledge. pluralistic.net/2026/04/08/p.... Both asking about knowledge that's less articulated but still valuable.

open.substack.com

I don’t think we are close to “AI scientists”

Today's AI agents are not designed to extract deep insights from new observations.

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Alan Rozenshtein @alanrozenshtein.com · 06/03/2026

Banger of a crossover episode today between @scaling_laws and "AI Summer" with @deanwb.bsky.social and @binarybits.bsky.social on the Anthropic/OpenAI/Pentagon situation (note that we recorded this on Wed. before DOD designated Anthropic a supply chain risk). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

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Tim Duffy @timfduffy.com · 22/07/2025

I'm a fan of this @binarybits.bsky.social piece that points out the incredibly simple and dumb error made by shadowstats. There's definitely some wiggle room for how you calculate inflation but you can't be significantly biased in the long term without it being obvious.

fullstackeconomics.com

No, the real inflation rate isn’t 15 percent

Jordan Peterson and Jack Dorsey are touting a bogus theory about the inflation rate.

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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

The American Time Use Survey came out recently, giving the most detailed look at how the country spends its days, so here's a quick thread 1st, the share of Americans reading for personal interest on an average day has fallen to the lowest level on record, down 10% from 2003🧵

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NonZero @nonzeronews.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

The Truth about Sam Altman | @robertwrighter.bsky.social and Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits.bsky.social), author of the Understanding AI newsletter, discuss what two new biographies reveal about the OpenAI CEO.

youtu.be

The Truth about Sam Altman | Robert Wright & Timothy B. Lee

YouTube video by Nonzero

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Tom Lee @tjl.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Fantastic @binarybits.bsky.social writeup of the Alsup ruling in Anthropic’s case open.substack.com/pub/understa... But aside from AI training, yet another reminder of the power of analog media. This excerpt is tragic: Alsup’s right about books. But this is exactly how the digital economy works.

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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

No urbanist has successfully kept more vehicles off the road than radical degrowth war-on-cars advocate Donald J Trump

A graph showing a massive drop in US car imports as Donald Trump imposes tariffs on US motor vehicles

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Apropos of nothing I feel like one of the most important things to help your kids develop is an ability to self-regulate.

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Hey @niedermeyer.online is this going to mean no more Tesla takedown protests? Or are they going to become pro-Elon rallies?

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Groceries stores are famous for their fat profit margins.

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Dan Keshet @dankeshet.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Interesting look at the emergency safety regulations that may hamper rollout of the promised Dallas to Houston automated trucking trial from @binarybits.bsky.social.

open.substack.com

Driverless trucks are coming and unions aren’t happy about it

Will Trump side with driverless trucking startups or the labor movement?

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

@binarybits.bsky.social is doubtful that scaling up so-called reasoning AI models will "achieve human-level intelligence" given this "probably has more than two dimensions, and mastering all of them will probably require a few more conceptual breakthroughs." open.substack.com/pub/understa...

open.substack.com

OpenAI just released GPT-5—it just didn’t call it that

OpenAI's GPT-4.5 demonstrates the power and limits of pretrained models.

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Kevin Markham @dataschool.io · 04/03/2025

19 professionals (in a variety of fields) evaluated OpenAI's Deep Research vs Google's Deep Research. OpenAI was the clear winner 🏆 Neat study by @binarybits.bsky.social, read more here: www.understandingai.org/p/these-expe...

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Andrew Lee @startupandrew.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

I was a guest on the AI Summer podcast the other day. I go into some detail about how the Shortwave AI agent works today, how we got here, and what's next. Check it out: www.aisummer.org/p/andrew-lee... Thanks @binarybits.bsky.social and Dean Ball for hosting me!

aisummer.org

Andrew Lee on running an AI email startup

Tim's brother goes deep on the practicalities of building on top of fast-changing AI models.

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

The Understanding AI newsletter from @binarybits.bsky.social really helps you to, well, understand AI. You should read it. www.understandingai.org/p/these-expe...

understandingai.org

These pros were stunned by OpenAI Deep Research

"I would use this model professionally," an antitrust lawyer told me.

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e.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 17/02/2025

This is what Elon does: he takes something someone else is already doing, does it more sloppily/dangerously, and slaps his own brand on it so everyone forgets anything else exists (if they ever knew). You can't cede his rebranding without a fight, or you're toast. Explain that GAO already does this!

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Kevin Markham @dataschool.io · 30/01/2025

Want to keep up with the latest developments in AI? Check out the 7 newsletters I personally read & recommend for AI news, insights, and analysis: 👉 www.dataschool.io/best-ai-news... 👈 Includes: @simonwillison.net @emollick.bsky.social @sebastianraschka.com @binarybits.bsky.social

dataschool.io

How to keep up with AI in 2025 🏃‍♂️

These 7 AI experts will guide you through the most important developments in Artificial Intelligence.

