# 2022 (and All Time) Posts by Pingback Count

For the past couple years I've wished LessWrong had a "sort posts by number of pingbacks, or, ideally, by total karma of pingbacks". I particularly wished for this during the Annual Review, where "which posts got cited the most?" seemed like a useful thing to track for potential hidden gems.

We still haven't built a full-fledged feature for this, but I just ran a query against the database, and made it into a spreadsheet, which you can view here:

[LessWrong 2022 Posts by Pingbacks](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZxFOXeKQof2bBwnB5zKrvulgFHeM71I7FgtIPv68czc)

Here are the top 100 posts, sorted by Total Pingback Karma

| `**Title/Link**` | `**Post Karma**` | `**Pingback Count**` | `**Total Pingback Karma**` | `**Avg Pingback Karma**` |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [`AGI Ruin: A List of Lethalities`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/uMQ3cqWDPHhjtiesc/agi-ruin-a-list-of-lethalities) | 870 | 158 | 12,484 | 79  |
| [`MIRI announces new "Death With Dignity" strategy`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/j9Q8bRmwCgXRYAgcJ/miri-announces-new-death-with-dignity-strategy) | 334 | 73  | 8,134 | 111 |
| [`A central AI alignment problem: capabilities generalization, and the sharp left turn`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/GNhMPAWcfBCASy8e6/a-central-ai-alignment-problem-capabilities-generalization) | 273 | 96  | 7,704 | 80  |
| [`Simulators`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/vJFdjigzmcXMhNTsx/simulators) | 612 | 127 | 7,699 | 61  |
| [`Without specific countermeasures, the easiest path to transformative AI likely leads to AI takeover`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/pRkFkzwKZ2zfa3R6H/without-specific-countermeasures-the-easiest-path-to) | 367 | 83  | 5,123 | 62  |
| [`Reward is not the optimization target`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/pdaGN6pQyQarFHXF4/reward-is-not-the-optimization-target) | 341 | 62  | 4,493 | 72  |
| [`A Mechanistic Interpretability Analysis of Grokking`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/N6WM6hs7RQMKDhYjB/a-mechanistic-interpretability-analysis-of-grokking) | 367 | 48  | 3,450 | 72  |
| [`How To Go From Interpretability To Alignment: Just Retarget The Search`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/w4aeAFzSAguvqA5qu/how-to-go-from-interpretability-to-alignment-just-retarget) | 167 | 45  | 3,374 | 75  |
| [`On how various plans miss the hard bits of the alignment challenge`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/3pinFH3jerMzAvmza/on-how-various-plans-miss-the-hard-bits-of-the-alignment) | 292 | 40  | 3,288 | 82  |
| [`[Intro to brain-like-AGI safety] 3. Two subsystems: Learning & Steering`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/hE56gYi5d68uux9oM/intro-to-brain-like-agi-safety-3-two-subsystems-learning-and) | 79  | 36  | 3,023 | 84  |
| [`How likely is deceptive alignment?`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/A9NxPTwbw6r6Awuwt/how-likely-is-deceptive-alignment) | 101 | 47  | 2,907 | 62  |
| [`The shard theory of human values`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/iCfdcxiyr2Kj8m8mT/the-shard-theory-of-human-values) | 238 | 42  | 2,843 | 68  |
| [`Mysteries of mode collapse`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/t9svvNPNmFf5Qa3TA/mysteries-of-mode-collapse) | 279 | 32  | 2,842 | 89  |
| [`[Intro to brain-like-AGI safety] 2. “Learning from scratch” in the brain`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/wBHSYwqssBGCnwvHg/intro-to-brain-like-agi-safety-2-learning-from-scratch-in) | 57  | 30  | 2,731 | 91  |
| [`Why Agent Foundations? An Overly Abstract Explanation`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/FWvzwCDRgcjb9sigb/why-agent-foundations-an-overly-abstract-explanation) | 285 | 42  | 2,730 | 65  |
| [`A Longlist of Theories of Impact for Interpretability`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/uK6sQCNMw8WKzJeCQ/a-longlist-of-theories-of-impact-for-interpretability) | 124 | 26  | 2,589 | 100 |
