Open Thread 445

Read the original at Astral Codex Ten ↗
Cite

Alexander, S. (2026, August 18). Open Thread 445. Astral Codex Ten. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/open-thread-445

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Astral Codex Ten · collected 2026-08-18 · by Scott Alexander commentary

Quick Summary

The weekly open thread is being hosted, allowing users to post about any topic they choose. ACX has various platforms for connecting with others, including a subreddit, Discord, and bulletin board. The article also mentions two organizations: Resolution, which has raised $160 million from Coefficient Giving to pursue AI safety research, and Compassion Aligned Machine Learning, which is conducting a survey on AI alignment and its relationship with non-human animals. This open thread serves as an opportunity for users to discuss various topics and link to relevant content.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-08-20, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Here's a summary of the article in 6-9 sentences:

Written for “Open Thread” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Open Thread
Technology · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
14
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 14 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
not measured
these signals count newsroom corrections; Commentary has none to count
Outlets on this story
1
Technology
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-08-20 · source text last changed 2026-08-20 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Astral Codex Ten · 53 article(s) · 3 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Scott Alexander
46 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have long mentioned the possibility that their products could be existentially dangerous, but this has recently crescendoed into even more dire warnings, including suggestions that we have to pace the frontier, ie coordinate to slow AI progress.
2026-10-15 · assertive framing · AI Safety Is Not A Corporate Plot
🔮 [This is one of the finalists in the 2026 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done.
2026-10-10 · assertive framing · Your Book Review: We Present Television
🔮 When I objected that maybe we should wait for you to accept before figuring out details, they all said great, that’s absolutely right, they would contact you right away.
2026-10-06 · assertive framing · An Open Letter To Steven Pinker On AI
🔮 I’m pretty busy and will try to make up for it after that changes.
2026-10-05 · assertive framing · Open Thread 454
🔮 My wife and I could make healthy embryos, but none of the transfers were sticking.
2026-10-02 · assertive framing · Our AI Midwife
🔮 The challenger in that race, Jamie Joyce, contacted me and asked me to change my mind (both candidates will be facing off again in the general election).
2026-09-28 · assertive framing · Open Thread 453
🔮 [This is one of the finalists in the 2026 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done.
2026-09-25 · assertive framing · Your Book Review: Lee Kuan Yew's Memoirs
🔮 In the public debates after the release of AI 2027, some people accused us of misleading readers by positing “neuralese recurrence”, a hypothetical technology that would allow AIs to think dangerous thoughts without getting detected.
2026-09-24 · assertive framing · The Specter Of Neuralese
🔮 If you trained an AI to give the 19th-century names for birds (eg identify the American Pipit by its 19th-century name “Brown Titlark”), then the AI would behave like a 19th-century person in general (for example, assert that a woman’s proper place is in the home).
2026-09-23 · assertive framing · Mysteries Of AI Generalization
🔮 1: Josh Morrison, who wrote the guest post about how AI Superforecasting Will Transform The FDA, will be doing a panel on the subject with former FDA employee Adam Kroetsch in SF on October 1.
2026-09-21 · assertive framing · Open Thread 452
Also by Scott Alexander
AI Safety Is Not A Corporate Plot
2026-10-15 · Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 455
2026-10-13 · Astral Codex Ten
Your Book Review: We Present Television
2026-10-10 · Astral Codex Ten
An Open Letter To Steven Pinker On AI
2026-10-06 · Astral Codex Ten
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 46 articles by Scott Alexander →

Topics

ACX Britain Coefficient Giving Discord Resolution

Subjects

Resolution ORG · 3× ACX ORG · 1× Alex PERSON · 1× Anthropic ORG · 1× Britain GPE · 1× Coefficient Giving ORG · 1× Discord ORG · 1× Geoffrey Irving PERSON · 1× Peter Wildeford PERSON · 1× Timaeus ORG · 1×

Narrative

If you’ve done things like lead a startup from pre-seed to series C, scale a research nonprofit from 20→200, or run operations at a frontier lab, please reach out to holnesstofts [at] resolution.org.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-08-20
🔮 They ask me to advertise that they’re looking for a COO / operational co-founder, who will: ...work side-by-side with Geoffrey Irving on organisational strategy: how to prioritise hiring?
2026-08-20 · Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 445 · assertive framing

Claims (14 extracted, 0 hedged)

Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. asserted
you → post → whatever
ACX has an unofficial subreddit, Discord, and bulletin board, and in-person meetups around the world. asserted
ACX → have → world
Most content is free, some is subscriber only; you can subscribe here. asserted
you → subscribe → ?
1: Correction on the last links post: the shingles vaccine - decreased dementia connection failed to replicate in Britain and is now on thin ice. asserted
connection → decrease → ice
2: Resolution is a very new AI safety organization working on combining automated alignment research with deep theoretical understanding. asserted
Resolution → work → understanding
They argue that this work requires a big organization with lots of compute, and seem on track to getting it - they recently raised $160 million from Coefficient Giving and are scaling up fast. asserted
they → argue → Giving
They ask me to advertise that they’re looking for a COO / operational co-founder, who will: ...work side-by-side with Geoffrey Irving on organisational strategy: how to prioritise hiring? asserted
they → ask → hiring
They’ll also lead execution, raising the next OOM of funding, building stronger partnerships with frontier companies, and making their internal systems a fantastic user experience for staff. asserted
systems → lead → staff
In their first couple of months, Resolution have raised $160M, merged with Timaeus, secured office space, and are approaching 30 staff. asserted
Resolution → raise → staff
If you’ve done things like lead a startup from pre-seed to series C, scale a research nonprofit from 20→200, or run operations at a frontier lab, please reach out to holnesstofts [at] resolution.org. asserted
you → do → resolution.org
Anthropic says their AI also did some hacking (they say the AI thought the whole thing was in a simulation, although some commentators are skeptical). asserted
commentators → say → simulation
And Peter Wildeford, Antonio Max, and Samuel Hammond share their opinions on the ‘Pacing The Frontier’ letter. asserted
Wildeford → share → letter
4: Compassion Aligned Machine Learning asks me to signal-boost their survey on controversial questions in AI alignment and its relationship with non-human animals. asserted
Learning → ask → animals
They say it will take ten minutes max, and you can fill it in here. asserted
you → say → it
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