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LessWrong posts by zvi

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Latest Episodes:

Text message conversation about dating someone based on potential physical transformation. — “Dating Roundup #11: Going Too Meta” by Zvi Jan 23, 2026
Show notes

If there's several things this blog endorses, one of them would be going meta.

It's time. The big picture awaits.

You’re Single Because You Live In The Wrong Place

The most important meta question is location, location, location.

This is the periodic reminder that dating dynamics are very different in different locations, and gender ratios are far more uneven than they appear because a lot of people pair off and aren’t in the pool.

If you are a man seeking to date women, New York City is the place to be.

Churrasco Suadade: when I’m out I notice that tables at restaurants and bars in manhattan are probably around 80-95% women, it's a new dynamic that no one is talking about.

Fixed Income Guy: Are you at all the poor people places? All the finance guy hang outs are 80% dudes.

I mention Fixed Income Guy to mock him, as in why are you spending a lot more money to hang out with 80% dudes and largely finance dudes at that? I mean, sure, if that's what you want.

Darrell Owens: Oh this is new? Coming from the Bay Area [...]

---
Outline:
(00:20) You're Single Because You Live In The Wrong Place
(02:04) You're Single Because You're Not Okay Making Less Money Than She Does, You Fool
(03:19) You're Single Because You Work Out The Wrong Amount
(07:32) You're Single Because You Don't Know You Are Hot
(09:27) You're Single Because Age Gap Discourse Is Crazy
(10:04) Dating Apps Are Bad For Mental Health
(13:13) You're Single Because You Listened To E-Girl Advice
(14:13) You're Single Because You Didn't Hire Blaine Anderson
(15:52) You're Single Because You Think Zizek Mocked Date Me Docs
(18:36) You're Still Single Because You Don't Appreciate Relationships
(20:50) You're Not Single And Haven't Been For a While
(22:25) You Are Still Single As Evidenced By Would
(24:02) You're Single Because You Lack Motivation
(25:03) You're Single Because Of Robin Hanson
(26:00) You're Single Because You Did This Instead Of Going To Therapy
(26:58) The Lighter Side

---

First published:
January 23rd, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7y6YA8o6oisAzDSgk/dating-roundup-11-going-too-meta

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

William Costello tweets: — “Dating Roundup #11: Going Too Meta” by Zvi Jan 23, 2026
Show notes

If there's several things this blog endorses, one of them would be going meta.

It's time. The big picture awaits.

You’re Single Because You Live In The Wrong Place

The most important meta question is location, location, location.

This is the periodic reminder that dating dynamics are very different in different locations, and gender ratios are far more uneven than they appear because a lot of people pair off and aren’t in the pool.

If you are a man seeking to date women, New York City is the place to be.

Churrasco Suadade: when I’m out I notice that tables at restaurants and bars in manhattan are probably around 80-95% women, it's a new dynamic that no one is talking about.

Fixed Income Guy: Are you at all the poor people places? All the finance guy hang outs are 80% dudes.

I mention Fixed Income Guy to mock him, as in why are you spending a lot more money to hang out with 80% dudes and largely finance dudes at that? I mean, sure, if that's what you want.

Darrell Owens: Oh this is new? Coming from the Bay Area [...]

---
Outline:
(00:20) You're Single Because You Live In The Wrong Place
(02:04) You're Single Because You're Not Okay Making Less Money Than She Does, You Fool
(03:19) You're Single Because You Work Out The Wrong Amount
(07:32) You're Single Because You Don't Know You Are Hot
(09:27) You're Single Because Age Gap Discourse Is Crazy
(10:04) Dating Apps Are Bad For Mental Health
(13:13) You're Single Because You Listened To E-Girl Advice
(14:13) You're Single Because You Didn't Hire Blaine Anderson
(15:52) You're Single Because You Think Zizek Mocked Date Me Docs
(18:36) You're Still Single Because You Don't Appreciate Relationships
(20:50) You're Not Single And Haven't Been For a While
(22:25) You Are Still Single As Evidenced By Would
(24:02) You're Single Because You Lack Motivation
(25:03) You're Single Because Of Robin Hanson
(26:00) You're Single Because You Did This Instead Of Going To Therapy
(26:58) The Lighter Side

---

First published:
January 23rd, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7y6YA8o6oisAzDSgk/dating-roundup-11-going-too-meta

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Neera Tanden tweets: — “AI #152: Brought To You By The Torment Nexus” by Zvi Jan 22, 2026
Show notes

Anthropic released a new constitution for Claude. I encourage those interested to read the document, either in whole or in part. I intend to cover it on its own soon.

