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sayash.bsky.social
CS PhD candidate at Princeton. I study the societal impact of AI. Website: cs.princeton.edu/~sayashk Book/Substack: aisnakeoil.com
36 posts 7,619 followers 948 following
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I spent a few hours with OpenAI's Operator automating expense reports. Most corporate jobs require filing expenses, so Operator could save *millions* of person-hours every year if it gets this right. Some insights on what worked, what broke, and why this matters for the future of agents 🧵

submitted 49 days ago • 6 comments

Excellent post discussing whether "AI progress is slowing down". www.aisnakeoil.com/p/is-ai-prog... And if you're not subscribed to @randomwalker.bsky.social and @sayash.bsky.social 's great newsletter, what are you waiting for?

submitted 95 days ago • 0 comments

Excited to share that AI Snake Oil is one of Nature's 10 best books of 2024! www.nature.com/articles/d41... The whole first chapter is available online: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... We hope you find it useful.

submitted 97 days ago • 3 comments

More than 60 countries held elections this year. Many researchers and journalists claimed AI misinformation would destabilize democracies. What impact did AI really have? We analyzed every instance of political AI use this year collected by WIRED. New essay w/@random_walker: 🧵

submitted 99 days ago • 3 comments

My wife noticed an article with my name on it in her feed and said “Did you write this? It doesn’t sound like you.” I was surprised to see an alarmist headline attributed to me and @sayash.bsky.social by Wired: “Human Misuse Will Make Artificial Intelligence More Dangerous”

submitted 100 days ago • 1 comment

Misinformation is not an AI problem. @sayash.bsky.social and @randomwalker.bsky.social highlight that "while generative AI reduces the cost of creating misinformation, it does not reduce the cost of distributing it". Always worth reading them. substack.com/app-link/pos...

submitted 100 days ago • 0 comments

Is artificial intelligence supercharging the problem of political misinformation? In a word: no. New from @randomwalker.bsky.social & @sayash.bsky.social at @knightcolumbia.org. knightcolumbia.org/blog/we-look...

submitted 101 days ago • 4 comments

“Fixes to the information environment depend on structural and institutional changes rather than on curbing AI-generated content.” @sayash.bsky.social & @randomwalker.bsky.social find that AI hasn’t "fundamentally changed the landscape of political misinformation”: knightcolumbia.org/blog/we-look...

submitted 101 days ago • 0 comments

AI amplifying biorisk has been a major focus in AI policy & governance work. Is the spotlight merited? Our recent cross-institutional work asks: Does the available evidence match the current level of attention? đź“ś arxiv.org/abs/2412.01946

submitted 111 days ago • 2 comments

🚨 [AI BOOK CLUB] "AI Snake Oil: What AI Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference" by @randomwalker.bsky.social & @sayash.bsky.social is a MUST-READ for everyone interested in AI, and it's our 🎉 15th selected book: 📖 About the book:

submitted 116 days ago • 2 comments

I have a new piece out with @aisvarya17.bsky.social in @columjournreview.bsky.social in which we test how OpenAI's new search feature surfaces and attributes news content. Our findings were not promising for news publishers (1/9) www.cjr.org/tow_center/h...

submitted 117 days ago • 8 comments

New short paper on the limits of one type of inference scaling, by @benediktstroebl.bsky.social @sayash.bsky.social & me. The first page has the main findings and message. (The title is a play on Inference Scaling Laws.) More on the limits of inference scaling coming soon. arxiv.org/abs/2411.17501

submitted 118 days ago • 4 comments

Current read. Very informative so far. Not quite in the way most folks I engage with would expect. I knew predictive AI was bad but I did not know just how bad it is. Or how much government and corporations use it and screw up lives in the process.

submitted 122 days ago • 1 comment

Don't leave the future of AI to the tech companies. The authors of AI Snake Oil cut through the hype of AI-bullshit. Not to neglect the good stuff but in order to make the reader aware of the (snake)pits of overselling the technology. @sayash.bsky.social www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-l... #skolechat

submitted 122 days ago • 1 comment

Another banger just picked up from my local library: @randomwalker.bsky.social and @sayash.bsky.social on "AI Snake Oil".

submitted 124 days ago • 0 comments

I have recently read the book "AI Snake Oil" by @randomwalker.bsky.social and @sayash.bsky.social. Before buying it, I expected it to be the best book I'd read on AI, it most definitely is. I heartily endorse it to anyone wanting to find out what AI is all about and see what is real and what is hype

submitted 125 days ago • 1 comment

This book was surprisingly good! Excited to go to this.

submitted 127 days ago • 1 comment

Folks in San Francisco: my AI Snake Oil book talk is *today* at 5:30pm at Book Passage (SF ferry building). Come through to discuss the future of AI, why AI isn't an existential risk, how we can build AI in/for the public, and what goes into writing a book. Looking forward to seeing some of you!

submitted 127 days ago • 1 comment

This easily approachable book by @randomwalker.bsky.social & @sayash.bsky.social should be compulsory reading for anyone implementing AI and automation. Especially everyone in the EU wishing to push full throttle on applying AI for everything and anything. www.aisnakeoil.com

submitted 127 days ago • 2 comments

Just finishing @randomwalker.bsky.social and @sayash.bsky.social's book AI Snake Oil. It's really good - clear eyed and thoughtful. Their chapter on content moderation is a must read for anyone engaging with social media, and vital user education for us all in the growth of a platform like this.

submitted 127 days ago • 0 comments