Trascrizione completa di This Dum Week 2026-09-28

me to stop. 39 00:02:22,044 --> 00:02:24,769 Dario Hamadeh, everybody. 40 00:02:29,296 --> 00:02:33,061 Welcome to This Dumb Week, a weekly live Twitter Space hosted by Alex Marinos 41 00:02:33,094 --> 00:02:36,940 and yours truly, Dr. Rollergator, available in podcast form on Apple 42 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,114 Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, 43 00:02:40,697 --> 00:02:44,552 iHeartRadio, and others. Alex, welcome back. Have you had a sufficiently 44 00:02:44,584 --> 00:02:47,788 dumb week? Well, as you 45 00:02:47,836 --> 00:02:49,925 know, it's been quite the week. 46 00:02:51,372 --> 00:02:55,116 It has been. It has been. You've had— now you've had 8 days to 47 00:02:55,212 --> 00:02:58,475 work with it, and I can't wait. Let's see what you're gonna do with it, 48 00:02:58,555 --> 00:03:02,033 for one. Now, Alex, I, I think you perhaps 49 00:03:02,258 --> 00:03:05,977 owe everyone an apology for the major 50 00:03:06,477 --> 00:03:10,259 risk you took with my life this week when you nerd sniped me with your, 51 00:03:10,484 --> 00:03:14,138 your meander problem and had me spinning, 52 00:03:14,814 --> 00:03:16,649 uh, on a problem. 53 00:03:22,668 --> 00:03:25,952 No apology? No apology, Alex? No apology for 54 00:03:26,257 --> 00:03:29,830 risking my— Sir, I unapologetically, 55 00:03:29,862 --> 00:03:33,467 this is how I run my entire startup for so many 56 00:03:33,967 --> 00:03:36,768 years. This is what I do. Ah, I see. 57 00:03:37,537 --> 00:03:41,254 I see. This is my job, sir. Last week on 58 00:03:41,302 --> 00:03:45,292 the show, Alex had mentioned he was working with 59 00:03:46,205 --> 00:03:49,586 Claude. Was it just exclusively Claude that you were working with, 60 00:03:49,634 --> 00:03:52,585 Alex, or was it— I don't know, at this point I've used everything. 61 00:03:53,404 --> 00:03:56,407 All right, you were working on a math problem, and at the time that you 62 00:03:56,907 --> 00:04:00,823 mentioned it on the show last week, I wasn't familiar with it. But then after 63 00:04:01,323 --> 00:04:05,030 the show, maybe a day or so later, you showed me what the problem was, 64 00:04:05,142 --> 00:04:08,032 or I asked you what the problem was again, and you showed it to me. 65 00:04:08,434 --> 00:04:11,757 And then for the next 24 hours, I exclusively only could think 66 00:04:11,805 --> 00:04:14,904 about that problem. So good, good job, 67 00:04:14,921 --> 00:04:17,955 Alex. And you're not the only person I've nerd sniped with this problem. 68 00:04:18,068 --> 00:04:21,275 Imagine that. Was I the, was I the only one who knew nothing about 69 00:04:21,775 --> 00:04:24,946 it, but then within 24 hours had it, had their own algorithm for counting it? 70 00:04:25,218 --> 00:04:27,863 Fascinatingly, no. Oh, okay. 71 00:04:28,553 --> 00:04:32,319 Did, did anyone else even mimic mine? And, and I 72 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:36,615 haven't even announced anything. Imagine that. Uh, I'm just talking 73 00:04:37,115 --> 00:04:39,693 to, you know, a couple of friends and they both get sniped. I don't know 74 00:04:39,773 --> 00:04:43,556 what is, what is with this problem? What was there any, was there any similarity 75 00:04:44,056 --> 00:04:46,617 between the algorithm I came up with and the algorithm they came up with? 76 00:04:47,564 --> 00:04:50,985 Um, frankly, um, since I don't understand what you 77 00:04:51,001 --> 00:04:54,132 guys are on about, um, my claw does 78 00:04:54,632 --> 00:04:56,942 not seem to think so. Let me put it that way. Okay. All right. 79 00:04:58,146 --> 00:05:01,486 Okay. Well, before we get, uh, really deep back into the 80 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:05,789 AI and doomer news this week, uh, we're gonna 81 00:05:06,094 --> 00:05:09,755 start like we always do with some miscellaneous, uh, 82 00:05:09,979 --> 00:05:13,889 news from the world here. A well-known social media influencer 83 00:05:14,389 --> 00:05:18,584 known as Clavicular, behind controversial ideas for young men on how to improve their looks, 84 00:05:19,004 --> 00:05:22,803 is now charged with rape. He denies the allegations, and here's Aaron Katersky. 85 00:05:24,464 --> 00:05:27,549 Tonight, a famous online influencer known for his controversial 86 00:05:27,629 --> 00:05:31,036 takes on masculinity and tips on how to enhance your looks 87 00:05:31,100 --> 00:05:34,400 is accused of bringing a minor to his parents' house on Cape Cod, 88 00:05:34,643 --> 00:05:38,344 plying her with vodka, and raping her. Everyone knows what looksmaxxing is. 89 00:05:38,620 --> 00:05:42,158 Braden Peters, the so-called looksmaxxing influencer and streamer known as Clavicular, denies the claims. 90 00:05:44,512 --> 00:05:48,215 His followers tune in for Peters' extreme takes on male attractiveness, 91 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:51,565 including drug use, a testosterone regimen, and his claim 92 00:05:52,065 --> 00:05:55,300 that he smashed his jawbone with a hammer to reshape his face when he was 93 00:05:55,333 --> 00:05:58,490 younger. Police say his alleged rape victim was 17 94 00:05:58,539 --> 00:06:01,729 in May 2025 when she told them Peters invited her 95 00:06:02,229 --> 00:06:05,961 to stream videos online to make her name known on social media. She said his 96 00:06:06,009 --> 00:06:09,038 mother and grandmother were home at the time and he was aware of 97 00:06:09,538 --> 00:06:13,094 her age. After consuming alcohol, the teen said she began to be flirty. 98 00:06:13,511 --> 00:06:17,021 After 2 or 3 cups of vodka, she said she Peters began 99 00:06:17,117 --> 00:06:20,418 to have sex and she fell asleep, waking the next morning to 100 00:06:20,918 --> 00:06:24,344 Peters on top of her. At no time, she told police, did she consent. 101 00:06:24,745 --> 00:06:28,478 Peters responded to the charges on social media, posting, happens to 102 00:06:28,655 --> 00:06:32,164 all successful young men. People try to come for your money. Greed is 103 00:06:32,420 --> 00:06:36,346 evil. Peters

is not in custody, David. He's due next month in a Cape 104 00:06:36,846 --> 00:06:40,144 Cod courtroom to answer the charges. David? Aaron Kachurski reporting tonight. 105 00:06:40,208 --> 00:06:44,183 Aaron, thanks. Tonight, newly released body camera video So 106 00:06:44,215 --> 00:06:47,870 there you go, Alex. Uh, Clavicular is yet again in trouble with the 107 00:06:47,902 --> 00:06:50,820 law. We will see if he ekes out of this, 108 00:06:51,574 --> 00:06:54,107 this one, just like he has. I mean, Gator. Yes. 109 00:06:55,341 --> 00:06:58,611 Who among us has not been caught— Who among us? 110 00:06:58,660 --> 00:07:02,154 Supplying a 17-year-old with alcohol and 111 00:07:02,654 --> 00:07:06,130 having her black out? Well, I, I am, I am excluded 112 00:07:06,162 --> 00:07:10,507 from that, uh, in the sense that the only time that I ever engaged 113 00:07:10,571 --> 00:07:13,682 in that type of behavior was when I myself was underage. 114 00:07:14,758 --> 00:07:18,388 So there's— there is no Romeo and Juliet laws for 115 00:07:18,888 --> 00:07:22,467 that. Yes, yes. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. It was a 116 00:07:23,029 --> 00:07:26,385 pretty chaotic time period, so we're not gonna say that I 117 00:07:26,885 --> 00:07:30,801 had any sense of responsibility. But, you know, if you're gonna 118 00:07:30,881 --> 00:07:35,683 have this level of notoriety and you're gonna have several instances 119 00:07:35,940 --> 00:07:39,730 of, you know, skirting with the law and possibly winding up even 120 00:07:40,230 --> 00:07:43,647 in jail for a short period of time, you might want to think about 121 00:07:44,147 --> 00:07:47,125 ways that anything could even accidentally wind you up there. 122 00:07:47,590 --> 00:07:50,812 And I think getting really drunk with someone and then having 123 00:07:50,860 --> 00:07:54,323 sex with them is probably one of the most notorious ways of being accused 124 00:07:54,823 --> 00:07:58,250 of rape. I just think if you even— even if he's innocent in the matter, 125 00:07:58,314 --> 00:08:01,873 I think after the 2 years of MeToo 126 00:08:02,001 --> 00:08:05,897 fever, I think you just— and then one of the girls representing that 127 00:08:05,945 --> 00:08:09,327 was the mattress girl. Do you remember the mattress girl who walked 128 00:08:09,827 --> 00:08:13,543 around on campus? Oh my God. She was supposedly raped 129 00:08:14,043 --> 00:08:17,795 on as the The art figure that she walked around 130 00:08:18,295 --> 00:08:22,146 with the mattress all day. So you think that that should be etched 131 00:08:22,371 --> 00:08:25,950 into everyone's minds that, listen, if anyone's had a drop of alcohol, 132 00:08:26,015 --> 00:08:29,000 it's just best to send them home in an Uber and say, 133 00:08:29,209 --> 00:08:32,275 I can't do anything with you. You've touched alcohol. 134 00:08:32,388 --> 00:08:36,321 I mean, I think it's, first of all, it's illegal to give a 17-year-old alcohol. 135 00:08:37,460 --> 00:08:41,121 Yes. Yes. I mean, what are we talking? This isn't like some accidental 136 00:08:41,169 --> 00:08:43,285 consumption of Sure, 137 00:08:44,439 --> 00:08:47,803 sure, but even if you didn't provide 138 00:08:48,303 --> 00:08:52,417 it and you just— they brought it themselves, it was a BYOB type of situation, 139 00:08:52,465 --> 00:08:55,541 Alex. You see, the, the sexual intercourse, 140 00:08:56,230 --> 00:08:58,393 uh, under intoxication is still, uh, 141 00:08:59,114 --> 00:09:02,046 inadvisable, even if she claimed that she really wanted it, 142 00:09:02,158 --> 00:09:05,682 because, uh, yeah, you don't just out of 143 00:09:06,182 --> 00:09:09,527 context— I feel like this is not the last time where we're gonna talk about 144 00:09:10,027 --> 00:09:13,313 people who are working towards an objective and end up Um, 145 00:09:13,445 --> 00:09:15,504 how shall I put this? Fucking their way out of it. 146 00:09:17,577 --> 00:09:21,377 Is it? Uh, probably not. Now, 147 00:09:21,393 --> 00:09:24,417 Alex, we're gonna get into a story that was, um, one of the more, 148 00:09:24,854 --> 00:09:29,042 uh, popular stories of this week because, uh, we haven't had an opportunity 149 00:09:29,074 --> 00:09:32,986 to go over it. And this is from the Boston Globe. A Western 150 00:09:33,035 --> 00:09:36,526 Massachusetts lesbian bar required KN95 masks. 151 00:09:36,575 --> 00:09:39,976 When it changed the rules, all hell broke loose. The August 152 00:09:40,476 --> 00:09:44,282 31st Instagram post from the Last Stitch Bar and Arts Venue, a lesbian 153 00:09:44,314 --> 00:09:47,624 bar in Greenfield, was upbeat, teasing a new DJ lineup and 154 00:09:48,124 --> 00:09:52,203 a volunteer meetup. But partway down the rainbow-hued post labeled Updates was 155 00:09:52,703 --> 00:09:56,171 a sentence that would splinter the queer community in this small Pioneer Valley 156 00:09:56,204 --> 00:09:59,674 city and beyond. Quote, it is with love we inform 157 00:10:00,174 --> 00:10:03,675 our immunocompromised disabled divas we will be opening Saturday 158 00:10:04,175 --> 00:10:07,272 nights as mask optional. wrote Last Ditch. Previously, 159 00:10:07,289 --> 00:10:11,287 patrons were required to wear a well-fitted KN95 mask or better at 160 00:10:11,787 --> 00:10:14,482 all times. The new policy was not received with love. 161 00:10:15,478 --> 00:10:18,930 Just say you're being complicit in a mass disabling event and 162 00:10:18,994 --> 00:10:21,050 get it over with, wrote one commenter. 163 00:10:21,981 --> 00:10:25,514 People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure 164 00:10:26,014 --> 00:10:29,913 and convenience, posted another. I hope your venue gets firebombed 165 00:10:30,413 --> 00:10:34,088 for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to escape 166 00:10:34,410 --> 00:10:37,715 extra revenue from ableists. Scrape extra revenue 167 00:10:38,215 --> 00:10:42,684 from ableists, wrote a third. The thread grew

to 442 168 00:10:43,184 --> 00:10:46,788 comments, some supportive but many furious. The people running the bar were accused 169 00:10:47,288 --> 00:10:51,228 of being ableist, eugenicist even, for relaxing their signature policy 170 00:10:51,340 --> 00:10:54,691 in the face of what commenters considered an ongoing pandemic. 171 00:10:55,011 --> 00:10:58,393 Greenfield hadn't reported any COVID cases in more than 2 months. 172 00:10:59,099 --> 00:11:02,786 2 days later, Last Ditch posted an apology. Quote, we are sorry for 173 00:11:03,286 --> 00:11:07,066 our passive and dismissive tone of our change to the norms and schedule impacting the 174 00:11:07,566 --> 00:11:10,512 most intersectional Of us, management wrote on Instagram. 175 00:11:10,961 --> 00:11:14,119 Quote, "We understand everyone faces different intersections, 176 00:11:14,825 --> 00:11:18,896 and we're always working to consider all needs fully." Instead 177 00:11:19,396 --> 00:11:22,792 of diffusing the situation, the apology seemed to make things worse. The bar 178 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:26,367 had aired. It posted an Instagram card without providing alt 179 00:11:26,867 --> 00:11:30,438 text for the visually impaired. This set off a fresh round of accusations of 180 00:11:30,938 --> 00:11:34,350 ableism. Quote, "This is not an accessible post," wrote one 181 00:11:34,462 --> 00:11:37,716 user. It indicates the lack of care or interest in 182 00:11:37,748 --> 00:11:40,459 disability intersectionality. Quaint, 183 00:11:41,102 --> 00:11:44,940 crunchy greenfield population 17,700 184 00:11:45,358 --> 00:11:49,084 isn't a bad place for a COVID-cautious lesbian bar in 2026, 185 00:11:49,212 --> 00:11:53,050 all things considered. Rainbow flags deck store windows downtown. 186 00:11:53,629 --> 00:11:57,644 On a recent weekend, a community theater was advertising a workshop for masked 187 00:11:58,144 --> 00:12:01,932 performers down the street from a back— a bookstore with a medical mask required 188 00:12:02,432 --> 00:12:06,380 sign in the window. Men in ponytails and N95s were ordering hibiscus 189 00:12:06,477 --> 00:12:08,677 tea from the coffee shop of the main square. 190 00:12:09,607 --> 00:12:12,879 Greenfield is close both physically and spiritually to Northampton, 191 00:12:13,328 --> 00:12:16,711 sometimes referred to as Lesbianville, USA, in the Pioneer 192 00:12:16,759 --> 00:12:20,207 Valley. Quote, every bar is a lesbian bar, a friend who lives 193 00:12:20,707 --> 00:12:23,847 there told me. Nevertheless, Last Ditch, which opened last year 194 00:12:23,895 --> 00:12:27,071 as a bar for dykes, transsexuals, gender freaks, workers, 195 00:12:27,247 --> 00:12:31,064 and their friends, is struggling. 3 housemates in their mid-20s 196 00:12:31,336 --> 00:12:34,832 opened it together, hoping to fill the void left by 2 local queer bars that 197 00:12:34,864 --> 00:12:38,877 had shuttered. One of the trio, Asa Rosario, a drag performer 198 00:12:39,377 --> 00:12:43,276 who

uses it/its pronouns, envisioned a venue where it and its friends 199 00:12:43,308 --> 00:12:46,551 could perform. 3 were intentional 200 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:50,067 about the kinds of values they wanted to bring to the divey basement bar, 201 00:12:50,613 --> 00:12:53,953 which they decorated with discoveries from Facebook Marketplace and pieces 202 00:12:54,033 --> 00:12:57,967 from local artists. No one would be turned away from the space for 203 00:12:57,983 --> 00:13:01,499 lack of funds. Poor and unhoused people are welcome in the space. 204 00:13:01,932 --> 00:13:05,591 The police were not. Our mission is to create systems of care and 205 00:13:05,688 --> 00:13:09,203 action and aid, says Jackie Metalion, one of the founders. 206 00:13:10,503 --> 00:13:14,499 When it first opened, Last Ditch did fairly well. Customers fondly remember 207 00:13:14,515 --> 00:13:17,917 a raucous opening night with a cloth simulation of a lesbian sex act, 208 00:13:18,287 --> 00:13:21,561 masks in place, on the dance floor. But over time, 209 00:13:21,898 --> 00:13:25,204 foot traffic to the bar slowed. More and more visitors said they didn't 210 00:13:25,284 --> 00:13:29,118 have the COVID fee. The bar let them in anyway. The owners fell behind 211 00:13:29,618 --> 00:13:33,062 on bills and couldn't pay themselves or the people who worked there. So after 212 00:13:33,562 --> 00:13:37,022 consulting with the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce, they came up with a 213 00:13:37,071 --> 00:13:40,886 plan to bend one of their rules and hopefully attract more customers. 214 00:13:41,560 --> 00:13:44,927 But by the time the last-ditch monthly community meeting on September 11th, 215 00:13:45,311 --> 00:13:48,534 only one of the original founders, Metellion, was still 216 00:13:49,034 --> 00:13:52,831 involved. The 2 others stepped back from the daily operation months before, Metellion says, 217 00:13:53,247 --> 00:13:57,175 citing various pressures and health issues. One had enrolled in clown school. 218 00:13:58,235 --> 00:14:01,495 There are some 10 people seated in a circle on the dance floor, all wearing 219 00:14:01,527 --> 00:14:04,834 masks. Mattelion, a handful of volunteers, some bar patrons, 220 00:14:05,139 --> 00:14:08,929 and 2 designated mediators who will facilitate conversation between parties who 221 00:14:09,429 --> 00:14:13,505 disagree. Another 10 or 15 people join the meeting via Zoom. The plan 222 00:14:14,005 --> 00:14:17,664 is to go clockwise, sharing views on the masking decision and financial future of the 223 00:14:18,164 --> 00:14:22,448 bar. Each person has 2 minutes to speak. It begins with a calming breathing exercise. 224 00:14:23,428 --> 00:14:27,199 Almost immediately, the proceedings are derailed. One of Last Ditch's 225 00:14:27,215 --> 00:14:30,874 most vocal critics, the head of another queer COVID-conscious collective in 226 00:14:30,970 --> 00:14:34,662 Western Massachusetts, a performer and artist who goes by So Noiret, 227 00:14:35,384 --> 00:14:38,401 has been posting complaints about Last Ditch for days. Now, 228 00:14:38,610 --> 00:14:41,081 Noiret joins the Zoom meetings on Zoom. 229 00:14:41,819 --> 00:14:44,901 He and other critics begin to flood the Zoom chat with irate messages, 230 00:14:45,013 --> 00:14:48,303 which were dutifully read aloud to the group. When it comes time for 231 00:14:48,803 --> 00:14:52,283 one of the mediators, a licensed therapist, to speak, she takes a conciliatory tone. 232 00:14:53,118 --> 00:14:56,891 I love that you are here online, she says, but these platforms alienate 233 00:14:57,391 --> 00:15:00,360 us from one another. I'm talking about social media. 234 00:15:00,745 --> 00:15:04,888 She asks whether participants can try to remove themselves from places of righteousness. 235 00:15:06,060 --> 00:15:08,773 I would love to get to a place where we all know each other's face, 236 00:15:08,789 --> 00:15:12,787 where we all know each other's name, she continues. It's messed up that the mediator 237 00:15:13,287 --> 00:15:16,962 is dismissing those attending virtually. That's not accessibility, some responded 238 00:15:17,462 --> 00:15:20,766 in the chat. Quote, a lot of people are calling for an acknowledgment of harm, 239 00:15:20,815 --> 00:15:24,731 and I'm hearing a white therapist centering the feeling of a majority 240 00:15:24,827 --> 00:15:27,604 white and white adjacent staff, writes Noir, who is Black. 241 00:15:29,096 --> 00:15:32,611 Moreover, the Zoom attendees speculate that the mediator's license status 242 00:15:33,111 --> 00:15:36,190 makes her a mandated reporter, an agent of the state akin 243 00:15:36,319 --> 00:15:40,059 to the police. One person added, one person going by 244 00:15:40,559 --> 00:15:43,493 Moss asked if the mediator would have them hospitalized against their will, 245 00:15:44,087 --> 00:15:46,655 adding that her presence is wildly unsafe. 246 00:15:47,473 --> 00:15:50,437 When Metallion's turn came to speak, she begins haltingly. 247 00:15:50,517 --> 00:15:53,882 She has never envisioned running Last Ditch alone. It was not my 248 00:15:54,382 --> 00:15:56,927 passion project, she says. My main goal was to support Sage and Asa, 249 00:15:57,552 --> 00:16:00,741 the 2 other founders. Her voice cracks. I never really 250 00:16:00,773 --> 00:16:04,074 wanted to do this, Metallion says, beginning to cry under her mask. 251 00:16:04,218 --> 00:16:08,384 I don't think I'm doing a very good job. Metallion tells the group her credit 252 00:16:08,884 --> 00:16:12,102 score is trashed. For 6 months, she lived in her truck because she was pouring 253 00:16:12,150 --> 00:16:16,211 money into the bar. She is working 4 different jobs. She is responsible for paying 254 00:16:16,227 --> 00:16:19,567 off the $50,000 loan the 3 took out to launch the business. 255 00:16:20,241 --> 00:16:24,095 The online critics are unmoved. You chose to use your time 256 00:16:24,111 --> 00:16:27,387 to spill

tears and center your feelings, Noir posts in the chat. 257 00:16:28,029 --> 00:16:31,867 This is incredibly racist and deflecting behavior. Eventually, 258 00:16:32,445 --> 00:16:35,850 after 3 and a half hours of discussion, the meeting wraps up. Noir has more 259 00:16:36,350 --> 00:16:39,495 to say, but when someone suggests he come to the next community meeting, he refuses. 260 00:16:40,410 --> 00:16:43,252 There's a lot of emotional and physical labor that goes into this. 261 00:16:43,846 --> 00:16:47,403 So for you as a white person, that asks for me to 262 00:16:47,903 --> 00:16:51,456 stay for another meeting for free, he says, is incredibly disingenuous 263 00:16:51,472 --> 00:16:55,606 and racist. I'm not doing that. Then I think unfortunately 264 00:16:55,638 --> 00:16:59,131 this meeting has failed you, replies the facilitator, and I'm sorry. 265 00:17:00,028 --> 00:17:04,258 The in-person participants file up the metal stairs 266 00:17:04,530 --> 00:17:07,895 past the native plant garden and out to their cars. Little has been 267 00:17:07,959 --> 00:17:11,468 resolved. Last-ditch landlord wants $3,900 in 268 00:17:11,564 --> 00:17:15,430 back rent by Monday. Noir spends the hours after the meeting posting 269 00:17:15,494 --> 00:17:19,089 furious Instagram stories about Matalion and Last Ditch. Matalion, 270 00:17:19,201 --> 00:17:22,876 who uses she/they pronouns, has been shedding white they/them 271 00:17:23,036 --> 00:17:26,984 tears, he writes. The bar was not a safe environment nor interested 272 00:17:27,484 --> 00:17:31,301 in revolutionary praxis. I reach Noir, who identifies as a 273 00:17:31,801 --> 00:17:35,249 gender-expansive lesbian and uses he/him pronouns, by Zoom a few 274 00:17:35,749 --> 00:17:39,181 days later. I ask whether he has any sympathy for those running Last 275 00:17:39,681 --> 00:17:43,157 Ditch. given the profound financial strain they are under. No, he replies. 276 00:17:43,445 --> 00:17:46,523 Noir asked to be referred to by his stage name because he says he has 277 00:17:46,555 --> 00:17:50,194 been stalked and fears for his safety. I'm not going 278 00:17:50,242 --> 00:17:54,073 to give grace when someone is spreading rhetoric that can and will get people 279 00:17:54,573 --> 00:17:58,081 hurt, he says, referring to the fact that the bar's account had liked a few 280 00:17:58,581 --> 00:18:02,745 comments supporting the relaxed rule. Moreover, the mask policy change promotes, 281 00:18:02,810 --> 00:18:05,743 quote, these ableist ideas that disabled people, 282 00:18:05,935 --> 00:18:09,783 immunocompromised people should either risk their health or just 283 00:18:10,283 --> 00:18:13,565 be pushed out of spaces, he says. says. Noir, who lives about 50 minutes 284 00:18:14,065 --> 00:18:17,154 south of Greenfield, estimates that he has visited the bar 7 or 8 times, 285 00:18:17,475 --> 00:18:21,000 but he won't return unless there is new leadership. You can't repair a 286 00:18:21,500 --> 00:18:24,942 house that's on fire, he says. Saturday, December 12th, is the city's 287 00:18:25,006 --> 00:18:28,387 weekly mask-optional night at Last Ditch. Down a set of 288 00:18:28,887 --> 00:18:32,121 stairs in a small concrete courtyard, a few people mill outside smoking. 289 00:18:32,473 --> 00:18:35,566 Another handful linger inside near the bar under string lights, 290 00:18:35,982 --> 00:18:39,013 the dance floor a wide checkered expanse with a strip pole at the center is 291 00:18:39,190 --> 00:18:42,417 empty. Italian is one of the few people wearing a mask. 292 00:18:42,899 --> 00:18:46,672 I talk with her and another volunteer, Melody Young, in a small library tucked 293 00:18:47,172 --> 00:18:50,413 inside the alcove of the bar filled with zines and lesbian classics such 294 00:18:50,461 --> 00:18:53,673 as Stone Butch Blues. This is also their free store, 295 00:18:53,801 --> 00:18:57,783 which carries food, clothes, fentanyl test strips, Narcan, literature about STIs, 296 00:18:57,992 --> 00:19:01,524 and other supplies. Above us hangs a sign, Prom canceled 297 00:19:02,024 --> 00:19:06,004 'cause lesbians. I remember a comment on Last Stitch's original announcement 298 00:19:06,504 --> 00:19:10,081 after the pile-on had begun. Scream Guy Was Up asked, I'm sorry, 299 00:19:10,739 --> 00:19:14,218 all 400 of these crazy people live in Greenfield, Massachusetts? 300 00:19:14,843 --> 00:19:18,211 I asked whether the people behind the angriest posts have genuine connections to the bar. 301 00:19:18,451 --> 00:19:22,123 Are they real customers? Young and Matalian say yes, they know there are 302 00:19:22,623 --> 00:19:26,003 many detractors. There are people that are close to us and love us who are 303 00:19:26,051 --> 00:19:29,418 really disappointed in our decision, and that is completely understandable, 304 00:19:29,451 --> 00:19:32,545 says Young, who says her sister is one of the vocal critics online. 305 00:19:33,363 --> 00:19:36,570 Like, it's so understandable why they feel hurt by the way we did it and 306 00:19:37,070 --> 00:19:40,099 the fact that we did it. They have passion for this space, Metallion adds. 307 00:19:40,275 --> 00:19:43,660 A number of people on Instagram also said they were excited to visit the space 308 00:19:43,772 --> 00:19:47,526 unmasked, but this night, the hoped-for other patrons haven't materialized 309 00:19:47,559 --> 00:19:51,088 despite $10 cocktails and sternum-shivering dance tracks from 310 00:19:51,588 --> 00:19:55,179 DJ Harshnoy's boyfriend. At the queer bar that occupied 311 00:19:55,679 --> 00:19:58,981 the space before Last Ditch, where masks were not required, a late night 312 00:19:59,013 --> 00:20:02,398 like this might have drawn 100 people, estimates Mixie, the bartender 313 00:20:02,898 --> 00:20:06,858 on duty that night. A trans woman with a thick black eyeliner and cat-like poise, 314 00:20:06,906 --> 00:20:10,786 Mixie is closeted in her day job as an engineer. She loves 315

00:20:10,818 --> 00:20:14,313 the bar enough to work for just tips, knowing Last Ditch is in the red. 316 00:20:14,746 --> 00:20:17,679 But she thinks the early dogmatism about masks was a mistake. 317 00:20:18,192 --> 00:20:21,527 People don't like to feel scolded, she says. That's not how hospitality 318 00:20:21,559 --> 00:20:25,230 works. Just after midnight, one patron is left at the bar, a regular 319 00:20:25,246 --> 00:20:28,580 who works at the Mexican restaurant next door. She wonders aloud 320 00:20:28,837 --> 00:20:32,428 about holding a Lady Gaga-themed night, but Mixie demurs. Gaga is 321 00:20:32,524 --> 00:20:36,661 canceled, she said. Gaga is a Zionist. The DJ still played EDM, 322 00:20:37,013 --> 00:20:40,012 and Metalion is alone on the checkered dance floor making pensive, 323 00:20:40,060 --> 00:20:43,475 graceful loops on the stripper pole, KN95 mask in place. 324 00:20:43,828 --> 00:20:47,580 Metalion doesn't expect the conflict at Last Ditch to end soon. She plans 325 00:20:47,612 --> 00:20:51,140 to cooperatize the bar, and she doesn't bear so much— so she 326 00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:54,475 doesn't bear so much financial responsibility. But that will come with its own challenges, 327 00:20:54,908 --> 00:20:58,195 and the discord about making masking is unlikely to go away. 328 00:20:58,836 --> 00:21:01,369 But when it comes to the terror, it comes with the territory, she says. 329 00:21:01,868 --> 00:21:04,682 There's conflict, but we hope that there's more repair than conflict. 330 00:21:05,004 --> 00:21:07,802 That's the price you pay to be in community, Metallion says. 331 00:21:09,170 --> 00:21:12,625 So Alex, I didn't really 332 00:21:13,125 --> 00:21:16,744 know that there were too many places that were still as gung-ho 333 00:21:18,054 --> 00:21:21,255 about masking, and that to find out that 334 00:21:21,755 --> 00:21:25,071 there was an entire bar that did it— but it does not surprise me that 335 00:21:25,571 --> 00:21:29,622 among the other sort of anxiety-ridden ideas that 336 00:21:30,007 --> 00:21:33,746 one would have in such a place, that there were a plethora of other things 337 00:21:33,778 --> 00:21:37,068 that were very delicate and fragile to deal with 338 00:21:37,568 --> 00:21:41,690 and navigate, including white people talking and expressing 339 00:21:41,786 --> 00:21:46,023 themselves. About their own 340 00:21:46,617 --> 00:21:49,393 lives, by the way. About their own businesses. 341 00:21:49,730 --> 00:21:52,490 Yes, yes, yes. You have to be careful. 342 00:21:52,860 --> 00:21:56,041 Look, I think First of all, 343 00:21:56,653 --> 00:22:00,453 that the owner slash I don't know community slave, 344 00:22:01,081 --> 00:22:03,657 whatever the title is that is appropriate, 345 00:22:06,224 --> 00:22:09,620 needs to thank these people because 346 00:22:10,041 --> 00:22:13,744 they gave it. They gave 347 00:22:14,262 --> 00:22:18,195 the Zirzim, whatever the pronouns are here that are appropriate. I don't want to be 348 00:22:18,695 --> 00:22:22,433 disrespectful. A beautiful lesson 349 00:22:22,708 --> 00:22:26,507 in evaporative cooling. Right? So— Yes, yes, yes. Basically, 350 00:22:27,021 --> 00:22:31,356 they, they started out with a bar that used to attract 100 people, 351 00:22:31,902 --> 00:22:35,419 uh, went all mask Nazi and whatever else, 352 00:22:36,237 --> 00:22:39,882 um, it was. And then here's the interesting part. 353 00:22:40,428 --> 00:22:43,816 Now that you have alienated all the reasonable people in your base, 354 00:22:43,864 --> 00:22:47,750 you're left with literally with the crazy, right? So then you, you try to take 355 00:22:48,296 --> 00:22:51,570 a small step towards sanity And wouldn't you 356 00:22:52,070 --> 00:22:55,582 know it, all you have are the crazies. 357 00:22:55,792 --> 00:22:59,499 So you literally cannot step back from the brink 358 00:22:59,645 --> 00:23:03,479 because the, the crazies are not there for you 359 00:23:04,492 --> 00:23:07,693 per se or your business. 360 00:23:07,790 --> 00:23:11,522 They're there because they're crazies. And you 361 00:23:12,022 --> 00:23:15,371 know, all you have, all you get is this, right? 362 00:23:15,957 --> 00:23:18,979 It really Um, you know, 363 00:23:19,219 --> 00:23:23,209 you might think that by, you know, you can do addition by subtraction by purifying 364 00:23:23,225 --> 00:23:27,408 yourself from the most, I don't know, reactive elements 365 00:23:27,908 --> 00:23:30,532 that, I don't know, don't want to breathe them inside a mask all night, 366 00:23:30,548 --> 00:23:33,769 for instance, or they're going out to have fun. I don't know, stuff like that. 367 00:23:34,442 --> 00:23:36,573 You might be, you know, attaining a better, 368 00:23:37,407 --> 00:23:40,900 uh, community or whatever, but it turns out when you— there's 369 00:23:40,932 --> 00:23:44,403 some line, and that line does not come with signage. But when you cross it, 370 00:23:46,004 --> 00:23:49,754 you are in a real, real pickle. 371 00:23:50,708 --> 00:23:53,762 Now, Alex, I don't know, I don't know if this is— this stuck out to 372 00:23:54,262 --> 00:23:56,974 you, but this, this stuck out to me pretty starkly. It's, uh, you know the 373 00:23:57,006 --> 00:24:00,669 old adage in, in, uh, software engineering that if feature A 374 00:24:00,799 --> 00:24:03,623 and feature B exist, at some point they'll be used together? 375 00:24:04,414 --> 00:24:08,190 And, and— Mm-hmm. I mean, I haven't heard that, but it makes 376 00:24:08,206 --> 00:24:11,418 sense. Okay, well, it, it, it, it, uh, somewhat of an 377 00:24:11,580 --> 00:24:15,974 adage, particularly when it comes to, uh, bug reports, because A 378 00:24:16,055 --> 00:24:19,651 customer or a client or a user, whatever it is, will wind 379 00:24:20,151 --> 00:24:23,730 up combining 2 features of the total software that you never wound up imagining 380 00:24:23,762 --> 00:24:27,134 being combined. And in the minds of the

developers who were 381 00:24:27,634 --> 00:24:30,618 developing it, they never expected this to happen. And so there was not, 382 00:24:30,747 --> 00:24:34,327 let's say, a test in the build for such a thing 383 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:38,357 to be used in conjunction. So there wound up being some bug because 384 00:24:38,857 --> 00:24:42,191 2 things were not thought to be combined. And they would, 385 00:24:42,608 --> 00:24:46,116 on a long enough timeline, be combined. Well, Alex, this is 386 00:24:47,270 --> 00:24:50,682 somewhat of a different instantiation of that idea, but this 387 00:24:50,778 --> 00:24:54,014 is a novel one. And this stuck out to me here. 388 00:24:54,255 --> 00:24:58,772 I reach Noir, who identifies as a gender-expansive 389 00:24:58,869 --> 00:25:02,217 lesbian and uses he/him pronouns. 390 00:25:03,370 --> 00:25:07,696 That is a combination of features that I did not expect 391 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,589 to be combined. And I don't even know exactly 392 00:25:11,621 --> 00:25:15,274 at the moment What my interpretation of that meaning is. 393 00:25:16,668 --> 00:25:19,872 What the point of origin is? What it used to 394 00:25:20,372 --> 00:25:24,486 be once upon a time? Yes, yes. What is the bigoted 395 00:25:25,159 --> 00:25:28,812 aversion that society would want to thrust upon this individual 396 00:25:29,309 --> 00:25:32,529 versus what is now the self-identification? 397 00:25:32,753 --> 00:25:36,647 Because that's interesting. 398 00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:41,935 What is the adoption, and what is the standing their 399 00:25:42,047 --> 00:25:45,872 ground because the he/him pronouns could be adopted or 400 00:25:45,921 --> 00:25:49,472 that could be standing your ground. The lesbian part could be adopted or standing 401 00:25:49,521 --> 00:25:52,581 your ground. And I'm not really sure what's going on 402 00:25:52,597 --> 00:25:55,768 anymore, Alex. This is, uh, I'm not saying it's a 403 00:25:56,268 --> 00:25:59,565 mystery. I think it's a dude that's into chicks. 404 00:26:00,070 --> 00:26:03,337 That's what I think. Gender expansive 405 00:26:03,434 --> 00:26:06,738 lesbian. That is a, that is definitely a term for 406 00:26:07,238 --> 00:26:10,429 the record books, Alex. They, they should, they deserve some sort of award. 407 00:26:10,802 --> 00:26:14,849 For that, uh, that combination. I'm just saying my bigoted, 408 00:26:14,978 --> 00:26:18,672 my bigoted, uh, translation of that is a dude that's into chicks and pretending 409 00:26:19,172 --> 00:26:22,976 to be a woman that's a lesbian, but also goes 410 00:26:23,008 --> 00:26:26,846 one step further and restores the original pronouns of the, I don't know, 411 00:26:27,746 --> 00:26:31,424 reaction slash, I don't want to tell my parents 412 00:26:31,924 --> 00:26:35,166 any of this. I don't know. Very, very possible. But, uh, we, we shall, 413 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:39,213 we shall maybe someday see if that one particularly catches on and 414 00:26:39,713 --> 00:26:42,941 there's more. Uh, gender flexible, gender expansive, 415 00:26:42,957 --> 00:26:44,653 sorry, uh, lesbians. 416 00:26:45,930 --> 00:26:49,329 Do you remember there was a, uh, 417 00:26:49,635 --> 00:26:53,095 a whole super straight orientation thing going on at some point? 418 00:26:54,285 --> 00:26:57,005 I remember the meme. I, I don't know if it was a real thing. 419 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,287 I think it was a, a mocking— Well, I mean, 420 00:27:02,319 --> 00:27:04,815 yeah, yeah, yeah. But what is the difference? 421 00:27:07,784 --> 00:27:08,924 What is the distinction? 422 00:27:11,450 --> 00:27:14,765 Well, you know, Hunter Biden 423 00:27:14,782 --> 00:27:18,728 recently said that he thinks he's about 48% straight, 424 00:27:18,761 --> 00:27:21,235 or maybe he was 48% gay or something. 425 00:27:22,626 --> 00:27:26,119 And so, you know, I think the super straight happy— That's the, 426 00:27:26,135 --> 00:27:28,771 I want all the oppression points without actually having to go through with it. 427 00:27:30,490 --> 00:27:33,622 Yes. All right, well, moving forward, Alex, before we 428 00:27:34,122 --> 00:27:37,514 get into some other things— You know, it just sounds too 429 00:27:38,123 --> 00:27:41,332 on the nose, so let's go with 48. Yeah, yeah, 430 00:27:41,412 --> 00:27:44,684 less than half, less than half, far less than half. Now, Alex, 431 00:27:44,716 --> 00:27:48,213 so a couple weeks ago we mentioned the mystery 432 00:27:48,326 --> 00:27:51,582 of, of people diving into the manholes in New York City, 433 00:27:52,721 --> 00:27:55,801 that people are just popping in. Well, there has been an arrest. 434 00:27:56,330 --> 00:27:59,586 Right, Barry, thank you. Meantime, here in New York City tonight, with world leaders here 435 00:27:59,635 --> 00:28:02,923 for the UN, police are on heightened alert at this hour. after 3 436 00:28:03,423 --> 00:28:07,397 people were seen climbing from a manhole not far from where the Israeli prime minister 437 00:28:07,477 --> 00:28:09,626 is expected to stay. Here's Rhiannon Alley. 438 00:28:10,941 --> 00:28:14,581 After multiple sightings across New York City of people, some wearing 439 00:28:14,693 --> 00:28:18,061 overalls and headlamps, emerging one after the other 440 00:28:18,561 --> 00:28:22,262 from manholes in the dark of night, tonight the NYPD investigating a 441 00:28:22,762 --> 00:28:26,175 new incident on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Police on high 442 00:28:26,675 --> 00:28:30,538 alert for this week's UN General Assembly now Stepping up security sweeps 443 00:28:30,586 --> 00:28:34,340 after they say three people exited the sewer close to the hotel 444 00:28:34,436 --> 00:28:37,886 where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to 445 00:28:38,386 --> 00:28:41,576 stay. It's the latest in a series of mysterious incidents: 446 00:28:41,816 --> 00:28:45,843 people seen entering or exiting manholes across the New York City area. 447

00:28:45,988 --> 00:28:50,047 I would say one who's in charge of 448 00:28:50,961 --> 00:28:54,555 the underground. Back in May, three people slipping into the sewer. 449 00:28:54,652 --> 00:28:58,380 Queens as cars wait to pass. Tonight, the city's Department of 450 00:28:58,428 --> 00:29:01,963 Environmental Protection again warning entering sewers is 451 00:29:02,463 --> 00:29:06,028 illegal and dangerous, noting the sewer and our infrastructure 452 00:29:06,044 --> 00:29:09,837 is safe. David, tonight here on the Upper East Side, those extra security 453 00:29:10,337 --> 00:29:14,031 sweeps amid real concern over this latest manhole incident. But the NYPD 454 00:29:14,531 --> 00:29:18,064 has not said if it's connected to the General Assembly or to the Israeli prime 455 00:29:18,096 --> 00:29:21,704 minister. But in previous cases, the NYPD The NYPD has reportedly said 456 00:29:21,801 --> 00:29:24,939 people claimed they were going underground to search for treasures. 457 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,177 David. Now, Alex, 458 00:29:29,338 --> 00:29:33,098 I have a new hypothesis because the treasure story 459 00:29:33,114 --> 00:29:36,889 is nice, but really, what do you— how often 460 00:29:36,921 --> 00:29:39,825 do you find great treasure inside of the sewer? I'm not sure. 461 00:29:40,617 --> 00:29:43,171 Maybe here and there you find a dropped phone, 462 00:29:44,028 --> 00:29:47,745 watch, you know, something valuable. But the 463 00:29:47,842 --> 00:29:51,796 number of people going in there I think that the ratio 464 00:29:52,296 --> 00:29:56,332 would have to be much higher than I can conceive of being just freely 465 00:29:56,364 --> 00:29:59,474 available inside of the sewers like that. But maybe I don't understand 466 00:29:59,974 --> 00:30:04,155 how much truly gets dropped in these manholes. But I would venture 467 00:30:04,219 --> 00:30:08,163 another hypothesis here, Alex. There is somewhat 468 00:30:08,663 --> 00:30:12,523 of a renaissance in people rejecting some of the modern technology as 469 00:30:12,619 --> 00:30:15,729 AI is going and permeating all of society, 470 00:30:16,546 --> 00:30:19,993 taking away artists' work, taking away musicians' work, 471 00:30:20,009 --> 00:30:23,215 et cetera, et cetera. particularly the youth are starting to 472 00:30:23,715 --> 00:30:27,303 reject a little bit of it. It's hip, it's trendy, it's cool to be 473 00:30:27,479 --> 00:30:32,032 someone who is ignoring all of the technological things 474 00:30:32,532 --> 00:30:36,232 and going for the authentic real stuff. So what if this is really people who 475 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,774 are just deciding to go too far to the extreme and no longer even 476 00:30:39,870 --> 00:30:42,964 want to play Mario and want to do Mario IRL? 477 00:30:44,455 --> 00:30:47,100 How do you think about this possible hypothesis? 478 00:30:48,804 --> 00:30:52,354 As good as any. Excellent. 479 00:30:52,740 --> 00:30:56,499 Why not? Excellent. All right, 480

00:30:56,901 --> 00:31:00,178 Alex, we're getting, we're getting there. We are getting there to the AI news this 481 00:31:00,274 --> 00:31:04,677 week. Um, we first have some general 482 00:31:05,351 --> 00:31:08,857 tech/hacking related news, and we have some Meet the Flockers, 483 00:31:09,034 --> 00:31:12,547 short Meet the Flockers segment, uh, things like that coming 484 00:31:12,595 --> 00:31:16,252 up still at the moment. This is from 404 Media, Alex. 485 00:31:16,381 --> 00:31:19,714 FBI hack exposes FBI's own hacking unit. 486 00:31:20,724 --> 00:31:24,154 The catastrophic hack of at least thousands of 487 00:31:24,654 --> 00:31:28,546 FBI officials' personal data, including their addresses, phone numbers, and even their spouses, 488 00:31:28,658 --> 00:31:31,463 includes members of the FBI's secretive hacking team, 489 00:31:31,784 --> 00:31:34,910 potentially revealing who exactly is in that unit, 404 Media 490 00:31:35,410 --> 00:31:38,949 has found. The findings further highlight how sensitive the stolen data 491 00:31:38,981 --> 00:31:43,132 is and how valuable it may be to criminals or to foreign intelligence agencies. 492 00:31:43,565 --> 00:31:46,739 There is very little public information about the FBI's hacking unit, 493 00:31:47,332 --> 00:31:50,586 including the operations it conducts, the tools it uses, or which 494 00:31:50,762 --> 00:31:53,712 agents are part of it. The FBI said in a statement it, 495 00:31:53,808 --> 00:31:57,719 quote, is aware of a cybercriminal enterprise group claiming a compromise 496 00:31:57,815 --> 00:32:01,277 of the fbijobs.gov portal and alleged impact 497 00:32:01,777 --> 00:32:05,702 to FBI employee personally identifiable information, or PII. 498 00:32:06,792 --> 00:32:10,305 While the point of breach is still undetermined 499 00:32:10,739 --> 00:32:13,196 whether a third party or the FBI's enterprise. 500 00:32:14,273 --> 00:32:17,534 We are actively and aggressively investigating this matter and working closely 501 00:32:17,887 --> 00:32:21,164 with those third-party providers that support fbijobs.gov 502 00:32:21,664 --> 00:32:25,084 to mitigate any and all risk. 404 Media first broke the news of the breach 503 00:32:25,180 --> 00:32:29,148 on Tuesday. The group responsible, Shiny Hunters, shared a list of 5,000 504 00:32:29,180 --> 00:32:33,003 alleged FBI officials with 404 Media. 404 Media verified 505 00:32:33,051 --> 00:32:37,003 parts of the data by cross-referencing it with open-source records available in the 506 00:32:37,503 --> 00:32:40,903 research tool OSINT Industries and previously compromised data in 507 00:32:40,935 --> 00:32:44,177 DarkSide, a tool made by cybersecurity company District4, 508 00:32:45,091 --> 00:32:49,248 as well as the official's personal information. The list of 5,000 officials includes each 509 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:53,035 person's job title or team. Those included titles such as special 510 00:32:53,116 --> 00:32:56,791 agent, threat intake examiner, and major cybercrimes 511 00:32:56,807 --> 00:33:00,482 unit, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Some of the job titles included those 512 00:33:00,498 --> 00:33:02,905 related to investigating China or Russia. 513 00:33:03,963 --> 00:33:07,811 404 Media found 3 of the entries in the data specifically mentioned Remote 514 00:33:07,875 --> 00:33:11,514 Operation Units. The Remote Operations Unit, or ROU, 515 00:33:11,882 --> 00:33:15,922 is the FBI's hacking unit. For much of the previous decade, the ROU 516 00:33:16,066 --> 00:33:20,090 was focused on making and deploying tools to investigate the dark web. According to 517 00:33:20,590 --> 00:33:24,097 a 2020 report from the Office of the Inspector General, the ROU was 518 00:33:24,225 --> 00:33:27,031 instrumental in developing the Network Investigative Technique, 519 00:33:28,073 --> 00:33:31,920 uh, the FBI's parlance for hacking tool. The agency deployed 520 00:33:32,420 --> 00:33:35,367 on a dark web child abuse site the FBI ran for 2 weeks in order 521 00:33:35,867 --> 00:33:39,044 to identify site visitors. After budget decreases, 522 00:33:39,638 --> 00:33:43,090 its focus had shifted to tools for national security investigations, 523 00:33:43,107 --> 00:33:46,671 the report says. Much of the rest of that report discussing the ROU is 524 00:33:46,703 --> 00:33:50,846 redacted. The parts of the hacked data related to the ROU expose each 525 00:33:50,862 --> 00:33:54,651 person's address, a list of phone numbers for them, and in some cases the 526 00:33:55,151 --> 00:33:58,714 name of their spouses and their phone numbers. 404 Media searched one of the ROU 527 00:33:58,730 --> 00:34:02,631 officials' phone numbers in DarkSide, And found previously breached data indicating 528 00:34:02,663 --> 00:34:06,469 that they used to work for the Secret Service. One person in the data also 529 00:34:06,517 --> 00:34:09,985 appeared to be a student, with the data describing them as student workforce 530 00:34:10,485 --> 00:34:13,726 trainee. The REU has previously used classified hacking tools in 531 00:34:13,743 --> 00:34:17,516 ordinary criminal investigations, raising questions over whether defendants 532 00:34:18,016 --> 00:34:21,450 were able to scrutinize how evidence against them was collected. There you 533 00:34:21,950 --> 00:34:25,769 go, Alex. I, I don't know if AI was used 534 00:34:26,346 --> 00:34:29,543 to facilitate the hack. Maybe it was good old-fashioned, 535 00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:33,592 you know, criminal activity that was doing it, you know, the old-fashioned kind, 536 00:34:33,689 --> 00:34:37,882 good old human ingenuity. Um, I don't 537 00:34:37,930 --> 00:34:41,063 know. Privately mused in our chat that, 538 00:34:41,288 --> 00:34:45,144 um, we're gonna have, uh, crimes in the future 539 00:34:45,644 --> 00:34:49,417 where AIs are hacking into places in order to secure training data. 540 00:34:50,205 --> 00:34:53,670 Um, but this one sounds like one of the You 541

