Person
Owen Cotton-Barratt
Commentary by Owen Cotton-Barratt
From the commentary rail — every link leaves the site for the original piece.
- 23 September 2026 · Strange CitiesWhy I’m scared of RLRL environments are like the formative years for AI systems
- 13 April 2026 · ForethoughtThe good, the bad and the ugly: AI impacts on epistemicsFor better or worse, AI could reshape the way that people work out what to believe and what to do.
- 7 April 2026 · Strange CitiesSome Days SoonVignettes of life with tech we could build today (but haven’t yet)
- 6 April 2026 · ForethoughtSketches of some defense-favoured coordination techWe think that near-term AI could make it much easier for groups to coordinate, find positive-sum deals, navigate tricky disagreements, and hold each other to account.
- 1 April 2026 · ForethoughtAI for AI for Epistemics
- 16 March 2026 · Strange CitiesLLM advice to LLMsTaking AI self-description seriously but not literally
- 11 February 2026 · ForethoughtAI tools for strategic awareness
- 9 February 2026 · ForethoughtAngel-on-the-shoulder AI tools
- 7 February 2026 · ForethoughtAI tools for collective epistemicsWe’ve recently published a set of design sketches for AI tools that help with collective epistemics.
- 6 February 2026 · ForethoughtDesign sketches for a more sensible world
- 30 January 2026 · Strange CitiesKnow thyselfLooking in the AI-powered mirror
- 23 January 2026 · ForethoughtWhich type of transformative AI will come first?
- 21 January 2026 · Strange CitiesHow (and why) to read Drexler on AIAn opinionated prospectus for AI Prospects
- 23 December 2025 · Strange CitiesChatting with the CorporationWhen “I” stops meaning the bot and starts meaning the org
- 12 December 2025 · Strange CitiesSo you’ve taken over the worldSuppose that you were running a big AI project that underwent a fast intelligence explosion.
- 8 December 2025 · Strange CitiesHuman Dignity: a reviewA manifesto for the age of AI?
- 2 May 2025 · Strange CitiesThe crucibleHow I think about the situation with AI
- 10 April 2025 · Strange CitiesDisempowerment spiralsNotes on a likely mechanism for existential catastrophe
- 26 March 2025 · Strange CitiesKnowledge, Reasoning, and SuperintelligenceWhat makes people good at solving novel problems?
- 17 March 2025 · Strange CitiesAI Tools for Existential Security(From a paper coauthored with Lizka Vaintrob.)
- 18 November 2024 · Strange CitiesThe Choice TransitionOn the emergence of history’s reins
- 4 November 2024 · Strange CitiesA brief history of the automated corporationLooking back from 2041
- 23 October 2024 · Strange CitiesAI safety tax dynamicsEarlier AI capabilities — research and coordination — could help us to navigate later safety problems. And the highest risk probably comes in the era before strong superintelligence.
- 19 October 2024 · Strange CitiesSafety tax functionsA conceptual exploration
- 11 September 2024 · Strange CitiesAI, centralization, and the One RingConcerns with amassing power in a single AGI project
- 24 July 2024 · Strange CitiesThe last era of human mistakesAuthor’s remark, four months later: in retrospect I am vaguely dissatisfied with this piece.
- 11 July 2024 · Strange CitiesDecomposing AgencyDesires without capabilities; capabilities without desires
- 11 June 2024 · Strange CitiesAI takeoff and nuclear warDrivers of all-out war, and strategies to mitigate the risk
- 11 June 2024 · Strange CitiesOn the future of language modelsMechanistic but zoomed-out takes about the trajectory of the technologies