Doom Debates

Mar 27 2025 65 ep. 81 mins 27
Doom Debates Podcast artwork

It's time to talk about the end of the world!

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How an AI Doomer Sees The World — Liron on The Human Podcast

Mar 27 2025 45 mins  
In this special cross-posted episode of Doom Debates, originally posted here on The Human Podcast, we cover a wide range of topics including the definition of “doom”, P(Doom), various existential risks like pandemics and nuclear threats, and the comparison of rogue AI risks versus AI misuse risks.00:00 Introduction01:47 Defining Doom and AI Risks05:53 P(Doom)10:04 Doom Debates�

Gödel's Theorem Says Intelligence ≠ Power? AI Doom Debate with Alexander Campbell

Mar 20 2025 50 mins  
Alexander Campbell claims that having superhuman intelligence doesn’t necessarily translate into having vast power, and that Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem ensures AI can’t get too powerful. I strongly disagree.Alex has a Master's of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Oxford and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has worked as a quant trader at L

Alignment is EASY and Roko's Basilisk is GOOD?!

Mar 16 2025 119 mins  
Roko Mijic has been an active member of the LessWrong and AI safety community since 2008. He’s best known for “Roko’s Basilisk”, a thought experiment he posted on LessWrong that made Eliezer Yudkowsky freak out, and years later became the topic that helped Elon Musk get interested in Grimes.His view on AI doom is that:* AI alignment is an easy problem* But the chaos and fig

Roger Penrose is WRONG about Gödel's Theorem and AI Consciousness

Mar 09 2025 91 mins  
Sir Roger Penrose is a mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science, and Nobel Laureate in Physics.His famous body of work includes Penrose diagrams, twistor theory, Penrose tilings, and the incredibly bold claim that intelligence and consciousness are uncomputable physical phenomena related to quantum wave function collapse. Dr. Penrose is such a genius that it'

We Found AI's Preferences — What David Shapiro MISSED in this bombshell Center for AI Safety paper

Feb 20 2025 108 mins  
The Center for AI Safety just dropped a fascinating paper — they discovered that today’s AIs like GPT-4 and Claude have preferences! As in, coherent utility functions. We knew this was inevitable, but we didn’t know it was already happening.This episode has two parts:In Part I (48 minutes), I react to David Shapiro’s coverage of the paper and push back on many of his points

Does AI Competition = AI Alignment? Debate with Gil Mark

Feb 09 2025 77 mins  
My friend Gil Mark, who leads generative AI products at LinkedIn, thinks competition among superintelligent AIs will lead to a good outcome for humanity. In his view, the alignment problem becomes significantly easier if we build multiple AIs at the same time and let them compete.I completely disagree, but I hope you’ll find this to be a thought-provoking episode that sheds light

Toy Model of the AI Control Problem

Feb 06 2025 25 mins  
Why does the simplest AI imaginable, when you ask it to help you push a box around a grid, suddenly want you to die?AI doomers are often misconstrued as having "no evidence" or just "anthropomorphizing". This toy model will help you understand why a drive to eliminate humans is NOT a handwavy anthropomorphic speculation, but rather something we expect by default from any sufficient

Superintelligent AI vs. Real-World Engineering | Liron Reacts to Bryan Cantrill

Jan 31 2025 65 mins  
Bryan Cantrill, co-founder of Oxide Computer, says in his talk that engineering in the physical world is too complex for any AI to do it better than teams of human engineers. Success isn’t about intelligence; it’s about teamwork, character and resilience.I completely disagree.00:00 Introduction02:03 Bryan’s Take on AI Doom05:55 The Concept of P(Doom)08:36 Engineering Challeng

2,500 Subscribers Live Q&A

Jan 27 2025 83 mins  
Thanks for everyone who participated in the live Q&A on Friday!The topics covered include advice for computer science students, working in AI trustworthiness, what good AI regulation looks like, the implications of the $500B Stargate project, the public's gradual understanding of AI risks, the impact of minor AI disasters, and the philosophy of consciousness.00:00 Advice for Comp S

AI Twitter Beefs #3: Marc Andreessen, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Yann LeCun, Eliezer Yudkowsky & More!

Jan 24 2025 127 mins  
It’s time for AI Twitter Beefs #3:00:00 Introduction01:27 Marc Andreessen vs. Sam Altman09:15 Mark Zuckerberg35:40 Martin Casado47:26 Gary Marcus vs. Miles Brundage Bet58:39 Scott Alexander’s AI Art Turing Test01:11:29 Roon01:16:35 Stephen McAleer01:22:25 Emmett Shear01:37:20 OpenAI’s “Safety”01:44:09 Naval Ravikant vs. Eliezer Yudkowsky01:56:03 Comic Relief01:58:53 Final