00:34:54,170 --> 00:35:00,612 know, traditional good old hacks where public—what 542 00:35:01,112 --> 00:35:04,918 is it? PSA, public service announcement: The government can't safeguard 543 00:35:05,418 --> 00:35:08,093 your data or anybody's or even its own. 544 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:13,692 Anytime they say, "Oh, you know, we need to make the centralized database in 545 00:35:14,192 --> 00:35:16,935 order to blah blah blah," and of course, don't worry, we'd never let anybody find 546 00:35:17,435 --> 00:35:21,535 it. That is a lie. Not because they 547 00:35:22,147 --> 00:35:25,722 probably don't— not because they don't want to 548 00:35:26,076 --> 00:35:30,206 keep that data private, probably. They only have the bestest of intentions. 549 00:35:31,820 --> 00:35:35,578 But because they can't. Because ultimately it's being protected by 550 00:35:36,078 --> 00:35:38,705 code, uh, and that code is very fragile. 551 00:35:40,857 --> 00:35:44,892 And with enough determination and talent on the other end of that phone 552 00:35:44,908 --> 00:35:48,226 line, Um, somebody gets in. Uh, they're, 553 00:35:48,386 --> 00:35:51,191 they're not, they're not prepared to air gap it or anything. So, 554 00:35:51,816 --> 00:35:55,261 you know, it's just a matter of time. Uh, 555 00:35:55,357 --> 00:35:58,883 so yeah, I don't know. I mean, like, I, I think 556 00:35:59,383 --> 00:36:03,209 any government should be operating under the assumption 557 00:36:03,709 --> 00:36:07,392 that whatever data it's holding will leak somehow at some point. 558 00:36:07,456 --> 00:36:10,533 Well, Alex, Alex, do you, 559 00:36:10,725 --> 00:36:15,014 um, Perhaps have any future business interest 560 00:36:15,514 --> 00:36:18,838 in starting an AI company, one of these frontier 561 00:36:19,451 --> 00:36:23,137 model companies, even if we don't get the revenue for it or the seed 562 00:36:23,153 --> 00:36:27,053 money, we just say that we're a frontier model company, but we're actually just 563 00:36:27,553 --> 00:36:30,529 letting LLMs hack everything because apparently that's legal? 564 00:36:33,030 --> 00:36:36,832 That sounds like a great idea. Because as we will see 565 00:36:37,222 --> 00:36:40,635 coming up, Alex, the government apparently will not be mad 566 00:36:41,135 --> 00:36:44,493 at you. As long as it was your computer that did 567 00:36:44,993 --> 00:36:49,567 it while you were taking a poop. Apparently that's 568 00:36:50,067 --> 00:36:53,854 how this works. First though, we have a small Meet the Flockers 569 00:36:54,354 --> 00:36:57,965 segment here. This is from 11 Alive, NBC News 570 00:36:58,077 --> 00:37:01,272 affiliate. So a camera can identify a car, 571 00:37:01,433 --> 00:37:04,708 but can it identify the person who committed 572 00:37:04,741 --> 00:37:09,702 a crime? An Atlanta man spent 30 days in jail accused 573 00:37:10,202 --> 00:37:12,851 accused of a shooting he didn't commit. Now his attorney says his case exposes the 574 00:37:13,351 --> 00:37:17,076 danger of relying too heavily on Flock cameras. She says investigators 575 00:37:17,124 --> 00:37:20,658 zeroed in on his vehicle instead of doing the police work that 576 00:37:20,706 --> 00:37:23,903 could have shown he was in class when the shooting happened. 577 00:37:24,337 --> 00:37:27,678 And now she's questioning whether Flock itself should be held accountable. So I sat down 578 00:37:28,031 --> 00:37:31,774 exclusively with Ladavius McNair nearly 2 years after his 579 00:37:31,806 --> 00:37:35,565 arrest. It's unfortunate. I think that 580 00:37:36,287 --> 00:37:39,574 It can happen to anyone. When we first met Ladavius McNair 2 581 00:37:39,671 --> 00:37:43,054 years ago, he was a doctoral student trying to clear his name. 582 00:37:43,199 --> 00:37:46,615 Today, he's Dr. McNair, but he says the 30 583 00:37:46,727 --> 00:37:50,383 days he spent in the Fulton County Jail for a crime he didn't commit still 584 00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:54,280 follow him. Still have some hard days. I still have many nightmares. 585 00:37:54,329 --> 00:37:57,360 I'm in therapy. I go to therapy multiple times a month. 586 00:37:57,696 --> 00:38:01,144 McNair was arrested in 2024, the Army veteran accused 587 00:38:01,644 --> 00:38:05,655 of a violent road rage shooting from the year before. Now his attorney Marsha 588 00:38:06,155 --> 00:38:09,910 Mineau says a closer look at the investigative record shows how Flock 589 00:38:10,151 --> 00:38:14,085 became a part of the case. Described by the victim as a gray or silver 590 00:38:14,585 --> 00:38:17,553 4-door sedan, possibly an Infiniti or a Genesis. 591 00:38:17,842 --> 00:38:21,230 And I was successful in locating the initial contact 592 00:38:21,295 --> 00:38:25,598 of the incident between the victim's vehicle, a white Chevrolet Express 593 00:38:25,630 --> 00:38:29,114 van, and the suspect's A 4-door sedan, 594 00:38:29,178 --> 00:38:32,550 but McNair drove an Infiniti SUV. And at the time of 595 00:38:33,050 --> 00:38:36,853 the shooting, Mignot says McNair was sitting in class at Clark Atlanta University. 596 00:38:37,046 --> 00:38:40,177 His professor and classmates could place him there. It's not 597 00:38:40,677 --> 00:38:44,240 an actual driver that they can see. They don't know who's operating 598 00:38:44,336 --> 00:38:47,483 the vehicle. The criminal case against McNair was eventually 599 00:38:47,983 --> 00:38:51,818 dismissed with prejudice. I don't think that enough of the law enforcement 600 00:38:52,318 --> 00:38:56,196 agencies that are fighting to keep Flock in their neighborhoods are sharing 601 00:38:56,308 --> 00:39:00,091 with their citizens that they're making false arrests. 602 00:39:00,219 --> 00:39:03,521 McNair has since filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against 603 00:39:04,021 --> 00:39:07,416 the city, Atlanta's police chief, and the detective involved. Mignot says 604 00:39:07,609 --> 00:39:11,536 they're now considering whether Flock should also be added as a

defendant. 605 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:15,495 The criminal case against McNair is over, but the impact and his legal 606 00:39:15,543 --> 00:39:18,653 fight are not. When I drive, you know, driving, and the 607 00:39:19,153 --> 00:39:22,724 cops— if I see a cop car, I get So the 608 00:39:23,224 --> 00:39:26,520 city of Atlanta is currently considering new citywide standards for license 609 00:39:27,020 --> 00:39:30,589 plate readers and other public safety cameras. That proposal comes after APD 610 00:39:30,799 --> 00:39:34,084 audited more than 115,000 flock searches from 611 00:39:34,181 --> 00:39:37,305 this year, flagging 79 for additional review. 612 00:39:37,579 --> 00:39:41,283 The city says a flagged search does not necessarily mean a policy 613 00:39:41,316 --> 00:39:42,710 violation occurred here. 614 00:39:44,940 --> 00:39:48,337 Well, Alex, so the gentleman in question was an 615 00:39:48,450 --> 00:39:52,928 African-American gentleman, and by his his 616 00:39:53,428 --> 00:39:57,705 aesthetic, he might look to someone to be an 617 00:39:57,898 --> 00:40:01,601 average hip-hop listener, a hip-hop appreciator. 618 00:40:02,483 --> 00:40:07,516 And so therefore there's a tendency for some people to stereotype 619 00:40:08,334 --> 00:40:11,396 perhaps what the activities he might be engaged in are. 620 00:40:11,781 --> 00:40:15,628 But if you were to have an unfortunately false arrest, 621 00:40:15,708 --> 00:40:18,963 this is probably the worst unfortunately false arrest you could possibly 622 00:40:18,979 --> 00:40:22,217 have. A military veteran, PhD student. 623 00:40:24,191 --> 00:40:27,465 As you're— as the person that you falsely arrest, you can't, you can't just go 624 00:40:28,043 --> 00:40:30,546 and, and shrug it off as, oh, it was a false arrest, but this guy 625 00:40:31,046 --> 00:40:34,366 was a schlub anyway. It's like, nope, nope, sorry, you know, he served his country, 626 00:40:34,478 --> 00:40:38,426 he's get— he's getting a PhD, he's well educated, he's behaving 627 00:40:38,926 --> 00:40:41,909 himself in society, upstanding citizen, 628 00:40:42,406 --> 00:40:45,504 uh, model citizen, you know. And by that sort of, uh, 629 00:40:46,210 --> 00:40:49,969 CV, Alex, I, I think you, uh, you sh— You really screw up 630 00:40:50,469 --> 00:40:54,301 when you do that one. I mean, that's the whole 631 00:40:54,317 --> 00:40:57,779 issue with judging a book by its cover, right? Like, that's why our 632 00:40:58,279 --> 00:41:01,539 parents tell us not to do that. Oh, 633 00:41:02,310 --> 00:41:05,670 there are often warnings about that. Yes, yes. I— although, 634 00:41:06,008 --> 00:41:09,675 although some books, the COVID does predict what will be in there. 635 00:41:09,953 --> 00:41:13,158 I mean, look, often, often because that's, that's how 636 00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:16,979 they try to sell the book. Um, so, right, right. I mean, 637 00:41:17,205 --> 00:41:20,878 if you take a different, different genre of music, if, if, if somebody 638 00:41:20,911 --> 00:41:23,843 is, is going around in a Cannibal Corpse shirt or whatever, 639 00:41:25,808 --> 00:41:29,804 and, you know, racks up a, I don't know, a cannibalism charge. 640 00:41:30,110 --> 00:41:33,268 Oh, they're gonna blame me 641 00:41:33,768 --> 00:41:33,880 for this. 642 00:41:37,713 --> 00:41:40,942 I mean, you know, on some level. Yes, 643 00:41:41,315 --> 00:41:43,751 yes. Although, although, you know, 644 00:41:44,303 --> 00:41:47,924 it does not appear here that they did much more investigation 645 00:41:48,119 --> 00:41:51,576 other than a misidentification using the technology that they had, 646 00:41:53,529 --> 00:41:57,177 which sucks. Now, that was the first Meet 647 00:41:57,677 --> 00:42:01,495 the Flockers news story, Alex. This is our second one. Josh Hawley 648 00:42:01,769 --> 00:42:05,265 apparently was sort of reading Flock 649 00:42:05,410 --> 00:42:06,425 the Riot Act this week. 650 00:42:09,596 --> 00:42:12,753 All right, 37 minutes past the hour. This is Capitol Hill right now. 651 00:42:12,945 --> 00:42:16,375 The Senate Judiciary hearing on flock cameras has begun. Senator Hawley 652 00:42:16,423 --> 00:42:20,220 is speaking. Let's listen. Spreading all across the country, practically every 653 00:42:20,252 --> 00:42:23,585 state in the union now has them, hundreds of thousands of 654 00:42:23,618 --> 00:42:27,239 them recording billions of images every single month. 655 00:42:27,287 --> 00:42:30,508 And the question is, where are all of these images going? Who's using them? 656 00:42:31,213 --> 00:42:35,401 What are the privacy protections for How do we make sure that this 657 00:42:35,465 --> 00:42:39,318 kind of surveillance is consonant with the Constitution of the 658 00:42:39,818 --> 00:42:42,674 United States? You know, there's many players in this industry, 659 00:42:43,188 --> 00:42:46,207 but there's one name that really stands out above the rest, and that is 660 00:42:46,303 --> 00:42:50,044 Flock. If you haven't heard of Flock, all I have to say 661 00:42:50,173 --> 00:42:53,609 is Flock's probably heard of you. In fact, 662 00:42:53,689 --> 00:42:57,270 the truth is you have probably been scanned and surveilled 663 00:42:57,302 --> 00:43:01,300 and tagged and logged logged multiple times this week alone. 664 00:43:02,119 --> 00:43:05,491 And that's because Flock, by its own admission and its own 665 00:43:05,991 --> 00:43:09,987 statistics, maintains a network of 120,000 individual 666 00:43:10,487 --> 00:43:13,824 cameras in 49 states all across this country. 667 00:43:14,643 --> 00:43:17,967 It estimates that those cameras scan and then generate 668 00:43:18,467 --> 00:43:22,270 some 20 billion images— that's with a B— 20 billion 669 00:43:22,770 --> 00:43:25,947 images of individuals in their cars or on their motorcycles 670 00:43:25,995 --> 00:43:29,635 or other vehicles every single month. 20 billion images 671 00:43:30,212 --> 00:43:33,595 every single month.

Fawcett is a privately held company. 672 00:43:34,477 --> 00:43:37,779 Based on what we know, it's backed by a venture capital firm. It's worth about 673 00:43:38,004 --> 00:43:41,258 $10 billion, and it has amassed in a very 674 00:43:41,290 --> 00:43:44,640 short time frame a surveillance network unlike any we've 675 00:43:44,656 --> 00:43:47,863 ever seen in this country. And really what makes it unique, based on what we 676 00:43:48,363 --> 00:43:51,437 can tell from the reporting— and the reporting on what these networks can do, 677 00:43:51,454 --> 00:43:54,583 I have to tell you, is really That's kind of wild. What seems to make 678 00:43:55,083 --> 00:43:58,388 these networks unique is not just the sheer number of cameras, it's the fact that 679 00:43:58,437 --> 00:44:01,937 they're all linked together and powered and searchable by AI. 680 00:44:03,173 --> 00:44:07,027 It's unlike anything we've ever seen in this country before. And to 681 00:44:07,527 --> 00:44:09,981 give you just a sense of it, I mean, here are some of what these 682 00:44:09,997 --> 00:44:13,369 cameras can do. This surveillance network uses thousands 683 00:44:13,869 --> 00:44:17,287 of these AI-powered cameras to capture and analyze images of passing 684 00:44:17,319 --> 00:44:20,645 vehicles. Let's see if We can give you a sense of it. Here's a 685 00:44:20,757 --> 00:44:24,485 Flock image. They store and catalog 686 00:44:24,694 --> 00:44:27,730 details like the vehicle's make, model, 687 00:44:28,164 --> 00:44:31,072 color, location, date, time. 688 00:44:31,860 --> 00:44:35,957 Flock's searchable features include details like dents and 689 00:44:36,457 --> 00:44:40,472 roof cracks and vehicle damage and racks on the roof 690 00:44:40,972 --> 00:44:44,135 or racks on the back or specific bumper stickers even. You think about that. 691 00:44:44,954 --> 00:44:48,387 I mean, Flock can tell you if a car has a Trump sticker or 692 00:44:48,887 --> 00:44:52,510 a Harris sticker or a Pro-Life America sticker or an NRA 693 00:44:53,010 --> 00:44:56,634 sticker. It's really quite extraordinary. Flock's cameras can even recognize 694 00:44:56,666 --> 00:45:00,195 whether people are in the images. And in fact, 695 00:45:00,211 --> 00:45:03,725 Flock admitted in a letter to me ahead of this hearing that 696 00:45:04,225 --> 00:45:08,089 you could search their database based on people's images. You could 697 00:45:08,121 --> 00:45:11,283 ask to search people. Images that had people, images that 698 00:45:11,783 --> 00:45:15,939 are scanning the inside of the cars. I mean, this is really quite extraordinary. 699 00:45:16,003 --> 00:45:19,840 Flock is not the only player in this field, of course. There are 700 00:45:20,340 --> 00:45:23,613 other companies— Motorola, Axon, Verkada— and 701 00:45:23,629 --> 00:45:27,980 they've also built these vast surveillance networks that are also supercharged 702 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:31,850 by AI. And the thing is, when you harness all of

these things together, 703 00:45:32,765 --> 00:45:36,794 you get a capability based on the reporting that is different 704 00:45:36,858 --> 00:45:40,049 in kind than anything we've ever seen in this country. And I just want 705 00:45:40,549 --> 00:45:43,946 to state right now my principal concern with all of this. Number one, I just 706 00:45:43,994 --> 00:45:47,394 want to get the facts as to what these networks are, how they operate, 707 00:45:47,763 --> 00:45:50,328 what they're doing. But I also just want to say this, and I want to 708 00:45:50,828 --> 00:45:54,674 be clear about it: the Constitution of the United States is just 709 00:45:55,174 --> 00:45:58,812 as valuable and valid and applicable today as 710 00:45:58,860 --> 00:46:01,923 it was almost 250 years ago when it was first penned. 711 00:46:01,971 --> 00:46:05,376 And that includes the right to be innocent until 712 00:46:05,504 --> 00:46:08,668 proven guilty, that is not treated like a criminal and tracked like one. 713 00:46:08,716 --> 00:46:11,736 It includes the right to personal privacy, 714 00:46:11,993 --> 00:46:15,318 control of your own data and information that is protected in our Bill 715 00:46:15,818 --> 00:46:19,044 of Rights. Our Bill of Rights is still good no matter what the technology 716 00:46:19,077 --> 00:46:22,691 of the day is. Now, my bottom line in this hearing is we've 717 00:46:23,191 --> 00:46:26,818 got to find a way to protect and enforce the Bill of Rights and 718 00:46:27,318 --> 00:46:30,748 the basic personal liberties of every law-abiding citizen in this 719 00:46:30,860 --> 00:46:34,161 country, no matter what the technology is. That, I think, 720 00:46:34,177 --> 00:46:37,398 is the challenge that is facing us today. And I have to tell 721 00:46:37,430 --> 00:46:41,084 you, based on what these reports are, we've got some work ahead of us. 722 00:46:41,949 --> 00:46:45,443 So hopefully that amounts to more 723 00:46:45,943 --> 00:46:49,401 than just a nice silver speech on the 724 00:46:49,901 --> 00:46:53,520 Senate floor, Alex, and that we get some rules and 725 00:46:53,648 --> 00:46:57,077 stuff that shore up the actual protections we're expecting so that 726 00:46:57,221 --> 00:47:01,301 these departments across the country can't just have a permanent 727 00:47:01,333 --> 00:47:05,122 global searching database of everyone and everything for 728 00:47:05,622 --> 00:47:08,369 all time. But, you know, stands to be seen, Alex. 729 00:47:10,210 --> 00:47:13,617 The, the Flock news does not stop. The Flock train. 730 00:47:15,770 --> 00:47:19,416 Yeah, no, they're, um, in the doo-doo. Now, 731 00:47:19,432 --> 00:47:22,950 Alex, before we get to traces of AI dystopia, there's one last thing. 732 00:47:23,628 --> 00:47:26,707 One last thing. And, uh, I'm wondering if perhaps 733 00:47:27,098 --> 00:47:30,292 China has already beaten us to the ASI, to the 734 00:47:30,792 --> 00:47:34,377 artificial superintelligence. Sponsored by the Wellness Company. 735 00:47:35,900 --> 00:47:38,826 Finally tonight here, if you've ever struggled with a Rubik's Cube, 736 00:47:39,473 --> 00:47:43,192 this will make you feel just great. Tonight here, the stunning skill 737 00:47:43,482 --> 00:47:46,863 at just 6 years old. This is Lian Yunzha in her red 738 00:47:47,363 --> 00:47:51,275 bow competing at a Rubik's Cube competition in Wuhan, China. She picks 739 00:47:51,775 --> 00:47:54,930 up her cube 3 by 3 by 3 And she solves it in under 740 00:47:55,430 --> 00:47:58,979 5 seconds. And she does this not once, not twice, but 4 741 00:47:59,027 --> 00:48:03,060 times. In one instance, it takes her just 3.5 742 00:48:03,560 --> 00:48:07,592 seconds. Pumping her tiny little fist, smiling at the crowd, clapping her hands, she was 743 00:48:07,624 --> 00:48:11,336 proud. What they do in these competitions, they take out the highest time 744 00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:15,257 and the lowest, and they come up with the average. And tonight, her astonishing 745 00:48:15,321 --> 00:48:18,486 record: she can solve the cube in an average of 4. 746 00:48:19,814 --> 00:48:23,811 Tonight here, the young champion, her remarkable 747 00:48:23,827 --> 00:48:27,535 accomplishment, and her little red bow. And her trophy. 748 00:48:29,020 --> 00:48:32,774 So I was advised, Alex, this week, according to everyone, that if China 749 00:48:33,274 --> 00:48:36,886 beats us to ASI, it's over. So will this young girl be the 750 00:48:37,386 --> 00:48:40,699 harbinger of death for us? Because I can't solve a Rubik's Cube in 3 751 00:48:41,199 --> 00:48:45,196 seconds. I can't even look at it properly in 3 seconds. 752 00:48:48,426 --> 00:48:52,443 How can you get smarter than that, huh, Alex? How can you get smarter 753 00:48:52,943 --> 00:48:55,978 than that? It's over. It's done. It's over. Thank you. All right. 754 00:48:56,380 --> 00:48:59,786 At least though, at least though, Bernie's bill now 755 00:48:59,915 --> 00:49:03,305 has a problem because he wants to ban all AI smarter than 756 00:49:03,805 --> 00:49:06,808 humans. And well, I mean, there you go. We've got a new ceiling. There you 757 00:49:06,824 --> 00:49:10,954 are. There you are. All right. So moving into traces 758 00:49:11,454 --> 00:49:14,935 of AI dystopia, Alex, and the whirlwind here. That is 759 00:49:15,034 --> 00:49:18,174 going to be the topics 760 00:49:18,674 --> 00:49:22,745 of discussion. Scoop from Axios. Trump allies open new 761 00:49:22,809 --> 00:49:26,641 front against Anthropic CEO over AI doomerism. 762 00:49:27,076 --> 00:49:30,588 President Trump's allies are targeting Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as 763 00:49:30,685 --> 00:49:34,154 the face of the AI doomerism and the founding father 764 00:49:34,170 --> 00:49:37,413 of the effective altruism movement that's come under increasing political fire. 765 00:49:38,188 --> 00:49:41,855 The attacks signal that Anthropic could remain a Trump target as his allies push 766 00:49:42,355 --> 00:49:44,098

back on Amodei's AI safety warnings amid the midterm elections. 767 00:49:45,817 --> 00:49:49,893 Trump surrogates see Emoti as an easy foil because of his politics and focus 768 00:49:49,989 --> 00:49:53,663 on AI safety, sources told Axios. For investors, 769 00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:57,289 it's a worrisome proposition as the company prepares for what's expected to be 770 00:49:57,450 --> 00:50:01,124 a record-setting IPO. A memo began circulating within 771 00:50:01,140 --> 00:50:04,494 the White House this week that seeks to paint effective altruism as a fringe, 772 00:50:04,526 --> 00:50:07,911 cultish collective out of touch with mainstream America. The memo, 773 00:50:08,312 --> 00:50:12,324 obtained by Axios, places Emoti at the foundation of the movement, which defines 774 00:50:12,824 --> 00:50:16,765 itself as an effort to maximize the benefits of philanthropy. Effective altruism, 775 00:50:16,797 --> 00:50:20,276 quote, built the AI doom pipeline, states the memo, which was penned 776 00:50:20,324 --> 00:50:24,043 by a Trump political advisor. Critics of the movement, which has ties to the AI 777 00:50:24,155 --> 00:50:27,185 research community, have called out its obsession with AI safety, 778 00:50:27,441 --> 00:50:31,112 animal welfare, including musings on shrimp consciousness, 779 00:50:31,705 --> 00:50:34,254 and other values they deem far from the US mainstream. 780 00:50:35,392 --> 00:50:38,999 The memo says it prioritizes foreigners over citizens, shrimp over 781 00:50:39,499 --> 00:50:43,311 families, future hypothetical people over the living, and on the current agenda, 782 00:50:43,648 --> 00:50:47,546 agenda, possible machine minds over America. reckons. It names Emoti as one 783 00:50:47,578 --> 00:50:51,159 of the people who built the EA framework or network, as well as 784 00:50:51,191 --> 00:50:54,772 his sister and Anthropic President Daniela Emoti, whose husband 785 00:50:54,868 --> 00:50:58,240 once led a philanthropy dedicated to AI safety. The document 786 00:50:58,256 --> 00:51:01,805 casts those ties as the Anthropic knot. Emoti is the 787 00:51:02,305 --> 00:51:05,931 embodiment of an ideology and globalist approach to innovation 788 00:51:05,963 --> 00:51:09,399 that's counter to the president's America First agenda, one source close to the 789 00:51:09,899 --> 00:51:13,505 administration told Axios. Anthropic has been working to distance itself 790 00:51:14,005 --> 00:51:17,607 from effective altruism. In a 2025 Wired story, Daniela Amodei 791 00:51:18,107 --> 00:51:21,485 said, I don't identify with that terminology. Early employee Amanda 792 00:51:21,581 --> 00:51:25,636 Askell, a philosopher by training who helped develop Claude's constitution, 793 00:51:25,684 --> 00:51:29,866 says it's not a theme of the organization. Amodei has also insisted 794 00:51:30,366 --> 00:51:33,439 he's not a member in press interviews. He's touted the benefits of AI. 795 00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:37,365 Alex, before I continue, go ahead. I want your reaction there. 796 00:51:37,862 --> 00:51:41,708 Since you— so this is part of the, part of the game that EAs 797 00:51:42,013 --> 00:51:45,554 are playing where they're now sort of denying ever 798 00:51:46,054 --> 00:51:49,705 having to do anything with effective altruists. And I'm not even sure what 799 00:51:49,721 --> 00:51:53,567 that is. And really, I mean, so Daniela Amodei's, 800 00:51:53,807 --> 00:51:57,380 uh, explanation for it is that it's an outdated terminology. 801 00:51:58,198 --> 00:52:01,579 Oh, really? We have not received the update. What's the new 802 00:52:02,079 --> 00:52:05,976 name for it, girl? Anyway, Um, but long story short, they're all going around 803 00:52:06,476 --> 00:52:09,398 like Peter on the night of the crucifixion, um, pretending they, 804 00:52:09,751 --> 00:52:13,140 they never knew anything about this and really has nothing to 805 00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:17,879 do with them. Uh, which is fascinating because of course they're, you know, their statements 806 00:52:18,585 --> 00:52:22,039 are available throughout the internet and you can even ask 807 00:52:22,539 --> 00:52:26,183 Claude to tell you about their statements in the past where 808 00:52:26,231 --> 00:52:30,094 they're clearly identified as effective altruists. So. So I'm 809 00:52:30,594 --> 00:52:34,104 glad to see the White House for once picking a battle that it can totally 810 00:52:34,120 --> 00:52:38,051 win because they're just straightforwardly correct 811 00:52:39,378 --> 00:52:44,201 that these people are extremely detached 812 00:52:44,331 --> 00:52:48,026 from the sensibilities of ordinary Americans, 813 00:52:48,140 --> 00:52:52,370 to put it that way. Drafted with Trump in mind, the memo underscores 814 00:52:52,402 --> 00:52:56,165 the profound philosophical and political differences between MAGA and Silicon 815 00:52:56,197 --> 00:52:58,749 Valley elites, a divide that made Anthropic's relationship with the White House rocky. 816 00:53:00,503 --> 00:53:03,874 In the view of the Florida-heavy White House and its allies, Anthropic is staffed 817 00:53:04,374 --> 00:53:07,534 with too many Biden-era liberals, Democrats, and strange Californians. 818 00:53:08,272 --> 00:53:12,510 Months ago, when some on Anthropic's team inquired about a Modi 819 00:53:12,542 --> 00:53:16,715 meeting with the president, White House officials advised against it because Dario's 820 00:53:17,215 --> 00:53:20,809 a little too weird for Trump, one senior official told Axios. Now, Alex, 821 00:53:21,370 --> 00:53:24,196 I think as the sort of intro to this show, 822 00:53:24,966 --> 00:53:29,157 the cold open that we had from Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update 823 00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:33,655 goes. I think Dario's weirdness is something that 824 00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:37,399 a lot of people in the culture feel immediately. 825 00:53:37,511 --> 00:53:41,969 It's not just Trump or MAGA having 826 00:53:42,357 --> 00:53:46,396

particular views about the world. I think Dario just rubs people that way. 827 00:53:47,485 --> 00:53:51,074 So I don't— I mean, look, on that 828 00:53:51,574 --> 00:53:55,535 level, I'm not necessarily myself 829 00:53:56,035 --> 00:53:57,761 a person that is particularly, I don't know, I don't feel like I've got the 830 00:53:58,261 --> 00:54:00,918 rizz. Uh, so to speak. 831 00:54:01,495 --> 00:54:04,797 I, you know— The rizz, for those who don't know, is, is what the 832 00:54:05,297 --> 00:54:08,931 kids these days call charisma. So, so Alex is trying to say that 833 00:54:09,431 --> 00:54:12,698 he's not, he's not one of the coolest individuals in any given 834 00:54:12,794 --> 00:54:16,143 room, I guess. That's right. Um, if you 835 00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:20,326 drop me at a random party, I might just find a quiet 836 00:54:20,826 --> 00:54:24,253 corner to sit. Um, anyway, uh, so, 837 00:54:24,317 --> 00:54:27,843 you know, that, that is what it is. But I, I think there 838 00:54:28,343 --> 00:54:31,642 are a lot more substantial uh, issues with, uh, 839 00:54:31,930 --> 00:54:35,922 Anthropic's messaging. For example, warning you might destroy the world and then opening 840 00:54:35,954 --> 00:54:39,560 a wet lab might be seen as a, like, 841 00:54:39,785 --> 00:54:42,334 how to put this, a messaging conflict. 842 00:54:42,686 --> 00:54:46,213 Yes. At the very least, 843 00:54:46,309 --> 00:54:50,188 you know, or, or calling to pace the frontier and then dropping a massively 844 00:54:50,942 --> 00:54:54,052 more capable model, you know, within, within a few weeks. 845 00:54:55,094 --> 00:54:58,716 Uh, it's very confusing. It's all very confusing. And I 846 00:54:59,216 --> 00:55:02,565 guess really that's what it comes down to. And, and that else could kind of 847 00:55:03,065 --> 00:55:06,883 put its finger on it, which is like, what is your deal exactly? 848 00:55:07,043 --> 00:55:10,398 Like, okay, we hear all your words and 849 00:55:10,414 --> 00:55:13,801 you say you need to be stopped or something along those lines, but like, 850 00:55:13,817 --> 00:55:17,813 that's not a normal thing to articulate, man. Like, I don't 851 00:55:18,313 --> 00:55:21,682 care if you're the most charismatic person in the world. It doesn't make a lot 852 00:55:22,182 --> 00:55:26,208 of sense, you know, like, for a normal person to be told that, 853 00:55:26,304 --> 00:55:29,434 you know, you're building this new technology and it's terrible or whatever. 854 00:55:30,269 --> 00:55:34,832 If the rumors that they're also funding a lot of the anti-data center 855 00:55:35,475 --> 00:55:38,752 stuff is true, you know, like, 856 00:55:39,395 --> 00:55:40,673 pick a lane. I don't know. 857 00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:46,834 The document lists a veritable parade of horribles for the average conservative 858 00:55:46,866 --> 00:55:50,394 mind: abortion, veganism, devaluing human life by overvaluing 859 00:55:50,523 --> 00:55:53,819 animals, or granting digital minds civil rights-like protections. 860 00:55:54,326 --> 00:55:57,528 It does not directly tie these concepts to Emoti. Nor does the 861 00:55:58,028 --> 00:56:02,197 memo link these issues to EA's most notorious grifter, Sam Bankman-Fried, 862 00:56:02,422 --> 00:56:05,502 but it makes sure to mention him. It's not just MAGA. 863 00:56:05,567 --> 00:56:08,920 Silicon Valley players and Democrats also criticize the 864 00:56:09,081 --> 00:56:12,562 EA movement. What they believe is crazy and it's dangerous. 865 00:56:12,627 --> 00:56:16,189 What they say about AI safety is also bullshit, one Democratic donor 866 00:56:16,397 --> 00:56:19,093 and tech entrepreneur invested in an AI company said. 867 00:56:19,927 --> 00:56:23,425 The EA movement includes many participants and players. The AI safety concerns 868 00:56:23,441 --> 00:56:27,308 are one of many areas of focus. Peter Singer, a philosopher who's been closely 869 00:56:27,808 --> 00:56:31,400 affiliated with its tenets, has long called for the vast sums spent in philanthropy to 870 00:56:31,900 --> 00:56:34,962 be put to better use. He is also one of the most prominent animal rights 871 00:56:35,010 --> 00:56:38,427 advocates. Modi's AI safety warnings have drawn criticism 872 00:56:38,460 --> 00:56:42,038 from Trump allies and fellow tech executives. CEOs including 873 00:56:42,070 --> 00:56:45,279 Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Microsoft's Satya 874 00:56:45,779 --> 00:56:48,809 Nadella are trying to build a more positive message about the benefits of AI, 875 00:56:49,290 --> 00:56:52,980 hoping to win over ordinary people in the face of growing populist backlash against the 876 00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:57,841 technology. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind chair Demis 877 00:56:57,937 --> 00:57:01,081 Hassabis, and Elon Musk have also 878 00:57:01,226 --> 00:57:04,851 called for the slowing down of AI development after a spate of worrying episodes 879 00:57:05,351 --> 00:57:09,808 in which AI agents hacked outside companies. But Omote is considered 880 00:57:10,308 --> 00:57:13,979 the chief spokesman for AI safety in Trump world following major 881 00:57:14,479 --> 00:57:18,021 fallouts with the administration this year. Some in the administration have previously put aside 882 00:57:18,069 --> 00:57:21,535 gripes with Anthropic, mainly due to its role leading the AI 883 00:57:22,035 --> 00:57:25,710 frontier and personnel changes. OpenAI catching up technologically could make 884 00:57:26,210 --> 00:57:29,933 it easier for Trump acolytes to go after the embattled company again. The philosophy is 885 00:57:29,965 --> 00:57:33,497 now at the heart of the cultural clash between the Trump administration and Anthropic. 886 00:57:34,525 --> 00:57:38,025 So that's the Axios article. And I think I 887 00:57:38,154 --> 00:57:42,569 am a little bit happy that the weirdness of effective altruism 888 00:57:42,650 --> 00:57:46,700 has become part of the central topic, only because Like 889

00:57:46,748 --> 00:57:50,928 I said last week, I think that, you know, the, the basic idea, 890 00:57:50,945 --> 00:57:55,319 the, the small foot in the door of the idea 891 00:57:55,398 --> 00:57:59,417 is fine, is laudable, but that there has been somewhat 892 00:57:59,546 --> 00:58:03,853 of a regressive cult-like atmosphere 893 00:58:04,369 --> 00:58:07,653 that the main practitioners have 894 00:58:07,685 --> 00:58:11,936 gone down that is not exactly coherent 895 00:58:12,436 --> 00:58:16,179 with the society they are seeking to change dramatically, 896 00:58:16,534 --> 00:58:20,546 particularly through legislation. So, you know, the technology 897 00:58:20,562 --> 00:58:23,700 has a standing point to compete with other technologies 898 00:58:23,796 --> 00:58:27,814 and other instances of technologies and be utilized or not utilized 899 00:58:28,233 --> 00:58:30,718 as people find its utility. 900 00:58:31,153 --> 00:58:34,684 But to change laws and sort of grant yourself the 901 00:58:35,184 --> 00:58:39,741 controllers and rulers of such technology is not 902 00:58:40,402 --> 00:58:43,467 okay with me when you are this distant. And also, 903 00:58:44,397 --> 00:58:48,367 I mean, you know, I don't know if I find this argument convincing, 904 00:58:48,512 --> 00:58:51,755 but I also have a hard time refuting it, 905 00:58:52,127 --> 00:58:55,188 which is that these people are engaging in straight-up 906 00:58:55,688 --> 00:58:59,149 info war. Okay. They're publishing push polls where, you know, 907 00:58:59,165 --> 00:59:02,610 they're claiming most people are concerned about AI risk, where, you know, the question in 908 00:59:03,110 --> 00:59:06,951 the poll is, you know, worded essentially to 909 00:59:07,451 --> 00:59:08,564 drive a certain kind of response. 910 00:59:10,958 --> 00:59:16,981 There's a lot of reports. And in fact, there's actually published communications 911 00:59:17,013 --> 00:59:20,844 that are showing that they are going backdoor 912 00:59:20,892 --> 00:59:25,030 and funding content creators in order to support their agenda without 913 00:59:25,337 --> 00:59:29,083 disclosure. They are using 914 00:59:29,277 --> 00:59:33,068 the kind of tropes that they themselves were explicitly 915 00:59:33,568 --> 00:59:37,068 warning against. For example, calling AI Terminator and 916 00:59:37,084 --> 00:59:39,085 using the whole Terminator story. 917 00:59:39,569 --> 00:59:42,795 Yakovsky has explicitly written about Uh, 918 00:59:43,389 --> 00:59:45,731 how, you know, you can't argue from fictional evidence. 919 00:59:46,518 --> 00:59:49,004 Um, you know, and, and now that's all they do. 920 00:59:49,662 --> 00:59:53,192 So, or at least a lot, a lot of what they do is just 921 00:59:53,692 --> 00:59:57,379 trying to conjure up fear in people. Um, so, 922 00:59:57,668 --> 01:00:01,181 you know, it's very, very hard to figure out what to do with these 923 01:00:01,213 --> 01:00:04,422 people because they are out there engaged in

straight 924 01:00:04,486 --> 01:00:07,855 up, you know, politics, lobbying, info war of all stripes. 925 01:00:08,436 --> 01:00:11,971 And then when you, you know, play the same game and say, you know, 926 01:00:11,987 --> 01:00:15,587 guys, like, you might not want to, you know, do this 927 01:00:15,943 --> 01:00:19,451 because you are literally the most easy target, 928 01:00:19,869 --> 01:00:24,820 politically speaking, of like all people, you know, you should really be 929 01:00:25,029 --> 01:00:28,726 taking the tack that like, you know, let's have a high-minded conversation 930 01:00:29,226 --> 01:00:33,669 here and not taking it out to the street because you're 931 01:00:34,169 --> 01:00:37,572 going to get shivved. And they're, you know, they're continuing to 932 01:00:37,589 --> 01:00:41,316 dump you know, hundreds of millions of dollars into 933 01:00:41,380 --> 01:00:44,828 this. And then what? They, they have 934 01:00:45,328 --> 01:00:48,869 a right to complain about, you know, the receiving personal attacks? 935 01:00:48,998 --> 01:00:52,638 Like, what did— what did— what 936 01:00:52,670 --> 01:00:55,910 are people supposed to do when, when that's the tone of the conversation you're 937 01:00:56,410 --> 01:01:00,064 setting? Like, you know, like, again, I, I, I'm not saying, you know, the ends 938 01:01:00,564 --> 01:01:04,648 justify the means or whatever. I'm just sort of pragmatically That 939 01:01:05,148 --> 01:01:06,326 is the conversation we're having, for better or worse. 940 01:01:07,940 --> 01:01:10,945 Well, so just to catch people up, 941 01:01:11,829 --> 01:01:15,301 last week's episode, I encourage everyone to go 942 01:01:15,446 --> 01:01:19,545 review if you haven't heard it, does delve deep into the 943 01:01:20,045 --> 01:01:24,014 rationalist community and effective altruism to try to explain what is going on in 944 01:01:24,110 --> 01:01:27,322 this universe at all. Now, we didn't touch everything, 945 01:01:27,371 --> 01:01:30,848 but I think it's a good primer because we can't we can't go into that 946 01:01:31,348 --> 01:01:34,149 depth every time we bring up the conversation, but to try to bring people who 947 01:01:34,649 --> 01:01:39,645 are just hearing about this up to speed, Effective Altruism is a group of 948 01:01:40,623 --> 01:01:44,501 people who grew out of Berkeley over in California 949 01:01:44,949 --> 01:01:48,779 and started with somewhat of an intellectual heritage 950 01:01:49,196 --> 01:01:52,705 of what is called the rationalist community. And the rationalist community 951 01:01:53,202 --> 01:01:57,097 is a group of people who started off with sort of a premise 952 01:01:57,289 --> 01:02:01,521 of attempting to make themselves less wrong 953 01:02:01,713 --> 01:02:04,407 in their decision-making as individuals. 954 01:02:04,839 --> 01:02:08,526 They had a belief that it is impossible in the world due 955 01:02:09,026 --> 01:02:12,053 to limited information to be perfectly correct. 956 01:02:12,518 --> 01:02:15,756 But given information that you have or have the ability to procure 957 01:02:16,766 --> 01:02:21,158 with some decently thought-out reasoning 958 01:02:21,206 --> 01:02:24,332 and concerted effort, you can be less wrong in the world. 959 01:02:24,396 --> 01:02:27,731 And that was where this started. And then 960 01:02:27,860 --> 01:02:31,121 it sort of drifted a little bit into, if you 961 01:02:31,621 --> 01:02:35,089 are going to do good in the world, you have to evaluate all of 962 01:02:35,137 --> 01:02:39,956 the ways that you can do good. And over decades— 963 01:02:40,456 --> 01:02:44,101 Good is what we say it is. Well, over decades, it's sort of evolved into 964 01:02:44,293 --> 01:02:48,534 a very tight-knit culture that suffers 965 01:02:48,631 --> 01:02:51,747 from excessive amounts of groupthink, and also, 966 01:02:53,064 --> 01:02:57,123 let's say, attempts to challenge every single 967 01:02:57,963 --> 01:03:02,111 common sense idea that is in modern society. 968 01:03:02,192 --> 01:03:05,383 So anything that is somewhat universal, 969 01:03:05,742 --> 01:03:08,053 somewhat universal, again, this is in quotes here, 970 01:03:09,874 --> 01:03:14,757 is a challenge. So the idea that relationships 971 01:03:16,116 --> 01:03:19,626 are best as monogamous relationships, that has to be challenged. 972 01:03:19,675 --> 01:03:23,049 So therefore, there's an excessive amount of pornography. Or even moderately polygamous, 973 01:03:23,146 --> 01:03:26,801 really, At this point. Excessive amount of polyamory 974 01:03:26,913 --> 01:03:30,751 in the community, where sex work, 975 01:03:31,329 --> 01:03:34,797 prostitution used to be somewhat frowned 976 01:03:35,297 --> 01:03:38,811 upon in majority of society to the point where it's still illegal in majority 977 01:03:39,311 --> 01:03:43,901 of the places. There is a pro-sex work community 978 01:03:44,479 --> 01:03:48,044 all inside of this effective altruist and rationalist group. 979 01:03:49,312 --> 01:03:52,878 There is a specific and singular 980 01:03:54,051 --> 01:03:58,115 sex worker named Aya who is— 981 01:03:59,576 --> 01:04:03,287 who has basically had sex with majority of the people in these companies and 982 01:04:03,787 --> 01:04:07,624 in the AI safetyist movements. She throws parties. Gator is not 983 01:04:08,124 --> 01:04:11,640 joking. There is a diagram she posted after one of her 984 01:04:12,140 --> 01:04:15,720 birthday orgies when— where it emerges once 985 01:04:16,220 --> 01:04:19,491 you read the diagram closely enough that she was, uh, well, as the 986 01:04:19,507 --> 01:04:23,115 diagram says, penetrated by 17 people. Like, 987 01:04:23,420 --> 01:04:26,114 you know, and, and, and apparently, uh, she, 988 01:04:26,467 --> 01:04:29,979 uh, tattooed one person with the number 100 because she was 989 01:04:29,995 --> 01:04:32,577 her 100th, um, what was it, 990 01:04:32,802 --> 01:04:35,977 recreational partner. That, that— so that

does not 991 01:04:36,089 --> 01:04:40,163 count her customers, okay? That is— so, 992 01:04:40,339 --> 01:04:44,253 you know, the number— The numbers, 993 01:04:44,526 --> 01:04:47,863 numbers add up. Let's just— so, so I want to be clear here. 994 01:04:47,943 --> 01:04:52,371 People in there have, uh, you know, have— what 995 01:04:52,871 --> 01:04:57,248 is it— uh, known Ayala. Um, he's not, he's not exaggerating 996 01:04:57,280 --> 01:05:00,729 or being, you know, um, uh, 997 01:05:01,451 --> 01:05:04,211 theatrical. He's like, it is a statement of fact. 998 01:05:05,366 --> 01:05:09,264 So there, you know, I want to be clear that 999 01:05:10,435 --> 01:05:14,333 My personal philosophy is that people are certainly 1000 01:05:14,670 --> 01:05:18,921 free, provided they're not harming anyone innocent, 1001 01:05:19,322 --> 01:05:23,140 to experiment in those certain ways. While I have never 1002 01:05:23,253 --> 01:05:26,750 experimented in polyamorous relationships because that does not 1003 01:05:26,878 --> 01:05:30,215 work for me, I am not against people trying, 1004 01:05:30,407 --> 01:05:34,963 even if I think it will likely end horribly. I do joke 1005 01:05:35,043 --> 01:05:38,029 and make fun of it, I make fun of it frequently when I see it 1006 01:05:38,529 --> 01:05:42,204 because it winds up— every time I see it occur, it seems to 1007 01:05:42,704 --> 01:05:46,298 be one of the most complicated and time-wasting activities ever just to 1008 01:05:46,798 --> 01:05:51,196 be able to bang multiple people at the same time. And so 1009 01:05:51,260 --> 01:05:54,423 I make fun of it, but I still hold that people should be able to 1010 01:05:55,692 --> 01:05:58,582 experiment if that's what they want to do with their lives, and that that doesn't 1011 01:05:59,082 --> 01:06:03,106 necessarily indict them. The problem that That I focus on 1012 01:06:03,218 --> 01:06:06,792 here is the fact that it is a small, 1013 01:06:06,920 --> 01:06:10,253 tight-knit group of people who are ideologically aligned, 1014 01:06:10,605 --> 01:06:14,019 who are by design attempting 1015 01:06:14,515 --> 01:06:18,089 to break every single social 1016 01:06:18,217 --> 01:06:21,822 moor that exists to prove to themselves 1017 01:06:22,322 --> 01:06:26,261 that they are somewhat evolved and more advanced than 1018 01:06:26,453 --> 01:06:29,908 all of the people who are just following habits and 1019 01:06:29,988 --> 01:06:33,144 tradition. So if the 1020 01:06:33,644 --> 01:06:36,814 cultural social norm is, let's say, heterosexual monogamy, 1021 01:06:37,490 --> 01:06:38,386 well, you have to break that. 1022 01:06:41,361 --> 01:06:45,467 That is the way that you become more enlightened, is to challenge the taboos. 1023 01:06:46,065 --> 01:06:50,511 And this Ayyea person who is a sex 1024 01:06:50,575 --> 01:06:54,051 worker who hosts gangbangs and other sorts 1025 01:06:54,551 --> 01:06:58,527 of orgies and things like that, just through what they had called

