~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (563)

“AI, Philosophy, Climate Change & Bitcoin”  Here are Jack’s other podcasts, mostly with economists. The post My podcast with Jack Roycroft appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsTyler likes to tout the Covid vaccine as a success story of ... by FRLIn reply to Karl Pooper. Pooper isn't me. I'm not Pooper. ... by Adam !== PooperCommenting is back by Commenting is backTC's comments...

CPI inflation has come in at three percent, and there are signs of vulnerability in labor markets, as I discuss in my latest Bloomberg column: What about unemployment? There is a general consensus that the labor market has stayed broadly stable, but hiring is slowing down and people are less likely to quit their jobs. The overall […] The post Might we end up with a...

1. Ireland seems to be relaxing its regulations on modular homes. 2. AI assistance can enhance rather than hinder skills development. 3. The zero-electricity Indian restaurant.  Here is their home page. 4. Bari Weiss is correct. 5. Donald Shoup obituary (NYT). 6. NYC congestion pricing may not be disappearing after all (NYT). 7. Why disintermediation […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on...

Yes I will be doing a podcast with him.  And he has a new and very good book coming out with Derek Thompson, namely Abundance.  So what should I ask him? The post What should I ask Ezra Klein? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsWhat did you learn in college that has been of value to you in ... by Jon“Ezra, while we...

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is the episode summary: How much of your life’s trajectory was set in motion centuries ago? Gregory Clark has spent decades studying social mobility, and his findings suggest that where you land in society is far more predictable than we like to think. Using historical data, surname […] The post My excellent Conversation with Gregory Clark...

1. Plane crashes are still on a downward trend. 2. 2015 Matt Yglesias on whether American democracy is doomed. 3. 3.1%. 4. Does technology do more to help submarine tracking or submarine autonomy? 5. Good piece on Macca. 6. The actual budget news: House Republicans reluctant to cut Medicaid.  And does the bond market believe […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

A very good list from Kevin Bryan. 49 out of 50 correct, excellent ratio. 1) Ukrainians are heroes who suffered a ton. 2) Putin obviously covets Georgia and the Baltics also. 3) EU not in talks because they basically have no hard power; France even lost the Sahel. 4) The far right European parties are bad. […] The post 50 Takes from Kevin Bryan appeared...

If men create intelligent machines, or fantasize about them, it is either because they secretly despair of their own intelligence or because they are in danger of succumbing to the weight of a monstrous and useless intelligence which they seek to exorcize by transferring it to machines, where they can play with it and make […] The post Baudrillard on AI appeared first on...

A fun book, I enjoyed the read.  Here is one bit: There is another contribution to my productivity.  While sitting at my desk at home doing physics or preparing classes, or doing some science writing, I picked up the habit of watching classic movies or the History Channel on television.  My TV is always turned […] The post *Steven Weinberg: A Life in Physics*...

Germany has lost almost a quarter of a million manufacturing jobs since the start of the Covid pandemic as companies and politicians sound the alarm that Europe’s industrial heartland is suffering an irreversible decline… The contraction of Germany’s industry is evident in the fall of market value in the sector. Together, Dax constituents Volkswagen, Thyssenkrupp […] The post Germany facts of the day appeared...

Scientific projects that carry a high degree of risk may be more likely to lead to breakthroughs yet also face challenges in winning the support necessary to be carried out. We analyze the determinants of renewal for more than 100,000 R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health between 1980 and 2015. We use four […] The post Does Peer Review Penalize Scientific Risk...

1. Meta’s AI-powered Ray-Bans are life-enhancing for the blind (WSJ). 2. Removal of all NEPA regulations? 3. New betting odds for a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire. 4. Capybaras face vasectomies. 5. Stock market data for Estonia. 6. Andrej on Grok 3.  And Ethan Mollick.  So far I like it. The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments# 2…Good idea to reform government,...