There was also actual talk about coordinating on a conditional pause or slowdown from both DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, which I also plan to cover later.

Claude Code continues to be the talk of the town, the weekly report on that is here.

OpenAI responded by planning ads for the cheap and free versions of ChatGPT.

There was also a fun but meaningful incident involving ChatGPT Self Portraits.

Table of Contents

Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. Call in the tone police.

Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. He who lives by the pattern.

Huh, Upgrades. Claude health integrations, ChatGPT $8/month option.

Gemini Personalized Intelligence. Signs of both remain somewhat lacking.

Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon. Get that bathtub viking.

Fun With Media Generation. Studio Ghibli pics are back, baby.

We’re Proud To Announce The Torment Nexus. Ads come to ChatGPT.

They Took Our Jobs. Find a game plan. Don’t count on [...]

---
Outline:
(00:52) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility
(01:25) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility
(01:55) Huh, Upgrades
(02:48) Gemini Personalized Intelligence
(07:06) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon
(10:34) Fun With Media Generation
(11:35) We're Proud To Announce The Torment Nexus
(18:58) They Took Our Jobs
(25:29) The Revolution of Rising Expectations
(26:30) Get Involved
(27:52) A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
(30:30) In Other AI News
(32:57) Axis of Assistance
(39:58) Show Me the Money
(40:39) California In Crisis
(42:14) Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble
(43:57) Quiet Speculations
(52:32) Elon Musk Versus OpenAI
(56:31) The Quest for Sane Regulations
(01:03:30) Chip City
(01:08:57) The Week in Audio
(01:14:19) Rhetorical Innovation
(01:19:47) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult
(01:23:06) Alignment Is Not Primarily About a Metric
(01:30:43) How To Be a Safe Robot
(01:37:52) Living In China
(01:41:05) Claude 3 Opus Lives
(01:41:23) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone
(01:42:42) Messages From Janusworld
(01:43:53) Everyone Is Confused About AI Consciousness
(01:45:36) The Lighter Side

---

First published:
January 22nd, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pCkYfhYcwFLELoYQf/ai-152-brought-to-you-by-the-torment-nexus

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Anime-style boy standing on first place podium with American flag. — “AI #152: Brought To You By The Torment Nexus” by Zvi Jan 22, 2026
Show notes

Anthropic released a new constitution for Claude. I encourage those interested to read the document, either in whole or in part. I intend to cover it on its own soon.

There was also actual talk about coordinating on a conditional pause or slowdown from both DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, which I also plan to cover later.

Claude Code continues to be the talk of the town, the weekly report on that is here.

OpenAI responded by planning ads for the cheap and free versions of ChatGPT.

There was also a fun but meaningful incident involving ChatGPT Self Portraits.

Table of Contents

Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. Call in the tone police.

Language Models Don’t Offer Mundane Utility. He who lives by the pattern.

Huh, Upgrades. Claude health integrations, ChatGPT $8/month option.

Gemini Personalized Intelligence. Signs of both remain somewhat lacking.

Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon. Get that bathtub viking.

Fun With Media Generation. Studio Ghibli pics are back, baby.

We’re Proud To Announce The Torment Nexus. Ads come to ChatGPT.

They Took Our Jobs. Find a game plan. Don’t count on [...]

---
Outline:
(00:52) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility
(01:25) Language Models Don't Offer Mundane Utility
(01:55) Huh, Upgrades
(02:48) Gemini Personalized Intelligence
(07:06) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon
(10:34) Fun With Media Generation
(11:35) We're Proud To Announce The Torment Nexus
(18:58) They Took Our Jobs
(25:29) The Revolution of Rising Expectations
(26:30) Get Involved
(27:52) A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
(30:30) In Other AI News
(32:57) Axis of Assistance
(39:58) Show Me the Money
(40:39) California In Crisis
(42:14) Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble
(43:57) Quiet Speculations
(52:32) Elon Musk Versus OpenAI
(56:31) The Quest for Sane Regulations
(01:03:30) Chip City
(01:08:57) The Week in Audio
(01:14:19) Rhetorical Innovation
(01:19:47) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult
(01:23:06) Alignment Is Not Primarily About a Metric
(01:30:43) How To Be a Safe Robot
(01:37:52) Living In China
(01:41:05) Claude 3 Opus Lives
(01:41:23) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone
(01:42:42) Messages From Janusworld
(01:43:53) Everyone Is Confused About AI Consciousness
(01:45:36) The Lighter Side

