“AI #176 Part 2: Plan B” by Zvi

This is part 2 of the weekly, broadly covering speculation, rhetoric and policy, along with alignment research.

This does not cover the release of GPT-5.6-Sol. As always, I will be taking a few days to digest what the new model has to offer and to allow others to try it and react. I will cover Sol and its capabilities early next week. I covered the GPT-5.6 system card back on June 28.

This also does not cover the release of Plan A, the follow-up to AI 2027. This new scenario is a positive vision of what its authors think we should do going forwards.

I do not endorse all of the recommendations or predictions of Plan A, but I do endorse reading Plan A and taking it seriously. Scott Alexander, one of those who worked on it, writes an introduction and justification here. I will have full coverage soon.

Table of Contents

1. Quiet Speculations. Will our AI regulations be ad hoc indefinitely?
2. The Goalposts Are Dyson Spheres. This might take a little longer.
3. People Just Say Things.
4. Three Pills. Unpilled, AI, AGI, ASI.
5. The Quest for Sane Regulations. You’ve [...]

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Outline:

(01:08) Quiet Speculations

(04:41) The Goalposts Are Dyson Spheres

(08:11) People Just Say Things

(08:40) Three Pills

(14:52) The Quest for Sane Regulations

(16:35) OpenAI National Security Principles

(23:45) Greetings From The Department Of War

(25:47) Chip City

(27:02) Open Weight Models Are Unsafe And Nothing Can Fix This

(34:37) Their AI Propaganda Bots

(36:39) Rhetorical Innovation

(38:23) You Learn

(40:00) You May Be Tan And Thin And Rich But You're a Tool

(44:21) Train Those Thoughts

(45:16) Train Out Those Thoughts

(50:02) My Own Private Idaho

(51:46) Aligning a Smarter Than Human Intelligence is Difficult

(57:04) No Space Like J-Space

(01:06:50) Cooperative Alignments

(01:07:15) The Lighter Side

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First published:
July 10th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7Av7wwErwNXdM3J68/ai-176-part-2-plan-b

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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