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Timothy B. Lee

@binarybits

Reporting on AI and the future of the economy. Computer science masters degree from Princeton. Subscribe to my AI newsletter: http://www.understandingai.org

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25.11.2024
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Latest posts by Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

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Banger of a crossover episode today between @scaling_laws
and "AI Summer" with @deanwb.bsky.social and @binarybits.bsky.social on the Anthropic/OpenAI/Pentagon situation (note that we recorded this on Wed. before DOD designated Anthropic a supply chain risk). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

06.03.2026 12:49 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I love how she's still trying to make TESCREAL a thing.

02.03.2026 14:05 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

That really sucks. :-(

04.02.2026 15:41 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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The Self-Driving Car Revolution with Tim Lee Podcast Episode Β· Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast Β· 01/06/2026 Β· 54m

I ride Waymos fairly regularly in Austin. I'm a big fan of Waymo. I think everyone should listen to the @chrislhayes.bsky.social + @binarybits.bsky.social conversation about them.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

30.01.2026 00:36 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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No, the real inflation rate isn’t 15 percent Jordan Peterson and Jack Dorsey are touting a bogus theory about the inflation rate.

I'm a fan of this @binarybits.bsky.social piece that points out the incredibly simple and dumb error made by shadowstats. There's definitely some wiggle room for how you calculate inflation but you can't be significantly biased in the long term without it being obvious.

22.07.2025 16:23 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Donald Trump just laid out his vision for AI policy The president wants to help American AI companies compete with their Chinese rivals.

Great @binarybits.bsky.social piece with overview of and background of White House AI Action Plan

www.understandingai.org/p/donald-tru...

25.07.2025 21:11 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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The American Time Use Survey came out recently, giving the most detailed look at how the country spends its days, so here's a quick thread

1st, the share of Americans reading for personal interest on an average day has fallen to the lowest level on record, down 10% from 2003🧡

17.07.2025 21:32 πŸ‘ 244 πŸ” 43 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 16
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How a big shift in training LLMs led to a capability explosion Reinforcement learning, explained with a minimum of math and jargon.

This is an excellent explainer by @binarybits.bsky.social .

arstechnica.com/ai/2025/07/h...

08.07.2025 14:39 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Do you think that is influencing Netanyahu’s behavior today?

03.07.2025 00:49 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Have you tried o3?

01.07.2025 11:33 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
The Truth about Sam Altman | Robert Wright & Timothy B. Lee
The Truth about Sam Altman | Robert Wright & Timothy B. Lee YouTube video by Nonzero

The Truth about Sam Altman | @robertwrighter.bsky.social
and Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits.bsky.social), author of the Understanding AI newsletter, discuss what two new biographies reveal about the OpenAI CEO.

26.06.2025 22:43 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Fantastic @binarybits.bsky.social writeup of the Alsup ruling in Anthropic’s case open.substack.com/pub/understa...

But aside from AI training, yet another reminder of the power of analog media. This excerpt is tragic: Alsup’s right about books. But this is exactly how the digital economy works.

25.06.2025 01:41 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
A graph showing a massive drop in US car imports as Donald Trump imposes tariffs on US motor vehicles

A graph showing a massive drop in US car imports as Donald Trump imposes tariffs on US motor vehicles

No urbanist has successfully kept more vehicles off the road than radical degrowth war-on-cars advocate Donald J Trump

11.06.2025 23:36 πŸ‘ 320 πŸ” 43 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 0

On the flip side, progressive cities like Washington DC have put in a ton of traffic calming measures over the last 10 or 20 years.

07.06.2025 01:25 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

There weren’t cars in the 1980s?

06.06.2025 16:26 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Apropos of nothing I feel like one of the most important things to help your kids develop is an ability to self-regulate.

05.06.2025 19:24 πŸ‘ 14254 πŸ” 1386 πŸ’¬ 314 πŸ“Œ 88

Hey @niedermeyer.online is this going to mean no more Tesla takedown protests? Or are they going to become pro-Elon rallies?

05.06.2025 19:28 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

There are a ton of people on the internet who don’t understand the difference between describing something and defending it. They think that if you write something about Trump and don’t explicitly add β€œand that’s bad” every few sentences you are a Trump apologist. These people are morons.

31.05.2025 20:14 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Gotta save those crucial law enforcement jobs.

28.05.2025 01:23 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I don’t know if any studies about this.

12.05.2025 20:03 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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06.04.2025 00:22 πŸ‘ 52 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

Groceries stores are famous for their fat profit margins.

05.04.2025 17:03 πŸ‘ 34 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Where does he say he is surprised?

03.04.2025 21:08 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Yes.

03.04.2025 20:35 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I hate it.

31.03.2025 18:46 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

When fertility is below replacement there are fewer opportunities for young people and it worsens the finances of programs like social security and Medicare.

30.03.2025 12:29 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

People are betting that FSD and maybe Optimus will give Tesla a far more valuable business than a conventional car company. If that proves wrong (and it probably will imo) the price will crash.

29.03.2025 01:04 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

That tilda is important! I don’t believe β€œfully automating” is a coherent concept. There are only degrees of automation.

27.03.2025 23:48 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I feel like this has been happening for several years now? A lot of ai training data is generated by LLMs now.

27.03.2025 23:19 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Waymo has had dozens of crashesβ€”almost all were a human driver's fault Human drivers keep crashing into Waymos that aren't even moving.

Great article on Waymo safety by @binarybits.bsky.social, who has IMO the best reporting on self-driving cars out there

26.03.2025 18:28 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0