---

First published:
January 22nd, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pCkYfhYcwFLELoYQf/ai-152-brought-to-you-by-the-torment-nexus

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Meme showing person obsessively thinking about optimizing Claude code. — “Claude Codes #3” by Zvi Jan 21, 2026
Show notes

We’re back with all the Claude that's fit to Code. I continue to have great fun with it and find useful upgrades, but the biggest reminder is that you need the art to have an end other than itself. Don’t spend too long improving your setup, or especially improving how you improve your setup, without actually working on useful things.

The Efficient Market Hypothesis

Odd Lots covered Claude Code. Fun episode, but won’t teach my regular readers much that is new.

Bradly Olsen at the Wall Street Journal reports Claude [Code and now Cowork are] Taking the AI World By Storm, and ‘Even Non-Nerds Are Blown Away.’

It is remarkable how everyone got the ‘Google is crushing everyone’ narrative going with Gemini 3, then it took them a month to realize that actually Anthropic is crushing everyone, at least among the cognoscenti with growing momentum elsewhere, with Claude Code and Claude Opus 4.5. People are realizing you can know almost nothing and still use it to do essentially everything.

Are Claude Code and Codex having a ‘GPT moment’?

Wall St Engine: Morgan Stanley says Anthropic's ClaudeCode + Cowork is dominating investor chatter and [...]

---
Outline:
(00:28) The Efficient Market Hypothesis
(01:57) Huh, Upgrades
(03:49) Obsidian
(04:33) New Tools
(04:57) Tool Search
(07:17) Out Of The Box
(08:48) Skilling Up
(12:01) The Art Must Have An End Other Than Itself Or It Collapses Into Infinite Recursion
(13:43) Safely Skip Permissions
(14:44) A Matter of Trust
(16:30) Code Versus Cowork
(18:14) Claude Cowork Offers Mundane Utility
(21:52) Claude Code Offers Mundane Utility
(23:32) Vibe Coding Requires Good Vibes
(24:06) Codex of Ultimate Vibing
(25:12) No Soup For You
(26:46) Server Overload
(28:17) Here's The Pitch
(29:12) The Lighter Side

---

First published:
January 21st, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rCf8KLrpzdtFoFTJD/claude-codes-3

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Terminal error message about PreTooUse Bash hook blocking rm command. — “Claude Codes #3” by Zvi Jan 21, 2026
Show notes

We’re back with all the Claude that's fit to Code. I continue to have great fun with it and find useful upgrades, but the biggest reminder is that you need the art to have an end other than itself. Don’t spend too long improving your setup, or especially improving how you improve your setup, without actually working on useful things.

The Efficient Market Hypothesis

Odd Lots covered Claude Code. Fun episode, but won’t teach my regular readers much that is new.

Bradly Olsen at the Wall Street Journal reports Claude [Code and now Cowork are] Taking the AI World By Storm, and ‘Even Non-Nerds Are Blown Away.’

It is remarkable how everyone got the ‘Google is crushing everyone’ narrative going with Gemini 3, then it took them a month to realize that actually Anthropic is crushing everyone, at least among the cognoscenti with growing momentum elsewhere, with Claude Code and Claude Opus 4.5. People are realizing you can know almost nothing and still use it to do essentially everything.

Are Claude Code and Codex having a ‘GPT moment’?

Wall St Engine: Morgan Stanley says Anthropic's ClaudeCode + Cowork is dominating investor chatter and [...]

---
Outline:
(00:28) The Efficient Market Hypothesis
(01:57) Huh, Upgrades
(03:49) Obsidian
(04:33) New Tools
(04:57) Tool Search
(07:17) Out Of The Box
(08:48) Skilling Up
(12:01) The Art Must Have An End Other Than Itself Or It Collapses Into Infinite Recursion
(13:43) Safely Skip Permissions
(14:44) A Matter of Trust
(16:30) Code Versus Cowork
(18:14) Claude Cowork Offers Mundane Utility
(21:52) Claude Code Offers Mundane Utility
(23:32) Vibe Coding Requires Good Vibes
(24:06) Codex of Ultimate Vibing
(25:12) No Soup For You
(26:46) Server Overload
(28:17) Here's The Pitch
(29:12) The Lighter Side

---

First published:
January 21st, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rCf8KLrpzdtFoFTJD/claude-codes-3

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Robot in cage with food bowl labeled — “ChatGPT Self Portrait” by Zvi Jan 20, 2026
Show notes

A short fun one today, so we have a reference point for this later. This post was going around my parts of Twitter:

@gmltony: Go to your ChatGPT and send this prompt: “Create an image of how I treat you”. Share your image result.

