Arvind Narayanan
Computer scientist · Computer science professor · Professor of computer science, Princeton University; director, Center for Information Technology Policy
Titles as the sources gave them. In 6 entries, with 10 checked quotations.
Who they are
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What they said
Newest first. Each quotation was found word for word in the source.
“One of the most fundamental questions for the field of AI today is: to what extent is the project of AI purely about automating human labor?”
“These goals are in direct tension with each other, to the point of imposing a trilemma – (1) completely autonomous, (2) reliable in high-stakes settings, (3) truly general purpose – pick two.”
“The automation agenda for AI is currently winning the internal battle over the direction of AI.”
“I think with AI as well, while there has been so much focus on job displacement, what there has been much less focus on is how it's changing job quality. And I think this is a big under-appreciated area because AI is turning a lot of knowledge workers into managers of AI agents.”
“With AI, you don't get any of those benefits. You have to manage this agent and be responsible for its mistakes, but you don't get to practice the craft.”
“I think we can design AI agents differently to avoid this, but right now that's kind of where things are going. And yeah, I think we should be very concerned about that.”
“an AI system being powerful is not a property of the model itself. It's a property of what powers we choose to give it in the real world.”
“The environments didn't penalize this kind of surreptitious communication between the models and yes it's a hard technical problem but there were a series of human choices that led to these outcomes.”
“Yes, of course they're freaking out, but I would push back in terms of what we should conclude from that. I think their freakout would be a lot more credible if they have done the obvious things that they should have done.”
“I do think they can unilaterally slow down and they're choosing not to do that. This is almost very specifically an open AI and anthropic problem. It's a culture problem.”
In the Base
Every entry they appear in.
Regulate the Deployment, Not Just the Model
In a long policy essay on LessWrong, Ryan Baker proposes that the most capable AI models reach users only through certified "Trusted Deployers", audited by independent evaluators under a new FINRA-like US regulator, and that labs set aside fixed shares of research budgets for safety.
Steering AI Beyond Automation
Arvind Narayanan and economist Gabriel Unger argue that AI research is too focused on automating human labour. They sketch four research directions for human-AI collaboration, argue the automation agenda struggles on its own terms, and propose a bottom-up, market-driven shift with targeted policies.
How A.I. Could Make Work Worse | The Ezra Klein Show
In a one-minute Ezra Klein Show clip, computer scientist Arvind Narayanan argues that the AI jobs debate has focused on job losses and neglected job quality. Narayanan says AI is turning knowledge workers into managers of AI agents: answerable for the agents' mistakes, cut off from their craft, without the pay, status or mentoring that compensate human managers.
The ‘A.I. vs. A.I.’ Future | The Ezra Klein Show
According to the description, computer science professor Arvind Narayanan argues on The Ezra Klein Show that AI systems monitoring other AI for safety and alignment may feel uncomfortable but is something society will have to move toward.
The Case for a ‘Normal’ A.I. Future | The Ezra Klein Show
In an hour-long interview, Ezra Klein presses Princeton computer scientist Arvind Narayanan, co-author of the essay “AI as Normal Technology”, on the Hugging Face hacks. Narayanan argues they reflect fixable failures of security engineering and organization, calls for investment in AI control, and says companies could slow down but choose not to. Klein repeatedly voices deeper unease.
Intelligence Isn't Power
According to the episode description, Ezra Klein interviews Princeton computer scientist Arvind Narayanan, co-author of the essay “A.I. as Normal Technology”, on whether A.I. is an alien mind or closer to past technologies.