Claims

2,653 claims by 33 public figures and organisations, checked against the public record. Each has its quote, source, verdict and evidence. Read them without a key; browse by person.

28,548 claims, sorted by newest said. Choose a claim to read it in full.
VerdictPersonKindSaidClaimTopic
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 I believe they encouraged inefficient technologies, technologies that aren't ever going to solve the problem. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 I believe we should be encouraging the technologies that are cheaper. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 If you deliver wind power at 2:00 a.m. at night, nobody needs it. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 I'll pay any price for the cleaner energy. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 Nobody in this country would pay 10 or 20 cents a kilowatt hour for power. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 Because it doesn't make business sense. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 It's a feasible path if we agree then to buy those quotas from the people who are not polluting, like we do in this country. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 The easiest way to get them to change their trajectory is to have these alternatives be cheaper than their fossil [fuel] competitors. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 But they're not good substitutes for grid electricity. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 The point here is, even as a great investment and even with rapid growth, it doesn't address climate change, because 4 percent of worldwide… Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 We couldn't agree on our assumptions, you know. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 I would not invest in those technologies if I didn't have a belief that this was the right approach. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 So it's important to realize that scaling is our biggest problem, and mostly we've been playing around with toys. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 To be honest, I worry more about the press than about the oil companies. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 Patzek is dead wrong. I completely disagree with his assessments, and there's a reason for it. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 We agreed on the basics. The science part is easy to agree on. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 I think corn ethanol is doing us a great service. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 I don't believe for these technologies to be successful we have to do it that way. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 And politicians love it because it feels clean, but in fact, it won't solve the real problems. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 And it is up to us, as a nation, to have the right policies to make sure these are done well. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 If what you say is right, then we are toast anyway. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 If you can double the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, that would cut oil use in half on this planet. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 In fact, I worry they may be going down the wrong road. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 Almost anything we do -- it could be solar power, wind power, biofuels, ethanol -- we can do it well, and we can do it poorly. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 He looks backward and does his assessments. I look forward and say, "What can we do?" Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 There is nothing we can do in the West that will alter the trajectory of this planet. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 Five percent of the population, absolutely. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 It's a great step. I would take them at their face value. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 are probably 70, 80 percent cheaper than photovoltaics, and could have been better implemented. Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 Photovoltaics are a great technology for certain applications Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Vinod Khosla Not checkable 21 Oct 2008 We're working on water technologies that will cut the cost of desalination for freshwater by 75 percent and reduce energy consumption by 75… Vinod Khosla · Not checkable · 21 Oct 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 some banks and hedge funds are more resistant than others to the Black Swan - we need to discriminate between them. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Resolved true Nassim Taleb Factual 3 Apr 2008 Nassim Taleb worked on Wall Street for close to two decades in trading and risk management of derivatives. Nassim Taleb · Factual · 3 Apr 2008 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Most people seem to have been caught off-guard by the subprime crisis, yet such an event was not only predictable but also inevitable. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 The problem may also be the Nobel in economics that gave a stamp to these junky theories. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 I don't know where it may occur. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Mostly true Nassim Taleb Factual 3 Apr 2008 Today the entire banking system is dominated by a few very large banks, and almost all of them have the same exposures. Nassim Taleb · Factual · 3 Apr 2008 Economics and markets
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 But unlike the bird, my Black Swan carries large consequences. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Unresolvable Nassim Taleb Factual 3 Apr 2008 Nassim Taleb has been telling people that banks tend to sit on time bombs while convincing themselves they are conservative and nonvolatile. Nassim Taleb · Factual · 3 Apr 2008 Economics and markets
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 They were not all homogeneous. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Unresolvable Nassim Taleb Factual 3 Apr 2008 Business schools teach portfolio theory to more than 100,000 students a year. Nassim Taleb · Factual · 3 Apr 2008 Field building and careers
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 We replaced so much experience and common sense with "models" that work worse than astrology, because they assume that the Black Swan does… Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 We like models because they do not require experience and can be taught by a 33-year-old assistant professor. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 It is the "science" of risk management that effectively turned everyone involved into a turkey. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 I noticed that while portfolio models got worse and worse in tracking reality, their use kept increasing as if nothing was happening. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Banking is a very treacherous business because you don't realize it is risky until it is too late. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Of course, in a less leveraged manner. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Trying to model something that escapes modelization is the heart of the problem. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 So the system became less and less volatile while becoming riskier and riskier. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Anyone who knows anything about the history of banking (or remembers the 1982 Latin American debt crisis or the 1990s savings and loan… Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 When you live in Manhattan, you notice the quality of the food is high because restaurants are rapidly punished for their mistakes. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Mostly true Nassim Taleb Factual 3 Apr 2008 Taleb said that a point he had just made, which mentioned J.P. Morgan, turned out to be true with the Bear Stearns rescue. Nassim Taleb · Factual · 3 Apr 2008 Economics and markets
Unresolvable Nassim Taleb Factual 3 Apr 2008 In the past the financial world had a diversified ecology in which banks went bust on a steady basis. Nassim Taleb · Factual · 3 Apr 2008 Economics and markets