| [`How might we align transformative AI if it’s developed very soon?`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/rCJQAkPTEypGjSJ8X/how-might-we-align-transformative-ai-if-it-s-developed-very) | 136 | 32  | 2,351 | 73  |
| [`A transparency and interpretability tech tree`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/nbq2bWLcYmSGup9aF/a-transparency-and-interpretability-tech-tree) | 148 | 31  | 2,343 | 76  |
| [`Discovering Language Model Behaviors with Model-Written Evaluations`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/yRAo2KEGWenKYZG9K/discovering-language-model-behaviors-with-model-written) | 100 | 19  | 2,336 | 123 |
| [`A note about differential technological development`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/vQNJrJqebXEWjJfnz/a-note-about-differential-technological-development) | 185 | 20  | 2,270 | 114 |
| [`Causal Scrubbing: a method for rigorously testing interpretability hypotheses [Redwood Research]`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/JvZhhzycHu2Yd57RN/causal-scrubbing-a-method-for-rigorously-testing) | 195 | 35  | 2,267 | 65  |
| [`Supervise Process, not Outcomes`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/pYcFPMBtQveAjcSfH/supervise-process-not-outcomes) | 132 | 25  | 2,262 | 90  |
| [`Shard Theory: An Overview`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/xqkGmfikqapbJ2YMj/shard-theory-an-overview) | 157 | 28  | 2,019 | 72  |
| [`Epistemological Vigilance for Alignment`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/72scWeZRta2ApsKja/epistemological-vigilance-for-alignment) | 61  | 21  | 2,008 | 96  |
| [`A shot at the diamond-alignment problem`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/k4AQqboXz8iE5TNXK/a-shot-at-the-diamond-alignment-problem) | 92  | 23  | 1,848 | 80  |
| [`Where I agree and disagree with Eliezer`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/CoZhXrhpQxpy9xw9y/where-i-agree-and-disagree-with-eliezer) | 862 | 27  | 1,836 | 68  |
| [`Brain Efficiency: Much More than You Wanted to Know`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/xwBuoE9p8GE7RAuhd/brain-efficiency-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know) | 201 | 27  | 1,807 | 67  |
| [`Refine: An Incubator for Conceptual Alignment Research Bets`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/D7epkkJb3CqDTYgX9/refine-an-incubator-for-conceptual-alignment-research-bets) | 143 | 21  | 1,793 | 85  |
| [`Externalized reasoning oversight: a research direction for language model alignment`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/FRRb6Gqem8k69ocbi/externalized-reasoning-oversight-a-research-direction-for) | 117 | 28  | 1,788 | 64  |
| [`Humans provide an untapped wealth of evidence about alignment`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/CjFZeDD6iCnNubDoS/humans-provide-an-untapped-wealth-of-evidence-about) | 186 | 19  | 1,647 | 87  |
| [`Six Dimensions of Operational Adequacy in AGI Projects`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/keiYkaeoLHoKK4LYA/six-dimensions-of-operational-adequacy-in-agi-projects) | 298 | 20  | 1,607 | 80  |
| [`How "Discovering Latent Knowledge in Language Models Without Supervision" Fits Into a Broader Alignment Scheme`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/L4anhrxjv8j2yRKKp/how-discovering-latent-knowledge-in-language-models-without) | 240 | 16  | 1,575 | 98  |
| [`Godzilla Strategies`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/DwqgLXn5qYC7GqExF/godzilla-strategies) | 137 | 17  | 1,573 | 93  |
| [`(My understanding of) What Everyone in Technical Alignment is Doing and Why`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/QBAjndPuFbhEXKcCr/my-understanding-of-what-everyone-in-technical-alignment-is) | 411 | 23  | 1,530 | 67  |
| [`Two-year update on my personal AI timelines`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/AfH2oPHCApdKicM4m/two-year-update-on-my-personal-ai-timelines) | 287 | 18  | 1,530 | 85  |
| [`[Intro to brain-like-AGI safety] 15. Conclusion: Open problems, how to help, AMA`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/tj8AC3vhTnBywdZoA/intro-to-brain-like-agi-safety-15-conclusion-open-problems-1) | 90  | 16  | 1,482 | 93  |
