All corrections
Substack May 15, 2026 at 05:38 PM

www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-sigmoids-wont-save-you

3 corrections found

1
Claim
AI has been improving dramatically since at least GPT-1 in 2017
Correction

GPT-1 was introduced in 2018, not 2017.

Full reasoning

This sentence dates GPT-1 incorrectly. OpenAI’s own announcement for the original GPT paper, “Improving language understanding with unsupervised learning,” is dated June 11, 2018. That is the GPT-1 release/publication, so referring to "GPT-1 in 2017" is a one-year date error.

2 sources
2
Claim
The various WEO lines are World Energy Organization predictions for how quickly solar power will get deployed.
Correction

"WEO" does not stand for "World Energy Organization." It is the IEA’s "World Energy Outlook" report series.

Full reasoning

This expands the acronym incorrectly. On the IEA’s official site, WEO is the World Energy Outlook, described as the International Energy Agency’s flagship report on global energy analysis and projections. The IEA itself is the International Energy Agency, not a "World Energy Organization." So the article misidentifies what the WEO lines represent.

2 sources
  • World Energy Outlook 2025 – Analysis - IEA

    The IEA’s flagship World Energy Outlook (WEO) is the most authoritative source of global energy analysis and projections.

  • About - IEA

    The International Energy Agency (IEA) works with governments and industry to shape a secure and sustainable energy future for all.

3
Claim
The last technology, ramjets, reached its limit at about 3500 km/h, and there wasn’t the economic/regulatory will to develop anything better, so the record stands.
Correction

About 3,500 km/h is not the air-breathing speed record, and it is not where ramjet/scramjet technology topped out. NASA says the current air-breathing record is the X-43A scramjet at nearly Mach 10.

Full reasoning

This sentence misstates the speed-record history.

NASA says the current world speed record for an air-breathing vehicle was set by the X-43A scramjet at nearly Mach 10 (about 7,000 mph, roughly 11,000 km/h) in 2004. NASA also says the previous air-breathing record was held by a ramjet-powered missile at a little over Mach 5. So ramjet/scramjet technology did not top out at about 3,500 km/h.

If the article meant a speed around 3,500 km/h, that is much closer to the SR-71 record. But NASA describes the SR-71 as the fastest crewed air-breathing vehicle at a little over Mach 3, i.e. a different category from "ramjets reached their limit." In short: the stated limit and record-holder are mismatched to the historical record.

2 sources
  • X-43A Hyper-X - NASA

    During its third and final flight—in which it reached nearly Mach 10—the X-43A flew at approximately 7,000 mph ... setting the current world speed record for an air-breathing vehicle. ... Prior to the 2004 X-43A flights, the previous record had been held by a ramjet-powered missile ... The fastest air-breathing, crewed vehicle, the SR-71, achieved slightly over Mach 3.

  • SR-71 - NASA

    The Blackbirds were designed to cruise at Mach 3.2, just over three times the speed of sound or more than 2,200 miles per hour.

Model: OPENAI_GPT_5 Prompt: v1.16.0