“A group of prepubescent British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves that lead to a descent into savagery. The novel’s themes include morality, leadership, and the tension between civility and chaos.” That’s the plot of Lord of the Flies, but it could just as easily be the coming plot of the race toward AI dominance. Like the kids stranded on the fictional island, in the Lord of the AIs, the rules of the new BYOG (Bring Your Own Guardrails) society are being set by insiders. Anthropic is the major AI player known for being the most worried about the “civilizational concerns” associated with its tech. Maybe that’s just a branding strategy, or maybe they’re just being compared to the likes of Zuck and Musk. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they really are the most concerned of the AI giants. “When Anthropic launched Claude, in 2023, the bot’s distinguishing feature was a ‘Constitution’ that the model was trained on detailing how it should behave; last week, Anthropic revamped the document into a 22,000-word treatise on how to make Claude a moral and sincere actor. Claude, the constitution’s authors write, has the ability to foster emotional dependence, design bioweapons, and manipulate its users, so it’s Anthropic’s responsibility to instill upright character in Claude to avoid these outcomes.” But, ultimately, the race is on. And the rules of the race are being made by its participants, not by governments, and certainly not by end users. Ultimately, those rules may be made by the very technologies the absence of outside rules enabled. Matteo Wong in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Anthropic Is at War With Itself. “The AI company shouting about AI’s dangers can’t quite bring itself to slow down.” (And that’s the point. This is all about self-regulation. They’re the only ones who currently have the power to slow themselves down.)
2Root For All EvilAre there times when you’re watching a brawl and you can be sure the good guys aren’t going to win? Yes. When there are no good guys. Which brings us to raging battles inside the Department of Homeland Security. “Officials overseeing Trump’s mass-deportation campaign are fighting one another for power.” Battles Are Raging Inside the Department of Homeland Security. Yes, there are differing degrees of badness among the key players, but when the guy who brought you the family separation policy seems likes the most decent of the bunch, you might as well be stuck rooting for a root canal. 3Care Takers“Vilbrun Dorsainvil lives in the United States under a legal designation called Temporary Protected Status, which can be provided by the U.S. government to people from countries experiencing armed conflict or natural disasters. The protection allows those already in the United States to remain for a specific period of time, and it can be renewed if the U.S. government considers conditions in the country unsafe for people to return. Haitians have been eligible for T.P.S. since an earthquake devastated the country in 2010, and the protection has been renewed because of other crises. But the Trump administration announced last year that it was terminating the status for several countries, including Afghanistan, Venezuela and Haiti.” That’s bad news for Vilbrun Dorsainvil and a lot of Haitians. It’s also bad news for a lot of Americans. NYT (Gift Article): Haitians Are Vital to U.S. Health Care. Many Are About to Lose Their Right to Work. “At least 50,000 migrants with protected status work in health care, an industry struggling to fill positions in small cities and rural areas as an aging America requires more long-term care.” Feel safer? 4Mine All Mine“To the extent American children have a relationship with coal, it’s usually a negative one. Every kid knows the worst thing you can get on Christmas morning is a lump of the bituminous stuff as harsh payback for a year spent behaving poorly. Which makes it a little weird that Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is using an anthropomorphized lump of coal, dressed in yellow safety gear and Mickey Mouse gloves, as the adorable mascot of President Donald Trump’s ‘American Energy Dominance Agenda,’ which includes bringing ‘clean, beautiful coal’ back from the edge of extinction ... The mascot’s name is “Coalie,” and he appeared in a post on X recently with a cartoon version of Burgum. ‘Mine, Baby, Mine!’ Burgum’s post said, a message echoed on Cartoon Burgum’s hard hat.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): Meet ‘Coalie,’ the Lethal Mascot for Dirty Energy. 5Extra, ExtraThe Age of Bull: “Bull Connor’s fire hoses and police dogs were meant to restore order during civil rights demonstrations. Instead, they revealed the brutality of segregation to an international audience.” NYT (Gift Article): We’re Seeing the Weakness of a Strong State. “Visible state violence against sympathetic civilians was the beginning of the end for Jim Crow. It may be a turning point now, too.” (I wonder if the same rules apply in the era of doomscrolling, altered images, information silos, and social media. And when Bull Connor is in the Oval Office.) 6Bottom of the News“The toy was designed as a happy-faced Lunar New Year decoration, but a manufacturing mistake turned its smile into a frown.” Needless to say, it’s selling like crazy.
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Thursday, January 29, 2026
Lord of the AIs
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