// MIT TECH REVIEW — INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE
The Download: the claim shaking up AI and the internet’s agent problem
Plus: The US Army is trying to get AI agents to hack its enemies.
This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.
“I think I have good news about the nature of neural networks.” With those simple words of optimism, Nick Cammarata, a researcher at AI startup Goodfire, kicked off a 26,000-word blog post that has knocked the AI world on its head, sparking wild speculation as well as cautious (and not-so-cautious) celebration.
Cammarata claims that LLMs might be far easier to understand, and thus to monitor and control, than people previously thought. If true, it’s a huge deal. But not everyone is convinced.
I talked to Cammarata the day after his post blew up. We discussed what he thinks researchers are getting wrong, what his work actually shows, and why skeptics aren’t ready to celebrate just yet.
Read the exclusive interview to find out what Cammarata’s claims could mean for AI.
Until recently, you could split internet users into just two categories: bots and people. But personal AI agents are slowly but surely disrupting that divide by taking on online tasks, from booking flights to reserving hotel rooms. Meta’s Muse alone was downloaded 5 million times in its first month.
The mingling of these agents with human visitors—on an internet designed largely to prioritize people—has gone poorly, with many websites blocking AI agents.
If that demand keeps rising, the internet could be redesigned for agents rather than people. Find out what that could mean for the rest of us.
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.