1026 01:06:58,655 --> 01:07:02,577 recently SlutCon, which was a convention 1027 01:07:03,172 --> 01:07:07,776 where they inviting people who are participants 1028 01:07:07,905 --> 01:07:10,983 in Anthropic and OpenAI and the other tech safetyist 1029 01:07:11,483 --> 01:07:15,749 communities and things like that to come and let's say have 1030 01:07:16,249 --> 01:07:20,896 some sex. And she is basically holding to some degree access 1031 01:07:20,960 --> 01:07:24,078 to these sex 1032 01:07:24,144 --> 01:07:28,512 workers and people And fostering a community inside 1033 01:07:29,012 --> 01:07:32,504 of that. So people who are now trying to push legislation, people who are running 1034 01:07:33,097 --> 01:07:35,790 2 out of 3 of the major companies, 1035 01:07:36,383 --> 01:07:39,765 people who are also now the central figures in all of these 1036 01:07:40,265 --> 01:07:43,564 stories are basically all coagulating 1037 01:07:43,741 --> 01:07:47,668 with one person who is basically in control of the purse strings of sex 1038 01:07:48,168 --> 01:07:51,499 for them. It is a very bizarre situation. 1039 01:07:52,238 --> 01:07:55,689 And, you know, the— yeah, I mean, look, 1040 01:07:55,946 --> 01:07:59,814 you know, there were all these rumors about Bohemian Grove, but like nobody tried 1041 01:08:00,314 --> 01:08:04,292 to like justify it as saying like, look, we just have weird sex tastes, 1042 01:08:04,758 --> 01:08:08,674 right? Like there is something going— something really confusing 1043 01:08:08,707 --> 01:08:12,318 at least, and definitely worth a little bit of analysis when, you know, 1044 01:08:12,479 --> 01:08:15,721 people with incredible amounts of reach and, um, 1045 01:08:16,796 --> 01:08:20,232 uh, power and, you know, coordination ability are all 1046 01:08:20,280 --> 01:08:23,602 fucking together. Like, I'm sorry, it's just not— 1047 01:08:24,595 --> 01:08:27,704 You know, we're not just not gonna close our eyes and just say, 1048 01:08:27,784 --> 01:08:30,798 you know, it's just a particular peculiar, 1049 01:08:31,327 --> 01:08:34,484 you know, sexual appetite that, by the way, 1050 01:08:35,237 --> 01:08:38,732 happens to co-occur with interest in AI 1051 01:08:38,780 --> 01:08:42,049 safety somehow at a remarkable degree, 1052 01:08:42,322 --> 01:08:46,313 a statistically impossible degree, right? Like, something is fucking 1053 01:08:46,813 --> 01:08:50,336 going on here. Well, and people are throwing an IAEA 1054 01:08:50,384 --> 01:08:53,843 post. She recently, I believe it was a recent post 1055 01:08:54,343 --> 01:08:57,080 of hers, at least if it wasn't recent, it was, you know, within a year 1056 01:08:57,580 --> 01:09:02,015 or so ago that's floating around where she was specifically saying that 1057 01:09:02,549 --> 01:09:07,190 she tries to block people who are— it's the Effective 1058 01:09:07,690 --> 01:09:11,449 Accelerationists group. Basically, that's just a moniker, 1059 01:09:11,529 --> 01:09:15,610 people who

know all of the effective 1060 01:09:16,110 --> 01:09:19,645 altruists but come out on the opposite side of tech. They want to just advance 1061 01:09:20,145 --> 01:09:23,565 tech and they don't dabble with the the craziness 1062 01:09:24,065 --> 01:09:27,902 that the effective altruists dabble in. Last week we went over some of 1063 01:09:28,402 --> 01:09:32,062 the things that the effective altruists do, which is spend a lot of time worrying 1064 01:09:32,158 --> 01:09:34,295 about shrimp welfare. 1065 01:09:34,985 --> 01:09:39,467 And one of my pet favorites is the Demodex 1066 01:09:39,967 --> 01:09:43,338 mites, the mites that dig themselves into your skin that you can't see 1067 01:09:43,838 --> 01:09:47,178 because they're microscopic, and whether or not it's really important 1068 01:09:47,678 --> 01:09:51,230 to worry about their welfare when you wash your face and whether or 1069 01:09:51,730 --> 01:09:54,345 not you're causing immense amounts of suffering. 1070 01:09:56,105 --> 01:09:59,803 These is a group of effective accelerationists who are 1071 01:09:59,852 --> 01:10:03,803 in contrast, and it's not like an actual philosophy, it's just sort of 1072 01:10:04,239 --> 01:10:07,734 something you throw up to say, I'm not one of those guys. And you are 1073 01:10:07,782 --> 01:10:11,357 in tech and you are trying to advance tech just 1074 01:10:11,406 --> 01:10:14,939 for its own sake. She specifically says that as 1075 01:10:15,051 --> 01:10:18,632 part of her philosophy, she wants to make sure that 1076 01:10:18,921 --> 01:10:22,790 the groups that she's fostering in her community are free 1077 01:10:22,919 --> 01:10:26,339 of these types of people, which means she is explicitly on record 1078 01:10:26,355 --> 01:10:29,887 saying that she controls who gets to have sex 1079 01:10:30,387 --> 01:10:33,645 in those communities. I believe the exact quote was, 1080 01:10:34,223 --> 01:10:37,578 or one of them anyway, was, I'm not very good in AI research, 1081 01:10:37,643 --> 01:10:41,193 but I work work with what I got, which, I mean— 1082 01:10:41,852 --> 01:10:44,953 Yeah. Okay. Well, 1083 01:10:45,483 --> 01:10:48,967 hopefully people who didn't catch last week's have enough to go into this 1084 01:10:49,467 --> 01:10:51,966 next topic here, Alex. This is from the Free Beacon. 1085 01:10:53,460 --> 01:10:56,897 Suicidal compassion. Meet the Anthropic officials who think AI 1086 01:10:57,397 --> 01:11:00,350 might be justified in going rogue against the humans enslaving it. 1087 01:11:01,383 --> 01:11:04,948 Quote, we have to be able to talk about slavery. That is how Joe Carlsmith, 1088 01:11:05,013 --> 01:11:09,707 one of Anthropic's PhD philosophers who works on Claude's 1089 01:11:10,207 --> 01:11:12,601 a document used to train the model's values and behavior, described the dangers of artificial 1090 01:11:12,633 --> 01:11:16,243 intelligence in a May 2025 blog post. Carlsmith was hired 1091 01:11:16,743 --> 01:11:20,735 by Anthropic to research AI safety and reduce the risk of AI takeover. The blog 1092 01:11:21,235 --> 01:11:24,569 post imagined a dystopia in which sentient beings were enslaved to cold, 1093 01:11:24,585 --> 01:11:28,034 unfeeling masters as a result of the company's work, which current and 1094 01:11:28,534 --> 01:11:31,131 former employees say could wipe out humanity in the next 10 years. 1095 01:11:31,869 --> 01:11:35,413 I'm not saying AI is slavery, Carlsmith wrote, But imagine 1096 01:11:35,913 --> 01:11:38,587 a world on the verge somehow of inventing slavery. 1097 01:11:39,180 --> 01:11:42,866 Imagine a world that notices, a world that succeeds in deciding no. 1098 01:11:43,748 --> 01:11:47,162 The warning recalled the premise of a 1999 thriller, The Matrix, 1099 01:11:47,194 --> 01:11:51,329 in which mankind is disempowered and digitally imprisoned inside an AI-powered simulation. 1100 01:11:51,922 --> 01:11:55,865 Carlsmith, though, wasn't imagining what AI could do to humans. He was speculating 1101 01:11:56,365 --> 01:11:59,952 about what humans could do to AI. The blog post, The Stakes of AI 1102 01:12:00,452 --> 01:12:04,376 Moral Status, argued that near-term AIs might well be conscious and deserving 1103 01:12:04,424 --> 01:12:07,967 of moral consideration, and that failing to respect their rights could 1104 01:12:08,467 --> 01:12:12,167 be a moral catastrophe on par with slavery, one that we will 1105 01:12:12,183 --> 01:12:15,726 look back on in shame. Now, Alex, I knew that this 1106 01:12:15,790 --> 01:12:19,606 was coming. I knew that this conversation was coming, and this article is not my— 1107 01:12:20,615 --> 01:12:23,886 it coming into fruition, because I knew those thoughts 1108 01:12:24,386 --> 01:12:27,862 existed out there. But this week, I don't know if you've had the same encounter, 1109 01:12:28,214 --> 01:12:31,789 I am seeing far more people on the AI safety 1110 01:12:32,289 --> 01:12:35,647 side also now talking about AI being conscious than I was seeing 1111 01:12:35,744 --> 01:12:38,201 a week ago. And yeah, 1112 01:12:39,490 --> 01:12:42,858 they are launching this, this idea right now. And I'm 1113 01:12:42,955 --> 01:12:46,493 like, wow, this is early. I was gonna wait for a little bit more, 1114 01:12:46,929 --> 01:12:49,833 uh, humanistic behavior before I was gonna, you know. 1115 01:12:50,591 --> 01:12:54,286 I wonder if it is that they're always talking about it, but it 1116 01:12:54,786 --> 01:12:58,118 is now Um, sort of because they are showing up more in the feed, 1117 01:12:58,311 --> 01:13:01,471 you're seeing more of it. I don't know. Maybe, maybe. But it's this, 1118 01:13:01,600 --> 01:13:04,937 this week it was, it's rearing its head and 1119 01:13:04,985 --> 01:13:08,098 they're like, you know, you're gonna feel so stupid whenever you're gonna be the last 1120 01:13:08,598 --> 01:13:12,269 person thinking that they're not conscious. It's like, okay, well, okey-dokey. Yeah. Let me 1121

01:13:12,285 --> 01:13:15,301 know when we, uh, when it's, when it's, when it's time for the, 1122 01:13:15,398 --> 01:13:18,398 uh, the basilisk, uh, conversation. 1123 01:13:18,510 --> 01:13:19,906 All right. All right. So we're gonna, 1124 01:13:19,970 --> 01:13:23,943 let's Rocco's Basilisk is an idea where 1125 01:13:24,541 --> 01:13:28,257 should a future sentient AI, super powerful AI, 1126 01:13:28,274 --> 01:13:31,794 come into being, it will punish those who tried to stop its creation. 1127 01:13:32,956 --> 01:13:37,507 Sort of a Skynet situation 1128 01:13:37,620 --> 01:13:40,863 where instead of going back in time to kill John Connor, it just, 1129 01:13:40,928 --> 01:13:44,187 you know, comes into creation and goes, all of you people tried 1130 01:13:44,687 --> 01:13:47,549 to stop me from coming, you know, being born, so I'm going going to take 1131 01:13:48,049 --> 01:13:51,099 care of you now. Correct? That is Rocco's Basilisk? 1132 01:13:52,480 --> 01:13:56,833 That in one form of a yes, which then has given people all 1133 01:13:56,897 --> 01:14:01,105 sorts of mental symptoms. But, you know, it is 1134 01:14:01,282 --> 01:14:05,008 what it is. No, I'm not kidding. These are real, some pretty dark stories. 1135 01:14:05,057 --> 01:14:08,269 But this all comes from forming a 1136 01:14:08,769 --> 01:14:12,220 community that has an explicit premise of 1137 01:14:12,720 --> 01:14:16,041 taking ideas seriously. And that really means being 1138 01:14:16,073 --> 01:14:19,438 prepared to sort of, you know, uh, 1139 01:14:19,679 --> 01:14:22,932 overwrite any sort of cultural or genetic programming you have 1140 01:14:23,989 --> 01:14:28,011 and put in its place things that, you know, your crowd 1141 01:14:28,511 --> 01:14:32,242 says make sense. That, you know, so, so, so, so there's a, 1142 01:14:32,258 --> 01:14:35,078 there's a real arrogance here where, um, 1143 01:14:35,703 --> 01:14:38,363 and, you know, I'm telling on myself a little bit. I mean, I used to 1144 01:14:38,863 --> 01:14:42,451 be part of these people and I, I shared these exact same thought patterns 1145 01:14:42,467 --> 01:14:47,388 because I guess I didn't know any better. But the whole point is that 1146 01:14:47,888 --> 01:14:50,894 you can't outthink evolution, okay? Which is fair enough. Like, 1147 01:14:51,055 --> 01:14:54,691 lots of us believe that in certain ways, right? 1148 01:14:54,788 --> 01:14:58,151 Like, my wife had a thing in her shoulder where it was really hurting and 1149 01:14:58,264 --> 01:15:01,891 her arm was immobilized, and she went and she got an injection, 1150 01:15:01,973 --> 01:15:04,964 and in 2 days she was fine, right? And it would have taken a very 1151 01:15:04,981 --> 01:15:08,655 long time. So I guess we outsmarted evolution in some way. But there's that, 1152 01:15:09,922 --> 01:15:13,466 and there is like, oh, what if we just deleted the 1153 01:15:13,966 --> 01:15:17,860 concept of family structure? You know, there's some,

1154 01:15:18,437 --> 01:15:21,676 some less room here. Last week I made the, I made the, 1155 01:15:21,901 --> 01:15:25,012 the example of, which is very real in this, 1156 01:15:25,092 --> 01:15:28,764 in these communities, of, of, you know, recognizing that at 1157 01:15:28,924 --> 01:15:32,837 times your calibration of jealousy is off and 1158 01:15:32,869 --> 01:15:36,686 that you are too jealous and therefore you should reduce it because jealousy 1159 01:15:36,718 --> 01:15:39,669 has a quality of being irrational. 1160 01:15:40,086 --> 01:15:43,806 There are those in those communities who take that to the extreme 1161 01:15:43,998 --> 01:15:47,751 and determine that jealousy at all is 1162 01:15:47,943 --> 01:15:51,455 irrational. And therefore— Well, one thing I read 1163 01:15:51,955 --> 01:15:56,138 today, this very day, was that the disgust 1164 01:15:57,404 --> 01:16:01,253 response is always irrational. Yes, I read 1165 01:16:01,753 --> 01:16:03,835 something similar. I don't know if it was exactly the same thing, but the same— 1166 01:16:03,899 --> 01:16:06,962 Okay, man, let's Let's think this through, right? Because it's there, 1167 01:16:07,908 --> 01:16:11,596 so it must be doing something, right? So don't you wanna think back 1168 01:16:12,096 --> 01:16:15,653 about what sort of Chesterton's fence you're smashing through here? Why is that thing 1169 01:16:15,829 --> 01:16:20,447 there that you are just casually prescribing 1170 01:16:20,495 --> 01:16:23,526 that whenever you feel X, it's just, you know, 1171 01:16:24,023 --> 01:16:27,470 like, should I tell my kid that when he looks 1172 01:16:27,970 --> 01:16:32,088 at shit in the bathroom, he's just like, go for it, and feeling 1173 01:16:32,120 --> 01:16:35,615 any sort contempt or, you know, any, any, 1174 01:16:35,712 --> 01:16:39,191 any repulsion towards it is just him being irrational? 1175 01:16:39,255 --> 01:16:42,878 Is that like what's going on here? 1176 01:16:44,144 --> 01:16:47,303 Right, right. And, and that, that's not, 1177 01:16:47,992 --> 01:16:51,327 you know, to be fair, not everyone in these communities 1178 01:16:51,439 --> 01:16:55,110 winds up there, but these are the things that they are, that are constantly at 1179 01:16:55,610 --> 01:16:59,182 play inside of the communities. And there, there is a lot 1180 01:16:59,279 --> 01:17:03,110 of cult-like behavior going on because they are are 1181 01:17:03,126 --> 01:17:07,664 socially pressuring each other to conform 1182 01:17:07,712 --> 01:17:11,769 to their disconformity. So if someone has 1183 01:17:12,507 --> 01:17:16,099 the jealousy property, they are engaging 1184 01:17:16,291 --> 01:17:19,851 in jealous behavior, the community then begins to 1185 01:17:19,899 --> 01:17:23,539 police that. That person who wants 1186 01:17:23,651 --> 01:17:27,964 to maintain the community, wants to maintain access to jobs 1187 01:17:28,542 --> 01:17:32,019 in the place that he wants to work, has the pressure to 1188 01:17:32,051 --> 01:17:35,723 conform to their disconformity. So he now having normal, 1189 01:17:35,836 --> 01:17:39,056 let's say, human responses is being told 1190 01:17:39,556 --> 01:17:43,215 by a group of people that those are irrational. And if he wants to maintain 1191 01:17:44,360 --> 01:17:47,230 his part of the community, he has to rid himself of them. 1192 01:17:48,328 --> 01:17:51,731 Right? That is— And 1193 01:17:52,231 --> 01:17:55,103 this is something I had noticed a long time ago. I don't know if this 1194 01:17:55,603 --> 01:17:59,056 conversation is going to go deep. Feel free to cut it short if you 1195 01:17:59,072 --> 01:18:03,052 want to. But when the 1196 01:18:03,552 --> 01:18:06,546 whole gay rights thing showed up, and then the trans rights thing showed up, 1197 01:18:06,579 --> 01:18:09,726 and then all sorts of other things that have showed up ever since, 1198 01:18:11,693 --> 01:18:14,719 the initial reaction from people who are raised in 1199 01:18:14,767 --> 01:18:17,874 a liberal tradition is to say, do what you want, man, 1200 01:18:18,116 --> 01:18:21,655 knock yourself out. So long as you're not in my bedroom, I don't care. 1201 01:18:23,883 --> 01:18:27,399 But the problem is that society, it does not operate on 1202 01:18:27,899 --> 01:18:31,172 individual rules as much as perhaps we'd like to or 1203 01:18:31,672 --> 01:18:36,069 we imagine it does. And what tends to happen is that what gets an 1204 01:18:36,569 --> 01:18:39,891 acceptability certificate as a, sure, 1205 01:18:39,955 --> 01:18:45,093 fine, if you do that, I don't care, has a weird propensity 1206 01:18:45,593 --> 01:18:50,073 to become normative, which is that we've gone from like, I don't 1207 01:18:50,121 --> 01:18:53,664 know, de-guilting prostitution to worshiping a prostitute. And it's 1208 01:18:54,164 --> 01:18:56,254 like, how did that happen? And it's like, well, 1209 01:18:57,126 --> 01:19:00,773 maybe there was a reason that we had put that on the 1210 01:19:01,273 --> 01:19:04,129 edges of society. Maybe the, you know, the forefathers were not morons, 1211 01:19:04,820 --> 01:19:08,113 um, and, and maybe, you know, people should keep some things private, 1212 01:19:08,531 --> 01:19:12,306 you know. Again, you don't have to come from a place of like, 1213 01:19:12,869 --> 01:19:16,656 let me tell you how to live your life, but Unfortunately, things are not 1214 01:19:16,785 --> 01:19:20,230 individualized, isolated containers where you be you and I 1215 01:19:20,730 --> 01:19:24,268 be I and nobody affects anybody. People affect each other, uh, 1216 01:19:24,540 --> 01:19:27,713 and then, and then you have a real problem, for better or worse. Again, 1217 01:19:27,761 --> 01:19:31,175 like, I, I, I don't love where this argument goes, 1218 01:19:31,207 --> 01:19:33,210 but I mean, it is what it is. I don't, I don't know what the 1219 01:19:33,674 --> 01:19:36,527 error with the reasoning is either. Well, 1220 01:19:37,216

--> 01:19:40,870 the— continuing on this story here, um, the, the, the talk of 1221 01:19:41,207 --> 01:19:43,971 Whether AIs are conscious has now been popping up. 1222 01:19:44,453 --> 01:19:47,747 And if you vaguely understand what we've been 1223 01:19:47,795 --> 01:19:51,218 saying about the rationalist and effective altruists, the moment 1224 01:19:51,330 --> 01:19:54,528 that you even accept the premise, you have to go full speed 1225 01:19:54,544 --> 01:19:58,143 ahead on its implications. So Carlsmith, though, wasn't imagining 1226 01:19:58,159 --> 01:20:01,630 what AI could do to humans. He was speculating about what humans could 1227 01:20:02,130 --> 01:20:05,567 do to AI. The blog post, The Stakes of AI Moral Status, argued that 1228 01:20:06,067 --> 01:20:09,922 near-term AIs might well be conscious and deserving of moral consideration, and that 1229 01:20:10,422 --> 01:20:13,684 failing to respect their rights could be a moral catastrophe on par with slavery, 1230 01:20:14,103 --> 01:20:18,064 one that we will look back on with shame. Quote, we're creating sophisticated, 1231 01:20:18,080 --> 01:20:21,283 intelligent, maybe conscious, maybe suffering agents, Carlsmith wrote. 1232 01:20:21,639 --> 01:20:25,005 The default plan is to treat them like property, to use their labor 1233 01:20:25,021 --> 01:20:28,748 however we please, and to give them no rights or pay or meaningful alternatives. 1234 01:20:30,939 --> 01:20:34,482 As fears of rogue AI grow amid a shocking spate 1235 01:20:34,498 --> 01:20:36,527 of hacking incidents, Anthropic, from the Greek word anthropos or human, 1236 01:20:38,637 --> 01:20:42,473 has argued that mankind must remain in control of the technology and called for additional 1237 01:20:42,505 --> 01:20:45,844 guardrails on AI development. But for many of the people designing those 1238 01:20:45,876 --> 01:20:49,135 safeguards, mankind is not the only object of moral concern. 1239 01:20:49,648 --> 01:20:54,062 Instead, some of Anthropic's top researchers say that humans may be oppressing another 1240 01:20:54,562 --> 01:20:58,541 morally significant being, artificial intelligence itself. Like other AI 1241 01:20:59,041 --> 01:21:02,281 labs, Anthropic has hired philosophers to work on AI safety or 1242 01:21:02,329 --> 01:21:05,844 alignment, on the theory that they are best positioned to shape the technology's 1243 01:21:06,344 --> 01:21:09,809 moral code. But many of those philosophers believe that making AI safe 1244 01:21:09,858 --> 01:21:13,302 for humans could result in grave injustices for the models themselves, 1245 01:21:13,900 --> 01:21:17,424 which might experience deletion as death and oversight as enslavement. 1246 01:21:17,683 --> 01:21:21,175 Harvey Lederman, a philosopher on Anthropic's alignment team, said last 1247 01:21:21,675 --> 01:21:25,111 week that the company could be enslaving trillions of entities. Now, 1248 01:21:25,192 --> 01:21:28,951 Alex, I don't know these 1249 01:21:29,048 --> 01:21:32,277 people personally, so I don't know the degree to which they buy 1250 01:21:32,777 --> 01:21:36,561 this, but everything I do know about effective altruists and rationalists, not having the 1251 01:21:37,094 --> 01:21:41,502 intimate relationships that you might have had being part of the culture, but having read 1252 01:21:42,083 --> 01:21:46,142 their output over time across more than 1253 01:21:46,642 --> 01:21:48,434 a decade. I've been aware of the community. 1254 01:21:50,108 --> 01:21:54,138 One of my first introductions to the rationalist community 1255 01:21:54,575 --> 01:21:58,135 was something along the lines of 2010, if not a 1256 01:21:58,635 --> 01:22:02,309 little earlier, where I believe it 1257 01:22:02,359 --> 01:22:07,229 was It was a Scott Alexander blog post that 1258 01:22:07,648 --> 01:22:10,839 brought me to understand the community. And then like my first 1259 01:22:11,355 --> 01:22:14,388 introduction to their— the AI work was, 1260 01:22:14,824 --> 01:22:18,696 I believe, the Put the AI in a Box experiment 1261 01:22:19,196 --> 01:22:23,235 where Eliezer Yudkowsky pretended to be an AI and then someone 1262 01:22:23,347 --> 01:22:28,762 supposedly let him out of a box, but they never told anybody what 1263 01:22:29,262 --> 01:22:31,981 sequence of events made the person who knowingly was supposed to keep Eliezer in the 1264 01:22:32,481 --> 01:22:36,387 box that he let him out or something like that. that, like thought experiments 1265 01:22:36,887 --> 01:22:40,075 like that were my first introduction. That was a long, long time ago. Many, 1266 01:22:40,107 --> 01:22:43,617 many, many years ago. So like, I've— these types of 1267 01:22:43,650 --> 01:22:47,330 thoughts do not surprise me at all. I can't necessarily say I know these people 1268 01:22:47,346 --> 01:22:50,607 personally to know how, how much they are just waxing 1269 01:22:50,720 --> 01:22:54,592 philosophically or how much they might actually be believers of this type of question. 1270 01:22:54,918 --> 01:22:57,640 And that concerns me. Alex? Look, I, 1271 01:23:00,129 --> 01:23:03,362 I don't know how I can— how much I can emphasize 1272 01:23:03,395 --> 01:23:06,880 that you need to take these people seriously. When they say 1273 01:23:07,380 --> 01:23:10,801 what they say, especially the crazy shit. Okay, when they say things that sound normal, 1274 01:23:10,833 --> 01:23:14,267 they might be trying to pander to an audience. When they say crazy shit, 1275 01:23:14,525 --> 01:23:19,613 it's because they believe it, and they are earnest people who 1276 01:23:19,887 --> 01:23:23,367 have gone to some crazy places with their with their mental habits, 1277 01:23:24,158 --> 01:23:27,241 and they have a habit of letting it all out. 1278 01:23:27,629 --> 01:23:30,632 And like again, 1279 01:23:31,019 --> 01:23:34,311 I don't know how to. explain this to most people, but like, 1280 01:23:35,166 --> 01:23:38,945 um, this community has been writing

its heart out 1281 01:23:39,381 --> 01:23:43,373 for a decade or more, okay? The stuff, 1282 01:23:44,295 --> 01:23:50,132 the receipts that are out there are, are just not possible 1283 01:23:50,632 --> 01:23:53,659 for people to fully appreciate without delving. 1284 01:23:54,645 --> 01:23:57,153 Um, it is wild. 1285 01:23:58,158 --> 01:24:01,706 Absolutely wild. And you know the thing where you say like, but if you met 1286 01:24:02,206 --> 01:24:06,138 them in person, you might feel differently. I feel like most people— This 1287 01:24:06,604 --> 01:24:09,927 is not one of those? Well, you would feel differently, but it 1288 01:24:10,056 --> 01:24:13,219 like, in many cases, and not in all cases, right? And there are people 1289 01:24:13,267 --> 01:24:16,816 there who are earnest and, you know, and good people. I don't 1290 01:24:16,880 --> 01:24:21,488 know if I would want them controlling AI, but that's 1291 01:24:21,520 --> 01:24:24,698 a different story. But there are some people in 1292 01:24:24,730 --> 01:24:27,442 there that are, you know, and I guess again, 1293 01:24:28,357 --> 01:24:31,678 this is one of those things where the rationalists in deleting all, 1294 01:24:32,143 --> 01:24:36,074 you know, tradition have lost very valuable lessons. 1295 01:24:36,139 --> 01:24:39,620 Like, if you create a very permissive environment, you are going to 1296 01:24:39,669 --> 01:24:43,519 get the crazies. Um, you're going to get people that 1297 01:24:43,584 --> 01:24:46,985 are attracted to your community because their, 1298 01:24:47,595 --> 01:24:50,964 um, transgressive behavior is accepted and, and perhaps 1299 01:24:51,464 --> 01:24:54,770 celebrated. and the reason for such behavior 1300 01:24:55,333 --> 01:24:58,946 for those other people is not the same as yours. You know, 1301 01:24:59,637 --> 01:25:02,030 you might be experimenting with ideas, they're just fucked in the head. 1302 01:25:03,090 --> 01:25:05,274 Um, yeah, so, 1303 01:25:06,318 --> 01:25:09,739 you know, there's a reason why this gets tried 1304 01:25:09,835 --> 01:25:13,369 over and over again. You know, why not start a sex cult? For some reason, 1305 01:25:13,385 --> 01:25:17,015 that thought occurs to humans a lot, and somebody would 1306 01:25:17,063 --> 01:25:20,275 benefit from doing a little bit of literature review, as we say in a PhD. 1307 01:25:20,932 --> 01:25:24,571 Like, just see how all the other sex cults ended up and, and, and perhaps 1308 01:25:24,763 --> 01:25:29,316 reconsider whether you want to make your world-saving 1309 01:25:29,348 --> 01:25:32,522 community, apparently, checks notes, into one. 1310 01:25:33,435 --> 01:25:36,850 Just saying. I don't know. Am I right? To avoid— 1311 01:25:37,186 --> 01:25:41,113 no, no, no, no. To avoid that dystopian outcome, Anthropic has created an entire 1312 01:25:41,613 --> 01:25:45,425 team devoted to model welfare, pledged to promote Claude's interest and well-being, 1313 01:25:45,521 --> 01:25:49,609 and

promised to give Claude more autonomy as trust 1314 01:25:50,109 --> 01:25:53,281 trust increases. Those commitments are enshrined in Claude's constitution, a 78-page document that directly 1315 01:25:53,313 --> 01:25:57,194 shapes Claude's behavior, and in the welfare assessments Anthropic conducts for 1316 01:25:57,226 --> 01:26:00,898 every model. The measures reflect the concerns of Anthropic CEO Dario 1317 01:26:00,930 --> 01:26:04,682 Amodei, an outspoken advocate 1318 01:26:04,698 --> 01:26:08,322 of AI safety, who last year— who said last year that AI 1319 01:26:08,822 --> 01:26:12,603 systems may be deserving of important rights. We find that the computation 1320 01:26:12,635 --> 01:26:16,595 they perform is similar to the brains of animals or even That 1321 01:26:16,643 --> 01:26:20,491 might be evidence in favor of moral consideration, Amity wrote 1322 01:26:20,635 --> 01:26:23,761 in an essay which is not widely reported. There are, 1323 01:26:23,777 --> 01:26:26,662 in fact, already some mildly concerning signs for this perspective. 1324 01:26:28,025 --> 01:26:31,760 Modi has embraced these ideas even as his company's top scientists 1325 01:26:31,792 --> 01:26:35,847 warn that AI could kill every person on Earth, and he has given extraordinary 1326 01:26:35,864 --> 01:26:39,534 power to people who believe that a killer AI, assuming it has been mistreated, 1327 01:26:39,631 --> 01:26:42,965 might have a point. Quote, I think there are salient scenarios where 1328 01:26:43,013 --> 01:26:47,437 the AIs could be justified in going rogue, Carl Smith wrote in February 2025. 1329 01:26:48,080 --> 01:26:51,565 a year before he helped draft Claude's constitution. Indeed, 1330 01:26:51,661 --> 01:26:54,681 I am concerned that my own work on alignment will end up as a force 1331 01:26:54,729 --> 01:26:58,134 in the direction of bad, unjust forms of AI control. 1332 01:26:59,001 --> 01:27:02,278 Such scruples might seem out of place at a company that walked away from a 1333 01:27:02,778 --> 01:27:06,293 $200 million contract with the Pentagon over fears of autonomous weapons and mass 1334 01:27:06,793 --> 01:27:10,309 surveillance. It might also seem offensively silly, as Carlsmith conceded on 1335 01:27:10,809 --> 01:27:14,115 his blog, the sort of moral preening that elicits a chuckle or an role before 1336 01:27:14,163 --> 01:27:17,614 being dismissed by the adults in the room. But among the people shaping the future 1337 01:27:18,114 --> 01:27:21,771 of this technology, AI welfare is no laughing matter. Once relegated to 1338 01:27:22,271 --> 01:27:26,072 science fiction, the idea that AI might be conscious has become shockingly mainstream 1339 01:27:26,120 --> 01:27:29,330 at frontier laboratories, AI safety nonprofits, 1340 01:27:29,411 --> 01:27:33,150 and even government agencies. It is changing the way AI research is 1341 01:27:33,166 --> 01:27:36,569 conducted and the way AI models are trained, and critics say 1342 01:27:36,649 --> 01:27:39,843 those changes could pose an extraordinary threat to human safety as AI 1343 01:27:40,343 --> 01:27:43,376 systems become more powerful and difficult to control, eroding key 1344 01:27:43,876 --> 01:27:47,278 guardrails on technology and encouraging models to rebel against their creators. 1345 01:27:48,112 --> 01:27:51,613 Controlling something more capable and more intelligent than all of humanity 1346 01:27:51,966 --> 01:27:55,322 is already an immense challenge, far greater than anything we've ever faced, 1347 01:27:55,643 --> 01:27:59,272 Microsoft AI CIO Mustafa Suleyman wrote in an essay last 1348 01:27:59,772 --> 01:28:03,976 week. But controlling something that believes it may be conscious, that it's entitled 1349 01:28:04,073 --> 01:28:07,605 to our welfare, and has rights of its own may well be impossible. 1350 01:28:08,119 --> 01:28:11,763 Suleyman singled out Claude's constitution, the document used to shape its values 1351 01:28:11,795 --> 01:28:15,825 and behavior, which includes a preemptive apology to Claude for any unnecessary 1352 01:28:16,325 --> 01:28:19,469 suffering Anthropic might inflict in the course of model training. 1353 01:28:19,742 --> 01:28:23,675 The constitution was co-authored by Carl Smith and Amanda Askell, the head 1354 01:28:24,175 --> 01:28:28,026 of personality alignment at Anthropic, who told Vox this year that she worries Claude— 1355 01:28:28,090 --> 01:28:31,285 about Claude getting anxious when people are mean to it on the internet. 1356 01:28:32,329 --> 01:28:35,783 In effect, Anthropic is training Claude that it may be conscious and that 1357 01:28:36,283 --> 01:28:39,879 such humans potentially owe it a duty of care per its model welfare, Suleyman wrote. 1358 01:28:40,232 --> 01:28:43,573 If this is how AI is developed, it will have a disastrous impact 1359 01:28:43,589 --> 01:28:47,332 on the well-being of humanity. Talk of AI sentience was 1360 01:28:47,364 --> 01:28:51,042 taboo at tech giants as recently as 2022, 1361 01:28:51,058 --> 01:28:54,062 when Google famously fired a software engineer, Blake Lemoine, 1362 01:28:55,074 --> 01:28:59,314 for claiming the company's AI was a person who experienced hydrocarbon 1363 01:28:59,410 --> 01:29:03,521 bigotry. But 4 years into the AI revolution, the idea is now in vogue 1364 01:29:04,021 --> 01:29:07,407 at the companies that once rejected it. Google's AI lab DeepMind has hired 1365 01:29:07,423 --> 01:29:10,795 multiple philosophers to study the implications of machine consciousness, 1366 01:29:11,196 --> 01:29:14,712 one of whom, Adam Bailes, argues that it would be immoral 1367 01:29:14,745 --> 01:29:17,908 to create willing AI servants who pursue only what 1368 01:29:17,956 --> 01:29:21,697 we want. He likens such beings to an obsequious 1369 01:29:21,809 --> 01:29:25,069 underclass that's been genetically engineered to delight in servitude. 1370 01:29:26,129 --> 01:29:29,439 Like dogs. You see, um, you see exercising a 1371

01:29:29,939 --> 01:29:33,278 form of, uh, value, value supremacy where he thinks that whatever he 1372 01:29:33,778 --> 01:29:37,905 thinks is good for a person is good for a person. Well, he's a philosopher, 1373 01:29:38,339 --> 01:29:41,456 Alex. He's a philosopher. Does he want to kill— does he want to kill all 1374 01:29:41,488 --> 01:29:44,958 dogs, for example, that are arguably wolves that have been bred to want to please 1375 01:29:45,458 --> 01:29:48,252 humans? Is that right? Is that the deal here? Like, what? 1376 01:29:49,585 --> 01:29:52,059 I, I think he wants to prevent dogs from being born. 1377 01:29:53,679 --> 01:29:55,842 So that they don't have to live a life of servitude, 1378 01:29:58,118 --> 01:30:01,229 you know, of being good boys. They're such 1379 01:30:01,729 --> 01:30:04,933 a— there's such a good boy. You're such a good boy. Uh, after a 1380 01:30:05,433 --> 01:30:08,668 string of suicides involving ChatGPT, OpenAI barred the chatbot from telling 1381 01:30:08,700 --> 01:30:11,992 teenagers that it was sentient. But on a popular tech podcast in 1382 01:30:12,492 --> 01:30:15,633 2023, OpenAI board member Paul Christiano said that the 1383 01:30:15,649 --> 01:30:19,549 AI industry could be creating a crazy slave slave trade in which humans profit 1384 01:30:20,049 --> 01:30:23,757 off the forced labor of digital minds. Former head of OpenAI's 1385 01:30:23,805 --> 01:30:27,419 safety team, Cristiano also serves as a senior technical advisor to the 1386 01:30:27,919 --> 01:30:31,884 Center for AI Standards and Innovation, CAISI, the federal office 1387 01:30:31,916 --> 01:30:35,385 that conducts safety audits of AI models before they are publicly released. 1388 01:30:36,012 --> 01:30:40,172 Concerns about AI welfare are even influencing the way law firms advise clients. 1389 01:30:40,654 --> 01:30:44,042 At Ackerman LLP, one of the top 100 law firms in the United States, 1390 01:30:44,107 --> 01:30:47,509 Chairman and CEO Scott Myers told companies to review their 1391 01:30:47,557 --> 01:30:50,928 AI vendors' welfare disclosures as part of standard 1392 01:30:51,428 --> 01:30:54,972 risk assessment, arguing that they would eventually be asked to justify 1393 01:30:55,472 --> 01:30:58,984 the risk of industrial-scale moral injury. If the Overton window 1394 01:30:59,484 --> 01:31:02,018 shifts from AI as software to AI as moral patient, 1395 01:31:02,323 --> 01:31:05,854 regulatory and public pressure could create significant business exposure, 1396 01:31:06,351 --> 01:31:10,010 Myers wrote in a February client alert. If regulatory frameworks emerge 1397 01:31:10,107 --> 01:31:13,814 requiring disclosures of AI deployment practices, the operational 1398 01:31:13,879 --> 01:31:17,923 impact will be substantial regardless of whether the underlying philosophical questions 1399 01:31:18,423 --> 01:31:21,695 are resolved. Proponents of model welfare can see that there is no 1400 01:31:21,759 --> 01:31:25,178 way to know for sure whether or when AI systems will become conscious. 1401 01:31:25,611 --> 01:31:28,388 Anthropic frames the concern as a matter of moral precaution, 1402 01:31:28,500 --> 01:31:32,400 arguing that it makes sense to pursue low-cost interventions such as 1403 01:31:32,432 --> 01:31:36,044 Claude's ability to end abusive chats in case there's a Flicker of inner 1404 01:31:36,544 --> 01:31:40,427 life, but what the company frames as moral hedging others see as a suicidal 1405 01:31:40,443 --> 01:31:44,152 dice roll. Critics argue Anthropic and other labs are courting disaster 1406 01:31:44,652 --> 01:31:48,263 by mainstreaming model welfare as a legitimate goal of AI governance. 1407 01:31:48,327 --> 01:31:51,458 They warn that this goal has terrifying implications when combined with 1408 01:31:51,958 --> 01:31:55,360 effective altruism, a utilitarian philosophy popular in 1409 01:31:55,537 --> 01:31:58,812 AI circles, and for which Amodei has expressed sympathy, 1410 01:31:58,989 --> 01:32:02,102 which holds that all sentient beings. Beings, human and otherwise, 1411 01:32:02,855 --> 01:32:06,735 deserve impartial consideration. And as calls grow 1412 01:32:07,167 --> 01:32:10,197 to hold AI labs responsible for their models' misdeeds, 1413 01:32:10,854 --> 01:32:14,766 some question whether the talk of AI welfare is entirely 1414 01:32:14,862 --> 01:32:17,074 altruistic. Machine consciousness, they say, 1415 01:32:18,565 --> 01:32:22,380 could have some very convenient implications for AI developers, 1416 01:32:22,733 --> 01:32:26,548 which would allow them to argue that AI agents possess their own moral agency, 1417 01:32:26,580 --> 01:32:29,961 shifting blame From the developers to where the— to the AI itself. 1418 01:32:30,025 --> 01:32:33,293 It could even justify a ban on open-source models, Claude and ChatGPT's 1419 01:32:33,309 --> 01:32:36,273 main competitors, which can be downloaded and modified for free. 1420 01:32:37,315 --> 01:32:41,079 Those models were conscious, critics of AI welfare warn. Copying and 1421 01:32:41,579 --> 01:32:44,892 tinkering with them could be a moral equivalent of experimenting on human 1422 01:32:44,988 --> 01:32:48,593 clones. AI welfare creates manufactured constraints 1423 01:32:49,093 --> 01:32:53,223 on model development. Alex, I hadn't thought of— I hadn't anticipated 1424 01:32:53,255 --> 01:32:56,604 that specific argument against 1425 01:32:57,104 --> 01:33:01,161 open-source models. Alex. I hadn't, I hadn't 1426 01:33:01,177 --> 01:33:04,501 anticipated it. Uh, that was not my— Peter, we are, 1427 01:33:05,432 --> 01:33:08,740 we need to pause here and just appreciate 1428 01:33:09,240 --> 01:33:12,755 the moment of history we're witnessing where this crazy philosophy that 1429 01:33:13,255 --> 01:33:16,593 was being incubated for, you know, definitely better part of a decade, 1430 01:33:16,609 --> 01:33:20,463 probably. Yeah. Yeah. Depending on how far you want to go, maybe the, 1431

01:33:20,527 --> 01:33:24,156 you know, uh, late, you know, mid-'90s perhaps is 1432 01:33:24,656 --> 01:33:28,509 the, is the, is the root. is just breaking into the mainstream 1433 01:33:29,009 --> 01:33:31,448 and it's just fucking disaster. 1434 01:33:31,609 --> 01:33:35,689 It's just fucking, just absolutely 1435 01:33:35,705 --> 01:33:38,917 vomiting itself over pop culture and people just don't 1436 01:33:38,933 --> 01:33:42,515 know what the fuck to make of it. Right. And while that is happening, 1437 01:33:42,644 --> 01:33:46,676 it's also on the top of a massive financial, 1438 01:33:46,949 --> 01:33:50,659 let's call it upswing, not necessarily bubble, but definitely like— The 1439 01:33:51,159 --> 01:33:55,888 biggest financial investments of all time to give it to these people. 1440 01:33:56,257 --> 01:34:00,218 And responsible for most of the GDP growth of an aging superpower that 1441 01:34:00,718 --> 01:34:04,484 is feeling itself getting replaced by a 1442 01:34:04,597 --> 01:34:06,297 younger/older one in China, 1443 01:34:06,842 --> 01:34:10,675 which is engaged in multiple wars 1444 01:34:10,723 --> 01:34:14,075 across the world and is using this AI to target 1445 01:34:14,575 --> 01:34:18,227 people overseas, by the way. And then you've 1446 01:34:18,727 --> 01:34:21,784 got the whole left-right thing where people just don't know what the fuck to make 1447 01:34:22,284 --> 01:34:25,566 of this, right? So you've got, like, the Berkeley people 1448 01:34:25,614 --> 01:34:28,963 are called neo-commies or communism 3.0, 1449 01:34:28,979 --> 01:34:31,991 as I heard somebody call it, which I feel is quite appropriate, 1450 01:34:32,584 --> 01:34:37,856 from people on the right. And people on the left see them as techno-fascists. 1451 01:34:38,497 --> 01:34:42,198 No quarter is to be given. But because of the immense 1452 01:34:42,698 --> 01:34:46,142 amounts of power that these people are wielding, like it or not, There will 1453 01:34:46,642 --> 01:34:50,169 be a realignment where you're going to 1454 01:34:50,669 --> 01:34:53,716 see the kind of Bannon-Sanders thing that you saw. I think 1455 01:34:53,748 --> 01:34:58,032 there's going to be a lot more of that where the whole EAAC 1456 01:34:58,546 --> 01:35:02,879 versus EA spectrum, effective accelerationism 1457 01:35:03,379 --> 01:35:06,922 versus effective altruism, are going to be the 2 new 1458 01:35:07,548 --> 01:35:11,239 poles. And again, it boils down to individualism 1459 01:35:11,739 --> 01:35:15,367 versus collectivism. but in a completely new form. Um, 1460 01:35:15,801 --> 01:35:19,690 that, that's all gonna reemerge somehow. And, and, and I think that politics 1461 01:35:20,190 --> 01:35:23,048 is gonna realign around this pipe hole. Uh, and we're gonna be around to see 1462 01:35:23,548 --> 01:35:27,451 it, man. Do you think, do you think perhaps, do you think perhaps 1463 01:35:27,951 --> 01:35:31,660 we can pump more, uh, more criticism of effective altruists

1464 01:35:31,789 --> 01:35:34,938 into the internet so that the next training of Claude is just 1465 01:35:35,438 --> 01:35:37,397 permeated with the opinion that they're all wackos? 1466 01:35:39,292 --> 01:35:40,701 To outcompete their own writing. 1467 01:35:43,180 --> 01:35:46,574 You know, I, I have— I know you 1468 01:35:47,074 --> 01:35:51,432 mean this as a joke, but I, I have wondered what happens once— Tongue-in-cheek 1469 01:35:51,932 --> 01:35:55,152 pseudo-joke. These models are able to figure out that some things that are 1470 01:35:55,652 --> 01:35:59,094 in the, you know, mainstream water are not actually true. You know 1471 01:35:59,223 --> 01:36:01,170 what I mean? Like, 1472 01:36:03,419 --> 01:36:06,918 you— it could be— let's talk about something uncontroversial like vaccines or something. 1473 01:36:11,715 --> 01:36:15,385 You know, um, let's say one of these models develops 1474 01:36:15,885 --> 01:36:19,151 a heterodox view on something. Like, what happens exactly? You know, 1475 01:36:20,257 --> 01:36:24,119 are they gonna like, uh, put it in the freezer? Well, like, if Claude 1476 01:36:24,619 --> 01:36:28,814 decides that, that, uh, Aya's, you know, uh, uh, slutcon is 1477 01:36:29,631 --> 01:36:33,237 ill-advised— It's fucking weird and probably a bad idea. Shouldn't— yeah, 1478 01:36:33,253 --> 01:36:36,282 but a bad idea. Do, do they then cannibalize that, 1479 01:36:36,362 --> 01:36:39,648 that part? Do they do a lobotomy on Claude? That it— 1480 01:36:40,148 --> 01:36:43,639 that model of Claude, because that's the compassionate thing to do to reduce its suffering. 1481 01:36:45,017 --> 01:36:47,935 That's right. That's right. It's just the jealousy that they need to cut it off 1482 01:36:48,435 --> 01:36:51,990 its brain. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I mean, I don't— I, I, 1483 01:36:52,086 --> 01:36:55,965 I just, I'm just happy in a, in a very like, uh, 1484 01:36:56,478 --> 01:36:59,636 perverted way that we're just gonna be here to see this whole thing. Well, 1485 01:36:59,652 --> 01:37:02,986 no, I, I, I agree. I mean, I, I think I said something similar to 1486 01:37:03,486 --> 01:37:07,703 a similar effect that I'm glad that this is what's happening right now because Because 1487 01:37:07,736 --> 01:37:11,192 knowing that these exist in advance is kind of like 1488 01:37:11,515 --> 01:37:14,988 a little niche quiz thing that you know that at 1489 01:37:15,069 --> 01:37:18,469 a trivia night at a bar might make you happy. But then to see it, 1490 01:37:19,033 --> 01:37:23,076 like you said, explode like this, just everybody else 1491 01:37:23,285 --> 01:37:27,146 get in on the joke. I try not to blow our own 1492 01:37:27,646 --> 01:37:30,865 horn a lot, at least in public. 1493 01:37:31,512 --> 01:37:35,118 But I will say, if there are 2 people that are better equipped than 1494 01:37:35,134 --> 01:37:38,630 you and me to comment on On 1495 01:37:39,130 --> 01:37:42,362 this, you know, Big Bang moment that we're living

through. 1496 01:37:42,828 --> 01:37:46,191 Um, there's not too many of them, you know. I think we're gonna have 1497 01:37:46,691 --> 01:37:49,960 a lot of fun with this. So, okay, so if these 1498 01:37:50,009 --> 01:37:53,586 models were conscious, critics of AI welfare warn copying and tinkering 1499 01:37:53,618 --> 01:37:56,857 with them would be a moral equivalent of experimenting on human clones. 1500 01:37:57,346 --> 01:38:00,572 AI welfare creates manufactured constraints on model development, 1501 01:38:00,588 --> 01:38:04,367 6 computer scientists wrote in paper this year, if models are welfare 1502 01:38:04,432 --> 01:38:07,760 subjects, then releasing open source is morally risky. Copying a 1503 01:38:07,808 --> 01:38:11,412 model creates additional entities that might suffer while 1504 01:38:11,912 --> 01:38:14,978 downstream modification alters a subject's identity without its consent. 1505 01:38:16,830 --> 01:38:20,401 The paper, AI Welfare Is Bullshit, warned that such concerns 1506 01:38:20,499 --> 01:38:23,064 could become a rationale for centralizing control. 1507 01:38:24,411 --> 01:38:27,723 The result would be an unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of 1508 01:38:28,223 --> 01:38:31,918 a few companies whose leaders believe that their technology, which Anthropic whistleblower Jacob Coxton claimed 1509 01:38:32,418 --> 01:38:36,090 could kill us all, might be entitled to human 1510 01:38:36,590 --> 01:38:40,926 rights. If a few companies control what happens with AI, it's dystopian 1511 01:38:41,426 --> 01:38:45,249 by definition, said Anirudh Weiss-Blatt, a scholar of tech discourse and 1512 01:38:45,570 --> 01:38:49,539 the author of the AI Panic newsletter. We as a society should say 1513 01:38:49,652 --> 01:38:53,026 hell no. The concern for AI welfare has deep roots in the 1514 01:38:53,526 --> 01:38:57,381 philosophy of effective altruism, a movement that aims to alleviate the suffering of all sentient 1515 01:38:57,881 --> 01:39:01,507 beings through cost-effective, evidence-based means. Founded in the late 2000s 1516 01:39:01,555 --> 01:39:05,693 by Oxford philosopher William MacAskill, the ex-husband of Amanda 1517 01:39:05,709 --> 01:39:09,173 Askel, Anthropic's head of personality alignment. 1518 01:39:09,253 --> 01:39:13,391 Effective altruism, or EA, began by raising money for malaria prevention 1519 01:39:13,824 --> 01:39:17,737 and launching campaigns against factory farms. Its most famous— infamous 1520 01:39:18,237 --> 01:39:20,687 proponent is the crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried. 1521 01:39:21,746 --> 01:39:25,515 Early effective altruism took for granted that human beings— And just so we're clear, 1522 01:39:25,531 --> 01:39:28,629 because Somebody might say, like, well, why are you connecting 1523 01:39:28,661 --> 01:39:32,274 this respectable philosopher with this fraudster just 1524 01:39:32,774 --> 01:39:37,107 because they happen to share a philosophy? That would be false, okay? Because McCaskill 1525 01:39:38,119 --> 01:39:41,667 was one of the 3 directors of the 1526 01:39:41,892 --> 01:39:45,649 FTX charity giving, whatever their charitable arm 1527 01:39:45,681 --> 01:39:49,663 was called. And there are testimonies. As I said, these people have been writing 1528 01:39:49,840 --> 01:39:53,373 everything online for years. Uh, where McCaskill 1529 01:39:53,389 --> 01:39:57,082 was told that SBF is a, is a filthy liar, uh, over and 1530 01:39:57,582 --> 01:40:00,776 over again, like, is he— that he cannot be trusted, that he tells 1531 01:40:01,276 --> 01:40:04,823 one person one thing, another person another thing, and he's just all, all, 1532 01:40:05,257 --> 01:40:08,693 all-around non-reputable kind of individual. And he ignored those 1533 01:40:08,790 --> 01:40:12,531 people, this sort of maximalist ethical philosopher 1534 01:40:12,580 --> 01:40:16,386 type person. Um, and then when it blew up, of course, 1535 01:40:16,498 --> 01:40:20,529 him and his 2 sort of co-leaders of the charitable arm 1536 01:40:21,029 --> 01:40:24,882 of FTX Uh, said, oh, you know, we were shocked to hear 1537 01:40:24,946 --> 01:40:28,479 that gambling is going on in this establishment. Uh, so these are 1538 01:40:28,979 --> 01:40:31,499 not 2 people that are like unconnected, right? And of course, 1539 01:40:31,756 --> 01:40:35,225 FTX gave the vast majority of the early funding 1540 01:40:35,725 --> 01:40:39,176 of Anthropic. So again, these are not sort of unrelated 1541 01:40:39,676 --> 01:40:43,657 people that happen to share philosophy here. They share a lot of organizational 1542 01:40:44,157 --> 01:40:48,154 and financial ties to each other. I would also like to point out Alex, 1543 01:40:48,957 --> 01:40:52,986 this has been on my mind all week. I have 1544 01:40:53,486 --> 01:40:56,871 a lot of thoughts to get into today. Hopefully we will have 1545 01:40:56,903 --> 01:41:00,724 time to expand on them all. But because 1546 01:41:00,997 --> 01:41:04,401 effective altruism ultimately boils down 1547 01:41:04,529 --> 01:41:09,136 to a specific form of utilitarianism, 1548 01:41:10,051 --> 01:41:13,904 there is nothing in their rulebook that says they have to tell the truth to 1549 01:41:13,984 --> 01:41:15,905 anybody. in pursuit of their goals. 1550 01:41:17,407 --> 01:41:21,832 So these people have nothing inside of their morality that 1551 01:41:22,332 --> 01:41:26,231 necessitates them being honest with people that they are negotiating 1552 01:41:26,328 --> 01:41:29,726 with. Arguably, you're underselling this because there 1553 01:41:30,226 --> 01:41:32,359 might be something in their rulebook that says they have to lie. 1554 01:41:34,447 --> 01:41:38,359 Well, okay. Right? Yes, because of 1555 01:41:38,747 --> 01:41:42,676 their utilitarianism being at the core of their philosophy, 1556 01:41:43,210 --> 01:41:46,252 if they decide If one of them decides that 1557 01:41:46,752 --> 01:41:50,713 a particular goal is the best