| [`[Intro to brain-like-AGI safety] 6. Big picture of motivation, decision-making, and RL`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/qNZSBqLEh4qLRqgWW/intro-to-brain-like-agi-safety-6-big-picture-of-motivation) | 66  | 25  | 1,460 | 58  |
| [`Human values & biases are inaccessible to the genome`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/CQAMdzA4MZEhNRtTp/human-values-and-biases-are-inaccessible-to-the-genome) | 90  | 14  | 1,450 | 104 |
| [`You Are Not Measuring What You Think You Are Measuring`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/9kNxhKWvixtKW5anS/you-are-not-measuring-what-you-think-you-are-measuring) | 350 | 21  | 1,449 | 69  |
| [`Open Problems in AI X-Risk [PAIS #5]`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/5HtDzRAk7ePWsiL2L/open-problems-in-ai-x-risk-pais-5) | 59  | 14  | 1,446 | 103 |
| [`[Intro to brain-like-AGI safety] 1. What's the problem & Why work on it now?`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/4basF9w9jaPZpoC8R/intro-to-brain-like-agi-safety-1-what-s-the-problem-and-why) | 146 | 25  | 1,407 | 56  |
| [`Conditioning Generative Models`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/nXeLPcT9uhfG3TMPS/conditioning-generative-models) | 24  | 11  | 1,362 | 124 |
| [`Conjecture: Internal Infohazard Policy`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/Gs29k3beHiqWFZqnn/conjecture-internal-infohazard-policy) | 132 | 14  | 1,340 | 96  |
| [`A challenge for AGI organizations, and a challenge for readers`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/tD9zEiHfkvakpnNam/a-challenge-for-agi-organizations-and-a-challenge-for-1) | 299 | 18  | 1,336 | 74  |
| [`Superintelligent AI is necessary for an amazing future, but far from sufficient`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/HoQ5Rp7Gs6rebusNP/superintelligent-ai-is-necessary-for-an-amazing-future-but-1) | 132 | 11  | 1,335 | 121 |
| [`Optimality is the tiger, and agents are its teeth`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/kpPnReyBC54KESiSn/optimality-is-the-tiger-and-agents-are-its-teeth) | 288 | 14  | 1,319 | 94  |
| [`Let’s think about slowing down AI`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/uFNgRumrDTpBfQGrs/let-s-think-about-slowing-down-ai) | 522 | 17  | 1,273 | 75  |
| [`Niceness is unnatural`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/krHDNc7cDvfEL8z9a/niceness-is-unnatural) | 121 | 12  | 1,263 | 105 |
| [`Announcing the Alignment of Complex Systems Research Group`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/H5iGhDhQBtoDpCBZ2/announcing-the-alignment-of-complex-systems-research-group) | 91  | 11  | 1,247 | 113 |
| [`[Intro to brain-like-AGI safety] 13. Symbol grounding & human social instincts`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/5F5Tz3u6kJbTNMqsb/intro-to-brain-like-agi-safety-13-symbol-grounding-and-human) | 67  | 23  | 1,243 | 54  |
| [`ELK prize results`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/zjMKpSB2Xccn9qi5t/elk-prize-results) | 135 | 17  | 1,235 | 73  |
| [`Abstractions as Redundant Information`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/vvEebH5jEvxnJEvBC/abstractions-as-redundant-information) | 64  | 18  | 1,216 | 68  |
| [`[Link] A minimal viable product for alignment`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/fYf9JAwa6BYMt8GBj/link-a-minimal-viable-product-for-alignment) | 53  | 12  | 1,184 | 99  |
| [`Acceptability Verification: A Research Agenda`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/GeabLEXYP7oBMivmF/acceptability-verification-a-research-agenda) | 50  | 11  | 1,182 | 107 |
| [`What an actually pessimistic containment strategy looks like`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/kipMvuaK3NALvFHc9/what-an-actually-pessimistic-containment-strategy-looks-like) | 647 | 16  | 1,168 | 73  |
| [`Let's See You Write That Corrigibility Tag`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/AqsjZwxHNqH64C2b6/let-s-see-you-write-that-corrigibility-tag) | 120 | 10  | 1,161 | 116 |
| [`chinchilla's wild implications`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/6Fpvch8RR29qLEWNH/chinchilla-s-wild-implications) | 403 | 18  | 1,151 | 64  |
