Father of Jack, husband of Julie. Ex Congress, DoD, @BattenUVa, Prez @utulsa. Prez of @americans4ri. An enthusiast, but w/ a gimlet eye on the log x-axis. Okie!

Joined April 2009
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"In a mindless age, every insight takes on the character of a lethal weapon." - M. McLuhan to E. Pound, letter, 1951.
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Excellent analysis of Nick Land's thought from the author of a key book on him (@architecht0nics). Given that tech sometimes name-checks Land and that he is the father of "accelerationism," it's important to understand his project (link to the full article in replies).
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Yes, indeed.
i believed this when i wrote these paragraphs sometime around christmas. i believe it 100x more now.
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Brad Carson retweeted
Anthropic is straightforwardly correct that Fable is a step up and a highly dangerously capable model. The people saying otherwise do not believe in superintelligence and do not understand what is going on.
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Brad Carson retweeted
All this over a “jailbreak” Bruh. That’s not how this works. Idiots.
I’ve had a number of conversations with folks inside and outside government about the current situation with Anthropic, and here is what I believe to be true: — As we know, Anthropic publicly released its Mythos class models earlier this week under the commercial name Fable. — Fable is Mythos with guardrails. But if those guardrails fail, then you’ve exposed Mythos and its advanced cyber capabilities to people who shouldn’t have them. (Keep in mind that Anthropic itself widely promoted the idea that Mythos was a cyberweapon and needed to be regulated as such. They asked for government regulation of Mythos and championed the guardrails on Fable. If there is a vulnerability — big or small — it is Anthropic’s responsibility to patch.) — A highly credible trusted partner of both Anthropic and the USG who was testing Fable came forward with a jailbreak of those guardrails. The Admin asked Dario to fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model. Dario refused. — In their blog post, Anthropic defended its decision by saying the jailbreak isn’t serious. That is not what the trusted partner and the USG believe; nor is that kind of minimizing language consistent with Anthropic’s brand as the AI safety company. It’s difficult to fathom how they could claim a jailbreak allowing operability of a cyber weapon could be defined as not “serious.” — In the past, Anthropic has always said that safety must be top priority and taken super seriously. In this case, Anthropic prioritized the continued offering of the consumer model over safety. — In reaction, the Admin issued the export control. The Admin did this reluctantly. It’s been very surprised that Anthropic hasn’t wanted to cooperate with a reasonable safety request (ie fixing the jailbreak issue). Anthropic’s reaction is very much at odds with their branding and ethos as a safe AI research community. — The Admin’s hope now is that Anthropic remediates the safety issue, the export control is lifted, and Fable goes back into general release. The Admin wants all of this to happen as soon as possible. It is frankly bewildered that Anthropic hasn’t wanted to comply with safety requests that it previously said were its highest priority. — Those trying to misdirect and tie this action to the prior DoW/Anthropic issues are wrong. The Admin values Anthropic’s technical capabilities and feels that this issue, while serious, should be easily resolved. The ball is in Anthropic’s court.
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Brad Carson retweeted
Thanks to @anasw, @julianbarnes and @dnvolz for including my thoughts in the @nytimes in their article on the administration’s export controls on Mythos and Fable.
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Brad Carson retweeted
I think this NY-12 election is one of the most important US House races of all time. The future of humanity and AI is being written here; I think Alex Bores winning is highly valuable and him losing would be extremely bad. Please donate to Bores today: secure.actblue.com/donate/bo…
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Brad Carson retweeted
I share concerns about China’s access to advanced AI models, but if the admin feels so strongly about this, I have a series of questions it should answer: - Why did it loosen export controls to allow AI chip sales to China, which allow China to build its own Mythos? - Why is it not enforcing existing export controls that would prevent China from smuggling AI chips from Southeast Asia and other countries? - Why is it not enforcing existing export controls that would prohibit Chinese companies from training advanced AI models on remotely accessed AI chips? Or imposing tighter controls on remote access? - Why has it still not closed a loophole it created that allows Chinese front companies outside China from making AI chips at TSMC or Samsung? - Why has it not tightened controls on China’s access to semiconductor manufacturing equipment (which have not been updated in over 18 months - the longest the US has ever gone without updating them)? - Why has it not imposed equivalent controls on all advanced AI models being served to China/Chinese companies? - Why did it restrict access to all countries and foreign nationals accessing Mythos/Fable, not just China? If the admin was serious about addressing the challenges posed by China in AI, it would be using export controls to address all of these questions and build a comprehensive strategy to prevent China from building or obtaining advanced models. But over the last 1.5 years, it has loosened or ignored controls on China, and only opened new loopholes in controls it inherited. If the admin truly has deep concerns about China’s access to advanced models, it has to act accordingly. It isn’t.
White House’s export limits on Anthropic linked to concerns about Chinese access - Scoop from @ReedAlbergotti semafor.com/article/06/13/20…
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Brad Carson retweeted
It's hard to take this seriously and not just as air cover from someone who should ostensibly be philosophically strongly opposed to case-by-case intervention with private companies. If it's very serious, I am skeptical that Anthropic's response would have been to shrug it off; if the goal is zero jailbreaks, the technology simply isn't there (and may never be).
