Questions
Questions I keep returning to. If one of them is yours too, write to me: jf {at} janfarrell.com.
How long does the public keep access to frontier AI?
Export controls have already reached the frontier. I do not expect the window of open public access to stay open, and I think we are living in the strange period before it closes.
Can a machine be governed in ten lines?
The most durable rule set in history is ten lines long, and its power was that a breach could be named. I wonder what ten lines would mean for machines.
What do we owe the question of machine consciousness?
Care, mostly, and slower vocabulary. A grey area does not oblige attribution. I made a first attempt at the argument in a letter to the Financial Times.
Should Britain build sovereign AI capability?
Sovereignty is expensive and the odds are unkind. I do, however, feel that the United Kingdom is the one credible third seat: it has the labs, the engineers, and the convening tradition.
Should we resist the end of jobs?
A motion the Society will argue this autumn. I chair, so I argue neither side.
What is fear for?
Racing at 231.66 km/h taught me to treat fear as information rather than an enemy. I keep testing where else that holds: in companies, in investing, and in how we talk about machines. I wrote about it in “Yes, I’m scared.”
How much protein is too much?
Nutrition labels report protein but say nothing about its excess. As an athlete and a father I built a simple ratio to see it.