substack.com

Open Thread 424

2026-03-09 · 13:24 UTC ·Astral Codex Ten ·3 min read

Brief

Open Thread 424 (Astral Codex Ten, published March 9, 2026) is a weekly community post by Scott Alexander that aggregates announcements and local events. Key items: a March 21, 2026 StopTheRace.ai protest aims to push major AI firms toward an explicit ‘mutual pause’ on research (Demis Hassabis has given informal support in principle; Anthropic’s new policy signals interest but not an explicit pledge). ACX-funded researcher Markus Englund announces first results from an automated anomaly-detection pipeline for scientific data, uncovering serious, reportable issues in 18 papers — including a high-profile Parkinson’s–gut link — and intends to expand capacity by over tenfold in the coming year. The thread also promotes Mox’s 2026 fundraiser for its San Francisco coworking space, which supports ACX meetups, AI-safety projects, and offers discounts on personal and organizational office space.

Cleaned source text

͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­͏ ­

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more

Open Thread 424

Mar 9

READ IN APP

This is the weekly visible open thread. Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. ACX has an unofficial subreddit, Discord, and bulletin board, and in-person meetups around the world. Most content is free, some is subscriber only; you can subscribe here. Also:

1: Mox asks me to advertise their 2026 fundraiser. They’re a rationalist/EA coworking space in San Francisco that hosts ACX meetups, ACX grants infrastructure, AI safety work, and more. And while I’m advertising them, they also offer deals on personal and organizational office space.

2:StopTheRace.ai will be holding a protest on Saturday, March 21 in front of major AI company offices, asking them to commit to a mutual pause (ie to stop AI research if every other AI company in the world agrees to do so). Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind has already informally agreed to something like this in principle (which is why GDM isn’t being protested), and Anthropic has expressed interest but its new responsible scaling policy stops short of an explicit commitment. I think this is a reasonable ask, albeit so unlikely to happen that protests about it will probably do more to raise awareness than be a coherent plan in themselves. If you’re curious about the details of an AI pause, I expect to be able to provide more information in a few months.

3: ACX grantee Markus Englund announces a first set of results from his project to automate anomaly detection in scientific data, finding serious and reportable data issues in eighteen papers, including an influential study linking Parkinson’s to the gut. He plans to scale up his efforts by over an order of magnitude in the year ahead.

You're currently a free subscriber to Astral Codex Ten. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.

Upgrade to paid

Share

Like

Comment

Restack

© 2026 Scott Alexander

548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104