Last week FLF launched a competition “to find the best workflows and methodologies for using AI to produce reliable, trustworthy knowledge bases”. I had (and have ongoing) a substantial role in that effort. Why do I think it's so important? It's a lot of reasons actually! I’ll gesture at a few here.

Conjuring a magic encyclopedia

For now, assume with me that it can be done. Wish away with me the various technical and financial challenges. Great! Now we can rapidly conjure up a deeply, fully researched knowledge base on any topic. All claims point back to who's said them, in what context, and (importantly) with what justifications and evidence (if any). Any quibbles or nuances which have been expressed on a point are similarly readily available. It's not opinionated: all competing viewpoints with their associated justifications are associated and comparable.

That's way, way too much information! Imagine trying to read everything ever about diet or shipping or taxes or microbes. It's not happening. So as well as this, we now magically have tools which gather similar points together, summarise, and can make a decent stab at which points we’ll consider most or least relevant. We can dig deeper [...]

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Outline:

(00:33) Conjuring a magic encyclopedia

(03:11) Who cares?

(06:44) How do we actually help?

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
June 12th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/RyeRYm4FrpqP32a2v/citations-needed-magic-encyclopedias-to-save-the-world

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Diagram showing three-layer epistemic infrastructure stack feeding into Wikipedia-like systems, community notes, and AI advisors.

Infographic showing four categories: individuals, institutions and governments, technologists and scientists, and societies.

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“Citations Needed: Magic Encyclopedias to Save the World” by Oliver Sourbut

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Citations Needed: Magic Encyclopedias to Save the World” by Oliver Sourbut