{"podcast":{"title":"Astral Codex Ten Podcast","slug":"astral-codex-ten-podcast-226483","podcast_index_feed_id":226483,"rss_url":"https://sscpodcast.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://sscpodcast.libsyn.com/website","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/1/2/d/4/12d4a6af46ce5199/SSC-Icon-large.png","author":"Jeremiah Prophet","episode_count":1170,"summary":"The official audio version of Astral Codex Ten, with an archive of posts from Slate Star Codex. It's just me reading Scott Alexander's blog posts.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-10T22:20:14.870262+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/astral-codex-ten-podcast-226483"},"episode":{"title":"Next-Token Predictor Is An AI's Job, Not Its Species","slug":"next-token-predictor-is-an-ai-s-job-not-its-species","published_at":"2026-04-02T01:07:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/astral-codex-ten-podcast-226483/next-token-predictor-is-an-ai-s-job-not-its-species","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/astral-codex-ten-podcast-226483","url":"https://sscpodcast.libsyn.com/next-token-predictor-is-an-ais-job-not-its-species","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sscpodcast/Next-Token_Predictor_Is_An_AIs_Job_Not_Its_Species.mp3?dest-id=586545","summary":"I. In The Argument, Kelsey Piper gives a good description of the ways that AIs are more than just \"next-token predictors\" or \"stochastic parrots\" - for example, they also use fine-tuning and RLHF. But commenters, while appreciating the subtleties she introduces, object that they're still just extra layers on top of a machine that basically runs on next-token prediction. I want to approach this from a different direction. I think overemphasizing next-token prediction is a confusion of levels. On the levels where AI is a next-token predictor, you are also a next-token (technically: next-sense-datum) predictor. On the levels where you're not a next-token predictor, AI isn't one either.","meta_description":"I. In The Argument, Kelsey Piper gives a good description of the ways that AIs are more than just \"next-token predictors\" or \"stochastic parrots\" - for ex…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":974,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/astral-codex-ten-podcast-226483/episodes/next-token-predictor-is-an-ai-s-job-not-its-species/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/astral-codex-ten-podcast-226483/next-token-predictor-is-an-ai-s-job-not-its-species.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}