Ron Ivey

Fascinating....

❄️ #notredame

Check out this new interview of @deanwball Senior Fellow at the @JoinFAI from the Cambridge Gen AI and Youth Policy Workshop hosted by @noesiscollab & @LeverhulmeCFI. Dean's been a key thinker and strategist behind the US AI Action Plan. youtu.be/anIze_uS7CI?si…

At the heart of our workshop was one urgent question for policymakers: How might we design public policies for AI chatbots that advance youth wellbeing?

75 years ago, Alan Turing published the article, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, introducing the test that shaped how we think about machine intelligence. In 2025, AI chatbots now exhibit conversational behaviors that some argue meet the spirit of the Turing Test.

Will AI strengthen human agency, wisdom, and relationships? Or will it quietly erode them? That question led us to start Noēsis Collaborative. We’re working on it with builders, leaders, and policymakers. noesiscollaborative.org

Two conversations this weekend make me think that there's a vibe shift afoot in Silicon Valley around what one should work on and what is worthwhile. Culturally, it feels like the moment is ripe for new frameworks: • Davos expert morality is stale and discredited. • It's also apparent that the "just be super based" Counter-Enlightenment is not really an answer. (Yes, woke went too far, but simply inverting it doesn't work.) • EA is no longer the automatic default for smart people. • There's increasing skepticism of slot and slop machine dynamics. Overall, "what is worthy and valuable?" feels like it's becoming more central.

If you identify and mitigate negative externalities of a new technology super early, you might be able to fend off future imprecise regulation or public backlash. You might even accelerate that very technology’s progress.

@deanwball Living in France, your prognosis seems right...yet our (US) stagnation is of the opposite kind...our tax, labor and financial policy dials send all of the blood to the brains & none to the heart of our economy. Hoarding is a drag on productivity growth: americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/08/ending…

Much as I disfavor it, EU tech regulation is probably overrated by Americans in terms of how much it contributes to European economic stagnation. It seems like the biggest contributors are over-regulated labor and capital markets.

@catholicourtney Courtney thank you for reporting on this historic moment at the forum. I hope it leads to continued leadership by @Pontifex & @CardinalTurkson on efforts to promote AI & youth well being.

An MIT researcher nearly broke down in tears at an AI forum in Rome today after meeting a mother whose son committed suicide after interacting with a chatbot. The testimonies at this event exemplify Pope Leo XI’s call for Catholics to be a voice in AI: catholicnewsagency.com/news/267675/po…

Great essay from @PriceIndex on the antihuman ideology that views AI replacement of humanity as a noble goal. I've sat across the table from an influential AI expert who actually believed it. Weizenbaum (a refugee from Nazi Germany) was right to see the link with Nazi ideology.

I would like that today we may together begin to build a culture of reconciliation. We must meet one another, heal our wounds, and forgive the wrongs we did and did not do, but whose effects we still carry. There are no enemies — only brothers and sisters. What we need are gestures and policies of reconciliation.

Repetitive negative thinking is associated with cognitive decline. Stay positive.

@deanwball Dean, given your recent role, you had a catbird seat view of the trajectories. I am very interested re: the "conceptual" in your list, particularly how humanity conceptualizes human flourishing in this new age. Isn't this foundational to all other adaptations in your list?

I think Demis is fundamentally correct here. The current systems are extremely impressive, and will get much more so soon, but it’s clear there are fundamental breakthroughs still needed. As I have written before, I expect us to get “superintelligence” (AI systems that can, say, autonomously advance the frontiers of math and physics) before we get “AGI.” AI systems will make novel contributions to group theory well before they can autonomously plan a wedding. Yet that’s no reason to be bearish on near-term AI. Indeed, in my view it’s one of the better imaginable scenarios. Here’s one way the near future could play out: 1. Significant productivity gains—first in software engineering, then cascading to other fields. 2. Increasing institutional comfort with AI and automation; as a civilization, we will have time (not a ton of time, but a period measured in years rather than months) to develop legal, financial, conceptual, and other infrastructural technologies that allow us to adapt to AI more effectively. 3. A mathematical and scientific renaissance, which itself will create new ideas and wealth. And with these, we go into the “real AGI” phase equipped with more wealth, more effective ideas and abstractions, more sophisticated knowledge of using AI, and better-prepared institutions than we have today. Perhaps I am naive, but I suspect we have been dealt a pretty good hand.

Last week, @ronivey, Jonathan Teubner, Nathanael Fast, and @Ravi Iyer joined Prof. Pattie Maes (@fluidinterfaces) for the latest installment of the seminar series hosted by @AHA_MediaLab. Watch the archived video: media.mit.edu/events/aha-spe…

At 4:30pm ET on Thursday, September 4, join us for the next installment of the seminar series hosted by @AHA_MediaLab! Our guest speakers will be @ronivey, Jonathan Teubner, Nathanael Fast, and @Ravi Iyer; the discussion will be moderated by Prof. Pattie Maes (@fluidinterfaces). media.mit.edu/events/aha-spe…

#AI can pose dangers like social isolation, exposure to abuse, & suicide, amid declining #mentalhealth. This paper examines the risks & benefits of AI #chatbots, especially for children, as their use grows. Read: spkl.io/6011fhI1f Subscribe: spkl.io/6015fhI1h

A big AI question is why, as LLMs get bigger, their values seem to increasingly converge on the same preferences, and this holds for Musk’s Grok and China’s DeepSeek, too. “These findings suggest that value systems emerge in LLMs in a meaningful sense, with broad implications”

Demis Hassabis is calling on philosophers to step in. He says technologists shouldn't decide AGI's future alone. “We need a new Kant or Wittgenstein to help map out where society should go next.” Politics, ethics, and theology will be essential to navigating a post-AGI world.