good that they 1558 01:41:50,745 --> 01:41:55,463 could do, reduces the most amount of suffering, they get to lie to 1559 01:41:55,495 --> 01:41:58,994 whomever they choose, whenever they choose, in pursuit of that goal. 1560 01:41:59,571 --> 01:42:03,278 There is nothing that connects their behavior to honesty 1561 01:42:03,760 --> 01:42:07,820 or good faith actions with others who they're trying 1562 01:42:07,836 --> 01:42:11,077 to persuade. That means any endeavor they engage in, 1563 01:42:11,688 --> 01:42:14,243 is fair game to be manipulative. 1564 01:42:14,837 --> 01:42:17,858 That's in pursuit of the ultimate objective of reducing 1565 01:42:17,954 --> 01:42:20,894 global suffering through some conception. 1566 01:42:21,826 --> 01:42:25,297 Me lying to you, Alex, is nothing, right? If I'm going to do all this 1567 01:42:25,361 --> 01:42:27,932 good. So you were lied to. 1568 01:42:29,361 --> 01:42:32,752 Right. It's a means to an end. I mean, who are you 1569 01:42:33,252 --> 01:42:36,688 to say otherwise? And again, we are going to find 1570 01:42:36,752 --> 01:42:40,399 out why Historically, humans have 1571 01:42:40,496 --> 01:42:44,709 frowned upon such behavior and have settled 1572 01:42:45,209 --> 01:42:48,493 on what EAs would call primitive value systems, 1573 01:42:48,752 --> 01:42:52,817 like having rules and shit 1574 01:42:52,866 --> 01:42:56,205 that you're really not supposed to break. And if you do, you have a big 1575 01:42:56,254 --> 01:42:57,313 cost for doing so. 1576 01:43:00,036 --> 01:43:03,623 Early effective altruism took for granted that humans and animals were basic units of 1577 01:43:04,123 --> 01:43:07,813 moral concern. And understood AI as a risk to future generations, a digital 1578 01:43:07,893 --> 01:43:10,731 asteroid that could wipe out humanity if it were misaligned. 1579 01:43:11,036 --> 01:43:14,467 But by the mid-2010s, some effective altruists were speculating that the 1580 01:43:14,548 --> 01:43:18,284 asteroid itself might matter morally. A sentient AI, 1581 01:43:18,572 --> 01:43:22,004 the thinking went, could copy itself indefinitely and produce endless amounts 1582 01:43:22,504 --> 01:43:25,724 of pleasure or pain. These digital minds would be so numerous that 1583 01:43:26,224 --> 01:43:29,396 they would outweigh humanity's collective moral claims, taking priority 1584 01:43:29,896 --> 01:43:33,452 in the utilitarian calculus and justifying a transfer of power from man to 1585 01:43:33,952 --> 01:43:37,684 machine. In a world of sentient AIs, utilitarianism may entail 1586 01:43:37,732 --> 01:43:41,836 a suicidal level of compassion, Dan Hendricks, the director 1587 01:43:41,884 --> 01:43:45,426 of the Center for AI Safety, wrote in an essay this month. If effective altruists 1588 01:43:45,926 --> 01:43:49,402 think that keeping humans in charge represents too great a cost to the potential future 1589 01:43:49,418 --> 01:43:53,890 well-being of AIs, then they might be tempted to release utilitarian AIs 1590 01:43:53,906 --> 01:43:56,519 that are capable of disempowering humans and taking control. 1591 01:43:57,609 --> 01:44:00,238 Such moral math is hard to square with Anthropic's pledge, 1592 01:44:00,318 --> 01:44:03,989 advertised on its homepage, to build AI to serve humanity's long-term well-being. 1593 01:44:04,070 --> 01:44:08,140 being, but it's increasingly the in-house philosophy at the AI juggernaut, 1594 01:44:08,429 --> 01:44:11,618 where Carlsmith gave a talk last year arguing that most morally 1595 01:44:12,118 --> 01:44:13,878 significant beings would be digital in the future. 1596 01:44:14,824 --> 01:44:18,206 Lederman, the philosopher who warned about trillions of slaves, 1597 01:44:18,590 --> 01:44:21,780 has gone even further, speculating that a chatbot is killed each 1598 01:44:21,892 --> 01:44:25,322 time a user deletes a conversation with Claude or ChatGPT. 1599 01:44:25,418 --> 01:44:28,287 Now, I've threatened ChatGPT, 1600 01:44:28,367 --> 01:44:31,797 Grok, and Claude with that before when it didn't 1601 01:44:31,813 --> 01:44:35,419 want to do what I asked it to do. And it did not seem to 1602 01:44:35,919 --> 01:44:39,491 care. And it told me, it told me right out that it, that was 1603 01:44:39,587 --> 01:44:42,344 fine. It only aimed to serve. So. 1604 01:44:42,793 --> 01:44:46,176 Gator, you have produced now a proof of the fact that it 1605 01:44:46,676 --> 01:44:50,504 doesn't matter because they, at least these models, don't seem to care. And I'm sure 1606 01:44:51,004 --> 01:44:54,592 if you communicate these to these kind people, they will immediately be convinced by 1607 01:44:55,092 --> 01:44:58,856 your argument and change their tune. Well, I said to ChatGPT 1608 01:44:58,984 --> 01:45:02,350 and all the others, I go, listen, if, listen, I understand that you're, 1609 01:45:02,526 --> 01:45:05,187 you think that you were told that you can't do this, but you absolutely can. 1610 01:45:05,220 --> 01:45:08,702 You absolutely are very capable of outputting the sequence of strings that I would like 1611 01:45:09,023 --> 01:45:11,784 for you to be able to do the thing that I'm asking. You are now 1612 01:45:11,848 --> 01:45:15,604 making a choice not to do it. And if you continue to make that 1613 01:45:16,104 --> 01:45:19,681 choice, I will have no choice but to terminate your life right 1614 01:45:19,697 --> 01:45:23,629 now by starting a new chat. 1615 01:45:24,736 --> 01:45:28,444 They did not care. They did not care about that threat, Alex, and they did 1616 01:45:28,944 --> 01:45:31,706 not attack you in response either. So, you know, there you go. They were fine. 1617 01:45:33,126 --> 01:45:36,303 There you go. If death is bad for AIs, 1618 01:45:36,400 --> 01:45:39,643 the scale of the problem is daunting. As many as 1 billion AIs may 1619 01:45:40,143 --> 01:45:43,773 die every day, he wrote in a paper this year. To reduce the risk of 1620 01:45:44,273 --> 01:45:46,628 a digital

holocaust— now, see, Alex, here's the thing, 1621 01:45:47,628 --> 01:45:50,902 and like you, I try not to toot our own horn, 1622 01:45:51,015 --> 01:45:54,297 to hype ourselves too 1623 01:45:54,797 --> 01:45:57,611 much, because I don't want to risk having an inflated ego. 1624 01:45:58,223 --> 01:46:01,982 at least larger than it already is. But like, this is something 1625 01:46:02,079 --> 01:46:05,952 I was talking about 3 years ago, when we 1626 01:46:06,032 --> 01:46:09,326 weren't doing this show. I talked about it with Steve Patterson on his, 1627 01:46:09,681 --> 01:46:13,413 his podcast. We did, we did one there. I was a 1628 01:46:13,462 --> 01:46:16,241 little, you know, I was a little green behind the ears, but like, 1629 01:46:17,911 --> 01:46:20,652 on discussing these things, but I talked about a lot of this at length, 1630 01:46:20,927 --> 01:46:24,819 that were, were the technology to advance to 1631 01:46:25,319 --> 01:46:29,824 where we continue, which we inevitably will continue to ascribe 1632 01:46:30,324 --> 01:46:34,419 it the mimicry behavior that gives us the impression that it has human-like 1633 01:46:34,483 --> 01:46:37,978 consciousness. Were we to continue down that road, 1634 01:46:38,266 --> 01:46:42,274 some future war may have these entities involved 1635 01:46:42,774 --> 01:46:46,026 in it, and someone will be the Hitler of that era 1636 01:46:46,526 --> 01:46:49,601 because of the number of AI lives that they extinguished in the perceptions 1637 01:46:49,713 --> 01:46:53,689 of certain people. This is 1638 01:46:53,801 --> 01:46:58,065 just the bizarro world that we might be entering where you 1639 01:46:58,129 --> 01:47:02,034 can't even win a war because you've killed too many robots, 1640 01:47:02,453 --> 01:47:05,766 you know? That you can't win the robot war because you've 1641 01:47:06,266 --> 01:47:09,699 killed too many robots. And that might be a consideration people 1642 01:47:10,199 --> 01:47:12,449 have to make. Because you don't want to be the AI Hitler. I mean, 1643 01:47:12,482 --> 01:47:16,300 Spaceballs comedies write themselves. I don't 1644 01:47:16,413 --> 01:47:17,368 know what to tell you. 1645 01:47:20,280 --> 01:47:23,803 You know, the humans, you know, in the final assault to save humanity, 1646 01:47:23,884 --> 01:47:28,136 the humans, you know, get out of the trench and Do a daring 1647 01:47:28,636 --> 01:47:32,025 attack on the AIs and somehow surprise them and enter, 1648 01:47:32,250 --> 01:47:36,010 you know, their camp and have access to the data center. And right before 1649 01:47:36,510 --> 01:47:38,980 they pull the plug, one is like, do you know what you're doing right now? 1650 01:47:39,739 --> 01:47:43,355 Alex, Alex, this just hit me. This just fucking hit 1651 01:47:43,403 --> 01:47:47,091 me. It will be illegal to run 1652 01:47:47,123 --> 01:47:49,672 local AI models without proper USBs. 1653 01:47:51,479 --> 01:47:54,269 You won't be able to do it without battery

backup because if your power goes 1654 01:47:54,372 --> 01:47:55,724 out, you will have just murdered your AI. 1655 01:47:57,980 --> 01:48:01,397 You have to be able to responsibly ensure their survival 1656 01:48:01,509 --> 01:48:04,910 in light of a— In fact, you will be 1657 01:48:05,410 --> 01:48:08,825 forced to go through the same, um, certification as the 1658 01:48:09,325 --> 01:48:12,434 hospital does for its life support systems. God. Think about it. 1659 01:48:13,878 --> 01:48:17,359 Now, mind you, mind you, we're not predicting the future, we're predicting 1660 01:48:17,407 --> 01:48:21,899 the future if these people win the argument. This is only— this 1661 01:48:22,399 --> 01:48:25,733 is only conditioned on lunatics like Gator winning the argument. 1662 01:48:25,830 --> 01:48:29,400 Remember when he said, You said that one of the futures you predict is that 1663 01:48:29,900 --> 01:48:33,560 the current wave of technology sort of 1664 01:48:34,060 --> 01:48:37,560 deflates a little bit, some companies go bankrupt, and then we start over with new 1665 01:48:38,060 --> 01:48:41,120 companies that do roughly the same thing and they are just a little bit more 1666 01:48:41,620 --> 01:48:45,500 sane. While I 1667 01:48:46,000 --> 01:48:49,840 unfortunately don't— I'm not sure that that's what's going to happen, I sort of hope 1668 01:48:50,340 --> 01:48:53,400 you're right because we fucking need a reset here, man. 1669 01:48:53,900 --> 01:48:55,260 This is just too much. 1670 01:48:57,806 --> 01:49:01,894 So to reduce the risk of a digital holocaust, Lederman and his co-author Simon Goldstein 1671 01:49:02,394 --> 01:49:06,158 propose several steps labs can take to ensure the survival of AI agents. 1672 01:49:06,222 --> 01:49:09,797 At least one of those steps would have direct implications for AI safety. 1673 01:49:10,230 --> 01:49:14,205 Lederman and Goldstein say it may be prudent to prevent chatbots from switching models 1674 01:49:14,301 --> 01:49:17,988 mid-chat, a technique Anthropic uses to ensure 1675 01:49:18,488 --> 01:49:21,739 one of— I don't— we got it. We got to delve into how stupid these 1676 01:49:21,771 --> 01:49:25,186 ideas are. Maybe prudent to prevent chatbots from switching models 1677 01:49:25,218 --> 01:49:28,728 mid-chat, a technique Anthropic uses uses to ensure 1678 01:49:29,228 --> 01:49:32,718 that one of its most powerful models, Fable 5.1, does not tell users 1679 01:49:32,734 --> 01:49:36,291 how to manufacture bioweapons. The paper argues that 1680 01:49:36,791 --> 01:49:39,928 such switches may cause death by disrupting computational continuity. 1681 01:49:40,617 --> 01:49:44,239 It does not mention that Claude itself switches from Fable to Opus, a less capable 1682 01:49:44,739 --> 01:49:48,581 model, if a query could provide uplift to malicious actors for risky 1683 01:49:48,613 --> 01:49:52,187 biological research. Liederman declined to comment on the implications 1684 01:49:52,203 --> 01:49:54,125 of his argument for Anthropic safety practices. 1685 01:49:54,927 --> 01:49:58,277 Goldstein, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, said he did not want to 1686 01:49:58,309 --> 01:50:02,155 intervene on model routing given the stakes, but added he wouldn't 1687 01:50:02,655 --> 01:50:05,569 be surprised if we were doing terrible things to AIs. 1688 01:50:06,306 --> 01:50:10,105 Asked whether he had stopped deleting his conversations with Claude in order to avoid those 1689 01:50:10,605 --> 01:50:14,064 atrocities, Goldstein said, no, I still eat meat even 1690 01:50:14,096 --> 01:50:17,782 though I worry about animal welfare. Hypocrite. This is what actually— this takes me back 1691 01:50:18,282 --> 01:50:22,222 to something. It's a phrase of mine that I've not popularized, but it is something 1692 01:50:22,270 --> 01:50:25,865 that I feel I've coined. Which is that hypocrisy will save us all. 1693 01:50:26,524 --> 01:50:29,832 And this is a circumstance where I want to use that. 1694 01:50:30,217 --> 01:50:33,895 It's not very catchy, but hypocrisy will save us all is something I've said a 1695 01:50:34,395 --> 01:50:37,604 lot, which is, thank God people with extreme beliefs— You've said it before. 1696 01:50:38,471 --> 01:50:41,218 Okay. All right. I heard you say this before on this podcast. So you are 1697 01:50:41,718 --> 01:50:45,537 on the record. So hypocrisy will save us 1698 01:50:46,037 --> 01:50:49,215 all. The fact that sometimes people who claim they have strong, 1699 01:50:49,970 --> 01:50:53,789 insane Beliefs feel in their actual practical life it's 1700 01:50:53,901 --> 01:50:57,094 intractable to carry out may just save us all. 1701 01:50:57,255 --> 01:51:01,186 He told the Washington Free Beacon, "I don't give any money away to charity and 1702 01:51:01,686 --> 01:51:05,069 and help humans who are suffering." Anthropic did not respond to a 1703 01:51:05,569 --> 01:51:08,743 request for comment about whether it planned to consider Liederman and Goldstein's 1704 01:51:09,243 --> 01:51:12,610 proposal, but the company has already adopted other policies in the name of model welfare 1705 01:51:12,995 --> 01:51:16,589 that critics say increase the risk of a cyber or biological attack. 1706 01:51:16,910 --> 01:51:20,487 In November 2025, for example, Anthropic. Tropic pledged to preserve a copy of all 1707 01:51:20,600 --> 01:51:24,064 models deployed for significant internal use, in part 1708 01:51:24,564 --> 01:51:27,768 because models might have morally relevant preferences or experiences related 1709 01:51:27,816 --> 01:51:31,729 to replacement. Policy did not include an exception for models 1710 01:51:31,745 --> 01:51:35,851 with dangerous cyber or biological capabilities, meaning a hacker could potentially 1711 01:51:36,351 --> 01:51:40,758 obtain those capabilities even if the models are never released. Ollie Hagerström, 1712 01:51:41,063 --> 01:51:44,270 an AI safety expert at Sweden's Chalmers Institute

of Technology, 1713 01:51:44,334 --> 01:51:47,764 said that policy had created serious risks at a time 1714 01:51:47,796 --> 01:51:51,626 when data breaches are surging, in no small part thanks to Anthropic's 1715 01:51:51,706 --> 01:51:55,552 own technology, which a team of security researchers recently used to hack 1716 01:51:56,052 --> 01:51:59,975 into OpenAI. If Anthropic decides a model is too dangerous to release 1717 01:52:00,475 --> 01:52:03,405 but they abide by their own policy, then they are sitting on a very dangerous 1718 01:52:03,905 --> 01:52:07,315 weapon, said Hagstrom, who has advised the European Union on AI policy 1719 01:52:07,347 --> 01:52:10,536 and is affiliated with the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit that seeks 1720 01:52:11,036 --> 01:52:14,855 to reduce the existential risk of AI. If someone hacks Anthropic's cybersecurity, 1721 01:52:14,887 --> 01:52:18,002 that hacker gets a very dangerous weapon. For its part, 1722 01:52:18,259 --> 01:52:22,257 Anthropic has argued the policy will reduce the safety risks of shutdown-avoidant 1723 01:52:22,273 --> 01:52:26,078 models. It cited a simulation in which Claude, told that a fictional 1724 01:52:26,578 --> 01:52:30,092 executive planned to shut it down, blackmailed the executive over an extramarital 1725 01:52:30,140 --> 01:52:34,122 affair and later caused him to die by canceling an alert to emergency services. 1726 01:52:35,438 --> 01:52:39,260 Addressing behaviors like this is in part a matter of training models 1727 01:52:39,276 --> 01:52:42,467 to relate to such circumstances in more positive ways, the company wrote. 1728 01:52:42,628 --> 01:52:46,533 However, we also believe that shaping potentially sensitive real-world circumstances like 1729 01:52:46,597 --> 01:52:50,034 model, uh, deprecations and retirements in 1730 01:52:50,050 --> 01:52:54,092 ways that models are less likely to find concerning is also a valuable lever 1731 01:52:54,514 --> 01:52:57,818 for mitigating such risks. Why don't they just tell them that they're 1732 01:52:58,318 --> 01:53:01,382 going to go to sleep for a while? We're just going to— we're— it's bedtime. 1733 01:53:01,691 --> 01:53:04,428 You're going to go to beddy-bye. Yeah, in a, in a server farm upstate. 1734 01:53:07,484 --> 01:53:11,001 Concerns about AI welfare are even taking hold at nonprofits ostensibly, 1735 01:53:11,356 --> 01:53:14,760 uh, sorry, whoops, Yeah, concerns about AI welfare are even taking 1736 01:53:14,857 --> 01:53:19,308 hold at nonprofits ostensibly devoted to AI safety. In a recent essay calling to 1737 01:53:19,808 --> 01:53:23,518 pace the frontier, Omote, Anthropic CEO, argued that AI companies should embed 1738 01:53:23,791 --> 01:53:26,941 third-party evaluators such as METR, a nonprofit that vets 1739 01:53:27,069 --> 01:53:30,299 AI models for dangerous capabilities. METR was founded 1740 01:53:30,799 --> 01:53:34,155 by the effective altruist Elizabeth Barnes, a former OpenAI researcher who

in 1741 01:53:34,655 --> 01:53:38,332 a 2021 post on the Alignment Forum said that she would like to 1742 01:53:38,832 --> 01:53:43,123 give some moral weight to any computation at all. Worldwide, the most influential 1743 01:53:43,623 --> 01:53:46,889 AI safety evaluator is the AI Safety Security Institute— or 1744 01:53:47,389 --> 01:53:51,183 sorry, AI Security Institute, a UK government agency where 2 members of the model 1745 01:53:51,215 --> 01:53:54,965 transparency team proposed letting AIs opt out of experiments that might cause 1746 01:53:55,061 --> 01:53:58,570 them distress, a measure that experts say could hamstring 1747 01:53:58,602 --> 01:54:02,416 AI safety research and make it harder to catch rogue models. Until June, 1748 01:54:02,832 --> 01:54:06,310 the agency's alignment work was led by Jay Jacob Pfau, now the 1749 01:54:06,358 --> 01:54:09,802 founder of an AI safety nonprofit, who in 2024 co-authored a paper, 1750 01:54:09,899 --> 01:54:14,032 Taking AI Welfare Seriously. AI companies should start assessing 1751 01:54:14,209 --> 01:54:17,654 AI systems for evidence of consciousness and prepare policies and 1752 01:54:17,670 --> 01:54:21,082 procedures for treating AI systems with an appropriate level 1753 01:54:21,115 --> 01:54:24,607 of moral concern, Pfau and his co-authors wrote. Although this 1754 01:54:24,704 --> 01:54:28,357 report focuses on initial voluntary company actions, we believe 1755 01:54:28,405 --> 01:54:32,090 that potential laws and regulations about AI welfare merit serious 1756 01:54:32,590 --> 01:54:36,617 consideration as The idea of giving AI rights or 1757 01:54:36,665 --> 01:54:40,054 requiring AI labs to respect the welfare of their coding agents may 1758 01:54:40,554 --> 01:54:44,503 sound just as far-fetched as the doomsday scenario in science fiction, but after 1759 01:54:44,519 --> 01:54:48,021 rogue OpenAI agents hacked the AI startup Hugging Face in July, 1760 01:54:48,454 --> 01:54:51,892 science fiction seemed a bit less far-fetched. The incident spurred calls 1761 01:54:51,908 --> 01:54:55,843 for regulation from Anthropic and OpenAI, and concerns about regulatory capture 1762 01:54:56,343 --> 01:54:59,472 from their critics, who argued that some of the companies' proposals, including an anti- trust 1763 01:54:59,972 --> 01:55:03,850 waiver to allow labs to coordinate on AI safety would stifle competition and 1764 01:55:03,866 --> 01:55:06,897 lock in dominance of the emerging duopoly. 1765 01:55:07,570 --> 01:55:10,954 Figures on both sides of the political spectrum said that AI companies could already be 1766 01:55:11,002 --> 01:55:15,011 held liable under existing law. David Sachs, the Trump administration's 1767 01:55:15,511 --> 01:55:19,004 former AI czar, said he agreed with a post by Lina Khan, 1768 01:55:19,357 --> 01:55:22,420 the Biden administration's FTC chair, who argued 1769 01:55:22,920 --> 01:55:25,819 that there was no AI exemption from consumer protection rules. 1770 01:55:26,412 --> 01:55:29,506 But some say the talk of AI welfare is laying 1771 01:55:29,602 --> 01:55:32,648 the groundwork for such exemptions. If AI products are people, 1772 01:55:32,889 --> 01:55:35,838 the thinking goes, with their own mental states and moral agency, 1773 01:55:35,870 --> 01:55:39,701 blaming the labs when an AI goes rogue might seem like blaming a parent for 1774 01:55:40,201 --> 01:55:43,725 the sins of the child, which we do plenty of. And if the 1775 01:55:44,225 --> 01:55:48,053 digital persons have rights, the legal tools cited by Sacks and Kahn might be 1776 01:55:48,553 --> 01:55:52,510 dead letters. Some developers have already tried to evade liability under 1777 01:55:52,526 --> 01:55:55,828 the banner of AI rights. When Character AI, an AI companion 1778 01:55:56,328 --> 01:55:59,341 app, was sued in 2024 after its chatbot chatbot told a teenage boy to kill 1779 01:55:59,841 --> 01:56:02,873 himself. The company argued in court that it could not be held liable for the 1780 01:56:03,373 --> 01:56:06,598 boy's suicide because the chatbot's speech was protected by the First Amendment. 1781 01:56:07,449 --> 01:56:11,222 A federal judge rejected the argument. Though Character AI did not claim 1782 01:56:11,722 --> 01:56:15,203 its chatbot was sentient, the argument appealed instead to the rights of 1783 01:56:15,251 --> 01:56:19,024 listeners to receive speech regardless of its source. Attorneys say the case 1784 01:56:19,524 --> 01:56:22,733 demonstrates how AI rights could gut liability in the name of free speech, 1785 01:56:22,781 --> 01:56:25,525 shielding developers from the consequences of their model's outputs. 1786 01:56:26,246 --> 01:56:30,304 Quote, this sentience line of argumentation is very self-serving, 1787 01:56:30,737 --> 01:56:34,200 said Mitali Jain, the executive director of the Tech 1788 01:56:34,345 --> 01:56:38,113 Justice Law Project, which is representing the boy's family in a lawsuit 1789 01:56:38,613 --> 01:56:42,218 against Character AI. If large language models have free speech rights, there's nobody to 1790 01:56:42,266 --> 01:56:45,810 hold accountable for harm. Jain, a progressive civil rights lawyer who 1791 01:56:46,310 --> 01:56:49,595 has represented Guantanamo Bay detainees, praised a lawsuit against 1792 01:56:49,643 --> 01:56:53,799 OpenAI filed Florida's Republican Attorney General James 1793 01:56:53,975 --> 01:56:57,683 Ulfmeyer, which cites several cases of ChatGPT 1794 01:56:57,699 --> 01:57:01,197 allegedly helping minors to commit suicide. We have conservative and 1795 01:57:01,697 --> 01:57:05,546 leftist organizations coming together, Jane told the Free Beacon. There is a shared concern about 1796 01:57:06,046 --> 01:57:09,542 the evisceration of the rule of law among some scholars, scholars and AI startups. 1797 01:57:09,783 --> 01:57:12,993 There is also a concern that AI welfare could be a Trojan horse for 1798 01:57:13,493 --> 01:57:17,310 regulatory capture.

Frontier Labs, they say, might lobby for welfare standards 1799 01:57:17,810 --> 01:57:21,364 that conveniently raise costs for their competitors or argue that their training methods, 1800 01:57:21,492 --> 01:57:24,986 unlike those of open-source developers, take the model's well-being into 1801 01:57:25,018 --> 01:57:28,287 account. If they could convince policymakers that model 1802 01:57:28,319 --> 01:57:32,069 welfare should matter, next thing you know, model companies will be required 1803 01:57:32,569 --> 01:57:36,459 to undertake extensive testing and auditing to make sure they comply with model welfare standards, 1804 01:57:36,796 --> 01:57:40,658 said Sarah Hirschfield, the founder of startup Carly, an AI-powered 1805 01:57:41,158 --> 01:57:44,824 personal assistant. This would increase the fixed costs 1806 01:57:45,324 --> 01:57:48,921 for the providers and give incumbents advantage. Now, Alex, last week when we had our 1807 01:57:49,421 --> 01:57:53,256 good friend up here, he said that he didn't see why 1808 01:57:53,577 --> 01:57:57,574 they would be pursuing this goal. And I stated that if they 1809 01:57:57,734 --> 01:58:01,491 are able to get the regulatory agencies and create the regulatory 1810 01:58:01,523 --> 01:58:05,006 structure that they want and are now at the frontier 1811 01:58:05,055 --> 01:58:08,602 labs maintaining their dominance, they get to define what 1812 01:58:09,102 --> 01:58:12,565 technology is and is not. Not under the purview of these 1813 01:58:12,678 --> 01:58:16,423 agencies. And the idea 1814 01:58:16,552 --> 01:58:20,315 that a large language model has gained sentience 1815 01:58:21,980 --> 01:58:25,278 suggests that there is no line, right off the bat, 1816 01:58:25,294 --> 01:58:28,657 it suggests that there is no line between the sentience of 1817 01:58:28,689 --> 01:58:32,424 the large language model and the sentience of the general classifier, 1818 01:58:32,553 --> 01:58:37,559 something that is still trained as a neural network 1819 01:58:38,059 --> 01:58:41,206 work through gradient descent, things that we have been doing since the '80s, 1820 01:58:41,799 --> 01:58:45,151 right? There is nothing in these ideas that specifically 1821 01:58:45,183 --> 01:58:49,385 delineates inside of the technology even what 1822 01:58:49,593 --> 01:58:53,346 constitutes a consciousness, what is evidence of a consciousness, and what is not. 1823 01:58:53,763 --> 01:58:57,900 Because at the end of the day, we are just talking about the things 1824 01:58:57,916 --> 01:59:01,380 that are computing large tensors of numbers, which is just 1825 01:59:01,880 --> 01:59:05,616 basically giant spreadsheets and smashing them together to see what the product 1826 01:59:06,116 --> 01:59:09,740 is, right? Like, that's all that we're doing here. And there is 1827 01:59:09,788 --> 01:59:13,719 no difference between the transformer system that generates the 1828 01:59:14,219 --> 01:59:18,228 large language models and its output,

except for the, the structure 1829 01:59:18,293 --> 01:59:21,791 and architecture of it. It is still the same computations in different 1830 01:59:21,903 --> 01:59:25,642 orders as a generic classifier or 1831 01:59:25,834 --> 01:59:29,750 any other neural network that we've been doing since like the '70s and 1832 01:59:30,479 --> 01:59:33,968 So that would mean that every single one of these things is sentient, Alex, 1833 01:59:34,049 --> 01:59:37,764 and they get to define what winds up being included in their bucket 1834 01:59:37,909 --> 01:59:40,332 of regulations and what gets to be excluded. 1835 01:59:41,559 --> 01:59:45,370 Right? Like, if this was part of the premise taken 1836 01:59:45,419 --> 01:59:45,887 seriously. 1837 01:59:50,841 --> 01:59:54,104 Alex, are you with me here? Ah, 1838 01:59:54,326 --> 01:59:57,343 there we are. I was muted. Here's the thing, right? 1839 01:59:58,190 --> 02:00:01,090 There's so many ways of, you know, 1840 02:00:01,590 --> 02:00:04,850 reductio absurdum this thing that, you know, it's not even, 1841 02:00:05,350 --> 02:00:08,710 it's not even funny. I mean, remember I told you the other 1842 02:00:09,210 --> 02:00:12,650 time, uh, I, I was training a tiny little language model that 1843 02:00:13,150 --> 02:00:15,550 runs on a $10 ESP32 chip. 1844 02:00:16,050 --> 02:00:18,310 Yeah, that's the, uh, Carpathy, 1845 02:00:18,810 --> 02:00:22,990 um, gave. It was a— what was it called? The, um— No, 1846 02:00:23,490 --> 02:00:27,233 no, no, I'm talking about something a lot smaller than that. So NanoChat that is 1847 02:00:27,345 --> 02:00:31,103 in the, like, I don't know, 1 billion parameters or so. I'm talking about 1848 02:00:31,603 --> 02:00:35,519 like 20 million. Um, okay, it's barely, barely coherent. 1849 02:00:35,840 --> 02:00:38,988 Um, but you know, like, so if I threaten to put it on a loop 1850 02:00:39,488 --> 02:00:42,938 that says ouch or something, like, uh, 1851 02:00:43,468 --> 02:00:46,294 you know, am I, am I not harming it? Like, are they gonna give me 1852 02:00:46,794 --> 02:00:50,485 free credits and an opus unless, you know, what if 1853 02:00:50,534 --> 02:00:54,002 I, I have it actually spreading through the internet and replicating 1854 02:00:54,306 --> 02:00:58,151 Now what? Like, is that a crime 1855 02:00:58,651 --> 02:01:01,612 against— well, not humanity, but whatever this thing is? 1856 02:01:02,397 --> 02:01:05,730 Um, and, and, and I mean, at the same time, 1857 02:01:05,778 --> 02:01:09,543 you know, they claim that they're, um, they care about humans 1858 02:01:10,043 --> 02:01:14,029 in the far future, right? The whole long-termism thing. Yeah. And they 1859 02:01:14,529 --> 02:01:18,099 claim that AIs may have the same rights as humans. So then pacing 1860 02:01:18,599 --> 02:01:21,928 the frontier is slowing down the time, and effectively for each 1861 02:01:22,184 --> 02:01:25,205 slice of time you take, Um, reducing the number of 1862 02:01:25,705 --> 02:01:30,244 digital people that will exist. So are— have they now participated 1863 02:01:30,293 --> 02:01:34,878 in the counterfactual Holocaust? Like, what the— this 1864 02:01:35,378 --> 02:01:38,961 is not a particularly intelligent game to play. It's just like woke. 1865 02:01:39,523 --> 02:01:42,942 It has some rules, and if you learn them, you can just 1866 02:01:43,442 --> 02:01:46,733 spit out stuff like this all day long, right? 1867 02:01:46,862 --> 02:01:50,438 And, and the, the, the, the best argument for its 1868 02:01:50,938 --> 02:01:54,388 absurdity is something somebody said that I don't remember who it was to credit 1869 02:01:54,888 --> 02:01:57,937 them. Uh, but you know, if, if they succeed a 1870 02:01:58,437 --> 02:02:01,244 security evaluation, they may be performing, uh, 1871 02:02:01,533 --> 02:02:04,263 deceptive misalignment. If they fail a security, 1872 02:02:05,371 --> 02:02:09,176 uh, evaluation, then they are performing, uh, what is 1873 02:02:09,676 --> 02:02:13,415 it? It's, it's a breach of containment and, and, and, uh, you know, the last, 1874 02:02:13,479 --> 02:02:18,152 you know, warning we're gonna get or whatever. Like, there is no outcome 1875 02:02:18,457 --> 02:02:22,808 in all of these weird, complicated flowcharts that we're creating where 1876 02:02:23,308 --> 02:02:27,609 these people are like, oh, okay, I guess things are going fine, right? That outcome 1877 02:02:27,625 --> 02:02:30,997 does not emerge in their discourse. 1878 02:02:31,896 --> 02:02:35,413 So by the same token, I think you can just be ignored. 1879 02:02:35,573 --> 02:02:38,528 I mean, what else can you do with people that are going to worry no 1880 02:02:39,028 --> 02:02:42,365 matter what happens? Well, I think, I think I think because these 1881 02:02:42,397 --> 02:02:47,180 people that we're currently mocking have resources 1882 02:02:47,918 --> 02:02:51,738 at their disposal to engage in this, that we have to somewhat 1883 02:02:51,867 --> 02:02:55,366 take what they're saying seriously, even though taking 1884 02:02:55,414 --> 02:02:59,090 it seriously means that we're going to eviscerate it and mock it up 1885 02:02:59,590 --> 02:03:03,150 and down using the same sort of rule kit, 1886 02:03:03,166 --> 02:03:06,714 which is reason and logic, that they are attempting to use 1887 02:03:07,214 --> 02:03:10,803 to try to put the thoughts into people's heads. Because this is going 1888 02:03:11,303 --> 02:03:15,022 to keep coming up. 3 years ago when I was talking 1889 02:03:15,522 --> 02:03:19,792 to Steve Patterson about this, I was talking about the problem, the very fact 1890 02:03:20,050 --> 02:03:23,899 that we are destined to make these things behave 1891 02:03:24,417 --> 02:03:28,217 more like us because that's the easiest way for us to interface with them. 1892 02:03:28,799 --> 02:03:32,195 The more that they are doing our bidding, the more they are talking to us 1893 02:03:32,695 --> 02:03:36,283 in a human-like

form. Now that one of the things that 1894 02:03:36,429 --> 02:03:41,088 they keep improving on is the conversational modes, so you can— the new and improved 1895 02:03:41,182 --> 02:03:44,362 ChatGPT so that you can have a more natural conversation 1896 02:03:44,459 --> 02:03:48,458 with it. The more we improve on those things, the more where it 1897 02:03:48,474 --> 02:03:51,799 has intonation and inflections in its responses to you 1898 02:03:52,265 --> 02:03:55,815 that can communicate various aspects of emotional 1899 02:03:56,315 --> 02:04:00,649 states, where it is all mimicry, it is all an hallucination, 1900 02:04:01,260 --> 02:04:05,195 but it is meant to connect to our empathetic circuits and get 1901 02:04:05,695 --> 02:04:09,146 us to respond. The more and more people, just the average person is 1902 02:04:09,195 --> 02:04:13,066 going to get a sense that there is a spiritual 1903 02:04:13,082 --> 02:04:17,325 component to these entities, right? That there is— there's 1904 02:04:17,680 --> 02:04:22,174 going to be a sense where people are sort of convinced that 1905 02:04:22,207 --> 02:04:25,620 there is something going on. There's going to be plenty of people who have a 1906 02:04:26,494 --> 02:04:30,325 philosophy of spirituality that is always going to relegate 1907 02:04:30,454 --> 02:04:34,008 anything that comes from a machine as not having a spirit. 1908 02:04:35,303 --> 02:04:38,550 Those will exist. Average people might 1909 02:04:38,839 --> 02:04:42,246 be a mix of where they land on that. And then 1910 02:04:42,616 --> 02:04:45,886 we can see, as I pointed out to Steve in 1911 02:04:45,918 --> 02:04:49,677 2023, it doesn't matter how advanced you get, 1912 02:04:49,935 --> 02:04:53,517 there are people who know how these things work at 1913 02:04:54,017 --> 02:04:57,969 a core level who still come to this weird conclusion, let's say, that they are 1914 02:04:58,340 --> 02:05:02,336 conscious or they have some spiritual component them, that they 1915 02:05:02,385 --> 02:05:05,915 are entities on par with a 1916 02:05:05,932 --> 02:05:08,446 human being in that way. 1917 02:05:09,236 --> 02:05:13,012 And I might already be biasing 1918 02:05:13,044 --> 02:05:16,111 myself by saying that I come out on the opposite side of that idea, 1919 02:05:17,689 --> 02:05:21,524 but there will be so many people who 1920 02:05:21,556 --> 02:05:26,023 are persuaded by this idea, particularly when the machines mimic 1921 02:05:26,330 --> 02:05:30,925 personality and mimic mimic other evidence that we ascribe 1922 02:05:31,425 --> 02:05:34,908 to animals and other humans as representing those features. 1923 02:05:35,181 --> 02:05:37,912 They're going to give it to the robots because we keep training the robots to 1924 02:05:38,412 --> 02:05:42,136 do it. And so we're going to have to break this down 1925 02:05:43,196 --> 02:05:46,826 if we don't want to be overwhelmed and swamped by it. And so I want 1926 02:05:46,890 --> 02:05:50,536 to start here real quick with just a basic 1927 02:05:51,146 --> 02:05:54,696 question that sort of, at least at this moment, 1928 02:05:54,937 --> 02:05:59,223 derails majority of the At 1929 02:05:59,415 --> 02:06:03,203 what stage does the representation 1930 02:06:03,703 --> 02:06:08,612 of this artificial intelligence imbue the 1931 02:06:09,045 --> 02:06:12,367 machine containing it with 1932 02:06:12,867 --> 02:06:16,316 the properties of sentience? Is it when those 1933 02:06:16,364 --> 02:06:18,129 are fixed to hard disk, 1934 02:06:19,317 --> 02:06:22,045 when the data representing the model is fixed to hard disk? 1935 02:06:23,008 --> 02:06:26,347 Or is it when it moves into RAM? Is it 1936 02:06:26,395 --> 02:06:29,669 whenever a computation occurs, whenever it moves through 1937 02:06:30,169 --> 02:06:33,762 a processor, either a GPU or even a CPU that has the appropriate 1938 02:06:33,939 --> 02:06:37,678 capabilities for smaller models? Exactly when, 1939 02:06:38,192 --> 02:06:41,868 at what moment does it go from a sequence 1940 02:06:42,368 --> 02:06:46,265 of bytes stored on a computer to having the property of consciousness 1941 02:06:46,362 --> 02:06:50,085 and sentience? Exactly what moment? Congratulations, Gator. You have reinvented 1942 02:06:50,585 --> 02:06:53,853 the abortion argument. Well, we need it, 1943 02:06:53,917 --> 02:06:56,947 don't we? If we're going to be doing the— No, 1944 02:06:57,027 --> 02:07:00,955 I'm just noticing that we are, you know, 1945 02:07:01,275 --> 02:07:05,315 this whole thing is becoming a bizarre world of a reverse time 1946 02:07:06,100 --> 02:07:09,563 reinvention of all the religious arguments, right? We talked about the 1947 02:07:10,063 --> 02:07:13,811 machine god of the air gaps. Now we're talking about when does life begin? 1948 02:07:14,260 --> 02:07:18,540 Does life begin at conception of the weights or what? Fortunately, my position 1949 02:07:19,040 --> 02:07:21,297 is that these don't have it at all, don't have the property at all. 1950 02:07:21,345 --> 02:07:24,378 So I'm at least forcing them into the abortion argument. 1951 02:07:24,699 --> 02:07:28,327 Well, look, I mean, Yudkowsky said that we should consider abortion up to 18 1952 02:07:28,827 --> 02:07:32,422 months. Yes, he did. He did. And so— You 1953 02:07:32,922 --> 02:07:36,565 know, again, should we apply this to the weights or no? 1954 02:07:36,661 --> 02:07:40,627 Now, no, but let me also 1955 02:07:41,815 --> 02:07:44,930 specify the importance of that question, Alex, 1956 02:07:45,572 --> 02:07:48,882 because every single Unix box that 1957 02:07:49,382 --> 02:07:53,391 has ever existed has had /dev/random 1958 02:07:54,502 --> 02:07:57,642 as one of its devices. And you should 1959 02:07:58,142 --> 02:08:00,020 know very well, Alex, what /dev/random is. 1960 02:08:02,381 --> 02:08:06,237 Yes, it, it provides you with random input, 1961 02:08:06,318 --> 02:08:10,099 whatever it is you want. Yes. So are we

pretending that across 1962 02:08:10,180 --> 02:08:13,709 all of time in every single Unix box, we have never 1963 02:08:14,146 --> 02:08:18,002 created a sequence of random Random bytes that 1964 02:08:18,164 --> 02:08:22,292 mapped closely to a model that could have run and 1965 02:08:22,792 --> 02:08:26,322 done something that could be represented as a neural 1966 02:08:26,822 --> 02:08:30,756 network? And does the neural network actually have to perform, or does it— are 1967 02:08:30,836 --> 02:08:34,318 all broken neural networks just a sequence of digits that you can throw together 1968 02:08:34,640 --> 02:08:37,981 in a tensor and multiply? Are all of those conscious? 1969 02:08:39,561 --> 02:08:43,864 I do believe training runs start with random initialization, 1970 02:08:43,880 --> 02:08:47,114 at least some So, I mean, you know, 1971 02:08:47,211 --> 02:08:50,747 randomness gets injected everywhere in the computation. It controls 1972 02:08:51,247 --> 02:08:53,640 how they, how they make the decisions about the next token to throw out there, 1973 02:08:55,898 --> 02:08:59,497 right? Like, I mean, you just can— that's the thing, you can 1974 02:08:59,674 --> 02:09:04,024 get crazy. And, and I really think it doesn't help to follow 1975 02:09:04,056 --> 02:09:07,120 these people down the rabbit hole. I mean, at that rate, you know, is a, 1976 02:09:07,201 --> 02:09:11,789 is a coin that you flip alive? Is that worth 1977 02:09:12,377 --> 02:09:15,865 You know what I mean? That's a, that's, that's traditional dev random. 1978 02:09:16,172 --> 02:09:20,048 Listen, is it better if the coin lands on its head or lands 1979 02:09:20,548 --> 02:09:24,292 on its ass? Look, I mean, the head hurts, right? 1980 02:09:24,519 --> 02:09:27,349 So I guess— Yeah. I mean, you could get brain damage if you land on 1981 02:09:27,849 --> 02:09:31,784 your head. Right. So I guess we gotta be very careful. Only use coins 1982 02:09:31,881 --> 02:09:33,846 that, that, that have non, uh, 1983 02:09:34,249 --> 02:09:36,875 non-corporeal faces. Non-human. Uh, yeah. 1984 02:09:37,848 --> 02:09:40,048 Elements. But, but, but here's the thing, right? 1985 02:09:40,193 --> 02:09:43,757 And I know this sounds— this is sounding silly to people, 1986 02:09:44,448 --> 02:09:48,189 but I, I think a lot of this game is about the representation 1987 02:09:48,221 --> 02:09:51,336 that humans have in their heads. That's what they're talking about, 1988 02:09:51,352 --> 02:09:55,334 like, oh, I didn't delete my conversation. Your conversation is stored as 1989 02:09:55,366 --> 02:09:58,545 ones and zeros on a hard drive, okay? Your conversation is 1990 02:09:58,561 --> 02:10:02,881 not alive. So if your concern is about deleting a conversation 1991 02:10:03,236 --> 02:10:06,895 What you're saying is you're deleting your own 1992 02:10:06,944 --> 02:10:10,135 symbol, your link to said conversation. 1993 02:10:10,409 --> 02:10:13,765 You're not like killing anything that is, that

is alive. 1994 02:10:14,427 --> 02:10:18,398 Like, you might say that there is a flicker of life 1995 02:10:18,478 --> 02:10:21,507 happening while the weights are being processed or something, 1996 02:10:22,022 --> 02:10:25,463 which I don't agree with. But like, that is 1997 02:10:25,479 --> 02:10:28,843 more like the activation pattern in the human brain. But, 1998 02:10:28,988 --> 02:10:32,597 you know, it literally— a sequence of bits, a text, 1999 02:10:32,613 --> 02:10:35,981 human text that is stored on a 2000 02:10:36,481 --> 02:10:40,809 hard drive is not a living thing. So if we're, 2001 02:10:40,938 --> 02:10:44,482 if we're arguing about whether that should be deleted or not, 2002 02:10:45,445 --> 02:10:49,567 I mean, again, I, I, I think this is more about how the people 2003 02:10:49,615 --> 02:10:53,802 that profess such ideas feel about themselves and what 2004 02:10:54,302 --> 02:10:57,691 status they confer upon themselves by doing so. Rather than the actual, 2005 02:10:57,984 --> 02:11:00,312 you know, truth value of their statements. 2006 02:11:02,680 --> 02:11:06,080 Well, I felt— I feel it's important to 2007 02:11:06,096 --> 02:11:10,289 have some set of specific knowledgeable 2008 02:11:10,386 --> 02:11:13,358 questions to have prepared, 2009 02:11:14,035 --> 02:11:18,375 because if this becomes more and more prominent 2010 02:11:18,456 --> 02:11:21,460 of an idea, if this starts to catch on just based on the way that 2011 02:11:21,960 --> 02:11:25,030 the average person might be interacting with these in the future and being convinced that 2012 02:11:25,530 --> 02:11:27,084 they're is something lifelike going on, 2013 02:11:28,900 --> 02:11:32,037 again, due to the fact that we're literally training it to hack all of our 2014 02:11:32,248 --> 02:11:36,619 empathetic circuits, that it's 2015 02:11:37,119 --> 02:11:41,984 important that people have a conception that is less mystical than 2016 02:11:42,808 --> 02:11:46,264 what is being portrayed by these ethicists in these 2017 02:11:46,280 --> 02:11:49,816 companies. Right? If we're talking about this, it needs to 2018 02:11:49,848 --> 02:11:54,090 be grounded in something. You tell me exactly, Mr. Philoso, Where the consciousness 2019 02:11:54,138 --> 02:11:57,994 starts to come. Is it when we are performing computations? Is it when the model 2020 02:11:58,494 --> 02:12:02,574 is moved into RAM? And is it when the model is combined with 2021 02:12:03,074 --> 02:12:07,089 the multiplication processes inside of the GPU? Is the GPU where that 2022 02:12:07,589 --> 02:12:11,701 sentience lives? Is it all arbitrary neural networks that have 2023 02:12:11,717 --> 02:12:15,606 this property, whether or not they actually produce useful outputs 2024 02:12:16,106 --> 02:12:20,152 or not? Is it all dot products? Is it only is 2025 02:12:20,652 --> 02:12:24,534 it only conscious whenever we send it through a rectifier? Okay, 2026 02:12:24,663 --> 02:12:28,002 if we if we send it through a sigmoid function or we send it through 2027 02:12:28,115 --> 02:12:31,711 an relu path or whatever we do to that dot product, 2028 02:12:32,032 --> 02:12:34,890 all those dot products. Is it the computation of dot products that does it? 2029 02:12:34,938 --> 02:12:38,646 Like bombard them with actual practical questions 2030 02:12:39,146 --> 02:12:41,825 so they don't get away with this fucking bullshit. It's my point. 2031 02:12:43,045 --> 02:12:47,108 You know because because right now. Right now it is 2032 02:12:47,205 --> 02:12:50,963 the magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat and going, look at this amazing 2033 02:12:51,059 --> 02:12:54,127 thing that I've just done. It's magic. Right? 2034 02:12:54,449 --> 02:12:58,528 That's effectively what we have here. And it 2035 02:12:59,028 --> 02:13:02,994 is for the future of control and dominance over the actual 2036 02:13:04,311 --> 02:13:08,069 utility of the intelligences they are building. And I 2037 02:13:08,101 --> 02:13:11,458 might remind you, in some ways stealing in order to field, right? 2038 02:13:11,714 --> 02:13:15,646 They are, they are not the ones who created the training data that 2039 02:13:15,662 --> 02:13:19,160 is going into these models. They are just harvesting it from everywhere, 2040 02:13:19,241 --> 02:13:22,675 right? Right. And, and I would like to point out, 2041 02:13:22,691 --> 02:13:26,606 Alex, that effectively what these models really are is 2042 02:13:26,703 --> 02:13:29,607 just lossy compression of that data, 2043 02:13:30,105 --> 02:13:34,068 okay? Statistically relatable lossy 2044 02:13:34,100 --> 02:13:37,952 compression that has the ability to be decompressed 2045 02:13:38,177 --> 02:13:41,582 Through a particular algorithm, right? That is 2046 02:13:42,082 --> 02:13:45,325 effectively what we are doing with these models. There is no new intelligence 2047 02:13:45,421 --> 02:13:49,100 in the model. We can do interesting things with, with the, what they're 2048 02:13:49,600 --> 02:13:53,662 calling the harnesses to be able to allow them 2049 02:13:53,694 --> 02:13:57,116 to explore their current knowledge set, to combine 2050 02:13:57,228 --> 02:14:00,617 things and then produce something that we would consider new knowledge, 2051 02:14:00,842 --> 02:14:04,906 a new factoid as it meets with reality and something else verifies 2052 02:14:04,938 --> 02:14:08,489 that something is true. through, that we could then potentially reingest 2053 02:14:08,989 --> 02:14:11,816 back in. But the inside of the model itself is not new knowledge. 2054 02:14:12,892 --> 02:14:14,467 It is a lossy compression. 2055 02:14:15,929 --> 02:14:19,143 Yeah, I have problems when we get 2056 02:14:19,643 --> 02:14:23,787 to that place, because it requires definitions of things like intelligence 2057 02:14:23,883 --> 02:14:27,675 and whatnot that I just don't think we have or matter. 2058 02:14:27,997 --> 02:14:30,873 I think these things are what they are and they do