I’ve had a number of conversations with folks inside and outside government about the current situation with Anthropic, and here is what I believe to be true: — As we know, Anthropic publicly released its Mythos class models earlier this week under the commercial name Fable. — Fable is Mythos with guardrails. But if those guardrails fail, then you’ve exposed Mythos and its advanced cyber capabilities to people who shouldn’t have them. (Keep in mind that Anthropic itself widely promoted the idea that Mythos was a cyberweapon and needed to be regulated as such. They asked for government regulation of Mythos and championed the guardrails on Fable. If there is a vulnerability — big or small — it is Anthropic’s responsibility to patch.) — A highly credible trusted partner of both Anthropic and the USG who was testing Fable came forward with a jailbreak of those guardrails. The Admin asked Dario to fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model. Dario refused. — In their blog post, Anthropic defended its decision by saying the jailbreak isn’t serious. That is not what the trusted partner and the USG believe; nor is that kind of minimizing language consistent with Anthropic’s brand as the AI safety company. It’s difficult to fathom how they could claim a jailbreak allowing operability of a cyber weapon could be defined as not “serious.” — In the past, Anthropic has always said that safety must be top priority and taken super seriously. In this case, Anthropic prioritized the continued offering of the consumer model over safety. — In reaction, the Admin issued the export control. The Admin did this reluctantly. It’s been very surprised that Anthropic hasn’t wanted to cooperate with a reasonable safety request (ie fixing the jailbreak issue). Anthropic’s reaction is very much at odds with their branding and ethos as a safe AI research community. — The Admin’s hope now is that Anthropic remediates the safety issue, the export control is lifted, and Fable goes back into general release. The Admin wants all of this to happen as soon as possible. It is frankly bewildered that Anthropic hasn’t wanted to comply with safety requests that it previously said were its highest priority. — Those trying to misdirect and tie this action to the prior DoW/Anthropic issues are wrong. The Admin values Anthropic’s technical capabilities and feels that this issue, while serious, should be easily resolved. The ball is in Anthropic’s court.
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Brad Carson retweeted
Today, for my family and yours, I voted against the Trump megadonors and AI oligarchs spending millions to take away our power. I voted for effectiveness over establishment, entitlement, and entertainment. I voted for a new way forward. NY, if you're with me, vote early or on June 23rd.
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A GOP revolt over AI is taking shape dlvr.it/TT1xFL
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Brad Carson retweeted
Sure sounds like a hit job
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Brad Carson retweeted
Excellent video from @robertskmiles about Alex Bores's race in New York. If you have friends who live between 16th and 100th street in Manhattan, get them to vote for Alex! youtube.com/watch?v=Gj9vxVK4…
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How to show you don't understand how the technology actually works...
“The Admin asked Dario to fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model. Dario refused. — In their blog post, Anthropic defended its decision by saying the jailbreak isn’t serious. “ This is crazy. What are we even doing here?
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100 pc correct analysis 👇
I'm responding to two really smart people here, but I struggle to see the user/listener rights case in the government restricting Fable. To be sure, I'm much less inclined than others to accept the user/listener rights argument for AI model outputs, given the nature of the software and how it's used. But if we take the premise, I think there's a difference here between the right to access information that has already been created by others (including future receipt of that kind of information, e.g. Lamont), or the right to interact with a social media platform being used by others (e.g. Packingham) and what we're seeing here. Before prompting, anything a user creates with an AI model is already hypothetical. The user's rights, if any, are in the outputs to their prompts (and users should still be able to access the outputs of their use of Fable already). Moreover, to the extent we do sometimes recognize a First Amendment right to means of self-expression, e.g., in carceral cases, those come with a lot of caveats and limitations—and are about things that are readily available to the general public. Broad rules that imply any AI model, at **any** point in its development or deployment, carries with it an inherent First Amendment right vested in either the developer or users or both, likely overstretch the jurisprudence. (Notably, this is all distinct from 1A rights companies may have to use internally deployed models, which is something I'm thinking about a lot in the context of how to regulate internal use and automated AI R&D.)
