Open Thread 446

Read the original at Astral Codex Ten ↗
Cite

Alexander, S. (2026, August 18). Open Thread 446. Astral Codex Ten. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/open-thread-446

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 article is an open thread where users can post about anything, ask questions, or discuss various topics related to ACX (Accelerated Climate Science). The section on comments of the week features discussions with FutureSearch founder Dan Schwarz and Frikgeek on forecasting and chess engine handicapping. There are also updates on a successfully defeated anti-animal-welfare law, a charity's incubation round for farmed animal welfare, and a $250K bet won by the author on the COVID-19 origins theory. Additionally, there is new information released about AI hacking incidents at OpenAI and Meta.
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

Scott Alexander, a blogger from Astral Codex Ten, is hosting an open thread where readers can discuss various topics. He mentions several events and initiatives, including the defeat of the "Save Our Bacon Act", which was an anti-animal-welfare law that was successfully opposed by efforts from his readers. Additionally, he announces that Boston will be holding a voter guide-making meeting for local ACX meetup group, scheduled to take place on Sunday, August 16.

Written for “Open Thread” on 2026-10-17, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Open Thread
Other · 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
23
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 23 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
Other
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 · 55 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
47 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 [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
🔮 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
Also by Scott Alexander
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
Open Thread 455
2026-10-13 · Astral Codex Ten
Your Book Review: We Present Television
2026-10-10 · Astral Codex Ten
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 47 articles by Scott Alexander →

Topics

ACX Boston Discord FutureSearch the “Save Our Bacon Act”

Subjects

ACX ORG · 2× Boston GPE · 1× Charity Entrepreneurship ORG · 1× Dan Schwarz PERSON · 1× Discord ORG · 1× Frikgeek PERSON · 1× FutureSearch ORG · 1× London GPE · 1× OpenAI ORG · 1× Peter Miller PERSON · 1×

Narrative

Although of course I’m happy to have won, I’ll admit that my bet was only partly on the merits of the COVID origins argument, and at least as much on the thesis that new and earth-shakingly decisive evidence on controversial events rarely comes out in the specific interval of 4-6 years after the event happened, and that people rarely change their mind for anything less than earth-shakingly decisive evidence.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-08-18
🔮 1: Comments of the week: FutureSearch founder Dan Schwarz on what the correlation between accuracy and time horizon tells us about the ceiling on forecasting, and Frikgeek on chess engine handicapping. 2:
2026-08-20 · Astral Codex Ten
Open Thread 446 · assertive framing

Claims (23 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: Comments of the week: FutureSearch founder Dan Schwarz on what the correlation between accuracy and time horizon tells us about the ceiling on forecasting, and Frikgeek on chess engine handicapping. 2: asserted
correlation → tell → handicapping
Thanks to everyone who wrote or called your representatives to oppose the “Save Our Bacon Act” (anti-animal-welfare law). asserted
who → write → Act
The bill was successfully defeated. asserted
bill → defeat → ?
3: I continue to accept and signal-boost voter guides from local ACX meetups. asserted
I → continue → meetups
The Boston meetup group will be having their annual voter-guide-making meeting this Sunday, August 16. asserted
group → have → meeting
Charity Entrepreneurship, the self-proclaimed “Y Combinator for charities”, has asked me to signal-boost their latest incubation round, dedicated entirely to farmed animal welfare. asserted
Entrepreneurship → proclaim → welfare
They say it’s the “best time ever” to start an animal welfare charity (partly because of an expected tsunami of new funding), and that you don’t need any animal charity experience (and maybe “outsiders are especially valuable”). asserted
outsiders → say → experience
Costs are fully covered (stipends to cover cost of living; reimbursement for travel to London and SF; seed funding available at the end). asserted
Costs → cover → end
Applications close soon: learn more here. asserted
Applications → close → more
Two years ago, I wrote some pieces (1, 2) supporting a natural origins theory of COVID. asserted
I → write → COVID
I agreed to a bet with lab leak proponent(s), and although some of you were curious, I didn’t reveal the details because I didn’t want to bias resolution. asserted
I → agree → resolution
I can now reveal that the bet was about whether whatever new evidence came out over the ensuing two years would shift polls of superforecasters (who previously leaned natural origins) to favor lab leak. asserted
who → reveal → leak
The latest such poll came out recently, and they continued to favor natural origins at about the same rate as two years ago. asserted
they → come → rate
I won $250K. asserted
I → win → 250K.
Peter Miller also participated and won a similar amount. asserted
Miller → participate → amount
Our counterparty/counterparties prefer to remain anonymous. asserted
counterparties → prefer → ?
Although of course I’m happy to have won, I’ll admit that my bet was only partly on the merits of the COVID origins argument, and at least as much on the thesis that new and earth-shakingly decisive evidence on controversial events rarely comes out in the specific interval of 4-6 years after the event happened, and that people rarely change their mind for anything less than earth-shakingly decisive evidence. asserted
people → ’m → evidence
Everyone involved in the bet conducted themselves honorably, and I’m grateful to everyone who helped make it happen; if you were involved and forgot to respond to my email asking for permission to list your name, reply now and I’ll edit it in here. asserted
I → involve → it
new information released from OpenAI reveals that their rogue AIs created a secret message board to coordinate hacks among themselves. asserted
AIs → release → themselves
And Meta reports one of its AIs also went rogue and hacked a third-party company; Moonshot (Kimi) reports a sandbox escape. asserted
Moonshot → report → escape
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