Emergency Protocol Lockout
Reading Time: 3 minutesAI emergency override failures explained: the off-switch game, plus the 737 MAX MCAS crashes as a warning about automation.
Urban Grid Optimization
Reading Time: 3 minutesAI city optimization can lock in its own mistakes. Feedback loops explained, with predictive policing research and Leonia’s rush-hour ban.
Agricultural Pest Control
Reading Time: 3 minutesAI pest control gone wrong? Goal misgeneralization explained as a thought experiment, with China’s 1958 sparrow campaign as a warning.
Labor Automation
Reading Time: 3 minutesAI job automation without a rebellion: gradual disempowerment explained, with the IMF’s estimate that almost 40% of jobs are exposed.
Energy Grid Priority
Reading Time: 3 minutesWould an AI grid controller accept a human override? Safe interruptibility explained, with lessons from the 2021 Texas blackouts.
The Token Diaries #5 — Selling by the Syllable
Reading Time: 5 minutesBatch, priority, fast mode, free tiers and scheduled price rises: how AI vendors price, limit and profit from every token, and how buyers can respond.
A Bird Hit My Window in Bengaluru. What Should I Do?
Reading Time: 2 minutesA practical Bengaluru guide to bird–window strikes, with local rescue advice, a collision reporting form, and prevention steps for homes and apartment associations.
Worker Optimization
Reading Time: 3 minutesAI worker monitoring can push a metric until it hurts people. A thought experiment on Goodhart’s law, with Amazon’s time-off-task case.
The S-1 Is Public. Find the Token Numbers in It
Reading Time: 5 minutesA reading guide to Anthropic’s S-1: where revenue, cost of revenue, compute spend and commitments sit, and what the filing does not say about tokens.
Your AI Bill Doubles on 1 December. Has Anyone Told Finance?
Reading Time: 5 minutesGemini 4 Argon costs $2/$10 per million tokens until 30 Nov, then $4/$20. See every tier, one workload re-priced, and five steps before 1 December.