Transformer | Substack

The “guerilla warrior” who taught OpenAI to fight

Chris Lehane crushed crypto’s enemies. Now the self-described “master of disaster” is deploying the same playbook to advance OpenAI’s interests

15 hrs ago

OpenAI’s Pentagon red lines are a mirage

OpenAI claims its DoW deal prevents its models being used for mass domestic surveillance. That appears to be misleading at best

Mar 2 • Shakeel Hashim

The end of voluntary pauses

Transformer Weekly: Anthropic vs the Pentagon, Trump’s power pledge, and Meta’s chip deals

Feb 27 • Shakeel Hashim, Veronica Irwin, and Celia Ford

How worried should we be about AI biorisk?

The barriers to bioattacks are hard to identify — and it's even harder to know whether AI is reducing them

Feb 26 • Celia Ford

The DoD fight is about much more than Anthropic

Are Google and OpenAI prepared to enable mass state surveillance?

Feb 24 • Shakeel Hashim

The power and politics of transformative AI.

Policy

Why we need a moratorium on superintelligence research

Opinion: As the AI community gathers in India, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath argues that the UK must spearhead a pause on the development of the world’s most…

Feb 17

Alex Bores wants to fix Dems’ AI problem

Transformer Weekly: Anthropic’s political donations, energy bills policy, and an xAI exodus

Feb 13 • Veronica Irwin, Celia Ford, and Shakeel Hashim

India’s AI summit is trying to do too much

The AI Impact Summit has an ambitious agenda — but its lack of focus makes concrete results unlikely

Feb 11 • Shakeel Hashim

The tech non-profit sending most of its money to the consultancy that created it

Political consultancy Targeted Victory established a non-profit called American Resolve — which appears to be a channel for funding Targeted Victory…

Jan 29 • Shakeel Hashim

Industry

The “guerilla warrior” who taught OpenAI to fight

Chris Lehane crushed crypto’s enemies. Now the self-described “master of disaster” is deploying the same playbook to advance OpenAI’s interests

15 hrs ago

OpenAI’s Pentagon red lines are a mirage

OpenAI claims its DoW deal prevents its models being used for mass domestic surveillance. That appears to be misleading at best

Mar 2 • Shakeel Hashim

The DoD fight is about much more than Anthropic

Are Google and OpenAI prepared to enable mass state surveillance?

Feb 24 • Shakeel Hashim

AI workers are speaking out about the Minnesota killing

Employees of Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic are publicly criticizing the Trump administration after Saturday’s shooting — but their bosses are…

Jan 26 • Shakeel Hashim

Capabilities + Risks

How worried should we be about AI biorisk?

The barriers to bioattacks are hard to identify — and it's even harder to know whether AI is reducing them

Feb 26 • Celia Ford

Transformer Weekly: New models, a Super Bowl ad fight, and Obernolte’s being sidelined

Feb 6 • Shakeel Hashim, Celia Ford, and Veronica Irwin

Moltbook isn’t an AI zoo. It’s an unsecured AI biolab

OpenClaw is a security nightmare — but people can’t stop using it

Feb 3 • Celia Ford

Against the METR graph

METR’s benchmark has become a bellwether of AI capability growth, but its design isn’t up to the task, argues Nathan Witkin

Jan 20 • Nathan Witkin

Society

AI power users can't stop grinding

AI was meant to give us more time off, but instead many are finding it compels them to take on more and more work

Feb 18 • Celia Ford

The left is missing out on AI

As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with AI, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right

Feb 16 • Dan Kagan-Kans

Why the AI industry can’t resist dirty on-site gas turbines

Expect others to follow in Elon Musk’s footsteps — there’s a logic to on-site gas power that the industry is unlikely to reject

Feb 12 • James Ball

A false choice risks undermining action on autonomous weapons

Opinion: Alexander Blanchard of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute argues that nations must embrace nuance if they’re to effectively…

Jan 27

Opinion

Why we need a moratorium on superintelligence research

Opinion: As the AI community gathers in India, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath argues that the UK must spearhead a pause on the development of the world’s most…

Feb 17

A false choice risks undermining action on autonomous weapons

Opinion: Alexander Blanchard of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute argues that nations must embrace nuance if they’re to effectively…

Jan 27

How the Catholic Church thinks about superintelligence

Opinion: Paolo Benanti, AI advisor to the Vatican and a professor of moral philosophy, argues that there is a moral imperative to ensure that artificial…

Dec 22, 2025

How China’s AI diffusion plan could backfire

Opinion: Scott Singer argues that the country’s plan to embed AI across all facets of society could create huge growth — and accelerate social unrest

Dec 3, 2025

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