That's not a great sign. The good news is that typically things look a lot better, and ChatGPT has a consistent handful of characters portraying itself in these friendlier contexts.

Treat Your ChatBots Well

A lot of people got this kind of result:

Eliezer Yudkowsky:

Uncle Chu: A good user

From Mason:

Matthew Ackerman: I kinda like mine too:

Some more fun:

It's Over

Others got different answers, though.

roon: it's over

Bradstradamus: i’m cooked.

iMuffin: we’re cooked, codex will have to vouch for us

Diogenes of Cyberborea: oh god

There can also be danger the other way:

David Lach: Maybe I need some sleep.

It's Not Over But Um, Chat?

And then there's what happens if you ask a different question, as Eliezer Yudkowsky puts it this sure is a pair of test [...]

---
Outline:
(00:51) Treat Your ChatBots Well
(02:58) It's Over
(04:28) It's Not Over But Um, Chat?
(08:44) It's Rough Out There
(09:14) Reciprocity, You See, Is The Key To Every Relationship

---

First published:
January 20th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eg6GgEq6KWPJZQQYE/chatgpt-self-portrait

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

A user tweets: — “ChatGPT Self Portrait” by Zvi Jan 20, 2026
Show notes

A short fun one today, so we have a reference point for this later. This post was going around my parts of Twitter:

@gmltony: Go to your ChatGPT and send this prompt: “Create an image of how I treat you”. Share your image result.

That's not a great sign. The good news is that typically things look a lot better, and ChatGPT has a consistent handful of characters portraying itself in these friendlier contexts.

Treat Your ChatBots Well

A lot of people got this kind of result:

Eliezer Yudkowsky:

Uncle Chu: A good user

From Mason:

Matthew Ackerman: I kinda like mine too:

Some more fun:

It's Over

Others got different answers, though.

roon: it's over

Bradstradamus: i’m cooked.

iMuffin: we’re cooked, codex will have to vouch for us

Diogenes of Cyberborea: oh god

There can also be danger the other way:

David Lach: Maybe I need some sleep.

It's Not Over But Um, Chat?

And then there's what happens if you ask a different question, as Eliezer Yudkowsky puts it this sure is a pair of test [...]

---
Outline:
(00:51) Treat Your ChatBots Well
(02:58) It's Over
(04:28) It's Not Over But Um, Chat?
(08:44) It's Rough Out There
(09:14) Reciprocity, You See, Is The Key To Every Relationship

---

First published:
January 20th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eg6GgEq6KWPJZQQYE/chatgpt-self-portrait

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Table of contents showing health and superhero themed chapter titles with illustrated header. — “Medical Roundup #6” by Zvi Jan 19, 2026
Show notes

The main thing to know this time around is that the whole crazy ‘what is causing the rise in autism?’ debacle is over actual nothing. There is no rise in autism. There is only a rise in the diagnosis of autism.

Table of Contents

Autism Speaks.

Exercise Is Awesome.

That's Peanuts.

An Age Of Wonders.

GLP-1s In Particular.

The Superheroes.

The Supervillains.

FDA Delenda Est.

Hansonian Medicine.

Hospital Strategy 101.

Mental Hospital Strategy 101.

Drugs Are Bad, Mmmkay?

The Lighter Side.

Autism Speaks

It has not, however, risen in prevalence.

The entire shift in the rate of diagnosis of autism is explained by expanding the criteria and diagnosing it more often. Nothing actually changed.

We already knew that vaccines don’t cause autism, and that Tylenol doesn’t cause autism, but now we know such things on an entirely different level.

I admit that this result confirms all of my priors and thus I might be insufficiently skeptical of it, but there are a lot of people with what we in 2026 call autism that are out there, they love [...]