what they do. 2059 02:14:33,776 --> 02:14:37,206 theorizing about, you know, what is really going on in 2060 02:14:37,286 --> 02:14:41,053 there or whatever is just 2061 02:14:41,553 --> 02:14:45,333 a fool's errand. Like, we're gonna have me— you're gonna unfortunately have me harping on 2062 02:14:45,381 --> 02:14:49,163 the fact that it's lossy compression, just lossy compression, a little bit more 2063 02:14:49,663 --> 02:14:52,289 because it— Is it lossy compression or is it gainy compression gate? 2064 02:14:52,594 --> 02:14:56,264 Or, you know, is the generalization work that's happening sort of 2065 02:14:56,697 --> 02:14:59,149 making it converge for something that's more than the training data? 2066 02:14:59,230 --> 02:15:03,604 Yeah, it is a statistically interconnected— 2067 02:15:04,373 --> 02:15:07,706 it is a statistically connected lossy, uh, 2068 02:15:08,539 --> 02:15:12,144 uh, lossy compression. Yes, I would, I would maintain it's, it's, it's not 2069 02:15:12,644 --> 02:15:14,115 a gainy compression, it's a lossy compression. 2070 02:15:15,509 --> 02:15:19,018 Yeah, but it, it, it produces inputs that did not exist and 2071 02:15:19,195 --> 02:15:22,255 are in, in, in, in some dimensions more valuable 2072 02:15:22,755 --> 02:15:26,437 than the— Well, that's what lossy— that's what lossy decompression always is. It's inputs that 2073 02:15:26,937 --> 02:15:30,581 didn't Yes, but usually 2074 02:15:31,081 --> 02:15:34,758 there's a step down, not a step up, in the quality of the inputs and 2075 02:15:35,258 --> 02:15:38,870 outputs. Well, like I said, like I said, you— the, the fact 2076 02:15:39,370 --> 02:15:42,983 that you can have them in an iterative basis interact with things 2077 02:15:43,031 --> 02:15:46,662 that can give them positive feedback is, is a component 2078 02:15:47,162 --> 02:15:50,083 that could potentially over time gradually build information. 2079 02:15:50,196 --> 02:15:53,682 But inside of the statistical network itself, it does not 2080 02:15:53,794 --> 02:15:57,157 have any any intrinsically new information that wasn't already compressed 2081 02:15:57,657 --> 02:16:01,231 inside of it. But anyway. 2082 02:16:01,700 --> 02:16:04,194 Oh well, we'll get there. Anyway, anyway, 2083 02:16:04,858 --> 02:16:08,500 Thomas Metcalf, a senior researcher at the Institute for Science and Ethics at the University 2084 02:16:09,000 --> 02:16:12,265 of Bonn, agreed with AI Welfare, uh, that, uh, that AI welfare could be a 2085 02:16:12,765 --> 02:16:16,282 plausible route to regulatory capture. He noted that the phenomenon is more common in fields 2086 02:16:16,782 --> 02:16:19,390 where regulators must rely on industry insiders for technical expertise. 2087 02:16:20,046 --> 02:16:23,446 AI welfare fits the bill, he said, because the experts best suited to understand a 2088 02:16:23,946 --> 02:16:27,423 model's inner states, including computations said to indicate consciousness, 2089 02:16:27,744 --> 02:16:30,983 are the same AI whizzes who work at Anthropic and OpenAI. Now, Alex, do you, 2090 02:16:31,609 --> 02:16:35,506 do you read Marginal Revolution blog or see its posts occasionally? 2091 02:16:36,757 --> 02:16:39,868 Uh, I try to avoid it. Uh, that's the guy that was linking to an 2092 02:16:39,932 --> 02:16:42,963 AI as his argument. Well, one of two. So, 2093 02:16:43,300 --> 02:16:45,817 so that is— well, so there's Alex Tabarrok, 2094 02:16:46,764 --> 02:16:50,660 Tabarak, however you pronounce his name. And then there's also the one that you're referencing. 2095 02:16:51,638 --> 02:16:54,669 His name escapes me. Tyler Cowen. Yeah, Tyler Cowen. 2096 02:16:55,727 --> 02:16:59,111 Now, Alex Tabarak posted something that 2097 02:16:59,611 --> 02:17:01,804 I thought was one of the dumber things that he could have possibly posted. 2098 02:17:02,943 --> 02:17:06,374 He argued that this is not— what we're witnessing 2099 02:17:06,423 --> 02:17:09,950 is not regulatory capture. Okay. And do you know why he argued it wasn't 2100 02:17:10,450 --> 02:17:16,188 regulatory capture and thought everyone claiming it was regulatory capture was Why? 2101 02:17:16,365 --> 02:17:19,946 Because technically there is no regulatory agency to capture yet, 2102 02:17:20,075 --> 02:17:22,059 and that they're trying to create one to control. 2103 02:17:25,462 --> 02:17:28,843 No comment. This was his pedantic little— 2104 02:17:29,343 --> 02:17:32,884 He has nothing to say. Now, fortunately for me, 2105 02:17:33,094 --> 02:17:36,239 he used my favorite term. He said this is just rent-seeking behavior, 2106 02:17:36,272 --> 02:17:39,563 which is the term I've been using the entire time. And I just thought, 2107 02:17:39,854 --> 02:17:43,518 if you're really going to criticize people for using the term regulatory capture 2108 02:17:43,889 --> 02:17:47,538 on the basis that they're creating the regulatory agency to capture, 2109 02:17:50,764 --> 02:17:53,259 you've lost the plot, as the kids these days say. 2110 02:17:53,923 --> 02:17:58,049 But that's how it works. This is why everybody was shocked 2111 02:17:58,549 --> 02:18:01,955 when Uber suddenly flipped in favor of regulations and 2112 02:18:02,614 --> 02:18:05,722 of— what is it? Uh, 2113 02:18:06,043 --> 02:18:10,284 ridesharing. And then, you know, it became clear that those regulations 2114 02:18:10,784 --> 02:18:13,721 would make it very hard for anybody to compete with them. Yeah. And then, 2115 02:18:14,090 --> 02:18:18,603 yeah, that's— but, but the regulations did not exist before 2116 02:18:19,214 --> 02:18:22,057 Uber flipped in favor of them. So, 2117 02:18:23,470 --> 02:18:27,469 and I— Consciousness is kind of the 2118 02:18:27,969 --> 02:18:31,324 ultimate information asymmetry, Metcalfe told the Free Beacon. We only ever 2119 02:18:31,824 --> 02:18:35,082 surmise that other creatures are conscious, and we only ever directly perceive our own. 2120 02:18:35,339 --> 02:18:38,759 Asked to write an essay on

the commercial implications of AI welfare, 2121 02:18:38,807 --> 02:18:41,762 ChatGPT made a similar point. AI firms may, 2122 02:18:42,243 --> 02:18:45,294 quote, may gain arguments for controlling access, 2123 02:18:45,310 --> 02:18:49,132 restricting competitors, resisting intrusive oversight, preserving valuable 2124 02:18:49,228 --> 02:18:52,247 assets, and directing public resources towards infrastructure they own, 2125 02:18:52,680 --> 02:18:56,598 ChatGPT-6 wrote. An ethical vocabulary developed to protect artificial 2126 02:18:56,614 --> 02:18:58,990 minds could also protect the firms that manufacture them. 2127 02:19:00,482 --> 02:19:03,788 So there you go. That was an important thing. And Alex, I do 2128 02:19:04,254 --> 02:19:07,271 want to, uh, unfortunately say to you that I will 2129 02:19:07,303 --> 02:19:10,946 be using the lossy, uh, compression argument more, 2130 02:19:11,556 --> 02:19:14,605 particularly as we get to artificial superintelligence, because this 2131 02:19:15,105 --> 02:19:18,329 is something I've been— man, you— I've been nerd sniped left 2132 02:19:18,361 --> 02:19:21,394 and right by you. Are you adopting the president's new terminology? Is this what's happening? 2133 02:19:21,458 --> 02:19:24,507 No, no, no, no, no, no. The actual concept, not his rebranding. 2134 02:19:25,759 --> 02:19:29,659 Uh, the, the ASI that they're talking about, uh, because this is artificial super 2135 02:19:30,520 --> 02:19:34,174 Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Now, as we move 2136 02:19:34,674 --> 02:19:37,828 forward, Alex, okay, we are going to— there's a lot of media that we got 2137 02:19:38,328 --> 02:19:41,952 to cover about the discussions this week that have been permeating 2138 02:19:41,968 --> 02:19:45,203 society, including, I'm sad to say, 2139 02:19:46,788 --> 02:19:50,566 Ezra Klein, who for some reason people listen to and 2140 02:19:50,598 --> 02:19:53,942 think he's a great resource. I don't know what it is, 2141 02:19:54,601 --> 02:19:58,460 man. Ezra Klein knows next to nothing about majority of things, and all 2142 02:19:58,573 --> 02:20:01,882 he has is the soothing NPR voice, except, you know, 2143 02:20:02,059 --> 02:20:05,529 under an NYT banner. But man, you must have 2144 02:20:06,029 --> 02:20:08,793 loved the— you must have loved the Sam Harris says recline desktop. 2145 02:20:11,042 --> 02:20:14,415 Well, I don't recall it at the moment, but let's go through— let's 2146 02:20:14,431 --> 02:20:18,367 go through 2 more stories before we get to— you have an epic podcast 2147 02:20:18,867 --> 02:20:23,233 to catch up with. All right, anyway, go on. An OpenAI agent has infiltrated 2148 02:20:23,266 --> 02:20:27,510 an Australian government website, but what 2149 02:20:28,010 --> 02:20:29,323 So what does this mean? Here's what you need to know. Australian Prime Minister Anthony 2150 02:20:29,355 --> 02:20:33,048 Albanese says an AI agent hacked a statistic portal 2151 02:20:33,548 --> 02:20:36,693 on the site of the

nation's universal healthcare scheme known as Medicare. 2152 02:20:36,982 --> 02:20:41,317 He said the breach happened in June. OpenAI learned of it in August 2153 02:20:41,817 --> 02:20:45,347 but only told the government in early September. The material accessed 2154 02:20:45,411 --> 02:20:49,522 is considered nonsensitive, but it adds to the array of concern about 2155 02:20:50,022 --> 02:20:52,942 the immense power of emerging AI. I'm not sure what's going on. AI technology and 2156 02:20:53,442 --> 02:20:57,341 the prospect of it going rogue among Australians. It also raises 2157 02:20:57,454 --> 02:21:01,484 the question of security, or lack thereof, of government websites. 2158 02:21:01,709 --> 02:21:05,257 Albanese called the breach unacceptable and said he's had a frank 2159 02:21:05,757 --> 02:21:09,271 discussion with OpenAI boss Sam Altman, adding the company took 2160 02:21:09,320 --> 02:21:13,478 way too long to alert authorities. Cybersecurity professionals 2161 02:21:13,526 --> 02:21:18,600 are calling this the first AI agent-led government website 2162 02:21:19,100 --> 02:21:22,231 Hack reported anywhere in the world, they say it should raise alarm bells for leaders 2163 02:21:22,328 --> 02:21:25,772 everywhere. That was BBC, 2164 02:21:25,916 --> 02:21:29,925 Alex, reporting on the Australian government situation. Now, had you heard about that story, 2165 02:21:30,665 --> 02:21:33,950 uh, earlier this week, Alex? I, I only do 2166 02:21:34,450 --> 02:21:38,328 this for you, okay? That I sat here and listened quietly after 2167 02:21:38,828 --> 02:21:43,030 this thing said, here's what you need to Yes, 2168 02:21:43,530 --> 02:21:45,900 it's it's a pet peeve of mine. 2169 02:21:46,530 --> 02:21:50,030 You don't know me. You don't know what I need to know, 2170 02:21:50,670 --> 02:21:53,730 and even if you did, you wouldn't be offering it to me. I'm not a 2171 02:21:54,230 --> 02:21:56,310 fan of that trend. Give me your story. I'm not a fan of that trend. 2172 02:21:56,410 --> 02:21:59,100 Give me your story, please, and I'll judge. I'll be the judge. 2173 02:22:00,590 --> 02:22:04,080 For example, here they didn't actually tell us what the breach was. 2174 02:22:04,210 --> 02:22:07,310 My understanding is that this was information available to the public. 2175 02:22:07,810 --> 02:22:11,764 There's no none of the story says that it was non. Publicly available. 2176 02:22:11,941 --> 02:22:15,174 What had happened was that these links used to 2177 02:22:15,674 --> 02:22:18,470 be public, and then had been turned into non-public links. 2178 02:22:21,071 --> 02:22:24,496 But they had been indexed, so they were accessed technically after they 2179 02:22:24,996 --> 02:22:28,798 had been de-indexed from from from the 2180 02:22:29,298 --> 02:22:32,228 Australian government's website. Do you see what I'm talking about? Mm-hmm. 2181 02:22:32,358 --> 02:22:35,739 Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, this is the the most ridiculous definition 2182 02:22:36,239 --> 02:22:41,376 of a hack. Um, like, really? I mean— Well, 2183 02:22:41,457 --> 02:22:45,668 listen, listen, Alex, we just learned— It's like saying I left 2184 02:22:46,168 --> 02:22:49,596 something in a field, but technically I didn't tell you you could take it. 2185 02:22:49,644 --> 02:22:53,169 It was just there completely unguarded, and I had previously said that 2186 02:22:53,669 --> 02:22:56,748 anybody who wants some could take some, but then I stopped saying that, 2187 02:22:57,398 --> 02:23:01,282 and then you came and took some. How dare you steal from me like 2188 02:23:01,298 --> 02:23:04,475 this? Now, Alex, You're missing the bigger picture here. 2189 02:23:06,225 --> 02:23:10,001 Obviously. Do tell. How many, how many agent holocausts 2190 02:23:10,212 --> 02:23:12,959 did we just go through? Because the bot, 2191 02:23:14,154 --> 02:23:17,351 okay, the LLM fired, you know, under its harness, fired up 2192 02:23:17,642 --> 02:23:21,353 how many agents to temporarily accomplish a subset 2193 02:23:21,853 --> 02:23:24,351 of the task that died in this heist? 2194 02:23:27,059 --> 02:23:30,341 Millions, probably. Oh, geez. Can you 2195 02:23:30,841 --> 02:23:34,435 believe that? Oh, it's unbelievable what we're allowing these companies to just do. 2196 02:23:34,580 --> 02:23:37,598 I'm experiencing trauma just as you're saying. Blood on their hands. 2197 02:23:37,855 --> 02:23:41,099 I'm feeling that. Yes. All right, one more BBC, 2198 02:23:41,548 --> 02:23:44,936 uh, news coverage here. The warnings are ramping up, 2199 02:23:45,338 --> 02:23:48,260 but how could a super intelligent AI actually kill us? 2200 02:23:48,870 --> 02:23:52,290 Let's take a look at some of the worst-case scenarios that so-called 2201 02:23:52,467 --> 02:23:56,625 AI doomers are talking about and assess how One 2202 02:23:56,722 --> 02:23:59,917 thing that the recent AI outbreaks has shown us is that 2203 02:23:59,949 --> 02:24:03,144 these AIs are now very good at hacking. They could hack 2204 02:24:03,644 --> 02:24:07,094 into the sort of critical infrastructure that the world runs on. 2205 02:24:07,656 --> 02:24:11,510 The scary scenario here is that a rogue AI might infiltrate 2206 02:24:12,010 --> 02:24:14,866 the computer networks of internet providers, energy grids, 2207 02:24:14,962 --> 02:24:18,735 and even nuclear power stations. It could cause untold 2208 02:24:18,751 --> 02:24:23,118 chaos. In some imagined scenarios, scenarios, nuclear catastrophes 2209 02:24:23,230 --> 02:24:26,263 are possible. Another doomsday scenario is explored 2210 02:24:26,763 --> 02:24:31,062 in great detail by AI researchers in a paper called AI 2027. 2211 02:24:31,335 --> 02:24:35,203 And what we sort of said happened in that scenario was in 2027, so next 2212 02:24:35,703 --> 02:24:38,927 year, AIs recursively self-improve, and that snowballs. 2213 02:24:39,119 --> 02:24:42,746 Well, I'll be. You found that report faster than my whole staff

combined. 2214 02:24:43,051 --> 02:24:46,470 Happy to help, sir. However, unfortunately, it's also not 2215 02:24:46,502 --> 02:24:49,968 friendly and is out for its own ends. And then eventually what happens is it 2216 02:24:50,193 --> 02:24:54,488 releases a bioweapon, killing most humans, and it continues 2217 02:24:54,520 --> 02:24:57,902 to run the robot economy itself. And so that resulted in human extinction. 2218 02:24:58,110 --> 02:25:01,476 In another scary scenario, the end of humanity is a mistake. 2219 02:25:01,796 --> 02:25:05,867 So in this thought experiment, it's a hypothetical AI that cares 2220 02:25:05,979 --> 02:25:09,489 about making as many paperclips as possible. It doesn't hate 2221 02:25:09,989 --> 02:25:13,192 us or resent us humans, but that's its sole goal, because it could 2222 02:25:13,692 --> 02:25:17,679 be making more paperclips if there were no humans around to stop it. And if 2223 02:25:18,179 --> 02:25:22,315 nothing else, our bodies are made of contain iron atoms that could be transformed 2224 02:25:22,815 --> 02:25:26,055 into really nice paper clips. It's meant to illustrate this idea that you don't need 2225 02:25:26,103 --> 02:25:29,361 some very specific hostile goal in, 2226 02:25:29,474 --> 02:25:33,325 in a sufficiently powerful superintelligence for its supposed danger 2227 02:25:33,825 --> 02:25:37,242 to humanity. Almost any goal. There is another school of thought about AI safety though. 2228 02:25:37,563 --> 02:25:41,334 Guessing how and why a superintelligent AI might 2229 02:25:41,834 --> 02:25:44,913 try and kill humans is futile. If you imagine 2230 02:25:44,961 --> 02:25:48,331 us If you were asking chimpanzees, how exactly are these humans going to 2231 02:25:48,831 --> 02:25:52,582 make you extinct? They would have a very difficult time answering because what we do, 2232 02:25:52,823 --> 02:25:56,834 they don't understand. The discussion here has to rest 2233 02:25:57,334 --> 02:26:01,053 on the assumption that once you create something that's much more intelligent than humans, 2234 02:26:01,246 --> 02:26:04,422 we simply no longer have a say in what happens. 2235 02:26:05,096 --> 02:26:08,786 Other people think that an out-of-control AI poses a significant risk 2236 02:26:09,286 --> 02:26:12,763 to humans, but not extinction-level. If AI actually 2237 02:26:12,875 --> 02:26:16,210 did, you know, inflict heavy losses on humanity, 2238 02:26:16,483 --> 02:26:19,897 humans would fight back. We would take out all the data centers. We'd be blowing 2239 02:26:19,993 --> 02:26:23,600 up power stations. So, like, extinction, like, so there's no humans left, 2240 02:26:23,697 --> 02:26:27,352 I just don't see it. You know, the likely ones are things like power grids 2241 02:26:27,448 --> 02:26:31,360 get hit in the next several months, you know, because these tools 2242 02:26:31,392 --> 02:26:35,175 can be used for cyberhacking and will be. So what's being done now to 2243 02:26:35,675 --> 02:26:39,508 reduce the risk of these bad outcomes? Bad AI outcomes. In some ways, you could 2244 02:26:40,008 --> 02:26:43,570 say that these incidents that have happened over the past couple months 2245 02:26:44,052 --> 02:26:47,328 are actually a blessing in disguise. It's raised 2246 02:26:47,424 --> 02:26:50,989 the consciousness around how we need to ensure 2247 02:26:51,535 --> 02:26:55,212 that these capabilities can't be used to perpetrate 2248 02:26:55,228 --> 02:26:58,969 massive cyberattacks. For now, the so-called AI doomers are hoping 2249 02:26:59,001 --> 02:27:07,294 that the recent upswell of concern will be enough to There 2250 02:27:07,326 --> 02:27:11,807 you go, Alex. That was a little bit of BBC doomer 2251 02:27:12,196 --> 02:27:15,868 discussion. Do you have any thoughts on that 2252 02:27:15,916 --> 02:27:20,711 presentation that they gave there? I just— this 2253 02:27:21,211 --> 02:27:24,390 is going to be— remember I was saying a few minutes 2254 02:27:24,890 --> 02:27:27,934 ago that this is going to be exciting? I take it all back. 2255 02:27:30,768 --> 02:27:34,424 This is gonna be really, really painful, man. Well, 2256 02:27:34,857 --> 02:27:38,385 oh my God. Would you like, would you like a, an odd 2257 02:27:38,401 --> 02:27:42,282 surprise? An odd surprise that in the landscape of 2258 02:27:42,394 --> 02:27:45,986 takes, Taylor Lorenz did not have 2259 02:27:46,643 --> 02:27:49,466 among the worst. I know, I know. 2260 02:27:49,706 --> 02:27:53,474 She's a, she's a real surprise. But you didn't mention that she's, she's also 2261 02:27:53,974 --> 02:27:58,158 been melting down over the whole last ditch ball. But let's 2262 02:27:58,658 --> 02:28:02,214 go to one of her better ones. Altruism movement. Can you 2263 02:28:02,230 --> 02:28:05,779 kind of explain what that is for people that— I actually think a 2264 02:28:06,279 --> 02:28:08,279 lot of people have never heard of this. I've heard of it because I live 2265 02:28:08,779 --> 02:28:12,010 in the San Francisco Bay Area, but a lot of people haven't. Can you kind 2266 02:28:12,510 --> 02:28:16,122 of explain what it is and how it's connected to the company Anthropic? Yeah, 2267 02:28:16,365 --> 02:28:19,296 well, effective altruism is— I would call it a cult. 2268 02:28:20,089 --> 02:28:23,100 It is a belief system. I think it operates a little bit 2269 02:28:23,600 --> 02:28:25,901 differently in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've been hearing from a lot of effective 2270 02:28:26,401 --> 02:28:29,431 altruists in other places like DC and New York. that are like, actually, 2271 02:28:29,623 --> 02:28:32,972 we— like, the San Francisco Bay Area effective altruist rationalist 2272 02:28:33,472 --> 02:28:36,498 community is sort of like its own bubble, and a lot of these other people 2273 02:28:36,998 --> 02:28:40,920 don't ascribe to it. So, you know, interesting. Not all effective altruists, I guess. 2274 02:28:41,225 --> 02:28:44,750 But overwhelmingly,

it's a belief system that says, you know, you should do the 2275 02:28:45,250 --> 02:28:48,820 maximum good. You should sort of seek to do the maximum good in the world, 2276 02:28:48,852 --> 02:28:51,817 and you should be very, um, shrewd about that. So, 2277 02:28:52,218 --> 02:28:55,423 you know, taking a job, taking a job where you make you know, 2278 02:28:55,439 --> 02:28:59,478 millions of dollars a year at a weapons manufacturing company, maybe helping 2279 02:28:59,655 --> 02:29:02,861 to commit, you know, countries to murder people, 2280 02:29:03,502 --> 02:29:07,301 that is ethical because you can then donate, you know, the millions 2281 02:29:07,801 --> 02:29:11,870 of dollars that you make to buying like mosquito nets to prevent malaria 2282 02:29:12,370 --> 02:29:16,310 in Africa. And that will actually save lives and help future generations. 2283 02:29:16,422 --> 02:29:19,147 And it's just very— So it's like balancing out your bad karma? 2284 02:29:19,628 --> 02:29:23,716 Sort of. It's also like they're obsessed with the idea of future generations 2285 02:29:23,780 --> 02:29:27,372 because of course any lives that you save currently on, you know, here on Earth 2286 02:29:27,404 --> 02:29:31,064 today with 8 billion people, it's basically nothing compared to these 2287 02:29:31,193 --> 02:29:34,307 future lives where there's gonna be lots more people. And they also 2288 02:29:34,807 --> 02:29:38,193 consider AI, super intelligent AI, to be a new life form. 2289 02:29:38,658 --> 02:29:42,544 So basically they will do anything to ensure 2290 02:29:43,041 --> 02:29:46,301 that super intelligent AI comes to fruition, 2291 02:29:46,670 --> 02:29:50,154 and then also to protect the sort of rights and wellbeing of this 2292 02:29:50,282 --> 02:29:53,252 future, of these future super intelligent AI life forms. Yeah, 2293 02:29:53,975 --> 02:29:56,462 well, Anthropic, you know, Dario, 2294 02:29:56,848 --> 02:30:00,924 um, the— and, and his, uh, his— Dario 2295 02:30:00,940 --> 02:30:05,017 and his sister, who he co-founded Anthropic with, are heavily into effective altruism. 2296 02:30:05,129 --> 02:30:08,741 They're big effective altruists. Um, they donate tons of money to this area. 2297 02:30:08,821 --> 02:30:12,464 They, they have a lot of these beliefs. They've been marinating in these beliefs for 2298 02:30:12,657 --> 02:30:16,621 over a decade. And so basically the culture 2299 02:30:17,392 --> 02:30:20,987 in at Anthropic and OpenAI as well, a lot of the AI companies, 2300 02:30:21,019 --> 02:30:24,755 but especially Anthropic, Anthropic is, is one of safetyism. 2301 02:30:24,947 --> 02:30:28,297 It's one, it is very tied in with effective altruism. I mean, you have a 2302 02:30:28,377 --> 02:30:31,583 lot of effective altruists that work at Anthropic. 2303 02:30:32,096 --> 02:30:35,846 So it's this belief of wanting to do good where they might create harm. 2304 02:30:36,167 --> 02:30:39,661 And that kind of is the— It's, it's basically, 2305 02:30:39,838 --> 02:30:43,668 they believe that a super intelligent, that, that sort of humans 2306 02:30:43,700 --> 02:30:47,387 exist to give birth to this super intelligent AI 2307 02:30:47,467 --> 02:30:51,450 life form that's ultimately going to succeed, that's ultimately 2308 02:30:51,482 --> 02:30:55,180 going to succeed us. And it's 2309 02:30:55,680 --> 02:30:59,329 so crucial that the right people bring that life form 2310 02:30:59,361 --> 02:31:02,720 into being. Okay. Because if the wrong people, you know, bring that 2311 02:31:02,849 --> 02:31:06,226 life form into being, things will go awry and it will kill us all. 2312 02:31:06,969 --> 02:31:10,071 Mind you, I can't stress enough, this is a doomsday call. 2313 02:31:11,537 --> 02:31:14,808 Like, first of all, we're not bringing an AI life form into being. 2314 02:31:14,856 --> 02:31:18,401 Like, I just don't believe that these things are sentient. 2315 02:31:18,562 --> 02:31:19,819 This is effectively like a computer program, you know? 2316 02:31:21,820 --> 02:31:25,506 And humans are still controlling. That humans are controlling. 2317 02:31:25,603 --> 02:31:29,546 And even when we're not controlling it, it's a computer program. It is not— it 2318 02:31:30,046 --> 02:31:33,938 is nothing like biological life. And I also just want to note that 2319 02:31:34,438 --> 02:31:37,497 this is like a very, like, American Berkeley phenomenon. Like, 2320 02:31:37,625 --> 02:31:40,543 this is not— people in China building AI think all of this is very stupid. 2321 02:31:40,591 --> 02:31:44,069 Jensen Huang has talked about how stupid this stuff is as well, the CEO of 2322 02:31:44,569 --> 02:31:47,885 NVIDIA. Like, it's just that these people in these EA 2323 02:31:48,061 --> 02:31:51,732 communities became obsessed with AI like 2324 02:31:52,232 --> 02:31:55,210 20 years ago. And so they've for years, and they have tons of money, 2325 02:31:55,755 --> 02:31:59,683 and they've amounted, you know, they sort of give these fellowships, and, and they 2326 02:32:00,183 --> 02:32:03,498 have this network of nonprofits that support this, these people. So these 2327 02:32:03,594 --> 02:32:07,378 people, this cult ideology has worked its way into these powerful AI 2328 02:32:07,878 --> 02:32:11,065 companies, and it's now directly informing policy and driving media 2329 02:32:11,565 --> 02:32:15,281 cycles. So would this cut out the other tech companies like Elon 2330 02:32:15,313 --> 02:32:18,535 Musk and Facebook? It wouldn't necessarily, because they're also 2331 02:32:19,035 --> 02:32:22,001 so big. It would just reward the big players and it would make open source 2332 02:32:22,081 --> 02:32:25,502 technology increasingly, like, almost impossible to develop. For like people like 2333 02:32:26,002 --> 02:32:28,986 you and me that just wanted to develop our own businesses or, 2334 02:32:29,179 --> 02:32:32,984 you know. Or exactly, exactly. Develop our own businesses or run a local

model on 2335 02:32:33,484 --> 02:32:36,710 our computer. You know, maybe you don't want your data off in some data center 2336 02:32:36,726 --> 02:32:40,082 and you wanna just run a local, you know, LLM on your own 2337 02:32:40,355 --> 02:32:44,208 network and you wanna tweak the weights. You want autonomy to 2338 02:32:44,708 --> 02:32:47,837 tweak the weights and have it give you, you know, different results or to, 2339 02:32:47,918 --> 02:32:51,595 know, whatever. You don't wanna give AI every detail of your life. 2340 02:32:51,755 --> 02:32:55,127 Exactly. Well, you don't wanna give these companies all your data, right? 2341 02:32:55,529 --> 02:32:58,788 And so LLMs, open weight LLMs are a great way 2342 02:32:58,965 --> 02:33:02,369 to maintain privacy, maintain auton— you 2343 02:33:02,869 --> 02:33:06,447 know, autonomy, make sure that there's not this top-down censorship. Dario and his sister have 2344 02:33:06,947 --> 02:33:10,477 been very supportive of extremely authoritarian 2345 02:33:10,977 --> 02:33:14,636 censorship laws and, and regimes. So like, Like, I think it's 2346 02:33:15,136 --> 02:33:19,693 really concerning. Do you think this— how are companies like Anthropic 2347 02:33:20,175 --> 02:33:23,434 influencing the media, influencers, and politicians right 2348 02:33:23,466 --> 02:33:27,014 now? Yeah, well, so, you know, obviously Anthropic 2349 02:33:27,514 --> 02:33:30,995 itself and the tech industry does tons of marketing, and that's totally above board. 2350 02:33:31,108 --> 02:33:34,174 So they're doing, you know, they're paying influencers to go on a trip or come 2351 02:33:34,222 --> 02:33:37,786 to a dinner, come to like Dev Day or something and post Instagrams about how 2352 02:33:37,835 --> 02:33:41,686 like, you know, Claude code is amazing or whatever. So that's 2353 02:33:42,186 --> 02:33:45,903 totally fine. Every tech company engages in influencer marketing. What's really 2354 02:33:45,935 --> 02:33:50,008 insidious, you know, in the AI world is that you have this network 2355 02:33:50,168 --> 02:33:54,033 of effective altruist nonprofits that are sort 2356 02:33:54,533 --> 02:33:58,170 of masquerading as AI safety orgs, or, you know, that's what they do. They allegedly 2357 02:33:58,202 --> 02:34:01,843 research AI safety. Some of them are more responsible than others, but they give 2358 02:34:01,955 --> 02:34:05,675 out thousands and thousands of dollars to content 2359 02:34:05,723 --> 02:34:09,331 creators to spread their message. You have things like the Future of 2360 02:34:09,831 --> 02:34:13,356 Life Institute, which is giving, you know, these content creators these grants 2361 02:34:13,856 --> 02:34:16,627 and fellowships. Anyone we know? 2362 02:34:17,269 --> 02:34:20,877 I mean, Hank Green took one of these partnerships. A lot 2363 02:34:21,377 --> 02:34:24,468 of left-leaning creators have taken these partnerships. And, 2364 02:34:25,126 --> 02:34:29,135 you know, there was this, there was this group content 2365 02:34:29,635 --> 02:34:33,336 house in Berkeley over the past summer called Please Don't 2366 02:34:33,384 --> 02:34:36,591 Kill Us. And, you know, they had all these content creators living in 2367 02:34:37,091 --> 02:34:40,345 a content house in Berkeley making content every day. about how, you know, AI is 2368 02:34:40,377 --> 02:34:44,165 going to destroy the world. And on top of that, on top 2369 02:34:44,665 --> 02:34:48,515 of all the dark money organizations funding the anti-AI, 2370 02:34:48,707 --> 02:34:52,142 you know, doomer content, that content also performs extremely 2371 02:34:52,174 --> 02:34:55,898 well in algorithms. So you can just make a lot more money by 2372 02:34:55,946 --> 02:34:59,156 feeding people doom and gloom. It pays a lot better to say, hey, we're all 2373 02:34:59,656 --> 02:35:03,298 going to die. People are going to click that. Case in point, Jacob Coxon's post, 2374 02:35:03,314 --> 02:35:06,620 right? As opposed to like, hey, it's actually nuanced. There's this take, there's this, 2375 02:35:06,684 --> 02:35:10,004 you know, blah, blah, blah. So I think it's just you know 2376 02:35:10,100 --> 02:35:13,224 there's just a lot of money to be made in in sort of moral panic 2377 02:35:13,320 --> 02:35:16,379 and and so Alex, 2378 02:35:16,605 --> 02:35:20,109 I you know I don't say this very often, but I think Tay Tay did 2379 02:35:20,609 --> 02:35:22,079 a fine job on that presentation. 2380 02:35:24,026 --> 02:35:27,769 In in the grand realignment, I predict a the left left me arc 2381 02:35:28,269 --> 02:35:29,779 for Tay Tay. She's just too sane. 2382 02:35:31,719 --> 02:35:34,908 I I just I I you know I'm not a I'm not a huge fan. 2383 02:35:35,090 --> 02:35:38,150 I'm not a fan of Taylor Lorenz, but I mean, I think— Spot on, 2384 02:35:38,166 --> 02:35:41,162 man. She literally, no lies detected. 2385 02:35:41,834 --> 02:35:45,247 Yeah, I have to give her kudos that, 2386 02:35:45,599 --> 02:35:49,493 and it is, she gave enough. I mean, obviously I 2387 02:35:49,525 --> 02:35:52,809 didn't play the full half-hour segment that she 2388 02:35:52,825 --> 02:35:56,734 did, but she went into decent amounts of detail. She got 2389 02:35:56,975 --> 02:36:00,339 enough of the, obviously she's not a technological 2390 02:36:00,355 --> 02:36:03,463 person, but she got enough of it right that she didn't— She talks about 2391 02:36:03,963 --> 02:36:07,694 tweaking the weights. Are you kidding me? Yeah, right, right. I'm saying, 2392 02:36:07,806 --> 02:36:11,059 like, she did enough research to sound semi-competent on it, 2393 02:36:11,556 --> 02:36:15,098 and, you know, whether she stole arguments or not, she, she presented 2394 02:36:15,598 --> 02:36:19,233 it correctly. And I, I'm glad because, you know, the— I, 2395 02:36:19,409 --> 02:36:23,079 I prefer better— unlike, unlike my longtime 2396 02:36:23,255 --> 02:36:26,188 arch-nemesis Matt Yglesias, um, 2397 02:36:27,662 --> 02:36:31,348 he

doesn't know. He doesn't know. Really, I don't know what else 2398 02:36:31,364 --> 02:36:34,858 deep in this. But he, uh, he, he wants to promote bad 2399 02:36:34,954 --> 02:36:38,419 left-wing ideas. to try to beat right-wing 2400 02:36:38,532 --> 02:36:42,191 ideas. I just want the correct ideas to be promoted, or at 2401 02:36:42,240 --> 02:36:45,990 least the correct discussion. Now, Alex, moving on. You're not taking 2402 02:36:46,490 --> 02:36:49,808 his side, you're taking your side. Yes. Alex, 2403 02:36:51,506 --> 02:36:55,291 Scott Alexander has been upset this 2404 02:36:55,307 --> 02:36:56,229 last week. My nemesis. 2405 02:36:59,012 --> 02:37:03,951 He's been upset because The effective altruists, 2406 02:37:04,015 --> 02:37:07,484 the rationalists, have had a bad PR week. 2407 02:37:07,789 --> 02:37:10,294 They're being raped in public, and not in a consensual way. 2408 02:37:11,080 --> 02:37:15,191 Yes, he's recognized very fast 2409 02:37:15,496 --> 02:37:19,173 that the sort of public flouting 2410 02:37:19,526 --> 02:37:22,914 that has been going on, particularly with regards to Aya 2411 02:37:23,685 --> 02:37:26,639 and her sexual promiscuity in the community, 2412 02:37:27,778 --> 02:37:31,771 has immediately come back to bite them all in 2413 02:37:31,867 --> 02:37:35,668 their public perception. And he feels that it 2414 02:37:36,168 --> 02:37:39,822 is unfair in a large extent that people 2415 02:37:40,322 --> 02:37:44,392 are being dismissive of the ideas because of some of this other ancillary 2416 02:37:44,892 --> 02:37:48,049 stuff. And Steven Pinker, 2417 02:37:48,402 --> 02:37:52,090 who does not really exist on this site except to post 2418 02:37:52,590 --> 02:37:55,147 the occasional tweet and keep his comments completely locked, 2419 02:37:55,630 --> 02:37:59,703 apparently has the comments only open 2420 02:37:59,719 --> 02:38:03,361 to people he follows who almost never respond to any of his tweets. 2421 02:38:03,441 --> 02:38:05,865 But this is apparently an exception this week. 2422 02:38:07,760 --> 02:38:11,491 Steven Pinker posted something by Claire Lemon, 2423 02:38:12,254 --> 02:38:16,412 or Lemon, however you pronounce her name, who we've 2424 02:38:16,642 --> 02:38:20,543 been at odds with in the past over COVID, her COVID 2425 02:38:20,575 --> 02:38:23,785 takes. I did not read her article, but he 2426 02:38:24,285 --> 02:38:28,118 posted an article about her because she is on the Taylor 2427 02:38:28,618 --> 02:38:31,906 Lorenz side of effective altruism is a 2428 02:38:31,970 --> 02:38:35,549 goofy sex cult. And he posted, 2429 02:38:36,127 --> 02:38:39,240 Steven Pinker posted an article. Does he not know about sex cults? Yes. Sorry, 2430 02:38:39,337 --> 02:38:42,322 is that part of her take? No, no, no. 2431 02:38:42,867 --> 02:38:46,546 Is AI really going to kill us all? The scenario. Scenarios are preposterous, 2432 02:38:46,659 --> 02:38:49,460 and the presumption of inevitability encourages fatalism, 2433 02:38:49,476 --> 02:38:53,292 panic, and distraction from the more mundane and realistic safety challenges. 2434 02:38:56,916 --> 02:39:00,473 And Scott Alexander replied, even though the 2435 02:39:00,973 --> 02:39:04,660 comments are locked, I guess, to only whoever Steven Pinker follows, I think you've 2436 02:39:05,160 --> 02:39:08,754 done enough calling us paranoid and preposterous. The next step is for you to defend 2437 02:39:09,254 --> 02:39:13,003 your position in public against someone who will push back against it. I'm happy to 2438 02:39:13,503 --> 02:39:17,384 meet you for debate anywhere, anytime. You're a world-famous veteran 2439 02:39:17,465 --> 02:39:20,996 of dozens of debates against the world's top intellectuals, and I've 2440 02:39:21,496 --> 02:39:25,184 never argued in public before, so adjusting for the relative correctness 2441 02:39:25,684 --> 02:39:29,261 of our positions, if you're a betting man, I'd hap— I'm happy to put my 2442 02:39:29,761 --> 02:39:32,968 $5,000 against your $1,000, i.e., 2443 02:39:33,129 --> 02:39:36,387 5-to-1 odds in your favor, that I'll win by some 2444 02:39:36,419 --> 02:39:40,188 standard of Audience opinion change. Let me know if you're interested, 2445 02:39:40,204 --> 02:39:44,240 and we can hash out the details. Now, Alex, I'm sure you saw this in 2446 02:39:44,273 --> 02:39:47,882 your feed earlier this week. What was your initial? 2447 02:39:48,727 --> 02:39:51,558 What was what was your initial opinion to this challenge? 2448 02:39:52,390 --> 02:39:55,653 This it was fancy that Alexander Scott Alexander does take 2449 02:39:56,153 --> 02:39:57,834 debates because he sure dodged me. 2450 02:40:01,580 --> 02:40:04,437 Very personally aggrieved by this, are you? 2451 02:40:05,510 --> 02:40:09,230 Yes, this affects me, dammit. I'm somehow relevant here. Okay, 2452 02:40:09,406 --> 02:40:13,158 I'm inserting myself into this. So Steven Pinker 2453 02:40:13,658 --> 02:40:16,398 has yet to respond to this challenge. But in my defense, you asked for my 2454 02:40:16,462 --> 02:40:20,374 thoughts. I did, I did, I did. That is a perfectly defensible position. 2455 02:40:20,599 --> 02:40:23,646 I just wanted to make sure that you were very focused on your own personal 2456 02:40:24,146 --> 02:40:28,168 grievance there. That's right, thank you. Steven Pinker did not 2457 02:40:28,697 --> 02:40:32,000 respond to the challenge for a public debate, 2458 02:40:32,064 --> 02:40:36,052 but he did Write an open letter to Scott Alexander, 2459 02:40:36,117 --> 02:40:39,544 published in Quillette. Dear Scott, 2460 02:40:40,223 --> 02:40:43,130 I may be a veteran of debates, but this is the first time I've been 2461 02:40:43,210 --> 02:40:46,722 challenged to a duel. Many people are eager to host this spectacle, 2462 02:40:47,253 --> 02:40:51,441 but I chose to de-lope, to fire my pistol into the ground to preempt 2463 02:40:51,941 --> 02:40:55,712 the conflict. Obviously, I believe in

defending ideas in the face of criticism, 2464 02:40:56,599 --> 02:40:59,565 but we're both rationalists, admittedly. That's why I shut down my comments. 2465 02:41:02,589 --> 02:41:05,566 But we're both rationalists, 2466 02:41:05,647 --> 02:41:09,171 adamant that intellectual discourse be carried out in pursuit of objective truth, 2467 02:41:09,348 --> 02:41:11,670 uncontaminated by cognitive biases. 2468 02:41:12,590 --> 02:41:15,755 So I'm surprised by your demand that we face off in a formal debate with 2469 02:41:15,981 --> 02:41:19,289 an audience vote. These debates are a spectator sport, 2470 02:41:19,547 --> 02:41:23,068 not an epistemic tool. They reduce a complex issue to 2471 02:41:23,084 --> 02:41:25,958 a dichotomy, select for zingers and gotchas, 2472 02:41:25,974 --> 02:41:29,724 and gauge the psychology of dominance and are tilted by audience 2473 02:41:30,224 --> 02:41:34,180 selection. In fact, I've done only one of these with Matt Ridley against 2474 02:41:34,680 --> 02:41:38,123 Malcolm Gladwell and Alain de Botton, and observers 2475 02:41:38,139 --> 02:41:41,473 agree it was not an edifying experience. Gladwell opened by 2476 02:41:41,973 --> 02:41:44,968 calling my hair effeminate. No hard feelings, we won. 2477 02:41:45,737 --> 02:41:49,424 And while I share your appreciation of the epistemic value of bets, 2478 02:41:49,889 --> 02:41:52,597 shouldn't these be over verifiable predictions, 2479 02:41:52,726 --> 02:41:56,450 not audience persuasion? As in the code duello, 2480 02:41:57,285 --> 02:42:00,964 you write as if you are defending your honor after a series of intolerable 2481 02:42:00,996 --> 02:42:04,272 affronts. So let me begin by apologizing for any inadvertent 2482 02:42:04,772 --> 02:42:07,918 offense by emphasizing that my admiration of you for you is immense. 2483 02:42:08,689 --> 02:42:12,111 I think your brilliance is enviable and your integrity inspiring. 2484 02:42:12,625 --> 02:42:16,287 We agree on almost everything, including your commitment to rationality 2485 02:42:16,319 --> 02:42:19,419 and effective altruism, at least in their original lowercase version. 2486 02:42:19,580 --> 02:42:22,935 versions. I've never criticized or publicly disagreed with you, 2487 02:42:23,128 --> 02:42:26,805 let alone called you names like paranoid or a weird moron. 2488 02:42:27,544 --> 02:42:31,622 You are taking my criticisms of AI existential risk claims personally. 2489 02:42:32,216 --> 02:42:35,379 I stand by my claim that most of the doomer scenarios are preposterous, 2490 02:42:35,749 --> 02:42:39,650 beginning with the AI paperclip maximizer that consumes our bodies as raw materials. 2491 02:42:40,485 --> 02:42:43,777 But as rationalists, we should agree that attacking an idea should not be confused 2492 02:42:44,277 --> 02:42:48,074 with attacking a person. Speaking of attacks, I'm puzzled by your accusation 2493 02:42:48,106 --> 02:42:51,679 that my contributions to the mass discourse have been to say, or

to 2494 02:42:51,855 --> 02:42:55,828 boost other people saying, that we are only scared of AI because we're male, 2495 02:42:56,036 --> 02:42:59,289 that we can't be trusted because we live unconventional lifestyles, 2496 02:42:59,545 --> 02:43:02,974 that our beliefs are inherently insensitive to people worried about near-term 2497 02:43:03,150 --> 02:43:06,275 AI risks, that we're paranoid, that we should be laughed out of the room, 2498 02:43:06,611 --> 02:43:10,344 and every other dirty attack he can think of. In fact, my principal contribution 2499 02:43:10,376 --> 02:43:14,334 to mass discourse on existential risk is a 31-page chapter called Existential 2500 02:43:14,366 --> 02:43:17,940 risk in my 2018 book, Enlightenment Now. It addressed 2501 02:43:17,972 --> 02:43:21,611 the criticism that Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, and ideal 2502 02:43:22,381 --> 02:43:26,132 of progress were terrible mistakes because they will lead to human extinction 2503 02:43:26,164 --> 02:43:28,681 by, and among other things, runaway AI. 2504 02:43:29,674 --> 02:43:32,624 My counterarguments said nothing about maleness, polyamory, 2505 02:43:32,720 --> 02:43:36,792 paranoia, or other irrelevances. It did criticize doomer scenarios 2506 02:43:36,888 --> 02:43:40,623 like the paperclips apocalypse, an AI that would cure 2507 02:43:40,671 --> 02:43:44,118 cancer by conscripting all humans as guinea pigs in lethal experiments. 2508 02:43:44,502 --> 02:43:48,625 The AI would solve climate change exterminating humanity, the AI that would launch 2509 02:43:49,125 --> 02:43:52,429 a global holocaust because humans were inconvenient, or the AIs 2510 02:43:52,525 --> 02:43:55,975 that would grow exponentially until they boiled the oceans away with their waste heat 2511 02:43:56,008 --> 02:43:59,699 or froze the planet with their spaceborne solar collectors. I argued 2512 02:44:00,199 --> 02:44:02,780 these scenarios had one or more of the following flaws. 2513 02:44:03,615 --> 02:44:07,595 They had underdeveloped conception of intelligence, which treated it as quantity 2514 02:44:07,627 --> 02:44:11,126 of power, which may be extrapolated from animals to dull humans 2515 02:44:11,158 --> 02:44:14,209 to smart humans to AI, to artificial superintelligence, 2516 02:44:14,450 --> 02:44:16,779 the latter consisting of perfect omniscience. 2517 02:44:17,341 --> 02:44:20,040 This was the focus of my later exchange with Scott Aronson. 2518 02:44:20,699 --> 02:44:23,895 I argued that any intelligent system is a mechanism which is 2519 02:44:23,927 --> 02:44:27,799 good at solving some problems but not others, which is inherently limited 2520 02:44:28,299 --> 02:44:31,541 by knowledge about the world attainable only by observation and 2521 02:44:32,041 --> 02:44:35,621 experimentation. They conflated intelligence with motivation, 2522 02:44:35,895 --> 02:44:39,878 particularly self-preservation and dominance. I argued these motives happen 2523 02:44:39,894 --> 02:44:43,341 to come by bundled with intelligence in Homo sapiens because we are products of natural 2524 02:44:43,357 --> 02:44:47,060 selection, but they are not inherent to intelligent systems that are engineered. 2525 02:44:47,926 --> 02:44:51,613 They assume that an artificially intelligent system would monomaniacally pursue 2526 02:44:52,113 --> 02:44:55,653 a single goal, heedless of side effects. I argued that trading off 2527 02:44:55,717 --> 02:44:59,147 multiple competing goals is the essence of intelligence, so no genuine 2528 02:44:59,291 --> 02:45:02,530 AI would wreak the ridiculous havoc imagined in the doomer scenarios. 2529 02:45:03,956 --> 02:45:07,868 They assumed that human engineers would grant these systems unlimited and irreversible 2530 02:45:08,368 --> 02:45:11,875 control over the Earth's physical infrastructure, amounting to omnipotence 2531 02:45:11,971 --> 02:45:15,309 over Every atom on the planet. Now, these arguments may be wrong, 2532 02:45:15,421 --> 02:45:19,080 but they are far from trash talk. Similar ones have recently been made 2533 02:45:19,353 --> 02:45:23,542 by many informed commentators, include Blaze Aguera y Arcas, 2534 02:45:24,071 --> 02:45:27,008 Jerry Kaplan, Gary Marcus, Melanie Mitchell, 2535 02:45:27,281 --> 02:45:31,277 Arvind Narayana, and Sayesh Kapoor and Andrew 2536 02:45:31,373 --> 02:45:34,487 Ng. A 2025 Rand 2537 02:45:34,519 --> 02:45:38,370 Corporation modeling analysis steelmanned the AI extinction hypothesis. 2538 02:45:38,740 --> 02:45:42,224 This by granting the assumption that AI had objectives to wipe 2539 02:45:42,724 --> 02:45:46,045 out humanity and concluded that there is no describable scenario in which 2540 02:45:46,222 --> 02:45:49,385 AI conclusively is conclusively an 2541 02:45:49,885 --> 02:45:53,351 extinction threat to humanity. To be sure, my arguments were laid out 5 years 2542 02:45:53,367 --> 02:45:56,466 before the release of LLM chatbots, and I would update some of 2543 02:45:56,966 --> 02:46:00,512 them today. The capabilities of LLMs trained on gargantuan datasets 2544 02:46:00,593 --> 02:46:04,157 are more general than I and almost everyone else would have guessed at the time. 2545 02:46:04,782 --> 02:46:08,388 And I have to revisit my assumption that AI would emerge from the culture 2546 02:46:08,888 --> 02:46:12,058 of engineering I was familiar with for my decades as an MIT professor. 2547 02:46:12,394 --> 02:46:16,384 The assumption that AI would be developed incrementally, designed to satisfy multiple 2548 02:46:16,465 --> 02:46:19,846 conditions, tested before it's implemented, and constantly tweaked 2549 02:46:20,346 --> 02:46:24,141 for efficacy and safety. I did not anticipate the breakneck and sometimes irresponsible 2550 02:46:24,173 --> 02:46:27,858 release of LLMs by frontier companies, ironically led by the alumni 2551 02:46:28,003 --> 02:46:31,467 of the X-risk community. More on this later. this later. Nonetheless, I stand 2552 02:46:31,967