| [`Worlds Where Iterative Design Fails`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/xFotXGEotcKouifky/worlds-where-iterative-design-fails) | 185 | 17  | 1,122 | 66  |
| [`why assume AGIs will optimize for fixed goals?`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/dKTh9Td3KaJ8QW6gw/why-assume-agis-will-optimize-for-fixed-goals) | 138 | 14  | 1,103 | 79  |
| [`Gradient hacking: definitions and examples`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/EeAgytDZbDjRznPMA/gradient-hacking-definitions-and-examples) | 38  | 11  | 1,079 | 98  |
| [`Contra shard theory, in the context of the diamond maximizer problem`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/Aet2mbnK7GDDfrEQu/contra-shard-theory-in-the-context-of-the-diamond-maximizer) | 101 | 6   | 1,073 | 179 |
| [`We Are Conjecture, A New Alignment Research Startup`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/jfq2BH5kfQqu2vYv3/we-are-conjecture-a-new-alignment-research-startup) | 197 | 8   | 1,050 | 131 |
| [`Circumventing interpretability: How to defeat mind-readers`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/EhAbh2pQoAXkm9yor/circumventing-interpretability-how-to-defeat-mind-readers) | 109 | 11  | 1,047 | 95  |
| [`Evolution is a bad analogy for AGI: inner alignment`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/FyChg3kYG54tEN3u6/evolution-is-a-bad-analogy-for-agi-inner-alignment) | 73  | 7   | 1,043 | 149 |
| [`Refining the Sharp Left Turn threat model, part 1: claims and mechanisms`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/usKXS5jGDzjwqv3FJ/refining-the-sharp-left-turn-threat-model-part-1-claims-and) | 82  | 8   | 1,042 | 130 |
| [`MATS Models`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/nvP28s5oydv8RjF9E/mats-models) | 86  | 8   | 1,035 | 129 |
| [`Common misconceptions about OpenAI`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/3S4nyoNEEuvNsbXt8/common-misconceptions-about-openai) | 239 | 11  | 1,028 | 93  |
| [`Prizes for ELK proposals`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/QEYWkRoCn4fZxXQAY/prizes-for-elk-proposals) | 143 | 20  | 1,022 | 51  |
| [`Current themes in mechanistic interpretability research`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/Jgs7LQwmvErxR9BCC/current-themes-in-mechanistic-interpretability-research) | 88  | 9   | 1,014 | 113 |
| [`Discovering Agents`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/XxX2CAoFskuQNkBDy/discovering-agents) | 71  | 13  | 994 | 76  |
| [`[Intro to brain-like-AGI safety] 12. Two paths forward: “Controlled AGI” and “Social-instinct AGI”`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/Sd4QvG4ZyjynZuHGt/intro-to-brain-like-agi-safety-12-two-paths-forward) | 42  | 15  | 992 | 66  |
| [`What's General-Purpose Search, And Why Might We Expect To See It In Trained ML Systems?`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/6mysMAqvo9giHC4iX/what-s-general-purpose-search-and-why-might-we-expect-to-see) | 118 | 24  | 988 | 41  |
| [`Inner and outer alignment decompose one hard problem into two extremely hard problems`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/gHefoxiznGfsbiAu9/inner-and-outer-alignment-decompose-one-hard-problem-into) | 115 | 17  | 959 | 56  |
| [`Threat Model Literature Review`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/wnnkD6P2k2TfHnNmt/threat-model-literature-review) | 73  | 13  | 953 | 73  |
| [`Language models seem to be much better than humans at next-token prediction`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/htrZrxduciZ5QaCjw/language-models-seem-to-be-much-better-than-humans-at-next) | 172 | 11  | 952 | 87  |
| [`Will Capabilities Generalise More?`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/cq5x4XDnLcBrYbb66/will-capabilities-generalise-more) | 122 | 7   | 952 | 136 |
| [`Pivotal outcomes and pivotal processes`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/etNJcXCsKC6izQQZj/pivotal-outcomes-and-pivotal-processes) | 91  | 8   | 938 | 117 |
| [`Conditioning Generative Models for Alignment`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/JqnkeqaPseTgxLgEL/conditioning-generative-models-for-alignment) | 56  | 9   | 934 | 104 |
| [`Training goals for large language models`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/dWJNFHnC4bkdbovug/training-goals-for-large-language-models) | 28  | 9   | 930 | 103 |