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Excited to launch a new podcast with @deanwb.bsky.social about AI. It's called AI summer, and can be found on all major podcast apps. The first episode is an interview with political scientist @jonaskonas.bsky.social about AI policy in the Trump era. www.aisummer.org/p/jon-askona...

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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 10/01/2025

If TiKTok wasn’t a benefit for Chinese intel, they would sell. They could make a killing. But it’s not about the money

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Nobody knew the federal budget could be so complicated.

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Neal Parikh @nparikh.org · 08/01/2025

Here are some interesting opportunities to collaborate with the excellent @binarybits.bsky.social on his newsletter, Understanding AI, if you or someone you know are interested in serious AI journalism. If not, I still recommend his newsletter. www.understandingai.org/p/two-opport...

understandingai.org

Two opportunities to work with me in 2025

You could get paid to write for Understanding AI for nine months.

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

I’m not sure what industry “four trending stories daily” is the standard for, but it’s definitely not journalism.

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Molly White @molly.wiki · 08/01/2025

Donating to the Wikimedia Foundation is great. Becoming a volunteer editor is even better. youtu.be/bRRHR1NEOqE

youtu.be

Become a Wikipedian in 30 minutes

YouTube video by Molly White

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

She’s mangling history here. Truman was actually Secretary of State (he would later become vice president and then president upon the assassination of James Garfield in 1881). The idea was so unpopular (it was called “Truman’s folly”) that president Monroe had to drop the idea.

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Tfw the book is so tedious you bump it up to 2.5x.

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Spirit Bear Fran @fran.spiritbeardreaming.com · 05/01/2025

Just retired & looking back writing code is the least of it. Good abstractions/design, mentoring, writing *useful* docs, debugging large distributed multi-threaded code in different containers/platforms, negotiating with both tech and non-tech teams, customers, researching new things took most time.

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

I have updated my disclosure statement. timothyblee.com/disclosure-s...

timothyblee.com

Disclosure Statement | Bottom-up

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

This is a funny joke but it also reflects biased media coverage. Conventional cars catch on fire all the time. They just don’t get covered because it’s not considered news. When i was at ars I passed on most Tesla battery fire stories for this reason.

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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Official data released today shows US data center construction hitting a new all-time high of $31.5B annualized, up 43% from this time last year and 128% since the release of ChatGPT two years ago

a graph of US data center construction over time, which skyrockets after the launch of ChatGPT

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

This Texas bill sounds worse than SB 1047. Kind of incredible that it was introduced by a Republican. www.hyperdimensional.co/p/texas-plow...

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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

I was following the fake one!

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

What’s the deal with mastodon these days? Has it been losing ground to bluesky? Does it have a different position on the ideological spectrum? It seems likely that one of them will wind up as the default left-of-center Twitter alternative.

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Ted Underwood @tedunderwood.com · 28/12/2024

I just don't see H sapiens ceding decision-making, directive authority to machines. "But what if the machines make better decisions? Competition will force ..." Look around this ridiculous planet and ask yourself how often competition has forced hominids to cede power to the best problem-solvers.

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

It’s an interesting marketing choice to make all your big product announcements in the two weeks before Christmas.

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Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Mary and Joseph had to stay in a manger because Bethlehem resorted to anti-Airbnb rules to boost housing affordability rather than rolling back Herod’s anti-supply regulations.

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Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Most businesspeople are always going to prefer Republicans because of low taxes, but the post-2012 effort to *deliberately stigmatize center-left business people* was a disaster. www.slowboring.com/p/liberalism...

slowboring.com

Liberalism not socialism

Democrats need to stop acting like business careers are immoral or corrupt

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Some people are absolutely doing this for careerist reasons but also think it’s healthy for supporters of a losing candidate to honestly examine what they might have gotten wrong. The voters aren’t infallible but if a bunch of former supporters turn against you there might be some good reasons.

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

The key to low-crime cities is more police, not more incarceration. This might be the area where wokeness has most distorted Democratic policymaking. I would love to see a Democrat in 2028 run on bringing back Bill Clinton's more-cops-on-the-beat agenda. www.noahpinion.blog/p/good-citie...

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Josh Blake @joshuablake.co.uk · 23/12/2024

If you're not obsessively following AI, strong recommend below for implications of the latest models focusing on a new type of training and compute paradigm. Clearly explains what's different and the implications. Worth the subscription just for this article IMO. open.substack.com/pub/understa...

open.substack.com

It's the end of pretraining as we know it

LLM training techniques are evolving, and that has huge implications.

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Timothy B. Lee @binarybits.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Here’s a fun and (I think) generally accurate taxonomy of AI skepticism. buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/who-and-wh...

buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com

Who and What comprise AI Skepticism?

An attempt to do justice to a diverse community

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