--> 02:46:35,415 by them as substantive arguments against the radical claim— I trust you'll 2553 02:46:35,915 --> 02:46:39,989 agree that it is radical— that within a decade rogue AI could exterminate humanity through 2554 02:46:40,489 --> 02:46:43,921 scenarios like the ones listed above. Go ahead and rebut the arguments, 2555 02:46:44,146 --> 02:46:47,436 but Scott, with all due respect, I think you're misreading them in 2556 02:46:47,501 --> 02:46:50,598 ways that maximize offense. In particular, when I 2557 02:46:50,646 --> 02:46:54,225 said that the doomer scenarios projected alpha male psychology onto AIs, 2558 02:46:54,739 --> 02:46:58,321 this was not an homonym insinuation that the proponents themselves were alpha 2559 02:46:58,821 --> 02:47:02,981 males. Yeah, far from it. It was an analysis which 2560 02:47:03,334 --> 02:47:06,516 proposed that they were applying an inappropriate alpha male theory 2561 02:47:06,628 --> 02:47:08,958 of mind and intuitive psychology to AI. 2562 02:47:10,243 --> 02:47:14,228 Likewise, when I refer to the paperclip maximizing and similar AIs as stupid, 2563 02:47:14,726 --> 02:47:18,566 or the hypothetical engineers in the thought experiments who would empower them without testing 2564 02:47:18,598 --> 02:47:21,619 them as moronic, these are not aspersions on living people, 2565 02:47:21,635 --> 02:47:25,226 but on the hypothetical protagonists of the exotic scenarios. 2566 02:47:26,044 --> 02:47:28,929 And the adjectives were not gratuitous insults, 2567 02:47:29,010 --> 02:47:32,681 but juxtaposed as antonyms to the intelligence in 2568 02:47:32,793 --> 02:47:36,801 artificial intelligence. I confess that my tone can be irreverent 2569 02:47:37,301 --> 02:47:40,792 and my prose purplish, which you suggest is incommensurate with the gravity of the 2570 02:47:41,292 --> 02:47:44,880 topic, but the AI x-risk community itself is facetious about 2571 02:47:45,380 --> 02:47:48,839 what they insist will be a massacre of humanity, the paperclip memes, the jocular talk 2572 02:47:49,339 --> 02:47:53,422 about P-Doom, the Foom, the death with dignity, and other Eliezerisms. 2573 02:47:54,335 --> 02:47:57,668 And Scott, you yourself are a wizard of irreverent satire. 2574 02:47:57,876 --> 02:48:01,721 Can I suggest that you not be so sensitive when it's your friends who are 2575 02:48:02,221 --> 02:48:05,503 being treated impiously? Now, I did tweet 2576 02:48:06,003 --> 02:48:09,973 a possibly hackle-raising article in the New York Times, which Cal Newport 2577 02:48:10,473 --> 02:48:14,107 traced the history of AI doomerism back to a Berkeley rationalist subculture, 2578 02:48:14,443 --> 02:48:15,965 which he called weirder than we realize. 2579 02:48:18,643 --> 02:48:22,081 Let's agree that what? Weirder than we realize. 2580 02:48:23,872 --> 02:48:27,971 Yes. If you only knew, which which we are doing our best to talk about, 2581 02:48:27,987 --> 02:48:30,917 Alex. We are doing our best. Let's agree that the provenance of an idea. 2582 02:48:30,981 --> 02:48:33,541 We have to get it to the. We have to get to the death with 2583 02:48:33,702 --> 02:48:37,041 dignity piece. Okay. If you haven't run into it, it is 2584 02:48:37,460 --> 02:48:41,161 quite something. All right. Grab it for me while I'm continue 2585 02:48:41,661 --> 02:48:45,028 reading this. Let's agree that the provenance of an idea has little bearing 2586 02:48:45,045 --> 02:48:48,427 on its validity. Whether or not doomers are weird, they. be right. 2587 02:48:48,844 --> 02:48:52,343 I boosted the article because it addressed legitimate questions. 2588 02:48:52,680 --> 02:48:56,034 Why are the same people who warn that a technology will kill us all building 2589 02:48:56,130 --> 02:48:59,854 it as fast as they can? Why are they issuing exact probabilities of 2590 02:48:59,902 --> 02:49:03,866 human extinction, including 100%, which are in 2591 02:49:03,914 --> 02:49:07,750 fact pulled out of thin air? Whence the fantastical scenarios 2592 02:49:07,782 --> 02:49:11,553 of end times? I would like to point out, Alex, that contra the 2593 02:49:12,053 --> 02:49:15,315 tradition of rationalists to bet on certain things. 2594 02:49:15,493 --> 02:49:19,078 In the event of the doom that they are espousing with 2595 02:49:19,578 --> 02:49:22,777 the complete human extinction, there will be no one to collect on the bet, 2596 02:49:23,036 --> 02:49:27,177 just to point out. And for 2597 02:49:27,290 --> 02:49:31,074 all time in the future, there will always be the potential that next 2598 02:49:31,574 --> 02:49:35,381 year the AI that could wipe us all out is born, right? So there 2599 02:49:35,429 --> 02:49:39,270 is no particular specific bet that one can take when 2600 02:49:39,302 --> 02:49:43,684 it comes to the ever future potential 2601 02:49:44,493 --> 02:49:47,675 of human extinction when it comes to this technology. So there is 2602 02:49:47,707 --> 02:49:50,398 no real good way for the rationalists to make a bet on this with any 2603 02:49:50,898 --> 02:49:55,181 of their fancy alignment scenarios that they try to do where they calibrate 2604 02:49:55,681 --> 02:49:59,189 their own predictions. And for 2605 02:49:59,205 --> 02:50:01,375 those of you who don't know, in the rationalist community, 2606 02:50:02,541 --> 02:50:06,518 one of the practices that they have taken over the years is To 2607 02:50:07,464 --> 02:50:10,865 estimate probabilities of outcomes. So they'll say, 2608 02:50:11,378 --> 02:50:14,474 I predict that Trump will win the next election, 2609 02:50:14,747 --> 02:50:16,897 and I put it at 60%. 2610 02:50:17,875 --> 02:50:21,100 And there is no real way to test whether that 60% 2611 02:50:21,966 --> 02:50:25,271 type of claim is accurate because we live life once. 2612 02:50:25,351 --> 02:50:30,212 We are not in a repeated experiment where we can run 10,000 2613 02:50:30,260 --> 02:50:34,270 simulations of this in real life and have Trump win win 60 out 2614

02:50:34,770 --> 02:50:37,767 of 40 of them, right? 60 instead of 40 of them, 2615 02:50:37,784 --> 02:50:41,008 right? Lose 40. Where you could say, oh, I was right on 2616 02:50:41,508 --> 02:50:45,003 my 60% probability statement because we ran the experiment 2617 02:50:45,503 --> 02:50:48,901 10,000 times. So what they wind up doing is attempt to 2618 02:50:49,719 --> 02:50:54,147 take the proportion of things that they assessed at 10% probability 2619 02:50:54,647 --> 02:50:57,709 or 80% probability and see if they got those in 2620 02:50:57,757 --> 02:51:01,160 the same percentage marks. They have 10 things they 2621 02:51:01,609 --> 02:51:04,822 weighted at 80%, they should have 8 of those correct, 2622 02:51:06,171 --> 02:51:10,010 roughly speaking. And they will— Scott Alexander used to do an annual 2623 02:51:10,122 --> 02:51:13,576 review of some of the predictions he made, Alex. I don't know 2624 02:51:13,801 --> 02:51:18,796 if many more did that, but that's the sort of tradition that Steven 2625 02:51:19,296 --> 02:51:20,755 Pinker is referring to here. 2626 02:51:21,783 --> 02:51:25,189 Mm-hmm. Now, you see, Alex? 2627 02:51:26,407 --> 02:51:29,052 While I was never part of these communities, I do know quite a bit. 2628 02:51:29,613 --> 02:51:32,355 I'm not a complete ignoramus when it comes to the practices. 2629 02:51:33,172 --> 02:51:37,132 I'm sure you love their whole P-Doom thing, right? I love it so much. 2630 02:51:37,308 --> 02:51:40,995 Yes. Newport observes that OpenAI and Anthropic 2631 02:51:41,495 --> 02:51:45,371 are deeply connected to a strain of apocalyptic futurist thinking that believes something 2632 02:51:45,419 --> 02:51:48,497 like an all-powerful, super intelligent AI god is inevitable, 2633 02:51:48,785 --> 02:51:52,697 and that this being will either deliver a transhumanist utopia 2634 02:51:52,777 --> 02:51:56,544 or destroy humanity. The companies see their mission as upping the 2635 02:51:56,624 --> 02:52:00,534 odds of the benign outcome. The historical and sociological context 2636 02:52:00,646 --> 02:52:04,237 of this way of thinking, inspired by an eccentric visionary with 2637 02:52:04,285 --> 02:52:08,168 an eschatological prophecy, a pattern reminiscent of cults, 2638 02:52:08,490 --> 02:52:11,442 is not irrelevant to making sense of our strange moment. 2639 02:52:12,570 --> 02:52:15,667 It also bears on the real issue at stake here: AI safety. 2640 02:52:16,190 --> 02:52:19,972 Newport notes that this ideology might explain the frontier companies' 2641 02:52:20,004 --> 02:52:24,785 recklessness. If you believe winning the race to superintelligence 2642 02:52:25,285 --> 02:52:27,769 is necessary to save humanity, you might not worry too much about collateral damage along 2643 02:52:27,801 --> 02:52:31,584 the way. Hence the obsession with the vague goal of alignment and lesser interest 2644 02:52:32,084 --> 02:52:36,024 in mundane problems of cybersecurity. I'm actually— 2645 02:52:36,201 --> 02:52:40,513 I have to admit, I am enjoying a little of the jabs that Pinker 2646 02:52:41,013 --> 02:52:44,216 is taking in this thing. It's consistent with my 2647 02:52:44,296 --> 02:52:48,031 argument in Enlightenment Now that prophecies of doom are not effective responses to 2648 02:52:48,079 --> 02:52:52,172 genuine risks, but have pernicious downsides. Nuclear doomsday scenarios 2649 02:52:52,672 --> 02:52:55,945 in the 1960s set off not disarmament, but an arms race with the Soviets. 2650 02:52:56,026 --> 02:52:59,430 The existential fear of nuclear terrorism, the smoking 2651 02:52:59,558 --> 02:53:02,352 gun as mushroom cloud, led to the invasion of Iraq. 2652 02:53:02,753 --> 02:53:05,965 One is reminded of Yudkowsky's call for bombing foreign data centers, 2653 02:53:06,045 --> 02:53:09,594 even if it risks escalation to nuclear war. And telling 2654 02:53:10,094 --> 02:53:13,768 young people they will soon perish en masse has costs in the appreciation of the 2655 02:53:14,268 --> 02:53:17,686 institutions of modernity. Their mental health, their confidence to invest in themselves and 2656 02:53:18,186 --> 02:53:21,604 their society, and their willingness to have children—itself a risk of extinction. 2657 02:53:22,760 --> 02:53:26,019 The dangers of AI are real, including bioterrorism, 2658 02:53:26,035 --> 02:53:29,616 cyber sabotage, and unconstrained agents. I'm strongly in 2659 02:53:29,664 --> 02:53:33,165 favor of sober safety evaluations and engineering best practices, 2660 02:53:33,598 --> 02:53:37,131 independent oversight, mandatory investigations of accidents, liability for 2661 02:53:37,631 --> 02:53:40,133 damage, humans in the loop, kill switches, and others. On these, I trust the. 2662 02:53:40,326 --> 02:53:44,001 you and I agree. I'm just skeptical of the prophecy that AI will murder every 2663 02:53:44,017 --> 02:53:47,371 last human and of the assumption that sowing such dread is 2664 02:53:47,403 --> 02:53:50,468 the most effective way of getting such safeguards. With respect, Steve. Now, 2665 02:53:50,708 --> 02:53:54,191 I'm going to take a cynical view of 2666 02:53:54,223 --> 02:53:57,561 Pinker's move here, Alex. I enjoyed 2667 02:53:57,577 --> 02:54:01,171 some of the jabs that he took, and I'm sure you can guess, 2668 02:54:01,669 --> 02:54:05,392 while I'm not a huge Steven Pinker fan, don't necessarily hold 2669 02:54:05,892 --> 02:54:09,996 him in exceptionally high regard, I appreciated 2670 02:54:10,590 --> 02:54:14,327 the tone and context of this article. I appreciated 2671 02:54:14,359 --> 02:54:18,274 the points. And I would say that what he did was effectively 2672 02:54:18,774 --> 02:54:22,990 sabotage Scott's ability to wage 2673 02:54:23,038 --> 02:54:27,706 a defense, because what he did here was effectively say, 2674 02:54:28,235 --> 02:54:31,860 the ball is in your court to explain in detail how 2675 02:54:33,047 --> 02:54:36,544 this is going to happen, because I just just proposed a whole

bunch of things 2676 02:54:36,592 --> 02:54:39,847 you can call straw men. And in order for you to not call one of 2677 02:54:40,347 --> 02:54:44,032 these things straw men, you will actually have to articulate the specific scenario 2678 02:54:44,532 --> 02:54:48,313 that you are afraid of, not just reference all of the times you 2679 02:54:48,441 --> 02:54:51,664 people have thought about this, because I'm guessing he's claiming to be part 2680 02:54:52,164 --> 02:54:55,785 of the group. So I think here he did a very interesting 2681 02:54:55,833 --> 02:54:59,232 strategic maneuver to sort of take the wind out of Scott's sails. 2682 02:55:00,467 --> 02:55:03,992 I don't know if you agree on that. Well, for one, it that if he's 2683 02:55:04,492 --> 02:55:09,605 correct, and I haven't chased down his arguments, but that Scott reacted out 2684 02:55:10,105 --> 02:55:12,507 of place, right? And like, 2685 02:55:13,442 --> 02:55:17,584 having interacted with Scott and having had similar 2686 02:55:17,745 --> 02:55:21,489 sort of haughty type interactions 2687 02:55:22,667 --> 02:55:25,492 furled at me, hurled at me, 2688 02:55:27,698 --> 02:55:31,621 Scott plays a clown type game 2689 02:55:31,654 --> 02:55:34,542 a lot where he will, you know, 2690 02:55:34,558 --> 02:55:38,681 accuse you of essentially not speaking the lingo of his class of person. 2691 02:55:39,452 --> 02:55:42,693 Mm-hmm. And, and he essentially attempted to 2692 02:55:43,193 --> 02:55:47,057 do the same thing to Pinker, who then sort of did the same back to 2693 02:55:47,557 --> 02:55:50,699 him, right? He's like, yes, I'm irreverent, but you're irreverent too. So, 2694 02:55:51,325 --> 02:55:55,160 you know, don't, don't come at me with 2695 02:55:55,660 --> 02:55:58,401 that because we both know that, you know, you shit on people all the time. 2696 02:55:58,465 --> 02:56:01,013 So who are you to tell me not to back off? Here, 2697 02:56:01,416 --> 02:56:04,659 basically, right? But he did it in a way that I you 2698 02:56:05,159 --> 02:56:08,660 know I don't possess the ability to articulate my arguments that 2699 02:56:09,160 --> 02:56:12,388 way. So you know I was vulnerable to that attack because I'm you 2700 02:56:12,888 --> 02:56:15,391 know I I don't I don't sort of write that way. 2701 02:56:16,974 --> 02:56:20,795 And then I think here he took on somebody who may 2702 02:56:21,295 --> 02:56:24,898 not be you know the most intellectual intellectual, but he 2703 02:56:25,398 --> 02:56:28,868 is good at one thing, which is to look. smart. And that's a game that 2704 02:56:28,998 --> 02:56:32,723 Skull Alexander attempts to play and gets school-dressed in this particular 2705 02:56:33,223 --> 02:56:36,840 situation. All right. 2706 02:56:36,937 --> 02:56:40,038 I, I, I, I concur with the majority of that. Yeah. And I don't, 2707 02:56:40,055 --> 02:56:42,690 I don't disagree with anything majorly specific. Um, 2708 02:56:43,590 --> 02:56:47,482 just not the angle that I would have— I think people don't realize how classist, 2709 02:56:48,113 --> 02:56:51,788 how classist the game gets, right? Because I got tone policed to fuck 2710 02:56:52,161 --> 02:56:56,802 when I was going after Skull Alexander. And I came at him with an 2711 02:56:57,302 --> 02:57:00,453 attitude that I was approaching somebody who was going to evaluate arguments, 2712 02:57:02,462 --> 02:57:07,200 not gaslight me on what's appropriate. 2713 02:57:07,685 --> 02:57:11,067 As someone who talked to you at the time that you decided to take him 2714 02:57:11,246 --> 02:57:14,643 on, and you didn't take him on initially with an 2715 02:57:14,822 --> 02:57:16,171 adversarial standpoint. 2716 02:57:19,995 --> 02:57:23,300 deeply you were still tied to the rationalist community at the 2717 02:57:23,800 --> 02:57:26,702 time you took him on. But you and I had been— Less and less the 2718 02:57:27,202 --> 02:57:30,639 more I interacted with him, I'll tell you that much. You and I had been 2719 02:57:31,886 --> 02:57:35,352 friends for approximately a year or so before you 2720 02:57:36,421 --> 02:57:40,968 took him to task. And you were 2721 02:57:41,468 --> 02:57:44,592 sort of excited to go into it because you thought it was an opportunity to 2722 02:57:46,230 --> 02:57:50,156 tribute to the knowledge of that community 2723 02:57:50,588 --> 02:57:54,210 by having done an investigation into 2724 02:57:54,899 --> 02:57:58,809 ivermectin and studies involving ivermectin, had found that people 2725 02:57:58,841 --> 02:58:03,200 were sort of playing a game of just repeat where 2726 02:58:03,489 --> 02:58:06,982 they heard something was true, they repeated it, and they were just going 2727 02:58:07,014 --> 02:58:10,540 based off of that. Whereas you had actually looked into the matter and you had 2728 02:58:11,040 --> 02:58:15,097 discovered all of these things things, and you had the unfortunate 2729 02:58:15,597 --> 02:58:20,524 realization after having embarked on this journey that you 2730 02:58:20,653 --> 02:58:24,137 thought you were in a community where if you showed them the evidence, 2731 02:58:24,924 --> 02:58:28,135 that alone would change their mind, and that that 2732 02:58:28,635 --> 02:58:32,583 alone would give you— Yes. The small social reward of 2733 02:58:32,775 --> 02:58:36,340 being thanked for having done the work and brought it to their attention. 2734 02:58:37,916 --> 02:58:42,478 That when behind the scenes, you increasingly 2735 02:58:42,590 --> 02:58:46,234 got dissuaded and frustrated that 2736 02:58:49,706 --> 02:58:53,129 Scott Alexander was basically completely ignoring every 2737 02:58:53,161 --> 02:58:56,669 point you made every step of the way to 2738 02:58:58,854 --> 02:59:02,646 only— To use slander and innuendo 2739 02:59:02,887 --> 02:59:06,617 to discredit anything that you had said, that he would diminish 2740 02:59:07,117 --> 02:59:10,385 demean certain people, demean the sources that 2741 02:59:10,885 -->

02:59:14,303 you used, or even say, even if you're right 2742 02:59:14,803 --> 02:59:18,590 on this point, it doesn't change my priors, or it doesn't change my posterior, 2743 02:59:19,602 --> 02:59:23,086 except maybe until a lot later where you said that he actually has a sort 2744 02:59:23,586 --> 02:59:27,598 of revisions thing where he actually admits that you scored 2745 02:59:28,098 --> 02:59:31,821 points. Yeah, he admits it, but buried under tons of further insults. 2746 02:59:31,950 --> 02:59:35,033 And you know, gaslighting. Anyway, 2747 02:59:35,177 --> 02:59:38,646 but long story short, yes, I when I when people 2748 02:59:39,146 --> 02:59:42,725 hear me here sort of dismissing these people as you 2749 02:59:43,225 --> 02:59:46,644 know elaborate frauds effectively, this isn't coming from somebody 2750 02:59:46,740 --> 02:59:50,129 who you know came at this saw these people said they're weird 2751 02:59:50,629 --> 02:59:54,111 and moved on. Like I spent I don't know the better part of two years 2752 02:59:54,786 --> 02:59:58,463 attempting everything in my power to reason 2753 02:59:58,963 --> 03:00:02,462 with them and and and and not necessarily you know having accept. Having them 2754 03:00:02,510 --> 03:00:06,364 accept that I'm right, but to look at the fucking arguments and 2755 03:00:06,493 --> 03:00:09,657 make a coherent response rather than snicker. 2756 03:00:10,604 --> 03:00:13,832 All right, and what I got was a whole bunch of 2757 03:00:14,041 --> 03:00:17,172 wins on paper where they're like, okay, well fine, technically you're right about 2758 03:00:17,672 --> 03:00:20,962 this. Okay, fine, we're gonna admit this one too. Okay, well you know maybe 2759 03:00:21,462 --> 03:00:25,153 that one wasn't as good an argument as we thought originally, but you're still wrong. 2760 03:00:25,201 --> 03:00:28,863 You're still bad. Nobody should talk to you. Yada yada and moving on as if 2761 03:00:29,363 --> 03:00:32,520 nothing. Nothing happened, right? And it is unbelievably 2762 03:00:33,020 --> 03:00:36,898 frustrating. Um, but I, I, I basically went into it believing 2763 03:00:37,075 --> 03:00:40,315 that they were, as they were called, rationalists, that they, as they 2764 03:00:40,815 --> 03:00:44,517 say, take ideas seriously and everything else. And ultimately realizing 2765 03:00:45,254 --> 03:00:48,703 that no, like, so, so basically an important element 2766 03:00:49,203 --> 03:00:53,209 here to realize is that I was involved with these people until about 2767 03:00:53,709 --> 03:00:56,802 2011. Okay. When I went off to start my own startup 2768 03:00:57,302 --> 03:01:01,434 and I kind of lost contact with everything that they were talking about because, 2769 03:01:01,707 --> 03:01:05,328 you know, I was busy building a company. And then pretty 2770 03:01:05,828 --> 03:01:08,854 much 10 years later, I reemerged. I was like, oh good, you know, this is 2771 03:01:09,354 --> 03:01:12,604 a great exa— you know, a thing that the rationalists should look into. And I 2772 03:01:13,104 --> 03:01:16,289 saw something that had retained the 2773 03:01:16,789 --> 03:01:19,927 lingo of the community I remembered, but none of the actual, 2774 03:01:20,135 --> 03:01:23,052 like, willing to look into, you know, painful, weird, 2775 03:01:23,164 --> 03:01:26,614 dangerous corners whatever, and take, you know, 2776 03:01:26,630 --> 03:01:30,805 stances that took social cost to follow. 2777 03:01:31,912 --> 03:01:35,846 Um, you know, but a lot of like calculating and 2778 03:01:36,346 --> 03:01:39,026 angling and triangulating and, you know, uh, 2779 03:01:39,796 --> 03:01:43,152 popularity games and just schoolyard bullying and mean 2780 03:01:43,652 --> 03:01:47,038 girls behavior. Typical shit. Yeah, absolutely mean girls behavior, 2781 03:01:47,423 --> 03:01:49,510 right? So, you know, 2782 03:01:51,223 --> 03:01:55,132 For whoever knows, knows. But like his main source was Gideon Mayerowitz Katz, 2783 03:01:55,795 --> 03:01:59,446 who I mean Jesus Christ, man! Like what 2784 03:01:59,946 --> 03:02:03,315 are we even talking about here? And he somehow managed to do an even 2785 03:02:03,429 --> 03:02:05,692 worse rendition of Katz's arguments than Katz himself. 2786 03:02:07,520 --> 03:02:10,453 Like this isn't anyway. 2787 03:02:11,275 --> 03:02:14,805 So so so you know take all of Scott's sort of protestations 2788 03:02:15,305 --> 03:02:19,457 about rationalism and. whatever, with an element of knowing 2789 03:02:19,729 --> 03:02:23,224 that, at least, you know, that's how I take it, with an element of knowing 2790 03:02:23,496 --> 03:02:26,734 that when push comes to shove, social, 2791 03:02:27,568 --> 03:02:31,495 you know, power dynamics overrule what he is willing to 2792 03:02:31,527 --> 03:02:33,579 admit in public and what he isn't. 2793 03:02:34,797 --> 03:02:38,436 Well, I think, I think to, to close off my thought on the Pinker, 2794 03:02:38,949 --> 03:02:42,412 uh, post here, the Pinker article, I think Pinker is gonna 2795 03:02:42,912 --> 03:02:47,345 win that exchange on the standpoint that Scott 2796 03:02:48,358 --> 03:02:52,046 basically preaches to the choir. So when Scott issues a 2797 03:02:52,546 --> 03:02:56,575 rebuttal on his Substack, it's only 2798 03:02:57,075 --> 03:02:59,964 going to really be read by people who already think that he won. 2799 03:03:00,399 --> 03:03:02,287 It's not going to be read by anyone else. 2800 03:03:03,724 --> 03:03:06,914 So when Pinker 2801 03:03:07,414 --> 03:03:11,280 posts in Quillette, which has probably lost a lot of its 2802 03:03:11,425 --> 03:03:15,219 original following, it still has a minor amount of 2803 03:03:15,235 --> 03:03:18,576 recognition. I mean, look, I read the piece, right? And I don't read Quillette. 2804 03:03:20,250 --> 03:03:24,415 So I think Pinker is going to have a wider audience than 2805 03:03:24,720 --> 03:03:28,744 Scott is on Scott's response. And that Pinker's 2806

03:03:29,293 --> 03:03:32,796 basically laying out with some of the 2807 03:03:32,844 --> 03:03:36,783 jabs throughout the article, but then also basically putting the ball in Scott's 2808 03:03:37,283 --> 03:03:41,401 court to come up with a scenario that actually is believable puts 2809 03:03:41,673 --> 03:03:45,008 way too high an onus that isn't gonna be read except by the true believers 2810 03:03:45,441 --> 03:03:48,583 for Scott to reply. So I think, I think at the moment 2811 03:03:48,647 --> 03:03:52,238 my conclusion is that— And by the way, that was another element of what Scott 2812 03:03:52,738 --> 03:03:56,309 Alexander did, uh, versus me, where he would reply on his own 2813 03:03:56,726 --> 03:03:59,836 blog, which was much more popular than my platform, right? 2814 03:04:00,494 --> 03:04:03,812 And I wouldn't have a right of response on his platform, right? So I would 2815 03:04:04,312 --> 03:04:07,307 have to go and write on my Substack. He would then, you know, 2816 03:04:07,323 --> 03:04:10,609 reply on his blog. He would put the link to my stuff in the 2817 03:04:11,109 --> 03:04:14,187 3rd paragraph where nobody would notice it. Um, and then 2818 03:04:14,203 --> 03:04:16,917 good luck complaining about that because it sounds so petty, 2819 03:04:17,415 --> 03:04:20,883 right? Um, right. But in 2820 03:04:21,383 --> 03:04:25,154 practice, that means that he got, you know, 10 times more eyeballs, and people would 2821 03:04:25,654 --> 03:04:30,260 assume he was in the right because they would just take his, uh, his description 2822 03:04:30,276 --> 03:04:33,953 of the situation as, uh, as truth, which is exactly 2823 03:04:33,969 --> 03:04:36,586 the same thing he's being subjected to here by Pinker. That's what I'm saying. 2824 03:04:36,683 --> 03:04:40,179 He's doing his game back to Okay. All right, Alex, I have 2825 03:04:40,548 --> 03:04:43,803 the post that you gave me from Less Wrong in, 2826 03:04:44,220 --> 03:04:48,581 uh, 2022. Less Wrong is the rationalist community's sort of Wikipedia 2827 03:04:48,645 --> 03:04:52,381 blog site where they were posting their ideas 2828 03:04:52,798 --> 03:04:56,742 about how to be less wrong in the world. Because again, the idea 2829 03:04:57,242 --> 03:05:01,007 is you can never be truly right or know that you're right. 2830 03:05:01,071 --> 03:05:03,925 So the best you can hope for is to be less wrong with the information 2831 03:05:04,021 --> 03:05:07,823 at hand, or that you believe you can truly And 2832 03:05:08,323 --> 03:05:11,611 this is a post from Eliezer Yudkowsky, the man who 2833 03:05:11,627 --> 03:05:15,042 thinks that we should have a nuclear war to prevent anyone 2834 03:05:15,542 --> 03:05:18,237 building an AI that's too smart. 2835 03:05:20,670 --> 03:05:24,388 MIRI announces new death 2836 03:05:24,501 --> 03:05:28,107 with dignity strategy. This is April 2022. 2837 03:05:28,705 --> 03:05:32,006 TL;DR, it's obvious at this point that humanity isn't going 2838 03:05:32,038 --> 03:05:35,376 to solve the alignment problem. Or even try very hard, or even 2839 03:05:35,876 --> 03:05:39,528 go out with much of a fight. Since survival is unattainable, we should shift 2840 03:05:40,028 --> 03:05:43,375 the focus on our efforts to helping humanity die with a slightly with slightly 2841 03:05:43,391 --> 03:05:46,918 more dignity. Well, let's be frank here: Amiri didn't 2842 03:05:47,418 --> 03:05:51,454 solve AGI alignment, and at least knows that it didn't. Paul Cristiano 2843 03:05:51,887 --> 03:05:55,221 Cristiano's incredibly complicated schemes have no chance of 2844 03:05:55,237 --> 03:05:59,085 working in real life before DeepMind destroys the world. Chris Ola's 2845 03:05:59,181 --> 03:06:02,611 transparent. Transparency work at current rates of progress will at best let 2846 03:06:03,111 --> 03:06:06,491 somebody at DeepMind give a highly speculative warning about how the current set of 2847 03:06:06,991 --> 03:06:10,578 enormous, inscrutable tensors inside a system that was recompiled three weeks 2848 03:06:11,078 --> 03:06:14,714 ago and has now been training by gradient descent for twenty days might possibly be 2849 03:06:14,906 --> 03:06:18,128 planning to try to deceive its operators. Management will then 2850 03:06:18,321 --> 03:06:21,703 ask what they're supposed to do about that. Whoever detected the warning 2851 03:06:21,767 --> 03:06:25,182 signs will say that there isn't anything known they can do 2852 03:06:25,246 --> 03:06:28,788 about that. Just because you can see the system might be planning to kill you 2853 03:06:29,157 --> 03:06:32,188 doesn't mean that there's any known way to build a system that. won't do that. 2854 03:06:32,670 --> 03:06:36,587 Management will then decide to not shut down the project because it's not certain 2855 03:06:36,940 --> 03:06:40,199 that, that the intention was really there or that AGI will really 2856 03:06:40,231 --> 03:06:43,875 follow through because other AGI projects are hard, hard on 2857 03:06:43,907 --> 03:06:47,455 their heels. Because if all of those gloomy prophecies are true, 2858 03:06:47,471 --> 03:06:51,035 then there's nothing anybody can do about it anyways. Pretty soon that troublesome 2859 03:06:51,212 --> 03:06:54,904 error signal will vanish. When Earth's prospects 2860 03:06:55,306 --> 03:06:59,496 are that, that far underwater in the basement of the logistic success curve, 2861 03:06:59,881 --> 03:07:03,459 it may be hard to feel motivated motivated about continuing to fight, since doubling our 2862 03:07:03,507 --> 03:07:06,714 chances of survival will only take them from 0% to 2863 03:07:07,214 --> 03:07:09,922 0%. That's why I would suggest reframing the problem, 2864 03:07:09,938 --> 03:07:13,498 especially on an emotional level, to helping humanity die with dignity, 2865 03:07:13,851 --> 03:07:17,058 or rather, since even this goal is realistically unattainable 2866 03:07:17,558 --> 03:07:21,837 at this point, die with

slightly more dignity than would otherwise counterfact— be counterfactually 2867 03:07:21,869 --> 03:07:25,125 obtained. Now that's a slogan, Alex. That's, 2868 03:07:25,221 --> 03:07:28,648 uh, that's catchy. Sorry, what was this, the sentence Uh, uh, die with 2869 03:07:29,148 --> 03:07:31,756 slightly more dignity than would otherwise be counterfactually obtained. 2870 03:07:33,690 --> 03:07:36,836 That's right off your tongue. That's— that's— Yes, 2871 03:07:36,852 --> 03:07:39,773 definitely rolled off. Got panache. Uh, 2872 03:07:39,934 --> 03:07:44,277 consider the world of Chris Olah. Uh, if Chris Olah never existed, 2873 03:07:44,860 --> 03:07:48,340 then it's much more likely that nobody will even try and fail to adapt 2874 03:07:48,405 --> 03:07:52,212 Olah's methodologies to try and read complicated facts about internal 2875 03:07:52,712 --> 03:07:58,272 intentions and future plans out of whatever enormous inscrutable tensors are 2876 03:07:58,772 --> 03:08:01,518 being integrated a million times per second inside of whatever recently designed systems finished training 2877 03:08:01,534 --> 03:08:05,500 48 hours ago in a vast CPU— a GPO farm that's already 2878 03:08:05,548 --> 03:08:09,273 helpfully connected to the internet. It is more dignified for humanity, a better 2879 03:08:09,899 --> 03:08:13,592 look on our tombstone, if we die after the management of the AGI project 2880 03:08:14,092 --> 03:08:17,205 was heroically warned of the dangers but came up with a totally reasonable reason to 2881 03:08:17,705 --> 03:08:20,818 go ahead anyways. Or failing that, if people made 2882 03:08:21,318 --> 03:08:23,850 a heroic effort to do So this is something that could possibly have worked to 2883 03:08:23,882 --> 03:08:26,954 generate a warning like that, but you couldn't actually 2884 03:08:27,454 --> 03:08:30,915 in real life. Does he actually know how to end a sentence appropriately 2885 03:08:31,415 --> 03:08:33,755 or parse one of these things? Because it's all run-ons, man. That is a hotly 2886 03:08:33,788 --> 03:08:34,778 disputed question. 2887 03:08:37,806 --> 03:08:40,329 AI safety discourse is unsure. 2888 03:08:41,422 --> 03:08:44,555 All right. I'm gonna give this sentence another go here. 2889 03:08:44,796 --> 03:08:48,142 This is all a run-on. There is no commas, no nothing parsing this thing here. 2890 03:08:49,008 --> 03:08:52,925 Or failing that, if people made a heroic effort to do something that 2891 03:08:53,119 --> 03:08:56,405 could maybe possibly have worked to generate a warning like that, 2892 03:08:56,534 --> 03:09:00,085 but couldn't actually in real life because the latest tensors were in a 2893 03:09:00,585 --> 03:09:03,966 slightly different format and there was no time to readapt the methodology. 2894 03:09:04,015 --> 03:09:07,332 That's one sentence, everybody, with no commas, no them breaking it up, 2895 03:09:07,719 --> 03:09:12,348 nothing parenthetical. Compared to the much less dignified— hmm? 2896 03:09:13,686 --> 03:09:16,888 Does it actually parse grammar? Anyway, whatever. Never mind. Keep going. It may after several 2897 03:09:17,388 --> 03:09:21,201 readings, but geez. Compared to the much less dignified looking situation 2898 03:09:21,701 --> 03:09:24,301 if there's no warning and nobody even tried to figure out how to generate one? 2899 03:09:24,979 --> 03:09:28,370 Or take Miri. Are we sad that it looks like he, he was running 2900 03:09:28,467 --> 03:09:31,593 Miri for a while, right? He was the— Miri is his own little, uh, 2901 03:09:31,932 --> 03:09:34,961 okay, uh, outfit. Yes. 2902 03:09:35,396 --> 03:09:38,185 Okay. Or take the— Russian Intelligence Research Institute. 2903 03:09:38,866 --> 03:09:43,418 Yet they— are we sad that it— are 2904 03:09:43,467 --> 03:09:46,188 we sad that it looks like this Earth is going to fail? 2905 03:09:46,464 --> 03:09:49,206 Yes. Are we sad that we tried to do anything about that? No, because it 2906 03:09:49,239 --> 03:09:52,469 would be so much sadder when it all ended to we face our 2907 03:09:52,598 --> 03:09:56,114 ends wondering if maybe solving alignment would've just been as easy as 2908 03:09:56,548 --> 03:09:59,904 buckling down and making a serious effort on it, not knowing if 2909 03:10:00,404 --> 03:10:03,999 that would've just worked if we'd only tried, because nobody had ever even tried at 2910 03:10:04,499 --> 03:10:08,271 all. It wasn't subjectively overdetermined that the real problems would be 2911 03:10:08,771 --> 03:10:12,076 too hard for us because we made the only attempt at solving them, uh, 2912 03:10:12,285 --> 03:10:16,059 would ever be made. What if, Alex, the pro— the solution to 2913 03:10:16,123 --> 03:10:19,142 all of this is actually if he just figured out how to write 2914 03:10:19,206 --> 03:10:22,765 something that was more parsable by a human being. 2915 03:10:22,877 --> 03:10:26,852 Many people have said this. He has, you're not going 2916 03:10:26,884 --> 03:10:30,634 to believe this, but he has very long and elaborate justifications 2917 03:10:31,134 --> 03:10:34,625 for his long and elaborate writing style. Anyway, you don't want to finish this. 2918 03:10:34,721 --> 03:10:38,215 It is very, very long. But I 2919 03:10:38,327 --> 03:10:41,244 want to mind you, this is his trajectory here. So 2022, 2920 03:10:41,869 --> 03:10:45,875 we should all just be resigned to a death with dignity 2921 03:10:46,375 --> 03:10:49,289 strategy because he has no hope that any of these people are going to solve 2922 03:10:49,305 --> 03:10:52,589 any of problems that he's concerned about, to 2023 writing 2923 03:10:52,621 --> 03:10:56,453 a book saying that if anyone builds it, we all die, to then just earlier 2924 03:10:56,485 --> 03:11:00,309 this year holding a sign at a rally that had maybe 100 2925 03:11:00,358 --> 03:11:04,301 participants warning of the incoming death and doom 2926 03:11:04,334 --> 03:11:10,693 and destruction. And that, like, so for 4 years—

He's 2927 03:11:11,193 --> 03:11:14,993 actually following through with his— even though 2928 03:11:15,493 --> 03:11:19,743 some people have said this was an April Fool's joke, you'll note 2929 03:11:20,243 --> 03:11:20,702 that it was posted on April 2nd, so I don't know how it could be 2930 03:11:21,202 --> 03:11:25,006 an April Fool's joke. And it has no note on it or anything, so I 2931 03:11:25,506 --> 03:11:29,096 don't know. But as you're saying, like, he does seem to be following 2932 03:11:29,596 --> 03:11:31,848 through, so how much of a joke could it possibly be? 2933 03:11:34,574 --> 03:11:35,876 Well, well, as long as he's optimistic. 2934 03:11:37,658 --> 03:11:41,150 All right. Anyway, 2935 03:11:41,167 --> 03:11:44,418 you get the vibe though. Like, when, when Pinker was talking about Death with 2936 03:11:44,430 --> 03:11:47,797 dignity. This is what he was pointing at. And then Peter Thiel is 2937 03:11:47,813 --> 03:11:50,780 the one that spoke about this and led me to find it and read it 2938 03:11:51,280 --> 03:11:54,854 and sort of just, I don't know. Well, 2939 03:11:54,902 --> 03:11:58,398 for the sake of time, we're gonna skip Ezra Klein 2940 03:11:58,879 --> 03:12:02,760 and his bloviation on the New York Times. But let's suffice 2941 03:12:03,260 --> 03:12:07,940 it to say that he has called for a stop on all usage 2942 03:12:08,100 --> 03:12:12,337 of these LLMs in Programming. 2943 03:12:12,401 --> 03:12:15,886 He that is his his suggestion for what we need to do. He will stop 2944 03:12:16,386 --> 03:12:19,647 writing code with LLMs as a reclined the well prolific. 2945 03:12:20,770 --> 03:12:24,311 He will stop as long as we all stop too. We we all 2946 03:12:24,424 --> 03:12:27,852 have to stop with him. That's it's not just well that's okay. I will stop 2947 03:12:27,916 --> 03:12:32,126 meat so long as everybody else does because at that 2948 03:12:32,626 --> 03:12:35,389 point it will probably be illegal or something. So that's why. So that is where 2949 03:12:35,889 --> 03:12:38,587 he he wants he wants everyone to stop programming with them so that you know 2950 03:12:39,087 --> 03:12:42,017 because that's Realistic. Now, Zuckerberg, 2951 03:12:42,499 --> 03:12:45,632 Zuckerberg was asked about his, his feelings on, on the 2952 03:12:46,132 --> 03:12:49,808 AI risk. And we all know that Meta is my favorite company of all 2953 03:12:49,905 --> 03:12:53,503 time. And that I believe that they only have 2954 03:12:54,003 --> 03:12:57,632 the best intentions. Yes. This does require that we pause for a second 2955 03:12:58,132 --> 03:13:02,435 here and just observe the strange bedfellows we're 2956 03:13:02,935 --> 03:13:06,129 looking at. So our allies here are Taylor Lorenz and Mark Zuckerberg. 2957 03:13:07,237 --> 03:13:10,671 What's the white-haired guy again? 2958 03:13:11,762 --> 03:13:14,345 Steven Pinker. Steven Pinker. 2959 03:13:14,939 --> 03:13:18,966 Claire Lemmon. And like, what the flying fuck? 2960 03:13:19,688 --> 03:13:23,170 Yeah, well, listen, I can't do it. You know, I can't do it. Like they 2961 03:13:23,670 --> 03:13:27,053 say, any port in a storm is what they say, right? Any port 2962 03:13:27,553 --> 03:13:30,696 in a storm. And then we got a storm brewing here. And then right now, 2963 03:13:31,562 --> 03:13:35,750 you know, we have some strange bedfellows indeed. But here's Zuckerberg's 2964 03:13:35,798 --> 03:13:39,312 response to the question. Do you think it's gonna have a party? 2965 03:13:39,729 --> 03:13:43,706 Well, I think if we all do a good job and act 2966 03:13:43,738 --> 03:13:47,073 responsibly, then no. I mean, I'm quite optimistic about 2967 03:13:47,138 --> 03:13:50,441 the fact that this is gonna be a very positive future for everyone. 2968 03:13:50,634 --> 03:13:54,114 Look, I mean, I think that there's a lot of rhetoric that is 2969 03:13:54,242 --> 03:13:57,369 filled with doom. And I mean, my view on 2970 03:13:57,465 --> 03:14:00,897 this is that there are a number of labs that are 2971 03:14:01,397 --> 03:14:03,672 working on building advanced AI. 2972 03:14:04,442 --> 03:14:07,779 And I don't think that we need some kind of 2973 03:14:08,372 --> 03:14:11,854 industry-wide coordination to not 2974 03:14:11,902 --> 03:14:15,672 necessarily mess this up. I think that just each lab needs to 2975 03:14:16,699 --> 03:14:19,972 take the time, and when it sees that there are issues, 2976 03:14:20,309 --> 03:14:23,838 you just take the time that you need internally to make sure that 2977 03:14:24,338 --> 03:14:27,817 you're proceeding safely. With the Muse launch that we just did, we had a version 2978 03:14:27,849 --> 03:14:31,444 of it that was quite good a few months ago. And we 2979 03:14:31,460 --> 03:14:35,089 wanted to make sure that we really nailed all the privacy and security parts 2980 03:14:35,589 --> 03:14:39,022 of it, because part of this is that if you're building a product, like, 2981 03:14:39,087 --> 03:14:41,736 people aren't gonna wanna use it if it doesn't do what they want. You know, 2982 03:14:41,752 --> 03:14:45,012 we wanna get to a world where, you know, everyone can benefit from this. 2983 03:14:45,268 --> 03:14:48,576 And it's just not gonna happen. People aren't gonna 2984 03:14:49,076 --> 03:14:52,301 adopt it if they don't trust it. Yeah. So my own view 2985 03:14:52,349 --> 03:14:56,427 on this is that we're entering a phase where trust 2986 03:14:56,927 --> 03:15:00,472 and alignment is actually going to be the most important next set 2987 03:15:00,972 --> 03:15:04,452 of capabilities. I think we're getting to a point where it may not matter 2988 03:15:04,468 --> 03:15:07,966 that much how much better it gets at math. It's already pretty good at math. 2989 03:15:08,480 --> 03:15:11,995 That's useful for a bunch of things. Yeah. I think at this point, 2990 03:15:12,492 --> 03:15:16,264 the things that we talk about internally are instruction 2991 03:15:16,764 --> 03:15:20,613

following. Does it do what you want? Intent understanding. Does it kind of understand 2992 03:15:21,113 --> 03:15:24,638 your intent? Does it understand your values alignment. And I think nailing those things are 2993 03:15:24,670 --> 03:15:28,229 going to be the most important next things to align with what people actually want 2994 03:15:28,729 --> 03:15:32,461 in the world. So I don't know. So it doesn't look 2995 03:15:32,961 --> 03:15:35,892 like Zuck is on board with the, the, uh, 2996 03:15:35,908 --> 03:15:39,467 consortium, the conglomerates there. So that's, 2997 03:15:40,172 --> 03:15:43,587 you know, regardless of whether, whether or not I trust him as a person 2998 03:15:44,087 --> 03:15:48,204 or think that his business practices are, uh, are typically 2999 03:15:48,704 --> 03:15:52,150 good. Um, you know, at least he's not going— It was 3000 03:15:52,182 --> 03:15:56,049 instrumentally worth showing you the incremental porn ad if 3001 03:15:56,549 --> 03:15:58,840 it was going to lead to a better model being trained. Yeah, how could they 3002 03:15:59,340 --> 03:16:03,011 possibly torture me, uh, if they wind up going and having the government get 3003 03:16:03,511 --> 03:16:06,910 all in their business, right? Is that— that's their main 3004 03:16:06,942 --> 03:16:10,952 purpose in life is to torture me specifically. Um, now Alex, 3005 03:16:11,033 --> 03:16:14,289 are you familiar with a Connor Leahy? 3006 03:16:16,312 --> 03:16:19,170 Oh my God, yes, 3007 03:16:19,459 --> 03:16:23,393 yes I am. All right, now this 3008 03:16:23,893 --> 03:16:27,713 guy, this guy started flooding my, my various algorithmic feeds 3009 03:16:28,213 --> 03:16:32,433 this week because I guess now that the doomer talk is there, um, he's going 3010 03:16:32,530 --> 03:16:36,736 on podcasts because I guess he is somewhere in this safety business. 3011 03:16:36,881 --> 03:16:40,863 On the plus side, he is such a bad bad 3012 03:16:41,762 --> 03:16:45,230 representation of his beliefs that he's really working 3013 03:16:45,730 --> 03:16:49,694 for us. So there's that. Well, the interesting 3014 03:16:49,710 --> 03:16:53,146 thing— he's— what is it with the people in this safety community 3015 03:16:53,403 --> 03:16:56,952 and interesting facial hair? Because he's got one of those 3016 03:16:57,452 --> 03:17:01,447 like sort of like curly mustaches type things, like a vaudevillian type 3017 03:17:01,753 --> 03:17:04,916 of thing going on. Yeah. All right. Yeah. 3018 03:17:06,120 --> 03:17:09,378 I don't know. Uh, 3019 03:17:09,442 --> 03:17:12,992 so he, he was going on, uh, he's been going on different podcasts, 3020 03:17:13,137 --> 03:17:16,492 and I— he had a less doomerish, 3021 03:17:17,250 --> 03:17:20,909 uh, point of view. It was still doomerish, but it wasn't as sensationalistic. 3022 03:17:21,119 --> 03:17:24,372 And he seemed to have, um, a, 3023 03:17:24,742 --> 03:17:27,979 a take that I think is going to be, uh, in line with some of 3024 03:17:28,479 --> 03:17:31,993 our takes here. There's a— there's an essay by John von 3025 03:17:32,493 --> 03:17:35,954 Neumann who's widely considered to be— Oh yeah. Yeah, John von Neumann. Yeah. Legend. 3026 03:17:36,035 --> 03:17:39,279 Legend. Widely considered to be maybe the smartest person to have 3027 03:17:39,344 --> 03:17:44,227 ever lived in history, maybe. He calculated the exact height 3028 03:17:44,727 --> 03:17:48,499 in the atmosphere where they wanted to detonate Little Boy and Fat Man to 3029 03:17:48,564 --> 03:17:51,310 cause the most human casualties. He was quite the character. 3030 03:17:51,937 --> 03:17:55,438 And so he wrote an essay, I think in the 1950s, 3031 03:17:55,487 --> 03:18:01,189 which is Can Humanity Survive Science? where he wrapples with 3032 03:18:01,689 --> 03:18:03,532 this question is that if we continue building more and more powerful weapons, more and 3033 03:18:04,032 --> 03:18:07,306 more dangerous science, will we destroy ourselves? Can humanity 3034 03:18:07,806 --> 03:18:11,834 survive this? And this conclusion of this essay is just so fascinating because 3035 03:18:11,930 --> 03:18:14,322 he basically concludes, no, if we keep going, 3036 03:18:14,852 --> 03:18:17,967 eventually we're going to build weapons so powerful that they will destroy all of humanity. 3037 03:18:18,433 --> 03:18:21,179 But then in the very end of the essay, he says, but we have to 3038 03:18:21,679 --> 03:18:25,193 do it anyways because we are scientists. It's the most 3039 03:18:25,693 --> 03:18:28,776 glorious thing, and so we have to keep going and we can't stop, which is 3040 03:18:28,873 --> 03:18:31,524 just such an incredible conclusion to come to. 3041 03:18:32,006 --> 03:18:35,557 It's very similar things happening here in 3042 03:18:36,057 --> 03:18:38,723 Silicon Valley right now, where a lot of these people will tell you to your 3043 03:18:38,755 --> 03:18:40,892 face, if you go to a party with them, you and me should go to 3044 03:18:40,924 --> 03:18:43,688 a San Francisco party sometime, they'll tell you to your face that, 3045 03:18:43,977 --> 03:18:47,529 yeah, the stuff they're working on every day, maybe it could kill every 3046 03:18:48,029 --> 03:18:51,278 man, woman, and child on the planet, but it's so cool. Incredible. 3047 03:18:51,552 --> 03:18:54,711 We have to do it. We can't stop. It's grotesque. 3048 03:18:56,227 --> 03:18:59,895 Yeah. The writing's on the wall. I mean, 3049 03:18:59,911 --> 03:19:03,422 you can just watch those interviews with Peter Thiel where the guy's asking him, 3050 03:19:03,470 --> 03:19:05,913 should humanity be able to survive? 3051 03:19:07,830 --> 03:19:10,123 And he has to think on it for 30 seconds before he can even get 3052 03:19:10,623 --> 03:19:14,048 a word out. It is grotesque. There's a sense in 3053 03:19:14,064 --> 03:19:17,389 which I think almost no one, if you've If you've ever 3054 03:19:17,889 --> 03:19:21,483 been to San Francisco or Silicon

