A selection of newsletters and blogs on AI policy, science and technology

Useful resources to get a good sense of what's going on.

03/04/2024 EDIT: a year later, it’s wild how out of date this list is now! Expect an updated iteration soon. :)

A growing number of people want to get into technology policy and ask me what they should be reading. Here are some resources for folks who want to follow the space more closely and get a holistic view of what’s going on. This is not a comprehensive list, and I omitted some more specialized newsletters - I will continue editing it over time, but this first iteration should be a good starting point. 

Technology News

Techmeme: basically a high-quality news aggregator with a clean interface and a good summary of essential tech-related news pieces of the day. Essential to stay on top of products, funding, cybersecurity — everything. Highly recommended.

Protocol: their Source Code newsletter is another useful source (ha!) for tech news, but with a specific focus on the people, power, and politics of tech. It focuses on investigations, lawsuits, ethics, and the like. A useful complement!

The Gradient: The Gradient is notably refreshing due to the technical depth that sets it apart from your typical newsletter. The pieces are clearly written and dive deeper into the more interesting, nerdy parts of AI development. They also have essays and commentary from AI researchers, such as these pieces on open-source development. 

Rest of World: believe it or not, there is more to tech than what’s happening in the US and Europe. I can’t recommend RoW enough: it’s full of important and fascinating stories from the Global South. See their ridesharing in India piece, and this one on content moderation in Colombia. 

Stratechery: detailed analysis of the strategy and business side of technology and media, and the impact of technology on society.

Technology Policy

James W. Philipps’ Newsletter: James used to advise the UK’s prime minister on science and tech, and his new newsletter shows why. This piece with rough notes and thoughts on the structures of scientific research is a bit long but fascinating reading. Sign up!

SemiAnalysis: a specialised newsletter offering insightful analysis on developments related to the semiconductor supply chain, hardware, startups, compute, and so on. See for example this detailed piece on RISC-V CPUs. If you’re interested in the chips side of things, the Digits to Dollars newsletter is worth reading, too.

Faster, Please!: curated by economist James Pethtokoukis, Faster Please is an excellent newsletter on progress, innovation, and growth. It’s a real pleasure to read: micro-reads, a short read, and a long read — there’s something for everyone. This one on science stagnation is excellent, as was this interview with Carl Frey on automation and jobs.

What’s New Under the Sun: another great progress-oriented newsletter. Expect long, well-researched, and insightful essays, like this one on why science is getting harder. Curated by the IFP’s Matt Clancy.

Tech Policy Watch: I’m biased as I used to work on this newsletter, but Marietje Schaake’s TPW is a fantastic resource, looking at key developments in global policy, corporate policy, US politics, ethics and the rule of law, and of course technological developments.

Foreign Policy and NatSec

CSET Newsletter: CSET is by far one of the most insightful think tanks focusing on frontier tech, national security, and policy. Their policy.ai newsletter is therefore unsurprisingly very good. As well as summaries of their own research, they also look at key policy developments and produce translations of important foreign documents on AI. Have a look at last December’s edition on ChatGPT.

Metacurity: the best newsletter for efficiently summarised cybersecurity and InfoSec news. The weekly curation of interesting long reads is pretty neat, too.

ASPI Daily Cyber & Tech Digest: curated by the Australian think tank ASPI, this digest focuses on tech policy, cybersecurity, and national security, making it essential reading. I particularly like that news stories are categorised by country/region.

Coda Authoritarian Tech: Coda looks at how tech is abused and misused across the world. Another “must have” to better understand how authoritarian governments and companies abuse rights and harm lives. I liked this piece on Bahrain’s use of surveillance tech.

ChinaTalk: Fantastic newsletter on China, tech/AI and foreign policy by Jordan Schneider. Good insights on AI developments for China watchers (e.g. this), and many great guests too: see this insightful interview with Tyler Cowen on how learning, writing and artistic creativity might change in the near future.

Science and Progress

Nintil: for people who like extremely well-researched deep dives. Nintil’s essays cover a wide range of topics in science and tech. I’m also a huge fan of blogs that curate occasional link fests. His recent post on meta-science is well worth checking out. 

Notes on Progress: WIP is a unique magazine, exploring interesting, unusual, and forward-thinking ideas in science, economics, history, and tech. Their newsletter is just as rich. See Ellen Pasternack’s recent piece there on statistical education for scientists at universities.

Scientific Discovery: Saloni Dattani is one of my favorite science writers. Her new newsletter (and Twitter feed) is a goldmine of information and data. This piece on ambitious science reform is a must-read.

Science Fictions: it’s easy to forget that science is rife with fraud, bias, negligence and hype. Stuart Ritchie’s newsletter, named after his excellent book on the same topic, is a must-read.

Asterisk Mag: a quarterly journal of writing and clear thinking about things that matter. Some incredibly good pieces in there and a fine selection of authors. Scott Alexander’s piece on wine is the best one I’ve read on the subject.

Artificial Intelligence

Alignment Newsletter: if you’re interested in recent developments and papers in AI safety, this is the perfect newsletter for you. Complex papers are neatly summarised, and it’s helpful reading the authors’ takes. The ML Safety Newsletter is worth checking out, too.

ImportAI: Anthropic’s Jack Clark used to be the world’s only neural network reporter at Bloomberg. His newsletter is one of the most popular in AI: it looks at both technical and policy developments at the cutting edge of AI policy. Very clearly written, and the creative “Tech Tales” at the end of each edition are always thought-provoking.

HAI Mailing List: Stanford’s HAI’s research, white papers, and articles are great, so it’s only fair you get them in your inbox, too. The newsletter is as you’d expect it to be: updates on their research and interesting news pieces. See this latest report on implementing the US AI Strategy.

Cold Takes: Holden Karnofsky’s very well written blog, with a focus on AGI risk. The ‘most important century’ series is probably the best place to start. Highly recommended!

L-space Diaries: “An occasional newsletter of notes focusing on just the productized generative AI space.” The pieces are detailed and insightful, lots of condensed wisdom in there. See for example swyx’s recent post on GPT-4.

The AI Ethics Brief: the Montreal AI Ethics Institute’s newsletter is one of the most comprehensive on AI ethics. The team puts together extensive research and article summaries, which really helps keep up with the great work in this space.

Global Digital Rights Digest: summarizes key developments related to policy, surveillance, security, and tech more generally. I’m a big fan of bullet-point summaries, and the curation is on point.

The Markup: a non-profit newsroom keeping an eye on big tech. Great investigative journalism and detailed analysis with lots of AI and surveillance. The pieces on machine learning are well worth reading.

Wildcard

Astral Codex Ten: goes without saying, certified GOAT-status.

DYNOMIGHT: this is a recent Substack on “science and existential angst” by mysterious Twitter user dynomight7. Loved all pieces so far, in particular the historical analogies for large language models.

Don’t Worry About The Vase: a real gem if like me you love really long posts full of links. Every time a Monthly Roundup is published I end up with 100 new open tabs. Excellent commentary on developments in AI, policy and US politics by Zvi.