A very good dialogue, here is the YouTube: Johnathan discusses it here on Twitter, plus it is on all the usual podcast services.  This is an inaugural video for the Cosmos Institute, other people will follow in the series. The post Talking with Johnathan Bi about AI appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsI'm totally prepared for hearing gasbags blow wind about the ......

My three-part essay for Liberty Fund continues, here is the opener: In the previous article, I outlined what an economic approach to reading Homer’s epic, The Odyssey,1 might look like. I also noted that what most strikes me about The Odyssey is Homer’s treatment of comparative political regimes. Looking at the wide variety of regimes Odysseus encounters is the […] The post An Economic Approach to Homer’s Odyssey:...

1. What is the meaning of life? 2. Rohit gets The Boss to write a science fiction novel. 3. AI and the Sisyphus Myth. 4. Are there workable mechanisms for fiscal discipline in the current eurozone? 5. Click on the first link here for an incredible account of a romance. 6. Who has cancelled at […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

The New York Times is greenlighting the use of AI for its product and editorial staff, saying that internal tools could eventually write social copy, SEO headlines, and some code. In an email to newsroom staff, the company announced that it’s opening up AI training to the newsroom, and debuting a new internal AI tool […] The post It’s happening at The New York...

Luis Garicano has an amazing post on “one of the dumbest fiscal policies in recent memory.” Launched in Italy during COVID by Prime Minister Conte, the “Superbonus” scheme subsidized 110% of housing renovation costs. Now if one were to use outdated, simplistic, Econ 101 type reasoning one would predict that such a scheme would be […] The post Italy’s Superbonus: The Dumbest Fiscal Policy...

Are you confused by all the model names and terminology running around?  Here is a simple guide to what I call them: o1 pro — The Boss 4o — Little Boss o3 mini — The Mini Boss GPT 4o with scheduled tasks — Boss come back later o1 — Cheapskates’ boss Deep Research — My […] The post Naming AI models correctly appeared first...

Here is one of them, in part: Here in brief is the method I’ve honed to optimize a two-week vacation: When you arrive in a new country, immediately proceed to the farthest, most remote, most distant place you intend to reach during the trip. If there is a small village, remote spa, a friend’s farm, […] The post Kevin Kelly’s fifty travel tips appeared...

It seems the Trump proposal to simply cut overhead to fifteen percent will not stand up in the courts, at least not without Congressional approval?  Nonetheless a few of you have asked me what I think of the idea. My preferred reforms for the NIH include the following: 1. Cap pre-specified overhead at 25 percent, […] The post Reforming the NIH appeared first on...

Yes, David Robertson the conductor.  He studied with Boulez and Messiaen, and arguably is the second best Boulez conductor ever.  He also is famous for his recordings of John Adams.  I find him consistently excellent, for instance his Unsuk Chin, Milhaud, or Porgy and Bess.  Here is his Wikipedia page.  Here is his TEDx talk […] The post What should I ask David Robertson?...

I have now read through the very impressive paper on AI tasks to have come out of Anthropic, with Kunal Handa as the lead author, including Dario, Jack, and quite a few others as well.  Here is the paper and part of the abstract: We leverage a recent privacy-preserving system [Tamkin et al., 2024] to […] The post Which economic tasks are performed with...

Akhil Kumar, 19, Toronto, global health issues and general career development. Janet Shin, Berkeley, neurotech and brain imaging. Diana Leung, San Francisco, AI and bio and machine learning. Kyle MacLeod, Oxford University, economics videos on YouTube. Aarav Sharma, Singapore, high school, to work on exoskeletons and AI. Megan Gafford, NYC, writings on aesthetics, Substack. Alice […] The post Emergent Ventures winners, 40th cohort appeared...

1. Dwarkesh and Toby Ord on inference and AI governance. 2. Gwern on Greenland. 3. Bill Gates and Patrick Collison in conversation. 4. George Selgin is retiring. 5. Was there a Soviet DOGE under Gorbachev? 6. New results on clouds and global warming? The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Tamerlane. It didn't take long for this...