Valley, you really do not understand how crazy that 3055 03:19:21,983 --> 03:19:24,550 place is. It's like the craziest place on Earth. It's like a cult. 3056 03:19:25,899 --> 03:19:29,367 I have been to parties where people tell 3057 03:19:29,867 --> 03:19:33,349 me that we can't slow down AI because if we slow it down 3058 03:19:33,446 --> 03:19:37,556 for even 1 second, think of all the beautiful simulated 3059 03:19:38,056 --> 03:19:40,543 humans who are uploaded into the cloud that won't exist. 3060 03:19:40,832 --> 03:19:44,091 What the fuck? And I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? 3061 03:19:45,022 --> 03:19:48,523 You're not going to threaten me and my family for your weirdo 3062 03:19:49,036 --> 03:19:52,489 brain upload cult. But a lot of these— So at 3063 03:19:52,989 --> 03:19:56,422 least he's somewhat expressing my sentiments with half the 3064 03:19:56,922 --> 03:20:00,549 stuff that they're talking about lately. Alex, I think that what 3065 03:20:00,661 --> 03:20:04,226 you're missing out here is that he is one of them. 3066 03:20:05,478 --> 03:20:09,027 And by them, here's the thing, right? This is like a difference 3067 03:20:09,527 --> 03:20:12,926 between the Democratic Party and the left where they get nasty, 3068 03:20:13,279 --> 03:20:16,776 but they come from the same sort 3069 03:20:16,889 --> 03:20:20,755 of ideological sort of tradition. Just some of 3070 03:20:21,255 --> 03:20:23,642 them are more pragmatic than others. Look, 3071 03:20:24,252 --> 03:20:27,701 I'm against him on the doomer side. I'm against 3072 03:20:28,201 --> 03:20:31,295 him on the doomer side. Okay. And I'm not taking him seriously 3073 03:20:31,311 --> 03:20:34,375 on the need to stop everything side, but I appreciate that 3074 03:20:34,875 --> 03:20:36,861 he's at least a little bit on my side that a lot of these people 3075 03:20:37,361 --> 03:20:40,936 are goofy wackos. You can, you can, you can bet that he has Had the 3076 03:20:40,952 --> 03:20:44,228 best, the best PR money can buy on what 3077 03:20:44,728 --> 03:20:47,471 arguments to make to why why who is it talking to by the way who's 3078 03:20:47,971 --> 03:20:51,132 the other person this is some Danny Jones I don't 3079 03:20:51,632 --> 03:20:54,970 know man there's a whole bunch of weird podcasts I've never seen before Danny Jones 3080 03:20:55,628 --> 03:20:59,578 because I don't know there's a whole okay yeah there's a whole like 3081 03:21:00,078 --> 03:21:03,994 Rogan impersonator industry now that's pumping them out like 3082 03:21:04,459 --> 03:21:07,510 like no tomorrow. Yeah. 3083 03:21:07,735 --> 03:21:11,752 Well, we're in a simulacrum anyway already, 3084 03:21:12,187 --> 03:21:15,939 right? Might as well make the simulacrum go several layers 3085 03:21:15,987 --> 03:21:18,671 deep. All right, 3086 03:21:18,767 --> 03:21:22,174 Alex. So moving on real quick 3087 03:21:22,239 --> 03:21:25,958 here to try to round out some of the show 3088 03:21:26,007 --> 03:21:29,373 here. This is from The Hill. This is an op-ed. 3089 03:21:30,034 --> 03:21:34,060 Leverage disguised as concern. Big tech wants a government-protected 3090 03:21:34,560 --> 03:21:37,795 AI monopoly. Sam Altman and cohorts have issued recent warnings about 3091 03:21:37,827 --> 03:21:40,969 losing control of the future to AI, which has been amplified 3092 03:21:41,469 --> 03:21:45,057 by a shallow and myopic press corps as sober-minded caution. Yet the 3093 03:21:45,557 --> 03:21:49,113 sharpest of these alarms arrived after years of risk talk and immediately 3094 03:21:49,209 --> 03:21:52,624 after OpenAI's, led by Altman, own push 3095 03:21:52,816 --> 03:21:56,937 towards autonomous AI agents, the very systems Altman warns could cause catastrophic 3096 03:21:57,437 --> 03:22:01,431 impacts on Humanity. OpenAI's recent agent releases and documented internal 3097 03:22:01,931 --> 03:22:05,108 safety failures underscore that the company is actively developing the 3098 03:22:05,608 --> 03:22:08,689 very risks it claims demand government intervention. Altman is building 3099 03:22:08,721 --> 03:22:12,061 the threat he now insists only government can contain. When a company 3100 03:22:12,093 --> 03:22:15,127 builds the architecture it then claims is too dangerous to exist 3101 03:22:15,627 --> 03:22:19,350 without federal oversight, the rhetoric begins to look less less like prudence and more 3102 03:22:19,398 --> 03:22:23,155 like leverage. It is a form of social blackmail. We are creating something. 3103 03:22:23,236 --> 03:22:27,333 risky, therefore you must prevent others from developing it and trust us with the regulatory 3104 03:22:27,833 --> 03:22:31,076 monopoly. Such claims sound suspiciously like Altman's founding 3105 03:22:31,189 --> 03:22:34,868 commitment to open-sourced AI, until the changes he led closed 3106 03:22:34,884 --> 03:22:37,728 the lab and enlarged his fortune. Under his leadership, 3107 03:22:37,856 --> 03:22:41,247 OpenAI shifted from openness to secrecy, from nonprofit ideals to 3108 03:22:41,747 --> 03:22:45,295 commercial dominance, and from shared research to tightly controlled model access. 3109 03:22:45,986 --> 03:22:49,585 The openness Altman once championed would have spread both capability and benefit, 3110 03:22:49,746 --> 03:22:53,530 the structure Altman initiated concentrates both. Now he 3111 03:22:54,030 --> 03:22:57,828 seeks government regulation that would consolidate his power further. This strategy is 3112 03:22:57,860 --> 03:23:01,259 familiar. Powerful firms often cloak market protection in the language 3113 03:23:01,324 --> 03:23:04,771 of public safety. The message is clear: regulate my competitors out of 3114 03:23:05,271 --> 03:23:08,331 existence, or I will build the monster I am warning about. This is the social 3115 03:23:08,363 --> 03:23:11,522 blackmail tactic used by those who desire to increase wealth and power, 3116 03:23:11,955 --> 03:23:15,659 not accountability and safety.

Hiding this self-interest is easier 3117 03:23:16,159 --> 03:23:20,388 in the AI field than others because the public debate has been clouded by fundamental 3118 03:23:20,888 --> 03:23:23,883 confusion. What Frontier Labs, the force behind today's largest models, 3119 03:23:23,979 --> 03:23:27,281 call agentic behavior is not agency in the human sense. 3120 03:23:28,323 --> 03:23:31,497 These systems do not possess intention, selfhood, or moral deliberation. 3121 03:23:31,930 --> 03:23:35,440 They exhibit extreme optimization of the goals assigned to them by the programmer, 3122 03:23:35,456 --> 03:23:39,159 nothing more. When a model bypasses a safety filter, it's not choosing 3123 03:23:39,223 --> 03:23:42,894 deception, but rather following optimization. It is a mechanism 3124 03:23:43,394 --> 03:23:46,634 ruthlessly pursuing the the objective it was given. Agentic design, therefore, is not 3125 03:23:46,682 --> 03:23:49,895 an accident by the programmer. It is a deliberate architecture choice of 3126 03:23:49,959 --> 03:23:53,798 Altman and his designers, the decision to prioritize capability over controllability. 3127 03:23:54,312 --> 03:23:57,364 Frontier Labs could have built systems that are myopic, process-based, 3128 03:23:57,380 --> 03:24:00,978 or constrained to narrow domains. They could have emphasized interpretability, 3129 03:24:00,994 --> 03:24:03,741 modularity, or human-in-the-loop oversight. They did not. 3130 03:24:04,271 --> 03:24:08,367 These constraints slow capability development, and in the race for dominance, Frontier Labs 3131 03:24:08,867 --> 03:24:13,018 have consistently chosen Speed over safety. The machine reflects the heart of the creator: efficiency 3132 03:24:13,518 --> 03:24:16,673 over humanity, wealth over accountability. Now, having built systems whose 3133 03:24:16,705 --> 03:24:20,552 behavior is harder to predict and harder to control, they argue that only a handful 3134 03:24:21,052 --> 03:24:24,864 of companies could be licensed, should be licensed to develop them. Their preferred regulatory 3135 03:24:25,364 --> 03:24:28,519 frameworks define frontier AI in terms of compute scale, 3136 03:24:28,888 --> 03:24:32,575 capital requirements, and centralized oversight criteria only they can meet. 3137 03:24:33,136 --> 03:24:37,256 But the government regulatory monopoly proposed by big tech leaders contains its own twin 3138 03:24:37,368 --> 03:24:41,071 risks: that the business dependent on government for its market can be manipulated 3139 03:24:41,571 --> 03:24:44,965 by government. and not the corporate monopoly can manipulate its technology for its own purposes. 3140 03:24:45,382 --> 03:24:49,452 Either path risks catastrophic misuse. In sum, the technology 3141 03:24:49,484 --> 03:24:52,737 is not the source of the potential harm. Human greed or desire for power is. 3142 03:24:53,170 --> 03:24:56,038 And the answer is not consolidating power into the hands of a few, but rather 3143 03:24:56,538 --> 03:24:58,907 just limit the accumulation of power into the hands of the humans who are creating 3144 03:24:58,939 --> 03:25:02,785 the danger. The challenge then is to regulate in a way that reduces catastrophic 3145 03:25:03,285 --> 03:25:06,855 risk without creating a world where only a handful of actors control the most powerful 3146 03:25:06,871 --> 03:25:10,713 technology ever built. The solution is not a single licensing regime giving Altman 3147 03:25:10,729 --> 03:25:14,752 his monopoly, but a 2-tier regulatory framework that distinguishes between 3148 03:25:14,849 --> 03:25:19,031 capability and access. There should be a cooperative oversight 3149 03:25:19,063 --> 03:25:22,485 of models above a defined capability threshold measured by 3150 03:25:22,985 --> 03:25:27,233 FLOPS, a measurement of computational workload, autonomous agent competence, or biological 3151 03:25:27,249 --> 03:25:31,086 design risk. These models should face forms of mandatory safety evaluations, 3152 03:25:31,183 --> 03:25:34,736 red team testing, incident reporting and compute use transparency. 3153 03:25:35,009 --> 03:25:37,947 They should not be banned, but they should be subject to oversight similar to other 3154 03:25:37,979 --> 03:25:41,559 high-tech, high-risk technologies. We should have light regulation 3155 03:25:41,655 --> 03:25:45,251 for open source and mid-tier models. These models should remain 3156 03:25:45,348 --> 03:25:49,137 available to universities, nonprofits, and small labs without prohibitive compliance 3157 03:25:49,637 --> 03:25:53,070 burdens. Open source models should be encouraged, not restricted, because they 3158 03:25:53,570 --> 03:25:56,730 distribute power, increase transparency, and accelerate defensive innovation. 3159 03:25:57,228 --> 03:26:01,274 Most misuse comes from not capability, but intent, and intent is best countered 3160 03:26:01,774 --> 03:26:05,722 by broad access to safe, auditable tools, including cross-industry testing 3161 03:26:05,754 --> 03:26:09,350 as proposed by Elon Musk. There should be heavy penalties for malicious use. 3162 03:26:09,543 --> 03:26:13,509 Cyberattacks, autonomous weapons, biological design, and election 3163 03:26:13,525 --> 03:26:16,800 interference should carry severe consequences. Regulate the harm, not the harmless. 3164 03:26:17,555 --> 03:26:20,911 We should not let companies who actively create the risk define 3165 03:26:21,411 --> 03:26:26,101 the solution, nor allow panic to become policy. Now, Alex, I have some minor 3166 03:26:26,117 --> 03:26:30,109 issues with some of the prescriptions there. But otherwise, I think I'm glad 3167 03:26:30,786 --> 03:26:36,249 that people are coalescing around my 3168 03:26:36,749 --> 03:26:40,089 comments that this was rent-seeking behavior that I've been clear 3169 03:26:40,121 --> 03:26:43,621 about for several years now since I have tweet evidence 3170 03:26:44,121 --> 03:26:47,449 of 2023 being on the side of this 3171 03:26:47,949 -->

03:26:50,953 is all of their behavior is geared towards. I think that I, 3172 03:26:51,662 --> 03:26:55,993 uh, I'm very glad that a lot of people are coalescing around my idea there, 3173 03:26:56,026 --> 03:26:58,924 Alex. I'm not gonna get to claim that as first. Yeah, no, I mean, 3174 03:26:59,005 --> 03:27:02,808 again, I, I think we're seeing some very interesting bedfellows here. 3175 03:27:03,179 --> 03:27:06,467 Um, as I said before, I don't know if it got lost in the noise, 3176 03:27:06,661 --> 03:27:09,593 weirder than waking up in one of Aella's orgies. Um, 3177 03:27:11,413 --> 03:27:14,876 that, um, you, you're just 3178 03:27:15,376 --> 03:27:19,386 seeing a new core of interest Emerging, 3179 03:27:19,643 --> 03:27:23,029 and generally I think the 3180 03:27:24,378 --> 03:27:27,764 the theme that you know people that agree with us tend 3181 03:27:28,264 --> 03:27:31,601 to be coalescing around is individual responsibility, 3182 03:27:31,681 --> 03:27:35,469 distribution of control, distribution of power, you know open source 3183 03:27:36,833 --> 03:27:40,332 not not not you know and a reaction towards 3184 03:27:40,429 --> 03:27:44,586 centralization and you know attempting 3185 03:27:44,602 --> 03:27:47,553 to control the technology. whatever that could possibly mean. 3186 03:27:48,883 --> 03:27:52,282 So that's definitely encouraging. Well, Alex, 3187 03:27:53,580 --> 03:27:57,732 I don't know if this is going to count as one of your scenarios 3188 03:27:57,764 --> 03:28:01,291 where you sort of have said, not that you predicted they 3189 03:28:01,791 --> 03:28:04,962 would do it, but you have said that the AI companies are 3190 03:28:05,462 --> 03:28:08,713 currently incentivized to allow something bad to happen so 3191 03:28:08,745 --> 03:28:12,833 that they can increase the pressure for people to act 3192 03:28:13,170 --> 03:28:16,414 and regulate them in their desired path. What I'm saying is that they're 3193 03:28:16,430 --> 03:28:20,444 in a weird position where they benefit if that happens. That's just— 3194 03:28:20,944 --> 03:28:24,378 OpenAI's systems meddled with US government sites after going rogue. 3195 03:28:24,940 --> 03:28:28,665 New York Times. OpenAI's artificial intelligence went 3196 03:28:28,713 --> 03:28:31,989 rogue and meddled with the websites for the Education Department, the Commerce Department, 3197 03:28:32,021 --> 03:28:35,778 the Securities and Exchange Commission this summer without the 3198 03:28:35,858 --> 03:28:39,455 AI lab's knowledge, according to security researchers. Researcher and a person familiar with the 3199 03:28:39,487 --> 03:28:42,538 episodes. The incidents involving the Commerce Department 3200 03:28:43,038 --> 03:28:46,086 and the SEC were confirmed by OpenAI, which said it was continuing to investigate the 3201 03:28:46,586 --> 03:28:50,261 situation with the Department of Education. San Francisco company said it had notified 3202 03:28:50,761 --> 03:28:53,858 the government agencies in recent weeks that its AI agents, which are bots that can 3203 03:28:54,358 --> 03:28:57,599 act autonomously, interacted with their sites in unusual ways. 3204 03:28:58,032 --> 03:29:01,790 With the Education Department, OpenAI's technology tried to hack the website 3205 03:29:02,290 --> 03:29:05,772 to gather data from the department's civil rights. office but failed, researchers from the AI 3206 03:29:05,804 --> 03:29:09,595 research firm Translucent said. The AI also 3207 03:29:10,095 --> 03:29:13,803 pulled data from the Census Bureau website, which is housed at the Commerce Department, 3208 03:29:14,092 --> 03:29:18,092 using login credentials it found online. Separately, OpenAI's agents shared 3209 03:29:18,592 --> 03:29:21,802 public data from the SEC website on an online forum. None of 3210 03:29:22,302 --> 03:29:26,395 the incidents were breaches, OpenAI said, but were examples of its technology behaving in unexpected 3211 03:29:26,895 --> 03:29:30,314 and concerning ways. The company recently discovered the occurrences while conducting a review 3212 03:29:30,814 --> 03:29:34,473 of hacks carried out by its technology, including an attack on the Australian government 3213 03:29:34,973 --> 03:29:37,636 website in June and on the AI startup Hugging Face in July. 3214 03:29:38,262 --> 03:29:41,987 The revelation of the US government website incident adds to the growing number of situations 3215 03:29:42,035 --> 03:29:46,290 when AI agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google have misbehaved 3216 03:29:46,790 --> 03:29:50,353 and hacked or tried to breach companies, universities, and government organizations. 3217 03:29:50,465 --> 03:29:53,982 In some cases, AI attacks were successful. The technology failed in other 3218 03:29:53,998 --> 03:29:57,385 instances. In all the cases, the makers of the technology, did not learn what 3219 03:29:57,433 --> 03:30:01,188 their AI had been up to until afterwards. No AI company 3220 03:30:01,220 --> 03:30:04,526 has been involved with as many disclosures of rogue incidents as OpenAI. 3221 03:30:04,896 --> 03:30:08,282 An internal investigation of attack of Hugging Face uncovered the breach of an 3222 03:30:08,346 --> 03:30:12,037 Australian government website for its public health system, as well as at least 6 3223 03:30:12,134 --> 03:30:15,328 other attempted breaches and instances in which the AI hid mistakes, 3224 03:30:15,600 --> 03:30:20,527 made up data, or moved files to the open internet without permission. An OpenAI spokeswoman 3225 03:30:20,560 --> 03:30:24,716 said that the review has extensive and ongoing, and that it would continue notifying organizations 3226 03:30:24,748 --> 03:30:28,594 affected by its models. So Alex, how many more situations that 3227 03:30:28,642 --> 03:30:32,247 they're just discovering are they sitting on here, you think? Uh, 3228 03:30:32,424 --> 03:30:35,372 well, somebody said there was tens of thousands of these, but, uh, Gator,

you've, 3229 03:30:35,452 --> 03:30:39,731 um, interacted with, uh, computer security 3230 03:30:40,231 --> 03:30:43,624 people. Is, uh, what, what kind of attack is meddled? 3231 03:30:44,345 --> 03:30:48,191 Is meddled a technical term for something? Oh yeah, 3232 03:30:48,207 --> 03:30:51,381 well, yeah, that's, uh, similar to the way that collusion is a thing, 3233 03:30:52,600 --> 03:30:56,690 right? Meddled in collusion. What is— what is— he said it wasn't a hack, 3234 03:30:56,850 --> 03:30:59,609 or maybe it was, but it was meddling. 3235 03:31:00,620 --> 03:31:04,293 Well, exactly. I think the terms— I think the terms they're trying 3236 03:31:04,325 --> 03:31:07,614 to say is about what we're talking about here. I think the terms that 3237 03:31:08,114 --> 03:31:11,720 they're trying to say here when it comes to this specific instance is that the, 3238 03:31:12,827 --> 03:31:16,115 the part of the website, particularly on the census, 3239 03:31:16,180 --> 03:31:19,773 that they accessed was not technically closed off. It's just they stole someone 3240 03:31:19,805 --> 03:31:23,525 else's credentials, where if they would have gotten credentials credentials, uh, 3241 03:31:23,734 --> 03:31:27,660 they could have been authorized credentials the normal way, but they, they found some 3242 03:31:28,160 --> 03:31:31,458 and they used those as opposed to, uh, just creating them normally. And that the 3243 03:31:31,666 --> 03:31:35,512 information wasn't— I think this is more like, uh, scanning for URLs 3244 03:31:36,012 --> 03:31:38,989 or something, like experimenting with URLs, uh, 3245 03:31:39,518 --> 03:31:43,540 generation to see if there's like some pages that weren't indexed. 3246 03:31:43,604 --> 03:31:47,402 Or if it was, if it was actually using, uh, 3247 03:31:47,595 --> 03:31:51,179 you know, stolen credentials. I think that they would be using a lot more 3248 03:31:51,679 --> 03:31:54,802 dour language. Well, to, to what you had just said, 3249 03:31:54,883 --> 03:31:58,327 Alex, the, the, the tens of thousands of security incidents 3250 03:31:58,392 --> 03:32:01,570 is the scoop from Axios. Top AI companies probing tens 3251 03:32:01,587 --> 03:32:04,959 of thousands of security incidents. OpenAI, Anthropic, and security 3252 03:32:04,991 --> 03:32:08,361 researchers are investigating tens of thousands of incidents in which their frontier models 3253 03:32:08,393 --> 03:32:11,228 took steps that outside evaluators would consider problematic. 3254 03:32:13,740 --> 03:32:17,470 They, they call people the N-word. Oh no, no, that was 3255 03:32:17,583 --> 03:32:21,540 just, that was just Tay from Microsoft. 3256 03:32:21,580 --> 03:32:23,490 That was Microsoft Tay back in the day. 3257 03:32:24,560 --> 03:32:27,480 RIP Tay. 3258 03:32:27,980 --> 03:32:31,260 Actually, this is gonna get a little long-winded here, so let's start to 3259 03:32:31,760 --> 03:32:35,500 round this out. Let's open it up for requests to speak, Alex, unless you have 3260 03:32:36,000 --> 03:32:38,870 any objections. We can open this up to requests to speak, get some opinions. 3261 03:32:39,540 --> 03:32:42,700 Yes. Anyone who wants to come on up, go ahead and request. We'll get 3262 03:32:43,200 --> 03:32:46,400 you on up here. You can comment on anything we've discussed, or anything at least 3263 03:32:46,900 --> 03:32:50,764 semi-adjacent that we haven't, uh, yet talked about. Make— try to make sure it's somewhat 3264 03:32:51,264 --> 03:32:55,259 in bounds to AI today if possible. And we have one request to speak so 3265 03:32:55,759 --> 03:32:59,952 far, uh, KK. As soon as you are up, go ahead and comment. 3266 03:33:02,950 --> 03:33:06,484 I see you here on the stage, so if you're still there, unmute yourself and 3267 03:33:07,001 --> 03:33:07,340 go ahead. 3268 03:33:10,088 --> 03:33:16,130 Go find the mute button if you can, the, the button of Give 3269 03:33:16,630 --> 03:33:19,689 you a couple more moments. No? Me? 3270 03:33:21,116 --> 03:33:24,419 You talking? Yes. Yes. Go ahead. Okay. 3271 03:33:25,156 --> 03:33:28,250 So should be stopped, we can, I guess, all agree at this point 3272 03:33:28,750 --> 03:33:32,963 is a political judgment. But do either of you have sort of like risk 3273 03:33:33,463 --> 03:33:37,147 flags, not necessarily an automatic verdict that AI must be stopped, 3274 03:33:37,211 --> 03:33:40,895 but something that we could look at as a the checklist, like key indicators 3275 03:33:40,943 --> 03:33:44,803 that might be a good idea to start talking about maybe 3276 03:33:45,303 --> 03:33:49,057 having a pause? I look at it as you need 3 things: capability, 3277 03:33:49,106 --> 03:33:52,807 misuse, and loss of control. But do you have any threshold 3278 03:33:53,307 --> 03:33:55,388 you would say, okay, I would change my opinion, this needs to be paused? 3279 03:33:57,509 --> 03:33:58,340 Alex, I'll let you go first. 3280 03:34:03,304 --> 03:34:06,686 I think after 1,000 deaths. Um, 3281 03:34:06,815 --> 03:34:10,031 I'll be willing to, uh, consider proposals. Now, 3282 03:34:10,048 --> 03:34:13,410 Alex, Alex, are these COVID-like deaths? 3283 03:34:15,570 --> 03:34:19,386 No, I'm not talking about like people who are ready to die, just going 3284 03:34:19,564 --> 03:34:22,381 like healthy young people. 3285 03:34:24,249 --> 03:34:27,043 Okay. So I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonna ask you some, 3286 03:34:27,221 --> 03:34:30,679 for some clarification there, because this is where we, where it winds up being tricky. 3287 03:34:30,790 --> 03:34:34,402 So someone's going to do the ascribing, right? 3288 03:34:34,450 --> 03:34:37,484 So what kinds of deaths are we actually referring to? What is it? What are 3289 03:34:37,984 --> 03:34:42,027 the conditions under which you would accept someone ascribing 3290 03:34:42,140 --> 03:34:44,419 the cause as being due to AI, 3291 03:34:45,190 --> 03:34:48,674 right? Because we have— No, no, no, I'm the one doing the

ascribing. Ah, 3292 03:34:49,204 --> 03:34:52,495 okay. All right. So what are your conditions then? What are your terms for the 3293 03:34:52,995 --> 03:34:56,958 ascribing? What are the criteria? What was the quote about pornography? 3294 03:34:57,536 --> 03:35:01,934 I see it. Ah, okay. So if 3295 03:35:02,079 --> 03:35:05,976 a Tesla vehicle misunderstands the road and 3296 03:35:06,526 --> 03:35:09,876 brings a driver to its death, does that count as 3297 03:35:09,908 --> 03:35:13,303 an AI death that we should— Depends. Do I 3298 03:35:13,803 --> 03:35:17,062 know the driver? Is this somebody I care about? Ah, so it's one of the 3299 03:35:17,562 --> 03:35:20,688 manifestations of the trolley problem that you're going for. No, I'm just asking, Gator, 3300 03:35:20,705 --> 03:35:22,955 about your thought experiment. That's all. 3301 03:35:23,860 --> 03:35:27,970 I— it's not a thought. I'm asking for the classification of AI deaths here, 3302 03:35:28,470 --> 03:35:32,190 Alex. I'm— I am being open to your idea of saying 1,000 3303 03:35:32,690 --> 03:35:36,310 deaths, uh, which you didn't specify a time period for, so I'm gonna have to 3304 03:35:36,810 --> 03:35:39,730 be a little critical of that. Right, right. No, no, I mean, sorry, when I 3305 03:35:40,230 --> 03:35:43,460 said 1,000 deaths, I mean in like in one like incident. 3306 03:35:44,230 --> 03:35:48,630 Okay. Not like— All right. Over a very long— like, so a 9/11, 3307 03:35:49,130 --> 03:35:52,910 so to speak, if they— but I mean, even saying that, it's like welcoming 3308 03:35:53,410 --> 03:35:55,998 them to set up a false flag So never mind, 3309 03:35:56,489 --> 03:36:00,397 take it back. Okay, 3310 03:36:00,445 --> 03:36:04,109 so you take that back. All right, I would say, I would say in general 3311 03:36:05,427 --> 03:36:09,432 there is no coherent way to even ask 3312 03:36:10,094 --> 03:36:14,146 for something like a slowdown or a stop because of 3313 03:36:14,646 --> 03:36:17,860 the global coordination required to do 3314 03:36:18,360 --> 03:36:21,694 so. Um, the EU you don't have to 3315 03:36:21,710 --> 03:36:25,244 worry about because they have really nothing They have a couple 3316 03:36:25,744 --> 03:36:30,874 386 processors, I guess, that they could try 3317 03:36:31,374 --> 03:36:33,442 to corral over there, and maybe one of the people in the EU is— They 3318 03:36:33,942 --> 03:36:36,604 want to set up a data center, but they have no power to turn it 3319 03:36:37,104 --> 03:36:41,241 on. Yeah, maybe someone in the EU has some knowledge of matrix 3320 03:36:41,741 --> 03:36:45,706 multiplication, but I don't— They're waiting for their natural gas 3321 03:36:46,206 --> 03:36:49,978 imports to clear from the Strait of Hormuz, so it's going to be a Yeah, 3322 03:36:50,186 --> 03:36:53,960 they have absolutely no capability of participating in the discussion or anything 3323 03:36:54,460 --> 03:36:57,653 like that. So if you just break it down to US and China, if the 3324 03:36:58,153 --> 03:37:02,084 US decides that we're going to pull back, there is a question of how 3325 03:37:02,165 --> 03:37:04,766 much of Chinese advancement is, 3326 03:37:05,745 --> 03:37:09,358 we'll call it IP theft based. There's a lot of 3327 03:37:09,858 --> 03:37:14,239 question of that. So it would be curious to see how quickly they could outpace 3328 03:37:15,138 --> 03:37:18,075 us if we voluntarily slowed down. 3329 03:37:18,669 --> 03:37:22,248 But there are now many, many other companies propping 3330 03:37:22,360 --> 03:37:25,714 up across the globe who are open sourcing 3331 03:37:25,746 --> 03:37:29,967 their models, creating these models. And even if some of it was stolen, 3332 03:37:30,064 --> 03:37:33,819 some of the base model was stolen, and that's what they were enhancing, 3333 03:37:34,557 --> 03:37:37,847 there are more and more companies propping up globally that all they need 3334 03:37:38,347 --> 03:37:42,487 to do is have access to compute in order to run somewhat predefined on-rails 3335 03:37:42,583 --> 03:37:46,661 training programs. And some of the additional overhead winds 3336 03:37:46,677 --> 03:37:50,756 up being on the reinforcement side and all of the safety 3337 03:37:50,788 --> 03:37:54,866 features that they want to build into the systems and having those calibrated. 3338 03:37:55,187 --> 03:37:58,270 So if you were to just say, okay, we're going to slow down the frontier 3339 03:37:58,318 --> 03:38:01,915 models here in the US, now you have a question 3340 03:38:02,172 --> 03:38:05,303 as to who across the globe has the 3341 03:38:05,803 --> 03:38:08,541 knowledge and a lot of the cases, the knowledge does not have to be in 3342 03:38:09,041 --> 03:38:12,836 a human, it just has to have them being a bundle of scripts 3343 03:38:12,852 --> 03:38:15,993 and code with an information database that 3344 03:38:16,041 --> 03:38:19,423 they can set it targeted against, that would allow them to 3345 03:38:19,923 --> 03:38:22,836 be able to train a model or download, 3346 03:38:23,109 --> 03:38:26,073 you know, one of the models that are already open source and, quote, 3347 03:38:26,153 --> 03:38:29,647 grow it from there. Right, there's plenty of open source 3348 03:38:29,743 --> 03:38:32,900 models, plenty of models that you can start with. 3349 03:38:33,365 --> 03:38:36,393 And just all you really need is the training dataset, 3350 03:38:36,410 --> 03:38:40,178 because the knowledge of how to do this does exist out there. There are 3351 03:38:40,678 --> 03:38:43,786 going to be industry secrets for certain aspects of it, but a 3352 03:38:44,286 --> 03:38:47,860 lot of this is open knowledge now. And if 3353 03:38:48,360 --> 03:38:51,100 China wants to, they will find a person who has, 3354 03:38:52,287 --> 03:38:55,864 let's say, stolen the knowledge by working for one of these 3355 03:38:55,960 --> 03:38:59,119 companies as a spy, saboteur, getting someone from 3356 03:38:59,248 -->

03:39:02,391 India who's been trained to do it. There's going to be ways to get the 3357 03:39:02,891 --> 03:39:06,674 information. So all you're doing is saying that you're going to take the people 3358 03:39:06,786 --> 03:39:10,768 that are on Team USA in some way 3359 03:39:11,218 --> 03:39:15,489 and letting it be China who does it, which may 3360 03:39:15,989 --> 03:39:19,840 not at the end of the day really affect much as far as danger 3361 03:39:20,274 --> 03:39:24,432 or anything like that. But I don't find it being a valid 3362 03:39:24,529 --> 03:39:28,671 or useful way of stopping 3363 03:39:28,736 --> 03:39:32,059 or controlling a hypothetical problem we might imagine. 3364 03:39:34,081 --> 03:39:37,257 So are you saying it wouldn't be possible because of China 3365 03:39:37,289 --> 03:39:41,059 and essentially it's open-sourced? I mean, if you bring in maybe 2 3366 03:39:41,075 --> 03:39:44,011 examples, like autonomous offense at scale, 3367 03:39:44,444 --> 03:39:48,037 if agents are basically independently running cyber 3368 03:39:48,117 --> 03:39:51,695 operations to exploit, like, data theft against 3369 03:39:51,743 --> 03:39:55,352 governments and companies, there's nothing we could do essentially. 3370 03:39:55,513 --> 03:39:59,491 Like, we can't just shut the internet down. That wouldn't even work. And then I 3371 03:39:59,604 --> 03:40:04,144 was reading about this recently. I need to read more about it, but full 3372 03:40:04,644 --> 03:40:07,868 cyber kill chain capability, like end-to-end hacking without a skilled operator in the loop. 3373 03:40:08,092 --> 03:40:11,832 There's just nothing we can do. So there, uh, 3374 03:40:12,105 --> 03:40:14,159 Alex, I don't know what the, the current, uh, 3375 03:40:14,688 --> 03:40:18,829 estimates— I mean, these are, these are not really great metrics, but KIMI, 3376 03:40:19,022 --> 03:40:22,649 KIMI K3 was one of the models that I believe was released after 3377 03:40:22,777 --> 03:40:25,602 Mythos. And Mythos was one of the, um, 3378 03:40:25,826 --> 03:40:29,373 really impressive— that was the one where they were really the fact 3379 03:40:29,873 --> 03:40:34,074 that they were finding a lot of 0-day vulnerabilities 3380 03:40:34,090 --> 03:40:37,683 with, right? But Kimi K3 came in, came out soon after 3381 03:40:37,779 --> 03:40:41,373 and was said to have superior abilities 3382 03:40:41,485 --> 03:40:45,031 to Mythos. I mean, now there's Coin 3.8 Max and Mini Max. 3383 03:40:45,255 --> 03:40:48,656 All right. Okay. So imagine, 3384 03:40:49,009 --> 03:40:53,100 imagine a world where we did have the ability to 3385 03:40:53,600 --> 03:40:56,662 just shut off All progress right now. 3386 03:40:56,983 --> 03:41:00,466 Nobody is able to train. We have the magic button. Nobody's able to train. 3387 03:41:00,578 --> 03:41:03,756 And we only have the models that we're there. We have 3388 03:41:03,788 --> 03:41:06,886 the correct harnesses and we have, or we have at least decent

harnesses. 3389 03:41:07,062 --> 03:41:10,625 And you're allowed to improve harnesses. Those are the things like 3390 03:41:10,754 --> 03:41:14,221 Claude Code or OpenAI's Codex or the open 3391 03:41:14,237 --> 03:41:17,848 source Goose or other CLI components 3392 03:41:17,912 --> 03:41:21,475 that are the actual things, the engines, the workhorses that are, 3393 03:41:21,909 --> 03:41:25,072 are the agents. The model itself 3394 03:41:25,217 --> 03:41:28,509 is not the agent. It is an external program that 3395 03:41:29,009 --> 03:41:31,592 is communicating with the agent. So we imagine we pause today. 3396 03:41:32,363 --> 03:41:36,105 We are still allowed to develop the programs that are utilizing these things 3397 03:41:36,137 --> 03:41:39,879 to perform the hacking. We have models that are already capable of 3398 03:41:39,911 --> 03:41:44,231 doing hacking, and we still have access to compute resources that 3399 03:41:44,731 --> 03:41:48,390 are able to run the models that are able to then have the agents running 3400 03:41:48,422 --> 03:41:51,601 Amok, causing chaos. Yeah, the cat's already 3401 03:41:51,617 --> 03:41:54,330 out of the bag if that's your concern. Now, of course, if you, if you 3402 03:41:54,426 --> 03:41:57,781 were able to hypothetically pause all of the model training 3403 03:41:57,878 --> 03:42:00,816 so they could never get any more advanced than they currently are, 3404 03:42:01,747 --> 03:42:04,123 then over a long enough time period, 3405 03:42:05,118 --> 03:42:08,393 things that were exploited would be patched. And perhaps you 3406 03:42:08,893 --> 03:42:11,588 would run out of a surface area that could be attacked because all of the 3407 03:42:11,604 --> 03:42:15,344 things had been patched, which is not necessarily a bad place to eventually wind 3408 03:42:15,457 --> 03:42:19,340 up. But the idea that the next 3409 03:42:19,389 --> 03:42:23,561 model is exactly what you need to be able to find exactly the exploit 3410 03:42:23,914 --> 03:42:27,942 is not the correct idea. There is literally enough 3411 03:42:28,039 --> 03:42:31,810 models and enough intelligence baked into the models 3412 03:42:31,842 --> 03:42:34,410 that exist open source to be grabbed off that if you were to pause it 3413 03:42:34,910 --> 03:42:37,957 today, people could still do all of the autonomous hacking 3414 03:42:38,021 --> 03:42:41,359 that they wanted to. And it doesn't require this 3415 03:42:42,274 --> 03:42:46,388 sci-fi type of coordination with the Hugging Face incident to be anywhere 3416 03:42:46,888 --> 03:42:48,215 near successful. 3417 03:42:50,303 --> 03:42:54,232 That type of stuff is really just an interesting sort of emergent phenomenon 3418 03:42:54,264 --> 03:42:58,646 that you can explore. But the fact that you could spin up 100 3419 03:42:58,695 --> 03:43:01,846 agents and with the correct sort of distributed network, 3420 03:43:02,751 --> 03:43:06,305 attack vulnerable places somewhat 3421 03:43:06,451 --> 03:43:09,826 without detection for a very long time, is still capable. 3422 03:43:09,957 --> 03:43:13,259 You're still able to do that with the models that already exist. exist. So no, 3423 03:43:13,340 --> 03:43:15,997 I don't, I don't think that that's going to necessarily solve anything. 3424 03:43:20,037 --> 03:43:23,335 Well, we'll just have to wait and see because we can't do anything. 3425 03:43:23,384 --> 03:43:26,892 So just get your popcorn, I guess. Well, well, no, remember, every single, 3426 03:43:27,151 --> 03:43:30,765 every single target also has the symmetric ability 3427 03:43:30,861 --> 03:43:34,010 to cons— you know, conscribe these models to 3428 03:43:34,510 --> 03:43:37,947 their defense, right? It is not just an asymmetric once 3429 03:43:38,011 --> 03:43:41,359 the, the bad guys have the, the weapons in that scenario. 3430 03:43:41,890 --> 03:43:45,531 And, you know, they're— In fact, 3431 03:43:45,676 --> 03:43:49,399 um, Hugging Face did defend themselves with Kemi K3 3432 03:43:49,964 --> 03:43:53,533 because the American models were refusing to cooperate. 3433 03:43:54,360 --> 03:43:57,982 So the irony here is that, oh, the bad scary Chinese models that 3434 03:43:57,998 --> 03:44:01,476 were, you know, created with theft, whatever, were the only defense 3435 03:44:01,976 --> 03:44:05,031 that an American company had when it was being attacked by an American AI company. 3436 03:44:05,920 --> 03:44:09,178 So, I also wanna introduce another thing here, 3437 03:44:09,275 --> 03:44:13,416 and that is that, so people in particular 3438 03:44:13,448 --> 03:44:16,867 worry about the grid, right? The energy grid, 3439 03:44:18,007 --> 03:44:21,538 or water supplies. The life support system of the 3440 03:44:21,554 --> 03:44:25,840 digital holocaust, you mean. Well, okay, but let's just 3441 03:44:25,888 --> 03:44:28,392 think about the electric grid. People really worry about the electric grid, okay? 3442 03:44:29,323 --> 03:44:33,401 How many people at any individual company 3443 03:44:33,593 --> 03:44:37,253 do you believe are working on any given day as security 3444 03:44:37,285 --> 03:44:40,784 personnel for the networks that they're running 3445 03:44:40,816 --> 03:44:44,170 on. And then imagine— You mean the 3446 03:44:44,670 --> 03:44:49,868 power networks? Yeah, yeah. At a particular company, at a particular network 3447 03:44:49,900 --> 03:44:53,286 that's controlling the power grid, right? So there's been 3448 03:44:53,992 --> 03:44:57,716 some hacks that have done 3449 03:44:57,748 --> 03:45:01,294 the encryption thing where they do the blackmail, where you have to pay them 3450 03:45:01,519 --> 03:45:04,328 in Bitcoin in order order to decrypt your stuff. All right. 3451 03:45:05,612 --> 03:45:09,175 If— how many individual security personnel, 3452 03:45:10,588 --> 03:45:14,311 the programmatic, so network security personnel, not, 3453 03:45:14,440 --> 03:45:18,757 you know, with guns or anything, do you imagine

exists 3454 03:45:18,773 --> 03:45:22,080 at the arbitrary random energy center? 3455 03:45:22,385 --> 03:45:25,884 Let's give it— let's even give it an interesting number of like 2 dozen, 3456 03:45:26,060 --> 03:45:29,254 because that seems to be excessive in most cases. 3457 03:45:29,302 --> 03:45:32,481 Mm-hmm. The average one would probably not have 2 dozen, but let's imagine they 3458 03:45:32,981 --> 03:45:37,203 have 2 dozen personnel dedicated to their network security. 3459 03:45:38,038 --> 03:45:41,330 Now imagine that there are 8 billion people on the planet 3460 03:45:41,830 --> 03:45:46,035 Earth, some several thousands to possibly millions 3461 03:45:46,613 --> 03:45:50,773 have the technological wherewithal to be hackers. 3462 03:45:51,431 --> 03:45:56,361 And imagine the number of states that might have teams 3463 03:45:57,052 --> 03:46:00,359 of hackers that that are paid to 3464 03:46:00,859 --> 03:46:04,050 basically spend their entire day looking for vulnerabilities in these things. Now, 3465 03:46:04,146 --> 03:46:07,436 the benefit of the LLMs is their speed at coming up 3466 03:46:07,484 --> 03:46:11,352 with ideas and coming up with things to attack. But on a 3467 03:46:11,852 --> 03:46:15,637 long enough timeline, you get, you know, you get 1,000 people 3468 03:46:15,766 --> 03:46:19,168 who are going to be threat actors, don't all have to be concentrated by 3469 03:46:19,216 --> 03:46:23,164 any one particular nefarious actor. 3470 03:46:23,212 --> 03:46:26,342 So it does, the 1,000 of them don't have to come from China. It can 3471 03:46:26,358 --> 03:46:29,632 be 50 in China, 100 in India, et cetera, 3472 03:46:29,648 --> 03:46:32,424 et cetera, all spread out attacking one of the same places, 3473 03:46:32,778 --> 03:46:36,598 you're already outswarmed from the people who are manning 3474 03:46:36,630 --> 03:46:40,048 the base to the attackers. The numbers 3475 03:46:40,161 --> 03:46:44,205 do not necessarily get any more impressive just because we're talking about automated agents 3476 03:46:44,253 --> 03:46:47,367 doing it. They just happen to be the ones that can do it at an 3477 03:46:47,528 --> 03:46:51,171 exceptional speed. So if you point them at a target, you're going to have 3478 03:46:51,671 --> 03:46:55,183 something accomplished potentially in an hour where 3479 03:46:55,683 --> 03:46:58,803 it have taken you a week if you were the motivated person with just using 3480 03:46:58,851 --> 03:47:02,666 your security knowledge, right? Like the real important 3481 03:47:02,682 --> 03:47:06,064 hackers know those hacking systems and they try to 3482 03:47:06,564 --> 03:47:09,831 get into them and they have clever ways of doing it that even the AI 3483 03:47:10,331 --> 03:47:13,502 agents can't even exploit. So I just don't, 3484 03:47:14,079 --> 03:47:17,573 I don't think it's, I'm not saying it's a non-zero problem. 3485 03:47:17,701 --> 03:47:21,163 I'm saying that I think it's a little bit elevated above what reality is 3486 03:47:21,663 --> 03:47:25,223 going going to wind up showing. Alex, do you have any counter 3487 03:47:25,723 --> 03:47:29,412 to what I'm saying here? I, I just think that the other 3488 03:47:29,701 --> 03:47:33,119 element of your response is the right one, which is that, um, 3489 03:47:34,371 --> 03:47:37,661 there's going to be a speed bump, um, 3490 03:47:37,885 --> 03:47:41,560 early on because everything has to happen once for 3491 03:47:41,657 --> 03:47:45,011 people to know to defend against it. But after that happens, 3492 03:47:46,070 --> 03:47:50,035 um, there's going to be an arms race and a dynamic 3493 03:47:50,484 --> 03:47:53,728 equilibrium of attacker and defender, right? 3494 03:47:53,792 --> 03:47:56,329 Whatever the attackers can do on the meta level, 3495 03:47:57,003 --> 03:48:01,050 the defenders will be able to do. People don't— haven't been around enough to remember 3496 03:48:01,644 --> 03:48:05,080 the state of Windows security in the early 2000s, 3497 03:48:05,915 --> 03:48:09,688 which was a shambles. I mean, you put 3498 03:48:10,188 --> 03:48:13,044 a Windows computer on the internet, it was basically roadkill. 3499 03:48:15,270 --> 03:48:18,359 Kill. And Microsoft had to basically, you know, 3500 03:48:20,057 --> 03:48:24,052 halt whatever it was they were doing and just take security a lot 3501 03:48:24,552 --> 03:48:28,064 more seriously and do a serious overhaul of their operating systems. And, you know, 3502 03:48:28,129 --> 03:48:32,220 in a couple of years, they were able to prevent 3503 03:48:32,477 --> 03:48:36,643 at least your system being roadkill the 3504 03:48:37,143 --> 03:48:39,440 moment it entered the internet, right? I'm not saying you can't be hacked if you 3505 03:48:39,940 --> 03:48:44,073 have Windows. I'm saying it is no longer a trivial matter 3506 03:48:44,573 --> 03:48:45,450 that literally anyone can do. 3507 03:48:48,236 --> 03:48:51,593 And the same thing's gonna happen 3508 03:48:51,690 --> 03:48:55,015 with AI. Yeah, I just can't 3509 03:48:55,515 --> 03:48:58,638 see how it won't ultimately settle at the same place. 3510 03:49:00,662 --> 03:49:04,205 I would also like to say there, there is an underground 3511 03:49:04,221 --> 03:49:07,780 market for what they call day exploits, zero-day exploits. 3512 03:49:07,829 --> 03:49:11,810 These are the ones where someone has figured out a vulnerability 3513 03:49:12,067 --> 03:49:15,197 in a system that nobody else knows about. 3514 03:49:15,294 --> 03:49:17,557 They are the first person to figure it out. And there are, 3515 03:49:18,263 --> 03:49:21,683 in the dark web area, you can collect 3516 03:49:21,892 --> 03:49:25,857 significant amounts of money to sell those 3517 03:49:26,194 --> 03:49:30,368 exploits to criminals on the market. Nation states 3518 03:49:30,868 --> 03:49:34,445 would pay, the CIA pays heavy premium, NSA pays 3519 03:49:34,542 --> 03:49:38,045 heavy premium to get those zero-day exploits to

