good questions

Reid Hoffman and Tyler Cownen recently talked about how AI is good at answering questions but not at asking them—as The Diff noted on Saturday, that makes perfect sense given how the models are constructed: they're trying to predict the highest-probability next token, i.e. they're relentlessly searching for a local maximum. But good questions are a... See more

What would it look like to answer the demanding cries of Earth, to be accountable to the needs of the planet? Given that these questions are likely already familiar to the readers of this publication, perhaps we need to ask something different: Can those of us willing to be accountable do enough to counter the choices of those bent on destruction?... See more

Life is a series of problems to be analyzed and addressed. How do we fix our failing schools? How do we reduce violence? These problem-centered questions are usually the wrong ones to ask. They focus on deficits, not gifts. A problem conversation tends to focus on one moment in time—the moment when a student didn’t graduate from high school, the... See more

What does slow AI look like?

Whether or not we live fulfilling lives often depends on our ability to honestly ask ourselves, How did I get here? Am I happy where I am? If not, how do I go to go somewhere different?