Wisereads Vol. 128 — Dario Amodei on surviving AI’s adolescence, why designers shouldn't trust the process, and more
Last week, we shared Robert Louis Stevenson's Travel Essays. This week, we’re sharing a collection of short stories from Mary Shelley.
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Most highlighted Articles of the week
The Adolescence of Technology
Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei warns that, although AI has the potential to vastly improve human life, it also poses a number of serious risks to society as a whole. "I believe we are entering a rite of passage, both turbulent and inevitable, which will test who we are as a species. Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it."
What is the question?
Originally published in 2019, this paper resurfaced recently when Tim Ferriss recommended it in his newsletter. Professors Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher, computational biologists, argue that discovery begins with the revelation of better questions. "The most interesting unknowns of science are unknown unknowns—gaps that we were not even aware of before chancing upon them."
Clawdbot Showed Me What the Future of Personal AI Assistants Looks Like
MacStories editor-in-chief Federico Viticci, a longtime Apple automation expert, explains how Clawdbot (since rebranded twice: first to Moltbot and now to OpenClaw) is shifting the landscape of AI assistants. "More so than using the latest flavors of Claude or ChatGPT, using Clawdbot and the process of continuously shaping it for my needs and preferences has been the closest I’ve felt to a higher degree of digital intelligence in a while."
Most highlighted YouTube Video of the week
Why Designers Can No Longer Trust the Design Process
At Hatch Conference, Anthropic design lead and former Figma director Jenny Wen challenges the rigid, artifact-heavy design process. "The reality is that the user doesn't care about the process artifacts you made or whether you made the perfect user journey. They care about the end experience that they're feeling and seeing."
Most highlighted Twitter Thread of the week
Lessons from Building AI Agents for Financial Services
Fintool CEO and co-founder Nicolas Bustamante distills hard-won lessons from two years building finance-grade AI agents in production. "The biggest lesson isn’t about sandboxes or skills or streaming. It’s this: The model is not your product. The experience around the model is your product."
Most highlighted PDF of the week
Who Is On The Other Side?
Michael Mauboussin and Dan Callahan of Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global explain how active investors can profit by knowing who is on the other side of their trades and why. "The question of who buys and sells stocks received little attention when the foundations of modern finance theory were established. ... The evidence now shows that who is doing the buying and selling matters."
Hand-picked book of the week
Short Fiction
Mary Shelley, author of the iconic and foundational Frankenstein, explores love, science, grief, and fate in these haunting short stories, many of which were originally published in periodicals and annuals in the 1820s and 30s.
This collection also includes Mathilda, a novella written shortly after Frankenstein but not published until after Shelley's death due to its controversial themes.
"We know not what all this wide world means; its strange mixture of good and evil. But we have been placed here and bid live and hope. I know not what we are to hope; but there is some good beyond us that we must seek; and that is our earthly task."
This edition of Short Fiction is available through Standard Ebooks. You can explore their collection of high quality, carefully formatted, and free public domain ebooks here.
Handpicked RSS feed of the week
Nir and Far
Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable, writes Nir and Far on behavioral design, habits, and attention. From Unlock Your Potential With The Power Of Belief: "Your beliefs are your mental toolkit. Make sure you’re carrying the right tools for the life you want to build."