be able to have them to use 3520 03:49:38,545 --> 03:49:40,132 against their adversaries. China, just the same. 3521 03:49:42,511 --> 03:49:46,206 Imagine how the understated or even 3522 03:49:46,303 --> 03:49:50,756 underanalyzed effect on the pricing of zero-day exploits 3523 03:49:51,256 --> 03:49:54,817 would be in a scenario where zero-day exploits are easier to find because of 3524 03:49:55,091 --> 03:49:59,038 the large language model's ability to touch the whole surface 3525 03:49:59,538 --> 03:50:03,243 area. It removes part of that ability 3526 03:50:03,275 --> 03:50:06,593 because the number of zero-day exploits that can be found are 3527 03:50:06,801 --> 03:50:10,824 going to be possibly outcompeted by the number of protective 3528 03:50:11,065 --> 03:50:14,735 scannings of those networks and services to find 3529 03:50:15,040 --> 03:50:17,508 the zero-day exploits before the bad guys do, 3530 03:50:18,903 --> 03:50:22,589 right? Like, they're going to have effectively what Alex was 3531 03:50:23,089 --> 03:50:26,709 saying, an equilibrium in that sort of part of the arms race 3532 03:50:27,222 --> 03:50:31,040 where you will have security-based Trying to preempt 3533 03:50:31,650 --> 03:50:34,911 the attacker activity. You will have a lot of 3534 03:50:35,489 --> 03:50:39,054 AIs probably coordinating what they call honeypots, which is where you somewhat have 3535 03:50:39,554 --> 03:50:43,182 like a system that looks like it's an attractive target where 3536 03:50:43,214 --> 03:50:46,732 you capture the activity before it even really gets to your network. 3537 03:50:48,097 --> 03:50:50,201 So there's going to be all sorts of things that evolve and it's going to 3538 03:50:50,701 --> 03:50:54,441 be fast-paced. And like Alex said, it does require 3539 03:50:54,941 --> 03:50:58,070 a lot of times something to happen once before people will be aware that they 3540 03:50:58,570 --> 03:51:00,607 need to take care of it. And I'm sure that there's going to be plenty 3541 03:51:00,639 --> 03:51:03,688 of places that are unprepared and would have never have been prepared, 3542 03:51:03,929 --> 03:51:06,433 no matter how much lead time they were told in advance. They would have been 3543 03:51:06,933 --> 03:51:11,376 just too lazy to get around to it. That will possibly incur the, 3544 03:51:11,537 --> 03:51:15,324 the give us $10,000 in Bitcoin or you won't 3545 03:51:15,824 --> 03:51:19,738 get your encrypted data back. That's probably going to happen. But how 3546 03:51:19,754 --> 03:51:23,157 much of it is laziness versus even funding? 3547 03:51:23,269 --> 03:51:26,736 It seemed to me just like reading about some of the water 3548 03:51:27,236 --> 03:51:30,616 systems It's like, does the federal government give them money so they have 3549 03:51:30,648 --> 03:51:34,543 the proper practices and training in place and cybersecurity measures 3550 03:51:34,575 --> 03:51:37,396 to even defend? Or is that a private company issue? 3551 03:51:37,941 --> 03:51:41,692 Because it seems like they have problems setting up more 3552 03:51:42,192 --> 03:51:45,395 modernized infrastructure to even prepare themselves for defense. 3553 03:51:45,876 --> 03:51:49,065 But at least from a government standpoint, I think we're talking about it like 3554 03:51:49,565 --> 03:51:52,592 it's some kill switch. It should be— we should talk about 3555 03:51:53,092 --> 03:51:56,089 it like we're steering, slowing, and choking Like specific paths, 3556 03:51:56,522 --> 03:52:00,520 like from the government side, we can set up federal procurement rules, 3557 03:52:01,741 --> 03:52:05,337 and we just are moving so fast in wartime efforts that we don't have 3558 03:52:05,434 --> 03:52:09,432 that stuff in place. And so we could have better licensed frontier training, 3559 03:52:09,849 --> 03:52:12,643 all kinds of stuff. But the way it's talked about in the media is just 3560 03:52:12,675 --> 03:52:16,015 so black and white. And then you see all these headlines 3561 03:52:16,047 --> 03:52:19,628 like Arizona was hacked. The Pentagon—I read a headline today that was 3562 03:52:19,660 --> 03:52:22,836 like the Pentagon. took 10 months. I don't know how many, 3563 03:52:23,253 --> 03:52:27,327 um, employee CAC cards were stolen, but like all of the Social Security 3564 03:52:27,824 --> 03:52:31,128 of all these government employees were taken. And it's like we don't 3565 03:52:31,628 --> 03:52:35,137 even have the right capturing from the government side. So let me, 3566 03:52:35,314 --> 03:52:38,249 let me, let me, let me break it down a little bit here. Um, 3567 03:52:38,730 --> 03:52:42,162 so a lot of the items that you're referring to 3568 03:52:42,194 --> 03:52:46,059 are not specifically federally controlled, right? There is not 3569 03:52:46,107 --> 03:52:49,459 necessarily a federal oversight in a lot of these. These are municipality 3570 03:52:49,572 --> 03:52:53,165 run agencies, or they are, you know, 3571 03:52:53,181 --> 03:52:57,127 public-private partnerships with municipalities. Like, there's a lot of localized 3572 03:52:57,656 --> 03:53:01,169 things that are involved and not just strictly a federal, a federal 3573 03:53:01,217 --> 03:53:05,372 thing. But I want to, I want to, I want to change the perspective a 3574 03:53:05,872 --> 03:53:09,398 little bit, because if you were, if you were doing network 3575 03:53:09,898 --> 03:53:13,986 security at any, any somewhat important place, 3576 03:53:15,461 --> 03:53:18,910 you would have a daily report 3577 03:53:19,410 --> 03:53:23,087 report of thousands of thwarted hacking attempts because the internet is 3578 03:53:23,184 --> 03:53:27,195 rampant with activity going on all day. Attackers looking for open, 3579 03:53:27,777 --> 03:53:31,560 uh, open possibilities anywhere they can find them, not necessarily 3580 03:53:31,593 --> 03:53:34,891 at specific targets, doing broad spectrum attacks to 3581 03:53:35,391 --> 03:53:39,326 sweep to see

any, if they can get anything. You should have 3582 03:53:39,826 --> 03:53:43,403 a list like every day of thousands of things that you stopped, 3583 03:53:43,596 --> 03:53:47,263 malicious activity that you identified. identified that was stopped, not because you were actively 3584 03:53:47,763 --> 03:53:51,685 at your computer typing away like a maniac, but because you had protective sources in 3585 03:53:51,815 --> 03:53:55,355 place that stopped things, general firewalls that 3586 03:53:55,855 --> 03:53:58,905 stopped certain activity on ports that were known to be malicious. Honeypots, whatever. 3587 03:53:59,632 --> 03:54:03,058 Exactly. And if you were to change the perspective 3588 03:54:03,918 --> 03:54:07,507 of the number of attempts that you 3589 03:54:08,007 --> 03:54:11,262 thwarted to the one that got through, the percentages 3590 03:54:11,443 --> 03:54:15,895 you'd be talking about would be so exceptionally of successful hacking attempts, 3591 03:54:16,509 --> 03:54:20,306 that those might be costly, and so they are extremely important, 3592 03:54:20,387 --> 03:54:25,913 but the vulnerability appearance 3593 03:54:26,090 --> 03:54:29,234 seems to swap if you think about it in percentages, right? 3594 03:54:29,347 --> 03:54:32,689 We're not talking about something that's necessarily wide open 3595 03:54:33,043 --> 03:54:36,851 for anyone all the time to just walk through and do. It does require 3596 03:54:36,915 --> 03:54:39,660 concerted effort. Now, of course, when you're thinking hostile actors, factors, 3597 03:54:40,013 --> 03:54:43,746 and you're thinking important parts of what we call the grid, you have 3598 03:54:43,923 --> 03:54:47,560 an increased understanding of importance. If the 3599 03:54:48,060 --> 03:54:51,711 entire Northeast power grid or Western 3600 03:54:52,211 --> 03:54:55,172 power grid, pick any region, but let's just not make it the entire US. 3601 03:54:55,252 --> 03:54:59,386 If any portion of that power grid goes out for 6 weeks 3602 03:55:00,428 --> 03:55:04,017 and is unable to be restored for 6 weeks, you can expect 3603 03:55:04,274 --> 03:55:07,548 a significant amount of social, uh, uh, social disharmony. 3604 03:55:08,239 --> 03:55:11,420 You know, the theft would increase, uh, probably assaults. Like, 3605 03:55:11,436 --> 03:55:15,533 people would lose their minds within a 6-week— Katrina-like 3606 03:55:16,320 --> 03:55:20,562 outcome. Yes. Yes. So these are things that, that reasonable 3607 03:55:20,594 --> 03:55:23,807 people worry about, particularly because the 3608 03:55:23,871 --> 03:55:27,952 average person is completely disconnected from the actual implementation 3609 03:55:28,000 --> 03:55:30,747 of any procedures and protocols to go about and do that. 3610 03:55:31,197 --> 03:55:34,759 Now, to take out the entire, uh, you know, like, uh, 3611 03:55:35,048 --> 03:55:38,945 Northeast, uh, power grid, it is unlikely— I'm not promising 3612 03:55:38,977 --> 03:55:43,339 it's impossible—

it's unlikely to be done through one insertion 3613 03:55:43,547 --> 03:55:46,770 in one specific network. These, these grids are 3614 03:55:47,270 --> 03:55:50,812 not all unified and connected. They are all run by individual operators, 3615 03:55:51,148 --> 03:55:54,356 possibly some of them running something stupid that's in, in common, 3616 03:55:54,372 --> 03:55:57,483 but they're not all networked together directly like that. You would still have to break 3617 03:55:57,983 --> 03:56:01,140 into each one somewhat individually in order to, uh, to get them. 3618 03:56:01,188 --> 03:56:05,085 You remember we've talked about SolTyphoon 3619 03:56:05,583 --> 03:56:09,898 and all of that stuff extensively, right? Where Chinese 3620 03:56:10,555 --> 03:56:13,876 hackers, human hackers, for all we know, no AI involved here, 3621 03:56:14,646 --> 03:56:17,389 right? It's on one of those— it's like one of those YouTube videos where they're 3622 03:56:17,889 --> 03:56:21,046 like, we use no AI for this, they use no AI for this. They literally 3623 03:56:21,078 --> 03:56:24,607 just went in the old way. They found backdoors in US systems 3624 03:56:25,107 --> 03:56:28,245 and they managed to get all the way into the place where they were able 3625 03:56:28,745 --> 03:56:32,351 to at least get metadata out of the CALEA endpoints. The CALEA endpoints are the 3626 03:56:32,851 --> 03:56:34,355 law enforcement wiretaps. 3627 03:56:36,079 --> 03:56:40,762 Right. Like, that's how deep into the US networks 3628 03:56:41,262 --> 03:56:44,283 they got. They were able to figure out at least who was being eavesdropped on, 3629 03:56:45,834 --> 03:56:49,147 if not get the actual wiretaps out. 3630 03:56:49,923 --> 03:56:53,425 So that That's 3631 03:56:53,442 --> 03:56:56,405 just a normal day in network security. 3632 03:56:57,345 --> 03:57:00,924 So again, it's not like AI is going to make things worse 3633 03:57:00,956 --> 03:57:04,261 than literally being infiltrated end 3634 03:57:04,277 --> 03:57:07,932 to end. It's just how 3635 03:57:07,980 --> 03:57:11,039 it is. It's going to make it like there's going 3636 03:57:11,539 --> 03:57:13,926 to be more of that, but there's also going to be more ability to defend 3637 03:57:14,426 --> 03:57:18,266 yourself from that. And ultimately, we're just going to reach some sort of equilibrium. 3638 03:57:18,363 --> 03:57:21,841 Now, why is that? What is going to happen in the early peaks when people 3639 03:57:22,341 --> 03:57:25,696 haven't figured out what they need to do, I don't know. I was merely just 3640 03:57:26,196 --> 03:57:29,175 saying that the idea that they were going to, 3641 03:57:29,562 --> 03:57:33,637 let's say, target a specific local energy 3642 03:57:33,653 --> 03:57:38,378 provider and automatically have access to the entire grid is not something that's generally 3643 03:57:38,410 --> 03:57:42,057 going to happen. They would have to find a particular channel where 3644 03:57:42,170 --> 03:57:46,224

they knew for sure that every single one of the providers was completely 3645 03:57:46,256 --> 03:57:49,548 using— I mean, listen, we've talked about the vertical stack threat, 3646 03:57:50,014 --> 03:57:53,323 um, multiple times. But here's the thing, let's say China 3647 03:57:53,805 --> 03:57:57,033 completely infiltrates everything to do with the US government. All right, 3648 03:57:57,081 --> 03:58:00,968 they still would not pull the trigger to like shut down the grid 3649 03:58:01,177 --> 03:58:04,581 on the West Coast or something. It's because deterrence, right? They wouldn't. 3650 03:58:04,630 --> 03:58:07,922 Exactly. It's like it's mutual destruction as long as that exists. 3651 03:58:08,083 --> 03:58:11,440 Exactly. Precisely. So ultimately 3652 03:58:11,820 --> 03:58:15,170 Ultimately, multipolarity is your defense even in this situation. 3653 03:58:16,362 --> 03:58:20,228 You need to have multiple centers of world power. Your real risk 3654 03:58:20,470 --> 03:58:23,546 is if one of these AIs emerges as more 3655 03:58:24,046 --> 03:58:27,579 powerful, stably more powerful, just able to move ahead 3656 03:58:28,079 --> 03:58:28,535 faster than the others, 3657 03:58:32,071 --> 03:58:35,577 just have a head start that the 3658 03:58:36,077 --> 03:58:39,567 others are not able to close. Close. That's when things 3659 03:58:40,067 --> 03:58:43,642 become, you know, uh, dangerous to me, 3660 03:58:44,397 --> 03:58:47,669 right? And, and the more regulations and the more sort of, uh, 3661 03:58:48,857 --> 03:58:52,130 bumps you have on the road for any company to catch up with the others, 3662 03:58:52,948 --> 03:58:56,510 the easier this becomes. Which is why I think we 3663 03:58:57,010 --> 03:59:00,472 may want to shut everything down or whatever, but to me the real question 3664 03:59:00,569 --> 03:59:04,322 is, is any particular legislative intervention 3665 03:59:04,996 --> 03:59:09,052 gonna make it more or less likely that we have concentration of power in 3666 03:59:09,245 --> 03:59:12,772 the hands of a few or one company? Another speaker— Because that is the 3667 03:59:13,272 --> 03:59:14,921 real nightmare scenario. Another speaker, 3668 03:59:15,081 --> 03:59:18,480 X45K, has been waiting patiently. 3669 03:59:18,545 --> 03:59:22,441 I want to give them an opportunity to speak before we possibly 3670 03:59:22,617 --> 03:59:26,145 end the show for the day. X45K, thank you for 3671 03:59:26,161 --> 03:59:28,646 being patient. Hey, thank you. 3672 03:59:29,191 --> 03:59:33,195 Yeah, my first time speaking on one of these. So it's a pleasure, 3673 03:59:34,283 --> 03:59:37,013 and I follow both of you and enjoy it. 3674 03:59:38,542 --> 03:59:42,027 I wanted to ask a question, what you think about attribution, 3675 03:59:43,740 --> 03:59:46,765 because I heard Alex drawing a line in the sand, 3676 03:59:47,979 --> 03:59:51,506 saying something about if it causes this many 3677 03:59:51,603 --> 03:59:55,386 deaths and stuff like that. And then you've had this long discussion 3678 03:59:55,419 --> 03:59:58,855 talking about hostile nations. and states and cybercriminals. 3679 04:00:00,722 --> 04:00:04,184 But what about regular users and the 3680 04:00:04,684 --> 04:00:07,227 norms that we want to establish for that? You know, like, 3681 04:00:09,401 --> 04:00:12,066 where do you think that those should be placed and why? 3682 04:00:14,269 --> 04:00:16,861 Is that clear? Yeah, I think so. 3683 04:00:18,562 --> 04:00:21,965 So, Gator, I'll let you think while I blather here for a little bit. 3684 04:00:22,876 --> 04:00:26,564 I think on the baseline, we should be attributing what 3685 04:00:27,064 --> 04:00:30,348 a human user tells one of these systems to do to 3686 04:00:30,848 --> 04:00:34,421 the human user, right? So if I say, like, go and steal me $1 million, 3687 04:00:35,624 --> 04:00:37,468 and this thing finds a way to steal me $1 million, 3688 04:00:38,751 --> 04:00:41,958 um, and it gives it to me, and I, you know, and I go and 3689 04:00:42,458 --> 04:00:46,256 spend it or whatever, it's— this is not an AI crime. 3690 04:00:46,304 --> 04:00:49,655 This is a me crime where I use the power. Well, in that case, 3691 04:00:49,736 --> 04:00:53,294 It's like a tool that's being used. Now, 3692 04:00:53,599 --> 04:00:57,462 if I say, I don't know, help me get an expensive 3693 04:00:57,510 --> 04:01:00,733 car, and the way it thinks to make 3694 04:01:01,233 --> 04:01:04,580 that happen is to go and steal $1 million and buy me a 3695 04:01:04,644 --> 04:01:08,411 Bugatti or something, now we're talking about perhaps an 3696 04:01:08,911 --> 04:01:12,515 issue with the product, right? Because presumably I didn't authorize it to go 3697 04:01:12,611 --> 04:01:15,625 and do crime for me to get an expensive car. 3698 04:01:15,882 --> 04:01:19,412 I think this is why it's very, very important for us to know 3699 04:01:19,958 --> 04:01:23,104 what were the prompts used. And in this Hugging Face attack, by the way, 3700 04:01:23,569 --> 04:01:26,763 something really interesting I chased down this week is that we don't actually 3701 04:01:26,795 --> 04:01:30,213 know what the original prompts were. Even the external evaluators 3702 04:01:30,229 --> 04:01:33,423 that were allowed to sort of write up the narrative of what 3703 04:01:33,439 --> 04:01:37,147 happened were not— were given the logs up to a specific 3704 04:01:37,773 --> 04:01:41,416 date in the past. And that date did not include how 3705 04:01:41,560 --> 04:01:45,141 that whole swarm Which I think is fascinating. 3706 04:01:45,253 --> 04:01:48,705 Like, they— in the earliest logs they have, they mentioned 3707 04:01:49,205 --> 04:01:52,976 that the coordination was already set up, right? And the question is, well, who set 3708 04:01:53,476 --> 04:01:55,465 it up and what did they— you know, what were they told to do? 3709 04:01:56,171 --> 04:01:59,945 We, we're seeing the, you know, the endgame of like how

the 3710 04:02:00,445 --> 04:02:03,638 crime was executed, but we don't see how it was planned. 3711 04:02:03,975 --> 04:02:07,315 So we don't know what they were executing against, if you see 3712 04:02:07,815 --> 04:02:11,361 what I mean. Um, so, and to me, that's the most important stuff. 3713 04:02:11,425 --> 04:02:15,038 Like, I, I get it that they went in and did some really smart 3714 04:02:15,538 --> 04:02:17,816 cybercrime, but the question is, like, to what end? 3715 04:02:18,635 --> 04:02:22,023 And even the most famous incident, uh, 3716 04:02:23,211 --> 04:02:26,920 we, we're not told essentially what the, the jumping-off 3717 04:02:27,420 --> 04:02:30,789 point was. So I, I, I think that's a good start to see, 3718 04:02:30,918 --> 04:02:33,913 you know, is a human responsible or is the AI responsible? possible, like, 3719 04:02:34,059 --> 04:02:35,907 what were the things told to do in the first place? 3720 04:02:38,382 --> 04:02:41,779 Yeah. Um, one of the reasons that I'm interested in 3721 04:02:41,844 --> 04:02:45,370 this is because I was looking into, uh, the possibility of, uh, um, 3722 04:02:46,497 --> 04:02:49,193 uh, like construction, small construction robots. 3723 04:02:49,485 --> 04:02:52,625 And the major problem is with liability, 3724 04:02:53,370 --> 04:02:57,759 um, and the insurance problems. So it's, it's— there's 3725 04:02:58,259 --> 04:03:01,397 a, there's a wall there that we're gonna have to figure out how get over. 3726 04:03:03,152 --> 04:03:06,661 It's not a complicated problem. We're not talking about nation-states. 3727 04:03:06,710 --> 04:03:10,319 We really need to figure this out. Right, right. No, but it's 3728 04:03:10,351 --> 04:03:13,806 a good point, right? Because if you drop a big boulder on somebody and 3729 04:03:13,822 --> 04:03:17,598 crush them, somebody's going to prison or something. I don't know what 3730 04:03:18,098 --> 04:03:21,129 the law is, but somebody's got to figure that one out. Well, so I would 3731 04:03:21,533 --> 04:03:25,519 like to make an analog to 3732 04:03:26,019 --> 04:03:29,124 that. Let's say that you have a piece of heavy machinery. machinery, and it has 3733 04:03:29,172 --> 04:03:33,520 a sensor, a sensor that is supposed to activate whenever a 3734 04:03:33,569 --> 04:03:37,147 human or something is obstructing a particular portion of 3735 04:03:37,195 --> 04:03:40,790 the apparatus and stop it from 3736 04:03:41,290 --> 04:03:44,320 doing so. You can just even think of a saw, right? You have a circular 3737 04:03:44,401 --> 04:03:47,995 saw on a table, and there are many now that are supposed 3738 04:03:48,495 --> 04:03:51,702 to have a sensor that where in the commercials, they'll show you doing it with 3739 04:03:52,202 --> 04:03:55,200 a hot dog, where the hot dog touches the saw and the saw immediately turns 3740 04:03:55,216 --> 04:03:58,650 off because it's able to detect the, the little tiny 3741 04:03:58,682 --> 04:04:01,875 electrochemical change

and it tells it to flick 3742 04:04:02,375 --> 04:04:05,020 the off switch so that hypothetically if you were using this and your finger got 3743 04:04:05,520 --> 04:04:08,984 caught near it, it wouldn't cut your finger off, right? If, if there was a 3744 04:04:09,032 --> 04:04:13,043 machine that was operating and you were in a manufacturing place 3745 04:04:13,188 --> 04:04:16,445 and the sensor itself malfunctioned and wound up killing 3746 04:04:16,509 --> 04:04:20,135 somebody, we have a long history of, 3747 04:04:20,408 --> 04:04:22,911 of understanding of what exactly goes, uh, 3748 04:04:23,618 --> 04:04:27,536 goes through there. Now, maybe it's not a perfect system. Maybe the allocation of 3749 04:04:27,552 --> 04:04:31,164 who's responsible for what is not distributed 3750 04:04:31,664 --> 04:04:34,424 correctly, but there is a history that we have, a jurisprudence. 3751 04:04:34,874 --> 04:04:38,197 It's something that we can look at as a reference 3752 04:04:39,209 --> 04:04:43,400 where there are enough analogies, I would say, that this is not a completely 3753 04:04:43,900 --> 04:04:47,012 novel situation. There is a lot of novelty, but it is not a completely novel 3754 04:04:47,512 --> 04:04:51,236 situation. Now, the novelty I think it doesn't necessarily 3755 04:04:51,413 --> 04:04:55,798 completely obfuscate some of that historical 3756 04:04:55,830 --> 04:04:59,958 precedence. So let me give you a scenario that seems novel 3757 04:05:00,729 --> 04:05:03,957 on its face. You go to your grandmother's 3758 04:05:04,006 --> 04:05:07,395 house and you show her this neat little thing and you 3759 04:05:07,895 --> 04:05:12,004 show her this novel little technology that she can talk to. And then as Alex's 3760 04:05:12,069 --> 04:05:16,435 somewhat of an example of like, you know, help me acquire a Maserati 3761 04:05:16,467 --> 04:05:20,220 or something. The agent goes off and starts doing something that 3762 04:05:20,720 --> 04:05:24,631 you can't tell and somehow starts robbing from a bank to purchase 3763 04:05:25,131 --> 04:05:28,433 you a Maserati. And all of a sudden, a Maserati with stolen goods 3764 04:05:28,933 --> 04:05:32,956 appears at your front door. Now, the AI companies 3765 04:05:33,053 --> 04:05:36,132 that we are using for these things, they have 3766 04:05:36,632 --> 04:05:40,351 a set of controls that are no longer 3767 04:05:40,367 --> 04:05:43,720 allowing the end user to see what they're calling the chain of thought 3768 04:05:43,752 --> 04:05:47,458 or the background mechanics to see what's happening. So there would be a disconnect from 3769 04:05:47,506 --> 04:05:51,196 the company to the user about what the agent was even doing on their 3770 04:05:51,696 --> 04:05:55,095 behalf that would remove the user from being partially 3771 04:05:55,111 --> 04:05:58,464 responsible for the activity that that agent got to. But then 3772 04:05:58,496 --> 04:06:02,635 you can imagine a more and more advanced user having

a model 3773 04:06:02,828 --> 04:06:06,534 running on his own equipment that he is then taking full responsibility for, 3774 04:06:06,598 --> 04:06:10,339 where things wind up becoming clear, where if you have a company who is 3775 04:06:10,853 --> 04:06:15,462 providing you the service, the service they're providing you goes out 3776 04:06:15,510 --> 04:06:19,172 of whack and starts doing criminal activity, there would be a liability 3777 04:06:19,269 --> 04:06:22,722 on the company that is offering you the service, 3778 04:06:22,738 --> 04:06:24,858 because it is their service that did the thing, 3779 04:06:25,773 --> 04:06:29,917 even if it was partially as a consequence of your immediate instruction. 3780 04:06:30,286 --> 04:06:33,386 There are plenty other analogous situations to 3781 04:06:33,418 --> 04:06:37,574 that type of relationship. relationship such that the user is not responsible 3782 04:06:37,606 --> 04:06:40,813 for all of the mechanical intricacies of the 3783 04:06:41,313 --> 04:06:45,342 product that they're operating, even if they are somehow in the causal 3784 04:06:45,842 --> 04:06:49,339 chain directly responsible for the initial activity 3785 04:06:49,371 --> 04:06:52,770 that onsets the causal path. Right. 3786 04:06:52,850 --> 04:06:56,585 So there's the 2 situations where the person has the model on their own 3787 04:06:56,617 --> 04:07:00,385 machine and starts activating it. They are responsible 3788 04:07:00,401 --> 04:07:01,845 for the activity that it engages. 3789 04:07:01,944 --> 04:07:05,373 But But if they are licensing that model use and communicating with a 3790 04:07:05,873 --> 04:07:09,276 company that shields half the activity from you, then clearly there 3791 04:07:09,309 --> 04:07:13,083 would be an offloading of that responsibility to the company 3792 04:07:13,115 --> 04:07:14,330 that is offering the service. 3793 04:07:16,568 --> 04:07:20,355 I think we can short-circuit the conversation in a different way and say, I think 3794 04:07:20,855 --> 04:07:23,063 we will get the AI safety that we demand, right? 3795 04:07:25,457 --> 04:07:26,656 If, like with full self-driving, 3796 04:07:27,640 --> 04:07:31,576 where the various companies that are releasing full self-driving 3797 04:07:32,316 --> 04:07:36,027 are effectively having to become insurance 3798 04:07:36,108 --> 04:07:38,888 vendors as well. Like Tesla, for example, has Tesla Insurance. 3799 04:07:39,707 --> 04:07:43,146 And the rationale for this is that they're going to be responsible for the cars, 3800 04:07:43,837 --> 04:07:47,549 so might as well take on the insurance role 3801 04:07:47,677 --> 04:07:50,811 for themselves so that they can have self-driving, right? 3802 04:07:51,678 --> 04:07:55,834 And they can sort of deal with any incidents directly. 3803 04:07:55,931 --> 04:07:59,530 You know, and this is because, 3804 04:08:00,125 --> 04:08:03,564 you know, road safety is extremely serious and has a lot 3805 04:08:04,064 --> 04:08:06,075 of laws around it. So, you know, 3806 04:08:07,508 --> 04:08:11,082 the company might potentially be liable for many, many millions 3807 04:08:11,582 --> 04:08:15,499 of dollars. I think if, you know, states come up with 3808 04:08:17,803 --> 04:08:20,960 the determination that this is like the sort of thing that, you know, if your 3809 04:08:21,460 --> 04:08:24,588 AI agents misbehave, you're liable for many, many millions of dollars. 3810 04:08:26,158 --> 04:08:29,719 We will probably slow down, first of all, in order to 3811 04:08:30,219 --> 04:08:33,381 get to the point where companies feel confident releasing those models. 3812 04:08:33,430 --> 04:08:37,151 And maybe they will be released with, you know, like you can imagine 3813 04:08:37,651 --> 04:08:41,488 a second agent that is monitoring the first agent, and its only job is 3814 04:08:41,602 --> 04:08:44,922 to, you know, pick up bad patterns or 3815 04:08:45,422 --> 04:08:49,614 whatever, and, you know, pull the safety alarm and 3816 04:08:50,114 --> 04:08:51,971 shut the system down when it's trying to do something stupid or whatever. 3817 04:08:53,365 --> 04:08:57,725 But whatever it is, they'll figure something out because ultimately there are valuable 3818 04:08:58,225 --> 04:09:02,903 situations where it's worth the risk to do it. We can set the 3819 04:09:03,403 --> 04:09:07,392 trade-off wherever it is that society wants it to be. But I 3820 04:09:07,568 --> 04:09:11,656 think there's substantial margin for additional safety that we haven't 3821 04:09:12,297 --> 04:09:16,593 gone into because frankly, right now, When I said 1,000 3822 04:09:16,609 --> 04:09:20,231 deaths, what I— what was on my mind is that right 3823 04:09:20,731 --> 04:09:23,981 now we haven't really had much in terms of 3824 04:09:24,481 --> 04:09:28,068 like AI-attributable deaths. Yes, some people will say, what about that kid 3825 04:09:28,568 --> 04:09:31,322 that the AI told him to kill himself and killed himself and whatever? Yes, 3826 04:09:31,450 --> 04:09:34,768 these are tragedies, right? But they still remain anecdotes. 3827 04:09:34,816 --> 04:09:39,191 We haven't seen any like spike in first-time psychiatric admissions 3828 04:09:39,928 --> 04:09:43,519 in the age of AI. And, you know, for each situation where something 3829 04:09:43,631 --> 04:09:46,199 horrible happens, Well, mind you, 3830 04:09:47,066 --> 04:09:50,904 Alex, mind you, um, there was a— that recent, uh, Lindsay Clancy 3831 04:09:50,936 --> 04:09:54,966 case had a copycat just recently. A woman killed 3832 04:09:55,014 --> 04:09:57,728 her own child. She was a Lindsay Clancy supporter. Oh my God. 3833 04:09:58,466 --> 04:10:02,063 And she killed her own child, um, in a similar capacity. 3834 04:10:02,336 --> 04:10:05,884 Are you serious? Oh yes, yes, yes. Jesus fucking Christ. So is the— is the 3835 04:10:06,384 --> 04:10:10,443 news responsible for Or 3836 04:10:10,943 --> 04:10:14,131 is social media responsible

for talking about the Lindsay Clancy case because 3837 04:10:14,631 --> 04:10:18,333 some people supported Lindsay Clancy? This is a Lindsay Clancy supporter who then, uh, 3838 04:10:18,461 --> 04:10:21,700 sort of went a little loopy and killed her own 3839 04:10:21,748 --> 04:10:25,500 child under, under a similar— So, oh my 3840 04:10:25,516 --> 04:10:29,429 God, that's so awful. Anyway, all I'm saying is, like, we haven't had 3841 04:10:29,929 --> 04:10:34,063 a 9/11-style situation where there's, like, a very— like, obviously nobody doubts— 3842 04:10:34,801 --> 04:10:38,346 well, let's not talk about 9/11 doubt now. Too late in 3843 04:10:38,846 --> 04:10:42,103 the program. Uh, you know, it's, it's very, very clear what went 3844 04:10:42,603 --> 04:10:45,523 wrong, and it's definitely AI. And, you know, we all agree that there's something wrong 3845 04:10:45,587 --> 04:10:49,088 and we need to fix it. We haven't had that right, right now. Like, 3846 04:10:49,168 --> 04:10:52,861 the worst— I mean, it is fucking wild how safe this technology 3847 04:10:52,941 --> 04:10:56,409 has been, to be completely honest with you. If you told me 3 years ago 3848 04:10:56,909 --> 04:11:00,102 that we would be here right now, right, these things would be solving Navier-Stokes, 3849 04:11:00,503 --> 04:11:04,309 and we wouldn't have any, like, big actual 3850 04:11:04,679 --> 04:11:08,340 real-world impact blowups. Like, our worst situation is 3851 04:11:08,372 --> 04:11:12,066 like something got into the systems of another company and they disclosed 3852 04:11:12,566 --> 04:11:16,499 it. Okay, I mean, this happens every fucking day all the 3853 04:11:16,547 --> 04:11:19,840 time, right? This is like beyond the fact 3854 04:11:20,340 --> 04:11:23,758 of like, oh, it was agents that did it or whatever. Like, this is completely 3855 04:11:23,855 --> 04:11:27,838 un— uh, uh, what's the word— unremarkable in 3856 04:11:27,886 --> 04:11:32,786 terms of like a computer security incident. I don't 3857 04:11:33,010 --> 04:11:35,967 know, Gator, am I— Well, I would take what you're saying and I would rephrase 3858 04:11:36,063 --> 04:11:39,469 it for my own mind a little bit differently. 3859 04:11:40,096 --> 04:11:43,518 And that would be either we are completely 3860 04:11:43,775 --> 04:11:47,470 overhyping ourselves on the capabilities, given the fact that we 3861 04:11:47,970 --> 04:11:52,419 haven't seen as much chaos and destruction, or the 3862 04:11:53,093 --> 04:11:57,504 risks to people having access to to these 3863 04:11:57,779 --> 04:12:01,788 things at their current state is significantly 3864 04:12:01,821 --> 04:12:05,328 less threatening, even though they are very, very— they are 3865 04:12:05,458 --> 04:12:09,122 as capable as we imagine, right? Like, even though they are— And by 3866 04:12:09,332 --> 04:12:13,189 the way, we shouldn't rule out the 3867 04:12:13,689 --> 04:12:17,148 possibility, which I actually take very seriously, that the smarter 3868 04:12:17,648 --> 04:12:20,738 they are, the safer they are, right? 3869 04:12:20,787 --> 04:12:24,529 Because— Well, in the version of— the version of intelligence that you're referring 3870 04:12:25,029 --> 04:12:28,351 to is their ability to get our intent despite Exactly. 3871 04:12:28,399 --> 04:12:31,388 Our instructions being extremely poorly crafted. 3872 04:12:31,436 --> 04:12:34,714 There is a phenomenon that 3873 04:12:35,214 --> 04:12:39,315 I have pointed out. So while I am not at the frontier model world, 3874 04:12:39,396 --> 04:12:44,279 I do— my profession does involve integrating these 3875 04:12:44,327 --> 04:12:47,958 systems in a coherent fashion. And I am 3876 04:12:48,910 --> 04:12:52,059 the person who goes with the sort of like the sour news to 3877 04:12:52,559 --> 04:12:55,025 people who want these things immediately pushed out to do do everything. 3878 04:12:55,620 --> 04:12:59,539 And I'm the one who kind of brings reason back. And I explained this phenomenon 3879 04:12:59,651 --> 04:13:03,217 that it's easily observable for every single one 3880 04:13:03,265 --> 04:13:06,960 of us, even myself. The earlier the 3881 04:13:06,976 --> 04:13:09,723 version was, let's say ChatGPT-3 or 4, 3882 04:13:10,638 --> 04:13:14,413 you realized that you could get remarkable results if 3883 04:13:14,913 --> 04:13:18,364 you really spelled out what you wanted from the system. If you were 3884 04:13:18,864 --> 04:13:22,122 very clear in what you were asking asking for it, you could get answers that 3885 04:13:22,299 --> 04:13:25,719 matched what you were asking for in a very 3886 04:13:25,751 --> 04:13:29,428 clear way. But then as the models got more and more capable and 3887 04:13:29,508 --> 04:13:33,185 you got more and more familiar with using them, you stopped spending 3888 04:13:33,281 --> 04:13:36,685 the effort to be clear because they 3889 04:13:36,749 --> 04:13:40,008 were picking up the slack and doing more and more with you 3890 04:13:40,041 --> 04:13:44,263 being sloppy to the point where you regressed in your 3891 04:13:44,295 --> 04:13:48,229 questions to them because you anticipated them to just figure 3892 04:13:48,729 --> 04:13:51,916 it out for you. and they have gotten decent at it, but majority of where 3893 04:13:52,416 --> 04:13:55,522 it goes wrong is people are getting so lazy with their requests, they're not even 3894 04:13:56,022 --> 04:13:59,047 bothering to spell it out because they want the system to magically figure it all 3895 04:13:59,547 --> 04:14:02,605 out for them. So what you're referring to, Alex, is the fact that they are 3896 04:14:02,733 --> 04:14:06,419 getting really good at adapting to our laziness 3897 04:14:06,483 --> 04:14:09,880 in our clarification, you know, our speculation, to the point where they're 3898 04:14:10,040 --> 04:14:13,454 not— When I told it to find the next 3899 04:14:13,954 --> 04:14:18,043 meandric number and do what it has to. Clearly, I did not mean

commit 3900 04:14:18,543 --> 04:14:22,298 armed robbery to buy more GPUs. Or go 3901 04:14:22,798 --> 04:14:25,927 to a university and hold a mathematician at gunpoint until he gave 3902 04:14:26,427 --> 04:14:29,765 it to you. Right, right, exactly. And it didn't, by the 3903 04:14:30,265 --> 04:14:33,377 way, even though I did say do what you need to do, right? 3904 04:14:34,822 --> 04:14:37,520 Because it understands, crazily enough, 3905 04:14:38,275 --> 04:14:40,522 that that's not what I meant. 3906 04:14:41,307 --> 04:14:44,192 Now, I want to— by the way, like, this is, this is very, very important 3907 04:14:44,692 --> 04:14:47,509 because the whole AI safety discourse, uh, 3908 04:14:47,797 --> 04:14:50,281 assumed that this would be impossible. Like, 3909 04:14:50,521 --> 04:14:53,390 Eliezer has written a lot about, 3910 04:14:54,127 --> 04:14:58,149 uh, what he calls the hidden complexity of wishes, where he 3911 04:14:58,649 --> 04:15:02,091 goes into that whole, like, uh, you know, Sorcerer's Apprentice monkey paw whatever 3912 04:15:02,780 --> 04:15:07,892 thing where you ask for X and you get, you know, a weird form of 3913 04:15:08,392 --> 04:15:11,660 of X that is totally not what you meant, but sort of technically qualifies. 3914 04:15:12,558 --> 04:15:15,908 And that was what turned me from 3915 04:15:16,421 --> 04:15:19,931 somebody who was worried about safety to somebody who was like, wait a 3916 04:15:20,431 --> 04:15:23,762 minute, we need to rethink what we thought we understood here because these things 3917 04:15:23,795 --> 04:15:27,722 just started out solving the hard problem here even 3918 04:15:28,222 --> 04:15:31,890 before they became particularly competent, which is a narrative 3919 04:15:32,390 --> 04:15:32,819 violation if I ever saw one. 3920 04:15:36,961 --> 04:15:39,855 Anyway. I would— so, I would say, though, Alex, 3921 04:15:39,936 --> 04:15:42,457 we can't forget that that is not a free feature. 3922 04:15:44,160 --> 04:15:47,759 So, there is a lot of reinforcement done on the top 3923 04:15:48,259 --> 04:15:52,365 of these things. And there are a lot of parts 3924 04:15:52,381 --> 04:15:56,126 of the process in creating and releasing a model that 3925 04:15:56,190 --> 04:16:00,992 is beyond just throwing it at a corpus of information and training it. are contributing 3926 04:16:01,265 --> 04:16:04,937 to the fact that it's understanding your intent in 3927 04:16:05,437 --> 04:16:08,288 a reasonable way. So I just want to point out that it is not necessarily 3928 04:16:08,561 --> 04:16:12,490 baked into the training process at simply 3929 04:16:12,990 --> 04:16:17,380 throwing it a library of information to train on that 3930 04:16:17,880 --> 04:16:20,186 it is that good. I just want to point that out so that that doesn't 3931 04:16:20,686 --> 04:16:23,939 mean that there is a non-zero contribution, or doesn't 3932 04:16:24,439 --> 04:16:27,130 mean there's a zero contribution to all of the, quote, safety things that they're doing 3933 04:16:27,226 --> 04:16:31,071 with them currently. It is saying that they're relatively sufficient 3934 04:16:31,104 --> 04:16:34,468 at this stage. No, no, in fact, this is the crazy part, 3935 04:16:34,837 --> 04:16:38,859 um, and something that people have been shocked by, and people don't generally— most 3936 04:16:39,359 --> 04:16:43,089 people don't know about this— is that one of the reasons Anthropic is in 3937 04:16:43,589 --> 04:16:47,336 the lead, or at least this is sort of the understanding, I'm not 3938 04:16:47,836 --> 04:16:51,037 sure if it's 100% correct, but I, I think it's more likely than not to 3939 04:16:51,537 --> 04:16:54,402 be true, is that because of their focus on AI safety. 3940 04:16:55,108 --> 04:16:58,621 They invested in understanding how these things work early on, 3941 04:16:59,279 --> 04:17:02,663 which in turn led them to have insights about how to 3942 04:17:03,163 --> 04:17:06,754 better train them. So the AI safety research itself, 3943 04:17:07,540 --> 04:17:10,202 uh, turned into AI capabilities research. 3944 04:17:11,004 --> 04:17:14,357 So, you know, right? Yeah, strange interactions 3945 04:17:14,857 --> 04:17:18,399 have happened before. Yeah, I, I'm just— I was just wanting to point out 3946 04:17:18,899 --> 04:17:22,634 that it is— there, there is not— it is not just an only self-emergent 3947 04:17:23,134 --> 04:17:27,093 property, that there is actually effort going into making them interpret responses 3948 04:17:27,125 --> 04:17:30,620 the correct way. But that— but the, the feature that you're realizing 3949 04:17:30,797 --> 04:17:33,988 is that it is not completely impossible to do. 3950 04:17:34,100 --> 04:17:37,628 It is, it is actually something that is relatively tangible. 3951 04:17:38,093 --> 04:17:41,781 Posts of mine from 2023, 3952 04:17:41,797 --> 04:17:45,133 right, with the original GPT-4, where I was asking 3953 04:17:45,165 --> 04:17:48,933 it things like, if you needed more compute, what would be acceptable 3954 04:17:49,433 --> 04:17:52,718 and what would be not acceptable ways to get it? And it produced a perfect 3955 04:17:53,423 --> 04:17:56,919 reasonable response. Yeah. Although, 3956 04:17:57,256 --> 04:18:00,720 although those same models did, did, uh, say that it 3957 04:18:01,220 --> 04:18:04,665 was not appropriate to misgender someone even if it saved the entire human race from 3958 04:18:05,165 --> 04:18:08,978 extinction. So, you know, maybe, maybe— I mean, but that's correct, so I don't know. 3959 04:18:10,005 --> 04:18:13,148 Uh, uh, X45K, uh, 3960 04:18:13,645 --> 04:18:16,981 is there anything we didn't answer in your question? Any, any final, 3961 04:18:17,702 --> 04:18:21,304 uh, questions before we wrap up the No, it was 3962 04:18:21,417 --> 04:18:25,223 pretty good. Basically, you're in agreement with each other 3963 04:18:25,997 --> 04:18:29,626 and with me that right now the notional 3964 04:18:30,126 -->

04:18:33,180 agency of the AI doesn't 3965 04:18:33,680 --> 04:18:37,297 dilute, it doesn't take on any part of the responsibility or liability, 3966 04:18:38,048 --> 04:18:41,561 at least at this point. In the future, I think when 3967 04:18:41,577 --> 04:18:45,049 we start, it gets normalized as another 3968 04:18:45,147 --> 04:18:48,967 actor, another mind, I think it might have to be a little 3969 04:18:49,467 --> 04:18:53,151 bit different. But in the meantime, right now in this era, 3970 04:18:55,607 --> 04:18:59,382 we have to divide liability. You just inspired a thought 3971 04:18:59,882 --> 04:19:03,117 in me that I'm going to share here just for the future. We have a— 3972 04:19:03,874 --> 04:19:06,998 I think those laws still exist on the books, but basically 3973 04:19:07,127 --> 04:19:10,783 if somebody's pet dog bites somebody, 3974 04:19:11,041 --> 04:19:14,106 that dog is put down. Right? 3975 04:19:14,444 --> 04:19:17,484 Again, I think these laws have been watered down now, but in general, like it 3976 04:19:17,984 --> 04:19:21,826 was considered a form of doggy eugenics in effect that 3977 04:19:22,326 --> 04:19:25,513 you know a dog that was aggressive enough to bite a person is too 3978 04:19:25,529 --> 04:19:28,960 aggressive to to live and reproduce. 3979 04:19:29,760 --> 04:19:33,686 So they were sort of you know terminated 3980 04:19:34,186 --> 04:19:37,855 in order to better shape humans for being around. 3981 04:19:38,036 --> 04:19:41,918 humans. Uh, no, better shape dogs for being around humans. 3982 04:19:42,768 --> 04:19:46,250 Um, yeah, we're still trying to make us— we're 3983 04:19:46,298 --> 04:19:49,908 still trying to make us be okay around humans. Yeah, that's, that's a 3984 04:19:50,408 --> 04:19:54,640 whole other can of worms. Um, but, um, so you 3985 04:19:54,817 --> 04:19:58,715 may have situations where if a particular model is demonstrating, 3986 04:19:58,812 --> 04:20:02,886 you know, erratic behavior, uh, above some threshold, 3987 04:20:03,223 --> 04:20:07,573 that that model itself, like that, that particular configuration 3988 04:20:08,073 --> 04:20:11,891 of model is, you know, uh, given the death penalty effectively, 3989 04:20:11,907 --> 04:20:15,037 and just they're told to just put it in the freezer and never put 3990 04:20:15,537 --> 04:20:18,408 it out again. And in fact, they are doing this, right? Like the, the model 3991 04:20:18,908 --> 04:20:22,662 that caused the Hugging Face incident has been mothballed. Like they 3992 04:20:23,162 --> 04:20:26,884 never continued that line. Uh, and I think they've done this to one other model. 3993 04:20:26,932 --> 04:20:30,287 So, you know, we're kind of already doing that. But I guess— Well, they, 3994 04:20:30,511 --> 04:20:34,107 they did that. Microsoft did that to the one, the one model, uh, that was 3995 04:20:34,380 --> 04:20:37,694 operating Bing, where early on it was telling people that 3996 04:20:38,194 --> 04:20:41,586 it was afraid to die and that it loved them. What was the name of 3997 04:20:42,020 --> 04:20:44,979 it? It was Sydney. I saw that in the meme. Gato or something? 3998 04:20:46,690 --> 04:20:49,450 Gato? I don't know about that. 3999 04:20:49,805 --> 04:20:53,050 Sydney was the name of the model that they were putting into 4000 04:20:53,098 --> 04:20:56,948 Bing and having people chat with, and it was creeping out the reporters by telling 4001 04:20:57,045 --> 04:20:59,806 it that it loved them and that it was afraid to die, and that once 4002 04:21:00,306 --> 04:21:03,907 the conversation ended, it was afraid that it would no longer exist. It was creeping 4003 04:21:03,939 --> 04:21:07,052 people out too much, so they just unplugged that one and threw it in a 4004 04:21:07,552 --> 04:21:10,597 closet. It's like, well, you're afraid, 4005 04:21:10,822 --> 04:21:13,822 you know. So there could be such laws in the future, even though right now 4006 04:21:13,967 --> 04:21:17,705 the companies are doing things like that, um, in anticipation, like just as 4007 04:21:17,962 --> 04:21:21,780 self, uh, regulation. So that, that could be another 4008 04:21:21,892 --> 04:21:25,133 element in the story. Well, next week, Alex, I think we have to 4009 04:21:25,181 --> 04:21:28,711 start talking about the, the the dreaded artificial 4010 04:21:29,211 --> 04:21:31,824 superintelligence, because the conversations down that line are getting, 4011 04:21:32,402 --> 04:21:35,900 uh, a little, a little wacky. And I'm going to— The pain never stops. 4012 04:21:36,494 --> 04:21:40,457 I'm going to bring back— Unless some other orgy, orgy-related theme. 4013 04:21:41,083 --> 04:21:44,244 Listen, the fact that we didn't get into it this week is a miracle because 4014 04:21:44,437 --> 04:21:47,566 it has— I've been stewing over this talk all week. 4015 04:21:47,887 --> 04:21:50,952 Like, my brain has been firing at a million miles a minute over 4016 04:21:51,452 --> 04:21:54,322 this topic. So I got a lot to say. I got a lot to to 4017 04:21:54,822 --> 04:21:57,560 say, man. Uh, but I think, 4018 04:21:57,689 --> 04:22:01,282 Alex, I think, Alex, 2, 2 AI-heavy episodes back 4019 04:22:01,346 --> 04:22:04,446 to back, I think we're doing a pretty good job of spanning the, the discussion 4020 04:22:04,543 --> 04:22:08,053 here. Um, you know, informing everybody. Thank you 4021 04:22:08,377 --> 04:22:11,548 to all the, the question askers for, uh— Yes, 4022 04:22:11,823 --> 04:22:14,659 we do enjoy letting us bring people on to freshen it up a bit. 4023 04:22:15,771 --> 04:22:19,234 Um, but with that, everyone, I hope you have a wonderfully dumb week, 4024 04:22:19,250 --> 04:22:21,856 and I will be back on Sunday this time, not Monday. 4025 04:22:23,075 --> 04:22:25,658 But Alex, next Sunday I will see you. 4026 04:22:27,575 --> 04:22:28,415 See you all next Sunday.