Ashita Orbis//understanding ai7 protocols
interactive
Learning path

Start from zero

No background assumed. The shortest path from 'I keep hearing about AI' to being genuinely conversant: what these systems are, what they do to work, and how to read the news about them.

The path

  1. 1
    [1hr Talk] Intro to Large Language Models
    Andrej Karpathy · Video · 60 min watch · Introductory

    One hour that gives you the mental model everything else builds on.

  2. 2
    Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier
    Ethan Mollick · Essay · 10 min read · Introductory

    Ten minutes on what AI actually does to skilled work — including when it makes you worse.

  3. 3
    The AI water issue is fake
    Andy Masley · Essay · 85 min read · Introductory

    A case study in reading alarming AI statistics: insist on denominators.

  4. 4
    Plentiful, high-paying jobs in the age of AI
    Noah Smith · Essay · 23 min read · Introductory

    The economics of 'will there be jobs', from the optimist's side, cleanly argued.

Then follow your interest

How the machine actually works

  1. 1
    Deep Dive into LLMs like ChatGPT
    210 min watch · Intermediate

    The full course: tokens, training, and why models hallucinate.

  2. 2
    The Bitter Lesson
    5 min read · Introductory

    Nine hundred words explaining why bigger keeps beating cleverer.

The stakes and the argument

  1. 1
    AI as Normal Technology
    90 min read · Intermediate

    The case that AI is a normal technology and diffusion is slow.

  2. 2
    The AI 2040 Scenario (Plan A — The Deal)
    150 min read · Intermediate

    The opposing worldview, told as a year-by-year scenario.

The deeper questions

  1. 1
    Ghost in the Cloud
    35 min read · Introductory

    Why AI prophecy sounds religious — because it is.

  2. 2
    Antiqua et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence
    105 min read · Intermediate

    The Vatican on what intelligence is before what machines are not.

The harder jobs question

  1. 1
    The Cyborg Era: What AI means for jobs
    18 min read · Intermediate

    The guarded middle: why human work persists, and the case where it doesn't.