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 What I call a Black Swan is a surprise event - like the discovery of the black bird in Australia, which was unpredictable because swans in… Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Your dentist's income will not disappear on a single day: No single event will carry big consequences for her. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 I prefer not to answer that, as I am trying to avoid talking about my nonintellectual activities. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Let me blame business schools and the financial economics establishment - they have a vested interest in promoting models and devaluing… Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 So we moved from the more resilient ecology to a more concentrated architecture. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 If the Food and Drug Administration monitored the business of risk management as rigorously as it monitored drugs, many of these… Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 But unfortunately we have been experiencing the opposite: rare but deep and systemic blowups. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Occasional blowups are good if they are small and recurrent. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 There are two types of businesses: those that are exposed to Black Swans and those that are relatively insulated from them - not because… Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Someone needs to make the Nobel committee account for this, for the damage to society - and I hope to do so. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 But greed pushes bankers to take the maximum amount of "hidden risks" - those risks that do not show on a regular basis because the models… Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 But if you look at balance sheets and contingent liabilities, it is easy to know who may be exposed to negative ones and who may be exposed… Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 I used to say, "You trade with a bank, you end up trading with J.P. Morgan (JPM, Fortune 500)." Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 Banks are exposed to such blowups. Bankers have been the turkey, historically. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 The surprise is for the turkey, not the butcher. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Nassim Taleb Not checkable 3 Apr 2008 But trading profits can all be lost by a single transaction. Nassim Taleb · Not checkable · 3 Apr 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 I would be pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong about this. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Unresolvable Eliezer Yudkowsky Factual 2008 The Dartmouth Proposal on AI makes no mention of building nice, good or benevolent AI. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Factual · 2008 AI policy and governance
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 No system is secure that searches for ways to defeat its own security. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 Wason's 2-4-6 task is a "cold" form of confirmation bias; people seek confirming but not falsifying evidence. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 it would be nice if we knew how to build a nice AI. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 This statement now seems to me like complete gibberish. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 This does not imply the AI has the motive to change its own motives. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 I have given you another opportunity to fail each time you face the challenge of changing your mind. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 Such competence is not historically typical of human institutions, no matter how hard they try. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 However, ranking (8) as more probable than (6) violates the conjunction rule of probability theory which states that p(A & B) ≤ p(A). Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not researched Eliezer Yudkowsky Factual 2008 Subjects in Wason's 2-4-6 task try to confirm their hypotheses rather than falsify them. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Factual · 2008 Science and research methods
Not researched Eliezer Yudkowsky Factual 2008 Flaws have occasionally been discovered in previously accepted informal human mathematical proofs. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Factual · 2008 Science and research methods
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 By far the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 Thus, all else being equal, I would greatly prefer that Friendly AI precede nanotechnology in the ordering of technological developments. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not researched Eliezer Yudkowsky Factual 2008 Information known to be irrelevant still anchors people's judgments and contaminates their guesses. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Factual · 2008 Science and research methods
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 Moore’s Law of Mad Science: Every eighteen months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Mostly true Eliezer Yudkowsky Factual 2008 Overconfidence is no longer noteworthy in the modern field but continues to show up in nearly any experiment allowing extreme probabilities. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Factual · 2008 Science and research methods
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 I should not have had to stumble across that reference by accident. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 The first AI must be Friendly. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 If an AI will hurt you given magic, the Friendliness architecture is wrong. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 Lacking the space for exposition, I can only plead with the reader to consult the primary literature. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Own records only Michael Burry Factual 2008 The Scion Funds' portfolio of credit default swaps on subordinated tranches of subprime mortgage securitizations has been reduced to an insignificant size, with only three contracts remaining. Michael Burry · Factual · 2008 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 We should recognize this as a literary criticism, not a scientific one; it is about good or bad novels, not good or bad hypotheses. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 All else being equal, not many people would prefer to destroy the world. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 I am skeptical that a scholar of heuristics and biases, unable to read physics equations, could check the work of physicists who knew… Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 Artificial Intelligence is not settled science; it belongs to the frontier, not to the textbook. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not researched Eliezer Yudkowsky Factual 2008 The book, which is aimed at an intelligent general audience, explains Bayes's Theorem rather than assuming it, in only a few pages. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Factual · 2008 Science and research methods
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 There is no guarantee whatsoever that, just because we can’t manage a risk, the risk will obligingly go away. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 If we postulate that future minds exhibit the same mixture of foolishness and wisdom, the same mixture of heroism and selfishness, as the… Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 We might survive for another decade, even another century, but not another million years. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
Not checkable Eliezer Yudkowsky Not checkable 2008 But if combinatorics could not correctly predict that a lottery ticket has a 10-8 chance of winning, ticket sellers would go broke. Eliezer Yudkowsky · Not checkable · 2008
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Factual Science and research methods

“But human mathematics is informal and unreliable; occasionally someone discovers a flaw in a previously accepted informal proof.”

Eliezer Yudkowsky, essay author 2008 Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk (MIRI)

Flaws have occasionally been discovered in previously accepted informal human mathematical proofs.

Not researched Checkable, but outside the sample that was researched.

Cite this claim

Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Flaws have occasionally been discovered in previously accepted informal human mathematical proofs.” (said 2008). Verdict: not researched. Reliability API, claim c_06b01b7bf152, method 0.1.0+c876030c. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_06b01b7bf152

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts and scores are made. The same data is on Hugging Face under CC BY 4.0.