Simon Willison: A quote from Jeremy Howard (Jun. 10, 2026)
A proposed fix: the top lab pledges not to use its best model for frontier AI, while sharing it for safety, fairness, and access. Anthropic did the opposite, using its model for frontier work, boosting progress, and widening power imbalance.
Dario Amodei: Policy on the AI Exponential (Jun. 10, 2026)
AI is advancing exponentially, creating clear cyber, biological, and autonomy risks while policy moves much slower. Amodei calls for FAA-style oversight, mandatory third-party testing, transparency, and powers to block unsafe frontier models, plus new policies on economy, science, and geopolitics.
Simon Willison: Initial impressions of Claude Fable 5 (Jun. 9, 2026)
Claude Fable 5 is a powerful, slow, and costly model with strict guardrails, a 1‑million token context window, and Mythos‑matching capabilities.
OpenAI: Introducing the OpenAI Economic Research Exchange (Jun. 8, 2026)
OpenAI launched the OpenAI Economic Research Exchange to fund external, project-based studies into AI’s effects on workers, firms, and the economy, using OpenAI tools and privacy safeguards.
Andy Masley: AI Water Usage and Consumption Estimator (Jun. 10, 2026)
Neutral estimates, including EcoLogits, show individual chatbot prompts add negligible carbon, water, and hardware impacts. An interactive tool provides per-user, cited numbers.
NBER: What Investment Data Implies about the AI Transition (Jun. 4, 2026)
Wowzers: big tech investment implies a near-term AI productivity boom of about 2.7×, calibrated to forecasted spending. Scenarios yield 5–58% extra GDP by 2030, ~7% expected long-term growth.
Epoch AI: Controlling the capital after AGI (Jun. 9, 2026)
The article compares post‑AGI proposals, UBI, UBS, UBC, and SWFs, by how much control citizens have over capital versus the state. It warns cash alone may be fragile.
Science: Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health (Jun. 4, 2026)
After COVID-19, remote work increased workers’ time alone, reduced socializing, and raised mental distress, use of mental healthcare, and antidepressants. Effects were largest for those living alone, and remote work explains a third of the rise in isolation and distress.