Open Thread 448

Read the original at Astral Codex Ten ↗
Cite

Alexander, S. (2026, August 24). Open Thread 448. Astral Codex Ten. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/open-thread-448

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 2026-08-24 · by Scott Alexander commentary

Quick Summary

The weekly open thread of the ACX community allows users to post about various topics, ask questions, or discuss unrelated matters. The thread also mentions several job opportunities and research fellowships in AI-related fields, including a head of economics lab position at the OpenAI Foundation with salary ranges posted on the job descriptions. MATS, a 12-week research fellowship program, offers a $6,400/month stipend and is fully funded, while Inkhaven's learn-to-blog bootcamp costs $3,500.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-08-24, 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

Scott Alexander publishes an open thread on his blog Astral Codex Ten where he discusses various roles and opportunities within the Effective Altruism community, including a call for college meetup organizers at 21 universities such as MIT and Claremont. The post also highlights ACX’s Boston group completing their voting guide for the upcoming Greater Boston primary election scheduled for early September. Additionally, Jacob Trefethen from OpenAI Foundation is seeking to hire grantmakers, with roles possibly suitable for Substack readers or followers.

Written for “Open Thread” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Open Thread
Other · 2 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 9% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Open Thread same event · 95%
Reason
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 no claims extracted 📰 publisher trust 94
“Both articles are titled 'Open Thread' and have identical dates, suggesting they describe the same weekly discussion thread.”
Open Thread different event · 95%
Reason
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 no claims extracted 📰 publisher trust 94
“The articles are open threads from different dates, indicating they describe separate occurrences.”
Open Thread different event · 95%
Reason
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 no claims extracted 📰 publisher trust 94
“The articles are open threads posted on different dates, indicating they describe separate weekly occurrences.”
Open Thread different event · 90%
Reason
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 no claims extracted 📰 publisher trust 94
“The articles are open threads posted on consecutive days and do not describe a single specific event.”
Open Thread different event · 90%
Reason
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 no claims extracted 📰 publisher trust 94
“The articles are weekly open threads posted on different dates.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
22
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
9%
2 of 22 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
2
Other
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-08-24 · 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 Claremont Discord MATS MIT

Subjects

ACX ORG · 2× MATS ORG · 2× Amherst GPE · 1× Carnegie Mellon ORG · 1× Claremont GPE · 1× Discord ORG · 1× MIT ORG · 1× Matt PERSON · 1× Northwestern ORG · 1× Notre Dame GPE · 1×

Narrative

He writes: Here are a few of the program roles: Head of Econ Lab, to lead a team figuring out the economics of transformative AI Program Director, Formal Methods, to support verifiable defense systems as cybersecurity dynamics change Program Officer/Director on High-Burden Diseases, helping channel R&D to fight the diseases most plaguing humanity Program Officer/Director on Catalytic Deployment, figuring out how best to apply AI in the social sector …and more than a dozen others.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-08-24
🔮 Matt says his highest priority colleges that don’t have an organizer yet are MIT, Claremont, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Amherst, Notre Dame, Duke, CalTech, Georgetown, UCLA, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Harvard, NYU, Williams, GWU, American University, Rutgers, and UNC Chapel Hill.
2026-08-24 · Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 448 · assertive framing

Claims (22 extracted, 2 hedged)

Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. asserted
you → post → questions
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 → ?
Also: 1: We’re still looking for EA college meetup organizers. asserted
We → look → organizers
Matt says his highest priority colleges that don’t have an organizer yet are MIT, Claremont, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Amherst, Notre Dame, Duke, CalTech, Georgetown, UCLA, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Harvard, NYU, Williams, GWU, American University, Rutgers, and UNC Chapel Hill. asserted
that → say → organizer
If you’re at one of these schools, read the post and decide whether you’re up for organizing. asserted
you → ’re → organizing
ACX’s Boston meetup group has finished their voting guide for the Greater Boston primary election (early voting in August, election day on September 1). asserted
group → finish → September
I’m still excited about signal-boosting voting guides from meetup groups in big cities. asserted
I → ’m → cities
Jacob Trefethen is looking to hire grantmakers for the OpenAI Foundation, and says the roles “may be a good fit for Substackers or Substack lurkers”. uncertain
roles → look → Substackers
He writes: Here are a few of the program roles: Head of Econ Lab, to lead a team figuring out the economics of transformative AI Program Director, Formal Methods, to support verifiable defense systems as cybersecurity dynamics change Program Officer/Director on High-Burden Diseases, helping channel R&D to fight the diseases most plaguing humanity Program Officer/Director on Catalytic Deployment, figuring out how best to apply AI in the social sector …and more than a dozen others. asserted
dynamics → write → sector
Please share with friends who you think may be interested! uncertain
you → share → friends
[…] Salary ranges are posted on the job descriptions. asserted
ranges → post → descriptions
I think these getting the best people in these positions would be good even if you otherwise oppose OpenAI or AI in general; if you disagree with me about this, send me an email arguing why and maybe I’ll avoid boosting the next one. asserted
I → think → one
4: Guess I’m advertising MATS again! asserted
I → guess → MATS
They say: MATS is a research fellowship for people who want to get into AI alignment, interpretability, security, and governance. asserted
who → say → alignment
Fully funded: $6,400/month stipend, $8,000/month compute budget, housing, meals, and travel covered. asserted
stipend → fund → ?
Fellows work with mentors from Anthropic, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Redwood Research, AI Futures Project, and more. asserted
Fellows → work → Anthropic
Tracks include Empirical, Theory, Strategy & Forecasting, Systems Security, Policy & Governance, Biosecurity, and Founding & Field-Building. asserted
Tracks → include → Empirical
Applications close September 6, apply here. asserted
Applications → close → ?
5: Guess I’m advertising Inkhaven again! asserted
I → guess → Inkhaven
This is a learn-to-blog bootcamp at rationalist conference venue Lighthaven. asserted
This → learn → Lighthaven
Nov 10 → Dec 11, $3500, I’ll be teaching a short session and occasionally giving people advice on drafts. asserted
I → teach → drafts
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