Open Thread 430

2026-01-16 · Source: Astral Codex Ten · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Data Science & Analytics, Blockchain & Distributed Ledger Technology · Depth: Novice, quick

Summary

This open thread from Astral Codex Ten (ACX) announces several new initiatives and opportunities. Garrison Lovely's new book, "Obsolete: The AI Industry's Trillion Dollar Race To Replace You - And How To Stop It," is available for pre-order. MNX, a real-money prediction market, is seeking an experienced trader for its liquidity vault, focusing on equity perps, AI prediction markets, and compute. A research request for Volume 3 of "Critical Documentation of Fatima" is made to Portuguese ACX readers, with specific instructions for acquisition and digitization. The Ethereum Foundation is hosting a data science competition with $20,000 in prizes to predict the value and originality of open-source repositories, influencing the distribution of $350,000 to projects. Roots of Progress is offering a blog-building fellowship with notable mentors, and ACX Grantee spartacus.app, a conditional-commitment platform, is seeking non-binding letters of intent from AI safety, governance, or research organizations for a grant application due this Wednesday.

Key takeaway

For research scientists or professionals tracking AI industry trends and decentralized finance, you should consider exploring the new book "Obsolete" for its perspective on AI's societal impact. Additionally, if your organization faces coordination challenges, contacting spartacus.app for a letter of intent by Tuesday morning could align with their grant application and potentially offer a solution for your "if enough others did" scenarios.

Key insights

The ACX open thread highlights diverse opportunities spanning AI, prediction markets, research, and community initiatives.

Principles

• Pre-orders significantly aid book media visibility.
• Community engagement can drive specific research acquisition.
• Prediction markets can incentivize open-source project evaluation.

Method

To acquire "Critical Documentation of Fatima" Volume 3, Portuguese speakers must call the bookstore, purchase the book, mail it to overnight-scanning.eu for digitization, and then email the PDF to scott@slatestarcodex.com.

In practice

• Pre-order "Obsolete" to support its media outreach.
• Apply for the MNX trader position if experienced in market-making.
• Participate in Ethereum Foundation data science competitions.

Topics

• AI Industry Analysis
• Prediction Market Trading
• Ethereum Data Science
• Progress Studies Fellowship
• Conditional Commitment Platforms

Code references

• deepfunding/oss-evals

Best for: Research Scientist, General Interest, Data Scientist, AI Scientist

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Astral Codex Ten.