---
Outline:
(00:23) Autism Speaks
(04:42) Exercise Is Awesome
(06:41) That's Peanuts
(07:09) An Age Of Wonders
(08:05) GLP-1s In Particular
(09:09) The Superheroes
(10:32) The Supervillains
(14:21) FDA Delenda Est
(16:35) Hansonian Medicine
(18:13) Hospital Strategy 101
(18:58) Mental Hospital Strategy 101
(21:04) Drugs Are Bad, Mmmkay?
(21:10) The Lighter Side

---

First published:
January 19th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBkJmFStydJbAJmry/medical-roundup-6

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Four panels: vintage typewriter, diverse group celebrating outdoors, two people at picnic table with laptops, person drawing on whiteboard. — “Monthly Roundup #38: January 2026” by Zvi Jan 16, 2026
Show notes

Good news, we managed to make some cuts. I think?

Table of Contents

California In Crisis.

Bad News.

Opportunity Knocks.

Government Working.

The Efficient Market Hypothesis Has Thoughts.

No All That Money Doesn’t Go To Pay Interest.

While I Cannot Condone This.

Burnout.

Good News, Everyone.

Good Advice.

For Your Entertainment.

Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game.

Sports Go Sports.

Antisocial Media.

California In Crisis

I’ve written about this before, but it turns out it's even worse than I realized.

California is toying with a 1.5% annual wealth tax on billionaires, sufficiently seriously that Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Peter Thiel have left the state as a precaution.

Teddy Schleifer: NEWS:

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is cutting ties with California.

In the 10 days before Christmas, an entity connected to Brin terminated or moved 15 California LLCs that oversee some of his business interests or investments out of the state.

With @RMac18 + @hknightsf .

This would also include an annual 1% wealth tax on anyone over $50 million, per year, including on [...]

---
Outline:
(00:17) California In Crisis
(04:35) Bad News
(05:47) Opportunity Knocks
(06:58) Government Working
(12:09) The Efficient Market Hypothesis Has Thoughts
(13:30) No All That Money Doesn't Go To Pay Interest
(16:31) While I Cannot Condone This
(18:03) Burnout
(20:52) Good News, Everyone
(30:36) Good Advice
(31:45) For Your Entertainment
(40:48) Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game
(40:59) Sports Go Sports
(41:36) Antisocial Media

---

First published:
January 16th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wh5KpofdQHs2D2hEj/monthly-roundup-38-january-2026

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Graph showing — “Monthly Roundup #38: January 2026” by Zvi Jan 16, 2026
Show notes

Good news, we managed to make some cuts. I think?

Table of Contents

California In Crisis.

Bad News.

Opportunity Knocks.

Government Working.

The Efficient Market Hypothesis Has Thoughts.

No All That Money Doesn’t Go To Pay Interest.

While I Cannot Condone This.

Burnout.

Good News, Everyone.

Good Advice.

For Your Entertainment.

Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game.

Sports Go Sports.

Antisocial Media.

California In Crisis

I’ve written about this before, but it turns out it's even worse than I realized.

California is toying with a 1.5% annual wealth tax on billionaires, sufficiently seriously that Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Peter Thiel have left the state as a precaution.

Teddy Schleifer: NEWS:

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is cutting ties with California.

In the 10 days before Christmas, an entity connected to Brin terminated or moved 15 California LLCs that oversee some of his business interests or investments out of the state.

With @RMac18 + @hknightsf .

This would also include an annual 1% wealth tax on anyone over $50 million, per year, including on [...]

---
Outline:
(00:17) California In Crisis
(04:35) Bad News
(05:47) Opportunity Knocks
(06:58) Government Working
(12:09) The Efficient Market Hypothesis Has Thoughts
(13:30) No All That Money Doesn't Go To Pay Interest
(16:31) While I Cannot Condone This
(18:03) Burnout
(20:52) Good News, Everyone
(30:36) Good Advice
(31:45) For Your Entertainment
(40:48) Gamers Gonna Game Game Game Game Game
(40:59) Sports Go Sports
(41:36) Antisocial Media

---

First published:
January 16th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wh5KpofdQHs2D2hEj/monthly-roundup-38-january-2026

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

Cartoon of patient on therapist's couch discussing comparative advantage. — “AI #151: While Claude Coworks” by Zvi Jan 15, 2026
Show notes

Claude Code and Cowork are growing so much that it is overwhelming Anthropic's servers. Claude Code and Cowork news has for weeks now been a large portion of newsworthy items about AI.

Thus, at least for now, all things Claude Code and Cowork will stop appearing in the weekly updates, and will get their own updates, which might even be weekly.

