Future of Life Institute Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Connor Leahy on Aliens, Ethics, Economics, Memetics, and Education Feb 02, 2023

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Connor Leahy from Conjecture joins the podcast for a lightning round on a variety of topics ranging from aliens to education. Learn more about Connor's work at https://conjecture.dev Social Media Links: ➡️ WEBSITE: https://futureoflife.org ➡️ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/FLIxrisk ➡️ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/futureoflifeinstitute/ ➡️ META: https://www.facebook.com/futureoflifeinstitute ➡️ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/future-of-life-institute/

Connor Leahy on AI Safety and Why the World is Fragile Jan 26, 2023

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Connor Leahy from Conjecture joins the podcast to discuss AI safety, the fragility of the world, slowing down AI development, regulating AI, and the optimal funding model for AI safety research. Learn more about Connor's work at https://conjecture.dev Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:47 What is the best way to understand AI safety? 09:50 Why is the world relatively stable? 15:18 Is the main worry human misuse of AI? 22:47 Can humanity solve AI safety? 30:06 Can we slow down AI development? 37:13 How should governments regulate AI? 41:09 How do we avoid misallocating AI safety government grants? 51:02 Should AI safety research be done by for-profit companies? Social Media Links: ➡️ WEBSITE: https://futureoflife.org ➡️ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/FLIxrisk ➡️ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/futureoflifeinstitute/ ➡️ META: https://www.facebook.com/futureoflifeinstitute ➡️ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/future-of-life-institute/

Connor Leahy on AI Progress, Chimps, Memes, and Markets Jan 19, 2023

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Connor Leahy from Conjecture joins the podcast to discuss AI progress, chimps, memes, and markets. Learn more about Connor's work at https://conjecture.dev Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:00 Defining artificial general intelligence 04:52 What makes humans more powerful than chimps? 17:23 Would AIs have to be social to be intelligent? 20:29 Importing humanity's memes into AIs 23:07 How do we measure progress in AI? 42:39 Gut feelings about AI progress 47:29 Connor's predictions about AGI 52:44 Is predicting AGI soon betting against the market? 57:43 How accurate are prediction markets about AGI?

Sean Ekins on Regulating AI Drug Discovery Jan 12, 2023

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On this special episode of the podcast, Emilia Javorsky interviews Sean Ekins about regulating AI drug discovery. Timestramps: 00:00 Introduction 00:31 Ethical guidelines and regulation of AI drug discovery 06:11 How do we balance innovation and safety in AI drug discovery? 13:12 Keeping dangerous chemical data safe 21:16 Sean’s personal story of voicing concerns about AI drug discovery 32:06 How Sean will continue working on AI drug discovery

Sean Ekins on the Dangers of AI Drug Discovery Jan 05, 2023

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On this special episode of the podcast, Emilia Javorsky interviews Sean Ekins about the dangers of AI drug discovery. They talk about how Sean discovered an extremely toxic chemical (VX) by reversing an AI drug discovery algorithm. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:46 Sean’s professional journey 03:45 Can computational models replace animal models? 07:24 The risks of AI drug discovery 12:48 Should scientists disclose dangerous discoveries? 19:40 How should scientists handle dual-use technologies? 22:08 Should we open-source potentially dangerous discoveries? 26:20 How do we control autonomous drug creation? 31:36 Surprising chemical discoveries made by black-box AI systems 36:56 How could the dangers of AI drug discovery be mitigated?

Anders Sandberg on the Value of the Future Dec 29, 2022

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Anders Sandberg joins the podcast to discuss various philosophical questions about the value of the future. Learn more about Anders' work: https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:54 Humanity as an immature teenager 04:24 How should we respond to our values changing over time? 18:53 How quickly should we change our values? 24:58 Are there limits to what future morality could become? 29:45 Could the universe contain infinite value? 36:00 How do we balance weird philosophy with common sense? 41:36 Lightning round: mind uploading, aliens, interstellar travel, cryonics

Anders Sandberg on Grand Futures and the Limits of Physics Dec 22, 2022

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Anders Sandberg joins the podcast to discuss how big the future could be and what humanity could achieve at the limits of physics. Learn more about Anders' work: https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:58 Does it make sense to write long books now? 06:53 Is it possible to understand all of science now? 10:44 What is exploratory engineering? 15:48 Will humanity develop a completed science? 21:18 How much of possible technology has humanity already invented? 25:22 Which sciences have made the most progress? 29:11 How materially wealthy could humanity become? 39:34 Does a grand futures depend on space travel? 49:16 Trade between proponents of different moral theories 53:13 How does physics limit our ethical options? 55:24 How much could our understanding of physics change? 1:02:30 The next episode

Anders Sandberg on ChatGPT and the Future of AI Dec 15, 2022

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Anders Sandberg from The Future of Humanity Institute joins the podcast to discuss ChatGPT, large language models, and what he's learned about the risks and benefits of AI. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:40 ChatGPT 06:33 Will AI continue to surprise us? 16:22 How do language models fail? 24:23 Language models trained on their own output 27:29 Can language models write college-level essays? 35:03 Do language models understand anything? 39:59 How will AI models improve in the future? 43:26 AI safety in light of recent AI progress 51:28 AIs should be uncertain about values

Vincent Boulanin on Military Use of Artificial Intelligence Dec 08, 2022

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Vincent Boulanin joins the podcast to explain how modern militaries use AI, including in nuclear weapons systems. Learn more about Vincent's work: https://sipri.org Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:45 Categorizing risks from AI and nuclear 07:40 AI being used by non-state actors 12:57 Combining AI with nuclear technology 15:13 A human should remain in the loop 25:05 Automation bias 29:58 Information requirements for nuclear launch decisions 35:22 Vincent's general conclusion about military machine learning 37:22 Specific policy measures for decreasing nuclear risk Social Media Links: ➡️ WEBSITE: https://futureoflife.org ➡️ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/FLIxrisk ➡️ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/futureoflifeinstitute/ ➡️ META: https://www.facebook.com/futureoflifeinstitute ➡️ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/future-of-life-institute/

Vincent Boulanin on the Dangers of AI in Nuclear Weapons Systems Dec 01, 2022

Show notes

Vincent Boulanin joins the podcast to explain the dangers of incorporating artificial intelligence in nuclear weapons systems. Learn more about Vincent's work: https://sipri.org Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:55 What is strategic stability? 02:45 How can AI be a positive factor in nuclear risk? 10:17 Remote sensing of nuclear submarines 19:50 Using AI in nuclear command and control 24:21 How does AI change the game theory of nuclear war? 30:49 How could AI cause an accidental nuclear escalation? 36:57 How could AI cause an inadvertent nuclear escalation? 43:08 What is the most important problem in AI nuclear risk? 44:39 The next episode

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