Science bottlenecks - coordination

Humans are Missing from AI Coding Agent Research

Recent progress in AI coding agent research has led to rapid improvements in agents' ability to autonomously perform complex software engineering tasks, from editing large codebases to executing long-horizon development workflows. As these systems make strides, however, the primary bottleneck to practical usefulness increasingly shifts away from pure task-solving capability, and toward challenges in how users communicate with, supervise, and trust agents. In this position paper, we argue for a reorientation from autonomous to human-centered coding agents: systems designed not only to complete tasks, but to collaborate effectively with people. We identify four core interaction-level dimensions that characterize the human-agent task-solving loop: task alignment, verifiability, steerability, and adaptability. Finally, we outline concrete research directions to advance these dimensions, including user-involved coding environments, comprehensive verification mechanisms, and principled measures of human-agent interaction quality.

The Decoherence Trap: When AI slop drowns out the signal in an endless sea of noise

Of all the forms of tech debt, decoherence is the worst. It compounds exponentially with a system's rate of change, and AI is now producing it faster than ever, leading us deeper and deeper into the abyss...

Ale×ey on Twitter / X

Funniest possible outcome of new ai math proofs publications would be that explosive progress cannot be delivered through individual genius and singular products but only through contextualized human understanding and embedding of knowledge.— Ale×ey (@EqualParallel) October 7, 2026

Where’s the “intelligence explosion”?

Ramez Naam gives a skeptic’s take on Recursive Self-Improvement.

On the Value of Doing a PhD in the Age of AI

Many students who are just now embarking on a PhD in AI are understandably anxious. It feels like our field is zooming forward ever faster. Our clever methods are often surpassed before they are published. Our deep insights seem less critical to frontier lab progress. AI is automating aspects of the research process that used to require years of specialized training.

AI as Normal Technology

The normal technology frame is about the relationship between technology and society. It rejects technological determinism, especially the notion of AI itself as an agent in determining its future. It is guided by lessons from past technological revolutions, such as the slow and uncertain nature of technology adoption and diffusion. It also emphasizes continuity between the past and the future trajectory of AI in terms of societal impact and the role of institutions in shaping this trajectory.

Nova Scotia’s Experiment in Research That Solves Real Problems

Locally focused research investments enable coalitions of scientists and citizens to serve community needs.

The Ground Truth Institute

Could we engineer scientific revolutions, then spin out radical improvements to everyday life?