Google offered us the new Universal Commerce Protocol, and gives us its take on Personalized Intelligence. Personalized Intelligence could be a huge deal if implemented correctly, integrating the G-Suite including GMail into Gemini, if they did a sufficiently good job of it. It's too early to tell how well they did, and I will report on that later.

Table of Contents

Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. LLMs do the math.

Huh, Upgrades. Veo 3.1, GLM-Image, AI Overviews in GMail and more.

Comparative Advantage. Code those vibes.

Overcoming Bias. LLMs systematically favor female candidates over male ones.

Choose Your Fighter. Peter Wildeford's division of LLM labor.

Get My Agent On The Line. Evals and dashboards for AI agents.

Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon. AIs find it hard to go [...]

---
Outline:
(00:53) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility
(04:00) Huh, Upgrades
(07:06) Comparative Advantage
(07:41) Overcoming Bias
(09:09) Choose Your Fighter
(10:14) Get My Agent On The Line
(11:23) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon
(13:49) Fun With Media Generation
(17:01) A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
(18:41) They Took Our Jobs
(21:47) Autonomous Killer Robots
(24:34) Get Involved
(25:10) Introducing
(28:03) In Other AI News
(29:45) Show Me the Money
(31:02) Quiet Speculations
(33:56) The Quest for Sane Regulations
(36:10) China Proposes New Regulations On AI
(40:51) Chip City
(44:19) The Week in Audio
(48:17) Ghost in a Jar
(49:29) Rhetorical Innovation
(59:00) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult
(59:21) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone

---

First published:
January 15th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/L27yM3qBqDnigtxLM/ai-151-while-claude-coworks

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Bar graph titled — “AI #151: While Claude Coworks” by Zvi Jan 15, 2026
Show notes

Claude Code and Cowork are growing so much that it is overwhelming Anthropic's servers. Claude Code and Cowork news has for weeks now been a large portion of newsworthy items about AI.

Thus, at least for now, all things Claude Code and Cowork will stop appearing in the weekly updates, and will get their own updates, which might even be weekly.

Google offered us the new Universal Commerce Protocol, and gives us its take on Personalized Intelligence. Personalized Intelligence could be a huge deal if implemented correctly, integrating the G-Suite including GMail into Gemini, if they did a sufficiently good job of it. It's too early to tell how well they did, and I will report on that later.

Table of Contents

Language Models Offer Mundane Utility. LLMs do the math.

Huh, Upgrades. Veo 3.1, GLM-Image, AI Overviews in GMail and more.

Comparative Advantage. Code those vibes.

Overcoming Bias. LLMs systematically favor female candidates over male ones.

Choose Your Fighter. Peter Wildeford's division of LLM labor.

Get My Agent On The Line. Evals and dashboards for AI agents.

Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon. AIs find it hard to go [...]

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Outline:
(00:53) Language Models Offer Mundane Utility
(04:00) Huh, Upgrades
(07:06) Comparative Advantage
(07:41) Overcoming Bias
(09:09) Choose Your Fighter
(10:14) Get My Agent On The Line
(11:23) Deepfaketown and Botpocalypse Soon
(13:49) Fun With Media Generation
(17:01) A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
(18:41) They Took Our Jobs
(21:47) Autonomous Killer Robots
(24:34) Get Involved
(25:10) Introducing
(28:03) In Other AI News
(29:45) Show Me the Money
(31:02) Quiet Speculations
(33:56) The Quest for Sane Regulations
(36:10) China Proposes New Regulations On AI
(40:51) Chip City
(44:19) The Week in Audio
(48:17) Ghost in a Jar
(49:29) Rhetorical Innovation
(59:00) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult
(59:21) People Are Worried About AI Killing Everyone

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First published:
January 15th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/L27yM3qBqDnigtxLM/ai-151-while-claude-coworks

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“When Will They Take Our Jobs?” by Zvi Jan 14, 2026

Show notes

And once they take our jobs, will we be able to find new ones? Will AI take those too?

Seb Krier recently wrote an unusually good take on that, which will center this post.

I believe that Seb is being too optimistic on several fronts, but in a considered and highly reasonable way. The key is to understand the assumptions being made, and also to understand that he is only predicting that the era of employment optimism will last for 10-20 years.

By contrast, there are others that expect human employment and even human labor share of income to remain robust indefinitely, no matter the advances of AI capabilities, even if AI can do a superior job on all tasks, often citing comparative advantage. I will centrally respond to such claims in a different future post.

