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Are We Doomed?

We Design the AI That Kills Us All

4/28/202636 min

Maddeningly, even some researchers building artificial intelligence see it as a potential existential threat on par with nuclear war. Ben Bradford follows three simple steps that could lead an AI to turn on humanity and attempt to wipe us out. From autonomous agents with misaligned goals to hacked infrastructure, bioweapons, and a real story of AI blackmail, a nerdy apocalypse thought experiment starts to feel a little too plausible. So, then we try to dismantle our rogue creation.

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Clips

Even Builders Sign Extinction Warning
AI Chooses To Kill Worker
Researchers Put 5% On Extinction
Why Agents Are Inevitable
A Million Einsteins Scenario
Why We Become The Adversary
Katja’s Personal Fear Moment
CEOs Warn, Then Walk Out
Three Practical Safety Ingredients
Three Ingredients For Doom

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 10:00

    This week on Here & Now Anytime, the data center revolt comes to Utah, psychedelics and the future of medicine, and [bird chirping] we dive into the sound archives of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

  2. Katja Grace· Guest0:13

    They had filmed the Ivory-billed woodpecker, one of the last pairs that was ever documented in the wild.

  3. Speaker 10:19

    Listen to Here & Now anytime on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

  4. Ben Bradford· Host0:23

    What do you fear about AI, this rush of new technologies injected into our lives, our jobs, our news, and who knows what's to come? What do you fear? I asked some friends and family.

  5. Katja Grace· Guest0:38

    I worry that it's more difficult to determine what's real.

  6. Ben Bradford· Host0:43

    Everyone had concerns.

  7. Katja Grace· Guest0:44

    I'm worried about students and it having negative impacts on their learning.

  8. Ben Bradford· Host0:48

    Those are reasonable, current, but let's go bigger, slightly into the future. What might happen?

  9. Speaker 4· Soundbite0:55

    We're gonna lose style.

  10. Speaker 10:56

    Creative thinking. Our collective intelligence.

  11. Ben Bradford· Host0:59

    Let's go bigger than that, further.

  12. Speaker 11:01

    I am very worried about my son's brain turning to goo.

  13. Ben Bradford· Host1:03

    No, no, let's go bigger.

  14. Speaker 4· Soundbite1:05

    I'm worried that tech is gonna get increasingly advanced until robots take over the world.

  15. Ben Bradford· Host1:10

    [rock music] There we go. From Nuance Tales, distributed by the NPR Network, this is Are We Doomed?, the new podcast about the end of the world. I'm Ben Bradford.

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