Conversations with far-sighted thinkers.
Featuring researchers, philosophers, and experts on technology, existential risks, and our shared future.
Featured episodes
Welcome to the Future of Life Institute Podcast, hosted by Gus Docker. Each week, we explore humanity's greatest challenges through conversations with leading researchers, philosophers, and experts.
This podcast examines the complex intersection of emerging technologies, existential risks, and our shared future. We dive into critical topics including artificial intelligence safety, biotechnology, climate change, and the long-term survival and flourishing of humanity.
Gus brings thoughtful curiosity to each interview, creating space for nuanced discussions that balance scientific precision with accessible insights. Join us as we explore how to navigate the unprecedented risks and opportunities of our time, and work toward a beneficial future for all life.
Latest episodes
What Markets Tell Us About AI Timelines (with Basil Halperin)
Basil Halperin discusses how financial markets and economic indicators, such as interest rates, can provide insights into AI development timelines and the potential economic impact of transformative AI.
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Reasoning, Robots, and How to Prepare for AGI (with Benjamin Todd)
Benjamin Todd discusses the evolution of reasoning models in AI, potential bottlenecks in compute and robotics, and offers advice on personal preparation for AGI, including skills, networks, and resilience, with projections through 2030.
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From Peak Horse to Peak Human: How AI Could Replace Us (with Calum Chace)
Calum Chace discusses the potential for AI to transform employment, exploring universal income, fully-automated economies, AI-driven education, and the ethical challenges of attributing consciousness to machines.
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How AI Could Help Overthrow Governments (with Tom Davidson)
Tom Davidson discusses the risks of AI-enabled coups, examining how advanced artificial intelligence could facilitate covert power grabs, alter democratic processes, and outlining strategies to mitigate these emerging threats.
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Preparing for an AI Economy (with Daniel Susskind)
Daniel Susskind discusses the differing perspectives of AI researchers and economists, the measurement of AI's economic impact, the influence of human values, the future of work, commercial incentives in AI, and changes in education.
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Will AI Companies Respect Creators' Rights? (with Ed Newton-Rex)
Ed Newton-Rex discusses the challenges of AI models trained on copyrighted material, his resignation from Stability AI, and the future of creator rights and authenticity in an AI-driven world.
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AI Timelines and Human Psychology (with Sarah Hastings-Woodhouse)
Sarah Hastings-Woodhouse discusses AI benchmarks, development trajectories, current and future capabilities, alignment issues, AGI plans, and the psychological impact of rapid technological change on long-term planning.
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Could Powerful AI Break Our Fragile World? (with Michael Nielsen)
Michael Nielsen discusses the dual-use nature of scientific understanding, challenges in governing advanced AI, recognizing dangerous AI, and philosophical perspectives on deep atheism and optimistic cosmism.
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Will Future AIs Be Conscious? (with Jeff Sebo)
Jeff Sebo discusses the possibility of artificial consciousness, the challenges of measuring it, and the ethical implications for AI rights and risk, exploring both intuitive and intellectual perspectives on these issues.
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Understanding AI Agents: Time Horizons, Sycophancy, and Future Risks (with Zvi Mowshowitz)
Zvi Mowshowitz discusses sycophantic AI behavior, bottlenecks in autonomous agents, the usefulness of benchmarks, time horizons, automation in research, compute constraints, and the broader risks and impacts of AI on society and financial trading.
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Inside China's AI Strategy: Innovation, Diffusion, and US Relations (with Jeffrey Ding)
Jeffrey Ding discusses the diffusion and innovation of AI, US-China relations in AI development, Chinese perspectives on AI safety, and the impact of translating Chinese AI research to bridge global knowledge gaps.
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How Will We Cooperate with AIs? (with Allison Duettmann)
On this episode, Allison Duettmann joins me to discuss centralized versus decentralized AI, how international governance could shape AI's trajectory, how we might cooperate with future AIs, and the role of AI in improving human decision-making.
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