korrents

korrents · piece

I wrote an AI textbook — how long until AI can do it better?

Nathan Lambert · 12 Aug 2026 · interconnects.ai ↗

3 korrents from this piece

Nathan Lambert did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    Progress toward AI autonomously solving major open scientific problems requires first mastering the organization and presentation of established knowledge in long-form writing.

    Their wordsModels being stagnant in long-form, non-fiction writing should be alarming to those reliant on models autonomously solving grand, open science problems in the near future.

  2. Our reading

    Using AI agents to do a task does not by itself increase a person's own pace of understanding, intuition, or taste for that work.

    Their wordsSomething intertwined with this story, which I stumbled upon when thinking about agents, is how your pace of understanding won't increase by using agents.

  3. Our reading

    The best textbooks will continue to be predominantly written by human hand rather than AI for at least the next several years.

    Their wordsSo, in 2-5 years I still expect the best textbooks to be heavily crafted by the human hand.