Gwern is a pseudonymous researcher and writer. He was one of the first people to see LLM scaling coming. If you've read his blog, you know he's one of the most interesting polymathic thinkers alive.
In order to protect Gwern's anonymity, I proposed interviewing him in person, and having my friend Chris Painter voice over his words after. This amused him enough that he agreed.
After the episode, I convinced Gwern to create a donation page where people can help sustain what he's up to. Please go here to contribute.
Read the full transcript here.
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Timestamps
00:00:00 - Anonymity
00:01:09 - Automating Steve Jobs
00:04:38 - Isaac Newton's theory of progress
00:06:36 - Grand theory of intelligence
00:10:39 - Seeing scaling early
00:21:04 - AGI Timelines
00:22:54 - What to do in remaining 3 years until AGI
00:26:29 - Influencing the shoggoth with writing
00:30:50 - Human vs artificial intelligence
00:33:52 - Rabbit holes
00:38:48 - Hearing impairment
00:43:00 - Wikipedia editing
00:47:43 - Gwern.net
00:50:20 - Counterfactual careers
00:54:30 - Borges & literature
01:01:32 - Gwern's intelligence and process
01:11:03 - A day in the life of Gwern
01:19:16 - Gwern's finances
01:25:05 - The diversity of AI minds
01:27:24 - GLP drugs and obesity
01:31:08 - Drug experimentation
01:33:40 - Parasocial relationships
01:35:23 - Open rabbit holes
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