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Brad Carson retweeted
We're in the final stretch! 10 days left to organize for change. If you're ready for effectiveness rather establishment, entitlement, or entertainment, join the team and make a plan to vote: alexbores.com
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I’ve seen the paper. It’s not a jailbreak. It was Defense Oriented Prompting (DOP), capabilities defenders need. My thoughts on the hasty Export Controls that made Anthropic pull Fable. If Nat defense is the goal, this just scored an own goal against us wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-ha…
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Brad Carson retweeted
I think the $800B question is: does the jailbreak allow for capability to be exposed that is > gpt 5.5? If it isn't then this all seems suspect. If it is, then hopefully Anthropic will sort and resubmit. I'd rather have caution for our nation's security than hope as a strategy though. This episode shows at least 3 things: (1) we don't have the right regime and safeguards in place to prevent this from happening reactively (which is terrible for American AI supply trustworthiness). We need a proactive strategy with objective standards (even if they are classified). (2) the idea that the EO should be voluntary vs. be mandatory with clear and objective tests that are consistent for all parties is clearly wrong. This looks arbitrary even if it is the right decision for national security. We need a real AI Lab / Frontier safety plan that doesn't conflate it with an industry giveaway (like most preemption proposal do). If Obernolta/Trahan can dump the preemption or nontenable Developer/Deployer idea, it could be a good start on that. (3) we are more fortunate that the Admin is taking risk a lot more seriously now than the guidance that was coming in March and before. If they go too far, Anthropic gets delayed and it's not fatal. If they miss it, China and others get something faster that could do real harm. But as Sacks says, this needs to get dealt with very fast to be viewed as "growing pains" in regulating something new instead of arbitrary to the world. This is proof that "let them cook" is no longer a strategy that any sensible person can support. Those that are gloating on Anthropic are inconsistent here because if Anthropic hadn't flagged these risks and just released Mythos like everyone had before, we would have already handed these capabilities to our adversaries. You can't have it both ways. It's time for AI to grow up and the US Gov to find the right regime to regulate while allowing compelling applications that are pro innovation and pro human to flourish. We cannot go back to AI Amnesty and Moratorium thinking. It's logically and politically untenable.
I’ve had a number of conversations with folks inside and outside government about the current situation with Anthropic, and here is what I believe to be true: — As we know, Anthropic publicly released its Mythos class models earlier this week under the commercial name Fable. — Fable is Mythos with guardrails. But if those guardrails fail, then you’ve exposed Mythos and its advanced cyber capabilities to people who shouldn’t have them. (Keep in mind that Anthropic itself widely promoted the idea that Mythos was a cyberweapon and needed to be regulated as such. They asked for government regulation of Mythos and championed the guardrails on Fable. If there is a vulnerability — big or small — it is Anthropic’s responsibility to patch.) — A highly credible trusted partner of both Anthropic and the USG who was testing Fable came forward with a jailbreak of those guardrails. The Admin asked Dario to fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model. Dario refused. — In their blog post, Anthropic defended its decision by saying the jailbreak isn’t serious. That is not what the trusted partner and the USG believe; nor is that kind of minimizing language consistent with Anthropic’s brand as the AI safety company. It’s difficult to fathom how they could claim a jailbreak allowing operability of a cyber weapon could be defined as not “serious.” — In the past, Anthropic has always said that safety must be top priority and taken super seriously. In this case, Anthropic prioritized the continued offering of the consumer model over safety. — In reaction, the Admin issued the export control. The Admin did this reluctantly. It’s been very surprised that Anthropic hasn’t wanted to cooperate with a reasonable safety request (ie fixing the jailbreak issue). Anthropic’s reaction is very much at odds with their branding and ethos as a safe AI research community. — The Admin’s hope now is that Anthropic remediates the safety issue, the export control is lifted, and Fable goes back into general release. The Admin wants all of this to happen as soon as possible. It is frankly bewildered that Anthropic hasn’t wanted to comply with safety requests that it previously said were its highest priority. — Those trying to misdirect and tie this action to the prior DoW/Anthropic issues are wrong. The Admin values Anthropic’s technical capabilities and feels that this issue, while serious, should be easily resolved. The ball is in Anthropic’s court.
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Brad Carson retweeted
The "this is what Anthropic asked for" take is stupid and wrong.
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Brad Carson retweeted
Some quick takes: (1) Wow things are getting real. (2) The government's order focusing on prohibiting transfer to foreign nationals (even e.g. those living in the US, our close allies who help evaluate model safety in the UK, individuals who work at frontier labs like Anthropic) seems remarkably destructive, though is partially a result of the government using older legal authorities that were not designed for this kind of technology. (3) If you believe (as I do) that AI has profound ramifications for national security, then assuming the government will sit back and do nothing and tolerate explanations like "well jailbreaking is a hard technical problem" for cyber capabilities that used to be the crown jewels of the NSA, is not tenable. If this is how the government reacts to the current level of system capabilities in 2026, how do you expect them to react to whatever is possible in 2028? However, it is extremely important that the authorities that the government uses are legible, transparent, have opportunities for appeal, and are narrowly targeted. Those legal authorities do not currently exist, and in their absence, the government will reach for metaphorical sledgehammers instead of scalpels. (4) For that reason, it's extremely important that we create regulatory structures that are transparent and give recourse in the event that the government is overstepping or acting in an arbitrary manner. The alternative to passing such laws is not no regulation, it is regulation left primarily to national security authorities that are increasingly and evidently not fit for purpose.
The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees. The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance. Access to all other Claude models is not affected. We apologize for this disruption to our customers. We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible. Read our full statement: anthropic.com/news/fable-myt…
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