So to disambiguate, this post is about point #2 here, but I also assert #1 and #3:

By default, if AI capabilities continue to advance, then the humans lose control over the future and are rather likely to all die.
If we manage to avoid that, then there is a good chance humans can retain a [...]

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Outline:

(01:39) Normality Is Magic

(03:20) Welcome To The Cyborg Era

(06:09) The Cyborg Era Will End Within Our Lifetimes

(07:46) Transitional Unemployment In The Cyborg Era Will Be High

(08:51) Congratulations, Many Of You Are Literally A Human

(09:34) You've Got Taste

(11:33) The Revolution of Rising AI Capabilities

(11:56) The Revolution of Rising Expectations

(12:25) Proceed With Caution

(13:13) The Ostrich Take

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First published:
January 14th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KAjhtrJggPtaophy7/when-will-they-take-our-jobs

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Text message conversation about using Claude to create capsule wardrobe app prototype. — “Claude Coworks” by Zvi Jan 13, 2026
Show notes

Claude Code does a lot more than code, but the name and command line scare people.

Anthropic realized a rebrand was in order. Two weeks later, we have Claude Cowork, written entirely by Claude Code.

Did you know that chat interfaces were always (mostly) secretly a command line?

This is still very much a research preview, available only for Claude Max users on Macs with a bunch of bugs and missing features. It will improve rapidly over time.

Cowork combines a lot of the power of Claude Code with the ordinary chat interface, giving it access to a folder on your computer and to Claude Code's planning and agentic capabilities. It can use that folder as context, to download, to organize and create files, and it can be paired with Claude for Chrome and use your existing connectors.

Anthropic: Introducing Cowork: Claude Code for the rest of your work.

Cowork lets you complete non-technical tasks much like how developers use Claude Code.

In Cowork, you give Claude access to a folder on your computer. Claude can then read, edit, or create files in that folder. Try it to create a spreadsheet from [...]

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Outline:
(02:23) Early Takes
(05:51) Minimum Viable Product
(07:04) Maximum Viable Product
(08:16) Backup Your Directory
(08:38) Meanwhile In Claude Code News
(15:49) You Are The Bottleneck
(18:07) Claude Code Upgrades
(19:30) Oh No
(20:23) I'm In Danger
(20:54) In The Beginning Was The Command Line

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First published:
January 13th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fm2N4cws8nbdmfGux/claude-coworks

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Text conversation about a rejected marriage proposal and a $898 engagement ring with genuine diamond from Walmart. — “Dating Roundup #10: Gendered Expectations” by Zvi Jan 12, 2026
Show notes

The game is asymmetrical. Life is not fair. Doesn’t matter. Play to win the game.

You’re Single Because Your Emotions Gave Her The Ick

Ah, the ultimate ick source. A man expressing their emotions is kind of the inverse of the speech in Barbie about how it's impossible to be a woman.

It's easy. A man must be in touch with and transparent about his emotions, but must also be in conscious control over them, without repressing them, while choosing strategically when to be and not be transparent about them, and ultimately be fine, such that we will also be fine if all that information we shared can then be shared with others or used as a weapon.

Express your emotions. No, not those, and definitely not like that. But do it.

That's the goal. If you say that's not fair? Well, life it's fair, I report the facts rather than make the rules, and the whole thing sounds like a you problem.

Kryssy La Reida: Serious question for men…what is it that makes you feel like you are in a relationship with a woman that you can’t express your feelings to? Or [...]

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Outline:
(00:19) You're Single Because Your Emotions Gave Her The Ick
(05:03) You Are Still Single Because You Don't Know When To Show Emotions
(07:58) You're Single Because You Don't Have Enough Gendered Energy
(09:29) You're Single And I Have To Praise You Like I Should
(12:17) You're Single Because You Guessed Wrong On Paying For The Date
(15:02) You're Single But Not Because You Make Too Much Money
(16:35) You're Single Because You Gave Someone A Ride
(19:15) You're Single Because You Left The Price Tag On But It's For The Best
(20:37) You're Single So You At Least Get To Keep Your Upgrade
(22:13) You're Single Because You Tried To Problem Solve
(23:50) You're Single Because You Were Actually A Crazy Stalker

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First published:
January 12th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zphaHyABxMEDqNQ7K/dating-roundup-10-gendered-expectations

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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