The people who want AI to replace us
6/12/202649 min
Sean talks with writer Sigal Samuel about AI successionism, the growing movement that sees artificial intelligence as humanity’s rightful successor. They discuss why some people in the AI world think humanity should be replaced, how this vision borrows from old religious ideas about salvation and transcendence, and why artificial intelligence is a dangerous thing to worship.Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling) Guest: Sigal Samuel (@SigalSamuel) Click here to read Sigal’s article on AI successionism. We would love to hear from you. To tell us what you thought of this episode, email us at thegrayarea@vox.com or leave us a voicemail at 1-800-214-5749. Your comments and questions help us make a better show. And you can watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube. New episodes drop every Monday and Friday. Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Sean Illing· Host0:56
This is The Gray Area. I am Sean Illing. My guest today is Seagal Samuel. She's a writer here at Vox who covers AI ethics. I invited Seagal on the show because she wrote an interesting and frankly kind of disturbing piece about AI successionism, which is the idea that AI shouldn't just serve humanity. It should, well, succeed us. And this is not some fringe internet fantasy. A lot of people in positions