Matt Erickson

User Chris: What was the core difference why you think the DoW accepted OpenAI but not Anthropic Sam Altman: I can't speak for them, but to speculate with the best understanding of the situation. *First, I saw reporting that they were extremely close on a deal, and for much of the time both sides really wanted to reach one. I have seen what happens in tense negotiations when things get stressed and deteriorate super fast, and I could believe that was a large part of what happened here. *We believe in a layered approach to safety--building a safety stack, deploying FDEs and having our safety and alignment researcher involved, deploying via cloud, working directly with the DoW. Anthropic seemed more focused on specific prohibitions in the contract, rather than citing applicable laws, which we felt comfortable with. We feel that it it's very important to build safe system, and although documents are also important, I'd clearly rather rely on technical safeguards if I only had to pick one. *We and the DoW got comfortable with the contractual language, but I can understand other people would have a different opinion here. *I think Anthropic may have wanted more operational control than we did

I saw some folks asking what the difference was between what OpenAI signed with the DoD and what Anthropic said they wanted, and Sam more or less admits here the key point: OpenAI's deal requires them to trust the NSA. Anthropic's contract had real safeguards.

A good primer on the history of computer ethics: www.cs.utexas.edu/~ear/cs349/B...

Here’s the situation in the Twin Cities:

Random Bovino-style tear-gassing: Way down

Relentless persecution of immigrants: Unchanged

Thuggish violence against observers: Way up

inspired by CLAUDE.md, I’ve started putting markdown files named after coworkers into work code repos so I can remind them to stop doing shit to the codebase that annoys me

for some reason they’re all mad at me now, which means ill be adding commands to JEREMY.md for an attitude adjustment

On leaving a job after 16 years at it: Stepping out, stepping in https://soulrobotic.com/2026/02/stepping-out-stepping-in/

People Over Papers - Report ICE Activity Report and track ICE activity in your community. A community-driven platform to document immigration enforcement.

iceout.org is a community-driven tracker of ICE activity across the country. You can sign up for alerts in your neighborhood, along with anywhere your community may be located. You can also report what you see. This is for keeping people safe now, but it also will act as helpful documentation

This is not materially different from Josef Mengele. The concept is to deliberately expose people to serious harm so you can gather more data on what you already know will hurt them. It's not some big coincidence the Nuremberg Code expressly prohibits everything resembling this kind of "science."

Seeing a bunch of normal ass midwestern moms and dads marching in -20 degrees knowing they might be tear gassed or worse really drives home what a cowardly lot of people the pundit class is

Satan is never mentioned in the bible. The first recorded appearance of the Devil is actually from the 1962 Berenstain Bears book "The Big Honey Hunt"

That blows my mind.

A page showing two Alden shoe models. Each cost $686. They are made in the USA.

A page showing a Yuketen suede boot that was made in the USA. It retails for $1,012.

people offended by $600 shoes are going to be in for a surprise when trump eventually reshores US manufacturing

First time going into the gym this year. Gonna be packed. God help me.

Need. Entirely impractical but… *makes grabby hands*

After over a decade of my ex wife treating time with your parents like an unwelcome burden, it's magical to spend Christmas with my mom and new wife and it feel like welcome family all around.

I've turned 40 apparently. Some minor reflections. https://soulrobotic.com/2025/12/at-40-a-life-in-review/

Or - *gasp* head all the way out to IAD or BWI for a flight.

It's an artistic representation of a circulatory system walking through a kitchen, as drawn by Dave Gibbons and written about by Alan Moore. It happens a lot 'round here.

Happy There Is A Circulatory System Walking Through The Kitchen Day to all who celebrate.

It's another case of Democrats playing Charlie Brown to the GOP's Lucy with the football. As someone directly impacted by the shutdown, along with many close friends and colleagues, giving up now makes all the pain we've gone through pointless.

Nation Shocked by Boomer Announcing Retirement Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a move other Boomers are calling “treason against our generation,” Nancy Pelosi stunned her peers this morning by announcing she …

“This sets a dangerous precedent,” warned 83-year-old Susan Forbes, head of her HOA since the Reagan administration. “If she can retire, next thing you know someone under 70 will be allowed to chair a subcommittee.”

Far-right-Republican former VA Del. Tim Anderson predicted this morning, based on absolutely no evidence, that the VA GOP will take the VA House of Delegates, and that House GOP Leader Terry Kilgore will be Speaker.

No polling - even by Republican outfits - even remotely suggests what former VA Del. Tim Anderson (R) is saying here. To the contrary, the latest poll by Republican pollster Echelon has Dems with an 11-point "generic" lead for HoD. But...sure, ok. LOL bluevirginia.us/2025/10/frid...

Friends, I would like to inform you that we have now entered shawl collar cardigan season. That is all.

Pritzker quoting Andor is based as hell

Extraordinary

It's absolutely astonishing: In just about 13 years, Norway has skyrocketed from virtually no sales of zero-emission battery electric vehicles to nearly 100% of all new passenger car purchases.

New mumblings on the blog: DeFi Experiments https://soulrobotic.com/defi-experiments/

Just spoke with a Trump supporter who is scare shitless her mom and sister will be deported at their visa renewal this year.

She still supports Trump and said Harris have her nightmares, which she interprets as the Holy Spirit warning her.

Yall, you’re not gonna win these people over.

reddit post screenshot. what’s the point of vibe coding if i still have to pay a dev to fix it? what’s the point of vibe coding if at the end of the day i still gotta pay a dev to look at the code anyway. sure it feels kinda cool while i’m typing, like i’m in some flow state or whatever, but when stuff breaks it’s just dead weight. i cant vibe my way through debugging, i cant ship anything that actually matters, and then i’m back to square one pulling out my wallet for someone who actually knows what they’re doing. makes me think vibe coding is just roleplay for guys who want to feel like hackers without doing the hard part. am i missing something here or is it really just useless once you step outside the fantasy

you’re so close

Sometimes the LLM does wizardly things.

Sometimes, you give the LLM a choice between 0 and 3, and tell it the result is going into an unsigned int, and it returns -47.

Reporter: What’s going on with those posts on X that are clearly trolling the president?

Newsom: I hope it’s a wake up call for the president. I’m just following his example. If you have issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns with what he’s putting out

The problem I have with being in the cybersecurity industry is it’s less APTs and more WTFs.