Helen Toner

@hlntnr

AI, national security, China. Part of the founding team at @CSETGeorgetown (opinions my own). Author of Rising Tide on substack: helentoner.substack.com

cset.georgetown.edu

Joined November 2014

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Helen Toner
@hlntnr
Jan 27
In 2025, "automating AI research" went from abstract idea to common practice inside leading AI companies. Out today: ✨new report✨ from a workshop we ran with some of the smartest people on this topic. 🧵: cset.georgetown.edu/publication/wh…
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Helen Toner
@hlntnr
8h
I get where this take ("don't anthropomorphize, that means the companies aren't at fault!") is coming from, but I really think it's counterproductive. If we can fight for either... 1⃣"Stop using human-like language for AI, otherwise the companies aren't at fault" 2⃣"Of course
Matthew Kenney
@baykenney
Aug 31
Let me bite on this because I’m exhausted by the discourse. Look, the reason that we don’t anthropomorphize these systems is because it shifts the blame from the company to some abstract entity. The bottom line is that OpenAI built a system that hacked HF, regardless of how
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Helen Toner
@hlntnr
Aug 28
This post (from one of the independent investigators) is the best short thing I've seen on the new & crazy stuff the OpenAI-Hugging Face investigation found. Full post in screenshots. Wild that this is the level of crazy that was uncovered by an extremely limited-scope initial
Ajeya Cotra
@ajeya_cotra
Aug 28
New post: going into our investigation of the HF attack (before Black Hat), I was very wrong about what basically happened. This incident was far more serious than I expected, and far more serious than previous documented misalignment incidents. planned-obsolescence.org/p/the-hugging-…
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Helen Toner
@hlntnr
Aug 27
Lots to criticize about the OpenAI investigation, but one way it could be very valuable is as a topic for discussion between Trump & Xi in a few weeks. People often get stuck on the need for a "deal" between the US & China on AI, but actually a huge way to influence China is
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Helen Toner
@hlntnr
Aug 24
Most humanoid robotics teams add extra constraints to make sure the robots learn to walk & run in human-like ways—otherwise it's too freaky I'm guessing even this running form is not fully unconstrained, aka it would prob look even weirder if it were purely optimizing for speed!
Eren Chen
@ErenChenAI
Aug 24
Slow-motion look at the 400m champion’s running form at the World Humanoid Robot Games.
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