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Open Thread 451

Read the original at Astral Codex Ten ↗
Cite

Alexander, S. (2026, September 14). Open Thread 451. Astral Codex Ten. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/open-thread-451

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 2026-09-14 · by Scott Alexander commentary

Quick Summary

This article serves as an open thread for discussions and updates related to the ACX community. It highlights several points including closing deadlines for surveys, updates about college meetups, technical issues affecting previous content, and significant developments in AI safety initiatives such as Project Tailwind by Coefficient Giving and the Mathematical AI Safety Institute founded by Jacob Tsimerman. The article also mentions efforts by concerned AI staff to hold CEOs accountable and encourages readers to engage with their representatives on these issues.
Written by AI on 2026-09-14, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

This is the weekly open thread on Astral Codex Ten where Scott Alexander invites readers to post about any topic of interest. The ACX survey, which closes tomorrow, aims to gather feedback from subscribers and non-subscribers alike. Updates have been made for EA college meetups at Universidad de Sevilla, Universidade Federal De Santa Catarina, and Carnegie Mellon University among others. There were technical issues preventing the publication of a book review last week but it will resume this week. Notably, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Demis Hassabis, and Elon Musk have agreed to work on pacing AI development, marking an important step in addressing concerns about artificial intelligence safety. Additionally, ACX offers funding opportunities for technical AI safety projects, providing pre-seed funding of up to $2m and seed funding of up to $20m for developing ideas and building organizations at scale.

Written for “Open Thread” on 2026-10-29, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

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

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Open Thread Same event
Reason
Outlet record 67/100
Open Thread Different event
Reason
Outlet record 67/100
“The articles are from different dates and appear to be separate weekly open threads.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
32
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 32 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
Technology
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-14 · 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 · 62 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
49 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 California State Propositions Proposition 1: Authorizes $11.25 billion in bonds to build affordable housing Supporters claim it will build (or renovate) 40,000 homes; I asked an AI superforecaster1 to predict the true number, and it guessed that 22,000 would actually get built.
2026-10-28 · assertive framing · My California Ballot, 2026
🔮 I may have more of these in the upcoming week.
2026-10-19 · assertive framing · Open Thread 456
🔮 [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.
2026-10-17 · assertive framing · Your Book Review: Storm Of Steel
🔮 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
Also by Scott Alexander
My California Ballot, 2026
2026-10-28 · Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 456
2026-10-19 · Astral Codex Ten
Your Book Review: Storm Of Steel
2026-10-16 · Astral Codex Ten
AI Safety Is Not A Corporate Plot
2026-10-15 · Astral Codex Ten
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 49 articles by Scott Alexander →

Topics

ACX Carnegie Mellon Discord Universidad de Sevilla Universidade Federal De Santa Catarina

Subjects

ACX ORG · 2× American NORP · 2× Global ORG · 2× Carnegie Mellon ORG · 1× Discord ORG · 1× Northwestern ORG · 1× UC San Diego ORG · 1× Universidad de Sevilla ORG · 1× Universidade Federal De Santa Catarina ORG · 1× University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ORG · 1×

Narrative

If you want to fund a charity/startup working on technical AI safety or the surrounding infrastructure (see a list of specific ideas here), they’re offering “pre-seed funding of up to $2m to develop an idea, seed funding of up to $20m to build an org at scale, and more for exceptional opportunities where teams have a strong track record”.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-14
🔮 The book review posts will resume this week.
2026-09-14 · Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 451 · assertive framing

Claims (32 extracted, 0 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 → ?
1: ACX survey closes tomorrow, take it now or lose your chance! 2: asserted
survey → close → chance
3: Sorry for no book review last Friday; I was having technical problems with the site. asserted
I → have → site
The book review posts will resume this week. asserted
posts → resume → ?
You’ve probably seen that Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Demis Hassabis, and Elon Musk agreed to “pace the frontier” of AI, with Dario’s essay here as the starting point for a concrete plan. asserted
Altman → see → plan
I’m very happy with this development, but it’s one step on a long road, and we can’t rest on our laurels. asserted
we → ’m → laurels
Lots of things are moving now, there’s a lot of interest in the field, and the opportunities to get involved have never been better. asserted
opportunities → move → field
Coefficient Giving (a giant effective altruist funder, formerly known as Open Philanthropy) is launching Project Tailwind, a “call for founders to launch ambitious new AI safety initiatives”. asserted
founders → know → initiatives
If you want to fund a charity/startup working on technical AI safety or the surrounding infrastructure (see a list of specific ideas here), they’re offering “pre-seed funding of up to $2m to develop an idea, seed funding of up to $20m to build an org at scale, and more for exceptional opportunities where teams have a strong track record”. asserted
teams → want → record
6: Fields Medalist Jacob Tsimerman is founding the Mathematical AI Safety Institute, an effort to get mathematicians involved in AI safety research. asserted
mathematicians → found → research
They are “aiming to hire 10-30 mathematicians to join us in the Bay Area by January, and scale up to 30-100 for September 2027”. asserted
They → aim → September
If you’re a mathematician who’s depressed about Navier-Stokes and wondering what’s left for human mathematicians in a world where AI capabilities are growing exponentially, this is one possible answer - it’s novel, important, and un-automatable. asserted
it → ’re → world
Some frontier AI company employees have expressed an interest in holding their CEOs to the commitments they’ve just made. asserted
they → express → commitments
Pamela Mishkin has organized unded the Coalition Of Concerned AI Staff to unite employees across major companies. asserted
Mishkin → organize → companies
And Cassie Pritchard, who I disagreed with about happiness research here but who’s been impressively on-point about AI, is trying to organize a safety-focused labor union; you can reach out to her here. asserted
you → disagree → her
This is why you need to keep a couple of socialists around sometimes! asserted
you → need → socialists
8: What if you’re not a startup founder, mathematician, or AI company employee? asserted
you → ’re → ?
I’m still working on figuring out a good answer to this, but here is a boring boilerplate list of things: asserted
list → work → things
This is slightly complicated, because PauseAI Global and Pause AI USA recently split acrimoniously. asserted
Global → split → ?
I take PauseAI Global’s side, but it’s not like the Americans are monsters, just hostile and annoying and extremely eye-rolly. asserted
Americans → take → side
If you’re non-American, you’ll want the Global org at https://pauseai.info/. asserted
you → ’re → https://pauseai.info/.
If you’re American, you can either ask the Global org how much progress they’re making towards expanding into the US, join the American org and tolerate their flaws, or join StopTheRace (a smaller group I like in the same space). asserted
I → ’re → space
Pause protest being organized in DC for 9/19! asserted
protest → pause → 9/19
Add your name to the assurance contract for MIRI’s march on Washington (they’ll do it if they get 100,000 signatories). asserted
they → add → signatories
EA has lots of institutional money, and the billionaires have most of the obvious things covered, but some partisan organizations, and especially candidates, can’t take certain types of institutional money and need small donors. asserted
organizations → have → donors
I don’t have a good list of these right now, so you can do your own research or wait to see if I come up with some later. asserted
I → have → some
Read this year’s ACX voting guides (once they exist), which will highlight local candidates in your area with good opinions. asserted
which → read → opinions
If you’re interested in a career in AI safety and have relevant skills, get in touch with 80,000 Hours, who offer a career guide, AI-based career counseling, and (occasionally, although they’re very busy) human career counseling. asserted
they → ’re → guide
Attend a local ACX/EA meetup group, which will get you in touch with other concerned people and maybe help you come up with ideas or organize something. asserted
you → attend → something
I’ll keep posting opportunities on Open Threads as they come up. asserted
they → keep → Threads
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