Our new album is out today! A sincere request to help spread the word!

And some people gave us shit for Don’t Look Up being too over the top.

Man oh man do I wish it was.

The Future of Life Institute, a think tank whose principles on safety Altman once endorsed, grades A.I. companies on “existential safety”; on the most recent report card, OpenAI got an F. Anthropic got a D and Google DeepMind got a D- (7/7)

He went on, “I think it’s just, like, wildly important to get how scary that should be. It’s the most reckless thing that has been done.” (6/7)

“The truth of this is, we’re building portals from which we’re genuinely summoning aliens,” a former OpenAI executive said. “The portals currently exist in the United States and China, and Sam has added one in the Middle East.” (5/7)

“Leike complained to Murati, then the company’s chief technology officer, but she told him to stop pressing the point—the commitment had never been realistic.”

(4/7)

Years ago, OpenAI committed 20% of compute to safety and alignment.

“The twenty-per-cent commitment evaporated, however. Four people who worked on or closely with the team said that the actual resources were between one and two per cent of the company’s compute.”
(3/7)

“He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.”
(2/7)

Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI.

Do yourself a favor and spend an hour reading The New Yorker's profile of Sam Altman: newyorker.com/magazine/202...

May favor to you is this thread with some of the best bits, but read the whole thing, seriously. (1/7)

Strait of Hormuz: A Citrini Field Trip Analyst #3 on Assignment

Imagine getting so bored of that Manhattan-Brooklyn life, that you just...

Strait of Hormuz: A Citrini Field Trip substack.com/@citrini/not...

Niall Ferguson: Brace Yourselves. A Recession Is Coming. The war in Iran is choking global energy supply. History shows shocks like this rarely end without a recession, writes Niall Ferguson.

Niall Ferguson says they will get one: thefp.com/p/niall-ferg... (2/2)

Reuters columnist Mike Dolan says bonds will need a recession to turn good for investors. (1/2)
t.co/v6LPlQuHGH

Hedge fund Millennium explores shifting Dubai staff to Jersey Multi-manager firm weighs destinations after requests from staff to relocate

"US hedge fund Millennium Management is exploring ways to settle staff who do not want to return to Dubai in Jersey, as some employees seek tax-favourable alternatives amid the war in the Middle East."
---
Quite a drastic shift in terms of nightlife eh
www.ft.com/content/3a3d...

It's been rough.
www.reuters.com/business/ene...

Iran threatens to retaliate against Gulf energy and water after Trump ultimatum The warning raised fears of mass disruption in a region heavily ​dependent on desalination for drinking water.

"President Trump's threat has now placed a 48-hour ticking time bomb of elevated uncertainty over markets," said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore -->

Something quite Nolan's Joker-esque about all this.

The Dark Knight Bear Market.

www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Net Zero Costs Less Than One Fossil Fuel Shock, UK’s CCC Says The cost of meeting net zero is less than a single fossil fuel price shock, the UK’s official climate adviser said.

UK's Climate Change Committee has some of the smartest minds working on modeling the costs of how to get to net zero. And this assessment is likley to be applicable to any fossil-fuel import dependent country.

🎁🔗 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Episode 2: The History of Cats on Ships by The Untitled History Podcast From as early as 7000 years before the common era, we have evidence suggesting cats served alongside humans on ships. This isn’t just in a civilian capacity. As long as there have been warships, cats ...

Important news!

I am delighted to announce the launch of my new podcast: The Untitled History Podcast.

It's me, and guests, falling down all the history rabbitholes you can imagine.

Please, please spread the word, subscribe and listen. Because... SHIPS CATS!! cms.megaphone.fm/channel/the-...

It just took a 1.36% gain against the dollar to count as the best day in 7 years for the Indian rupee.

A lot of people wouldn't have gotten much sleep overnight in Delhi and Mumbai.

Last week I came across commentary accompanying TA of gold's breakout, which described it as "defying all analysis". The fiat-wallahs have had the last laugh on this occasion but something tells me we're going to see more market days that don't fit any framework.

Where did the 8-year old pop out from??

Unbelievable how much the fate of the Indian economy seems tied to the fate of the dollar.

Genuine banger from The Bad Place:

So basically, the Ice Lord has declared that they've lost the Mandate of Heaven.

As U.S. orders fade, Chinese salespeople face tough grind in new markets China sold more goods to the world than ever in 2025, but export saleswoman Aimee Chen says it was the hardest of her roughly two-decade career.

Lv said she traded messages with one client for months, discussing everything from news events to lunch choices and religion. He eventually ordered just one battery, earning Lv a commission of less than $2.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

They will thus be loath to be seen as doing the U.S. president’s bidding. Trump claimed on Sunday that he had spoken to all of the major U.S. energy firms about his plans for investing in Venezuela "before and after" Maduro’s capture, a claim company executives refuted.

(2/2)

Trump offers US oil companies a poisoned chalice in Venezuela U.S. President Donald Trump is giving U.S. energy companies the opportunity to revive Venezuela’s massive, derelict oil industry. It’s an offer they may want to refuse.

U.S. majors have in recent decades gone to great lengths to distance themselves from American foreign policy, emphasizing their independence to convince investors that they are focused solely on shareholder returns. (1/2)
www.reuters.com/markets/comm...

Computer scientist Yann LeCun: ‘Intelligence really is about learning’ The AI pioneer on stepping down from Meta, the limits of large language models — and the launch of his new start-up

Read this in a French accent:

“But I’m not gonna change my mind because some dude thinks I’m wrong. I’m not wrong. My integrity as a scientist cannot allow me to do this.”

www.ft.com/content/e3c4...

Post the links when they're out?

GPT-speak has broken containment even onto Substack notes. Bleak.