| [`It’s Probably Not Lithium`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/7iAABhWpcGeP5e6SB/it-s-probably-not-lithium) | 441 | 5   | 929 | 186 |
| [`Latent Adversarial Training`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/atBQ3NHyqnBadrsGP/latent-adversarial-training) | 40  | 11  | 914 | 83  |
| [`“Pivotal Act” Intentions: Negative Consequences and Fallacious Arguments`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/Jo89KvfAs9z7owoZp/pivotal-act-intentions-negative-consequences-and-fallacious) | 129 | 11  | 913 | 83  |
| [`Conditioning Generative Models with Restrictions`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/adiszfnFgPEnRsGSr/conditioning-generative-models-with-restrictions) | 18  | 5   | 913 | 183 |
| [`The alignment problem from a deep learning perspective`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/KbyRPCAsWv5GtfrbG/the-alignment-problem-from-a-deep-learning-perspective) | 97  | 8   | 910 | 114 |
| [`Instead of technical research, more people should focus on buying time`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/BbM47qBPzdSRruY4z/instead-of-technical-research-more-people-should-focus-on) | 100 | 15  | 904 | 60  |
| [`By Default, GPTs Think In Plain Sight`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/bwyKCQD7PFWKhELMr/by-default-gpts-think-in-plain-sight) | 84  | 9   | 903 | 100 |
| [`[Intro to brain-like-AGI safety] 4. The “short-term predictor”`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/Y3bkJ59j4dciiLYyw/intro-to-brain-like-agi-safety-4-the-short-term-predictor) | 64  | 16  | 890 | 56  |
| [`Don't leave your fingerprints on the future`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/DJRe5obJd7kqCkvRr/don-t-leave-your-fingerprints-on-the-future) | 109 | 11  | 890 | 81  |
| [`Strategy For Conditioning Generative Models`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/HAz7apopTzozrqW2k/strategy-for-conditioning-generative-models) | 31  | 5   | 883 | 177 |
| [`Call For Distillers`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/zo9zKcz47JxDErFzQ/call-for-distillers) | 204 | 19  | 878 | 46  |
| [`Thoughts on AGI organizations and capabilities work`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/tuwwLQT4wqk25ndxk/thoughts-on-agi-organizations-and-capabilities-work) | 102 | 5   | 871 | 174 |
| [`Optimization at a Distance`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/d2n74bwham8motxyX/optimization-at-a-distance) | 87  | 9   | 868 | 96  |
| [`[Intro to brain-like-AGI safety] 5. The “long-term predictor”, and TD learning`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/F759WQ8iKjqBncDki/intro-to-brain-like-agi-safety-5-the-long-term-predictor-and) | 52  | 17  | 859 | 51  |
| [`What does it take to defend the world against out-of-control AGIs?`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/LFNXiQuGrar3duBzJ/what-does-it-take-to-defend-the-world-against-out-of-control) | 180 | 11  | 853 | 78  |
| [`Monitoring for deceptive alignment`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/Km9sHjHTsBdbgwKyi/monitoring-for-deceptive-alignment) | 135 | 11  | 851 | 77  |
| [`Late 2021 MIRI Conversations: AMA / Discussion`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/34Gkqus9vusXRevR8/late-2021-miri-conversations-ama-discussion) | 119 | 8   | 849 | 106 |
| [`How to Diversify Conceptual Alignment: the Model Behind Refine`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/5uiQkyKdejX3aEHLM/how-to-diversify-conceptual-alignment-the-model-behind) | 87  | 27  | 845 | 31  |
| [`wrapper-minds are the enemy`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/Mrz2srZWc7EzbADSo/wrapper-minds-are-the-enemy) | 103 | 8   | 833 | 104 |
| [`But is it really in Rome? An investigation of the ROME model editing technique`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/QL7J9wmS6W2fWpofd/but-is-it-really-in-rome-an-investigation-of-the-rome-model) | 102 | 8   | 833 | 104 |
| [`An Open Agency Architecture for Safe Transformative AI`](https://lesswrong.com/posts/pKSmEkSQJsCSTK6nH/an-open-agency-architecture-for-safe-transformative-ai) | 74  | 12  | 831 | 69  |